SO this is the story after the story, in other words, there was a long span of time where I didn't post, and this is that gap of time, all wrapped up in one reeeeeeeeeeeally long post. So enjoy!
29 September:
We had to wake up early this morning, because the train was supposed to leave at 7:39am, so everyone needed to be at Termini station at 7:15 ish so that we could get our tickets and leave on time. It was lots of fun riding on the train, it made me wish that there was more transportation like that in Iowa. I read my book that I borrowed from Oma about Michelangelo. It took a long time to get there, luckily I brought a sandwich and a coke to snack on around 9:00, because I was hungry.
The train finally arrived in Naples at 9:45am. Everyone then took the metro to get to the museum. This was a museum that housed the archeological artifacts from the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. It was interesting, there were frescoes, statues, mosaics, pottery, tools and even gilded items. I took a mountain of pictures of the things that I found interesting. Although I was slightly sad that I couldn't see these works in their actual environment. We were at the museum from about 10:50am to 12:00. We then took a lunch break, kind of, so I snacked on some candy that I brought with me from Rome.
We took another metro from the museum to Naples, to get back to the main train station. We then took a train to get to Sorrento. It was a difficult train ride because it was extremely crowded at first, but it was fun because this train went through really long tunnels and was near the sea. I believe that I took some video from on the train. I will post it later.
Once we got there we went to go check in at our hotels. So at this point, it was just Kaitlin and I because the interior designers had a guided tour at the museum, and took longer to get through the museum than the graphic designers. Well, the way that the hotels were organized the graphic designers were at one hotel and the interior designers were at another hotel. Well everyone except Kaitlin and I. We were somehow swapped with Lin and Meng in the hotels. So Kaitlin and I waited outside the hotel in front of the small grass patch they had. Well I guess that the way it was set up made sense because Kaitlin and I were roomed with Rebekah at the Interior designer's hotel. It's all good.
After we waited for Cheri to get settled in, we, Kaitlin, Cheri and I went to look for our hotel so that we could get checked in. Well we got confused on where we were on the map because it was a general map and not very detailed one. We ended up that I had to ask for directions approximately three times.
Once we finally got there, it was beautiful. I was so grateful that Kaitlin and I had roomed here, there was a lavish garden and a trellis tunnel with vines growing on it. When we got to the information desk, we were the only ones there, because the interior designers hadn't arrived yet. The lady at the reception was really nice and gave us a cute little map of Sorrento. To get to our room we went out the back door, past a family of really cute parakeets, past some more lavish gardening, up a set of small stairs and to this small house. It looked like it was a part of the building, but it also looked like it was a separate house.
When Kaitlin and I entered we were so tired, we just kind of sprawled on the beds. However we did eventually get up and explore the little rooms. There was a main floor level, but there was also a loft that held another bed, which is where Rebekah slept. There was a bathroom with a shower, and a little basket of adorable little hand soaps and lotions, Kaitlin took a picture of it before we used them and ruined it. There was also a mini fridge with cold soda, wine, chocolate and cheese. There was also dry snacks like Pringles and nuts, however if you ate or drank any of it it cost you euro. Well I was parched so I bought myself a can of Coke.
I unpacked my things into the closet, even though we were only staying one night, it made it feel more like a get away. Kaitlin was already relaxing in her bed, and watching some Italian television. There was an interesting show that was on, it was a little kids movie. There was a nice boy and a group of mean ones that picked on the boy because he was little. Then the nice boy's friend comes and rescues him because he's big and eats a lot. Meanwhile, a group of furniture movers bring a large armoire into the school. The mean boys told the men that the library they were looking for was on the top floor. The mean boys followed the men up the stairs continuing to direct the men in the wrong direction. Then the other two boys, the nice one and the big one run down the stairs. The mean boys yelled at the nice ones and they all got into a small scuffle on the staircase sending the moving men off balance. The men dropped the armoire and it was sent sliding down the staircase. Now this armoire must have been magical because it was able to go down a two set staircase, the ones with the landing in the middle, without slowing down. Then the armoire was going so fast that it was sliding down the hallway. It was moving so fast that the little kids in the school might have gotten seriously injured if they didn't jump out of the way in time. Anyway, the men and the boys chased the armoire down the stairs all the way to the library, which happened to be in the basement. The armoire itself planted itself in the middle of the library with a hint of finality to it. The librarian was unhappy because the armoire said Buon Appettite, and was unrelated to the library at all. Well anyway, the point of the whole movie is that when you put books into the armoire they turn into cakes, and when you eat the cakes you gain the knowledge from that book. The big kid was entered into a brainy kids contest, and to study for it he ate some cake. Thats about it, there was a moral to the story saying something like taking the easy way out. I was fairly educational.
I took a nap, kind of. Rebekah finally got to the hotel. She wanted to go out and go exploring, Kaitlin and I said okay, but we wanted to freshen up a bit since we were sweaty and sticky from all the traveling we did in the hot weather. We went out and went to the corner store market and bought Coke, razor blades and band-aids. We walked back to our hotel to put the Coke in the fridge for later. We all then went to the other hotel and walked around, looking at the interesting things to see in Sorrento, there were interesting stores, I believe Kaitlin bought herself a scarf.
