POMPEII!

July 20, 2013: Naples
I went to Pompeii today!

I slept in this morning, had a nice breakfast with a few of the HAL Cats, James, and Linda, then changed and walked around for a bit before the crew excursion at 1! I didn’t know who was going, but I was happy to find Jessie and Voirry on the bus! Jessie and I caught up on the bus ride since we somehow haven’t seen one another this cruise. I was so excited when we got there that I was jumping around.

It was a good tour, it was a guided tour and I was pretty amazed at how much stuff he had memorized. I learned so much through the whole tour, and I wasn’t paying attention half the time because I was walking around and taking pictures as well. I can now say I’ve drunken water from Pompeii, Jessie brought a water bottle which we shared and filled up in the drinking fountains along the way. We saw both theatres, the bathing areas, houses, shops, temples to gods, and so much more. One of the main things I remember learning was that Vesuvius is exactly north of Pompeii, and they built their roads straight East to West or North to South. It was very surreal in some ways, realizing I was walking the same streets as so many did who were killed by a volcano erupting, stepping in the ruins of their treasured homes, the decorated public areas (some of which the decorations partially remain). It was kind of creepy in a way, but really cool and educational at the same time. Makes you think how quickly things change; they weren’t expecting a volcano, they were going on with their daily lives, and yet within a day everyone was killed by the eruption.

I came back, showered and took a nap before dinner and work. Tonight was ‘games galore’ night, so we had a list of games we could play with them. We played ickle bickle for a while, where’s my shoe, river bank, made an attempt at playing Sorry, and of course we had to play the crowd favorite: 4 corners. Pretty easy night, it helped that only 4 of them showed up!