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Tales From Abroad: Italy, and inport for 36 hours
14 years ago
General
Should I rephrase this? Nah, nevermind. It's gonna get misinterpreted anyway.
Well we're inport for a little while again for some quick onload/offload stuff. Our schedule in the immediate future looks like someone went to town on a wall calendar with a paintball gun, but that's not what you're here to hear about I'm sure. Let's get to reminiscing shall we?
All right, so I got to have fun in Italy for a few days and now it's about time to write down how it all went. Italian trains are not nearly as nice as British ones. The ticketing, scheduling, and seating is not nearly as flexible, but they took me to Rome so they got the job done. Some old man helped us get through the train station and we kind of let him because we were having a little trouble. I'll admit that if it weren't for him we probably would've missed the platform change. It was announced in Italian and the time was pretty close. I tipped him a few Euro since I knew that's what he was after. He got really demanding though, he had about seven or eight in change by that point, but he kept asking for more. We kept telling him we were out. I offered him a few dollars saying it was all I had, even though I had plenty of cash. Eventually he took it and went on his way.
There were a lot of beggars and street performers in Rome, I usually gave money to the ones that played music, as they were often remarkably good, and they were grateful for whatever we gave them. Light accordion music fits quite well in an Italian bistro. I also made sure to give 5 Euro to that mime I got in an argument with. He was a good sport.
Our hotel was nice, if a bit small, but everything in Europe is a bit small. Complimentary hotel breakfast in Italy was better than most restaurant breakfasts in America. You could tell they weren't even really trying, they're just that good. Francisco served us breakfast and made Cappuccino like it was his purpose in life. He was really excited when we found out that we were in the Navy, which took a while because he needed one of the other waiters to translate. There was a lot of gestures and mediation involved, but he got the idea. Actually that phrase sums up most of the trip. They say Italians talk with their hands, I guess it's true because they seem to understand "Hand" a lot better than they do English.
I'd recommend the Hotel Alimandi Roma to anyone who finds themselves in the area. The patio had a great view, you could throw a baseball into the Vatican from there. I had a great drink with breakfast, eventually I got it out of Francisco that it was peach juice. I'm really not sure what to say about it. It wasn't sweet so much sweet as it was... just really dense. I had 200mL of it and I could just feel the weight of it in my stomach. It was commercial stuff out of a can, so I imagine that there's better varieties to be had, but I couldn't find any. I bought a pack of four juiceboxes back with me though. Kind of a chore because I have no way to refrigerate them. It takes some time to get it into a cup, but it tastes great on ice.
We spent the day pretty much walking across Rome. It's amazing how much you can see within walking distance. Well, this wasn't really normal walking. We spent something on the order of twelve hours out and about. The Basilica was part of the skyline when I got up high enough to look back at it. We ended up at the Coliseum after hitting just about everything we could on the way. That was a great place to end up, particularly since it was the end of the day and there was a Metro station there.
We had a little trouble working logistics when our train back to Naples was delayed by a few hours. We ended up getting transferred to the Bullet train, which was really cool. It was much nicer, quieter, cleaner, all around a better crowd. Not having to pay 34ish Euros was nice too. I wish I had known that the snacks and wine were free in first class, I would've got some. It was amazingly smooth and scenic for how fast we were going (300KPH!)
We had some trouble making it back to fleet landing because we didn't know the Italian name of the port. I said "Porta del Napoli" and that got us to the waterfront. We ended up walking a little ways, but that was easier than trying to fine-tune it when the cabbie didn't understand us. We got back pretty early compared to our other ports, but that's because some of us had to work the next day, and we were worried about another liberty boat disaster like we had in Cartagena. Someone suggested getting a massage. He may have been joking, but I tried to work that out in Sorrento. It would have been interesting to say the least if we had to tried to talk to a bunch of Korean women that speak broken Italian and no English, but we didn't have time because we were pulling out that night.
Sorrento on the last day still went quite well. I admit it now, there's a very noteworthy difference between the two Euro train and the 26 Euro train. I thought that first class was kind of a gimmick the way it is in America, but the extra cash really made a palpable difference. Still, the cheap subway got me out of Naples without having to take a cab, both of which are good things. We took a few taxies yesterday and they were both a hell of a ride. The roads are in a torrid state of perpetual disaster. Bumper to bumper doesn't even begin to describe it. It's more like bumper-to-side-doors traffic because all the cars are facing different directions. All the cars are impossibly close together and it looks just like random chance that the whole thing doesn't catastrophically fail. And yet, I saw no accidents at the side of the road and very few beat up cars.
