Naples

Well, this has been going by really fast... July’s halfway over? Huh? I’ll take the half-full approach, and be glad that there’s still over a month left in this thing. Rounding the coast of Greece as we speak (though it’s extremely muggy/humid, so can’t really see it on the horizon), and I’ve got a lot of catch-up blogging and emailing to do. On the bright side, I’ve been doing well enough on my assignments so far that I hopefully won’t be killing myself later on to pull grades up. Things are looking good as of now.

First up, Naples.

Let me preface this by saying that many students on the ship were deadset on getting out of Naples ASAP- based on testimonies that it’s dirty, unsafe, smells bad, nothing to do, etc. Basically, the most common advice from people who had been before was to get a pizza (Naples is the birthplace for pizza), then get outta there. However, I really ended up being a fan of Naples. I won’t deny that it’s dirty- that would be a lie. But stories of trash piled up in the streets were definitely exaggerated. But Italy in general is much rougher than how people picture it, with a surprising amount of graffiti and litter (unless you’re in the Tuscan countryside or something). The city is poorly managed, with many roads and buildings never seeming to get built or fixed. Behind the dirty facades, though, there are many surprises. I had a couple preplanned day trips through SAS to Pompeii and Capri, but I still had time to explore the city itself.

The coolest part was venturing out on our own in small groups. Since so many people had already left to venture off to other more glamorous cities, the few and the proud who were going to stick around for the full three days got to see a lot of the nearby area. Armed with only a very mediocre map of the area near the port, three friends and I got to wandering.

Our first experience with Italian pizza was interesting, to say the least. After being flagged by a waiter standing in the middle of the street bearing his restaurant’s menu, we were sold. He led us over to the restaurant, which was pretty much empty except for a couple people inside and a table of five young German guys (one of the few times so far that the only foreign language I know has come in handy). Pizzas only come in one size in authentic places, which is something like 14 inches (and for just 6 Euros!). So after deciding on a couple different kinds to split between the four of us, the waiter asked us (in Italian) if we’d like to have Antipasti (appetizer)- perhaps some bruschetta, mozzarella, prosciutto, or garlic knots. We agreed on bruschetta- or at least we thought we did. After a few minutes, the waiter brought out two expected baskets of bruschetta, followed shortly by two plates of mozzarella and prosciutto, and then again by two more plates containing garlic knots. So there we sat, somewhat confused and pretty amused by the 6 heaping plates of appetizers in front of us, for what was originally going to be a light lunch. Luckily we were hungry, and able to eat most of it. The pizza (prosciutto and mozzarella) was excellent, as expected, and although all the extra appetizers pumped up the price quite a bit, Italian food never comes with regrets.

After letting the carb explosion we had just eaten digest a bit, we picked a street and just kept walking. The “touristy” area doesn’t extend very far into the city at all- within five minutes of walking it quickly became very residential, the streets dotted by small local stores and markets, and balconies with their clotheslines stretching across the narrow alleys like jungle vines. Kids running around playing soccer, a mom aggressively teaching her son to ride with training wheels, a group of old men in their open foyer playing cards and smoking… little glimpses of real life that are nonexistent in La Rambla of Barcelona, for instance. Considering that I knew I would be spending the next couple of days visiting very busy tourist spots, it was cool just to get lost and take in everything that was going on.

To be fair, Saturday and Sunday were nice to walk around, but Monday was insanely crowded and traffic-filled (most of the city's working population commutes to work during the week, and live in the suburbs). If it was like that every day, my opinion would probably be a little less positive. Even designated tourist spots, like the Royal Palace of Regina Margherita, were desolate. Pretty eerie to wander around such a huge palace essentially alone.

Every building looks about 3 times as old as it really is- with crumbling facades, graffiti all over literally everywhere (trashy looking graffiti, not artistic, well-done graffiti like in Barcelona), and plants growing on roofs/everywhere they shouldn't be. But the inside of buildings is always immaculate. One cathedral, an ugly rusty yellow on the outside, drew me and a few friends inside just because its doors were open. No admission fee, only one person inside, and absolutely stunningly ornate. Why was nobody in this place?? Really made me realize that everywhere has something to offer, even if it initially seems like a dump on the surface. Only freely exploring- not behind a tour guide with an earbud crammed in your head- will get you to the center of a place.

