Southern Italian Blues

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Ok.... So watching travellers come and go on their adventures to god knows where and being so free was getting to me. Possibly the only downside to a working travel year is the fact that you actually have to work (my job is the best in the world but its still a job), so Dustin and i desided to do something about it.

We only get one day off a week so it was sure to be a challenge from the start, as i really wanted to get far enough away as to actually experiance wherever i was going to go. But i had a quick chat to Sid and snap just like that he had organised our shifts and our days off's so that we had exactly 48 hours off. Champ. So the excitment was definatly starting to build up at this point. I couldn't help thinking that it was going to be weird leave the hostel and rome, even though is was only two days.

We finished work at 3, had our bags all packed at about 4.40, train leaves in 20 mins, 5 min walk to the station. sweet.
It was a 2 hour train ride to naples to the hostel we had decided to stay at called 'hostel of the sun', but more on this later. On the train i got a sudden wave of triedness, which really wasnt surpriseing because as usual i'd been up until 3 in the morning partying, so i really needed to sleep. Now the train wasn't one of those trains where everyone faces the same way, there are 3 seats facing each other and they are very upright so in order to sleep you sort of have to slide down in your seat and hence extending your legs towards the person sitting opposite you.
Now i had a very "Eurotrip" (funny movie about travelling) experiance, there was a very dodgie looking italian who didn't seem to mind stareing at us the whole time we where awake. Anyway i fell asleep in the standard lumped in chair, legs extended position and when i awoke he had some how wraped his legs around me and was sound asleep totally shocked as i was i quickly unwraped my legs and he woke up saying 'mi scuzie, mi scuzie' and having watched the movie about 50 times i started to laugh and then he started to laugh and then the rest of the train trip he was smileing and stareing at me, very unnerving. Lets just say that i was glad to get off the train and away from the strange italian man.

We arrived at the hostel at about 7 (after walking past the hostel 4 times as the signing of the hostel is incredably poor) and knowing that naples is the birth place of pizza went out for pizza. Pizza was good but not the best i've had. The hostel of the sun is a good hostel. Its not yellow but is cool in a relaxed chilled out sort of way, its decked out with bean bags and really soft couches, so its got a cozy atmosphere. We watched dvd's and made friends with two girls from america who decided to come to pompeii with us the following day.

The next day was the start of the downhill run. We made a big deal about getting the most out of the day so we where up, out and waiting at the bus stop with our crew which had extented to an american guy by 930. Bloodly italian bus drivers i swear they dont like me. We thought that we could just buy our tickets on the bus but when the bus driver came he just pointed us in the direction of the ticket box and drove away. He couldn't wait the 1 minute it took us to buy our tickets, i wouldn't of minded apart from the fact that we had waited a half hour for the bus to pompeii already and the next bus was another hour away, the american guy bailed cause he didnt want to wait and said he would do it another day. I couldn't think of anything more fustrating when on a really short time limit other than wasting time.
Then it really kicked me in the balls as because of missing the bus episode we didnt get to climb up mt versuvious (spelling?) which i really wanted to do. Next time hey!? Fucker!

Walking around the ancient city was amazing. It was in really good condition and they had persurved people around the place it was very interesting and definatly worth while. It had a very good atmosphere especially when i tried to imagine what it would've been like for them, it also looked beautiful with the mountains surrounding the city. I took a ton of photos.

The day happened to be valintines day and dustin and i happened to be with two attractive girls so we all decided to go and find this pizza place that a guide book said was the best pizza in the world. But i guess its all relative because at first i thought that the pizza was average but the pizza turned to the worst pizza in the world when dustin and i both got incredably ill.

We went back to the hostel a decided that we didn't want to stay another night as i was feverish. It was at this point that we mentioned to the hostel staff that we worked at yellow in rome and they said 'really cool you can have your money back' and it turned out the they know our boss sabrina and the english chick robyn. It had previous occured to me that if i mentioned that dustin and i worked at a hostel we would be able to stay for free but we decided against saying it because it would've been rude to ask but its cool for them to give. It just one of those things. So i just saved 20euros (which later turned into 40 euros but more on that in a minute).

The second time to get fucked around by the italian pubic transport systems. Because of the station screens showing the wrong time and trains being delayed without actually being delayed, also i was so feverish that i got really confused and just put my trust in dustin who was also ill... So we where really up shit creep as the next train was at 4.30 in the morning the next day. Plus we where at an train station in Naples which is not the safest place in the world.

The south of italy is really beautiful but the cities are really dirty and there is alot of crime. Its not very safe to be walking around at night time. You can thank the italian mafia.

We had to walk back to the hostel and explain what idiots we are and could we please stay another night. The hostel staff once again performed brilliantly and gave us a private double room and an alarm clock to wake ourselves up with. Top people.
So at this point i feel like standing in front of a train would be the best idea and we are both really missing Yellow.

After going back to the hostel and watching a dvd we had an incredibly funny experiance with and american and an irish guy which involved watching the american drink so much that he passed out, which we had to take advantage of as he was rather annoying and also bailed on going to pompeii with us. So we covered his eyebrows with toothpaste and put the leftovers in his hair. He even woke up after and shook our hands before going to sleep, we where seriously trying not to laugh and wet ourselves.

Note - he stayed at yellow hostel a few days later and thought that it was dustin and i but we pointed out in his email address book that the irish guy had written his email as [e-mail] which is toothpaste backwards.

The final staw was that when we where walking to the bus stop at 3.30 in the morning, once again not the best idea in naples, an italian car pulled up beside us as the two guys started yelling at us in italian (none of which i could understand), dustin and i where shitting ourselves. But just at that moment a bus pulled up and we where saved from god knows what. I feel bad for abuseing the bus drivers now, so i forgive you all.

We finally got on the train and feel asleep straight away despite being stuffed into a cabin full of smelly italians. Hurray for yellow and free breakfast and bed.

So all in all an experiance that i dont want to repeat but an experiance none the less. To be fair this is my second blog but of all the travels ive had this is probably the first one to be this bad. So expect happyier entries in the future.
Next i think we'll hire scooters and drive to the beach.

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Photos

pompeii
looks cool. so i stuck it in

cool shadows
Court yard in the middle of a building

Mt Versuvius
Mt versuvius over looking pompeii

house
Cool looking overgrown room

Pizza oven
The oldest pizza oven. Cool

Peace
Finding my inner peace

Pizza
Not the best pizza in the world

Ancient Man
He was alot smaller than he looks in this photo.

Nap Time
There are dogs everywhere in Pompeii

Just outside
The outside of pompeii