Stray Dogs Break My Heart.

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I have taken so many pictures of stray dogs during my trip.  But the one I do not have any pictures of for some reason, is the one I still can’t stop thinking about.  I met her in Sarajevo.   I first saw her watching me.  I said “hello” and she smiled and hobbled over on three legs, holding up one of her front paws, which appeared to be broken.  I bent down to pet her and she instantly flopped onto her back so I could reach her belly.  Oh I was in love.

I sat down on the ground to make this easier and she rearranged herself so that her head was in my lap. I LOVED this dog.  At first I thought she must be someone’s pet due to her demeanor and love of belly rubs.  But she had the tell-tale ear tag of a stray dog.

After playing with her for a while, I had to say good-bye.  She began following me, hobbling with her broken leg still held up.  No, please stop, you are breaking my heart!  Sigh.  I told her “stay” and motioned “stop” with my hand.  She instantly sat down, wagging her tail.  She kept smiling at me with her tongue hanging out.  There is just no way she wasn’t once owned by someone.

I still think about her often.  It is killing me that she is still out there, likely still homeless.

What’s it Like Living in New York City? Rant #1 – Barclays Center

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I have decided to take advantage of the fact that i live in New York City and do some posts about it.  While I intend to post some nice things about living in New York at some point, that point will not be today.

Today I will be ranting about Barclays Center.  I hate this thing.  It is New York City’s brand new arena, located in Downtown Brooklyn. It can hold up to 19,000 people.  It has been open less than a year now.

Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY

I honestly do not know if this thing is painted a rust color or if it was made out of cheap metal that rusted.  For the intent and purpose of HATE, I am going to act like I know for a fact that it is the latter.

This rusted out piece of crap was built right at a major transportation hub.  Not only do many subway lines stop here, it is also a stop on the Long Island Railroad – which is the commuter rail between New York and you guessed it – Long Island.  The Long Island Railroad is also what us Brooklynites are expected to take to JFK Airport.  It is only fifteen minutes to the JFK Airtrain from this stop.

Sounds good right?  WRONG.

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Goodbye Rome, Hello Sarajevo!

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Today I am leaving Rome and heading to Bosnia.  This section of the trip is both where I got all frustrated while booking it, and then even more frustrated living it.  I originally wanted to go from Rome to Puglia and take an overnight ferry to Dubrovnik.  Well today is Wednesday and guess what day of the week that ferries do not run?  Yes.  Wednesday.  So I opted to fly to Bosnia.  This was the start of several days where I watched my “Best Travel Planner EVER” crown turn to rust before my eyes.

Hotel check out is at 11:00  My flight is at 4:05.  I decide to go to the airport this early because I don’t want to be in Rome anymore. Plus my flight has changed and I am not all that sure of the new time because there is no wifi in my room and I am limited on what I can see on my phone.

There was no one upstairs when I checked out of my room. I just left the keys there.  I had to restrain myself to keep from leaving a note about YOU LYING BASTARDS. THERE IS NO WIFI HERE.

I walked downstairs and the dude who checked me in is out there!  He asks me how my stay is.  I say “there is no wifi” and he says “yeah…”  in this sheepish tone that causes me to FLIP OUT on him.  I am so pissed off,  I am yelling about how I never would have stayed here, this is bullshit and false advertising.  I basically just keep yelling at him.  He basically just keeps standing there.  I finally walk away while giving him the finger.  I am still so mad about this.  It is so irrational but I hate liars and to knowingly lie about having wifi when you don’t just really set me off.  The hilarity of all of this is that this is the first trip ever in my life where I have brought a laptop type thingy.  On any other trip to any other place I have been to in my past, I wouldn’t have even known that this hotel is a liar liar pants on fire.

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Rome, Italy: Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum and St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City

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Today is my last full day in Rome.  I will not lie; I am looking forward to my stay here being over.  I am just dying to go east.  I am doing that thing again where I wonder why the hell do I keep coming to places that are not even in my top 100 places to see before I die.  I keep getting sucked in by famous tourist spots. Like how can I not go to Rome and see the Sistene Chapel or the Colosseum?    I need to guide myself away from doing this in the future.  The three days I have spent here could have been spent anywhere east of the Adriatic and I would have spent these three days in absolute heaven.

But then I think of things like my time in Naples or last year in Florence.  I fell in love with Florence.  I loved my time in Naples and all its surrounding areas.  I wasn’t really expecting either of those things to happen.  I am so glad I went.  I love finding new places I love that I hadn’t planned on falling in love with.   It makes me feel like I am learning about the world and growing as a person.  I guess I am bipolar about my vacation destinations.

But anyway, less deep thoughts with Jennifer and more back to Rome.

