Pompeii

To get to Pompeii from Rome, you have to take a train to Naples, where apparently they have awesome pizza, then another train to Pompeii from Naples. It's more of a metro-type deal for that, except above ground, so not really a metro at all. But you get what I mean. On our trip over, there was a family with an accordion, a saxophone, a shaker and a drum playing for money. The little kid playing the drum looked so excited to be playing, though it could just be that the happier the cute one is, the more likely we are to donate to the fund, so to speak.

We also ended up sitting across from a middle school boy from the US who was with his parents visitng Italy and planning on hiking Vesuvius as well as visitng Pompeii. Sarai and Christine maintained a quiet focus on their books while I talked to him about school and traveling. I didn't mind. Kids are easy to talk to when you're older than them.

In Pompeii the train drops you off right up the road from the ruins. We walked in and went to stand in line. Shoes that are worn too long, however, tend to loose the track on the soles and I slipped on the smooth marble of the waiting area, somehow developing a huge scratch on my knee. I pulled out a band-aid and went on, but I limped a little bit as I had fallen pretty hard on my knee. I wish my fall had gotten me some sympathy with the man at the ticket counter- it's pretty expensive to wander the ruins.

I'd have you know that Pompeii is an entire city that's still being recovered as we speak. It's a big place. They dump you out in this huge courtyard with the ruins of pillars, right in front of the courthouse or town hall and then from there, there are endless streets to walk down. It's easy to lose yourself among the abandoned homes, the unused clay pots, the murals from a very, very different time.

Which is exactly what I did.

I turned a corner to look at something new, thinking Christine and Sarai would follow. When I found myself alone, I went back to look for them (after a few minutes) but couldn't find them around. I figured there couldn't be too much to do, and I'd wander for longer than them anyway, so I'd just meet them at the exit later. I spent the afternoon in the eerie quiet of the ruins, accompanied by the occassional tour group but more often followed around by the stray dogs that amuse themselves in the city during the day.

It's hard to have a conception of what life was like however long ago it was. That's why Pompeii is such a big find- they can easily restore the murals on the walls, they can see into how things were constructed back then. They have a wonderfully preserved snapshot of life back then. Of course, they also have a perfectly preserved snapshot of death back then. It's amazing what scientific curiosity can do in the face of morbid reality.

At the end of the day, as the sunk sank a little closer to the horizon, I figured I had been gone long enough and I headed back to the entrance. I sat and waited for Christine and Sarai, surprised that I didn't already see them there. I watched group after group meet up and leave. Eventually, even the old grandmother who had been waiting so long she had fallen asleep was collected by her family and the ticket office stopped letting people into the ruins. It was just me and a stray dog sitting and waiting. Eventually I left my station and walked back into the ruins, as far back as I could, doing my best to not let the slightly angry tears escape from my eyes as I imagined my friends leaving me to take a later train back from the site.

Eventually it got late enough that if I didn't leave soon, the train we had talked about taking would leave without me. I found my way back to Naples and then back in Rome, surprised that I didn't see them on the train or on the platform. I walked back to the hostel, got Sarai's number off Facebook and borrowed a kind person's cell phone to call and check in.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me. I just wanted to call and say I'm fine and I'm back at the hostel. Y'all haven't made it back yet, have you?"

"No. But I'm glad you're OK. We're catching a train back now. We'll see you in a bit."

Sarai's voice sounded odd over the phone. I made my way out into the lobby of the hostel and watched a silent movie play while music pounded in the background. I waited for half an hour, and then more, and eventually I caved in and walked over to the bar to get some food when I saw Christine and Sarai at the door. They came in and hugged me like I had died. Apparently, that's what they had assumed had happened.

Over the next hour I was treated to the story of how they walked to get an audioguide that would take them about six hours to complete and how they spent most of the afternoon doing that. When I didn't show up at the entrance at the same time they did, however, they started to search around for me. Sarai was worried that my back had given out in some dangerous place and I was lying unconscious in some dead person's house. After a search of one of the back exits of the site, a couple of Italian policemen noticed they were distracted and offered to help. Somewhere along the way, a native of Pompeii said, "Do not worry about your friend. If she is here, the people of Pompeii will take care of her." The stray dogs in the site don't go unfed.

So that's the story of How Sarai and Christine Got to Ride in the Back of an Italian Police Car and How the People of Pompeii Almost Saved Me From the Ruins of the Old City. It's also the story of How I Bought a Cell Phone the Next Day and the story of How I Ralized That My Friends are Awesome. I figure it could make a good children's book, since it has a happy ending.