Running Down Mount Vesuvius in Sandals.
It is a widely known fact that Mount Vesuvius is 17,000 years old, with the oldest rock being about 300,000 years old.
It is also a widely known fact that wearing sandals on a day you know you're going to climb a mountain - a very old and rocky mountain - is not the best idea.
But as usual, reader, I had forgotten to check in with common sense.
During our visit to Campania, which we did through a student travel company called Smarttrip, one of the highlights was that we got to climb Mount Vesuvius. To say the view from the top was breathtaking would be an understatement.
It was a very dull and windy day, and the top of the mountain had disappeared behind a thicket of clouds. So as we slowly trudged on to the top - correction: I slowly trudged on because of all the times I had convinced myself workouts were boring; Harry was way ahead of me - little streaks of 'cotton candy' had begun to pass me by. As I went higher, and the streaks turned into clumps, I started to get smacked in the face with it.
I was not complaining. Getting smacked in the face with clouds was on my bucket list.
It felt like walking through smog, but it oddly also felt like flying. Part of that probably had to do with the fact that when you looked to your right, you could see the whole world, albeit that whole world was really only the city of Naples, huddled together like little specks of humanity.
Of course, then we had to come back down.
We were behind schedule for that day and so the tour guides gave us about 15mins to go all the way to the top and back down; they made it very clear not to be late or they would have to leave without us. We knew this was a true fact, because when we visited Pompeii, they left a couple of people behind and only went back for them because there was an uproar caused by the people in the bus.
Going up, we kept the time in mind, but as we got to the top, with the excitement and awe, we seemed to forget about it.
Needless to say when we remembered, we ran down Vesuvius like our lives depended on it.
Running down Mt. Vesuvius in inappropriate footwear wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Sure, I tripped on a few rocks and some loose soil, and I couldn't feel the soles of my feet for a few hours, but at the end of the day, once again, my 'scatterbrain-ness' created a story, a memory and an atypical adventure that I can look back on and laugh.
And reader, isn't that what study abroad is supposed to be about?
It is also a widely known fact that wearing sandals on a day you know you're going to climb a mountain - a very old and rocky mountain - is not the best idea.
But as usual, reader, I had forgotten to check in with common sense.
During our visit to Campania, which we did through a student travel company called Smarttrip, one of the highlights was that we got to climb Mount Vesuvius. To say the view from the top was breathtaking would be an understatement.
It was a very dull and windy day, and the top of the mountain had disappeared behind a thicket of clouds. So as we slowly trudged on to the top - correction: I slowly trudged on because of all the times I had convinced myself workouts were boring; Harry was way ahead of me - little streaks of 'cotton candy' had begun to pass me by. As I went higher, and the streaks turned into clumps, I started to get smacked in the face with it.I was not complaining. Getting smacked in the face with clouds was on my bucket list.
It felt like walking through smog, but it oddly also felt like flying. Part of that probably had to do with the fact that when you looked to your right, you could see the whole world, albeit that whole world was really only the city of Naples, huddled together like little specks of humanity.
Of course, then we had to come back down.We were behind schedule for that day and so the tour guides gave us about 15mins to go all the way to the top and back down; they made it very clear not to be late or they would have to leave without us. We knew this was a true fact, because when we visited Pompeii, they left a couple of people behind and only went back for them because there was an uproar caused by the people in the bus.
Going up, we kept the time in mind, but as we got to the top, with the excitement and awe, we seemed to forget about it.
Needless to say when we remembered, we ran down Vesuvius like our lives depended on it.
Running down Mt. Vesuvius in inappropriate footwear wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Sure, I tripped on a few rocks and some loose soil, and I couldn't feel the soles of my feet for a few hours, but at the end of the day, once again, my 'scatterbrain-ness' created a story, a memory and an atypical adventure that I can look back on and laugh.
And reader, isn't that what study abroad is supposed to be about?
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