I will say that all the drivers appear to navigate this maelstrom with remarkable skill, and travel is quite smooth and efficient for the tremendous volume of traffic that these outmoded roads have on them every day. I guess having a REALLY steep learning curve makes you step up your game a bit. That explains the lack of accidents. This environment forces you to either walk or develop superhuman driving skills.
I'm pretty sure that the alleyway we were going down was narrower than the car we were in, and yet we got around dozens of pedestrians, cyclists and irresponsible moped users just fine. Distracted driving certainly isn't a problem, if you blink too much you'll hit something. They've got a pretty good system too. That trick where the yellow light comes back on to let you know it's about to turn green is brilliant. They've got longass traffic lights in cities just the way we do, but these ones actually take a moment to tell you when you should start paying attention again.
Anyway, we made it to Pompeii and explored it for quite some time. It's a lot bigger than I thought it was. When you hear that it was an entire city buried under ash and cinders, it doesn't really register what scale they mean by ENTIRE city. The better part of a day spent there netted us less than half of the city proper. I got a ton of great photos. I've been getting better at this panorama function, even though it's useless in bright sunlight. I was surprised to see that the $700 Canon and $950 Nikon that my friends had didn't have anything like it.
I got all the best shots when I was climbing up on top of the ruins. There was probably a sign somewhere that said to not do that, but it was in Italian so I couldn't read it. While I was up there, someone saw me and waved, they said something in Italian and I thought I was in trouble, but then he held up his camera and passed it to me. It was a really nice professional one too. I took a few shots for him and he seemed to appreciate it. Then he scolded his kids for trying to follow me up there. I felt bad for giving them bad ideas and helped them down. I was uneasy about picking up someone else's kid, but he didn't mind one bit. He even thanked me and shook my hand. It was then that I remembered how Europeans don't have legions of deviant predators roaming the streets to make parents cower in fear of anyone they haven't done an exhaustive background check of. It's a nice atmosphere really.
We didn't get a lot of time in Sorrento, but it was still a beautiful town. We stopped at a wine shop where I once again felt completely bewildered. I found a bottle of wine that was so expensive I got in trouble for taking a picture of it. It was something on the order of 450 Euro, so maybe... $600? And it was just sitting out there on the shelf. I asked my standard questions, "What do you recommend?" immediately followed by "What do you recommend for someone who has 45 Euro left?"
We stopped at a beautiful restaurant that we found back in the alleyways. That's where the good places are. All the cheap, touristy places are on the mainroads. Of course all the English is on the mainroads too... we got lucky with this one though. I got a few pictures of it, I think. It was really hard to photograph. The place had scaffolding ceilings and walls that were covered with Ivy and other vines. The sun filtering through it was beautiful, but made it tough to capture on film. Well, not film, you know what I mean. Now I feel old. I hope some of those come out all right.
We had some good food and I got a shot of Lemoncello to try because my friend bought a bottle and none of us had ever had it before. I read the ingredients off the bottle: Alcohol, sugar, and lemon zest. That's it. Not even water. The word that they used for 'alcohol' translates as 'hydrolyzed alcohol' so I guess that's how it's 75 proof and not 170ish. It was pretty intense. Kind of like being punched in the throat by a Sweet Tart. I'm glad I sipped it and didn't try to slam it like a stupid American. Though I am going to advise some stupid Americans to take shots of it when I get back.
We got back to fleet landing in good time, putting us ahead of a lot of people. We still experienced a lot of the usual Navy delays though. The Italian X-ray machine was just two guys that rifle through your luggage. While I was in line I got to fiddle with the language barrier some more with a few Italian MPs that wanted to borrow my pen. It was a good last night ashore, nothing crazy, but it still got me away from work. We'll be out for some time now, but at least I'll be able to do laundry again.
I got a card from my Grandma in time for my birthday. When she said "Happy #22" it took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about. The passage of time is just such a non-event out here. It really started to feel like a kiriban somewhere along the way. Just a frivolous celebration based on numbers. You know, car odometers, ten-thousandth visitor to this site, that kind of thing. That's kind of how birthdays underway feel. It was still nice to get a few kudos though. My spec. duty in Training Department has made me part of a much tighter-knit group than Reactor was. I think that supply is hosting a special dinner for all the June birthdays soon. I'd best look into that so I don't miss it.
