Monday, November 4, 2013

Lucky to Leave with all my Belongings

Venice, Italy 1 night


I met a girl from Korea at my hostel and we walked around taking pictures and exploring the winding streets of Venice. We got dinner after a long day of travel and waking around the city then called it a day. 



Florence, Italy 2 nights
October 15th, I took a train to Florence. As usual, checked into my hostel and got situated. Of course I met some more great people at the hostel who I walked around with before we had dinner at Tijuana which served Mexican food. We enjoyed fishbowl sized margaritas. 

On the 16th I did a day trip to Pisa. On the train I sat with an Italian man and an older couple from Portugal. With Portuguese, Italian and my broken Spanish we all tried to communicate a bit which was quite fun and a way to pass the time quite quickly. 

When returning to Florence I went to a garden which I did not have a ticket for and tried to enter through the wrong gate but the lady was nice and just let me in. I then bought pasta to cook and a bottle of wine for dinner. 
After eating, a group of us from the hostel attempted to find some open bars but had no luck. We ended up running around the streets in the poring rain. I was already soaking wet and had taken my flip flops off but a man selling umbrellas found it impair active to follow me around saying an umbrella was a good idea. 


Rome, Italy 2 nights

I pretty much wasted my first afternoon in Rome because I was hung over and all I could do was sleep. I took a long nap after I was able to check into my hostel and then decided that I should get up and do something. Dob, one of the Aussies I met in Vienna, happened to be in Rome at the same time so we met up for dinner and walked to the Trevi fountain. The fountain was absolutley a shit show of tourists. I took a picture from a distance with tons of people in it and threw a penny hoping it would make it into the water without hitting anyone.

While we were out waking around I am pretty sure we saw someone get robbed. A man dashed across several lanes of traffic with a womans purse in his hand so I can only assume that is what happened. After this I was a lot more aware of my surroundings and my bag, especially when I was walking by myself. 

The next morning Dob and I met at 8am to do some sight seeing. Our first stop was the fountain, in the hopes that it would not be as crowded. I had very little hope but to my surprise there were not that many people there. I could not believe it, it was actually a pleasent experience and we got to enjoy the fountain for what it was worth and not have to deal with a hundred other people at the same time.  



Naples, Italy 3 nights
The first night in Naples, October 20th, I met Katie, Adam, Huey, and James in the hostel bar. We had several rounds before making our way to the center where everyone hangs out and drinks at night. Once we got to the center I was amazed by the number of people there. Everyone was outside enjoying being outside and drinking. We met a few locals, had a few drinks, and enjoyed everything ourselves before heading back to bed. 
The next morning when I woke up I had trouble opening my right eye...I was not too sure what to think...I then got really itchy everywhere... I got out of bed to go to the bathroom and when I looked in the mirror it looked like I got punched in the face, my forehead just above my right eye had swollen to the size of a baseball! I put two and two together, it had to be bed bugs!! Ahhh! My worst nightmare. I was itchy all over, looked like an alien, and when returning to my room actually found a bed bug on my pillow. 

Here is the embarrassing photo or the bedbug attack...

I went to the reception desk and told them what happened. The guy working had me show him the bed and said he would change the sheets and spray. I didn't want to think about it so went to breakfast got some toast. Adam suggested getting putting ice on it so I did for a bit, I'm not sure if it actually helped but like to think it did. Another guy gave me an antihistamine. I normally don't take any type of medicine when I have any type of issue, I just let my body fight the cold, headache, or whatever the issue might be. However, I was desperate and did not think twice. Huey, James, Adam and I began our day by going to one of the castles in Naples; it gave us an unbeatable view of the city and mount Vesuvius. 

Afterwards, we made our way back to the main part of town where we had pizza for lunch at one of the most popular pizza places and did an underground tour of the city. 

The tour was interesting, we got to see underground passageways and part of the Greek Roman Theater. 

