Seeing the HOLY SHROUD!

The Holy Shroud BLOG!
Two days ago USAC put on a field trip to the Shroud. Now I know this is going to sound ignorant, but I had no idea what the Shroud was until I moved to Torino, as well as no idea where it was kept. When micki and I first got to Torino we were on our very first Torino walking tour and found out that in the last ten years this Shroud has been locked up for no one to see. Micki and I knew that we had to go and see it. So April came and it was time to see this famous Shroud, now the background on the Shroud-- The Shroud is a linen cloth in herring bone weave measuring approximately 4.41 x 1.13 meters, containing the double images placed side by side of a man who died after being tortured and crucified. Two black singed lines and a series of gaps frame the image: damage from the fire that took place in Chambéry in 1532, where it was kept at the time. According to tradition, it is the Shroud mentioned in the Gospel that was used to wrap the body of Jesus in the sepulcher. This tradition, even if it has encountered much verification from the scientific investigation made on the Shroud, cannot yet be called definitively proven. On the other hand, it is certain that the Shroud, by merit of the features captured on it, is a direct and immediate representation that helps the faithful to understand and meditate upon the dramatic reality of the Passion of Christ. It is for this reason that the Pope has defined it as the “mirror of the Gospel”.—thank you google ☺ this sight was something that I have never seen before… it was so beautiful! When we all met in Piazza Castello we walked over together to get in line for the Shroud. Walking on the other side of the piazza it is filled with trees and parks, it was shocking! I kept saying, ‘where are we? Are we still in Torino?’ it wasn’t used to seeing green let alone life in Torino because of the winter time. The sun was out and shining and all I could do is close my eyes, tilted my head back and took the sun… ahh I love the sun… where have you been… I’ve missed you! When we walked through this park we formed a line… now Italians DON’T form lines… its more of a clump if you will… but I was surprised that it was so organized and well laid out… brava!
As we wait to go inside they show us a movie of the Shroud basically explaining all the different parts of the cloth and what we are looking at. Because to the naked eye.. I wouldn’t have seen half of the things they showed me on this video before we went into the duomo. Something else I didn’t know was that everytime that they take out the Shroud for the public to see in some way it get more and more torn, takes a small beating because it is so delicate and fragile. When we waited in line to go and stand in front of this amazing cloth, micki and I noticed these guards that had these weird feather duster hats on… so of course having the sense of humor… thank you dad… I was making fun of them bobbing my head back and fourth cleaning off the Shroud… it was pretty funny just showing micki what I meant… of course we were the only ones that find a joke out of this whole experience. But we stood right in front of it, and I got pictures. It was INCREDIBLE! As I stood there and looked at the Shroud and thought… wow, he was really short!’ looking into the face of Jesus was incredible, actually being able to see this is extraordinary… no words, no words. Leaving the duomo I obviously mentioned out loud that he looked small and micki told me that people were smaller back then because it is evolution that is making us bigger. And then of course I said, ‘soooo in like another 100 years we will look like Avitars?’ she said, ‘yes, yes we will!’ walking back to the main square I announced to everyone how lucky we are to live here, and to travel the world and see the things we’ve seen. I kept thinking… people go their entire lives not seeing even half the things I have seen, and I feel so lucky everyday to have given this opportunity and thank my parents everyday for sending me here…. And giving me what I have always wanted. And I hope when I have kids that I give them half the love and freedom my parents have given me… my parents mean everything to me. I love you guys!

Ps: if you want pix of the Shroud email me and I will send them to you!

I LOVE YOU ALL! I am home soo soon! Weird!!!!!!!


xoxoxooxoxox

LAKE COMO!!!!)(*&^%$#^^&*

BLOG! Lake COMO!!

