Pompeii

Okay, so I heard this was a terrible movie.  But this was easily one of my favourite stops of the cruise.

Being a wimp, I decided to pay the silly shore excursion fee and let someone else guide me through the ancient wasteland.  The first thing was to hike up Mount Vesuvius.  The volcano (which is still active) is about 1,200 metres tall.  Luckily, the bus took us up the first 1,000 metres (through a number of harrowing twists and turns), and then we just had to hike up the remaining 200.  Sadly, a haze had settle over Naples that day, so we couldn't get the view of the city or of the island of Capri, where most of our group had gone.  But the view of the crater was excellent (once we got there).

Mount Vesuvius blew up and destroyed the neighbouring towns like Herculaneum and Pompeii in 79 AD.  This was exactly 1,900 years before I was born.  For the closer towns, everyone was pretty much killed instantly, but Pompeii was destroyed 2 days after the eruption.  Someone asked the tour guide why the people didn't run away.  The simple answer was that, at that time, nobody knew what was happening.  We take knowledge for granted so much these days.  A click of a button and we can learn about anything we want.  Imagine, there was a time when people didn't know what a volcanic eruption was, or that they should get the hell out of there when it happens.  On the other hand, even with all of this crazy technology, some things still remain a mystery...

"But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?"