Current mood:
accomplished
Marie,
Sorry it's taken me so long to send an email to you. I've been really busy and haven't had time to sit down and write a proper email. So lets see, where to start…
Sicily – "Bomb" is the 'official' designation, but more than once I was like, "… what the hell is going on here?" Have you heard the entire story? Mental. Firstly, no problems leaving Newport News, no traffic, no delays, no problems getting to Rome. But inRome… first they bumped us, putting us on permanent stand-by, because we were there only 15 minutes early and not 45. I should note though that we did try to confirm the flight earlier that day, but they don't take confirmations. Later we found out that they were overbooking all flights to Catania by 8 seats. What made things worse was that they had no sympathy for us and seemed to suggest that is was out fault that we missed the flight; they all out refused to comp us any food nor hotel nor would they confirm us for any flight. We were there – hovering on insanity for 12 hours. Finally, we got on a flight. However I should note that they didn't want to give us the tickets and made a big deal about us making sure we were the last people to board (we weren't though – we were the first). To add injury to insult when we arrived in Catania there were no bags – not a single one. In fact, we wouldn't even get out bags for another 4 days (luckily I had an extra couple pair of boxers and t-shirts). Dinner in Catania may have been the best food I had the entire time I was there – I had grilled fish and squash noodles.
The next day, Dad and I had a wild adventure, compounding to the wild adventure we were already on. We went back the airport to pick up our car. Unfortunately, there was no car – they had already rented it. We were stuck and we had to have a car (you can't get around in Sicily without one). So to think about what to do we went back to Catania to find everyone. Oddly enough we found them after only a block of walking (it was the only luck we would have that day). We all walked around for a bit – went to a fish market, looked at some statues with no heads – when we decided that we had to go demand a car. The plan was for Dad and I to go get the car and everyone else to take a bus to Taormina (which is pronounced "tower meena" and not "terra meena"!!!) Well we were walking around when I found a sign that said "Auto Rental Train Station" so we went over there Dad looked for 1 minute and decided that there was nothing there. I said, "we haven't even looked around." So I went on my own way… a minute later I found the car rental place. We now had a car, but unfortunately the rest were on there way in a bus so we would have to somehow find them. We drove to Taormina, and not to 'Terramina' which doesn't exist. I have to say it was a nice drive and very refreshing. Finally we get there and meet up with Professore who showed us to the apartment at the very top of the mountain in a town called Castelmola (and not "castle loma").
I should explain the geography of Taormina/Castelmola. Castelmola is a Norman castle converted into a couple of restaurants and apartments at the top of a very steep and tortuous mountain withTaormina being a beach town at the bottom. Driving was a bit scary – but not once you got used to it. Honestly I really liked driving inSicily – there was something organic and synergistic about it. You may be swerving, driving in other lanes, on sidewalks – narrowly missing pedestrians and other cars – but you pay attention the whole time and all the other cars and pedestrians are very reactive and almost polite.
Back to the adventure. So Dad and I go down from out apartment to Taormina proper, which is really one really long boulevard with tons of shops and restaurants. Very cool though – something out of a videogame. And tried to find everyone. We went to the bus stop but they weren't there. So we walked around the city some more – got dinner. Then we went back to the bus stop again… but still they weren't there. I decided to stay and wait around whilst Dad drove back to Catania to pick up Betty Jean and them. I ended up waiting 6 hours and never saw anyone… Dad was supposed to be back at 11, but wasn't. At 11:30 I decide to walk alllllllll the way up the mountain to the apartment (I had a key to it). It was pitch black – I was in a country, noted for violence, where I didn't speak a word of the language – I was walking up a mountain filled with cliffs below – I never felt like I was doing something more dangerous in my life. I got to what I would later find out was the very end – only to hear dogs barking and turn back. It took me 45 minutes to walk up, but only 30 to walk down.
I got back to the bus stop – blackened feet and extremely tired. It was after midnight. I was in a bus stop – knew no one, knew where no one was – was at a complete loss. I decided to wait for one more hour and then go get a hotel. I should also mention that I was carrying 2400 euro in cash. At the end of the hour I got up and walkout out to go find a hotel. I walked down the street, but the only thing I could find was 4 star hotels and I wasn't interested in paying 400 euro for one night. I was exacerbated. I decided to comb the bus stop one more time, and then screw it, I was going to just go get the room. As I was making my final sweep, about to step out of the exit I hear, "Hey Paul!" and saw, Dad, as weary as I standing 20 feet away. I never appreciated hugging the man more in my life. He had just arrived and had seen Betty Jean and Jerry and Melinda, Jason and Brian not 10 minutes earlier – Melinda and co. were at a bar inTaormina. So we walked around and finally found them, had a couple of beers, and then began the last leg of our adventure.
The others had a hotel in Taormina. But Dad and I had our apartment up the hill. But again it was dark and we weren't really sure how to get there. So we went the way we though we were supposed go –but we couldn't find it. Oh yeah and I forgot to mention that we still hadn't heard from nor seen Mom and them – we had no idea where they were. Really what we were supposed to do was take the right of a forked dirt road, not left – how obvious! I wanted to drive until we found the place – Dad wanted to pull over to the side of the road and sleep. We compromised – drove a bit further up the mountain – but stopped when we found out that it was definitely the wrong way (it was actually Castelmola proper where we ended up – but we didn't know that at the time) and stopped and slept in a parking lot.
7am – the sun is up and I'm ready to drive and find the place. The logical thing to do is go back to where we thought the place was and take the right lane (this is where the dogs were earlier and why I didn't walk that way to begin with)… Found the apartment on the first try. When we got there Mom opened the door – I stumbled into my bed and slept until 6pm. And so ended the first 3 days inSicily.
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