After all of this we made our way back to the hostel and I asked the lady at the reception desk if she could move me to another room after explaining what had happened. The hostel was very large so she moved me to the newer building. I made sure to check my things before moving to my new room so I would not bring any bed bugs with me. That night I was afraid to go to sleep even though I had checked my bed and it appeared to be fine. It was a very restless night of sleep; I woke up about every three hours. Luckily I did not have any new bites the next morning and the swelling around my eye went down a bit. 

That day, October 20th, I hung out with Adam, James, and Huey again; we did a day trip to Pompeii. It was a bigger site than I had expected and interesting to see what an enormous impact that a volcano can induce on a city. 


That evening I met Luciana, a Brazilian girl that was working at the hostel for a couple of weeks. She took us all to dinner at a local place. There was lots of yelling, some broken dishes, and confusion with orders but it was a great meal with a true Napoleon influence. 

On the 21st Luciana took us all to a local beach to swim. The water was amazingly clear with lots of life among the fish and coral. Adam and I swam over to a small island and explored a bit. When we got back to the rest of the group Huey told us that a kind in red shorts almost stole our bags. Apparently, he ran up to our stuff and could have taken anything he wanted but an extremely nice local told him to go away and then told Huey to pay more attention to our things. Needless to say, we got extremely lucky. The guys had rented a car and driven us all to the beach and were heading to Rome that afternoon. Luciana and Max (a bartender) convinced me to stay another day which was pretty easy because I had no plan so the guys dropped us off at the hostel and then made their way to Rome. That evening I made worked on figuring out plans on how to get to Athens and potential stops before hand. I could not find many good options and then talking to the receptionist she helped me find a cheap flight with Ryan air. The down side was I had to backtrack to Rome for the flight but I ended up staying at The Yellow hostel which was where the three Aussies were staying. 

When we were at the beach we also experienced an attempted robbery. We had our bags on shore, Adam and I decided to swim to the island in the above picture while everyone else stayed with the stuff. When we got back Huey said a kid had run up to our bags and could have easily taken them but a local older man yelled at him and told us to watch our stuff better. 

While I am on the topic of getting robbed someone attempted to pick pocket me on a tram that 
was jam packed. I didn't actually see it happen but after I got off the tram realized the zipper pockets on the clip part of my large backpack had been unzipped. Fortunately for me I don't keep anything important in therefor this exact reason! 
 
In spite of the bed bugs, attempted robbery and attempted pick pocket I loved Naples and could not have asked for a better group of people at a time that could have been really bad for me. 


Rome, Italy 1 night
On the 23rd I made my way back to Rome and met up with the guys for dinner. The water at dinner said I looked like a model and  I reminded him of someone famous  . While ordering we made a joke that I only need a piece of lettuce and a couple veggies. I ended up ordering a lasagna and salad which were delicious but as a joke he brought out a plate with two vegetables on it and a piece of lettuce. 



We then drank at the hostel bar. We got two free shots for taking a picture and posting it to Facebook, several beers, and I got a free shot for participating in a dance contest. Quite a night. The next morning I planned on leaving the hostel at 6 to get to the airport at 7 for my flight that boarded at 9. However, after quite an ambitious night of drinking I had a hard time waking up. My bunk mate actually ended up waking me up but it was 7am. I was already supposed to be at the airport!! I thought there was no way in hell I would make my flight. I was so tired and possibly a bit drunk still all I wanted to do was crawl back in bed and sleep for another 8 hours. However, I had already paid for the flight so I had to make an effort to try and get there. I struggled leaving the hostel. First of all I could not find my key to unlock my locker so I went to the front desk to ask for bolt cutters. I cut my lock and was able to get my things packed. The struggle continued when I went to check out I couldn't find my room key so I had to pay 2 euros. I then caught a bus to the airport where by some miracle I made my flight! When I boarded the flight attendant even out me in the first row because he needed a native English speaker in the emergency exit row. I sat next to a window, had loads of leg space, and no one was sitting next to me. Once the wheels were off the ground I was asleep to all of the world and woke up just before landing. I was the first person off of the plane and got my bag right away. I have no idea how this happened but it all worked out perfectly. 


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