So micki and I got these eurrail passes for Christmas from our parents and since then we have been trying to use them to the ultimate MAX, so last weekend micki and I decided to take a trip to Lake Como. Now you guys all probably know this George Clooney has a villa here that he vacations too, I thought for sure we were going to see him… ehhh not so much. We take a super early train from Torino because we wanted to get there and kayak and bike and hike knowing that we only have one night here so we should take full advantage. So we get to Como around noon the same day and the sun is out the water is like crystal clear… and the view is amazing! We hop on a ferry from the station and get to hostel. Now the actual time spent trying to book this hostel was another mission in itself! I called the whole week before looking to see if there is openings for 5 girls to stay, the owner told me ‘no’ but he does have an apartment that’s a 20 minute walk away from the hostel. I cleared it with the girls they didn’t care so we told him that we would do that. After like 10 conversations on the phone with this guy… NOT KIDDING the night before I get an email from him saying that they have room for us in the hostel but we would have to split up… uhh FINE buddy! I’ll figure it out when I get there. So then we get to the hostel and this super nice girl checks us in and tells us all about this BBQ that they were having tonight for 10 euros and all the things it includes and then proceeds to tell us all about their American breakfast they serve in the morning… blah blah blah we pay for our room and tell her that we are willing to split up and then come to find that we are all in the same room… it was sooo funny! I honestly cannot tell you the amount of emails and conversations I had with this guy and it was all for nothing because he had room at the hostel… AHH WHATEVER! So we put our stuff down and go out and explore. Mickis friend Andrew keeps calling us because he is on his way to Como. His flight got canceled due to the volcano so he decided to go to Como for the night just like us, except him and his 3 other friends were planning on camping (keep this in mind). So us 5 girls are walking down the boardwalk, and it is SOOO beautiful! The flowers the water the boats.. ah gorgeous!
We all find this little café right on the water and drink wine and have a little mini apretivo, it was so nice. As we sit there and take in the sun we keep hearing English around us… it was WEIRD, when your used to listening a certain language for a long period of time you honestly think that you are the only American on the planet and that everyone else has NO clue what your talking about. But this family from Australia had like a million kids were sitting just like us. But their ids were crazy crying being loud… these kids aren’t like 2 years old either they are bigger! Anyways the whole time their kids were causing a fuss we all would look at each other and say, ‘sorry but at this moment in time… I am never having kids!’ hahahah as I glup my wine ☺. Then after daycare was over we decided to keep walking and see what else this town had, we took pictures along the way and laughed about certain things it was great. Now the weather started picking up and it started to become overcast. Now this is the first time in a LONG time that I am wearing shorts and the entire time I felt naked because my legs haven’t been exposed to sunlight in about a half a year… can you say casper the friendly ghost?!?! I almost thought my my legs looked clear… ew! So as we walk… we run into this miniature golf course… ok everyone knows I am a TERRIBLE golfer… the grass always goes further than my ball…but anyways, your probably thinking about the golf courses at home… the ones that have all the lights and the machines and ferris wheels, ya this was NOTHING like at home… when I say ghetto… you say ghetto, GHETTO hey ghetto hey! This was concrete golfing… now I am not a scientist or anything but if the surface is hard… wont your ball roll?? Blonde-1 Como-0. So we HAD to play because it looked so ridiculous, so we got our equipment and began to play… I got a hole in one on the first hole! Goooo meee!!! Hhaah but wait I spoke too soon. In the beginning we all were making a joke out of it, ‘4 paaarrrrr’ micki would hit the ball and it would go outside the course, Kelly would just whak it and say, ‘wait wait can I start over?’ it was a joke! These ‘putting greens’ had bumpers on them and we still managed to get them outside the bumpers… it was hilarious! We made up this rule that on the first hit that if it was a hard hole that we could have one retard shot (meaning one strike) but of course we called it a retard so onlookers kept hearing us say, ‘wait wait, can that be my retard!’ it was sooooo funny! Micki was up to hit on one hole and we had an Asian tour group watching us, we would all make fun of the sport and they would laugh at us. They literally stayed watching the game for like 3 holes… and if you odnt already k now this by now, we are HORRIBLE! It was great!
Then we set a trend DUH and now everyone was playing golf. We got lapped of course by this competitive steroid couple, but we continued to yell… 10 parrrr!!! We thought that this game was going to take a total of an hour maybe an hour and a half… 3 hours later we end up on the 18th hole and I got last! Woot woot! By the end we were getting competitive and restless because all we wanted to do was let the game be over!! It was so funny! When we finished the game Andrew and his friends walked up, it was perfect timing. We walked over to where the camp sight was… um can you say Italian trailer trash… does George Clooney seriously have a vacation house here because I see nothing special. So Andrew talks to the guy and the guy tells him that to set up your tent its going to be 8 euros a person… ummmm pitch in 8 more euros and you can have a bed with running water. But they wanted to camp and I give them props. After we found the sight we were all hungry (duh) so we find this café where we all had frozen pizza and watched blue crush in Italian.. now I knew all the words so I was saying the movie in English as it was playing in Italian to micki…it was fun! After our pizza I needed a nap… for the previous 2 days I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep so I needed a nap desperately! So we got back to the hostel and I took a nap. When I woke up it was 8pm and it was time for the BBQ. I went downstairs to find Andrew and his friends (all from the USAC program) sitting altogether with micki, Kelly, and Caitlin drinking wine waiting for the food to come out. When I sat down I got some wine and started eating. Now again when you think of a BBQ you think hot dogs, hamburgers, ribs… haha ohh ya I’m in itlay… we got polenta and sausage and this meat thing and ‘grilled veggies’ there wasn’t even a BBQ in sight… not to mention the lack of seconds! Oh but wait I didn’t even give you the 411 on this hostel to begin with. When you walk in there’s a sign for everything… ’50 cents for a refill, within the hour,’ ‘1 euro for this, 2 euros for that,’ I’m not kidding they charged for EVERYTHING!!!! So when we asked for second on dinner just whatever they had the owner, another FREAK, cheapest MAN I have EVER MET, comes out and gives us this lecture about how we cant find a meal in italy with all the different courses for 10 euros… micki of course (god love her) say, ‘um YES you can!’ and of course I start laughing! Hahaha!
So then he goes back inside and the entire night we are joking about how cheap this hotel is and how many signs we can count, ah it was great. When the sunset the clouds rolled in and it began to rain… HAHAH and they were camping! So they waited until the rain would stop but for like 2 hours it FELL so hard… all we could do is shrug our shoulders and say… ‘well it will be an adventure for you guys!’ so after like 6 liters of wine (there were 9 of us) and Anthony jamming on his guitar we decided to call it a night and go to bed. The next morning we awoke to the lake but it was foggy and raining… uhh no kayaking, hiking, and or biking, so we decided to get ready and go and see the famous Bellagio Hotel, italy style! We went down for breakfast because we decided NOT to do the American breakfast because it was 5 euros for pancakes, eggs and bacon, totally happy I didn’t because it was just as lame as the BBQ, but heir idea of an ‘italian breakfast’ is old sliced of bread, butter, and jam… I am not KIDDING! and we couldn’t have coffee and juice we had to have one or the other… I took both because I was over it! And refills are 50 cents each! Can you freaking believe that!!! I felt like I was being charged to breathe… it was so weird! But when we got to the dock with all of our stuff and looked at the weather and saw where it was… it didn’t even seem worth it to go all the way over there and sit in a café and eat.. like we always do. So we all made the decision to go home to Torino because we all had a lot of work to catch up on. The night in Como was So fun! We took all the experiences and weird rules and made it fun! We all joke about it now, but I wouldn’t take it back for anything. The transportation home was like angels were guiding us through life… I don’t know if anyone had traveled in itlay by public transportation but EVERYTHING is ALWAYS LATE… but today everything and I mean everything was fantastic! We made all the trains in a matter of minutes and even when we got back to Torino the bus pulled up as we were walking out of the train station to take us home… it was an AMAZING travel day!

… next the Holy Shroud!...

part 2! with JANET! Cinque Terra and Lucca ITALIA!

