Today is one of those days where I am reminded how much I love traveling solo.

My original plans for today were to overdo sightseeing.  I was determined to go to Pompeii, Herculaneum and Mount Vesuvius all in one day.  The internet says it can not be done, I say it can.  I guess we will never know now though because I ended up making a very last second decision to go to Sorrento after Pompeii, rather than keeping my original plans.  Changing plans last minute always seems to be so easy when you are solo and so difficult when you are not.  I didn’t have to confer with anyone, all I had to do was get on the train.

First stop:  Pompeii.  I took the Circumvesuviana train here from Naples.  At the Naples train station, some random guy approached me and asked me if I was looking for the ticket booth.  I made the mistake of saying yes.  Oh here we go. He then tries escorting me through the train station, out the other side and down a new entrance. I do not want him to do this because I know he is going to ask me for money.  I actually say to him “I am not giving you any money, I can make it the rest of the way by myself”.  He ignores me.  We get to the ticket window and he tries to pay for my ticket.  I think the trick  here is that he pays for my ticket (it was something like €2.40) and then would hope I would not have exact change and give him a €5 bill).  I keep insisting “DO NOT BUY MY TICKET” and he will not stop.  So I then yell to the booth guy “DO NOT SELL HIM MY TICKET”. Then I think I will outsmart him and pay with a credit card.  No change, no cash, sorry guy.  But the Circumvesuviana does not take credit cards.  ARGH.

So I pay in cash and turn to leave.  My unwanted escort asks me to buy him a cup of coffee.  NO.  I find it so completely annoying when people do things like this.

The train comes and its every bit as run down and rickety as the internet told me it would be.  It was also hot as hell on there.

We get to Pompeii.  Walking from the train station to the entrance is about a five minute walk, during which you are offered to purchase a bunch of things such as slushies, sun hats and souvenirs.  I almost bought an enormous sun hat as my 100 spf sun screen is not working and I am so burned up.  But I resisted.

Pompeii is HOT today.  Burning hot.  There are just about zero spots with shade inside here.  I had to keep reminding myself “you know, people here died from being buried under volcanic ash, I bet they would love to trade spots with you”.

The entrance through the city walls was one of the many “I AM GOING TO FALL AND DIE” moments of my trip.  It is steep and there is nothing to hold onto.  I was watching people twice my age zip past me like it was no big deal.  I envied their bravery.  If you have never been to Pompeii – on the right side is a drawbridge type thing, once you walk across it, you continue up that steep hill.  Sure it doesn’t look like a big deal in the picture.  But it would have been if I had died!

Once I survived the scary entrance and got into the actual site, I spotted this cutie. It was so hot that I actually thought he might be dead.  Thankfully, he was not.

Pompeii:

This was Pompeii’s fast food restaurant.  I took a break over here because there was a water fountain and a ledge to sit on.  Every tour group that passed by stopped here and every tour guide would talk in whatever language with “McDonalds” being the only word I understood.

This looks like a Rorschach face.

This looks like a Rorschach dog.

I love this picture:

 Up next:  a few hours in Sorrento.