We woke up early and boarded a train to Naples, where we went to meet up with the Semester at Sea boat. Usually just hopping on whatever train we want with our euro rail passes, we just got on the train from Rome (where our connecting train was) to Naples. Within 30 seconds we both realized everyone had assigned seats and we clearly did not belong. The train started to move and we managed to find two open seats. With ten minutes left in the ride the conductor reaches us and asks for our tickets. Kate tells Tim just fake it til you make it and act like we know what we're doing, until the conductor then asks for our reservations which we clearly did not have. Instead of charging us a huge fine, we each had to pay 18 Euros and from that moment on riding the trains will never be easy again.
We found our hostel that afternoon and walked around that evening looking for a place to eat. We also found out that yes, it's true, Naples is a sketchy place. Dirty streets, winding dark alleys, graffiti--it was definitely different then any other place we had been. But, it still had its charm and home of the best pizza weve both ever had. After walking around for 30 minutes trying to find the pizzeria our hostel suggested, we find that it's closed so we head to one that was mentioned in the book--the book has been awful before (ie Vienna) so we were a little hesitant. We find the pizza place and WOW, that pizza alone made the book worth it. It was a small place that was packed and only made 2 types of pizza, margarita and tomato. We inhaled them. For some reason Kate had thought the place looked familiar and just when we thought it couldn't get better on the wall was Julia Roberts eating their pizza from the movie Eat, Pray, Love.
After pizza we walked to the Semester at Sea boat to meet the Ullom family from OWU. Knowing we were registered visitors but not knowing if our friends were actually on the boat, we decided to try our luck and made it on, where we soon met the Ulloms. It was great to see them and we got a tour of the boat and made plans with Kelsey to go to Pompeii the next day. Then we made the very sketch dark walk (more like a run) back to the hostel.
Day 20
Eating the lame breakfast at the hostel, we met Kelsey early to catch the train to Pompeii. Kelsey and Kate both had been before, so we assured Tim we could tell him everything about the place (just kidding, he bought an audio guide). It took us about an hour to get in, but wasn't too bad since we were eating tomato mozerella sandwiches and fresh, cold lemonade. Tim also was listening to the audio guide and figuring out the map, and he was no longer just Tim but now Tour Guide Tim. We spent the day walking around, Kate and Kelsey asking Tim all sorts of questions about Pompeii (of course just to quiz him, since we knew so much about Pompeii from before).
After a long hot day we head back to the Semester at Sea boat and say goodbye to the Ulloms and grab some ice since there literally is zero ice in Italy. That night our hostel cooked everyone pasta where we ate and met some other travelers who were really nice. A guy and girl from Brazil had spent a week in the south of France so they gave us some good advice. We also met two German girls traveling for a few weeks who said Tim reminded them of Bernie from How I Met Your Mother.
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