1. I wouldn't mind listening to Italian spoken all day long.
2. Gelato is not just a dessert, it's a way of life.
3. It is even more acceptable for a woman to take her top off at the beach/pool/any place there is sun and water, here than other places I've seen in Europe.
4. It's amazing to really stop and think about the history that has inhabited this place as you walk around.
5. Driving=Scary=fear for my life
6. Lots of horn honking. Honking when you go around a corner because the road is too narrow for 2 cars to pass at the same time. Honking when you see someone you know. Honking just because it seems like a fun thing to do. Lots of honking.
7. Seafood is so much better fresh
8. Italians like hard beds and flat pillows. I love flat pillows, but these were out of control.
9. It is not just a stereotype that Italians use a lot of hand gesturing when they talk.
10. News that smoking is bad for you apparently hasn't reached that part of the country, especially with women.
11. Scooters are super fun but you also have to realize that you are not protected by tons of metal surrounding you, which makes for a scary ride when you're the passenger.
12. It is somehow acceptable to eat 4 desserts in one night when you're in Italy.
13. Italy=Beautiful.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
Getting Home
(You might want to read the post before this as it kind of leads up to this point).
We had been walking all day in the hot weather, our feet were tired and we were ready to head to the airport. We got our luggage and caught an early shuttle to the airport, deciding it was better to wait in the air conditioning. I had carefully packed our bags, hoping that they did not exceed the weight limit. I had thrown a few warm clothes into our checked luggage that we would change into once we got to the airport, considering the temperature in the Netherlands was half of what it was in Sicily. We get to the airport and Dan goes to the counter to check in. We had considered checking in the night before but were too tired and figured we'd have plenty of time at the airport.
The woman at the counter tells Dan that she does not have any flights scheduled in our name. Dan assured her that we did have tickets and that there must be some mistake. She checked again and discovered that in fact we did have tickets, however they were for a 5:20 flight. It was 5:30. We had apparently read our tickets wrong because our flight from Rome left at 8. The woman told us that the flight had been delayed and if we hurried, we might be able to still make it. So we ran to another counter to check our baggage (it was right at 23 kg!or 50lbs) and got them to re-open the flight to us. They were just getting ready to board so we rushed through security and Dan was going through when "beep beep beep". Right then I knew that he had forgotten to take out his pocketknife I had gotten him for his birthday. He had planned on changing to jeans in the airport and then putting his knife in the luggage, however due to our circumstance, that never happened. He took out some coins and his money clip and attempted to go through again, with the knife in his pocket. It beeped and he had to pull it out. At this point, I was worried we would be detained or something for having that knife. This is not a small pocketknife, it's probably 3-4 inches long, folded. However, being the laid back people they are, they told him he wasn't allowed to have it but if he wanted to check another bag, he could put it in there. Unfortunately we didn't have time for that so he gave up the knife and begged them not to throw it away, for someone else to take it home and make good use out of it. He was pretty bummed.
But we made it on our flight and made our next flight out of Rome to Amsterdam. When we arrived in Amsterdam, we were not all that surprised to find that our luggage had not made it. So we stood in line with a lot of other people whose flights had been canceled and filed a report. Hopefully our luggage will make it today as all of our toiletries, including dan's contact and glasses, are in it. We wearily caught the train home and nearly froze to death since our jackets and warm clothes were still packed in our lost luggage. We were 40 cents short for bus fare for both of us from the station to our house so I took the luggage we had and rode the bus and Dan walked. Finally, we made it home about 12:30am and collapsed into our comfy bed.
It was an amazing two weeks! Definitely a trip that will live in our memories for a long time! Now it's back to the real world. However, we do have friends coming tomorrow for a few days so that will be exciting!!!
We had been walking all day in the hot weather, our feet were tired and we were ready to head to the airport. We got our luggage and caught an early shuttle to the airport, deciding it was better to wait in the air conditioning. I had carefully packed our bags, hoping that they did not exceed the weight limit. I had thrown a few warm clothes into our checked luggage that we would change into once we got to the airport, considering the temperature in the Netherlands was half of what it was in Sicily. We get to the airport and Dan goes to the counter to check in. We had considered checking in the night before but were too tired and figured we'd have plenty of time at the airport.