We arrived in the Cinque Terra and it was BEAUTIFUL! The sun was out and the birds were chirping… ahhh it was wonderful! We got up kind of early and made our way to the train station to get on the earliest train to get to the hike. We knew that it was going to be busy so we wanted to get there first. Now micki and I have already done this once so we know exactly what to do… we all go pee and start our hike! Janet and D were in shock and awe the entire time, they couldn’t get over how beautiful it was and how lucky that micki and I have been living here for almost a year. As I hiked and looked at one of the most beautiful sceneries I have ever seen I kept thinking about my family back at home, thinking to myself, ‘I wish they were here, I wish they were here!!’ I wrote on the walk of love stride Carl and Gail forever in sharpie on the wall with the date ☺ even though they weren’t there their love would always be engraved on the walls of the most romantic place in the world! (your welcome) after hiking from town to town stopping in every shop while Janet and D wanted to buy everything we made it to the end and sat and had lunch over looking the water as we munched on our pizza and pasta. It was SO Italian. Then we caught our train back to our town. As we sat on the train I looked up at micki and said… ‘we need to write a book…!’ with all the adventures and CRAZY stories that we have I think that writing a book together would be a RIOT! Combining our blogs and adding more stories to it I think that it would be A HIT! Janet and D were talking about it the entire way back as our eyes got bigger and bigger and all I thought about was when I become rich and famous I will buy my parents a house on the beach and take care of them just like they have taken care of me… so from that day on micki and I have been talking about writing this book, and we are going to DO IT!
We get off the train and go wandering in our town window shopping and then we head back to the hotel. When I got back I stripped and hopped in the shower, I felt SOOO dirty and after I was done I felt so so clean! Micki and I rested for alittle bit while the moms did as well and then later that night we were given 2 really good restaurants that the hotel recommended to us so we all decided to get dressed and go out to a nice meal. When we found the first restaurant it was closed… cool, then we find the second one and it was closed too… what? A sign on the door in Italian that the restaurant had moved to another location for that night (awkward) and was only a 50 meter walk… so we walked up to this place and it was full! We sat down with this wonderful scenery and wait for our order to be taken. Now the menu was in Italian so micki and I tried to decode the best we could but the table next to us on both sides I think were laughing at us… then micki and I got all embarrassed and didn’t want to speak in Italian. It was a group of younger kids laughing at us.. and all I wanted to do was get up and punch them all in the face!! The moms kept saying ‘they just want to talk to you girls, they have been looking over here since we sat down.’ And like I said all I wanted to do was stand up and say… ‘listen… I tried to learn Italian in your country and everytime I try to use it all you people do is laugh at me and then speak in English, so you know what I’M OVER IT!’ we tried explaining to Janet and D that it was hard to speak Italian here because as soon as you try they answer you in english… they know that you speak English because of your accent so they ALWAYS want to practice their English even though all you want to do is practice your Italian, but they just don’t let you… its messed up. ANYWAYSS! Micki and I order this fish dish that had like every fish from the sea on it and we ate that up! The kids from the table next to us were laughing at us, which I was getting TICKED OFF so when they brought our food out the guy turned around and said “good choice, its really good!” and I looked at him and said ‘do you want a bite?’ he just answered no… but micki and I kicked up our sass, and basically told them to sit down and shut up! The rest of the night we ate a good dinner and enjoyed funny stories and good food. When we walked back to the hotel micki and I sat in the moms room and talked and had cookies and talked about their fun times smoking drinking and loving life when they were my age. Micki and I called it a night and went to bed. The next morning we made our way to Lucca which is near Florence, the driving this trip was a fun experience because micki and I don’t drive a stick shift and the entire time all we wanted to do is learn… but of course we never got around to it… maybe someday. We arrived in Lucca and it was SOOOOO COOL! It is an old medieval town with the original walls around the city that was a trip! There are only like 100 cars in the entire city and people everywhere. Micki and I thought it was sooo cool because it was so different than some of the cities in italy because its an isolated town… the wall made it so unique. When we got inside the wall our hotel was soooo cute! It had so much character! I loved it! After we put our stuff down we went out and explored… we saw the duomo and the main squares and looked at the open markets and shopped… duh… I bought a really cool blanket/ banner poster thing… hahah! But it had elephants on it so I had to get it! This town was sooo cute. The people the shops, ah it was so fun! On the way back to the hotel micki, Janet and I bought a bottle of wine and headed back to the hotel. We relaxed for a little bit and then decided to go to the Opera, Janet is a HUGE fan of the Opera and I have never been to one… so I was excited to see it. It was held in this little church with a couple seats and this man and women sang their hearts out! It was incredible! It was in Italian and it was SO romantic! Janet and I cuddled.
After the Opera we went to this CUTE restaurant just 200 meters from the church and had INCREDIBLE FOOD! Micki and I shared rabbit! (also a first time) I was in the mood to try something new. We were laughing about all these past stories and good life experiences and the people next to us told us to be quiet… whyyyy do people always tell micki and I to be quiet!!! Seriously everytime we go out to eat, we are constantly being told to lower our voices in restaurants… and its not even the fact that we are being loud… we are just enjoying our dinner and lauging, sorry that Europeans sit there and just eat and don’t engage of conversation, that’s why we get the stereotype of being loud Americans. I don’t care. Micki and I just stared at the two guys that were directly next to us and ignored it. HAHAH! I’m with my mom. Sorry… eat your soup. After dinner we went back to the hotel and passed out and woke up the next morning and headed back to Torino. We decided to call it ends because micki and I had a lot of school work and organizing for the week to come so the moms agreed and we headed back. When we got back the moms stayed at my apartment and we went to apretivo for the last time with them and headed back to the apartment. We all sat around and talked in my apartment and called it a night. The next day micki and I enjoyed a FANTASTIC lunch with Janet and D with this little whole in the wall place and it was SO good! Grandmas kitchen! Mmmm MMMMmmmm! Then we said our goodbyes and they left for the airport. Micki and I were sad, but we know that in a few months we will be home with our family and friends again.

☺ love forever!

