07/01/2012
Happy July!
Today we arrived in Naples, which I was expecting to be quite different from how it appeared. Unfortunately with all of the tourism that Naples receives for housing one of the most famous ancient sites in the world, they somehow have managed to let the city itself fall to pieces. There was graffiti on every building and trash covering every inch of the sidewalk. Sorry Naples, I did find your junk slightly charming, but only to a degree... maybe the smell of urine was getting to my head.
I hate to talk smack about any city (unless it's Los Angeles, I have 18 years of smack on Los Angeles), especially one that I only visited for a day, and one that I was truly looking forward to visiting, but I have to admit it was kind of gross. I thought the occasional cigarette butt on the beach was gross.
Regardless of the state of Naples proper, Pompeii was kind of incredible. Although it was quite hot (as it was everywhere else) it was nice to fullfil a childhood dream of mine (and I'm sure a ton of people have the same dream). I finally got to see where a volcano literally stopped life. I remember learning about Pompeii as a young'un and I found it fascinating, and I still do.
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| This is how they crossed the street, because there were floods of... sewage and stuff. |
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| Food Market, and my dad. I thought he was taking a photo of me taking a photo of him, but I was wrong... there is no opposite of this photograph like I'd hoped there would be. |
I also remember my freshman year of college when my art of the western world professor was extremely excited to teach us about the secret sex rooms of Pompeii (oh yes, you though erotic art was so rare.. but not when the brothel is one of the many things they uncovered).
The lemons are kind of huge in Naples.
No I mean they are really huge...
After visiting the ruins, we had some pizza... it was okay... and then we visited the National Archaeological Museum which had quite a fascinating collection. The frescoes were really beautiful (or what is left of them) and I was really inspired to be drawing, but alas my sketchbook was elsewhere so I just took a ton of photographs. The building itself was also quite interesting, one room had extremely high ceilings, and paintings stacked up the walls to the top.
I made decisions about my "sibling relationship" today. I don't understand my brother. I don't think he knows who I am, and I think that's why he acts the way he does towards me. I'm sad because I love my brother and I respect him so much, but I don't think that I can deal with the drama right now. It will be nice to be apart from him for a while.
Tonight was our last night on the ship and we are heading back to Rome to round out the adventure. After visiting so many different places and seeing so many different things, I made another decision about my life. Even though life can be extremely difficult, and sometimes extraordinarily lonely, I'm really glad to say that I can be independent of heart and mind and be okay. That's not to say I'll never fall in love, but I think it will be nice to be with my own heart alone for a little while. I don't think that's too sad.
