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!!!
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!!!
posted by Katherine Ossipoff | 10:09 AM
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