So the trip is winding down. I can't say that I am not ready to head home, but I definitely have a little more travel in me before I board the plane to the States.
Wednesday night I went to an Opera in the San Carlo theater in Naples. the opera was about clowns and love and murder and stuff. It was a really cool theater, but the ropes on the curtains are actually carved wood. My head found that one out.
The class in Portici finished up with our presentations on the projects we had to do with an Italian classmate. My project was on removal of landfill sites and their impact on housing prices. Luckily I went near the end so they didn't have too much time to ask questions. Lets just say I didn't give it my best effort.
After the presentations we went to our friend Simona's house and made Arancini, which is basically deep fried risotto and cheese. Pretty good, but we made like 60 and I could only realistically eat 2. They are very heavy.
Friday was the last day I had in Italy and it was the last full day my Masshole roommates had as well so we decided do go venture to Pompeii and Vesuvius. The only problem was that the trains were on strike so we had to take a 7 am train and make sure to get on the 1:55 (13:55) train home. That made things a little stressful, but clearly we made it.
Pompeii was alright. I was tired and wasn't interested in walking around much. It is weird to say, but Pompeii is almost too preserved. There is something nice about ruins you can see through or over, but in Pompeii the houses mostly are in tact sans roof. Half delirious and annoyed with massive groups of tourists we went in search of the frozen lava people. The search was fueled by my rendition of the Beatles "Eleanor Rigby". I made a slight alteration to the chorus. It went as follows: Ahh look at all the Lava people where have they all gone" and various deviations about the mythical lava people of Pompeii.
Unfortunately, our impatience and schedule did not allow us to have time to search for the erotic sculpture room.
We took a bus up to Vesuvius. Volcanoes are cool, but they smell like sulfur in case you didn't know. I took some videos at the top. The crater is hugeeeee. there is one part that was actually smoking, which was really amazing.
Despite being almost positive that my trains were going to be cancelled due to the strike. I made it to Paris without incident. The over night train was an event for sure. In the size of a normal full bath there were 6 people. I had the top bunk, which was real nice, because it gave me a little privacy and I couldn't get stepped on. The guy across from me kept getting phone calls all night and texts and what not. The calls were fine, but he didn't have his keys on silent, and I am pretty sure he didn't have T9 word because he kept Beep Booping Beep a Deep Booping all night. I woke up with a sore neck (Europeans are so $%#&ing short).
My arrival in Paris was Ok. I figured out where I was and the direction I needed to head in. I took the metro to a station, walked to another station to get to yet another station, randomly got on a platform and found a train that appeared to be going in the right direction. Needless to say I arrived.
After watching the 20th stage in the tour I went back to downtown Paris to scope out the sitch (situation for you old people). The maps are impossible to read because there are just too many streets to fit on a fold up map. So i figured that I would use my survival skills to get to the Champs Elyseeeesiseiisi. I figured it was late afternoon so and that the Champs was South of my location. After much muttering and walking in circles i determined that if I placed the sun on my right I would make it to the Champs. I second guessed myself about 15 times. For the life of me my brain couldn't remember how the directions on the map related to the real world. It was pretty awful.
I made it to the Champs figure out where I need to be for tomorrows race. They should be getting in around 3 ish my time, but I am leaving here at 5:30am to find a spot. So if you tune in to watch the race I am going to try and be near the finish and hopefully get in the front row. I will try and pick up some tour gear as well.
I will fill you all in on my return tomorrow. Hopefully Ill get some good video.
Ciao Ciao
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