Don't Travel on Sunday

Daniela and I decided that because we chose to conclude our weekend trip on a Sunday, we were chastened. It started out as an awesome day. We woke up early, really early, because some kid in our hostel was snoring horribly loud and we couldn't sleep. It was awful so we left at about 6 am. We took the train to Pompeii and got there right as it was opening. We were the first ones inside and actually had the city to ourselves for a little while. Pompeii was amazing! I’ve wanted to go there for a long time. Ever since I was little and I read the book Pompeii….Buried Alive!! that we have at home.

We explored ruins for about four hours and then took the train to Ercolano (Herculaneum). I was really excited about this city. But when we found out that it cost €11 to enter, we decided not to do it. We had already forked out €16 each for Pompeii and we didn’t have very much time for Herculaneum so we decided it wasn’t worth it. However, the walkway that leads to the ticket office goes along one whole side of the city from above and you can totally see everything. So we admired everything from afar and felt like we’d outsmarted the system and were quite pleased with ourselves.

We had about 6 and half hours of train travel ahead of us to we hurried to the Naples train station so we could catch the soonest train. We were anxious to get on a train because we wanted to spend as little time as possible in Naples. However, the next train wasn't leaving for about an hour and a half! So we waited. We had gone to a supermarket in Sorrento the night before to get food so we wouldn't have to buy any on Sunday, but we ate it all. Pompeii was big and we walked around in the heat for 4 hours, so we had taken a couple snack breaks and by the time we got to the station after Herculaneum, all that was left was a roll and some Life-Savers. So we splurged and when to McDonald's. I treated myself to a McFlurry. We ate as slowly as we possibly could to take up time and eventually our train came.

We made it to Chiusi (about an hour and forty minutes south of Siena) where we had to switch trains. However, our train was 20 minutes late getting to Chiusi so we missed the train to Siena. We had to wait another hour for the next one. It was late and we were hungry again. So we got some food at the train station. It was good so we got more. I ended up eating a lot (a hamburger, cookie icecream sandwich, and a whole sleeve of crackers). We decided we'd explore Chiusi and see what it had to offer. It was the most boring city we'd been to. We couldn't even find a duomo. So we decided to sit and wait. I was feeling kind of sick after eating so much food and needed to do something active. Daniela was tired so I left my backpack with her and went on a run. I looked really funny, I know. I probably looked pretty haggard after three days of travel and walking with no shower. Everyone stared at me because my ensemble (jeans and a T-shirt) didn't look very running-appropriate. I enjoyed a lovely little run around the city, but it started getting dark back so I headed back to the station.

We're not sure why, but for some reason the trains were having a really hard time that day. Ours had been 20 minutes late getting there and about every 10 minutes or so we'd hear them announcing that some train was either late or had been cancelled. We were musing at how inconvient that would be if your train got cancelled. We wondered what you'd do. We soon found out. About 5 minutes before our train was supposed to be leaving they announced that the 8:40 train to Siena had been cancelled! We were so tired at that point that all we could do was laugh. The schedule said that there was one last train to Siena but we'd have to wait another hour and we figured that one would get cancelled too. So we sat there for a couple minutes, wondering what on earth we were going to do. Then they made an announcement that there would be a bus going to Siena to substitute for the train. We were pretty glad because we figured that the bus would be faster and more direct, but we were wrong.

The bus couldn't really go on the freeway or any major roads because we had to stop at every train station in every little city on the way to Siena to pick up anyone that was waiting for the train that wasn't coming. Finally, after a very long bus ride, we made it back to Siena! We had called Rita before arriving and asked her to pick us up. Our bikes were at the station but it was really dark and Daniela's bike doesn't have lights on it like mine, plus we were exhausted.

Despite our exhaustion by the end of the journey, the trip was well worth it! I actually enjoyed every minute of it! Although I would have preferred a smoother trip home, I thought it was an adventure!