We had nearly missed our bus to the airport and now were about to miss our flight to the next destination. With time running out and an extremely long security line at Dublin International Airport, we just barely managed to get past security to only find out that our gate was on the complete opposite end of the airport. Our cousins, who were supposed to be on the same flight as us, had just arrived to the airport minutes earlier and were checking in. We started running to the gate not realizing that it was what felt like a mile away. Even while sprinting, it seemed there would be no way we made it to the gate in time with only minutes to spare. It was not until we reached the gate panting and sweating profusely that we learned the flight was delayed by two hours. And no, there was no mention of the delay on any of the flight trackers. It was infuriating at first, but we were ultimately just thankful that we would all be making the flight together.
The wedding festivities had all come to an end after an eventful, but quick trip in Ireland. Next stop, Naples, Italy. We didn't have a lot of time, but a few days spent in Italy with the entire family before heading back home sounded like a great way to end the trip. Due to the delay, we arrived in Naples a bit past midnight. We managed to find a driver who was willing to take all seven of us in his taxi van on a 20 minute journey to the Airbnb. He seemed like a very friendly guy at first, even though he spoke very minimal English. Everything was going fine until we got to one part of town that looked a bit ominous, and he started driving in circles. Now Naples is a unique town during the day that definitely has it's upside, but there are certainly parts of town that are very sketch, especially at night. When we asked if we were going in the right direction, the driver didn't say anything and looked over with a slightly angry look in his eyes, which startled me a bit to be honest. He then began driving very fast and proceeded to go into this dark alley and then all of a sudden stopped the car and rolled the window down. A group of guys started approaching the car as he began speaking to them in Italian and that's when we all started to panic wondering what was about to happen next. My mom immediately started saying a prayer in the backseat and we started yelling at the guy to give us an explanation. Luckily, nothing happened and he pulled out of the alley and proceeded to continue driving. At that point, my uncle and cousin pulled out the GPS on their phone to make sure he was heading in the right direction, and we collectively considered asking him to just let us out of the car and find another taxi. The driver in the meantime still wasn't saying anything and kept driving before stopping next to another car and yelling at him before handing him over a phone. He finally drove a bit further onto a dark street and then stopped to let us know we had arrived at the destination. We looked around and there were no signs or lights and everything just looked dark. All of a sudden, a gentleman opened this large door to a building, and we confirmed with him that we did in fact have the right location. We paid the driver and he then left, but that was certainly not the experience we had hoped for to start our journey in Italy. Although it was a bit of a struggle finding the apartment unit in which we were staying in, it ended up being far more superior and spacious than we expected when looking at the exterior of the building.
First day in Naples
The next day, the goal was to make our way to Pompeii, but not before making a pit stop at the what many proclaim to be the best pizza in the world in the city where it all began. All reviews said you can't make a trip to Naples without visiting the iconic L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele. While online reviews consistently said to expect to wait in line close to two hours, we managed to come a bit before the lunchtime rush on a weekday, so we only had to wait about an hour before receiving our pizzas. As told by locals, the proper way to eat the slice was to roll the sides of it inwards toward the middle and then bite into it like a sandwich. It was a proper Neapolitan margherita pizza that was light and airy with simple, yet fresh ingredients and an excellent tomato sauce base with mozzarella cheese and basil on top. Now was it the best pizza I've ever had? Probably not, but it's right up there for sure.
Margherita Pizza from da Michele
No caption necessary
Can't go wrong with a few cannolis for dessert
Given the fact that we had to catch a train that evening to Rome, we had little time remaining to visit Pompeii, which was the main reason for coming to Naples. Pompeii is an archeological site in Italy's Campania region. It was once a thriving Roman city that ended up buried in ash after the catastrophic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. We only had a little over an hour to explore Pompeii, but we were determined to still go, so we purchased the transportation ticket to take us there and began the quick train ride to the site. When we arrived in the town, there was supposed to be a bus to take us from the train terminal to the entrance of the ruins, which was included in our ticket. However, after waiting for nearly 20 minutes and seeing multiple buses pass us by, we realized that we were just wasting time and decided to walk to the entrance. We ended up wasting so much time that only my dad, uncle, and one cousin ended up purchasing a ticket to explore the ruins. They said it was cool to witness, but definitely needed more time to take it all in.
