Herculeum #lol connor was here

Herculeum

We went to Herculeum which was a village like Pompei that got buried by the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79AD.

It was lots of fun because we could see how back 2000 years ago they built stuff

 

 

 

I also took funny photos because I was bored.

 

I was AMAZED how there were still carvings on the walls after 2000 years

 

Some houses were bigger than others and the owners had many slaves.  All houses were built with an identical layout that included a winter garden where there was hole in the roof where rain came through and was captured in the pond beneath.  This water was used to clean the house by the slaves.  The bedrooms, kitchen and office was around the edge of this pond.  The summer garden was just like a NZ garden with the bedrooms based around the garden. 

 

And it was a fishing village right by the sea but then it got covered by the volcano and now it’s more than 1km away from the sea.

From #lol connor was here

Amalfi Coast - written by Marvin

Given the reputation of driving the  Amalfi coast we decided to leave early, I didn’t fancy meeting too many tour coaches on narrow roads hundreds of metres above the sea.  We left at 7am and the first stage is to wind our way out of Sorrento heading up and over to the south coast of the Sorrentine Peninsula.   The aim was to have breakfast at Positano, which is the first town of the coast proper.  We hadn’t really thought about the lack of parking, which seems obvious now!  About two kilometres out from the town centre, the parked cars made the unbelievably narrow roads even more narrow.  We missed the one turn down to town centre, so that was it we carried on with no opportunity to turn around. 

The scenery is breath taking (as is the local driving), incredible sheer cliffs with houses perched on the edge, stacked upon one another like cupcakes.   In a few kms we came across Priano, which was smaller, and yes, it had paid parking on the main road, so we stopped and risked life and limb to walk about 200m back along the road to a café.  There is something surreal about sitting at a table on the edge of a road with cars whizzing past with the hair on your arms bristling.  All the usual daily activities take place, the local bus was making its way around, small delivery trucks double parking to rush fresh produce in shops, and at one point there was a car reversing back down the narrow lane.

The locals treat the road as a one way according to their direction of travel, and only move over when car comes the other way.  Still something I can’t get used to.  Overtaking anywhere, anytime is a national past time.  Also talking on a mobile phone while driving a scooter appears popular, as is smoking.  We arrived at Amalfi about 10-30am and parked near the port, where local market was on.  Amalfi was already alive with tour buses and groups of travellers.  The temperature was just right for strolling along the breakwater, then exploring the town.  Being a tourist town, it had the usual assortment of food and knick-knack shops.  We had an early lunch in a tavern with pizza and cannelloni. 

We headed further inland to Ravello, a hilltop village, the decided to carry on back to the autostrada and on to Sorrento, rather than going back along the coast.  The Amalfi road takes about two years off your life every time you drive it, there is no time to relax while driving, although I would rather drive than be in one of the buses.  Still not sure how the car managed to stay unscathed.

Mt Vesuvius! written by Katie!

Mt Vesuvius is huge its got a huge crater because 2000 years ago it blew up and covered Pompeii in ash and rocks and covered Herculeum in mud.

On Monday we went there  it was a huge mountain and the height of the crater is 1,200m tall,that's like half the size of Mt Taranaki!

Since we were walking higher it got a bit foggier with all the clouds around us. We walk past lots of souvineer shops and I got a box of 8 different types of crystals and rocks even lava, don't worry  it's cold lava so it's turned black. ( I can bring them to school when I get back.)

The next day we drove to Herculeum and Pompeii, these are the two towns that were affected by the BIG Vesuvuis eruption 2,000 years ago.

Adjusting to life in Campania - written by Anne

I’ve found a new homeland; Sorrento & the Amalfi Coast are just breath-taking.  The scent of lemons & oranges is everywhere.  The views are either shady, leafy orchards with HUGE lemons, orange, cherry & olive trees OR the breath-taking beautiful coastal views overlooking Mt Vesuvius, along the Sorrento Peninsula & out to Capri Island.  Nothing beats sitting back with a cool lemoncillo topped with sparkling wine and just taking it all in!

 

The Campania driving is a new thing all together (Marvin will blog about his take on driving the Amalfi Coast), but to me the driving illustrates the people – chaotic, risk taking with a touch of aloofness/arrogance, but all done in a friendly way.  All the cars are tiny (think Fiat Bambina, Fiat Punto), and the vast majority are full of dents and scraps especially on their fenders.  Take a typical NZ street & turn it into a 4 lane highway, put in bumper to bumper cars driving along, add in the cars parked on the side of the road (despite the NO PARKING signs) and then put in the pedestrians as there are no footpaths outside the one main street.  Then narrow the width of the road to half & turn it into cobblestones with a few potholes – now that is driving along the Amalfi/Campania coast!  The people think it’s normal to overtake on blind corners, vespas permanently sit on the centre line & just serve in and out to overtake & avoid the oncoming vespas.  Take the speed limit and add 30 – 50km and that is the speed they travel!  Needless to say, it is so exciting and terrifying at the same time  – who needs a bungy jump over here, just get behind the steering wheel!

 

 

It’s a great novelty to have a kitchen & cooking facilities again after 3 weeks in Asia of street food.  The kids take responsibility for planning each evening meal, then going to the market to select & purchase the food & drinks.  Marvin & I are the washer uppers!  Every day finds a new type of bread, cheese, cold meat, pasta that the kids insist we try. Homemade Caprese salad, homemade pasta sauces, lemoncillo and a different chianti every night for the grown up’s!

The campground is perfect & the kids, with football and swimming being the main interactive activities to meet others.  Already they have meet English, Koreans, amazing Italian soccer buffs.

What a life we are having!

 

 

 

First Impressions of Italy/Day one! Written by Katie

When we arrived from Thailand into Rome I thought WOW! I could see the beach, houses, land and, lots of other stuff you would probably see in Europe.

 So when we arrived at Rome airport there was a huge queue to the passport control, as you probably think in Italy!

We got our car and drive 3 hours to Sorrento which was our first destination in Europe. On our drive to Sorrento we stopped on top of a tall hill and looked over Sorrento, and another town near Sorrento! As we arrive at our campground I think it’s going to be awesome exploring all over SORRENTO! ( Have you seen the colours I’ve been using guess what they mean all together.)

 Hint: flag

Angkor Wat - written by Katie

             Ankgor Wat!

Now Ankgor Wat is not just your normal temple… it is huge, it’s like the biggest temple I’ve ever seen in my life! Its 640,000 square metres on the outside walls. You know how I said ‘the biggest temple’ it is actually the WORLD’S biggest religious temple.

 

We ride on a tuk tuk to it; we went through some jungles and villages to get there. When I saw it my first impressions were: Wow, amazing, huge, awesome, and ancient. We had a tour guide which was very good, because he told stories and facts like these:

·      If you mucked up the carving you would get your head chopped off.

·      It is 1000 years old.

·      They used a lifting thing to lift up heavy stones.

 

Around it was a huge moat; it had a long bridge probably about 70 metres. There were a lot of things to take pictures of; here are my top 5 favourite pictures I took.

 

Writing in Cambodian. 

 Monks at the temple!

 Amazing Carvings.

 

 

looking down temple hallways!

We had lots of fun exploring around: Ankgor Wat , Ankgor Thom, Elephant Terrace and lots more.. (pictures down below of other temples)

 

 Ta Prohm, where Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones was filmed!

Angkor Thom, Bayon, smiling faces

I had a great day exploring around Siem Reap’s countryside as well. I would absolutely recommend this if you ever go to Siem Reap.