russia: vladivostok

While Claire, Angela and I were spending our last moments together in a coffee shop in Irkutsk, we ended up planning out our entire May holidays. It only took about 10 minutes to sort it all out. Actually making the bookings for everything took longer and happened later, but the initial plan was sorted out pretty quickly. All we used were a map, a guidebook, and our phones. Thankfully, all three of us had the holidays, and they were at the same time.

We started in Vladivostok. It's one of the easternmost cities in Russia, pretty much as far as you can go. 

Vladivostok is at the end of the traditional Trans Siberian railway, which takes a week to follow if you board the train in Moscow. Or you can drive, which will take you over 9000 kilometers, and at least 120 hours of driving time.

In other words, Vladivostok is in a different world from Moscow.

Vladivostok has over 600,000 residents, and for most of its history was part of China, or at least the various dynasties that ruled what is now China. Russia only took control of the area after the signing of the Treaty of Beijing in 1860. Due to several things, Vladivostok didn't become part of what is now Russia for quite a while, not until October of 1922.

Our flights left Friday evening from Moscow, took 8.5 hours, and landed in Vladivostok in the rain. Vladivostok is on the eastern coast of Russia, and is 7 (or 8?) hours ahead of Moscow in time. We arrived to rain, wind, and cold, which we didn't love, of course.

It was easy to catch an aeroexpress train into the city, which wasn't express at all. It made a number of stops along the way, but at least we got to the city center in less than an hour. We got off the train to find the very end of the (probably annual) Labour Day parade. Does Moscow have such a parade? 

We saw sailors walking away after they were done marching, and in my head I made fun of them as I've always heard soldiers make fun of sailors marching.

First stop was dropping our bags off at our accomodation, since we were too early to check in. Not too far from the hostel was a pie shop, of course I directed the girls there for a before lunch snack ;)

Fun fact about Vladivostok, Yul Brynner was born there as Yuliy Borisovich Brynner in 1920.

There is a statue of the guy in front of the building where he lived, but you don't get to go inside to look around. 

I don't know who he is, but Claire and Angela were happy to learn this.

As I was waiting for the girls to finish with photos around Yul, I realized we were close to a Lenin statue, so we walked there next. We almost always take team photos with the man, this was a chance to knock that off the list. Or so I thought. As we got there, we found a Labour Day rally, complete with flags that had Lenin and Stalin faces on them. Instead of a team photo I took a few of the rally, and we chose to come back later. If I understood more Russian I would've stayed longer, to listen to some of the speeches. 

Vladivostok is built on hills, so you can either see the water, or are in the middle of a whole bunch of buildings. Since the city is far more important to the navy than Moscow is, it was a different type of military atmosphere, if that makes sense.

Next up we headed toward the port area. There are commercial, shipping, and naval boats there, it's neat to see all of them. From where we were standing, we could see a bridge, but it was half covered by low hanging clouds. Very photogenic.

One street back from the port is a S-56 submarine museum. It's small, and a mix of what has happened in the area as well as the military exploits of the Russian Navy. 

The random tourists that entered before us kept slowing everything down by taking tons of posed photos, there wasn't enough room for anyone to go around them. Sigh.

The submarine is next to a war memorial, with lots of names carved into plaques.

Also nearby is a small victory arch, named for St Nicholas. Go figure, as we arrived, a group of Chinese women were all having photos taken with the arch, so we had a hard time taking a photo of just the arch. They were all dressed in their version of 'on trend' including short skirts and ugly sandals, which made us laugh.

We did take a team photo at a 'statue' of Neptune/Poseidon, as there was no one else around. King of the Sea, so it makes sense for Vladivostok.

One of the more interesting sounding sights listed online was a sea cucumber museum, we headed there next. It was a long walk, longer than anticipated. Whoops. It wasn't a museum at all, rather a store for Asian customers with 'health' items. There was one room with sea cucumbers in tanks, but all of them were dead and moldy!!! Yuck. Apparently this city used to be the place to come for sea cucumber medicine and ginseng items.

The best part of the museum was the shop next door, called 7-12. Too funny.

