Whew today was both tragic, amazing and exhausting. Today we had another full day optional excursion to Pompeii and Naples. It started off early as we had to get on the bus at 7:30 so we quickly grabbed breakfast to go and ran onto the bus. Everyone slept as it was almost a 3h bus ride to Pompeii. Once we got there before entering we had 30 minutes to waist for our tour guide to arrive and to get some things from the little market outside of the city of Pompeii. We got frozen lemon slushies as it was so hot outside already and the Italian men working were flirting with all of us asking if we came from paradise and we all looked like next top models. I then also went and got a little bracelet made from volcanic ash and while I was paying for it Victoria and I had a little heart attack as I gave the money and the guy said “thank you Maija”. Victoria and I looked at each other and were like what the heck how does he know my name. We then realized I had my name necklace on and calmed down a little bit. We then all met up with our tour guide Margarita and got our head sets for the outdoor museum. Pompeii I’m sure all of you know is the city which was covered by volcanic ash from mount Vesuvius erupting in 79 A.D and the entire population of the city died whether it was from suffocating from the ashes or the ones who tried to escape by boat and the got hit by the tsunami which was caused by the earthquake from the eruption which took place over 3 days. We obviously didn’t get to see all of Pompeii as it would take 3 days to see everything but we saw lots of neat things. The city is huge from what they have and 1/3 of the city is still covered by volcanic ash. We saw the large theatre remains, ruins of houses, many stores including one of the 100 fast food restaurants and one of the many bakeries. It was neat as we learned how they didn’t use salt for the fast food as salt was very expensive and used as currency in the past which why we use the word salary today as it came from the work salt. Therefor instead of salt they would use fermented fish guts, garlic and other spices. We also found out that depending on what social class you were in depended on what type of bread you got from the bakery as it had something to do with the different rye. We then continued on to go and see the red lighting district which was the busiest part of Pompeii. In the district we visited a brothel which was very different. We learned about the “she wolfs” (no not the shakira song) from the city of Pompeii. They called this poorer prostities she wolfs as they came from all over Africa, Asia, etc and didn’t speak Latin or Italian therefor had no way to communicate with the men coming in. So to show that they were there and were available they would howl in the district and attract poorer men in the city or voyagers. Since they could not communicate they had what they called a “sex menu” so the men would just point above the rooms to the picture of what they wanted. We went into the brothel and saw these rooms and preserved images above the rooms. There were also the richer prostitues in other rooms that actually had mattresses and to show they were there there would be a penis statue attached to the building. All throughout and around the red life district in Pompeii you would see penis’s either on the walls or on the ground as they would lead to the exit or entrance of the red light district. They were actually a sign of good luck and in Naples still are be have just evolved a little bit and are now a chili pepper. Our tour guide was telling us how no one from Naples doesn’t have one on them at all times and showed us her necklace. We then continued to walk along the ruins and saw some temples. We didn’t hear much about them as we were released her for 25 min to go out and explore. It was there we saw all the old artifacts, some skeletons and of course the 4 plastered bodies that were covered in ash. In total there are 96 bodies that have been recovered so far by pouring plaster into the empty cavases in the ash where the body had decayed. However from pouring this plaster they can get all the details exactly how the body was positioned when they died, what was in their teeth, everything it’s so crazy. In all of Pompeii they only display the 2 men, the baby and the one dog which was rolling around with a ball. The \240average age for men to live in Pompeii was 40 and for women it was only 29 due to child birth. Anyways I’ve never seen anything like it, it was so crazy and sad. I can’t even believe that this is real. They were regular people just like us and within days an entire city was dead and covered, it’s so tragic. We then headed once again outside of the city walls. We had 30 min again in the little market outside to grab a drink or snack as we had been walking around for 2.5h in 30 something degree weather, it was very very hot. I ended up getting some chocolate and banana gelato because when in Italy you must have gelato at least once a day and then of course just some Gatorade. We then all jumped back onto the bus and drove 30min with our tour guide to Naples. We drove around Naples and she gave us some information and showed us some of the key spots. We then got dropped off and had 45 minutes to explore ourselves. We all just went down the Main Street looking at some of the shops before we had to head backs and meet at the bus to head to dinner. We got to “dinner” (it was 3:30 so it doesn’t even count as dinner). We of course had margarita pizza as Naples is known for their pizza and it was really good and got strawberry and lemon gelato for dessert. At this rate everyone who went which was everyone except 3 people were completely drained. However we still had a lovely 3 something hour bus ride back. Everyone just plopped in their headphones and slept. We got back to the hotel at 7:30. We were allowed to go out until 11 if we wanted as that was curfew but everyone was so beat we all just stayed in. Victoria and I though did go down and made some popcorn and tea and came up for a roommate movie night. We watched blended and I was shook as she had never seen it before. I love that movie. Anyways it just finished, however we were a little thrown off as we are right next to a church right as we are in an old nunnery and so every morning this bell goes off super early yet tonight for the last 3 hours the nuns have been singing and praying and oh my are they loud. As I write this they are still going and it is almost 11 so I’m really hoping it’s almost over so we can sleep. Anyways I am so so tired from today luckily tomorrow is a nice relaxing day for us here in rome. Night