The woman at the counter tells Dan that she does not have any flights scheduled in our name. Dan assured her that we did have tickets and that there must be some mistake. She checked again and discovered that in fact we did have tickets, however they were for a 5:20 flight. It was 5:30. We had apparently read our tickets wrong because our flight from Rome left at 8. The woman told us that the flight had been delayed and if we hurried, we might be able to still make it. So we ran to another counter to check our baggage (it was right at 23 kg!or 50lbs) and got them to re-open the flight to us. They were just getting ready to board so we rushed through security and Dan was going through when "beep beep beep". Right then I knew that he had forgotten to take out his pocketknife I had gotten him for his birthday. He had planned on changing to jeans in the airport and then putting his knife in the luggage, however due to our circumstance, that never happened. He took out some coins and his money clip and attempted to go through again, with the knife in his pocket. It beeped and he had to pull it out. At this point, I was worried we would be detained or something for having that knife. This is not a small pocketknife, it's probably 3-4 inches long, folded. However, being the laid back people they are, they told him he wasn't allowed to have it but if he wanted to check another bag, he could put it in there. Unfortunately we didn't have time for that so he gave up the knife and begged them not to throw it away, for someone else to take it home and make good use out of it. He was pretty bummed.
But we made it on our flight and made our next flight out of Rome to Amsterdam. When we arrived in Amsterdam, we were not all that surprised to find that our luggage had not made it. So we stood in line with a lot of other people whose flights had been canceled and filed a report. Hopefully our luggage will make it today as all of our toiletries, including dan's contact and glasses, are in it. We wearily caught the train home and nearly froze to death since our jackets and warm clothes were still packed in our lost luggage. We were 40 cents short for bus fare for both of us from the station to our house so I took the luggage we had and rode the bus and Dan walked. Finally, we made it home about 12:30am and collapsed into our comfy bed.
It was an amazing two weeks! Definitely a trip that will live in our memories for a long time! Now it's back to the real world. However, we do have friends coming tomorrow for a few days so that will be exciting!!!
The Islands
Well, we made it home. Back to where the rain is plentiful and the temperature is half of what it was when we left Italy. Sigh. But I want to share about the last week of our trip! Last Saturday, we ventured off from Cefalu' by train to Milazzo, a 2 hour train ride. We caught a hydrofoil ferry from Milazzo to Lipari, where we were picked up by our hotel manager, who spoke zero English. You can communicate more than you think with someone who does not speak the same language. As we zipped through the curvy mountainside, we peered over the sharp cliffs into the deep, azure blue waters of the sea. It was absolutely stunning. There were tons of big, beautiful boats. Our guide pointed out one massive yacht and from what we could interpret, it belongs to an Italian soccer star or coach.
We arrived at our hotel and it was beautiful. Out hotel was pretty cheap because it's so far out of the main town(10 minutes is so far on an island that small). We walked into our room and were amazed by the views out our window and the doors that opened up onto our terrace, overlooking the sea. It was at that time I decided not to go back to the Netherlands.
The next day we took the bus into town and rented a scooter. I was very nervous about this endeavor for many reasons. 1. My husband likes to drive things fast and believes he is the world's best driver, which he is a good driver but these were unknown roads with sharp drop offs into the sea. 2. Have you ever seen Italians drive? There are no laws it seems, just every man for himself. Not a single stoplight on the whole island. 3. How safe can you really be on a scooter?
But it was also exciting to think about getting around that way so I hopped on the back and off we went. I can admit it, I was scared half the time. It seemed like we were going super fast(we weren't, maybe we topped out at 50 mph, on a straightaway), and I was convinced that every turn we were going to be flipping the bike over. But it was still a great time and so much fun to have the wind in your face and feel like a real Italian. The scooter allowed us to drive all over the island. We went up and down hills, around the mountain, down steep hills that we had to get off and push the bike to get back up. It was great.
We spent most of our time relaxing on the beach, riding around the island, and living the dream. :) Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head back to the mainland, where we would spend our last night. This is where we started to run into trouble.