I couldn't convince the girls to walk back to the city center, (probably because it was raining,) so we called a taxi, which was cheap and fast. Dinner was at an Indian restaurant which was only mediocre.

It was a short walk from dinner to a small beach area. I don't think people come to this beach to hang out on the sand, there was a small amusement park and a few seafood restaurants.We took photos of the nice sunset and city sign, then got snacks at a small store, then went home.

The hostel in which we stayed was a capsule hostel, so each of us had our own little pod. We had control over lighting and air conditioning, though we couldn't completely turn off the lights. Argh.

The next morning we checked out then went back to the pie place for breakfast. They had a number of pie choices, both sweet and savory, as well as sandwiches so this worked for all of us. It was hard for me to stick to one piece of pie, I ended up with red fruit. When it comes to pie, I always want more. 

When we'd made the booking in the hostel, they only had room for us for one night, but we were staying in the city for two nights, so we made another booking, in a flat. We took a bus to the flat, only for me to realize I'd marked the address wrong on my phone. Sigh. I need to get better about that, and not letting google think it knows what I'm thinking. Thankfully we were able to walk to the correct address.

After getting settled in the flat, we called a taxi to get to our next sight. We could've taken public transport, but it would've taken a lot longer and not been all that much cheaper. 

Go figure, even though I correctly marked the destination on the map, the taxi driver took us to a slightly different spot, so we had to walk around a bit. Sigh.

Fort #7 is one of several ruined forts around the city. Remember how I said Vladivostok is built on hills? That means forts are great for city defense. Fort #7 is on top of a hill, and inside a hill. The views of the city and whole area were lovely, though the wind nearly blew us off the hill.

We could see a storm rolling in, the clouds were crazing dark and moving fast. Thankfully there was a little bit of shelter where we were able to take cover from the rain when it hit.

From there we called a taxi, having the same trouble with marking the destination on the map. Why don't the drivers get the same map I've marked? Anywho.

Our next sight was something I'd seen on social media. A broken glass beach, not a natural beach, not a sand beach. It's actually a rubbish pile, as all the pretty glass is what has been smoothed down by people and water from ceramic bottle rubbish pieces. Do not walk around barefoot, though this should go without saying. 

There are a bunch of picturesque rocks near the water, there were people climbing all over them. Clearly you need to get here early in the day to avoid all the Instagrammers. As usual, we had fun watching people, it is amazing how oblivious some of them were to what was going on around them.

It took me a bit longer to call a taxi back to the city. There was a direct bus, but it wasn't coming for another 5 hours, and we had zero desire to wait that long. Finally, a car picked up my order and we were good to go.

Our drop off point was a random point on a street not too far from the city center. We ended up walking past another war memorial on our way to the next sight. I love war memorials, and I love that Russians at least try to remember so much more than Americans, but I tend to lose track of the specific groups and events that are honoured. Even if I could remember it wouldn't help me much, since I don't know the military system very well. 

Eventually we got to a church. This one was different because it was German Lutheran, which isn't common in Russian. There was a British phonebox in the yard, which looked even more out of place than the church.

To get to our last sight of the day we got to ride a funicular. I was surprised at how cheap it was, as I'm pretty sure tourists are the only ones who ride it. It takes you up to a viewpoint from which you can watch the light change as the sun sets off to the side of the port. It's a gorgeous view, especially without clouds.

From there it was easy to catch a bus directly back to the supermarket across the street from our flat, woo hoo!!

The next morning we packed up and gave back the keys to the flat, then took a bus to the city center. We headed straight for the train station to drop our bags in luggage storage for the day. The train station is pretty impressive, I loved the stairwells and ceiling of the waiting room. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so, as there is a tourist office desk offering tours.

Lenin isn't far from the train station, so we went back to take our team photo, avoiding all the Chinese tourists in the process. 

Since we were on that street already, we decided to visit the art museum. None of us absolutely love art, but we had the time, so why not. Figuring out what tickets we wanted and where to buy them ended up being the hardest part of the visit. We just wanted to see the permanent exhibit, nothing temporary. 

The museum was nice. A number of different rooms with different styles and subjects of work. I've seen more than my fair share of icons and Madonna paintings by now, we sped through that section. Each room was painted a different colour, which was also nice. 