JANET COMES TO TORINOOO!!! part 1!!%&^*(^%&$#%

BLOG!!! Janet comes to ITALY!!!!
Hellooooo again! Now I know that these blogs keep people informed about my life… but at this point writing these blogs has become a mini peoples choice awards… its just another thing that I have to do, and I want to make them detailed because I know that later on in my life I’m going to look back on these and thank myself for taking the time to write these and read them over and over and over again and wish that I had written more, but for now… this is what you get! And I hope that you guys enjoy them as much as I do. But I wanted to fill you in with my life when I’m not traveling but I will dedicate that to another blog… JANET arrives!!
Janet got to Torino on April 2nd early in the morning. She landed in Milan Malpensa airport rented a car and drove to Torino to meet her two daughters living in the city (this is the women I learned to travel from… can you see why??). She got to Mickis apartment around 10am and I rushed over to see her. When I got there we hugged for a good 5 minutes… I wasn’t letting go, I felt like my mom was there… it was a great feeling!! She had come to Torino with her friend Diane, which later micki and I called her D the rest of the trip. She had lived in Germany for 4 years pervious and then moved back to the states. One week before our meeting D had traveled to visit her old German neighbors for a week and then met up with Janet to travel with us for a week. After we had our moment Micki gave her a tour of the apartment which lasted about 2 minutes… literally and then we headed out to see my apartment. After another 2 minutes tour we all headed to lunch… EATALY!!! We all shared fresh pasta and pizza… it was BOMB! After lunch Janet and D wandered Eataly for an hour and couldn’t get enough of the all the food and cheeses and meats… they were in heaven! After leaving Eataly I took Janet and D to our school to show them around… Janet enjoyed our brisk walk through and then we left, they were tired so I told them to go and take a nap and we would meet up for apretivo (dinner). We went o my favorite place called the Druggaria.. which is in my favorite piazza (Piazza Vittorio, one of the biggest in Europe) and had dinner, they couldn’t get enough of the food… it was incredible! We called it a night after dinner and went to bed. The next day Micki and I met up with them in Piazza San Carlo, which was very close to where they were staying and we went shopping and showed them around downtown. We went to the famous Egyptian Museum and took lots of funny pix. Then after our Museum tour we all went back to their hotel and sat around until our dinner reservation at my Italian friend Fabrizio’s restaurant. We all walked down to the Piazza and sat down and ordered. Fabs hooked us up with amazing appetizers and wine to go with! Ahhh! We were all in heaven… I think that D had an orgasm because her food was sooooo good (you had to have been there!!!!). then after a couple bottles of wine, we convinced the moms that it was time to go out and SEE the nightlife in TORINOOO!!! So we went back to my apartment threw make up on.. I changed and went to BIG!! (a fancy night club) the moms GOT HAMMERED! It was a sight! It was a FUNNN dance party, D was having SO much fun she got on a dancing block and danced with Micki so the whole club could see it was AMAZING! With Janet just staring up with a huge smile on her face laughing! AH it was a night! When it reach 4am Micki had walked over to D saying, “are you ready to go?” a true partier would only say these lines after that comment… “are we going to another club???” (Diane!) HAHAHAHHAHA I couldn’t stop laughing! How could this women have enough energy to out PARTY ME! But sadly we had to break the news to her that we were going home… I don’t thin kshe had a problem with it when she hit the pillow back at the hotel that night… Janet continued to laugh!
The next morning I awoke with a headache… DUH! And packed my bag for yet another week traveling italy… (I know I know hard life) and made it to Mickis apartment. When I walked into the door D was passed out on Mickis roommates bed… CLASSIC. And of course Micki being as hung over as I was, running around her apartment trying to pack the last necessities to leave on our road trip. We FINALLY reached he road and headed toward southern France, Nice (the town). We called our friend Claire that lives there (Micki and I studied with her last semester in Torino ‘USAC’…she was part of Erasmus) and she had told me that her friend was attending a party if Marce (France) and wanted us to join. Well of course Micki and I wouldn’t have said NOOO! So we told her we would arrive in Nice late afternoon on Sunday and she would drive us there and bring us home the next day. Micki and I PASS OUT in the car, and we wake up to see snow out the window… we look at each other… “ummm where are we?!?!” we were taking the route OVER the alps…which we found out later was the WRONG way to get to Nice because it was so long and out of the way. So we call Claire and tell her to leave without us because we got lost… HAHAH we made it past the Italian border to France.. going down the moutain… la la la la… the next thing we know we are reaching Italy again… HOW DID THAT HAPPEN??? Micki and were in the back just laughing… I mean what else could we do? So we finally got back on track and called Claire and she waited for us off the freeway. It was such a mission.. you have NO IDEA! When we finally met up we were off to her friends house, which Micki and I later found out that he studied a year in Australia… AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE OY OY OY! So he spoke English… which Micki and I both let out a HUGE sigh! Listening to Reggae music with the windows down enjoying the French air! When we got to Romanin house (aka BOBO.. like boo boo hahaha) it was this CUTE little French villa… and he had the coolest room his steps up to his room didn’t have a railing.. so micki and I were like james bonding it up the steps because I was terrified of falling… it was pretty funny. When we got settled in his mom made us dinner… which I think that birds wouldn’t have been full off of, but hey do as the French do. Thank god I wasn’t that hungry! Haha! Then after dinner we got ready and went out. We arrived at this French house party, and when I say house party I mean an apartment with 3 rooms one of them being the kitchen. IT WAS TINY! But all the girls were dressed to the “T” while micki and I cruise up in flats and bohemian style, the look at us like were mar-chins! (I hate the French!) they are all nice to us in the beginning as micki and I take the walk of shame through this TINY apartment putting on a face for these snooty French…ahh! So micki and I made home base in the kitchen… haha! Where else, next to a window and of course it was open because if you don’t already know micki and I are like HEATERS and constantly need fresh air… and of course the French.. ‘I’m cold I’m cold!’ Micki and I would look at each other like.. ‘shut up you skinny bit** and put a coat on!’ ☺ so after standing in the kitchen for a good hour and a half (not drinking) the French were coming in and out of the kitchen to get more of there jungle juice from this punch bowl. I’ve never seen a mixed drink that color before so I wasn’t going to take a chance.. I wasn’t feeling rebellious that night. So after the hour and a half of soberness the French were starting to ask questions… ‘wheres all the alcohol…??’ and would immediately look at the sober sally’s in the corner… and of course micki and I got nervous and were defending ourselves, shouting… ‘it wasn’t us.. I think that girl has had a lot to drink… ask her ask her…’ if we already didn’t look like idiots. So after this ‘party’ we left for a club.. but then randomly while we were getting ready to leave like groups of four were coming in and out of the bathroom and I asked micki.. ‘what are they doing in there..??’ she responds… ‘oh, they’re just brushing their teeth…’ and I look at her and I’m like… ‘well don’t say it so nonchalantly… that’s WEIRD!’ we both laugh and say, ‘French…’ we get in BoBo’s car and are off to the club.
We get to the club and we have “VIP” seating… which meant NOTHING because when we got in the door we had like a couch and that’s it… whatever. But we were drinking and micki kept saying the whole time… ‘as soon as they get drunk they are going to be nice to us…’ sure enough, as soon as they slurped on their liquid courage they were all over micki and I, talking to us… laughing, saying that they want to come and visit… all micki and I could do is smile and look at each other. Then we hit the dance floor, with micki and my wicked dance moves we take over ANY club, but in this case we couldn’t move… we were packed in there like pickles! I felt like a flopping fish squirming around trying to make a sexy move to all these French guys and all they probably saw was a girl trying to be sexy but was confused on how the music went boom boom boom in her ear… it was funny after a while. Then after it got SO packed that micki and I headed for the door… we were SO over it! Then there was like this HUGE stampede of people trying to get into this club, I got knocked over twice with my shoes wet flying (YES my tory burches!!) so there I am hands and knees crawling on the floor trying to find my shoes… I was going to SMACK a bitch! Finally find them and as I reach the surface this big black guy (the bouncer) pulls micki and I out of the crowd and starts yelling at us in French!! I was like ‘are you freaking kidding me! I’m trying to get out of this mosh pit of a club and you think she and I are the PROBLEM!’ I got so mad then I just started pushing people not giving a CRAP finally reached the outside and took a deep breath and inhaled cigarette smoke… I didn’t even care… I was out of that shit show of a club. After micki and I stood there for a good 15 minutes these guys come up to us and start speaking French and micki and I just look at them and smile and nod. Then they kept talking to us when I finally said, ‘sorry I don’t speak French!’ then they bust out in english… ‘ahh you are so beautiful! Be my girlfriend for the night… lets go dance, will you kiss meeee, ahhh where are you from??’ all these hilarious things happened all at once. Then BoBo comes out and we pretend that he is mickis brother so then this guy asks BoBo if he can kiss micki and I BoBo looks at her and then looks at the guy and says “NO!” and then he puts his arm around her. Then I have creepy guy number one and two with me, and I have noooo escape goat, so I am like what do I do, what do I do! Then micki sees that I am in need of assistance and tells the guys that she was my girlfriend… well the WRONG thing to tell guys especially ones from Europe because they see this stuff all the time… porn is like normal to watch on a Sunday afternoon getting back from church or something…(HAHAHA) so then their like ‘ahhh nooo wayyy! Kiss you two kiss!’ and I was like ‘nooo children, run along!’ they finally left us alone, with BoBo’s help. By this time it was like 4am and it was time to GO! We rounded up the troops and left. Getting to the car we had to wait for one of BoBo’s friend, so we crank up the music in BoBo’s car and dance on the outside… cars were stopping to yet again watch the show. Coming over to talk to us, it was hilarious.. I thought Italians were pushy.. HA! So are the FRENCH! Wee weee hun hun hun!
Then we drove back to BoBo’s house, micki and I climbed into his bed and passed out, hahaha it was a great night. The next morning we woke up kind of later and went and had lunch at this CUTE place right on the water.. it was SO French! It was SOOO good! Then we went and met up with his friends down by the water and we were lying on the concrete right on the water with HOTTTTTTTT French friends! Ahh I was in heaven they were asking us about California and how much they want to come and work and blah blah blah, micki was telling them to come to the states and work at a French restaurant and speak only French, give the Americans a challenge! Hahaha! They loved talking to us!! Then after that BoBo told us that their was a surf competition so micki and I of COURSE we down! We get there and its not even surfing its guys on boogie boards doing tricks on their knees… micki and I were laughing! Hahaha! At one point I was like give me a board and let me show you how it’s done! (I don’t surf) then after that we went back to BoBo’s house picked up our stuff said our goodbyes and left with Claire! It was such a FUNN night and next day hanging out with French people that weren’t into themselves and totally mellow, it was refreshing! We drove back and met up with mommy Janet and D in Nice and said our goodbyes to Claire! The next day we had breakfast and headed out… on our way to the Cinque Terra!!