When we got to Palermo, after an hour ferry ride and a 3 hour train ride, we were hot and tired. However, we did not know the name of our hotel or where it was located. I was trying to be more "carefree" as Dan likes, and so had just booked our hotel while we were in Cefalu. I thought we would have internet at our hotel in Lipari so I didn't write anything down. Big mistake. So we wondered around Palermo for 45 minutes in the hot sun, dragging very heavy suitcases and bags with us. I was convinced that our hotel started with the letter "B" so I asked random people but nothing rung a bell. Finally we had to go to an internet cafe, which looked like it was ran by terrorists, and google search it until I found the one that looked familiar. Luckily, I found it and we made it there safely. We might be on a terrorist watch list now but whatever.
Finally, yesterday(Thurs) was the day we were scheduled to leave. Our flight left at 8pm so we had all day to walk around Palermo. We had to check out of our hotel by 11 but they let us keep our bags there so we could walk around. We wandered around all day, sweating, feet hurting and wondering what there was to see there (not much that we could get to). We were searching for a post office to buy some stamps and we came upon the largest post office I've ever seen. It looked like a capital building or something. We ask the fellow (through a woman who is helping us translate) if we can buy a few stamps. He says, looking very distressed, "Stamps? No, that is impossible today". uhhh, really ? Impossible? Is Thursday a no stamp day in Italy? Well, whatever , so he told us about a place( a tobacco shop) where we could buy them down the street. Hmm, thanks post office for referring us to a tobacco shop for your product...anyways, we go to the tobacco shop and the woman was rude and adamant that she had no stamps. This was starting to get ridiculous. We stopped at one more tobacco shop(that only had 60 cents worth of stamps) before finally finding a satellite post office where we were able to buy stamps. It was an ordeal.
We wandered around some more until we came to this beautiful Italian leather purse shop. Immediately I found the most beautiful, pink, Italian leather purse. and it was 50% off! Which isn't saying too much because it was still expensive and would've been the most expensive purse I ever bought. Dan wanted to get it but I wanted to think about it a little more because it was a lot of money. But how often do you get the chance to buy a real Italian leather purse...from ITALY?? so we decided we would come back later and buy it if I really wanted it. So later comes around and I decide that it's too great an opportunity to pass up. By this time we are very hot and miserable and can barely walk because our feet hurt from walking for the past 4 hours. We were quite a ways from the shop but I decided it was worth the effort. We made it back to the shop, only to discover it closed. I should explain that in Italy (or at least Sicily for sure), everything closes from 1-4ish except for bars, cafe's and a few random shops. Everyone goes home for lunch. We had not counted on this(even though we had been encountering this annoying problem all week). I was super bummed because we could not wait around for the shop to open because we had to catch the bus to the airport. Oh well, maybe next time.
Now that this post is crazy long, I will save the actual getting home story for my next post. Enjoy the pics! There are a lot of them!! Remember, double click on them to enlarge them
We arrived at our hotel and it was beautiful. Out hotel was pretty cheap because it's so far out of the main town(10 minutes is so far on an island that small). We walked into our room and were amazed by the views out our window and the doors that opened up onto our terrace, overlooking the sea. It was at that time I decided not to go back to the Netherlands.
The next day we took the bus into town and rented a scooter. I was very nervous about this endeavor for many reasons. 1. My husband likes to drive things fast and believes he is the world's best driver, which he is a good driver but these were unknown roads with sharp drop offs into the sea. 2. Have you ever seen Italians drive? There are no laws it seems, just every man for himself. Not a single stoplight on the whole island. 3. How safe can you really be on a scooter?
But it was also exciting to think about getting around that way so I hopped on the back and off we went. I can admit it, I was scared half the time. It seemed like we were going super fast(we weren't, maybe we topped out at 50 mph, on a straightaway), and I was convinced that every turn we were going to be flipping the bike over. But it was still a great time and so much fun to have the wind in your face and feel like a real Italian. The scooter allowed us to drive all over the island. We went up and down hills, around the mountain, down steep hills that we had to get off and push the bike to get back up. It was great.
We spent most of our time relaxing on the beach, riding around the island, and living the dream. :) Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head back to the mainland, where we would spend our last night. This is where we started to run into trouble.
