Naples, Italy
Today was our first port of call. We slept in for most of the morning waking up in time for lunch. I guess we are adjusting to the jet lag. We didn't have anything planned for Naples, which was good due to the loss of luggage we chose to do a shopping blitz for some well needed clothing.
After disembarking the ship we were asked many times if we needed a taxi. Not really knowing where we wanted to go we opted to just stroll down to
wn. WARNING!! I'd like to take this time to put a warning out for anyone who is thinking of taking their life by simply stepping out into traffic. Naples is the place to do so. In fact, just try and cross the street. After nearly risking our lives, I contemplated riding in a taxi. Then again evry car I saw had every corner smashed up. But it really is the Vespas, or scooters, you must watch out for as they will whip through two people crossing the street if they feel the need to. No one got out of the way of ambulances or police.
This was our first glipse of Italy. I found Naples to be not the cleanest and also ran into my fair share of street vendors selling knock off Guchi and other big name brand purses and watches. We later found out that it wasn't illegal to sell the products, but foranyone to buy them was another story. You were fined twice the price of a real bag. So to put that into perspective, that 50 Euro bag that retails for thousands just cost you thousands.
We decided to take a walking tour of Naples ourselves using our handy dandy travel guide of Italy which we borrowed from the Moose Jaw Public Library before we left. We had a bit of a treck to make so we found a main drag full of shops so we shoped along the way. Unfourtunately, Marsha acidentally left the book in the change room of the first shop we were in. I bought a shirt there and Marsha a skirt.
We continued up the street to a place where I purchased a few outfits; two pairs of shorts, four shirts. This is where I found out that I'm concidered a XL. Now for those who haven't seen me in a while, I haven't changed much. I'm still the M-L kind of a guy not an XL. In this shop is where I experienced Italy's "Change Rooms." It's a tiny stall that only has a curtain seperating you from the rest of Italy. The guy helping me to pick out clothes was great. He was friendly, but I didn't really kno till later. He told me, more like motioned with a bit of english, to get in the change room and he'd pass me the clothes. So I played along and got stripped down to my boxers and was waiting for him to PASS me the clothes. He then opened the curtain and then, wait for it, took the time to adjust my boxers to straighten the out. My eyes opened kind of wide but I tolerated it. He then sized the shorts up against me to make sure they'd fit then left me alone to put them on and model them for him and Marsha. Now I tolerated it the first time, but he then did it a second which I then concidered it something they do in Italy, that or he was trying to pick me up.
In another store, Yamamay - a bathing suit shop, I tried on a pair of Board Shorts. Marsha noticed that when I was in the change room they peeked in on me. I had no clue, again I'm a guy I really didn't care. So when Marsha wanted to try something on, she gave me strict intructions not to let anyone take a peek. I was her bodyguard. Another highlight was buying underwear and soxs off the street, it really was a store with everything on the street.
We finally arived at our start of where we were to start our walking tour only to have no time left to do so. We ended up running back for the ship to just make it on the ship be fore it left.
No word on our luggage yet. I sat down at the internet lounge on the ship to try tracking the luggage and to inform everyone we made it and we are alive. This maybe 15 minute internet vist cost us over $20 USD. We won't be checking email on the ship anymore at that rate.($0.75 USD per minute plus activation fee)
We went to the dining room tonight for dinner. We were placed with another couple, a little bit older, from Cleveland, Ohio, Brad and Nicole. They were very pleasant and we got along quite well. We shared some of our troubles with our luggage and flights getting to Rome.
After disembarking the ship we were asked many times if we needed a taxi. Not really knowing where we wanted to go we opted to just stroll down to
wn. WARNING!! I'd like to take this time to put a warning out for anyone who is thinking of taking their life by simply stepping out into traffic. Naples is the place to do so. In fact, just try and cross the street. After nearly risking our lives, I contemplated riding in a taxi. Then again evry car I saw had every corner smashed up. But it really is the Vespas, or scooters, you must watch out for as they will whip through two people crossing the street if they feel the need to. No one got out of the way of ambulances or police.This was our first glipse of Italy. I found Naples to be not the cleanest and also ran into my fair share of street vendors selling knock off Guchi and other big name brand purses and watches. We later found out that it wasn't illegal to sell the products, but foranyone to buy them was another story. You were fined twice the price of a real bag. So to put that into perspective, that 50 Euro bag that retails for thousands just cost you thousands.
We decided to take a walking tour of Naples ourselves using our handy dandy travel guide of Italy which we borrowed from the Moose Jaw Public Library before we left. We had a bit of a treck to make so we found a main drag full of shops so we shoped along the way. Unfourtunately, Marsha acidentally left the book in the change room of the first shop we were in. I bought a shirt there and Marsha a skirt.
We continued up the street to a place where I purchased a few outfits; two pairs of shorts, four shirts. This is where I found out that I'm concidered a XL. Now for those who haven't seen me in a while, I haven't changed much. I'm still the M-L kind of a guy not an XL. In this shop is where I experienced Italy's "Change Rooms." It's a tiny stall that only has a curtain seperating you from the rest of Italy. The guy helping me to pick out clothes was great. He was friendly, but I didn't really kno till later. He told me, more like motioned with a bit of english, to get in the change room and he'd pass me the clothes. So I played along and got stripped down to my boxers and was waiting for him to PASS me the clothes. He then opened the curtain and then, wait for it, took the time to adjust my boxers to straighten the out. My eyes opened kind of wide but I tolerated it. He then sized the shorts up against me to make sure they'd fit then left me alone to put them on and model them for him and Marsha. Now I tolerated it the first time, but he then did it a second which I then concidered it something they do in Italy, that or he was trying to pick me up.
In another store, Yamamay - a bathing suit shop, I tried on a pair of Board Shorts. Marsha noticed that when I was in the change room they peeked in on me. I had no clue, again I'm a guy I really didn't care. So when Marsha wanted to try something on, she gave me strict intructions not to let anyone take a peek. I was her bodyguard. Another highlight was buying underwear and soxs off the street, it really was a store with everything on the street.
We finally arived at our start of where we were to start our walking tour only to have no time left to do so. We ended up running back for the ship to just make it on the ship be fore it left.
No word on our luggage yet. I sat down at the internet lounge on the ship to try tracking the luggage and to inform everyone we made it and we are alive. This maybe 15 minute internet vist cost us over $20 USD. We won't be checking email on the ship anymore at that rate.($0.75 USD per minute plus activation fee)
We went to the dining room tonight for dinner. We were placed with another couple, a little bit older, from Cleveland, Ohio, Brad and Nicole. They were very pleasant and we got along quite well. We shared some of our troubles with our luggage and flights getting to Rome.
posted by Jago at 10:03 p.m.
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