Another part 2… but I want to keep these detailed! ☺ wait for the rest of the trip!

xoxoxo

SIRACUSAA!!! last SPRING bReAKk!! part 5!!@!!!

SIRACUSAAA!!!

So after our funny talk with the crazy flight lady we got on our bus to Siracusa. On the bus micki was reading the book that I already finish, its called The Art of Racing in the Rain if you are a dog LOVER you NEED to read this book… it is incredible! Anyways she was reading it the entire way while I read a magazine and slept! Haha! But we FINALLY get to Siracusa and we get off the bus and our hostel is literally right next to the train station.. idiot proof. So we walk in and it is NICE!! Brand new but sponsored by IKEA. But it was SICK! We met up with the girls and drank wine (I didn’t) and talked about their trip to Amsterdam before they came to meet up with us in Sicily. It was hilarious because some of their awkward stories happened to micki and i! HAHAH! Sooo great! After that we all went upstairs got dressed and went out to have our last spring break dinner. Now there was only one car, and the city center was like 3 or 4 miles from where we were so we all decided to PILE in this LACK of a car and drive to wherever was civilization. I drove… SLOW of course ☺ but seriously! We parked and made sure the car was in a safe location before we left it. We were walking for some time when we ran into this guy that speaks English… his name was John.. Ryan…I don’t know… anyways we were asking him all types of questions about his study aboard program blah blah blahhhh and we asked him what a good place to eat was… he SHOULD know. He told us to follow along the waterside and there’s restaurants all along the water. Perfect! Thanks! Umm he must have been smoking something because there wasn’t ANY places along the water… can you say GHOSTOWN! I felt like we had walked into a trap… like we were being set up. Then we walked down this RANDOM ally and found a restaurant that was like grandmas kitchen and took over the place. We ordered our meals and enjoyed more stories and company.
After dinner we decided to truck back to our car, which was like a mile away and call it a night. The next day the girls were leaving and micki and I had the entire day to explore the city. This was Monday, and the lady at the hostel told us to check out all these cool old ancient buildings so we were like COOL! We get to all these old ancient ruins and they are all closed… I should have known… Mondays in Italy are like Sundays… NOTHING IS OPEN! Living here for 7 months and I didn’t catch that! Hmm! So I blamed it on the lady at the hostel… SHE SHOULD HAVE TOLD US! ☺ so we reached the hostel and it was SOOOOOO hot, so micki and I put on our suits and headed to the beach. Now the beach was another 20 minute public transportation vehicle, so naturally we got there and what happened?? The wind began to blow, the sun began to set… OF COURSE! So we waited for like 45 minutes for the next bus… to take us back to central Siracusa. We went to the store and bought food for dinner because we didn’t want to spend another night looking for a restaurant, and we didn’t have a car to get to the central station.. so we bought it and made it at the hostel instead. This kitchen was AMAZING! Ahh it was HUGE, the counter space was amazing! And they had all the silverware and bowls and pots and pans you needed. And it was ALL new because the hostel had just opened. Micki and I were LOVING it! That night this girl moved into our 8 girl dorm room. She was from California (San Fran) and she was studying in London with her guy friend that was staying somewhere else in the hostel. But she was rad… I don’t remember her name because it was so unique but it was pretty. Anyways, she was really nice and personable which I was happy about (I always get nervous with sharing a room with strangers, afraid of them taking all my stuff and waking up with one kidney.. hmm). So micki and I invited her and her friend to dinner later. She said that they were going to go out and sight see but they would be back. When they came back we had the kitchen going… making our eggplant casserole and pasta with salad. We made soooo much that there were kids just hanging out in the common room and we just invited them to come and eat and hang out. It turned out to be SUCH a funny night. We told stories about studying abroad in Torino, which is ALWAYS a good laugh when you have micki telling the story. And then they told us stories about London but micki and I sat there like, ‘what the eff are you complaining about….?? At least your country speaks ENGLISH!’ it was great. After dinner everyone helped clean up and micki and I sat on the couch and watched movies while everyone else did the dishes. It was AWESOME! We stayed up late watching movies and I chatted with my parents via email and facebooked all my friends, and caught up on emails, and got my life together and organized for when I got back to Torino.
The next morning micki and I got up late had breakfast got ready and waited around for our bus. The sights were too far to go back and see again, and we had to catch our bus at noon. So we just hung out and waited till our bus arrived to take us back to the Catania Airport. When we got the airport, it was déjà vu!! We waited for our 4:30 flight to get back to Milan at 6:30pm. I talked to my Italian friend Giovanni and asked him if there was any business out in Milan that Tuesday and if soooo would he come and pick us up…. ☺ he said mayybeee. Sure enough that Tuesday morning he was like, ill be there! Micki and I were SOOOOOO happy! Ahh! Private transportation! Not getting home at 11pm at night! Instead we were home by 8pm… SOO nice! They made a sign for us at the arrival gate…’Katherine Ossipoff and Michaela DiChiro’ it was so cute.. but we didn’t see it because we ran our of the airport so fast. Hahah! But sure enough Gio walks up in his Armani suit and sunglasses hair slicked back… TOTAL Italian. And these Italian girls were OF COURSE staring at micki and I like what are Americans doing here… and Gio walks up lookin HOT and these girls JAWS drop! It was a sight! I was like ya that’s right bitches… you like that.. wait… the fabrizio pops out of NO WHERE and the girls are probably now shitting themselves… sorry… maybe in your next life sweety! (sorry for being kind of bitchy—but the Italian women ARE bitchy!) so we got into Gio’s car and drove alllll the way back to Torino and told them ALL about our adventures! They laughed the entire way HOME! It was sooooooo funny! Micki and I with our enthusiasm, telling them all the random stuff we came across in the magical land of Sicily. We also brought them back aranchini (the rice balls) they were happy!
It was a great way to end my trip because it all started with Giovanni helping Micki and I plan this trip and telling us where to go, what to eat, what to see, it was full proof Italian STYLE! And then having him pick us up right from the airport.. my two favorite Italians.. it was AWESOME! Not to mention the look on everyone’s faces that WE, yes we American girls had Italians picking us up from the airport. SWWEEETT! Sicily was awesome! Learned a lot saw a lot and had an amazing experience! Italy is everyone’s favorite destination and I am so happy that this semester micki and I dedicated our travels to ITALIA!