At that point we realized we hadn't gotten any souvenirs from Vladivostok, so we went back to the main square not far from the port to find a shop. There were heaps of choices for magnets, not so much for postcards. Sigh.

We hadn't had breakfast, and felt as though we'd seen much of the city, so Claire suggested lunch next. Since Vladivostok is on a peninsula, surrounded by water, so seafood is important. We wanted a decent seafood meal, but weren't able to find something decent nearby. Darnit. Vietnamese food instead!

The last thing we wanted to see was also associated with water: a lighthouse. This one has become popular with the social media crowd, so we definitely weren't alone. Still, it was pretty, and I can see why people come here. I'd seriously come back in the middle of winter to see it covered in snow/ice.

After getting back to the city center we went back to the pie place to get food to go. As expected, our train departed on time.

I'd definitely come back to Vladivostok, partly to explore more of the wooded areas of the peninsula. Or to see the city in another season.

cyprus: girne/kyrenia

After seeing postcards of Girne at a shop in Lefkosa (the northern side of the city of Nicosia,) I knew I wanted to visit. The postcards all showed a picturesque harbour, I wanted to see it for myself.

I had to get up early to make this day trip happen, which I wasn't keen to do, but oh well. My sunburn from the day before had fully set in, so wearing clothes to cover my skin didn't feel very good. On the other hand, I knew I couldn't wear anything with straps again, or the sun would've felt even worse.

Since I'd already figured out where the bus stop would be in Lefkosa, it was easy to get back to the bus stop. I saw just one person in the streets of either side of the city, thankfully it was someone with food. Pretzels are just as good a breakfast as any other, right?

The bus was right where I expected it to be, and after boarding it didn't take long to depart. This kind of bus doesn't usually have a departure time, I was worried I'd have to wait for it to fill up, which could've taken the entire morning. It wasn't full when it departed, but I didn't care.

A bit over an hour later, we arrived in Girne.

(Since Turkish is the language spoken on this side of the island, that's the name I'm using. The name in Greek is Kyrenia.) I used the maps to figure out where to go, which didn't take long.

I walked through a parkplatz and what I thought was a small park to go toward the city center. When I stopped to read a small sign I realized it wasn't a park, it was an old Ottoman cemetery. Pretty flowers around the area.

I followed the city streets as they sloped down, passing what used to be a couple of towers in the old city walls. The walls don't really exist anymore, but some of the towers still stand.

The government seems to be renovating a lot of the historical bits and pieces, probably in an effort to attract more tourists. I also passed a church that was missing a roof. I love old buildings!

Eventually I made it all the way down to the harbour. It wasn't quite as pretty as in the postcard photos, but that didn't surprise me. Or maybe I was there at the wrong time of day, who knows. Restaurants had crammed themselves into the land side of the harbour, you actually have to walk through a few seating areas to get to the boardwalk along the water.

All the restaurants were really cute, but I wasn't hungry and didn't want to pay those prices.

The harbour itself was also really crowded with boats. There were some bigger boats, which seemed aimed at tourist group tours. There were smaller speedboats, and fishing boats as well. The fishing boats were not all in great condition, I could smell stale water from time to time.

The harbour is protected by a wall, which was nice to walk along. It's a man made wall, with a concrete sidewalk for most of the way. This 'arm' reaches out mostly parallel to the harbour, so boats don't have a lot of area to play with when they're entering or leaving the harbour.

I walked to the end of the arm, just because I could.

I left the harbour through another one of the many small streets that come down the area behind the harbour. The streets are all small, and the homes don't have much space. By this point I'd realized that many doors are beautiful, whether they're painted or made with carved wood, or a combination of the two.

At one point I came to what I thought was a church. As I climbed the steps I saw the sign that told me it was actually a museum, and was closed for renovation. Based on the level of dust and rubbish, I don't know if any actual work was being done at the time. I really wish I'd been able to take a quick peek inside, but it was most definitely closed and locked.

At this point it was around 1115, and I still wasn't seeing many people. I don't know if it was typical for a Monday morning, or what, but the whole town seemed really quiet.