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Rome, Italy: Vatican Museum, Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps

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After completely losing my mask of sanity on my first night in Rome, I was awoken at around 5:30 am by a thunderstorm.  I went to make sure my window was closed and that’s when I remebered my window doesn’t even go outside, it goes into the hallway and across from that is an open window.  I am not so sure my sanity will return to me today.

I get up and get ready to go out.  My hotel leaves your breakfast for you the night before.  I went from fresh breads, fruit, smoothies, yogurt, pots of coffee and home made deserts in Naples to this:

breakfast

I leave a note for someone to please fix my WiFi and I head out.

Today is Vatican City day.  I do not have much of a personal interest in seeing the Vatican Museum, but I am in Rome.  I have to go, right?  So I do.

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Rome, Italy: Train Mishap and Where is My WiFi Dammit?

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I do not like Rome.  This is not entirely Rome’s fault.   I acknowledge that.  But I do not like it.

I was leaving Napoli today.  I last left off leaving Castel Sant’Elmo.  I had to go back to my hotel and pick up my luggage.  Dying, hot, sweaty, death.

I walked back over to Centrale to buy a train ticket to Rome.  The next train was leaving in ten minutes, I wanted a tiny bit more time to do things like buy an ice cold drink (DYING, HOT, SWEATY, DEATH) and smoke a cigarette.  I look at the later times and see prices €40 and up.  What the hell, I thought it was going to be like €10.  Then I notice the too-soon train is only €11.20.  Perfect, I will take it.  Who needs a cigarette and ice cold drink when you will be in Rome in about an hour for only €11.20?

Ugh.  Did you know they have slow trains between Naples and Rome?  I didn’t.  I am now on a three hour train.  I boarded late so there are no seats left.  I am sitting outside between the two cars, burning hot.  There is a guy selling cold water, he does not have change for a €20 bill.  I don’t have anything smaller since I just put all my change and smaller bills into the ticket machine.

I did see some cool scenery though:
View train from Rome to Naples

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Naples, Italy: Castel Sant’Elmo

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My last morning in Naples.  I wanted to spend a few hours here before leaving for Rome.  Especially since I have now mastered the fine art of not being murdered by a Vespa when crossing the street.  (Hint:  walk with a local in between you and the direction of oncoming traffic.)

Naples chaos:

naples chaos

After a last game of catch with the cute dog who lives at my hotel, I was off.

b&b doggie

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Here is What Happens When I Do Not Travel

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This weekend I had a four day weekend for the Fourth of July.  Under normal circumstances, I would have gone away just because I had the time off.  This year however, I am trying to be more financially responsible and stop wasting money on going places just because I have the time off.  I really prefer longer trips because you get more bang for your buck on airfare.  I can not take a long trip this time by adding onto the holiday because I just took 892347832947 days off and I am running low on vacation time.  I am not allowed to gamble until my birthday so Atlantic City is out.  There is pretty much nothing else anywhere near here that I would want to pay holiday rates on hotels for.

So I decide to be extra responsible and spend a long weekend at home. I had a bunch of mental plans.  I managed to score some good books at the library, I picked up a DVD from Redbox, I thought I would do some NYC sightseeing to get some filler content for this blog…

Then on Wednesday, night one – I was sitting on my couch trying to decide if I was going to watch my DVD  before I went to bed, or save it for the next day.   As much as I love living alone, it would have been nice to have anyone hear me inexplicably say out loud “If you don’t go to bed right now, you are going to regret it” just moments before turning on the light to put in the DVD and suddenly start screaming when I spot the fucking ginormous super sized roach sitting on top of the crown moulding around my windowsill.  God fucking DAMN IT.   I should have gone to fucking bed.

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An Easy Side Trip to Sorrento, Italy from Pompeii and Naples

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I last left off in Pompeii.  I wanted to go to Mount Vesuvius.  I know it is cold there, always.  This should have been a draw since I was slowly dying in the heat in Pompeii.  But I could not get my mind to believe that a volcano would be cooler.  So I decided to go to Sorrento, which was burning hot of course.  Meh, whatever. At least I had the joy of being able to switch my plans last minute and not have to deal with anyone else because I am solo lalalalalaaaaaaaaaaa.

Leaving Pompeii and buying a train ticket for Sorrento was a bit difficult.  The ticket booth guy was not at the window, but instead could be seen from the window gabbing it up with his coworker.  The maniac behind me in line starts smashing at the window. Of course, the guy thinks its me since I am the one standing there when he comes over.  Great.  I ask for a ticket. He gives it to me and tells me “You need to run to catch the train”.  Yeah well I wouldn’t have if you had been here instead of over there….whatever.

Since it is later in the day now, the Circumvesuviana train smells even worse than it did earlier in the day.  I am from New York, I can handle this.

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Naples, Italy: Side Trip to Pompeii

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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”.

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