When all forms of communication are taken away, it makes you freak out a little when you can't find somebody so the airport meeting was a little stressful for Aub but she prayed and, lo and behold, I was right outside the door waiting for her! We hopped on the AliBus to get to Naples city center, hungry, excited, and ready to see Italy! The drive was a little surprising; dirty streets and crumbling buildings that definitely looked like we were in the ghetto, but I was thinking, "we're going to the city center, no prob. It'll be better." It was not better.
Surprisingly, Naples is a very dirty city! I guess I was just expecting the picturesque "Italy" that everyone dreams about but Naples is not that place! Hahahaha. We wandered around the train station area, found an underground shopping center with giant snail decorations everywhere, found some metro lines, lots of ghetto, and a lot of staring men. Actual staring! It must be an Italian thing. Aubrey and I were joking that we KNOW we are not drop-dead, gorgeous, super-models so the guys can kindly stop staring! It really threw me through a loop. Definitely not used to incessant staring everywhere you go. Restaurants, stores, streets, buses, you name it. Staring.
Well, we settled for a nice looking restaurant right in front of where we were dropped off and, with the zero Italian that we knew, we laughed our way through ordering pizza and spaghetti. Thankfully Italian people are super kind! I literally knew zero Italian aside from food names. And even then, we pronounce everything extremely wrong. But might I say, amazing food!!! My spaghetti was yum, Aubrey's pizza was amazing, and the starters they brought out to us were INCREDIBLE. Best bruschetta I had ever eaten. So delicious!! And the pizzas there are larger than a normal dinner plate size and they are personal pizzas! Huge, cheap, amazingly delicious: remind me why I left again?
After eating, we had thought of picking a random road and going down, trying to see if Naples was more than the ghetto city center we were stuck in. Instantly, two sister missionaries appeared in front of us. I saw the flash of name tags and, without thinking, yelled, "sister missionaries!!!" Pretty sure we freaked them out a bit but they were an answer to our prayers! They advised us to get way out of there once it was dark and that Pozzuoli, where we were couch surfing, is the cutest place ever! Without further ado, we scrapped our Naples plan and immediately went looking for the train that would take us to Pozzuoli (aka the coast!). Italian metros are not as easy Paris metros!!
Going in circles and attempting to find ticket machines and which platform belonged to which train and yadayadayada was quite the experience. We ended up at the only ticket machine we could find, praying it was for metro one and two, and with some hilarious British people behind us trying to figure out the same thing. They had to have been over 50 years old and everything they said was hilarious. "Which way does the bank note go in? Is this up or down?!" They wished us luck, and us them, as we parted ways, ready to take on the underground.
We found metro 2, once again very surprised at the graffiti-covered World War 1 style freight cars (hahaha) that they had and then ended up in Montesanto. A cuter part of Naples, still really dirty and ghetto-ish but cuter nonetheless. The Sister Missionaries taught us one word that was so helpful the rest of our trip : dove. It means "where is...". Goodness, missionaries really are a blessing. After asking "dove Pozzuoli", we found our connecting train and alas, in the ugly old beater freight cars, we made it to the coast. WOOOOOWWWW. The sun was setting perfectly, golden light filling the palm trees and the long grass. The waves crashing over the rocks. The boardwalk, alive with people was floating through the golden light. I was in awe. The Tyrrhenian Sea never looked more lovely. Well, I had never actually seen it but, ya know.
Obviously, I kicked off my shoes and soaked my feet in the Mediterranean! My favorite picture is definitely my fail at trying to be the "cool explorer while also being really weird" pose. Thank you, Aubrey, for pressing the shutter button at the right time!
Now that we had fallen in love with Pozzuoli, we were ready to drop off our stuff and find our couch surf host. We knew what road he lived on so that was easy to find, but we didn't know what building/apartment number! After looking on every buzzer for a "Hunter Cole", all we found were Giussepes and Steffanos. Definitely not American names. Once again, zero communication on my part because of no phone service and no data so the wifi hunt began! Thankfully, the coastal restaurants and cafes were right there so the hunt was no problem. It was the speaking and asking that was! Hahahaha. I walked into a random restaurant and basically repeated "wifi? wifi?" over and over to the guy setting up the tables. Thank heavens he got the message and I just handed him my phone and logged me in. Woo! I messaged Hunter and he met us outside and showed us where to go. His apartment was a total guy apartment: I don't think he had done the dishes in a week, but it was a nice apartment. The best part though? The balcony. Basically the size of his apartment and with a stunning view of the sea. I could have sat out there for the rest of my life. It was a beach front property! Free! And ours for two days! Thank you, Hunter!!
After walking around Pozzuoli again, Aubrey and I went back to Naples to go fetch Emily from the bus drop-off. Since we had a lot of time, we walked down a main street and found some cool market places where I bought my much wanted Italian sun hat! Because, why not! 5 euros later, my head was happy. We went and sat at the bus stop, hoping Emily would find us because, remember, no phone service! Apparently she walked around looking for us and got an Italian cigarette-seller yelling after her, "but ah wait, I love you!"
Wish that was me! A couple pastries later, we were on our way to Pompeii with Mount Vesuvius looming in the not-very-far-off distance.
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