Napoli Crapoli

Naples reminds me of home. Not in the good nostalgic way; in the worst ways you can think of. Our hostel was right outside of the train station and this is where all the homeless, drug addicts, and prostitutes abound. It really does look like the worst part of east Hastings, but with about fifty times the garbage and graffiti. I wanted to take more pictures, but I didn't feel safe taking my camera out. Especially after opening my wallet when buying a ticket for the train and having the ticket agent chastise me and motion to never show anything valuable around there.

Surprisingly our hostel was quite nice. They had a free pasta dinner the first night we arrived, and the next night an American girl took us out for White Night- a huge street party with hundreds of thousands of people enjoying the festivities. I couldn't quite get an answer about what they were celebrating- it just seemed to be a night where all the shops are open until 3, so all the residents go out. It was nice to see a fun, non frightening side of Naples. It was probably the biggest street party I will ever be to.

The only 2 things we wanted to do in Naples was go to Pompeii, and eat pizza. We wandered around the city looking for the best pizza around, and we found the restaurant from "Eat, Pray, Love" but the queue was so massive we settled on a random pizzeria that looked reasonably busy. The pizza was good, we had one margarita and a folded one stuffed with ricotta. I think it's the sauce that makes them so epic here- it just tastes like fresh blended tomatoes- because we've had a lot of comparable pizza around the country. But it was something that I won't forget and it made me happy.

Pompeii was obviously very dramatic. It was so massive, we spent about 2 hours there and managed to see quite a bit of it. For some reasons tickets were free, so that was a bonus, but we didn't get audio guides or a tour so we kind of wandered around without really knowing what we were looking at. We heard Herculaneum was better from a few people (thanks for your suggestions by the way) but we only had limited time so we never got to it. I can see how it would be easier to grasp a smaller city though because Pompeii was quite overwhelming.

We are in Sorrento now, and we have 4 nights here so it will be nice to settle down and relax for a bit.

Also wanted to mention that we booked our flight home- we will be in Vancouver October 28th so keep your schedules open for that week because I want to make dates with all of you.

Gen