Dreams really do come true.

In the 6th grade we watched a documentary on Pompeii, a city south of Rome that was literally frozen in time when Vesuvius erupted and coated the city it hot ash. Pompeii is one of the worlds greatest treasures because it was left un touched for so long and so much of the city was preserved hundreds of years later. Well after this documentary I was bound and determined to visit the city someday. I have had two classics classes, and 3 art history classes, so it was a goal of mine to get there on this trip and yesterday and today, I did.
Megan went of to London this weekend to visit some family friends of her's who live there so Anicka want to give her host mom a break so she wanted to go somewhere too. Since I didn't go anywhere new over my break she asked me if I wanted to join her. Originally she was thinking Spain but we both decided Pompeii would be cheaper and something the two of us really wanted to see more.
Because we booked train tickets through the travel agent it came down to about 102 euro a piece round trip. I booked the tickets on my credit card, so since I got them together we got a two for one deal where it was 68 euro for the two of us to go one way economy, and then 68 euro each going home in first class (normally its 68 euro both ways. So we got a pretty good deal) Anicka took care of the hotel. She found one that was 50 euro's for the night and a ten minute walk from the ruins. They sent her step by step directions on how to get from the train station to the hotel, and a list of things to see. When we got there, not only was everyone there incredibly helpful and kind, but they also told us a couple of things to do since we were there for 24 hours. On top of being cheep, the hotel was CLEAN (I sound like my mother. Thank you mother.) It was so so so clean, and new, and they ended up putting us in a family room with a queen sized bed and two small twins because our room wasn't ready but this one was (no extra charge). The complementary breakfast was delicious, and they held our bags for us today after check out.
We took the train from Florence to Naples then we took a local train from Naples to Pompeii. Anicak and I are here to tell you Naples is every bit as sketch as they tell you. Actually that is not a fair assumption of the city, but the local train station for sure is. Napoli Central is sheak and clean and new like the Venice train station. But when you go down stairs to take a local train it quickly gets grungy and dark with nasty graffiti everywhere that leaves you watching each others back and holding onto your wallet and passport.We stuck together and just watched each others backs and we were fine.
Then our local train came in. It was rickety, covered in graffiti and didn't smell the cleanest. But it got us all the way to Pompeii, we got off at the right stop and found our hotel no problem. The biggest piece of advice I can give you about Naples and Pompeii is just to be smart. The two of us dressed way down (t shirts and jeans, no jewelry) and we stuck together. We kept to populated areas but we didn't get caught in crowds.
We unpacked, freshened up a bit, ate really awesome goat cheese, pesto and sun-dried tomato and olive sandwiches that Anicka had made the night before, and then we hit the ruins.
The ruins were beyond cool and I could not have dreamed them up in my wildest dreams despite having seen so many pictures of them. It was un believably humbling to stand on a city that had been so rich in culture and history and met such an untimely end to a volcanic eruption.
After running around the ruins for two hours, making friends with stray dogs, and taking a gazillion pictures, we shut down a bit exhausted from our travels (we left Florence at 6:50 am which means we were both up at 5 so we could get ready and get to the station in time to make the train.) We went back to our room, rested a bit before hunting down a grocery store to round out some dinner. 4.50 euros got us loaves of bread, pesto, turkey for me and cheese for Anicka, and some tomatoes for a light dinner. We had brought wine with us (which was a great life choice since it was a euro cheaper in Florence than in Pompeii and Florence had a way better selection.) We forced ourselves to stay up until 10 so we would sleep through the whole night. We watched some Italian TV, Lizzie McGuire, a wedding dress fashion show, getting progressively more punch drunk as the night grew later and we got more and more tired. At 9:45 we quit staying up, figuring we would risk waking up at 7 am just so we could sleep. My head hit the pillow and I remember no more until this morning when our alarm went off at 8 am.
After a delicious breakfast of pastries, coffee, tea and some fresh fruit, Anicka and I climbed the bell tower of the church in Pompeii at the suggestion of our hotel. It was 2 euro to take an elevator to the top to see all of Pompeii. It was absolutely a breath taking sight and one of my favorites from this trip.
Our train didnt leave until 2:51 from Naples, so that meant we didn't have to leave Pompeii until 1:30 so we went to the market by the ruins to shop. Pompeii being close to the sea has all the camios I fell in love with when my parents were here, made from shells and coral from the coast. They also have a lot of lava rock jewelry. Anicka got a really pretty pare of lava stone earrings and I found my camio-a ring made of silver and a shell. They vendor I got it from gave it to me for 20 euro because I came back to his stand (it was originally 25 euro and if its from a big shop rather than a family owned stand they are apparently double that.) I'm not sure if he's entirely telling the truth or not, but he was the nicest and least pushy of the vendors and he had nice work (and he wasn't saying "Ah, pretty price for a pretty ginger!" We told him we were looking, he gave us his schpeel and he mostly left us alone. So I was comfortable buying from him.)
After shopping we still had some time to kill so we sat down to have a drink at a bar. Cocktails were 5 euro and we decided to sit down. Well the waitress brought our drinks along with some hors d'oeuvres which we didn't order. We weren't hungry enough for lunch so we just decided to go with it-we were on vacation. Our drinks were delicious and refreshing and the hors d'oeuvres were yummy and when we went to pay for our bill we had a pleasant surprise of a bill of only ten euro! No sit down fee or food fee!
So we were just happy. We had had a great 2 days, the food was basically free, our train into Naples was much less sketch than when we had arrived, we were safe, we had seen one of our dreams come true.
Then our local train stopped. And stayed stopped for like 20 minutes. Now we were cutting it close to possibly missing out train in Naples to get back home to Florence. And while I'm fidgeting and getting nervous and Anicka is telling me not to worry we pull our out ticket and realize that our train does not leave at 2:51, it left at 2. And we were stuck on a train and it was 2:20 somewhere in between Pompeii and Naples.  And it was my fault because I had looked at the arrival time and read the minutes not the whole time so whether the train had stopped randomly or not, we would have missed our train.
Anicak shrugged. "There is nothing we can do now." She said "We are stuck on a train. When we get to Naples, we'll go to train Italia and make it their problem because we are stuck here. As far as they are concerned we missed it by sitting here." Which to be fare, if we had been on the earlier train and we had just stopped like this we would have missed the train too-we were waiting for 20 minutes or so.
Finally our train moved and pulled into the station. We got up to Napoli Central and we found someone to help us and we told him we missed our train and rather than dealing with frazzled, freaking out American girls, he just looked up a new train time, authorized our ticket and sent us on our way.
We still road home first class and we got free snacks like when you are on an air plane.
The trip was an epic success and Anicka and I could not be happier with our adventure. We made it there and back in one piece, safe and sound, nothing stolen or missing for about 150 euros each (plus the 20 we both spent on souvenirs, so 170 euros.) A bit of a pricey weekend but this is my last weekend to travel and it was well worth it to achieve one of my dreams that I've had since the 6th grade.