Day 12 – Pompeii

It was culture day today and a visit to Pompeii was in order. I had read about the Circumvesuviana trains (the city trains) and how they are actually below the main train station. Not many people knew that and there were plenty of people looking lost in the station. Although when we got there, we also looked lost as we had to locate the right platform. We asked several Italians, many of whom spoke little English but eventually pointed us in the right direction.

We boarded the train and unfortunately had to stand for the 30min journey to Pompeii, but the views from the train were lovely, looking at Vesuvius in the distance. Arriving in Pompeii, we were already drenched in sweat but the sun showed no remorse and the weather was painfully hot. Hoping that I’ve read enough about it, we opted for no guide (except my knowledge) and found a free map. Using google and listening in on the numerous American tourist guides, we got a relatively in depth tour of the site.

Although the place was in ruins, everything looked different from each other and was quite interesting. The highlight of the Pompeii tour was when we bumped into another tour group. They were taking them to the brothel so we jumped in too as it was their last stop. When we got there, we were informed that each room was assigned a different ‘position’ and that said position was painted above the door. On the main street not far from the brothel, there was also the ‘signpost’ to it. Back in the day, they didn’t advertise it as such, but instead they carved a penis into the road, which pointed the way to the girls. Pretty clever?

My girlfriend was struggling today. The sun and sweat had mixed and she started getting sweat bubbles, like blisters, but actually looked like little skin tags. She kept rubbing them to burst them but I tried to explain that they would keep coming back as she would sweat more. She didn’t listen. The day tour was punctuated with rests and stops the whole day, chilling on the grass or my girlfriend pouring water over her skin every time we saw water. It wasn’t a bad thing, we got to see all of the archeological site and were able to enjoy it for longer.

When we left the ‘enclosure’, we found a small restaurant that had the cheapest prices. Unfortunately, the prices complimented the food. My girlfriend had spaghetti and tomato sauce, which was obviously straight from the freezer section in the local supermarket and heated in the microwave. She still ate it though. Food is food when you get it.

We got our train back (with seats this time) and went to the supermarket we found after several google searches. We needed ‘ready-to-eat’ food and the shop seemed to not allow that as there was none. I went for sliced carrots and lettuce in 6 bread baps whilst my girlfriend got some brie cheese and crackers. Nobody spoke English in the shop yet my girlfriend was insisting on her cheese that none of the locals even heard of. She asked for brie and nobody understood her, they then all looked at me thinking that I was an Italian local that could speak both languages. Unfortunately not yet. Thankfully, the shelf stacker emerged from an aisle and could translate.

We were back in the same place some 5 minutes later as we thought we would get some alcohol. The lady that my girlfriend is, didn’t want beer and would only get cider (none of us wanted wine due to our cheap wine experiences thus far) but of course nobody knew this word either. People were running about suggesting different drinks, and even some food types and caused a massive traffic jam in the shop, much to the disgust of the locals. I suggested we get a Bombay Sapphire bottle of gin and get out of here before we cause any more havoc.

Of course I spoke too soon, there were two check outs open and the one we went to was ‘cash only’. She kept asking cash? And I kept replying Sí and eventually she grasped the idea that I understood. However, when we went to pay, we were €1 and 20 cent short in cash snd so we had to take all of our stuff to the other check out, causing havoc with the locals again and getting some looks that could kill from the cash only cashier.

Without any more drama, we made it back to the room and I began the long process of popping my girlfriend’s sweat bubbles with a needle. It was actually quite fun and I made her arms look fantastic afterwards, of course she wouldn’t have admitted that. After the sweat bubble popping, i got to work on my dinner and my lunch for tomorrow (I got enough baps so I could have lunch too). I asked my girlfriend if I could have some of her cheese and put them in my baps with the carrots and the lettuce. After my first bite, I realised I didn’t like the cheese and had to take it all out again. She was annoyed at this because she cut half of her brie for me and then huffed and wouldn’t take it back. She wouldn’t have eaten it all anyway.