I wandered through more small streets, though nothing more caught my eye. It's a small town that seems to depend mostly on the tourism monies that come from having a gorgeous little harbour.

I did skip one sight, that of a castle. I did want to see it, but when I looked at my watch I realized I didn't have time. The maps and apps told me there was a shipwreck museum inside the castle, which must be at least a little interesting. Maybe next time?

I made my way back to the bus stop, and found a bus that left just 15 minutes after I boarded. An hour later I was back in Nicosia.

egypt: alexandria

When I arranged my tour I made sure it included a visit to the port city of Alexandria. Though not as famous as it once was, I still wanted to see the city.

Tamer and the driver picked me up at 0815 and we started driving. Along the way we stopped to get petrol, and I have to admit I loved the rest stop. There were two reasons to love the rest stop: one, an advert for a product(s) named after me; and two, a branch of a coffee bean shop. I was thrilled, to say the least. Tamer had never heard of Coffee Bean, I told him how much I love the chai lattes from this particular chain. Seeing a CB in the middle of a rest stop in Egypt was definitely not what I expected. When I saw people walking out of another shop with a multicolored drink, I asked Tamer what it was, so I could buy one myself. I didn't need it, since I'd already bought a chai latte, but it was yummy.

We continued the drive, during which I dozed off. (Thank goodness for cup holders in the van!)

Our first stop in Alexandria was a set of catacombs. If I remember correctly, the exact person buried in the individual tomb isn't known, though they do know the general time in which the burial was done. In another area we saw a number of areas where soldiers had been buried in close proximity.

Tamer told me the entire area has not been excavated, but it is unknown if it ever will be, due to the humidity and higher water table of the area. Since Alexandria is on the coast, it has a different climate than the rest of the country. I have no idea if this is true, but it also seemed much more like a small town to me. Less formal.

While we drove to the next stop I took photos through the window of the van. Tamer told me he had told the driver to take the slow route, and go through the 'normal' areas of the city, because he knew I liked to see these areas. I liked them so much that I knew immediately I wanted to come back to the city and walk, walk, walk.

Our next stop was a fortress on the water. I didn't go in the fortress, I was more fascinated by the water itself and all the people around than I was by the fortress. Like everyone else, I was enjoying watching the water crash onto the rocks. I also liked the clouds quickly rolling in, and the way they made a couple photos look better.

While we were here, Tamer pointed out the spot in which one of the ancient seven wonders of the world used to be located. This was the statue of ........., which was said to be big enough that ships sailed between the legs to enter the port. When you see the area you realize just how big the statue must have been.

Our next stop was lunch. It was decent food, with fish and veggies. It was a whole fish, and I didn't love the eyes staring back at me, hee hee. I was able to look out one of the windows to a lovely view of the port.

I walked along a little of the port so I could take photos, just because it was a pretty area. I wanted more time to walk around. Next we stopped at a nearby, tiny shop to get ice cream for dessert.

Our next and last stop of the day was the main reason I'd wanted to come to Alexandria: the library. Obviously, it isn't the ancient library that was once world famous, but it is still totally worth visiting.

The people that designed the modern library took into account the world renown of the ancient library. The front facade has words written in a whole bunch of modern languages, with different alphabets. You go through security to enter the library, and no bags are allowed. The no bag thing was a challenge, as I had to stuff my wallet, camera, and iphone into my pockets.

Once I got into the library I just wandered around and took photos when it seemed like a good idea. The modern library is beautifully designed, with books in many different languages. I saw a lot of Arabic, English, and French in particular.
It would've been fun to try to research a specific topic while in there, and look around in that way. There is a pretty extensive rare books collection, I wish I'd had time to look through that.
The modern library is actually used by students, most of the tables and computers were filled with students. I discovered there is free wifi, which was fun. I was able to send messages to my parents telling them I was in the library of Alexandria!