All right, so I got to have fun in Italy for a few days and now it's about time to write down how it all went. Italian trains are not nearly as nice as British ones. The ticketing, scheduling, and seating is not nearly as flexible, but they took me to Rome so they got the job done. Some old man helped us get through the train station and we kind of let him because we were having a little trouble. I'll admit that if it weren't for him we probably would've missed the platform change. It was announced in Italian and the time was pretty close. I tipped him a few Euro since I knew that's what he was after. He got really demanding though, he had about seven or eight in change by that point, but he kept asking for more. We kept telling him we were out. I offered him a few dollars saying it was all I had, even though I had plenty of cash. Eventually he took it and went on his way.
There were a lot of beggars and street performers in Rome, I usually gave money to the ones that played music, as they were often remarkably good, and they were grateful for whatever we gave them. Light accordion music fits quite well in an Italian bistro. I also made sure to give 5 Euro to that mime I got in an argument with. He was a good sport.
Our hotel was nice, if a bit small, but everything in Europe is a bit small. Complimentary hotel breakfast in Italy was better than most restaurant breakfasts in America. You could tell they weren't even really trying, they're just that good. Francisco served us breakfast and made Cappuccino like it was his purpose in life. He was really excited when we found out that we were in the Navy, which took a while because he needed one of the other waiters to translate. There was a lot of gestures and mediation involved, but he got the idea. Actually that phrase sums up most of the trip. They say Italians talk with their hands, I guess it's true because they seem to understand "Hand" a lot better than they do English.
I'd recommend the Hotel Alimandi Roma to anyone who finds themselves in the area. The patio had a great view, you could throw a baseball into the Vatican from there. I had a great drink with breakfast, eventually I got it out of Francisco that it was peach juice. I'm really not sure what to say about it. It wasn't sweet so much sweet as it was... just really dense. I had 200mL of it and I could just feel the weight of it in my stomach. It was commercial stuff out of a can, so I imagine that there's better varieties to be had, but I couldn't find any. I bought a pack of four juiceboxes back with me though. Kind of a chore because I have no way to refrigerate them. It takes some time to get it into a cup, but it tastes great on ice.
We spent the day pretty much walking across Rome. It's amazing how much you can see within walking distance. Well, this wasn't really normal walking. We spent something on the order of twelve hours out and about. The Basilica was part of the skyline when I got up high enough to look back at it. We ended up at the Coliseum after hitting just about everything we could on the way. That was a great place to end up, particularly since it was the end of the day and there was a Metro station there.
We had a little trouble working logistics when our train back to Naples was delayed by a few hours. We ended up getting transferred to the Bullet train, which was really cool. It was much nicer, quieter, cleaner, all around a better crowd. Not having to pay 34ish Euros was nice too. I wish I had known that the snacks and wine were free in first class, I would've got some. It was amazingly smooth and scenic for how fast we were going (300KPH!)
We had some trouble making it back to fleet landing because we didn't know the Italian name of the port. I said "Porta del Napoli" and that got us to the waterfront. We ended up walking a little ways, but that was easier than trying to fine-tune it when the cabbie didn't understand us. We got back pretty early compared to our other ports, but that's because some of us had to work the next day, and we were worried about another liberty boat disaster like we had in Cartagena. Someone suggested getting a massage. He may have been joking, but I tried to work that out in Sorrento. It would have been interesting to say the least if we had to tried to talk to a bunch of Korean women that speak broken Italian and no English, but we didn't have time because we were pulling out that night.
Sorrento on the last day still went quite well. I admit it now, there's a very noteworthy difference between the two Euro train and the 26 Euro train. I thought that first class was kind of a gimmick the way it is in America, but the extra cash really made a palpable difference. Still, the cheap subway got me out of Naples without having to take a cab, both of which are good things. We took a few taxies yesterday and they were both a hell of a ride. The roads are in a torrid state of perpetual disaster. Bumper to bumper doesn't even begin to describe it. It's more like bumper-to-side-doors traffic because all the cars are facing different directions. All the cars are impossibly close together and it looks just like random chance that the whole thing doesn't catastrophically fail. And yet, I saw no accidents at the side of the road and very few beat up cars.