After wandering around we went to the Lemon Tree Restaurant for our fancy dinner. It was a really delicious meal, even though some of the company wasn't my favorite. The antipasti, or appetizer, was a sampler plate of many different things. The second course was ravioli and linguine in a tomato sauce. The third course was some type of meat that was difficult to cut and difficult to chew, so I didn't finish it. The dessert was a lemon meringue ice-pudding. It was interesting taste, but I didn't finish it. We then went back to our hotel and went to sleep.
30 September:
We woke up to be checked out of the hotel before 9:00 because Kaitlin and I needed to get to the other hotel to meet up with the graphic designers. The hotel served a complimentary breakfast. It was very delicious. I packed some biscuits away so that there would be something to eat when Kaitlin and I were roaming around Pompeii. So after we gave the receptionist the key, we went to the other hotel to wait for the people there.
After everyone had assembled, we walked to the train station and took a train to Pompeii. It was about an hour to get to Pompeii and I stood the entire train ride. It was really interesting because a group of gypsies got on the train and started playing music and singing. There were five of them. The best part of this was that one of my friends, Patrick, start to dance along! It was hilarious.
After we got to Pompeii, we got off the train and walked a little ways to the gates. The group huddled for a little while while Cheri, Brenda and Jade figured out what we were doing. The entrance had run out of maps, so Cheri and the rest of my classmates went to the other entrance. I had my little pulley suitcase so I stayed there to check in my bag. Brenda had given me her map, so that Kaitlin and I knew where things were at. I checked in my mini suitcase, and Kaitlin checked in hers, and we went back to talk to Brenda, because a line had formed in the ticket giving line, and I don't like waiting in lines. Then Brenda asked if we would check in hers, Cheri's and Jade's bags. So we did that, said goodbye to Brenda, and then went into Pompeii.
When we got closer to the city, there was a giant incline, it was very difficult to climb because not only was it steep, but it had the large awkward cobblestones that makes it difficult to walk on. We didn't really understand what it was that we were supposed to do there, but we were interested in the Hall of Mysteries, so we headed that direction first.
Since it was so far away, we looked at places as we were walking by. One of the things that I found extremely interesting is that there was a restaurant/bar tucked into this old city, for people to eat at, but it looked really out of place. We ate there later. Anyways, we walked past the Forum, the House of the Tragic Poet, the House of the Little Fountain, the House of Sallust, the House of the Surgeon, the Gate of Herculaneum and walls, the Necropolis of Porta Vesuvio, and the Villa of Diomedes.
When we got to the Gate of Herculaneum, we had to stop and sit down. Kaitlin hadn't been feeling good. I believe she had a migraine and was a little nauseous, so I gave her one of my pilfered biscuits from breakfast. She laid down for a bit under a tree, on a little stone wall, and I sketched a small alcove across the street from the Gate of Herculaneum. After about 20, we got up and continued on to the Villa of Mysteries.
It was really interesting. I took a lot of pictures. It would have been a very elaborate house back in the days when people were still living there. After we were throughly finished with exploring the area there, we set off back to the little restaurant. We were going to get something to eat and Kaitlin needed to go to the bathroom there.
When we got to the mini restaurant, Brenda, Cheri, and Jade were there. We gave Jade our tickets. I looked at the menu items that they had and decided what I wanted, while Kaitlin finished up in the bathroom. We got a type of fluffy pizza, a small thing of fries, and two cokes. We shared because it was more expensive, and there was enough food for two in one meal. Brenda, Cheri, and Jade left since they had finished their food, and Kaitlin and I sat down to eat. After the food was gone, and our appetites were satisfied, we left to go look at more interesting things in Pompeii.
We walked to the Macellum, it was a big square that had a circular colonnade in the middle. It also had a painted fresco on the inside of one of the walls. There was a small stand of pictures or photos taken at Pompeii that were being sold. Next to the little stand was two of the plaster people from Pompeii. They were interesting, but I didn't feel like looking closer than I was.
We decided that the next thing that we wanted to see was Apollo's Temple, so we wandered over there. On the way there we saw the Temple of Jupiter, the Granaries of the Forum, and the Table Ponderaria. Once we got to the Temple of Apollo, it was cool, there even was a statue of Apollo that was still there.
The next place we went was the Basilica. It was interesting walking through the space where there were only 3 feet left of the colossal columns. Kaitlin and I looked at the map to see what there was left to see. We were both extremely tired, however, since this was probably the only time that we were going to see this, we wanted to see all that we could. The next place that we wanted to go to was the Grand theatre.
On the way there we saw the Public Administration Buildings, the House of the Geometric Mosaics, the Triangular Forum, the Doric Temple, the Palestra Sannitica, and the Quadriporticus of Theatres. We sat down near the Doric Temple because Kaitlin wasn't feeling well. I took some pictures of the sky, the temple and the ground. I also ate some of the candy cherries that I like that I got from Rome. After resting for about 15 minutes, we went down the stairs to the Quadriporticus. There was a small restroom on the far side. We stopped so Kaitlin could use the restroom. I didn't find out until later that Kaitlin had threw up there.
After Kaitlin got out of the bathroom, we went and saw the Great Theatre. It was slightly frustrating to me because we ended up behind a large group of Asian tourists, so all of them were taking weird pictures with columns and peace signs. I quickly saw the theatre, and left ahead of them, so that we wouldn't be slowed down. Kaitlin and I had been there for a while, and we needed to leave at least by 3:00pm, so that we could get to Naples to meet up with Rebekah.
I will continue later. Or: To Be Continued. Dun dun Duhhhh!
I will keep adding to this post over time, but this is just the first day and early morning of the South field trip.
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