When we got to Palermo, after an hour ferry ride and a 3 hour train ride, we were hot and tired. However, we did not know the name of our hotel or where it was located. I was trying to be more "carefree" as Dan likes, and so had just booked our hotel while we were in Cefalu. I thought we would have internet at our hotel in Lipari so I didn't write anything down. Big mistake. So we wondered around Palermo for 45 minutes in the hot sun, dragging very heavy suitcases and bags with us. I was convinced that our hotel started with the letter "B" so I asked random people but nothing rung a bell. Finally we had to go to an internet cafe, which looked like it was ran by terrorists, and google search it until I found the one that looked familiar. Luckily, I found it and we made it there safely. We might be on a terrorist watch list now but whatever.
Finally, yesterday(Thurs) was the day we were scheduled to leave. Our flight left at 8pm so we had all day to walk around Palermo. We had to check out of our hotel by 11 but they let us keep our bags there so we could walk around. We wandered around all day, sweating, feet hurting and wondering what there was to see there (not much that we could get to). We were searching for a post office to buy some stamps and we came upon the largest post office I've ever seen. It looked like a capital building or something. We ask the fellow (through a woman who is helping us translate) if we can buy a few stamps. He says, looking very distressed, "Stamps? No, that is impossible today". uhhh, really ? Impossible? Is Thursday a no stamp day in Italy? Well, whatever , so he told us about a place( a tobacco shop) where we could buy them down the street. Hmm, thanks post office for referring us to a tobacco shop for your product...anyways, we go to the tobacco shop and the woman was rude and adamant that she had no stamps. This was starting to get ridiculous. We stopped at one more tobacco shop(that only had 60 cents worth of stamps) before finally finding a satellite post office where we were able to buy stamps. It was an ordeal.
We wandered around some more until we came to this beautiful Italian leather purse shop. Immediately I found the most beautiful, pink, Italian leather purse. and it was 50% off! Which isn't saying too much because it was still expensive and would've been the most expensive purse I ever bought. Dan wanted to get it but I wanted to think about it a little more because it was a lot of money. But how often do you get the chance to buy a real Italian leather purse...from ITALY?? so we decided we would come back later and buy it if I really wanted it. So later comes around and I decide that it's too great an opportunity to pass up. By this time we are very hot and miserable and can barely walk because our feet hurt from walking for the past 4 hours. We were quite a ways from the shop but I decided it was worth the effort. We made it back to the shop, only to discover it closed. I should explain that in Italy (or at least Sicily for sure), everything closes from 1-4ish except for bars, cafe's and a few random shops. Everyone goes home for lunch. We had not counted on this(even though we had been encountering this annoying problem all week). I was super bummed because we could not wait around for the shop to open because we had to catch the bus to the airport. Oh well, maybe next time.
Now that this post is crazy long, I will save the actual getting home story for my next post. Enjoy the pics! There are a lot of them!! Remember, double click on them to enlarge them
Friday, June 17, 2011
Last few days in Cefalu
Today marks our last full day in Cefalu. Tomorrow we take a train and then a ferry across to the Aeolian Islands and spend a few more nights on the island of Lipari. I've been soaking up the sun and enjoying the relaxing days.
The night before last, there was a total lunar eclipse (you might have seen the tribute to it on google). We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the moon from behind the mountain. Unfortunately, when the moon finally did rise, it was already starting to come out of the eclipse, but it was still amazing to see it partially dark. What an exciting opportunity!!!
Yesterday, Dan was able to meet me at the beach on his lunch break. On the beaches, they have these Chinese women who come by and offer to give you massages, right there on your beach chair. Well, these ladies in front of me were getting what looked like amazing massages and I heard the Chinese woman say, " 5 euros"!!!! 5 euros for a 30 minute leg and foot massage?? Yes please! So I motioned her over after she was done and she was very excited that she had another customer. So I got a very nice leg and foot massage on the beach yesterday.
We also ran into 2 Dutch women. I noticed them speaking Dutch and asked if they were from the Netherlands and they were! They were from The Hague, which is a few kilometers south of where we live! We had a nice, random conversation in the ocean, lamenting about the weather we all had to return to.