After this, we drove back to Cairo for the evening of New Years Eve. I definitely want to come back to Alexandria to explore more of 'normal' life in the city.

ukraine: kherson

I'm still trying to visit all the oblasts in ukraine, and while I know it probably won't fully happen, I'm doing my best 😀...
Kherson is the capital of an oblast...lonely planet barely mentions the town, only saying that there are tour companies offering excursions to  various nearby areas...kherson isn't far from odessa, it's in the more russian speaking half of ukraine...
It was a long train ride to get there, around 12 hours...when I got off the train I headed to an ATM, since I'd forgotten to bring cash with me from my flat the night before...that's when I remembered I didn't have much left in either of my bank accounts, after emptying them while in Kazakhstan the previous weekend (I was able to get dollars easily there, so I took advantage)...ooops...

then I realized the debit card from my american account was expired...bigger ooops...fortunately I found a few dollars in my wallet, and was able to exchange those for griven...not to self: don't forget to take money with you when traveling!
I started walking down the big street in front of the train station...it was still Saturday morning, there weren't many people out...I saw laundry hung out to dry, a couple churches, newspaper/magazine kiosks, etc...I saw the place where a Lenin statue used to be located...I saw the platz where kherson might've had its own version of the Maidan encampment...
Eventually I came to a pedestrian street, and decided to follow that...I noticed a few people setting up their stalls for the day: some knick knacks, a few souvenirs, etc...it didn't seem like a big market type of area though...

I found the address to my hotel, and noticed it only had the name of a spa/gym on the building...I walked in and asked (in russian) where the hotel was located...the lady at the front desk looked at me like I was an alien, then picked up the phone to call her supervisor an told her a foreigner was at the front desk and she didn't understand what that person was asking...(I don't speak or understand as much russian as I'd like, but I can understand some)...I asked the supervisor lady (again in russian) where I could find my hotel, and she gave me directions...it turned out to be on the back side of the building...I never figured out whether I didn't speak correctly to the first lady or if she simply hadn't known how to respond to me, an obvious foreigner...

the hotel let me check in a couple hours early, yay! My room was big, and breakfast was included in the price...good wifi too...the lady at that front desk showed me the list of options for the spa, they were cheap...despite not having that much cash, I asked her to schedule a massage for me...(it's hard to turn down an hour massage for less than $10!)
I relaxed in my room for an hour or so, then headed out again...more wandering, following a general street grid...I saw more churches, including one that looked as if several people had started different styles of renovations, then stopped...the land around the church wasn't being cared for, but the interior was lovely...
I found a bakery, and took a chance on what I thought was cheesecake...not as good as I'd hoped...why do i keep trying stuff in ukrainian bakeries? it's very rarely as good as i want it to be...

I found a couple parks, one of them very small...I found a bus station, and the surrounding market, on a cul-de-sac...I looked at possible destinations, but nothing jumped out at me...I'm guessing the towns were mostly small...
Eventually I wandered back to the pedestrian street, and into a sushi restaurant...(there are a lot of sushi restaurants in ukraine)...I ate too much, but it was my first actual meal of the day, at 1500, so I didn't feel too bad...
After eating I wandered more, just taking in the feel of the town...it was very quiet, but patriotic at the same time...lots of benches and fences painted yellow and blue, flags flying, etc...entirely too many empty an abandoned buildings...I love to take photos of them, as they have a certain type of beauty, but I also know they don't mean good things for a local economy...

I got back to the hotel not long before my massage...AMAZING...a deep tissue massage, it felt wonderful...I was sore afterward, but it was sooo worth it...I drank heaps of water afterward, and feel asleep early that evening...
The next morning I was up early, and decided to go for a walk before breakfast...I found the Greek Orthodox Church and stepped in only briefly, as there was a service going on, and I always feel awkward in that situation...I always want to take photos and look around, but not in the middle of a worship service...aesthetically I couldn't see any differences between this church and a ukrainian or russian Orthodox Church...does any one of the three people who read this blogs know if there are style differences? Or are the differences just theological?

From there I walked toward the water, and found a monument to sailors...big, which didn't surprise me...it was super windy by the water, and chilly...during the summer I suspect there are plenty of boat tours, but not in mid March...
I made my way back to the hotel for breakfast, which was ready and waiting...(this is one of the places where you choose which breakfast you want the day before, and what time you want it served)...the restaurant was closed, so they served it in my room 😀
I relaxed for a while after breakfast, cleaned up and packed up, then checked out...I left my bag at the front desk, then went out for another walk...
At this point I was convinced lonely planet had missed writing about this town...I'd already seen spots equal to other places they write about, and I planned to see more that day...

