Naples

Naples was not what I expected. In my head were visions of small Italian fishing villages, with fisherman paddling to the pier with fresh produce of the day. Reality is that Naples is pretty much a full blown city. One that has a huge dock for cruise ships to unload thousands of tourists. 

This is the point of the trip where I started travelling together with two good friends from high school, Carl and Jordan. University term ended a little bit earlier for me so I thought I'll get a head start. I've already been on the road for a little over two weeks. Travelling alone has its merits but I was getting to the point where I could use some consistent company. Meeting new people every single day can be exhausting.

One should always watch their belongings here. The day of my arrival things were stolen from the people living in hostel the night before. Dodged a bullet right there. Turned out the lockers were in horrible condition. You can pull open the back portion of the lockers and access the belongings inside. I really feel for the couple whose camera got stolen. That would have been my worst nightmare and I can't imagine what would happen had I arrive one night earlier.

That night we bought fresh produce from the market and cooked some traditional Italian ragu, which is basically a variety of poultry stewed in tomato sauce for a few hours. From all the travel shows that I've watched over the years, what I gauged is that Italian food is all about family cooking fresh produce using simple methods to allow the quality of the ingredients to shine through. We shared it with some local travellers who really liked it. There's nothing like having an Italian tell you that it reminds them of their mother's cooking.