Our hotel has a wellness center where they also do massages (unfortunately not for 5 euros though!). I had a Swedish massage by a real Swedish person!!! It was amazing and really felt like kinks were getting worked out.
I love being on vacation here. I'm pretty sure I will sink into a deep, dark depression when we get back to the Netherlands. Luckily I have friends arriving a day later and then we leave for France in another week to see part of the Tour De France with some friends. More on that later. Now, it's time to start packing up. I'm not sure what the internet situation will be on the island so if there are no updates, you know why. I will update when we return next Friday if I can't before then.
The night before last, there was a total lunar eclipse (you might have seen the tribute to it on google). We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the moon from behind the mountain. Unfortunately, when the moon finally did rise, it was already starting to come out of the eclipse, but it was still amazing to see it partially dark. What an exciting opportunity!!!
Yesterday, Dan was able to meet me at the beach on his lunch break. On the beaches, they have these Chinese women who come by and offer to give you massages, right there on your beach chair. Well, these ladies in front of me were getting what looked like amazing massages and I heard the Chinese woman say, " 5 euros"!!!! 5 euros for a 30 minute leg and foot massage?? Yes please! So I motioned her over after she was done and she was very excited that she had another customer. So I got a very nice leg and foot massage on the beach yesterday.
We also ran into 2 Dutch women. I noticed them speaking Dutch and asked if they were from the Netherlands and they were! They were from The Hague, which is a few kilometers south of where we live! We had a nice, random conversation in the ocean, lamenting about the weather we all had to return to.
Our hotel has a wellness center where they also do massages (unfortunately not for 5 euros though!). I had a Swedish massage by a real Swedish person!!! It was amazing and really felt like kinks were getting worked out.
I love being on vacation here. I'm pretty sure I will sink into a deep, dark depression when we get back to the Netherlands. Luckily I have friends arriving a day later and then we leave for France in another week to see part of the Tour De France with some friends. More on that later. Now, it's time to start packing up. I'm not sure what the internet situation will be on the island so if there are no updates, you know why. I will update when we return next Friday if I can't before then.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Storming the Mountain
Today Dan had a half day at his conference,which was exciting because that meant I didn't have to spend the afternoon alone! We decided we were going to hike up this mountain that holds an ancient fortress and a temple to the Greek God Diana, or in Latin, Artemis. She was the goddess of the woods and hunters. Artemis was daughter of Zeus and Leto, twin sister of Apollo The fortress and the fortifying walls were built sometime during the 11th and 12 centuries and while most of the castle is ruins now, the majority of the wall (which you'll see in the pictures) is the originals. This is said to be one of the oldest structures still standing in Sicily.
King Roger built this fortress to ward off invasion. At one point, even the pope was getting worried about King Roger's rise in power. It's pretty amazing to see in real life.
So we hiked up this crazy mountain, sweating like mugs, anxious to get to the top where our efforts would be rewarded. When we got to the edge of the wall, overlooking the sea and city, our breaths were taken away. It was amazing. Words cannot begin to do it justice so I will let you see for yourself. I also took a video for your viewing pleasure:)
King Roger built this fortress to ward off invasion. At one point, even the pope was getting worried about King Roger's rise in power. It's pretty amazing to see in real life.
So we hiked up this crazy mountain, sweating like mugs, anxious to get to the top where our efforts would be rewarded. When we got to the edge of the wall, overlooking the sea and city, our breaths were taken away. It was amazing. Words cannot begin to do it justice so I will let you see for yourself. I also took a video for your viewing pleasure:)
Day 4
Today was fairly uneventful and I didn't take a lot of pictures. I mostly hung out by the pool, allowing my sunburn from the day before to heal. While laying by the pool, I discovered this orange tree!
I wonder if this is where they get our oranges for our freshly squeezed orange juice every morning? Later that evening, I met Dan and friends in town for dinner. We are really enjoying our seaside restaurants but are running out of them! I forgot to mention in my last post that the restaurant we had eaten at the night before, we received an odd charge on our bill. The charge was for 4euros and it said something x2. We asked our waiter about it and he motioned to the silverware and place settings and said, "it's for the knives and stuff". Hmm, so apparently we have to pay extra if we want things like knives and forks. weird.
