Some guys take a long vacation to throw a ring into a volcano.

After the traveling of yesterday, I was still pretty groggy when I got up, packed, and made ready for breakfast. I thought it very nice to have waffles available and poured a ladle full of battery stuff onto the hot plate and closed it up before going to grab a drink. Imagine my surprise when I came back to check that the batter wasn't getting cooked as I expected and then I looked over to other tables to see people eating the batter out of a bowl. It turns out that this 'batter' was really just yogurt and the hot plate was simply a toaster for things like, you know, bread. Yeah, I was realizing it was not one of my best trip moments as I cleaned the hot plate and resulting mess in the sink. I still swear it looked exactly like the typical waffle stations I'd seen at other hotels when traveling.

I previously had planned to take the train to Pompeii and wasn't looking forward to the long hike back to the station, but in talking to others in the hostel last night I learned that a bus left the nearby port's station just down the road directly for Pompeii, so within a few minutes of leaving the hostel, I had my ticket and was on board. I ended up being the only passenger, but it was nice to relax a bit while getting dropped off right at the doorstep of the ruins for Pompeii.

Pompeii is of course very famous for having been essentially buried when the nearby volcano, Mt. Vesuvius blew its top and buried everything nearby in dirt, pumice, rock, and ash. Until it exploded, apparently no one had any indication that it was a volcano. I bet that dropped property values. I was impressed by the extensiveness of the archaeological site. Most ruins I have ever visited tend to be little more than a pile of rubble with maybe a few structures out of hundreds that may have once stood. though only 75% has been excavated, the whole area really does seem to be a snapshot of a point in time. as the ash fell, most roofs collapsed, however the walls tended to remain standing, thus preserving the very footprint of this once bustling city. I spent about 3.5 hours walking around and taking in the sites. and checking out many of the buildings that were open, though apparently many that were once available have been blocked in order to preserve them as much as possible from all the foot traffic.