I walked through Lenin park, which isn't big, but has a very small church, a few amusement park type of rides, and a burned down theatre designed like a castle...the fact that it had burned clearly didn't deter people from exploring, I could see rubbish everywhere...
I exited that park, followed the street for a while, passed another theater, then finally came to what was left of the former kherson fortress...earthen walls, a couple big gates...the area in the middle is mostly empty, and has been turned into a a park...st Catherine's church is in the area, there is a chair inside the church from a visit by Elizabeth...(embroidered letter E on the chair!)...it seemed to be both an active church with some history on display...just to be sure, i had a scarf over my hair...

The walls of the old fortress aren't very high, (were they always this height? or have they shrunk due to years of normal weather?) but it was nice to go walk along the tops...(have I mentioned the weather was awesome?)...this entire area was called Lenin Komsomalya park...(why are there two parks named after the guy?)...across the street is the so called alley of heroes...a pedestrian zone with memorials to those who fought in a number of different wars...there are quite a few memorials, and one end of this alley has big steps and decorated walls...quite impressive, but somewhat out of sync with the general atmosphere of the town...I still like it...
I went back to the sushi place again for another late lunch...as I was eating, a random guy came over and brought a plate of dessert sushi for me, his treat...then he sat and watched me eat...it was a bit odd, but I appreciated the compliment...

After lunch I went back to the hotel, charged my phone a bit, then walked back to the train station...my train left on time, at 1848...12 hours later I was back in kyiv...
I would definitely go back to kherson, I want another massage, and I'm curious where some of the excursions go...

italy: pozzuoli and vesuvio

My first train from rimini took me to bologne, where i almost ran through the train station to get my second train...the bologne train station is undergoing some renovation, and the tracks are on three levels...when i had to transfer there on my way to rimini i figured some of it out, but i still found it confusing, and not very efficient when you have to book it from one level to another...my second train went from bologne to napoli, where my friend ken picked me up at the station...yay for door to door service...

on the way home we picked up food for dinner and our excursion the next day...dinner that night was steak on the grill, YUM...a simple, but great meal, looking out over a beautiful bay, during sunset...i don't think it gets any better :)

the next morning we had to get up early to get ready for the day...ken's friend came over to drop off food for the bbq later that evening...the three of us drove to a meeting spot to get everyone corralled, then the convoy drove to sorrento, through the town to the port...

i don't know who had arranged everything, but someone had rented three boats for the whole group to take out for the day...the plan was to spend the day going around the island of capri, celebrating the birthday of the US...

it was a fabulous day...beautiful weather, beautiful people, lots of patriotic clothing...

at one point we saw a superyacht with the stars and stripes, so someone looked up the boat...the limitless is owned by the guy who owns victoria's secret (among others)...it was a BIG BOAT...i'm sure the limitless was greeted by every american in the area who saw the flag :)

during the day the boats stopped a few times to play in the water, jump off rocks, etc...so much fun...id forgotten how much fun it is to play in water, i haven't done it in ages...i put suncream on a couple times, so my sunburn wasn't nearly as bad as i expected...yay :)

after returning home ken started prepping everything for a 4^th of july bbq he was hosting...the first guest to arrive was a french chick, carrying a french flag...i yelled 'allez les bleus' which surprised her, as most of her friends in the area do not speak french or know much about the country...she had the flag because france and germany were playing in another round of the world cup...(a few minutes after she arrived and we put up the flag, a house across the way put up the german flag...i loved the trash talk)

over the rest of the evening people arrived, ate food, talked with each other, took photos, etc...a great time was had by all...i ended up crashing before everyone left, i was so tired...

the next day we took it easy...waking up late, breakfast, watching tv, generally relaxing...i laid out on the balcony, forgetting that my back had already had enough sun...ooops...

the next morning was sunday, and i was wide awake at 0614...we had breakfast, and eventually got on the road...i sortof played tour guide, the guidebook gave vague directions as to how to get to vesuvius...remember when mom and i visited naples in december and i said that during my next visit i wanted to hike vesuvius? That's what we did...

