At that time: 1776

.... more precisely: On July 4, 1776, the 13 existing British colonies in North America were officially referred to for the first time in a document as the 'United States of America'. And not on any document, but on the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, which allowed them to develop into a sovereign and democratic federation of states.

It is no wonder that this day must be celebrated in a big way throughout the country! This is also the case in Naples. With a parade in the morning and fireworks in the evening. We were very excited about both, as we had heard about them several times before.

Unfortunately, house facades were hardly decorated at all and upon closer observation, we noticed that hardly any house had a flagpole in the garden. Oh! What's going on here? Well, we let ourselves be surprised.

In the morning, we set off around 9:15 am towards the old town center to hopefully find a parking space. Around us, we already saw some people orienting themselves towards the parade route, carrying umbrellas, folding chairs, cooler bags, and, of course, some accessories that were meant to honor this holiday. We joined this ant chain and it led us to a green corner of the street, where a huge tree and a nice pavilion provided a lot of shade - although it was in the third row of the parade, we still preferred the shade.

At 10 o'clock, loud salutes thundered through the air (I didn't count, but traditionally there should be 13), the siren of the fire truck briefly wailed, and it started. Somehow, my media-influenced imagination expected loud fanfares, marching bands, tambourine-spinning girls, trumpet players, people in clothes from 1776.... Well, what can I say... that's the thing with imagination and expectation... even on the highest holiday of this huge country.

So it started and you could admire a city fire truck, many old cars that were decorated and prepared to advertise various political people (Trump supporters were also present here), there was a gymnastics group, a few craftsmen were advertising, and the scouts were also there.

Only occasionally were there groups that I could somehow integrate into my expectation and which also belong to it, in my opinion. So in between, there were about three floats scattered about with war veterans who were applauded with great respect.

Then we had the pleasure of listening to the national anthem played by a violinist who was riding in a convertible, and a little later a huge flag was carried by many proud hands. Suddenly, everyone stopped, a man asked everyone to stand up, take off their hats, place their hand on their heart, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance with him.

That's exactly how it should be, I thought. And to be honest, I really liked it. Showing respect to older gentlemen for what they have experienced and survived is very honorable, and hopefully this status will help them process or bear many experiences and still have a strong identity in old age that they can be proud of. It would be too political at this point, but I want to see it on an individual level and think of my recently deceased grandfather, who also had to carry a large package of unprocessed war experiences throughout his 94-year life.

Singing the national anthem together also creates a very unifying moment. It seems that there is no such basis for this outside of football in Germany. I think that's a shame, and at this point (unexpectedly for myself) I say 'Thank you, football! At least a little bit of national pride can come up at this point!'

Another group that presented themselves were teenagers in uniforms with machine guns or something similar. They were shooting blanks into the air. I asked other spectators about it: apparently, during high school, there is the opportunity to join the army on the side and learn some basics - including the use of weapons. For me, it was a very shocking image, but for the other onlookers, it was normal. This brought back a memory: at my old workplace, a teenager spent a few weeks in the summer vacation visiting his grandpa in the USA and got in good contact with his American cousin who was the same age. Both were about 17 years old. So, 'my' teenager could experience and compare rules and regulations of two different nations. When he returned, he noticed something that I couldn't help thinking of when I saw the teenagers at the parade: 'You know, in America, I'm old enough to drive a car and go to war in foreign countries at the age of 16, but I can't drink beer. I can only do that when I'm 21 years old. So theoretically, I could already be dead without having had a simple beer beforehand.' Yes, he formulated it well, I think....

Well, the parade had passed and we made our way back to the apartment. Did I mention that despite the big holiday, almost all stores were open? Kind of a shame. A man in the supermarket said to me 'it's all about the money!'...

After a 3-hour nap, which was very helpful for our evening plans, we tidied up the apartment, packed a suitcase, and discussed a possible trip next week.

In that time, the sky darkened and very large thunderclouds rolled over the city. Eventually, it started to rain. Nevertheless, we tried our luck and went to the beach to admire the promised fireworks. However, we quickly gave up on that idea because rain is one thing, but powerful lightning is something else. No one should walk on the beach in that situation. So we drove at a snail's pace behind a long line of cars from one side of the city to the other, where the big fireworks display was supposed to take place at the pier. Our new plan was to find a good parking spot and watch the fireworks from the car. But we hadn't counted on so many other people having the same idea. So we had to be patient and squeeze through the street with the flow of traffic. When we arrived at the planned parking lot, the rain actually stopped and we had about 5 minutes to walk to the pier, where we just caught the last notes of the live-sung national anthem and then the fireworks started, accompanied by beautiful music. It was really great and even though it was already 9 pm, Frederik held on bravely. Unfortunately, I forgot to put the memory card back in the camera, so there are no pictures of this. But you all know what fireworks look like. What was extraordinary for me were rockets that exploded into hearts or multicolored smileys after being launched. And what added the finishing touch to it all were the incredibly long sharp flashes that burned huge glowing images into the dark sky at the same time as the fireworks.

When it was over, the same thing happened as on our way there - everyone wanted to go home, of course. So we made our way back at the same slow pace, only this time it was after 10 pm and Frederik became very uncomfortable. Finally, when we arrived home, he just said 'bed' and voluntarily went into the bedroom. We followed him soon after.

On Tuesday morning, the beach and the sea were on the agenda again, and something unbelievable happened: right in front of us, only about 10m away, two dolphins were swimming in the water and enjoying the abundance of small fish. Unique, exciting, beautiful, and for me a true gift to be able to experience that!

And of course, I had left the good camera at home this morning  🙈🙊🙉

I struck up a conversation with an older gentleman on the beach, whom we saw passing by us every time we went to the beach. This time, he was picking up the trash from the previous evening. After an accident, he had broken his spine and it seemed that he would never walk again. Two emergency surgeries and a lot of physiotherapy later, he was discharged with the instruction to walk as much as possible. And that's what he does. Five miles on the beach every day, and in the meantime, he collects trash. Every day, a large bag full. It's great that there are people like him!!! 😊👍