MOMMY JANET COMES TO ITALY!!!! More blogs coming your way…. Soon ☺

part #3!!! Taormina and LIPARI!!!

Part #3!! TAORMINA and LIPARI!!!!!

Taormina…. Now driving in Sicily as I probably mentioned before is NOT the easiest thing in the world… random side streets, drivers literally on your tail (dad) pushing you along these narrow streets, honking, yelling… it can STRESS you OUT! Now being as prepared as I’ve ever been, I had my Italian friend Giovanni print us out directions from hostel to hostel. But of course he prints them in Italian… the night before, drunk, I told him to translate what the directions said… be bitched but he did it. So getting to this hostel was a MISSION! For some random reason we ended up on this random, gravel dirt road… SOOOOO random! We finally had to call the hostel and tell them to come and get us because we got so lost. When they came and got us we drove another like 15 minutes up this windy road… we all kept laughing because the road wouldn’t end… we just kept going up and up and up. We FINALLY got to the hostel/ apartments, and it was beautiful! I actually got to see sheep being herded by a shepherd… now I know you see this in the movies but never in my life had I seen it with my own two eyes… AH it was a sight! After we dropped out stuff we went into town (Taormina) and walked around.. it was SOOOO Cute, it reminded me of Venice alittle but without the canals. No cars on the streets but shops and restaurants EVERYWHERE! Like every other step you took it was a restaurant. It was incredible, not good however deciding what we wanted to eat… we must have walked up that street like 5 times trying to pick a spot. We finally chose one on the top of these leading steps and had a great meal. After dinner it was a ghost town.. I think it was like a Tuesday when we were there, but it was EMPTY! –tumbleweed!! We got back to our car and headed back to the apartment. When we got back we all decided to get up extra early and go and see the island Isola Bella, today it is a natural reserve but during the summer you can actually swim around it. Its uniqueness shows that from the actual shore you can walk on this path that is made by the currents of the water that connects the island to Sicily… its not a very large path, but its incredible. On both sides of this narrow little path the water is moving away from each other… now I am not a scientist and I don’t know a lot about the currents in the ocean and so forth but this was incredible! We got there as the sun was just starting to come up, and got incredible pictures!
After leaving the island we headed to Milazzo where the port was to catch the ferry to Lipari. Getting there and parking was yet another mission that we were unsure about. Everything, if you don’t already know had a price in italy, I am surprised that they let you walk on the sidewalk for free. So parking especially in Sicily you pay. So we had no idea where to pay how much it was… and we had to figure it out fast because we were going to miss our ferry. So we just pulled over looked at every possible sign and in other cars to see if there was a special sticker or something, nothing. So we grabbed our stuff and started walking. Now not really knowing how far we traveled down away from the port so we were walking for a good 15 minutes on this same main street trying to get to the port. We finally arrive, buy our tickets and get on the boat. Now in Sicily I will keep saying it, you are going to get LOST! We left ourselves like an hour for “get lost time” and we still barely made it to the port with time to spare. Next thing you know the boat is docking and we hit paradise. Now I am not saying that this place looked like Capri in the Amalfi coast… NOT AT ALL but it was still beautiful! Our hotel had a shuttle from the port to the hotel which was WONDERFUL and they took us right there. We didn’t have a car for these two days on the island and it was FABULOUS! We were all alittle restless because it had been an early morning and so far a long one at that, but we got to put our stuff down and relax. I wanted to take a nap, but we all know that if there was any lying down there would be no getting up!!! So we went and walked the town. I was STARVING and there was nothing open.. except shops… so we wandered until we found a restaurant and sat and ate and watched MTV on their big screen tv! After lunch we walked down to the port and saw this guy that rented scooters and I got PUMPED! That’s all I wanted to do while I was on this Spring Break was rent scooters and tour the island. Instead they had Quads essentially 4 wheelers, so we rented two of them (2 girls on each) and raced them ALL OVER the island! Yelling ciaooo ciaooo to tall the people standing on the side of the road… it was awesome.. whistling at us speeding past them!! Awe! It was awesome! After like 4 hours zipping through this town and being obnoxious we turn the quads in and go to the store and decide to make dinner instead of going out. We got wine and made pasta with a caprese salad. Mmm YUMMY! The next morning our other roommates joined us from the mother ship of AMSTERDAM! As soon as they got there we caught a shuttle to the volcano island neighboring Lipari. It is famous because it is still active AND for its mud baths. Now when we got off the ferry it smelt of SULFER ew! But we made it to this CUTE restaurant with this guy who kept bringing us food that we didn’t order and wanted us to try everything! He was SOOOOO sweet! The lunch was amazing… good people, great friends and GOOD FOOD! After that we set out on a mission to find these mud baths… I just had to follow the smell.
When we got to the we all just took off our shoes and went in… now with these baths if your feet sink to far it like burns your feet… it HURTS! But it was sooo weird playing in these baths because when I though of “mud bath” im thinking like DARK brown like soggy lawn mud, but this mud was light and not thick at all! But in parts of these volcano made baths would be bubbles coming from down below… the volcano was actually making the bath so hot that it was like a Jacuzzi. TRIP! Then after we were done taking pictures and burning our feet off we headed over to the ocean which was a CRYSTAL blue near shore and then a dark blue the further you went away from shore… it was breath taking. I heard this quote once that described my emotion perfectly at this moment… “its like letting out a breath that you didn’t know you were holding in.” it was soooo beautiful. When I go and I see places like this and I look around and see all these amazing friends that I have made in the process, I just thank my parents everyday for letting me have this experience because without them supporting me and loving me I don’t think I would be here today. Standing in the water squishing my toes on this slippery rock I closed my eye and let the breeze hit my face and the water rush higher and higher on my legs… I pictured home… and a smile drew across my face. I opened my eyes and saw that I wasn’t home, but in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been… (deep breaths in and out) I was at peace.
After we were done we got back on the ferry and went back to Lipari. The other girls rented scooters while we went and window shopped and headed back to the hotel. That night we all sat around and drank wine got and went and explored the towns night life. There isn’t ANY! But we sat at this bar and drank more wine and continued to be LOUD and obnoxious… got us free appetizers! America- 1 Italy-0. This big group of Italian KIDS sat at the long table behind us and when they walked in I looked at micki and said… “who do you think will be louder… ??” CLEARLY we won! No question. The night came to close and we all walked back and went to bed. Early morning to send Lauren on her way back to the states. Next stopppppp CEFALUUU!!!! And AGRIGENTOOO!!!

SPRING BREAK! part 4!!--almost done!

