I'm not ready to leave yet, the three weeks have flown by so quickly! I can't believe the trip is almost over. Anyway, here's what we did on our final day of paradise. After waking up early at a nice 10:00 we had a casual breakfast and then went to the sea! We went to Aci Castello and met up with 3 of their friends at the beach underneath a castle. It was very fun to swim one last time! Sadly ciccio's go pro broke after jumping in the water without fully sealing it! Afterwards we walked around to a cafe then a sand which shop fof a late lunch. Then we met up with more of their friends at Erica's house. They had a bunch of friends over for a pizza dinner/picnic which was a lot of fun. Around 9:30 we had to leave to come back and get a good nights rest for the early 6:15 flight tomorrow morning. I can't express how much I'm going to miss it, it feels like I landed just a few days ago. I've met quite a few people and this trip has surely been the best. That's it for tonight! Goodnight! ( below are a bunch of pictures of the motorcycle and me on it along with my lunch)
Sorry for not posting yesterday, however I honestly did nothing until 9 o'clock. We went to Simone's house (a friend of Marco's) and met a bunch of Marco's friends who were hanging out together. Marco said it was for Mack's birthday but we really just hung out like any other Friday night, the only difference was they sang Happy Birthday to him in English (pretty well actually) and Marco got him a mini cake that tasted like a Dairy Queen cake. Afterwards we went to a square that was close to his house and it was filled with people. We ended up migrating through a bunch of restaurante and cafés and talking to a lot more people. While outside of some pizza place we ran into 3 American kids! They were from Oklahoma (I don't remember the city) and were traveling for 3 weeks in italy/Greece with people to people. It was unimaginably nice to speak with other English speakers and talk to them. Well, that was about it for the night. The next morning we went to the beach to was the sunrise and it was dreadful and wonderful at the same time because I was exhausted. For breakfast we went to a cafe near by and had granita. I'm determined to stuff down as much granita as I can before I leave it in Italy. Then we went home and I slept, slept and slept some more. I have no idea why I was so exhausted but Ciccio woke me up for lunch and asked if I wanted to keep sleeping or have lunch and I choose to continue sleeping. It wasn't a very good choice as I'm not very tired now here at 2 in the morning. Anyway after I finally woke up from that hibernation Ciccio and I took the dog on a walk around a different part of his neighborhood which was interesting. Then came home and his mom had made me an early special dinner because I skipped lunch. I was incredibly gracious as was my stomach. Tonight we went to some suburb of Catania by the sea. They all sound similar and Ciccio told me the name of it while on the motorcycle (I'll get the picture eventually I promise) so I didn't hear it. It was insanely busy, I've never seen so much traffic in Catania especially not in a suburb of it. The cars were backed up like crazy and had we not been able to drive around all of them we would've waited for 30-40 minutes. Tonight seemed very uncordinated because the majority of the night was driving around, we occasionally stopped and walked around but then we would lose people and find other people who want to go somewhere else. I didn't mind it though it was fascinating to see so many people and start to recognize people I know and remember names! Well, one day left and I'm going to miss it so so so so so so so much. It's amazing here from food, to weather, to people and it will be a long flight home leaving such a glorious island and returning to a 111 degree high on Tuesday. For starters, I'm shocked that it's already been 16 days and we only have 3 days left! (4 technically but our flight leaves at 8:15 in the morning Monday so I wouldn't count that as a day). I wish the program was longer than 3 weeks I don't want to leave yet! At the same time though I'll be glad once I'm finally home. The original plan for today was to stay at Stromboli until like 7 or 8 O'clock tonight, however the weather was terrible and was only going to get worse. The transportation boat company was saying that they potentially would shut down that night because of the weather so we ended up leaving at around 1. The boat ride back to Messina (1 hour and 50 minutes) was dreadful, the boat was rocking, swaying, and waves were hitting the widows with quite a bit of force, yet I was still able to sleep for most of it. So after reading other blogs, it seems like most people just post a bunch of pictures then explain what they are, so here it goes. The first picture is me on the beach this morning with my new hairstyle (thank you wind). Picture two is me showing the size comparison to 95% of the cars on Stromboli. They are tiny. Picture three is of the boat that transport all the people on the island to and from Messina. Pictures 4 & 5 are of Stromboli's weekly transportation of everything that the island needs to survive basically. There were about 20-30 trucks (like actual trucks not the fake ones as seen in picture two) that filled off the boat and held everything. There were board carrying wood, food, gas, a few mopeds, an electrician, electronics and those were just the few trucks that I could see what they contained. After we finally got home I still felt sea sick so I went and slept. I feel like I've slept an abnormal amount on this adventure of my life but oh well. I also finished the last