we took an accidental detour, since the highway signs were not terribly clear as to where to exit...after the whole thing was over, we came to the conclusion we'd come up the opposite side of the mountain from what we intended to do...anywho, after driving through a few neighborhoods, we found the mountain, or more specifically, a parkplatz...

from there our options were limited to one: take a 'bus' a good portion of the way up, then walk from there...the path for walking was really loose, i'm glad i was wearing closed toe shoes...it was an easy walk, taking about 15 minutes i think? The views over the side were awesome...

when we got to the top we heard a brief by one of the park rangers...she told us about a few of the worst eruptions of vesuvius, as well as how it is expected to behave in the future...because of the most recent eruption it is no longer possible to walk all the way around the rim, but you can get pretty close...looking down into the middle, you don't see anything liquid...it's hard to imagine how this volcano has caused so much destruction over history...

on the way back, we missed the bus going down, so after hanging out for a while, we started walking...the weather was awesome, why not?

Maybe halfway down another bus came along and made us climb aboard...argh...we'd enjoyed as much walking as we'd been able to do...

back in pozzuoli we found a small hole in the wall cafe for lunch...YUM...it seemed to be family owned, and ken was convinced it had mafia connections...i don't know about that, but the food was fantastic...seafood pasta, YUM...this is the kind of place i want to make 'mine'...i want to come back regularly, so the owners get to know me well, and i never have to worry about ordering a specific meal :)

our late afternoon activity was going to the sulfatora...it's a wide area with natural steam vents...you can wander just about anywhere you want to go, there is almost nothing blocked off...(i kept thinking that in the states everything would be blocked off, you wouldn't be able to get anywhere close)...some of the vents had a very strong sulfur smell, others were just plain hot...i loved the colours of the minerals...

after we got home a couple friends came over for dinner, then we watched a movie called lawless...i love long holiday weekends with good people :)

the next morning we were up to go on another boat...the renting had been done from another port, so we didn't have to drive so far, or go so early...the boating crew this day was smaller, only 6 of us total, on one boat...

this time the boat was driven around the island of ischia...another beautiful island...there are hot springs in a few places around the island, we stopped a few times...one spot was small, and located near a former brothel...(from waaaaaaaaaay back when)...the other springs area was a lot bigger, and filled with people...i soaked up more sun than i needed, but it was worth it...another day when i looked around and knew i get to have an amazing life...

we loved the seafood pasta restaurant so much we wanted to go back...unfortunately it was closed on mondays...argh...

the next day my host went back to work, i enjoyed relaxing around the house for a while before walking into pozzuoli...i like this town, a lot!

Pozzuoli is where you can find the 3^rd largest roman arena in italy...there are also ruins of a temple in another area of town...plus the little port is beautiful, and still used by locals...i saw fisherman fixing their nets, sitting under umbrellas...

i saw several beautiful churches, none of them big...one of the churches i saw entirely by accident, as there was a tour group inside when i walked by, otherwise it would've been closed and locked...

i didn't get to see the cathedral in town, the guys in the information office told me it was closed except on weekends...

it was hot while i was wandering around, but the heat didn't really hit me until i was climbing up the hill to go home...at that point i just wanted to sit down and wait a few hours until my host drove by me on the way home so i could hop in the car...hot hot hot!

When he did get home we wanted to go to a chicken place for dinner, but it was closed for random cleaning...so we went back to the seafood pasta place...yahoooo!

We had a few others with us, and the family remembered us...(more likely, they remembered my friend, cause he is a big guy)...another fantastic meal, this one served family style...seafood pasta, spaghetti bolognese, wine, meat, etc...i felt pregnant when we left, hee hee...

germany kicked brazil's ass that night in football...

the next morning i woke up with an awful headache, and went back to sleep as soon as my host left for work...a few hours later i felt better, got dressed and headed out to see the arena...(it was closed the day before)...it was fun to wander around, there weren't too many other visitors...i wish it was possible to wander around the upper layers as much as the underground areas...

i laid out again that afternoon...since the house is on a hill, there was an awesome breeze, so i never felt hot even though the sun was strong...

i was sad to leave pozzuoli the next day :(