Last night I had clams over spaghetti in garlic butter sauce, similar to our appetizer the night before. It was delicious. Dan had a pizza.
This was our view at the restaurant
and what would a night be without dessert??
Today we are going to hike a mountain and I'm going to try and convince my daredevil husband not to get to close to the edge...I'll let you know how that goes.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Day 3
Monday was the start of the conference for Dan and his friends so we were all up bright and early at 7:30 to eat breakfast before they headed out. I went back to bed (hey, it's my vacation!) and then got up and went to the beach for the afternoon. While at the beach, I noticed 4 older ladies, probably in their late 50's, who had been there the day before. It was very obvious these women were on a girls trip of sorts and were probably old friends. They were laughing and having a great time. They all had their tops off (not uncommon in Europe but still takes some getting used to) and were enjoying their last day of vacation. As they were leaving, they were waving and giggling at the lifguards who were half their age. They asked me to take a picture later (tops on) while we were waiting for the hotel shuttle to pick us up. They told me they had been there for a little over a week and between the 4 of them, had bought 30 pairs of shoes!!! These were my kind of ladies. It was something I could see myself doing in 30 years with some of my great girlfriends.
Later that evening, I went into town to meet up with Dan for dinner. On the shuttle ride down, there were 2 women who were a little older than me and I noticed they were speaking Dutch to each other! I asked them if they were from the Netherlands and they said they were from Belgium, but spoke Dutch (Northern Belgium speaks Dutch, Southern Belgium speaks French). It was a nice connection to make.
When I got to the center, the conference wasn't out yet so I toured around town, seeing different sights. I went into this old basilica, built in 1130. It was beautiful (there are pics in the slideshow). Prior to going in, the man at the front asked that I put my jacket on my shoulders, apparently no bare shoulders allowed. It was amazing to think that parts of that building had been there so long.
Afterwards, I met up with Dan and just the two of had dinner. It was nice. We ate at this restaurant overlooking the sea again (different restaurant than before but similar view). I tried clams, made in a garlic and parsley sauce. They were amazingly delicious!! and I don't like seafood. We shared that as an appetizer and then I got a pizza with fried eggplants on it and Dan got grilled swordfish. We shared a bottle of wine and lamented about how we do not want to go back to the Netherlands. We ended the night with some gelato. Of course.
Our friends luggage finally arrived last night. We have no idea where it was the whole time but were glad they found it. Hopefully things go smoother on the flight home for all the luggage!
We are loving Italy. I love the language, the food, the beauty of the ancient surroundings, everything! Hmm, maybe I will have Dan look into doing a post doc here in Italy after we finish with the Netherlands.
Later that evening, I went into town to meet up with Dan for dinner. On the shuttle ride down, there were 2 women who were a little older than me and I noticed they were speaking Dutch to each other! I asked them if they were from the Netherlands and they said they were from Belgium, but spoke Dutch (Northern Belgium speaks Dutch, Southern Belgium speaks French). It was a nice connection to make.
When I got to the center, the conference wasn't out yet so I toured around town, seeing different sights. I went into this old basilica, built in 1130. It was beautiful (there are pics in the slideshow). Prior to going in, the man at the front asked that I put my jacket on my shoulders, apparently no bare shoulders allowed. It was amazing to think that parts of that building had been there so long.
Afterwards, I met up with Dan and just the two of had dinner. It was nice. We ate at this restaurant overlooking the sea again (different restaurant than before but similar view). I tried clams, made in a garlic and parsley sauce. They were amazingly delicious!! and I don't like seafood. We shared that as an appetizer and then I got a pizza with fried eggplants on it and Dan got grilled swordfish. We shared a bottle of wine and lamented about how we do not want to go back to the Netherlands. We ended the night with some gelato. Of course.
Our friends luggage finally arrived last night. We have no idea where it was the whole time but were glad they found it. Hopefully things go smoother on the flight home for all the luggage!
We are loving Italy. I love the language, the food, the beauty of the ancient surroundings, everything! Hmm, maybe I will have Dan look into doing a post doc here in Italy after we finish with the Netherlands.
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