naples italy

November 11, 2012: Naples day 1
I worked 9-12 this morning. It was a quick breakfast then straight up to Club HAL. I wasn’t there long when the girl came up. After a few minutes deliberation with her grandmother, she decided that she didn’t want to stay in Club HAL after all. So, they left. A few minutes later, she comes back up with her mom who tried very hard to convince her to stay instead of walking around all day with the rest of them. The girl wasn’t having it, she wanted to spend the day walking. So, I just read until Brian came.

Kayley and I had talked about going out together, so I knocked on her door as soon as I got back to the room and changed. We had to wait a few minutes because she had invited Jim to come along. We were going to find the pizza place Cass told us about (that was in the book/movie “Eat Pray Love”). We found Blake as he was coming back to the ship so invited him to come as well. We ended up just going to a pizza place close to the ship, Jim had been there before and since we didn’t really know where the other one was, this seemed like a better option. We all had different kinds of pizza and we all tried each others. After a very long lunch, Jim took us to a gelato place he said was the best he’d ever had. We spent a long time looking for it, but at least we were walking along pretty Italian streets.

After gelato, we wandered around for a little bit before the others needed to get back. I wanted to continue exploring so we parted ways. I walked around on my own for a while and didn’t really see much. I took a turn and walked down the street for a while before I discovered that there wasn’t really a lot of options off of that street, so I followed it and turned to the next street when I finally got to it. A few streets later, I saw water. There were no boats or ships in sight and I was very confused about where I could have ended up. I walked along the water in generally the direction I had come from and eventually saw the marina and the port.
I got back on the ship in plenty of time to change and get to church service on time. I didn’t know the songs well this week, but I still really enjoyed them. The pastor talked about how God is our vanguard and rearguard, preparing the way for us and protecting us. It was a really good service.

After church, I went back out for internet. I bought a Fanta in the terminal and got the internet code. So, I spent the next few hours catching up on posting these blogs, uploading pictures, and talking to Mom!

I thought about going back out with groups, but I didn’t see a lot to do in Napoli, so I stayed on the ship. I hung out in the OB for a bit but there weren’t many people there, so I went to my room. I wasn’t at all ready to sleep so I wasn’t sure what to do. Luckily, Cass got back soon after and we went to the OB and hung out with the rest of the band.

November 12, 2012: Naples day 2
I woke up really early this morning to go out with Kayley and Samantha (one of the dancers) before I had to work at 12. We had decided to go to Pompeii for a few hours. We got off and had planned on taking the train, but we reconsidered when we found out that it would be at least an hour to get there by train (bus to train station, then take train to the city, then take a bus/taxi to the ruins). We were convinced to take a taxi there, a 30 minute drive. It was expensive, but much better for times sake. We arrived at the ruins at 7:50 and had to be back at the taxi at 9:50 (a two-hour wait to explore was part of the taxi price). However, after we got a quick breakfast (rather, hot chocolate for me and coffee for the other two), we discovered that the ruins didn’t open until 8:30.

The time came and quite a few people were waiting around the entrance. We talked to a couple from the US for a few minutes until their tour guide talked to someone cleaning through the fence. The site wasn’t open because all the workers were on strike. The tour guide was helpful; he called our taxi driver for us and explained about the strike and how we wanted to leave early. We got a slight discount because we only were there for an hour, but we were kind of upset that the taxi driver wasn’t a little bit more understanding; why didn’t any of them tell us before we left that the site didn’t open until 8:30, we spent half an hour waiting for it to open! After what seemed like a really long ride back, Kayley and Samantha went to explore the city a bit and I went to get internet in the terminal since I had some extra time I wasn’t expecting. Daniel was sitting waiting for some of the other spa people to get off the ship so I sat with him for a bit and we talked as I tried to get online. It wasn’t working so I gave up and decided to get back on the ship and take a nap instead.

I slept until work, the girl was the only one there so I took her to lunch and actually managed to make her eat over half her hot dog. Rik joined us for a little bit of our lunch, we’re going to be in code red for another 48 hours because someone else got sick. Great. As we got back from lunch, the other kids got there, so we spent the afternoon coloring, playing Lego Harry Potter, and watching the Incredibles and Rango.

After work, I was tired so I took another nap until dinner with Kayley and Samantha. The food seems to be getting worse now that we’re in code red. You’d think they’d be more careful about cooking food long enough with people getting sick.

I read and played cards for an hour in Club HAL, then just as I started to play Lego Harry Potter, the siblings dad came up with the girl. So, we played Lego Harry Potter for a while, then colored then went back to the game. Her brother came up later and I gave him my controller and watched as they played. It was a very calm night, I enjoyed it! After they left, I had to SuperSan. I did it pretty thoroughly; even though Brian said just wipe down the stuff we use, I wiped down all the seats, all the tables, the xbox stations and everything else.