book of the divergent series so that was interesting and a very relaxing activity. After dinner we went to Marco's house for 3 hours and just hung out with Mack and him. Not what I was expecting as we just spent 3 days living in the same hotel room but it was still fun. I said my goodbyes to Marco's little brother Mateo, or Paco, because he leaves tomorrow morning to go stay with Marco's dad for a month or something like that. It didn't really hit me that I won't see him again in person, if ever again, until now. He was quite the Italian teacher and helped me with pronunciation when others gave up so shout out to Paco. Well that's all for today, I dread the last few days as I don't want it to end! P.s Mateo's nickname is Paco because he's only 13 but grows a mean mustache so his brother (Marco) just started calling him that one day and it stuck with him. First and pretty much only item on the agenda for today was to go on a boat tour of Stromboli! The island is surprising larger than I thought it was just not a whole lot of people are on the other sides. The tour guide/boat driver took us to the east side of Stromboli where there was a population of like 30 people and a very long walk to said houses. Although, we did end up walking to the village and taking some pictures. I don't have any of the group photos because the moms took them all but here are the ones I took. The third photo is of the walkway up to this little viewing platform where I took the other photos, and the island you can see in the distance of photo 2 is other Aeolian islands. Around the entire island the water is completely clear and you can see the bottom it's incredible. We stopped again at the south side of the island and swam (or took a bath as they say here). It looks a lot shallower than it is because of how clear so it took a little bit of convincing until I willingly jumped off the boat instead of taking the ladder into the water. Here are some other pictures of volcanic rock formations along with the current path that lava flows from the eruptions at night. The last photo is of a mini island off the coast from Stromboli where there's a tiny light house and incredible cliffs. Then the 2nd to last one is off the north side of the island where all the people live. After the tour, we spent most of the afternoon in our hotel room and I'd say we all bonded from learning some Italian to Mack getting slapped with a handful of shaving cream and filling our hotel room'a bathroom with the shaving cream (which of course we cleaned up & picture below). I learned that I can't pronounce any Italian words that start with z because I sound too American or something. I also learned how to count to 100 (thank you Marco's little brother for suffering through that adventure with me), how to order ice cream, how to ask for the water to be passed to me, how to say that I'm American and I don't understand. I still haven't a clue on spelling so if I find that out maybe I'll post something, otherwise I'll just have to tell you in person or spell it how it sounds in English. As for the night we just had a simple steak dinner with fries, then we walked around the island with our flashlights (thank you mother for having me pack one!) because there are no street lights on this island. WAKING UP AT 4am SUCKS. But after forcing myself to get up and shower it actually wasn't too bad. We took to the rode soon after and drove to Messina. At 7 we took a boat from Messina to Stromboli island, which took about an hour and a half. The island is shockingly small at first but it gets a little bit bigger as you walk around (only a little). This is about the entire island, and there's no rhyme or reason as far as I can tell for the placement of anything. Once we got settled into the hotel (very nice hotel), Ciccio, Marco, Mack and I all immediately took like 4 hour long naps and it was amazing. We are sharing a room and I'll post some pictures of them all sleeping while I was awake to show you the room. In addition to the large hotel room by European standards, it also has the largest shower I've seen and it's wonderful. I'd never thought I'd miss my shower at home but it's hard not being able to move your arms freely while showering. I have hit my elbows on almost everything in the shower at ciccio's house. After we woke up, we went to the black sand beaches. While trying to avoid burning our feet, we finally got to where we would set up camp. 15 minutes later when Mack and I were going to go swim Marco found several jellyfish and we had to leave the beach so no swimming for today. For dinner we went to a place up the volcano that could only be reached by a 15 minutes car ride that these 2 mini minivans taxi'd people up. Imagine a 4 foot wide minivan driving up a 4 foot 4 inches wide road and that's basically what we did. The road was all uneven cobblestone so incredibly bumby and very sharp turns, kinda scary. This held 7 people, a baby stroller, a baby, and a driver. Anyway once we finally got to the restaurante it was bellissimo (gorgeous). The volcano erupts about every 15 minutes and in a pitch black sky you'd see chucks of red rock flying into the air and you could watch it roll down the hill. Absolutely amazing. However, because it was so dark I couldn't take any pictures if it and have them turn out visible. Hopefully I'll be able to get them off of ciccio's go pro once we get back to his house. Once we got back to the hotel I also had the pleasure of video chatting with Chandler, even if the video was very glitchy as he put it. Well that's all for today! First day in Stromboli! Exciting thing of the day #1, I made myself breakfast today with