Spring Break Part #4 Cefalu & Agrigentooooo!!
Now as you know like I have said over and over and over again… I did not by all means like driving around in SICILY… no signs no direction… nothing. Now driving to Cefalu was funny because the town in literally so small that we drove right past it. Population like 100, haha! No I’m kidding, but it was small. We get to our Bed and Breakfast and it is the CUTIEST thing, we have this HUGE room with original painted 18th century paintings on the ceiling and a view that makes your heart skip a beat. It was definitely one of our favorite places we stayed at so far. After we got assigned our room we decided to take a short nap, but it actually led into a 2 hour nap.. oops! We woke up and it was getting dark so we threw on some clothes and went out. Now by this time all of micki and my roommates are here with us. Not at the same Bed and Breakfast but literally 2 balconies away… ahhaah it was sooo funny! But we snuck out on the town without them… we just didn’t want to mob and be loud Americans. We got out into the main square and they were celebrating St. Joseph day and had cake for free (they were doughnut hole looking cake with sugar on them) and a huge fire right in front of the duomo. We took some pretty funny pictures. So after that we went and met our owner of our B&B for drinks and a VERY light apretivo. It was fabulous! Drank this incredible red wine, and talked about his life experiences and our life experiences… it was AWESOME! But the thing that I LOVE most about Italians is that the whole family live within meters of each other… SERIOUSLY! Especially the boys in the family… they NEVER leave far without their mommies! It is SOOO funny! So we stood and drank wine and picked at some food, and then the owner wanted us to join him for dinner. It was just next door and his brothers son owned it… HAHAH! The family keep multiplying! We sat and drank more wine before we went into delusional mode and before I knew it the place was empty and we had David Guetta playing on the loud speakers… that was Mickis doing. So when I came out of the bathroom I wanted the restaurant to turn into a night club! But it didn’t. We sat around alittle longer before we called it a night. We got back to our B&B late and put our PJ’s on and hit the sack! The next morning we had breakfast on the terrace over looking the ocean. As I sat there drinking my cappuccino I closed my eyes and listen to the waves… ahh home!
After breakfast we met up with our girlfriends and explored the town of Cefalu and went inside the duomo and looked around the old town. This town was soooo cute. There was one major street and everyone was out just celebrating the beautiful day. We did our last minute shopping and made our way down towards the water, where we took pictures and admired the water that was SOOO BLUE! It was such a beautiful day, and I didn’t want to be in the car all day driving to Agrigento, but we had to do what we had to do (rough life huh) so we got in our little cars and drove to yet another destination in SICILYYY!!!
We arrive at our hotel and it was ok… it was owned by a family and I SWARE the dad (very old) would follow us around and like speak to us in Italian and over and over again he kept telling him that we didn’t understand him because he was a mumbling Italian… it got SOOOOO annoying after 2 days, but the sons that helped were awesome! We arrived and checked in and we were shown a video of all the places we must see while in Agrigento. Now this city is known for their Greek Ruins… and I was ALL OVER THAT! GO GREEKS! I was honestly all over these ruins! But after the video we put our stuff up in our room… and seriously our room SMELT LIKE SHIT!!!! Sorry for the language but it was AWFUL!!!!! I complained and they put a freshener in our room that mixed the two scents that made it smell even WORSE! Ah just thinking about it makes me want to barf!! But anyways we dealt with it. So after we put our stuff down we took a walk along the boardwalk and got lunch and went to the ruins right after. We got the best of both worlds, we got to see them during the day and as the sun was setting and in the DARK! It was perfect! Ahhh it wassss incredible! I felt so proud… it was a feeling that I told one of the girls… I was like, “my great great great great etc. could have helped build these….” Maybe. I just thought they were sooo cool! We went and saw all the ruins that needed to be seen and we made a photo shoot out of it, it was funny! When we got back to our FUNK smelling room we got dressed and “went out” now the guy at the hotel told us that there was night life down by the water on the board walk… HAHAHA! I don’t know how aged this man was.. but I am pretty sure there was a CRACK fair going on with rides… and then like 2 restaurants open… FREAKIN FREAKY! But picture like ten girls all dressed and ready to go “out” and NOTHING was down there… hahhaah ! it was a sight! So we had dinner and went back to the hotel… eventful. The next day we went to the Turkish steps. This was one of the coolest things I have ever seen! They literally looked like STEPS and they were WHITE and you could climb on them, it was SOOOO cool! It should be one of the wonders of the world… that’s how cool these steps were…(google image it, SERIOUSLY) and I climbed them! Wooo! Then after we were done with the other photo shoot we went looking for a place to lay out… that was a mission… we spent like an hour and a half searching for a beach and the one we ended up at was rocks…. Ouch… and by the time we actually laid out it got COLD! The wind started to blow… and the sun started to set… PERFECT! So we laid out for like maybeeee 30 minutes and then called it a day. But sadly today was the day that Christel had to leave (mickis friend from chico) so we said our goodbyes and micki and I looked at each other and said… Public transportation the rest of the way!! That night we had dinner in the hotel and called it a night early.
The next day Allison my roommate back in Torino drove micki and I to the Shuttle bus stop so that we could get from Agrigento to Siracusa. We got on the bus and ended up in Catania…. Weird. But then we realized that we had to change buses in the Catania airport to get to Siracusa. So we waited for like two hours and had the best meal EVER! But as we were sitting having our meal we thought… hmm we have to leave out of here anyway in 2 days… lets go and find out how much it would cost for us to leave in 2 hours—the difference. So we set a 40 euro limit…and headed to the ticket booth. This lady was throwing out numbers.. oh it will be 10 euro for this and 5 euros for this, let me just total it up and let you know… (waiting)… looking at each other like SICK we can go home for like 30 euros! She speaks… ‘one hundred and eighty euros’… ya okay thanks crazy lady! We got on the bus and left for Siracusa!

… to be continued… ahh last place!

PART #2!!!!! CATANIA SICILYYYY

SPRING BREAK PART #2!!