My two day trips in Naples were to Pompei on the first day, and the island of Capri on the second. I was truly shocked by the size of Pompei. I always pictured a small little village that got steamrolled by Vesuvius, which I guess is understandable given my preconceived notions of the place were pretty much entirely based off of a few pictures and the ride Escape From Pompeii at Busch Gardens. But this was a city of around 25,000 (pretty large for 2000 years ago). And contrary to what I always thought. It was a sort of resort village for traveling merchants and residents of Naples. It has everything from public baths to a coliseum to three amphitheaters to fast food joints (not even kidding). And brothels- lots and lots of brothels (40, compared to the 32 food vendors they've discovered). We went inside one, and let's just say it wasn't a cozy place. Very descriptive frescoes still remain on the walls, and the stone beds (to keep the noise down) are still in their doorless rooms. There are stray dogs all over the place there- maybe direct descendants of dogs from back then? Apparently many of them ran off before the big 79 AD eruption, since animals are smart like that. The famous molds of victims were infinitely creepier than I imagined. No organic material from the eruption remains, but there were cavities left in the ash from where bodies were when they were killed. Starting in the 19^th century, they filled those with plaster, making perfect molds, and it's really a sad sight to see. People down on their backs, hands covering their faces, not able to do anything. And very detailed! Teeth, skull, fingers, even the protrusion of a belt around a waist- I was expecting just a very basic humanesque figure, but these molds really look like actual people. Oh yeah, forgot to mention their plumbing system. They had running water (smart), which was unfortunately running through lead pipes (not so smart). So as a result of this, Pompeians were only about 4 feet tall. Maybe that has something to do with why so many Italians are on the short side, even today.

Capri was the expensive, crowded, winding-road island town that I envisioned. It has tons of boutique shops (Prada, Gucci, etc etc), lots of lemon-product vendors (lemoncello liquor, lemon chocolate, lemon decorations), and a surprising number of very wealthy permanent residents (plus some celebs with seasonal homes there). Even though the population triples every day when counting the tourists like myself that come in, there's still about 10,000 or so that call Capri home. First we took a boat ride around the island, staring up at its towering limestone cliffs (and the villas perched on top of them) and sapphire blue water. The beaches are rocky, but that's usually the case in Europe so not too surprising. Unfortunately, the water level was too high for us to go inside the Blue Grotto (cue google images), but honestly I was more than happy with what we could see. Then, we got on a tiny tour bus (literally looked like a normal sized bus cut in half) and climbed up to the much higher town of Anacapri, passing by the famous Mamma Mia Road, which goes inches away from a 150 or so meter drop. Way worse than the Blue Ridge Mtns. As we rounded the bend and the cliff wall on the right side dropped off, I couldn’t even speak- just pressed my face up against the huge bus windows. At the top of the island, we got off the bus and we took a 1.5km chairlift ride to the highest point, which overlooks something like 300 meters straight down. I'm not good with metric conversion either, but it's definitely the most impressive height I've ever been (short of an airplane). The yachts, swimming tourists, and swirling white seagulls way below looked like little miniatures in a diorama. Couldn't get enough of it. During the few hours we had to roam the island on our own, a couple friends and I kept following the main residential road up the mountain, cutback after cutback. Eventually we were VERY high up, and with time running out, decided to ask someone if it was worth it to continue on. Apparently we had gotten within 15 minutes of the Natural Arc, which we saw from the boat (on the opposite side of the island from where we began). Fueled with adrenaline, we hoofed it just a bit farther to the top, then down the other side. Finally, we were greeted by the very impressively large geological formation. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for the extremely steep hike down to the water- in fact, we had to jog back the way we came, trying as best as we could to retrace our footsteps through the winding confusing main streets. With seconds to spare, we made it back to the group just as they were preparing to leave the meeting spot to go to lunch. Lunch was very much appreciated after that hot, hilly run.

Whew. I don’t know what was more tiring: running around Capri or typing all of this up!

 

Civitavecchia, Florence, and Rome to come…

 

 

 

 

 

 

        

Belated Barcelona

I'm in Napoli as I write this, because I've been too busy to update this thing as planned. So here goes:

Well, Barcelona is in the past now, and it was a whirlwind. Unlike many students who went to Ibiza (the world headquarters for house music and outrageous clubs) for most of our four days in Spain, I remained in the city of Barcelona the whole time. Even still, there’s plenty that
I didn’t get to do, though I feel like I had a very productive few days there.