no help! Then we killed time for a few hours while Valeria was cooking lunch. We had pasta with tomatoes and some type of pork and peas! It was lovely. Then we killed another hour until we left to go to Andrea's house (Ciccio's best friend). Although we didn't really do anything there either, we eventually left for the mall which was a lot longer then just a "trip to the mall". It was like a 5 hour drive around the mall, stop at a shop, drive around more, stop, talk, etc. However, I did get another present and almost got 2 presents but the shop was closed so oh well 😔. On the way we also stopped at some roadside shop that had the most random items, but I did happen to find a charger for my kindle FINALLY! Then we went home, I charged my kindle, read my book again, and took a small nap. Then we went to ciccio's neighbors house for some pizza and to play FIFA 14 while watching the actual matches. That's about it for today, I have to wake up at 4am here to catch a boat to Stromboli island! If I don't make any posts that's because the island might not have wifi so yeah. (You can't tell in the picture but my kindle charger glows in the dark.) So day 11 started with ciccio's mom, ciccio and I having to be at the airport at 6 for the flight at 7. We got there at around 6:10 and made it through no problem (small-ish airport and we flew through security). The airline was a Spanish airline so all the flight attendants only spoke Spanish and English, so that was nice. Their "slogan" I guess you could call it, was "keep calm and breath" although it was only on a few items they had throughout the plane. We got into Rome at 8:20 or around then, so it was a fairly short flight, and even shorter on the way back. We took a bus to the metro and then the metro to the middle of Rome, then from there we walked to our hotel, hotel city. Before I get into the only part of the trip I really didn't like, I'll start with saying if you go to Rome DO NOT STAY AT HOTEL CITY! They don't have wifi and it was bad. Anyway the only part of the trip I was extremely uncomfortable in was the metro. It was packed with people and everyone was running around. But the worst part was when we finally got on the metro people were yelling "Gypsies!" Over and over then the group of gypsies migrated towards us and got all close to us and one started rubbing my arm and it was so creepy. Once Valeria (ciccio's mom) saw them touchin my arm she started yelling at them in Italian and they backed off thankfully but still. I won't be going back on the metro anytime soon. Onto something nicer now, Rome was beautiful even if I know very little of all the statues and monuments and stuff. We took a tour bus around that showed a lot of the monuments but their English Channel wasn't working so I didn't get to hear any of the history. Oops. Anyway I tried to take lots of pictures but a certain parts everyone in the bus was standing and taking pictures too so I gave up and just sat back down. Nonetheless I still have a lot Of pictures. Alright so the first picture is of me on the plane at 7am because I woke up at 5 and had a solid 4 hours of sleep so i was exhausted. Picture 2-5 I'm not really sure what they are but our tour bus circled around them so id assume they are important right? Picture 6: This is Italy's version of the Tomb of the unknown solider. It was originally built by Mussolini and the fascists in two years (if I remember correctly). Anyway after they all died the government didn't really like the idea of having a facist building so tomb of the unknown solider instead! Also I don't have a picture of it but to the right of the building was the building where Mussolini have all his speeches. So I stood where a bunch of fascists stood cheering for Mussolini 80-90 years ago (please remember exact numbers are not accurate because it's extremely late when I write these blogs). Picture 7-8: Of course the coliseum! We didn't go inside because that is like a 2 hour long line plus another hour or two to walk through it all and we didn't have the time. Picture 9: I thought it was an aqueduct so I took a picture of it, but like I said the tour bus didn't have An English Channel. Picture 10: The Vatican! Sadly we didn't see the pope but through all the touristy items I basically saw him. Picture 11: The Pantheon! From what I understand it was and is a really large church that has a little bit of several religions inside. In addition a lovely facist section, as shown in picture 12. Picture 13: I'm not really sure but it looked cool at night so why not?! That basically wraps up all of Saturday Day 12! We woke up, I showered laying down in a bathtub, quite the difficult experience. Had some breakfast from the hotel. Probably the only nice thing the hotel did was have a designated staff solely to make coffee, so I had some ridiculous strong coffee that I didn't like the taste but woke me up. Then we went to Mack's and his family's apartment with all of our luggage. Stayed there for an hour or so as Mack and Marco got ready. Then we set out on the days journey of gift shopping. We made it about 50 meters until Marco, his younger brother Mateo, and Ciccio, had a genius idea of screaming that we are tourists to everyone (picture below). Yes, we rented this bike thing for two hours and it was dreadful as we were on limited time because we had to be back at the apartment at 2:30! After riding around dying of heat and embarisment, we finally returned the rental bike, only to get another 50 meters until Marco and Ciccio ran into the Adidas and Nike shop, with brand new World Cup cleats and jerseys! So of course they had to take a look at everything although it