Mt. Vesuvius

Today I climbed to the top of a volcano!!! The trip was really early in the morning we had to be on the bus by 730! Yuck.
We had a 45 minute drive before getting  to the volcano. Actually the bus takes we most of the way up there is a path at the very top that is a very steep 30 minute walk. So we arrived up there at 815 to find out that the path didn’t open until 9! Needless to say everyone was a little upset that they had to spend 45 minutes up there waiting instead of in bed sleeping, me included!  Finally after a very long wait we were allowed up!  The path is well made and just zigzags up to the crater. It was so cool to get to see a crater of an active volcano!!!

The last eruption was in 1944. Many years ago in 79 AD was its last massively destructive explosion where it totally destroyed the town of Pompeii and few others.  Back before 79 the volcano was much larger, as in taller. But after the eruption it became smaller and actually formed a new volcano which is Mt. Vesuvius the one I climbed.. right next to it is another mountain that is the other part of the original volcano Mt. Summa which is no longer active.  They say that there is a lot of magma that is still under the volcano and that the next eruption is going to be even more destructive than the one in 79! Although they told us not to worry because they should be able to tell a month in advance when this will happen and they have a very extensive evacuation plan for when that happens.  The path people provided guides that told us about all this stuff and as he was saying it he was like so no worries today we don’t think anything will happen.  As we looked into the crater there were rocks that were steaming which shows that the volcano is still active.  Although looking into the crater to some extent isn’t as cool or intense as some might think.. it’s not like you see down forever and ever.. or well at least not now what I saw today.

 Volcanoes can be either open or closed, and currently the Vesuvius is closed.. meaning that a few hundred feet down it was totally closed old dried lava appeared to be filling in the hole, making it dormant. The last time it closed like this it was dormant for 800 years so they really don’t expect anything to happen for quite some time. Although some of us commented that it would be cool to see something happen on Tuesday when we are out at sea and out of harms way! All in all it was pretty fun and cool to get to see an active crater! They gave us a bit too much time for the whole thing though but I guess that’s alright.

So we headed back to the ship and got here at like noonish.. I come back to the room to no one here… I lost Kristi for the second time on the ship! Haha.  So I thought maybe she had found people to get lunch off the ship with because we didn’t think the trip ended till 130. So I headed to the dining hall to go eat because I was super hungry I looked around a little but didn’t see her.. lunch today was really good for some reason and it wasn’t really anything special! I had a salad there were cucumbers and  carrots with balsamic vinaigrette which Kristi and I have deemed the only acceptable dressing option on the ship. So I had a plate and 1/3 was filled with my salad, then they had rice and beans so another 1/3 of the plate with that then they had a vegetarian enchilada so the last 1/3 of the plate.. then they had a chicken gumbo soup so I also got a bowl of that.. it was all really good.. everyone who knows my eating habits should be really impressed with me because this whole trip ive been trying to branch out of my comfort zone some.. not too crazy I still stay FAR FAR FAR away from seafood but im trying new things still! The dressing alone was an improvement made while crossing the atlantic. Anyways the rice I ate but not the beans then the enchilada was surprisingly good seeing as it was filled with some bean mush but I really enjoyed it somehow! And the soup was good too!!! Sooo I was still hungry got another 1/3 of salad and another 1/3 of rice and another bowl of soup. (I thought that another enchilada would be a bit much) but I ended up going up for yet another bowl of soup in the end! I ate the most I have in weeks I think! It was all so satisfying though! Then I went back to the room and there was Kristi =)

It really stinks not having a phone to call home but it’s almost worse for not being able to meet up with people.. you have to really plan things in advance and not really change plans and spur of the moment ones are next to impossible and when you lose someone you almost have to just stay put till they find you, you never realize how useful texting is till you don’t have it! Im not going to know how to use it anymore once I get back!

So once we reunited =) we packed up and headed to McDonalds again.  It was really early this time I woke sean up at like 7 am his time oops oh well.  I also got to talk to mom, heather and MYKAELA =) it was really nice. We ended up staying there a lot longer than really planned kristi’s computer died first this time which was the signal to wrap it up and head back to the ship.
On the way we decided we should try to find somewhere to eat seeing as we only had tonight and tomorrow left in Italy and we should be buying food in port now and eating ship food when we hit turkey eygpt and morocco and aren’t totally sure what to expect there. So we found a pizza place and split a pizza that was called Vendura   (I think this might mean vegetable in Italian but not 100% sure someone could look that up and get back to me!) well I branched out more because I suggested we should try it out! On the menu it said choice of sweet peppers, eggplant or some word we didn’t know. The waiter, however, told us it really had sweet peppers, eggplant, zucchini, and potatoes! It was really good actually! Then we made the trek back to the ship and watched two more movies and now im going to shower and go to bed and attempt to get on this Pompeii and Sorrento trip that Kristi is doing tomorrow hope it works out. 

Uggg the other thing I remembered today is that I am taking classes on this ship and should really start studying for my global studies exam that is the day after tomorrow and start doing some of my other homework as well.. what an unheard of concept =)

P.S. Kristi and I both added some pictures to our facebooks. Just a few that have us in them mostly to give you a little taste of what is going on in pictures and not just this but no worries there are 100’s more that we have and will have by the end of this voyage. Bottom line go check out some pictures as well!