Naples

Just after I found out I had got one of the jobs I applied for, my recruiter rang me back and informed me that the company I was joining was having a company weekend away at Naples the week after I joined. A brief summary .... Photos here
Getting up way too early Friday morning I took a minicab to Liverpool St station, Stansted Express to Stansted and then the 0725 EasyJet flight to Naples, arriving Naples just after 11. The fun started with getting a taxi to the hotel. Bargaining was required and a price of 20 Euro was settled on (Fares over the weekend to/from the airport of other members of our group ranged from 18 Euros to 40). Driving in Naples is really something you have to experience to truly appreciate the level of chaos involved. Random lane changes, shortcuts, congestion, incessant honking. If evolution applied to cars in Naples, their indicators would have disappeared long ago.
The hotel was pretty sweet, but unfortunately we were too early to check into our rooms so we dumped our bags in the luggage room and made plans.
The others on my flight wanted to go to Capri, but I was keen to go to Pompeii, so we headed our separate ways. The streets of Naples seem to be laid out especially to confuse. After a couple of attempts at shortcuts through the backstreets I gave up and headed to the main street (Corso Umberto) and followed it up to the train station. Bought my train ticket (about 2 Euro) to Pompeii Scavi on the Sorrento Line and headed for the platform. Fortunately didnt have long to wait for the next train. The train ride to Pompeii isn't exactly what I would call scenic, but there are some nice views over the bay. Train journey took about 40 mins from downtown Naples.
Getting off the train at Pompeii, it started raining. I think Mother Nature had probably struck a deal with the poncho/umbrella touts. As the rain began they seemed to appear from nowhere, selling whatever rain protection they had on offer. I was safe in the knowledge that I had been clever enough to bring my umbrella. After a minute of searching for it, I realised I wasnt quite so clever after all, it was back at the hotel. 4 Euros later I was armed with a new umbrella, bringing my total number of umbrella purchases for the year to three (Beijing, St Petersburg and Naples!). Bet you're glad you waste time reading this.
Ticket to get in was about 10 Euro. Had foregone the free maps on offer, on the left as you walk up to the ticket office, as I had a Naples guidebook with one in. Unfortunately, this meant I also missed out on the rather substantial info guide, with information on each numbered location, that they were also handing out. Too bad I only noticed this on the way back out.
Pompeii was amazing. I wasn't expecting it to be so large. The rain was a bit of a dampener (I crack myself up) but it probably did mean it was less crowded that it could have been. Spent about three hours there wandering about at random. Was kind of cool not to have a decent map, exploring at random instead. It is quite strange wandering around the ruined town, looking up at Vesuvius in the distance, thinking, "This will probably happen again some day .....".
Caught the train back to Central Naples and walked back to hotel (which went quite well until I left the main road and got completely lost after about 2 turns !). In the early evening we all met up in the Hotel Lobby, had a few drinks and headed out for dinner (Pizza of course!). The rest of the night involved, well, drinking. Lots and lots of drinking.
Saturday we had a meeting at two. There were a few sorry looking people. What did I do Saturday morning, you ask. Ummm. I slept. It had been a late one. Saturday evening was Company dinner and then, hmmm, more drinking. Fade out.
Fade in Sunday morning 9am. Waking up. Hungover. Again. Packed and headed down to the hotel lobby. Checked out and caught a taxi to the airport with some other folks from work. Arrived at the airport to find out plane delayed 2 hours. Aaaargh. What better place to spend 2 hours - not. Finally we caught our plane and got back in to Stansted around 4 in the afternoon.
It had been a long weekend. Didn't really get to see that much of Naples, but did get to know most of the people I will be working with at my new work. Wouldn't mind going back to Naples some day and having a proper look around. One day ..... Photos here