Let's hear it for cheap applause
Saturday night (thank gods they put the day of the week on the floor of the elevators, I'd be lost without that) and I'm sitting alone in what passes for the internet café around here. It's our second sea day out of the last three. After I signed off last, I did most of what I set out to do.
I did read most of His Dark Materials. I'm about half way through book three. Enjoying the series immensely. And Matt's right, he is the one to direct it. If there's any justice in the universe he'll do it too.
Yesterday was Naples. Up early, we piled into a tour bus and made our way 85% of the way up Vesuvius. The other 15% was on foot. A killer climb, 15 minutes of hard going that felt like it was straight up. Whatever didn't kill me made me stronger, though, and the view from the top was well worth the climb. We walked around like tourists, took lots of pix, and then came back down.
Then there was the (seemingly) obligatory stop at a local cameo factory (for which I'm sure a kickback was involved) and after wasting a half hour of our time looking at some particularly ugly examples of the art form, we were off again.
Pompeii was our fourth set of ruins this trip, and the greek and the roman are starting to run together a little bit. It definitely was the largest settlement we've seen, and the only one that had preserved the decoration as well as the walls. Interesting, but I think I've had enough for now. I'm ruined for ruins, it seems.
After that we grabbed Max and headed into Naples to try to seek out the elusive Pizza we had heard so much about. It turned out to be harder to find then we thought, since all the restos had closed up after lunch and weren't opening again until dinner. We had given up completely and were headed back to the ship when we finally spotted a place that looked both authentically neapolitan, and also open for business. Great, fresh, wood fired and with a cold beer the perfect snack. An excellent final meal, and a fitting capper to the trip, too.
I spent half of today reading, and the other half packing. In a few hours I'll go to sleep and then spend about 15 hours in various airports, planes, buses and taxis until I am home again safe in my own bed. Until then I'm gonna finish The Amber Spyglass, because I'd like to find out how the world ends.
One more thing, just an observation I had today that I thought summed up my ambivalence towards the whole cruise ship thing nicely. The overall metaphor for this kind of a trip is this:
It's like living at the mall.
Everything's nice, everyone's friendly, everybody's trying real hard, but in the end it's just the mall, a world of artifice and plastic experience. Traveling by train and plane and staying in hotels might be less convenient, but it's also just the tiniest bit more real. And I can't recall the last restaurant I was in where the staff lined up to receive a round of congratulatory applause, but on the cruise they've managed it the last 3 nights in a row.
I'll be glad to be home.
I did read most of His Dark Materials. I'm about half way through book three. Enjoying the series immensely. And Matt's right, he is the one to direct it. If there's any justice in the universe he'll do it too.
Yesterday was Naples. Up early, we piled into a tour bus and made our way 85% of the way up Vesuvius. The other 15% was on foot. A killer climb, 15 minutes of hard going that felt like it was straight up. Whatever didn't kill me made me stronger, though, and the view from the top was well worth the climb. We walked around like tourists, took lots of pix, and then came back down.
Then there was the (seemingly) obligatory stop at a local cameo factory (for which I'm sure a kickback was involved) and after wasting a half hour of our time looking at some particularly ugly examples of the art form, we were off again.
Pompeii was our fourth set of ruins this trip, and the greek and the roman are starting to run together a little bit. It definitely was the largest settlement we've seen, and the only one that had preserved the decoration as well as the walls. Interesting, but I think I've had enough for now. I'm ruined for ruins, it seems.
After that we grabbed Max and headed into Naples to try to seek out the elusive Pizza we had heard so much about. It turned out to be harder to find then we thought, since all the restos had closed up after lunch and weren't opening again until dinner. We had given up completely and were headed back to the ship when we finally spotted a place that looked both authentically neapolitan, and also open for business. Great, fresh, wood fired and with a cold beer the perfect snack. An excellent final meal, and a fitting capper to the trip, too.
I spent half of today reading, and the other half packing. In a few hours I'll go to sleep and then spend about 15 hours in various airports, planes, buses and taxis until I am home again safe in my own bed. Until then I'm gonna finish The Amber Spyglass, because I'd like to find out how the world ends.
One more thing, just an observation I had today that I thought summed up my ambivalence towards the whole cruise ship thing nicely. The overall metaphor for this kind of a trip is this:
It's like living at the mall.
Everything's nice, everyone's friendly, everybody's trying real hard, but in the end it's just the mall, a world of artifice and plastic experience. Traveling by train and plane and staying in hotels might be less convenient, but it's also just the tiniest bit more real. And I can't recall the last restaurant I was in where the staff lined up to receive a round of congratulatory applause, but on the cruise they've managed it the last 3 nights in a row.
I'll be glad to be home.
posted by Mattvideo at 2:51 PM
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