Seen one ash buried city, you have seen them all - Pompeii

The previous post in this series is here..

After visiting Herculaneum, I drove in peak traffic to Pompeii. There are a lot of one way roads and once in Pompeii, there was no parking. Finally we found parking. When we got out, San and the kids were tired. It was a 100 F outside and Jr. said she was not feeling well. This was our healthy child ! Was it because of the two hour soak in the sea the previous evening? In any case, they decided to go find a place to eat and message me. Was given one hour from entry to exit in Pompeii. There were a few people in front of me in the line who did not share my sense of urgency and were blocking all lanes in hopes that one of them would get to the counter. The girls whose job it was to order the crowd to the limited ticket counters were useless and just sat there gossipping. Once I got my ticket, I just ran through the entire site. Clicked a few selfies on the way, and followed the crowd all the way to the amphitheater.

The rooms and roads of Pompeii give you the same impression as Herculaneum, but the homes seem not as lavish. Seems to be a larger crowded place. These are some unique things that caught my eye that were different from the previous site. The amphitheater at the end of the site that could house 10,000 people was just amazing as was the gymnasium courtyard. All of it gone in the blink of an eye, thanks to a volcano!

Only 360 pano shot I took in this place standing in the middle of the amphitheater.

A video highlights reel of my run through Pompeii.

When I started coming back, took a weird turn and ended up at a different exit.

I got lost in the end and saw no one for a minute and panicked.. finally two ladies who had a map told me there are multiple entrances to the place and the one where my family stayed back is most likely on the other end of the complex but was a straight 10 minute walk. That saved me..

It is better to do Herculaneum first than Pompeii. Glad I went there first and earlier in the morning. The place gets very hot. Maybe allot more time and do one site in the morning and the other in the evening?! In any case, the photos and videos here tell you the story!

Finally realized that my family had not given me their location because I had no data plan and was in airplane mode! Then found out that they had already finished lunch and were waiting for me at a nice place. They watched me eat a full pizza in record time and we started our walk back to the parking lot. It was a long drive in traffic back to our hotel in Sorrento. Came back to the room, showered again and went down to have some hot tea. Then had to take a power nap before leaving again on yet another adventure!

All said and done, do not miss visiting this site. Just allot more time, take an umbrella and a bottle of water and then roam around at a leisurely pace!

Sorrento piers and Sunset

The previous post in this series is here..

After going back to the hotel, the kids decided we had to go to the “beach”. There was NO beach. Just sea access points. We stayed at Hotel Angelina in Sorrento for the two nights. Strongly recommend it for the quiet location, access to the sea, walkable to the city center and public bus stop, and most importantly cute rooms and a very friendly staff. They helped me park the car everytime in the garage!

Our hotel manager told us that there is a public access point to the ocean where locals rent just umbrellas and chairs for 10 or 15 Euro instead of the 50-100 through the hotel elevators that take you down. We had to walk through a tunnel. So off we went. It was a good walk and nice experience. San and the little one stayed in the chairs and relaxed while Jr. and me decided to spend 2 hours in the water.

Then we went back up. It was tricky walking with wet chappals in the tunnels. We dressed up nice again and went back to the city center for dinner. Found a nice place which had a few vegetarian options and small wait time (turns out it was a chain restaurant which is not fancy by local standards.. we found out the next day). Still the food was good and we walked to a local supermarket. Everyone was giving up on sunset and I was being lectured on being sunset crazy. Pushed everyone to walk fast towards the sea and they reluctantly came.

Have to hand it to Jr. She believed in me and told everyone not to give up. When we went to the end of the road we got to see a glorious sunset. After this it was a longer walk back to the hotel and I used Apple maps to go through some deserted lanes. That made them all worry.. but it ended up okay and we were back at the hotel.

Here are the few pictures I have from this afternoon and evening.

A short highly edited video highlights reel..

On a side note, that purplish shirt that gives off different hues under sunlight was my dads. In the last few years we would get him shirts for events which he would wear for a few hours, then shirt will be washed and put in a bureau. When he passed my mom just gave me 15 of these once worn shirts, most of which I had got him as we are the same size. Used those shirts on this trip. There was a constant reminder to see things in a different context.

If you think I am pushing Ramarajan colors, my dad used to do this 50 years ago. He got shirts stitched with the hands and pocket in a different color with the local tailor. In a drab world he got style. Guess I have to thank him for that.

Back to Sorrento.. The next day was going to be packed. We had plans in the morning and had to be back in time for the postponed Kayak trip…

Staying at a cave hotel, missed chances and saying bye to Turkey

The previous post in this series is here..

After a quick dinner at the Indian place in the village, when Jr. and me walked back up to our cave room, we were given the news that the little one will not be joining us for the balloon ride in the morning. She will be resting and hydrating and will not be up before the sun. There was to be no negotiation and given my history of saying things like “we have come all this way and we may not come here again.. etc.” there was a family restraining order of me speaking anything within ear shot of the litle one. Gave her a hug, asked her to sleep and we all crashed. It had been a long day. All day tours can be fun but draining. Too much information for the brain and a lot of walking without realizing it.. with the potential to end up dehydrated.

The hotel was told that we will be three people going for the balloon ride. We woke up at 5AM and made it to the hotel entrance where a bus picked us up. After picking up a lot more people we ended up driving to the balloon launch point. There were a 1000+ people waiting around trucks with the balloons and every company had a breakfast table setup with croissants and coffee.

Unfortunately, after an hour of waiting, our ride was cancelled. The winds were too heavy and the air traffic control did not give a green signal. Our guides said “no more waiting, we go back. we will drop you off and you will get full refund”. An hour later we were back in the hotel with only a few photos of us at sunrise to show for it. The little one was still fast asleep. When we went to breakfast later and told her we never went up on the ballooons, she just rolled her eyes and was happy she slept in. Good news was she was back to her normal self. Given our morning was a wash, we just packed, ate breakfast late (almost made it a brunch) and told the kids that we were going down to the village.

The balloon refund came in local currency. It was 120 dollars per person and what were we to do with so much in local currency when we were leaving Turkey same evening? San was determined to exchange it to Euro or USD and we walked an hour and a half to every travel agent, a Western union, local post office, etc. etc. in the Goreme village, with no luck.. Finally one of the travel offices agreed to change it. We lost some in the transaction but it was still better than airport exchange rates. When we walked back to the hotel, the girls were ready to leave.

We took some pictures in the verandah of the hotel. We have to say that this was a unique experience staying in a cave. The Kelebek Cave Hotel was excellent. The food was great. The rooms were good. The service was excellent. It is on top of the hill so everytime you walk down, you get quite a workout walking back up. All said and done, if you are a fit person, this is an amazing place to stay. Strongly recommend it.

A video of the special cave hotel experience…

It was time for the ride back to Nevshehir airport in the shared van. This time it was in broad daylight and the driver was good.

We flew back to Istanbul, then after a two hour wait at the airport and a lot of walking within the airport, flew out to Naples. Was reminded of my Turkish friend again as we flew past

The kids had combined the Amalfi coast with this trip as a “fair” compromise. All of us enjoyed all places at the end. So it worked out. Just before leaving the Kelebek hotel, I was informed that given our flight timings and train timings, we had two choices. Pay 250 USD for a one way Uber from Naples airport to Sorrento or rent a car for all three days which would be the same 250 USD. Six eyes were looking at me.. and I said fine. Will drive. That turned out to be a disguised blessing.

Will continue this series from Naples later today..