Naples

didn't get off to a great start. we brought our ticket and waited at the train station for our train to pull in. we saw it come up on the arivals board and just as it was time for it to pull in, the name dropped off the screen. there was no way we could've missed it, we were way ahead of it coming in, and with the way italian public transport is, there was no chance it would be early. are a bit of investigative work we found out that the workers had suddenly decided to go on strike. i've heard since this is quite common in italy, they go on strike at the drop of a hat. anyway i finally made it on the train and headed south to Naples. along the way was quite beautiful with mountainous country side and good weather to boot. i was thinking Naples is going to be awesome, becuase i my mind i had painted a picture of a cute sideside town, something maybe similar to Nice but perhaps a little bit more built up, and of course, Italian. boy i was wrong.

we got off the train station in the mid afternoon and wondered what i had stepped into. where was the cute little town i had imagined? what is this ghetto in its place? Ghetto in some cases might me a harsh word but to be totally honest i think it sums up the majority of Naples quite well. I thought Rome was messy and full of litter, but naples takes the cake. its so dirty here, mess and rubbish everywhere. i heard the further you go down in italy the dirtier it gets but this was ridiculous. and the amount of dodgy characters selling/pushing hot goods was out of control. you might think i'm imagining this stuff and perhaps carrying on a bit. but when we got to the hostel even the old man at reception told us to keep very little money on us at all times as well as keep it safe (like the inside pocket of a jacket) so that pick pockets don't steal it. he gave us a map of the city and showed us the safest streets to walk down to get to the sights and pretty much pleaded with us not to go out passed 10 o'clock. he was so nice and helpful, it was great to have someone keep an eye out for you.

we did the sights which to be honest were nothing to rave about. they have couple of castles on there coastline, not far from each other, and the area around there is ok. but part from that, i don't think it was that great. i heard you could do Naples in a day, i think i did it in a couple of hours! but to be honest i didn't really care, the main reason i came to Naples was to see the anicent city of Pompeii.

Pompeii is just a small train ride out of Naples. but even that was a eye openner, we were looking for our train (because there were about 20 platforms it wasn't as easy as it sounds) and this little italian man, who must have heard me ask the information area which platform, came up to me and said 'are you looking for Pompeii?' i said 'yeah' so he said 'i know where to go, you head this way, turn right and... actually, its on my way i'll show you' he had a toursit information badge on so i thought why not. but in the back of my mind i was thinking 'he's being a little too helpful, what does he want?' anyway he walked us down to the platform and as soon as he got there, he said 'this is the train to Pompeii that will be 5 EURO please' i was like 'what?' i couldn't believe it. i was kind of angry at him because i hate when someone pretends to be doing you a favour then when really its for there own benifit. i thought it was kind of sad that this is what the world had come to. he wouldn't leave us alone so we gave him some EURO because somehow in his mind he thought it was ok, once we did and he buzzed off. its a shame becuase those kind of experiences, i think, make you less trusting of everyone.
the train was pretty horrible, it leaked, smelt really funky and looking out the window during the train trip i saw how dirty naples and its surrounding towns were. which made me think, who is in charge of cleaning this stuff? i know that its the people that live here that make it dirty but i'm sure these people pay taxes. i had heard about the Italian government and how corrupt they are, but i didn't really realise how little they really did until i came here. people that live here don't really even seem to notice the mess and i think thats the main problem, education. i think that littering has become so much part of there lives that perhaps they don't know what they are doing. for instance you always see people smoking in italy, not just in Naples but everywhere in italy, and it just seems like a reflex action to throw there butt on the ground, not put it out and throw it in a bin. its sad but in some ways i think its too far gone. but then again, what do i know? i'm just someone on the outside looking in.

thank god after the train ride Pompeii was really worth it. it all started i suppose when Mt Vesuvius blew its top and covered the city with ash and volcanic debris thousands of years ago. to see this city preserved in time was quite an amazing thing to see you can still see shop names written on the walls, its amazing that some of the frescos are still intact. the thing i think is funny is it was accidentally discovered. in 1748 some workers were digging a hole or something and found some bones in a cavity. luckily one of them was smart enough to fill the hole with plaster and when they dug the plaster out they found it created a figure. to see those poor people and animals (there was a cast of a dog too) was a combination of tragic and amazing all at the same time, the amount of detail was breath taking, you could see the folds of there clothes and everything. something i found interesting was there was a laundry and back in those days they used to use urine to help clean clothes becuase of its ammonia properties. it made me think, not that i'd try it, but could we still use urine to clean our clothes? or would it be impossible because i imagine that our diets have changed so much over time. i dunno, until i figure it out i'll keep using Omo.

anyway, that was my Naples experience, i think in some ways experience is an understatement. the plan was to head to Bari and catch a ferry to Dubrovnik but the ferries arent running at the moment which is a bit of a pain, so were heading up to Venice, its a bi of the long way around but what can you do? more when i get there.