Later that evening we took a 90-minute bullet train to Rome, Italy to begin the next leg of the trip. I had been to Rome a few years back with a friend and was fascinated with how the city was laid out. You had your modern streets and buildings intertwined with cobble stone streets and ancient roman architectural wonders centuries old. Coming a second time to see everything again gave a new perspective and almost felt relaxing in a way, because I wasn't so concerned with rushing around to see everything in the limited time we had.
Rome family dinner
Not only was it the seven of us, but we were also joined by some of our other cousins bringing the total to 11. While we certainly had our struggles and differences of opinion on what to do or where to eat while walking around in the humid summer heat of Rome, we managed to enjoy our time together and make the most of it. With that being said, we even managed to see all the major attractions, including: the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Spanish Steps. Rome is a great city with a lot to see, but you really don't need to spend too much time there and the best food in Italy is outside Rome.
Trevi Fountain
The whole crew at the Pantheon
Roman Colosseum
After a couple days in Rome, we then made our way to our final stop in London, UK. Everyone only had about a day left, while I was going to be staying a whole week to work remote from my sister's apartment there. Many people have mentioned before that London is just another big city that is gloomy most of the year with little sunshine (which is true to some extent), but the summers there hit different. While it certainly can get hot, the city is so vibrant with people out and about having a drink standing outside the plentiful pubs around town, as well as some of the most beautiful parks I've ever seen. From Hyde Park to Regent's Park to Kensington Gardens, the city is abundant with what it has to offer. You can stroll through the parks to find people playing spikeball, tossing a frisbee around with their dog, music street performers, Muay thai classes, people dancing and singing, and even religion street debates. The latter was something new to see where I just happened to stumble upon a group of Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs all gathered around each other facing off in cordial open debates about various controversial religious topics. At times, the debates got very heated, but when it was all said and done, they always ended up in a peaceful and friendly embrace. It was extremely comforting to see such an event taking place among people from all different backgrounds and beliefs together in one place exchanging differences of opinions. This was simply something that you rarely get to witness anymore given the times we're living in.
Sunday Religious Debates at the Park
During the course of the week while in London, I would work during the day and walk aimlessly around the city, stumbling upon new neighborhoods, people (including Amy Adams), and restaurants.
SOHO District at night
Amy Adams at The Glass Menagerie debut
I even had the opportunity to visit the famous epidemiology monument, the Broad Street water pump, where John Snow (the father of modern day epidemiology), managed to trace down the source of a major cholera outbreak back in the mid 1800s using mapping techniques for disease outbreak investigations. Snow concluded that access to the uncontaminated water prevented users from cholera infection, while users of the pump became infected. He persuaded the doubtful civic authorities to remove the handle from the pump and within days cases dramatically dropped.
John Snow pub (birthplace of modern epidemiology)
Oftentimes, we hear a common stereotype that the food in the UK sucks, because it's bland and lacking in flavor, but they make up for that with the melting pot of cuisines from other cultures around the world, particularly Indian food. In fact, the national dish of the UK is chicken tikka masala. I could go on and on about the food in London, but I'll just highlight a few of the best foods that I still think about to this day and highly recommend others to try when visiting London.
If there's one food I crave the most, it would have to be the prawn curry laksa from Phat Phuc Noodle Bar. It's a popular street food curry noodle soup dish in Malaysia and Singapore packed with flavor and what I like to call comfort food.
Prawn Curry Laksa (10+/10)
The other top highlight was another Malaysian dish consisting of spicy king prawn sambal with veggies, rice, chutney, chilis, and a flaky roti all served on a banana leaf from Gopal's Corner.
Spicy King Prawn sambal banana leaf platter (10/10)
While the fish and chips and meat pies were staples and must tries while in London, they were nothing to write home about. Given the large middle-eastern presence in London, I couldn't leave without making a pit stop to Edgware Street (a street full of middle-eastern restaurants and shops) to try some phenomenal Lebanese food as well a trip to Lahore Kebab House for some Pakistani mutton nihari (a rich, buttery, slow-cooked meat stew made with bone marrow).
Mutton Nihari (9/10)