I will say that all the drivers appear to navigate this maelstrom with remarkable skill, and travel is quite smooth and efficient for the tremendous volume of traffic that these outmoded roads have on them every day. I guess having a REALLY steep learning curve makes you step up your game a bit. That explains the lack of accidents. This environment forces you to either walk or develop superhuman driving skills.
I'm pretty sure that the alleyway we were going down was narrower than the car we were in, and yet we got around dozens of pedestrians, cyclists and irresponsible moped users just fine. Distracted driving certainly isn't a problem, if you blink too much you'll hit something. They've got a pretty good system too. That trick where the yellow light comes back on to let you know it's about to turn green is brilliant. They've got longass traffic lights in cities just the way we do, but these ones actually take a moment to tell you when you should start paying attention again.
Anyway, we made it to Pompeii and explored it for quite some time. It's a lot bigger than I thought it was. When you hear that it was an entire city buried under ash and cinders, it doesn't really register what scale they mean by ENTIRE city. The better part of a day spent there netted us less than half of the city proper. I got a ton of great photos. I've been getting better at this panorama function, even though it's useless in bright sunlight. I was surprised to see that the $700 Canon and $950 Nikon that my friends had didn't have anything like it.
I got all the best shots when I was climbing up on top of the ruins. There was probably a sign somewhere that said to not do that, but it was in Italian so I couldn't read it. While I was up there, someone saw me and waved, they said something in Italian and I thought I was in trouble, but then he held up his camera and passed it to me. It was a really nice professional one too. I took a few shots for him and he seemed to appreciate it. Then he scolded his kids for trying to follow me up there. I felt bad for giving them bad ideas and helped them down. I was uneasy about picking up someone else's kid, but he didn't mind one bit. He even thanked me and shook my hand. It was then that I remembered how Europeans don't have legions of deviant predators roaming the streets to make parents cower in fear of anyone they haven't done an exhaustive background check of. It's a nice atmosphere really.
We didn't get a lot of time in Sorrento, but it was still a beautiful town. We stopped at a wine shop where I once again felt completely bewildered. I found a bottle of wine that was so expensive I got in trouble for taking a picture of it. It was something on the order of 450 Euro, so maybe... $600? And it was just sitting out there on the shelf. I asked my standard questions, "What do you recommend?" immediately followed by "What do you recommend for someone who has 45 Euro left?"
We stopped at a beautiful restaurant that we found back in the alleyways. That's where the good places are. All the cheap, touristy places are on the mainroads. Of course all the English is on the mainroads too... we got lucky with this one though. I got a few pictures of it, I think. It was really hard to photograph. The place had scaffolding ceilings and walls that were covered with Ivy and other vines. The sun filtering through it was beautiful, but made it tough to capture on film. Well, not film, you know what I mean. Now I feel old. I hope some of those come out all right.
We had some good food and I got a shot of Lemoncello to try because my friend bought a bottle and none of us had ever had it before. I read the ingredients off the bottle: Alcohol, sugar, and lemon zest. That's it. Not even water. The word that they used for 'alcohol' translates as 'hydrolyzed alcohol' so I guess that's how it's 75 proof and not 170ish. It was pretty intense. Kind of like being punched in the throat by a Sweet Tart. I'm glad I sipped it and didn't try to slam it like a stupid American. Though I am going to advise some stupid Americans to take shots of it when I get back.
We got back to fleet landing in good time, putting us ahead of a lot of people. We still experienced a lot of the usual Navy delays though. The Italian X-ray machine was just two guys that rifle through your luggage. While I was in line I got to fiddle with the language barrier some more with a few Italian MPs that wanted to borrow my pen. It was a good last night ashore, nothing crazy, but it still got me away from work. We'll be out for some time now, but at least I'll be able to do laundry again.
I got a card from my Grandma in time for my birthday. When she said "Happy #22" it took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about. The passage of time is just such a non-event out here. It really started to feel like a kiriban somewhere along the way. Just a frivolous celebration based on numbers. You know, car odometers, ten-thousandth visitor to this site, that kind of thing. That's kind of how birthdays underway feel. It was still nice to get a few kudos though. My spec. duty in Training Department has made me part of a much tighter-knit group than Reactor was. I think that supply is hosting a special dinner for all the June birthdays soon. I'd best look into that so I don't miss it.
ParsonHogheadeJr
~lohfrum
"Punched in the throat by a sweet tart" lol <3
