wooow. continuation....went on the tour to Rome.
amazing.

Vistited and toured the Coliseum. its mind blowing that it was built so long ago, and is still standing. theres a ton of history behind it too. good stuff.

also toured St. Peter's Basilica, a part of the Vatican. that was awesome too. its overwhelming all the gold and jewls and paintings and statues that are in there. got some good pics and a couple movie clips.
i really wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, but me and my liberty bud ran out of time so i didnt get to see it. but other fellow OS's saw it and got some great pics, so i might have to steal some.

toured the Roman city and ate some really good ravioli, italian style.

also visited the naval base in Naples. its real small. went to the NEX and got some supplies for myself. walked around a bit too. pretty cool.

all in all the Naples/Rome port visit was freakin awesome. hope we come back sometime soon.


so right now we are on our way to Souda Bay, Crete, an island off the coast of Greece. that should be really cool. we stopped there last year, but only for food and gas. this time we will have the opportunity to explore the island a little bit.
cant wait!

okay. yesterday i went to Rome. it was in-freakin-credible!

got to visit the Coliseum...ita amazing how long ago it was built, and is still standing! it was huge too.
also went to the Vatican...also very amazing. the paintings and carvings are magnificent.
went sightseeing around town and ate some awesome italian food...sweet.

afterwards me and some OS's went to a local bar in Naples, and got a little drunk of course...we had to walk back to the liberty boats, which took twice as long than it should have! ha good times.
all in all, it was a day very well spent.
Today i went to the naval base just outside of Naples; went to the NEX and got some stuff, walked around a little bit too.

Tomarrow i have duty, then monday we leave. kindda sucks, but at least i spent the other days having fun. definetly impressed with Italy!

these six months might just be a good six months...

wow.....how long has it been?
too long.
so today was the first day of our first port visit. where? Naples, Italy.

its freakin awesome.

but ill tell about that later.

to begin....the drive back to Norfolk was LONG. but i made it. that weekend i got a real bad sore throat....hurt a lot to swallow and stuff....and i felt like crap the whole weekend. i think i might have had strep. but i got over it, monday i dropped my truck off at long term parking....tuesday we left for Cruise 6-6-6.

that day was my last day of FSA duties....no more serving food! back to the OS life....crazy as usual. not even two days out shit hits the fan. people crackin. cheif wigging out. four days into the transit the email crashes; it doesnt get fixed until a week and a half later. i now have a collateral duty...charts. me and another OS are now in charge of all the chart corrections, updates, drawing tracks, courses.....the whole sheebang. its very exhausting, but it'll help my evals. lets see...i got major sea sick about a week out...that sucked. throwing up so bad i couldnt even keep water down for a minute there. so yea, but things are good now. i catagorized all my music on my computer....sweetness. cool stuff: saw some whales on the way to italy. that was cool. only all i saw was the tops of their blowholes....but still cool. something "one-in-a-million"...my boss brought a thing of peanuts on watch one day...and i happen to be on watch at the exact same moment...and while i was bored i happen to read the label on this can of peanuts....and the distributer was Aldi from Batavia, IL......i was like "holy shit no freakin way." i literally had to read it three times to be sure. what are the odds?!?!? i thought that was cool enough to share.

anyway, Naples.

me and two other buds went out into town today. we were walking around...looking at the sights...got lost of course....the uaual. it was cool. the president of Italy drove right past us, not more that 10 feet away that was pretty neat....people here drive like maniacs....streets are narrow and people walking is of abundance...we stopped for some ice cream, and damn is it sweet! very very good...so all in all a very kick ass place. i signed up for a tour of Rome for friday. looking forward to that. basically this port is going to be top notch. cant wait to get out in town again and check out the bar scene haha...

thats about all i got now.
tired and ready for sleep.......until next time..................

back again. good old VA.

the drive was a long one. started at 10am thursday and got to the ship at 530am friday. wow was i tired.

all in all my time at home was bad ass! it was one of the coolest 10 days ever spent. cant wait to return in december.

now im just getting little things i need for the deployment. monday i turn my truck over to long term parking, get my phone "suspended", pay any last bills, and talk to anyone before we head out tuesday.

i think it will be a fun rest of the year.

well the day has come.
the end is in sight.

today is the day i head back to VA.
all in all my leave here at home was a complete blast. i saw pretty much everyone i wanted to see. i did just about everything i wanted to do.
and now i will return to the ship, and in a few short days i will be underway for Cruise '06.

whats to be taken from this? what memories are made? how many smiles did i put on people?

these questions and more need not to be answered, because the point is i had tons of fun and it was well worth the pain, sweat, and blood i shed while home.

and so in a few short hours i say goodbye to my family, goodbye the my house, and goodbye to the life i once had as a civilian; one that i shared these past 10 days of greatness, until December when once again i will indulge in the good life.