OFF TO SICILY!!
So as you all know I had a ROUGH night before my flight… but it gets better!!! So I passed out at 5am… knowing that I had to be on a bus at 9am… so we were suppose to leave my apartment by 8am, giving us enough time to take the public transportation to the bus that was like a 40 min trek. So I am SOUND asleep when I hear Andrew yelling, “Katherine WAKE UP its 8:15!!!” I was soooo out of it I JUMPED out of bed leapt over Allisons bed where Andrew was sleeping and ran to the bathroom, the goop from my eyes were clearing… (now I know how people with contacts feel) running back and fourth screaming, “you GUYSS get up I’m going to miss my flight!!!” running from my room to the bathroom and back again as the toothpaste runs down my chin… attractive! All I could hear is them cussing in Italian rolling over and say why why why!!! I had to SHAKE them to wake them up too… they weren’t happy. As the slowly got out of bed I was still running making sure I had everything… BUUZZZ.. crappp mickis here… I pick up the phone panting… “hey kat… theres a mask on the balcony..?” laugher on the other side of the phone… WTF! “okok I’ll be down in 2 minutes!” I run to the balcony and take the mask off of it… as the girls laugh from below… and the boys are now standing in the entry way watching me be a nutcase… (bet they never thought they see the day) I finally collect myself throw my HUGE backpack on… it looked like I smuggled a midget child in it… and we walked down stairs. Not only were the girls sitting on the curb but I could feel the vomit in my throat… JUST GOOO!!! Then Lauren speaks up and says, “wait wait I left some of my clothes upstairs from last night…!!!” I climb out of the car without even arguing and try my best to move fast, get to the top and run all over the house looking for her clothes and found NOTHING.. then I had remember.. “holy crap… MY PASSPORT!” I almost forgot it! Looking at Andrew in my roommates bed sleeping like a baby… just staring and thinking… ‘well I know where I want to VOMIT!’
I run back downstairs with the noises from a horn… yelling cmon cmon!!! I jumped into the shortage of an Italian car and we were off to the races… Fabrizio was sipping and swerving through cars and lanes… I couldn’t handle it, “FABS if you don’t stop I’m going to blow chuncks in your car… NO BENE!” we got to the bus station with 10 minutes to spare, we kissed the boys twice on the cheek and we were off to Sicily! Now on the bus I PASSED out… so it was the shortest 2 hours of my life! But micki had other problems… read her blog maybe she’ll include it. We get to the Milan airport and we are all HUNGOVER and look like haggered BEASTS…I went and got food and a water because I just couldn’t take another minute without it… and we waited for Lauren to get her boarding pass and headed towards security… now Italian security is WAYYY different than American security.. in the USA they make you basically STRIP down so that you have nothing but your knickers on… but in italy its like a game for the “security” men we of course look American and they see that we look like disabled retards so when I was putting my stuff in the bin this guy came up to Lauren and I and was like—“rough night”… Lauren had a sweater on that scooped low so you could see her bra, and I haven’t even run a brush through my hair. I looked at him and only thought one thing… ‘sir, if you don’t back off im going to shove this boot that your making me take off because of ‘regulation” and stick it where the sun DON’T SHINE!’ I think he got the point with my look… good reddens! We got to the gate and looked at each other in disbelief because we had actually pulled off what we set to do! Now I don’t know if you all know this about me… but when I am getting ready for a trip or a long drive… something that involves effort of ANY KIND I ALWAYS never go out, stay up late the night before these events…. Sooooo this was my fault! As I was getting on the plane I was telling Lauren that and all she did was laugh because at that point that’s all we could do… recapping the last 10 hours of my life and the amount of things I did… made me want to fall asleep for the next 5 days… but I knew that couldn’t happen!!!! We were off to CATANIA SICILIA!!!!!
We got off the plane… feeling alittle better, the next step was going to get our car. When we got there they didn’t have our reservation and told us that we didn’t reserve one blah blah blah… and then they lady just stood there… like okay next! And I was like, “ok so then why did my friend here make the reservation, has a confirmation number, and has it printed out and your ‘computer’ says we don’t have a reservation…” she was like “sorry, theres nothing I can do..” so then we all just stood there and I called Micki over because I needed her to get mouthy. Which she did, and had some awesome bitch stares at the lady… hahaha thanks mic! We finally figured out the car situation.. and the guy was like, “ya it’s a new model of this kind of car… blah blah blah,” he handed us the keys and we were off to find it… now before the trip started micki and I both told Lauren and Christel to bring CDs because we are going to be drive A LOT, and the radio is never reliable. So we find the car and its this little rent a wreck but it was ours! Red and small!! We get in all excited… and theres a cassette player… WHAT?!?!? They still make these???!?! We all just start BUST up laughing… omg! You come prepared and then instead of life handing you lemons to make lemonade it hands you an apple… no juice…! Well.. too bad didn’t think this through in September and brought my cassette ipod adapter… idiot! Hahah! We got the inspection with the car and then we were off. Now Sicily is known for its lack of signs… and noooo sign of direction of where you are actually going.. it took us like 2 hours to get to the central of Catania and to find our hostel. Feeling better than this morning we parked it and walked up the death marble stairs to out hostel on the 3rd floor… we really didn’t think this through… we made it to the top and when we walked in it was like looking at the set of That 70s show! RETROOOO.. groovy man! But it was Ikea sponsored. The people were SUPER nice and we got the “yellow room” now I don’t know if they were dropping acid when they designed this place but it was a trip!!! But cool. We had our 10 person room, but we were the only ones in it, which was wonderful. We dropped our stuff and drove to the nearest food joint… naturally! The pick of the day was good ol’ Mc DONALDS! Woot woot! Now since I have been in Europe I have not ONCE had the famous Miccii Deeees but I was still feeling like I needed something to make this thing leave my head, so we CHOWED! Totally worth it!
After that we walked around the center for a little bit and then we all decided that we would go back to the hostel SHOWER and take like an hour nap. When we got back we asked for towels and they gave us these towels that wouldn’t even wrap around my waist… smaller than a hand towel… we all just looked at them and LAUGHED!! Well this should be interesting!! After my shower I read about this beautiful city in the guide book and then passed out… didn’t wake up and nobody woke me up… YES! The next morning for some reason I thought we were leaving Catania and going to Taormina but obviously spend the day in Catania ad see the sights… but I got the days mixed up and made the girls pack…. Hahha oops and ended up screwing up… back to the yellow room for one more night. We walked to the piazza di duomo, this square was BEAUTIFUL. We got the famous aranchini (rice balls with ham, mozzarella, and rice) at this CUTE café and watched the old people come out of church and crowd around their cities monument symbol—an ELEPHANT! When I saw it I FREAKED out, everyone knows its my favorite animal (the fattest AND the animal with the best memory) so I took like a thousand pictures. After out cappuccinos were drunk and our bellies full we walked over to the duomo to go and have a look. There was a service in seshion so we walked quietly and took pixs. After that we explored the square and saw all these old people with their gelato linked arm and arm with their husbands… it was sooo cute! Aftr walking down a major shopping street (window shopping) this old man stops us and says “Americans!” I of course am like ahhh great here we go…but he like introduced himself to us, and told us that he is a lawyer here in Catania and that he was born in Taormina and telling us all the things we should do while we were here. The next thing I know we are being toured around the ENTIRE city with him as our little tour guide… telling us the significance about this building and that building.. it was AWESOME! We toured the famous Bernini Opera house FOR FREE.. it wasn’t even open, but he had a friend that partly owned the place.. or something… THEN we went to Bernini house that was converted into a museum which was also free, then to this art expedition for FREE and the people that worked there knew him and gave us these books on all the sights in Catania in English ALL FOR FREE! It was quite a day… to say the least… visited the American Base in Sigonella which they wouldn’t let us in… because we didn’t have a sponsor so we couldn’t go in, but I saw men in uniform USA! Woot! It was good enough even though it would have been awesome to sit in the mess hall and eat with them! Hahhaha!
We finally got back from our LOOONG day and went to this whole in wall restaurant which was AMAZING! The lady owned it with her husband and she came out and took our order, didn’t speak a LICK of English, so we played the guessing game with the menu and ordered a antipasti and a first dish and a second… it was BOMB! After dinner our full bellies couldn’t go out… ☺ another night in… good nights sleep! Up early and off to TAORMINA!!!—and mount ETNA!