| 21st Sept 2009 Today is the official last day of the tour. It started off well with no hot water in the hotel (5 Star in the area) so Chris did not have his morning shower (lucky me I had one the night before…hehe). After about an hour ride we made it to Pompeii – the city which was buried by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD. This town was totally preserved by the falling ashes from the mountain and it was found quite recently. We walked around the ruins and was amazed by the layout of this particular city, how well preserved the streets were and the way Roman society was ran back in the days. There were roman fast food shops where you can still see the stove at the shop front – even the rails in the stone for the sliding doors for the shop. We tour around this once rich town and saw a lot of interesting buildings and ruins. Everything from people’s houses to the local brothel (the fresco on the walls of different sex position – as in you can choose which prostitutes can do what position!! And also the phallic symbols scattered throughout the town pointing towards the red light district). We proceeded from the red light district down through the main street of Pompeii, where more wealthy citizens would have lived, as well as the main shops of the town, into the forum, where all the roman government buildings were, this was the main centre of the town, the heart of the city , there we were introduced to some of the remains of the population of Pompeii, basically there was a storage area in one of the buildings on the edge of the forum, in which there were some of the bodies lay from the previous inhabitants of the city! When the archeologists where excavating Pompeii, whenever they came across a hollow part of the solidified ash they would drill a hole into the cavity and inject plaster, thereby as they continued to dig, they would be able to dig up the mould of the body that was created by the cavity. This meant we were able to see some very eerie and frightening looking plaster castes that were left behind of the cities in habitants in their final moments… both of us agreed that this was a very disturbing sight indeed… After viewing the bodies we were lead out of the ruins into the surrounding tourist area near the entrance t o the sight, where we both had an expresso, man… it was tiny and very very bitter, we discovered why there is an accompanied packet of sugar that goes with this tiny shot of coffee, its almost like you need to add equal parts of sugar to coffee… !!! we also found a naughty postcard set of the different frescos in Pompeii…. It did the rounds on the coach when we boarded and gave many of our fellow, passengers a giggle… After our coffee and our tourist souvenir shopping, it was back to the coach and on wards towards the town of Monte Cassino, to visit the Commonwealth war memorial, which was dedicated to the battle that took place there during WW2 apparently there was about 45000 allied soldiers died in that battle, it kind of brought a very somber, tone to the tour and left everyone feeling a bit flat before heading to lunch, as it was a reminder to those who had gone in the past. It was a good experience to see… however there weren’t that many Aussies buried there as this was not a battle where they took a major role in, however it had more significance to the Canadians on our tour as well as the Americans. It was a sobering reminder of the futility of war…. We left the war memorial, and headed off on our final trip back to Rome. We stopped off at our last Italian truck stop for lunch…. Very different to Australian truck stops, we both were very surprised how good the food is for a truck stop… after a tasty lunch, where chris managed to eat half a pizza… we were back on the road…. As we approached Rome, we stopped off at the catacombs whilst those of the tour who didn’t want to see them, went back to the hotel. I didn’t realize what the catacombs were until we were actually inside them, they were basically an undergrounds system of tunnels where the early Christians buried their dead in the first centuries AD. It freaked me out, as we walked through the tunnels where there were holes in the walls where people were once buried, there were a few more decorative tombs, with large frescos, above the tombs, we both were expecting to see a spirit appear or something down one of the side tunnels, or a hand or something to grab you as you walked past some of the holes In the wall, too much supernatural watching for the both of us. We both found this experience a bit disturbing but interesting at the same time…. After our necropolis experience we headed back to our hotel, and were both very pleasantly surprised to be in a comfortable hotel, and able to have a hot shower and prep ourselves for the evening ahead, the final evening of the tour in Rome, as we pasted the streets we saw the sights we saw on the first night in rome, although it had only been a little over a week it felt like a month ago, since we saw them. It was a very bitter sweet evening, it was very enjoyable, and everyone was enjoying themselves, there was singing as we had our own private room… there were many bottles of wine drunk that night , we all ended up our group back at the hotel afterwards for a final drink together before we all headed back to bed. We said our farewells, to those who were leaving early, I believe there were a few tears in a few of the women’s eyes. We were also able to chat to Andie that night, as she joined us for drinks which was not usually the practice, but it was the final night, but I can understand why, I mean you work all day and you need to get away from what you’re doing occasionally. |
. I almost forgot that HK Harbor was so nice….
and it wasn’t pricy at all!!! 
. The night finished at around 2 am in the morning. The rest of them went to have supper but Chris and I went home, still sober yet a bit tired…
and Sing Ji (not sure what that is in English..). Chris ordered some meaty noodle just to be save…hahah
(When we were waiting for our car there were Porsches and Lamborghinis parked in the front. The bell boy was telling us that there was a wedding party upstairs – must be someone rich!!).
to pick us up as he knew I would be all cranky and tired after such a long trip! After checking in at our room at 7am in the morning, we went down to get some breakie before having a good rest on a proper bed.