Zackberridge’s Weblog

I never heard of this place until while doing some research I found a website for a small hostel in the city.  I initailly thought it was and hour and half outside of Rome, but was rather shocked to learn the day before my arrival, it was 6 hours south of !  It took 3 trains, and a lot of sitting to finally arrive at my destination.  From 10am, until 10pm I was on the road, sitting, sweating, and anxious about what was to come.  The sunset I saw from the train along the ocean side while going thru Pompei was a sign of the extraordinary beauty that was in store.  The Hostel host picked my up and I joined the group at a nearby cafe for some……..drinks!!  It felt kindof weird being the new guy, but after 10 min and 2 beers I was engulfed in conversation with some folks from Austria about music and guitars (and the worlds worst movie, ‘Hercules in New York with Arnold Strong’) It was hilarious hearing the drunk Austrians mockingly quote the movie because they sounded just like Arnold, ha!  We got in late that night, and woke up to a nice breakfast provided by the host.  We strolled thru the town in search of an internet cafe, and grabbed some pasta ingrediants from a very cheap market. (I bought a liter of water, one kiwi, and a pack of pasta noodles all for less than one Euro, equivalent to about a dollar).  We came home and devoured the meal and were watching a moving while waiting to go to the beach.  Three australians and Jon from San Diego were the new arrivals for the day, so we all piled in the car and went to the beach.  The water and view were spectacular, and instead of sand, the beach was full of small, smooth stones.  It was a little better than Galveston (just a little, LOL) I thought.  Than night the two austrians, Erin from Whales, and I had 6 bottles of wine and Klause (austria) had his guitar, so we all went to the beach around 1am and Klause and I played music until 6am. IT was probly the best night of my entire trip because the energy from the four of us was very positive and very accepting of each other (and of my musical flaws!). Its the kind of night that may never be matched by any other.  The following day, the 3 australians, California Jon, and I loaded into a small boat at the beach, navigated by PaPa (the hosts father) and we explored the grottos in the nearby island, as well as the main reason why I went to Praja, for the cliff jumping!  We jumped from 3 different heights; 8 meters, 16 meters, and 22 meters!  We jumped into the most amazing blue water Ive every had the experience of swimming in.  After my 2nd jump from the highest point I realized that the crotch of my bathing suit didnt survive, so that was the end of my swimming adventures.  That night I waited and hour and half for a train that was supposed to take me to another town where I would board another for Rome, however, not a single train stopped at the station, so I had to stay another night and get up at 5am, after 4 hours of sleep, and jog 20min (with all my luggage straped to me) to the station.  Well, I missed the street to the station, and so my jog turned out to be and hour run to the next town.  I finally made it to the station just in time to miss my train, so I just caught the next one and hour later. By missing that train, the snowball effect carried on and on, and eventuallly caused me to miss my flight home, and not being able to visit Rome.  I found a B&B to stay at that was 10min from the airport, and was right on the beach; very nice turn of events. Then next morning I was on the plane, first class and 7 glasses of Italian Red wine, and was glad to be coming home.  I also have to mention the flight leaving Rome was an hour and half late, which cause me to miss my connection flight from New Jersey to home, so I had to take my last leg in seat in coach.  There is a slight difference in flying coach and first class, but by then all I wanted to do was get to Houston, which I eventually did 3 hours and a sore ass, later.  My parents and Junebug picked me up from the airport that night and I realized very quickly that I did not miss Texas weather nor Pasadena pollution.  Oh, ya, and because of my travel delays I had a miss a concert that night that I had planned 2 months in advance to go to. But hey, I was home safe and whole and thats all I really cared about.  My next post will be my final thought. Cheers!