The first day, everyone was beyond stoked just to be back on land, especially when that land is Spain- the land of sangria, jamon (amazingly tasty regional thin-sliced ham, similar in taste to VA ham) and olivas (flavorful and un-salty, not like in the States). The Explorer was docked in the closest non-industrial slip, but getting out of the port on foot was still a 35-40 minute journey through the port and over a huge bridge. Thankfully, shuttles came periodically for those times when we wanted to save ourselves from extra walking. The first people were allowed to disembark the ship at 8am, and I was supposed to be part of that group along with a handful of others. However, we got separated in the chaos, and I ended up going out with just one other (which was fine by me). It didn’t take long for us to find the rest of the group, though, who was already halfway through their churros con chocolate y caffee at a place on La Rambla (the main strip that cuts through the entire city- also a HUGE tourist area, with hawkers, pickpockets, and street performers). Concerning that bit in the parentheses, the prices for pretty much everything on La Rambla apart from knockoff Armani sunglasses and cheap Flamenco fans are astronomical. Everyone I spoke to had an experience where they ate somewhere in that area and paid ridiculous prices- and one time was enough to get the point across that La Rambla is a place to avoid. After we finished our churros, we decided to hit as many of the local landmarks as possible early on, so we would be free to wander the rest of the time. Our wandering led us to the main square, where protesters were camped out in the trees and in the plaza itself. Statues and signed were draped with cloth banners covered in anti-government slogans and slurs (unemployment is at close to 20%, and many major programs are being cut). Most people were wary of this angsty atmosphere, but in all honesty, the people there were more than happy for us to walk through and see what’s really happening in the city.

Antonio Gaudi is the man behind many of the picturesque structures of Barcelona, including la Sagrada Familia (recently consecrated but still a work in progress for 10 to 20 more years), Casa Batlla, and Parque Guell. In light of my lack of picture-posting capabilities, feel free to google those spots to get an idea. Barcelona is a very big city, but it differs from most in that the majority of its buildings are unique in appearance, and in excellent condition. On top of that, you just kind of stumble across various examples of Gaudi architecture as you walk around- something that doesn’t happen normally.

Parque Guell was the most difficult destination to find, despite our trek being cut in half by hopping on the graciously inexpensive Metro (which transforms from pristine and bright to old and dingy as you ride further north). But, as it usually goes, “hard to find” just means it’s all the more fulfilling when you get there. After asking for directions from a couple locals who were happy to help (albeit en Espanol) and climbing up a winding Los Angeles-esque incline for about 45 minutes, we arrived to the best free view in the city. Originally built as a park for the upper class nearly a century ago, it’s now a free public park that’s frequented by visitors to the city. Definitely the high point of what we saw, literally and figuratively.    

They say Barcelona is a walking town, and that’s definitely a true statement- if I lived there, I’d go through shoes like I was a marathon runner. We were able to get to nearly all of the big “spots” just by walking. It’s amazing how quickly your body gets accustomed to not relying on car or bus. Barca would be incredibly fun on bike (with spacious bike lanes on all sidewalks), the preferred option of the city’s grungy hipster contingent, but unfortunately the bikesharing program is for locals only. Since we were walking everywhere, it was easy to wander into areas that were 100% free of tourists. In fact, most of the city was this way, apart from La Rambla, the main landmarks, and the harbor. In order to find good, cheap food, all one has to do it walk 3 or 4 blocks away from the main drag and you’ll be dining on tapas y sangria for as little as 8 Euro. Not to mention the fresh ham and cheese sandwiches (Bocatto con jamon y queso) from La Boqureia market are only 3 Euro and AMAZING. Except for during daily Siesta (from 3 to 5ish), Barcelonans are always on the go so there are many awesome sandwich spots all around, especially in the gothic quarter. For two of the nights, the groups I was with ate at small local places where we were the only Americans. Our waiter was originally from Argentina, so he knew a bit of English as well as the “American Spanish” that we speak. A few locals at the restaurant, H3, spoke to us about different places to go, informing us that the Razmatazz was closed because it was a Tuesday (most of the other students on the ship had been planning on going to this nightlife hotspot- just how many of them showed up to it only to be greeted by locked doors is a mystery to me). 

Speaking of nightlife: it’s like a college weekend on steroids. Every day of the week, dinner isn’t until at least 9 (more often 10), followed by bars until clubs open at 12 and raging until as late as 6. What's more, many of the clubs are on the boardwalk of the beach, so many people hang out on the beach until daybreak. Even on the final night when I did stay out until closing time(Kaskade DJed at Opium Mar, and many people from the ship went), I recovered perfectly and was 100% after a modest amount of sleep. To do it for a handful of days is one thing, but I can’t imagine being a 20-something in Barca and doing that several days a week, every week. It’d be awesome, but I’d probably die.

This post is really poorly written, and all over the place, but my point is: Barcelona is awesome. I would absolutely study here, or maybe even live (if I ever learn Spanish/Catalan, anyway). This experience was much MUCH better than my last visit three years ago, which was spent mostly inside the bubble of a tour bus, staring through glass at places that I was actually able to explore this time around.