79 AD
Since the beginning of our HSC, Elly and I have always wanted to visit the area of Campania -famous for its gorgeous vineyards, fish produce and of course, Mt. Vesuvius and the ancient archaeological sites of Pompei and Ercolano (Herculaneum). For our Ancient History studies, we sat down one night and giggled our way through a recording of a song to help our studies, aptly named "79AD".
And so, on our way back through to Firenze from Positano, we stopped over for a night in Pompei and explored the ruins of Pompei Scavi. When we finally arrived at our hostel around lunch time, the door was locked so we rang the bell. A gorgeous golden honey coloured cavalier was sitting just beside the door staring at us, then suddenly got up, and came bounding back moments later with the owner of the hostel, as if it had beckoned her for us. She was a little Russian lady who didn't know any English but only Italian so we spoke broken Italian back to her. The hostel was sweet, with no locks or keys or anything, but everyone staying were such kind and trusting and honest people.
After refuelling on a delicious selection of Italian foods, we finally entered Pompeii with nothing but a map and the lyrics of 79 AD in the back of our minds to navigate us through the different houses and monuments and dilapidated excuses for buildings. We were in the sweltering hot sun for 5 hours that afternoon, but were so impressed by the place - from the public baths, forum, thermopoliums (ancient roman macdonalds / fast food shops mostly serving fish-based dishes), the frescos, and mosaic works in the house of the faun, the house of the tragic poet (which I presented on in high school, having a mosaic "beware of the dog" floor at the front door), and Elly's presentation house - the house of the vetti, with its fresco depicting some guy with a massive dick. And I mean massive. HUGE.
The frescos in the brothel were hilarious and depicting sexual acts (including butt slaps - gotta love the butt slaps) and the place also still had its small stone beds in tiny rooms from the original time. I sat on one and immediately felt a bit dirty. *wink*
Pompeii's strays are the stray dogs which you can find wandering aimlessly the old streets of the excavations. We found one lying down with its legs halfway up a wall cooling off beside an air conditioner and had a genuine giggle.
When we finally got back to the hostel we met some archaeologists from America - Kevin and John, who had been visiting Pompeii every year since 2006 to dig even further to find relics from civilisations even older than that around the first century AD. They were so in love with their work and were so fun to talk to. After they left, there was a French guy who I had noticed looking at me a few times earlier and he came over to say hello when his friend had left. We had a three way conversation in Italian, French and English when one or another word was not understood. He was intrigued by two young Australian girls travelling about and gave me tips on Croatia, and later on when his friend from Normandy arrived, we discussed French swear words. Elly and I had a watermelon that he lent us his personally engraved knife and I said "who even are you- crocodile Dundee?" Which is perhaps the only reference to Australia anyone from France would understand and he lost it. We also talked about Japan and were writing different phrases all over my passport cover. If Elly and I were less tired and hadn't have had a ridiculous Saturday night we would have joined them for a drink at the bar down the road but we regretfully declined and headed to our room to chat with a couple of people from Wales who helped me learn how to pronounce the longest welsh town name ever (OF WHICH KNOWING SHOULD BE AN ACHIEVEMENT HIGH ENOUGH TO JUSTIFIABLY BE PUT ON A RESUME I'M JUST SAYIN').
There's this strange happiness I get from just meeting all these people that I'll probably never meet again. Like we've all helped each other in the smallest of ways, whether it be travel tips or even just keeping each other company on a lonely night in a desolate town in the middle of nowhere. It's these moments I have cherished this whole year.