was insanely expensive. If I thought some American clothes were expensive try 150 euros for a jersey (not signed or anything). At around 1 after a mcdonalds lunch we finally started our hunt for gifts. As we were on a crunch for time and limited distance we could travel by foot our gift options were limited so I only ended up getting 3 things even though I had planned out 6 gifts that I wanted to get! Oh well. Some people will have to settle for gifts from Catania instead of Rome. The concludes the trip after a short 50 minute flight back to Catania. We had pizza for dinner and a restful evening after such a busy two days. Sorry for writting so much today but a lot happened and I could probably write more but that's alright. Goodnight! If you suffered through my grammar errors and regular English class level of education thank you! So there's a lack a of wifi in Rome for me. As in this fancy restaurant that we are eating at is the first time I've had it and our hotel doesn't have wifi! So I figured I'll just do a big blog post for the entire Rome trip once I get back in Catania. So expect that late Sunday evening (arizonan time). Here's a few pictures to tide you over 😉. As the half way point in the trip came and went, I already don't like the though of leaving in only 10 days! It really is amazing here and I love it! With the sea being only 5 minutes away, being able to ski on mount Etna an hour or so away in the winter and the temperature not being over 100 degrees, I'd say it has a few more perks that Phoenix. Anyway, I didn't wake up until 12 today, then I didn't actually do anything until 2 and that was only lunch. For lunch we had breaded beef with the Italian version of French fries (triangular shaped chunks that were fried) both of which were delicious. Then Ciccio took off for his exam at around 3. While he was out I proceeded to play a videogame in Italian which is a lot harder and almost more fun than playing in English, take a nap, and watch a little English television for the first time. While it was only CNN, it was still nice to hear English. The Italian version of the DMV seems to be similar to the American DMV in that Ciccio didn't get home until 6:30 because he was sitting around for awhile. That basically is all I did today which made it a kind of boring day. Although I'm sure tomorrow and Sunday will be extremely packed with things to do as we are only in Rome for 2 days and have a lot to see and do! So I didn't really mind having a boring lazy day today. From my understanding Mack and his host family were suppose to be at the airport at 6am today (yesterday technically as it's 12:28am) and flight was suppose to leave soon after, however, his flight got canceled AGAIN then his backup flight at 3pm got delayed another hour I think, so long story short he finally got to Rome at 6:30pm. I think I've discovered who's luck caused our first flight to be canceled (Mack :P). Before I go, I almost forgot! I had the chance to video chat with Emmott over snapchat today, although the wifi isn't so good here it was still nice to see and talk to him! Alright that's all for today. With yet another early morning at 8:30 we awoke to go to Mount Etna. Fun fact, it's the tallest volcano in all of Europe at 10,922 feet. Anyway, it was a fairly long drive as far as I can tell..however every time I've gotten in a car here instead of ciccio's motorcycle I instantly fall asleep. When we arrived it was pretty chilly even though I had my jacket and pants on, primarily because of the wind though. Incredibly strong winds. Sadly, it was 60 euros per person to go to the very top and that was a little too pricey so we just walked up a side mountain that was very steap instead. Some other Italian up there was nice enough to take a picture of the 4 of us..but as you can see his finger got in all of the pictures :( . It was super cool to look out the mountain and see the ocean almost all the way around. After we hopped down we had hamburgers for lunch (they weren't bad for being un-American :P), we ran into a mob of Ferrari's. There were 94 Ferrari's at this car event (put on by Ferrari but all the cars were individually owned). Every single Ferrari looked gorgeous and they lined the streets and people were driving them all around this little touristy street halfway up the volcano. That was pretty much all we did today, other than play videogames at home, hangout with his friends for a bit, walk the dog, and of course took a nap. Mack and Marco leave in like 4 and a half hours to Rome but Ciccio has his fast car driving license test tomorrow. Here in Italy you can drive a 50cc car or motorbike at 14, a 125cc at 16, and over 125cc at 18. After a quick google search I understand that on average the top speed is 45mph, 70mph and above respectively. Since this was kind of shorter I thought id share a little about Italian driving. It's scary. There's probably a total of 3 stop lights I've seen here (intersections at least). The other stop lights are for pedestrian walking, and they are always blinking orange, red, solid red, but never green. Long story short most drivers just slow down enough so that they can stop if they see a person, but blow right through the light. There's a ton of roundabouts and if your on a motorcycle from point A to point B you might come to a complete stop once or twice. Otherwise it's all just a matter of going faster or slowing down to make space for yourself. (Not to scare you mom, I wear a helmet don't worry 😜) Anyway, driving home late at night is way nicer than during the day because there's very few cars so you can take in the view of the city. Thanks for reading, goodnight! |