Mt. Etna, BBQ, & Taormina

Sat. March 11 - I left for Mt Etna once again to escort a snowboarding trip this morning at 8am with Rosario and a full van. I sold all of the seats this week at work, a full van load. The weather was looking good at first when we got up there, but of course it was too windy to open the lifts. Some people actually got one run in, but by the time I got up there after having a cappucino, they decided to close the gondolas. Good thing they did b/c it just got windier througout the day. Some of the customers were walking up the hill and just boarding down a few hundred feet since it was most of their first times anyways. I stood in line waiting for them to open the lift for about an hour, but later gave up and went and ate lunch with some friends that were up there. I had my first foccacia. It was really good. It was salami and cheese and they heat it up on a grill. We all just hung out at the little restaurant for a few hours before the weather started getting really bad. I talked to Rosario and he asked me to go find everyone so we could head out. It was starting to snow really bad and the winds were making it like a blizzard. It took almost an hour to get everyone rounded up, but we finally got out of the parking lot. As soon as we tried to move (we were one of the last vehicles up there to leave) our tires couldn't get any traction. I hopped out and helped Rosario put on the snow chains. It looked like I was growing icicles from my hair. I was so cold and my ears were frozen after just spending 10 minutes putting on the chains. We finally got going but couldn't see more than 50 feet in front of the van the blizzard was so bad. We drove for almost 15 miles at about 20kmh. We finally got out of the snow, took off the chains, and headed straight into rain all the way until we got back to Sigonella. We got back a little early so I went home and took a shower and a nap. I was invited to a BBQ with some friends that work at the gym ealier this week that I really hadn't hung out with yet so I wanted to go to that to be able to meet them a little better. I called Matt since he still had his rental car and asked if he would like to join me for the BBQ. He came and picked me up and we watched EuroTrip before we headed to the BBQ. Before we went to the BBQ, he tried teaching me how to drive a manual for an hour. I did alright, he started teaching me last time I went to his hockey game. I didn't do too bad. We went to the BBQ and met all the people. It was fun to see them outside of work and the food they had was really good. We only stayed for a little bit because Matt had 24-hour duty in the morning and I had some laundry and cleaning to do at home. He brought me home and I got a call from my friends Kelly, Adam, and Josh at midnight asking if I wanted to go dancing. I got outta bed and put some jeans on and headed over to the dance club. It was fun. I just danced for a few hours and hung out with some friends. We went to a really cool club called the Dome. Its about a mile from base and it fits about 10,000 people. I was one of the 20 Americans there, but they had a room for House music and a room for Hip-Hop. It was so much fun. I just kinda babysat all my friends that had been drinkin all day and we rode the shuttle back to base around 4am. It was a lot of fun though.

Sun. March 12 - I got a phone call from Matt this morning saying that he got out of duty, so I jumped in the shower and we made plans to go to Taormina for the afternoon. I didn't wake up til almost 11, so we were on the road by noon. He had the rental car until tomorrow, so he didn't want to waste a day with a car in Sicily. I knew how to get up there from giving directions so many times for ITT, so we headed north and got there in about 45 minutes. We got past the toll and headed down towards the beach first. The sky didn't look to clear so we knew we had to take advantage of the sun while it was still out. We walked down the beach, a little park, and took some pics of the sea. It was near a really cool island called Isola Bella. Its a really popular spot during the summer. I got some cool pics of the beach though. Its really dirty during this time of the year, but they'll start cleaning em up next month. We left there and headed up the giant hill towards the tourist-y city of Taormina. It's one of the top places to visit while in Sicily, so we figured we'd see what the fuss was all about. Getting there was interesting, we had to park in a public garage and then figure out how to catch the free shuttle bus up to the city. The entire city is on a hill, so your not recommended to drive up there. We finally figured it out and immediately headed for the famous Greek Ampitheater. It was 6 euro to get in, but luckily we beat the big tour buses and we got some awesome pics with barely any tourists in them. It was beautiful. It was built in 200 BC by the Greeks, but most of the actual remains are Roman. It was placed right on top of the hill side with an amazing view towards the ocean. My boss told me that all ampitheaters look towards the ocean or the sunset. We played around in there and I got my favorite pic so far taken of me standing in the bottom of the ampitheater and you can almost see the entire theater with little ole me in the middle of it. It started to rain really bad as we were walking out and the 3 tour buses were entering the theater as we were leaving. Eventhough it was raining, we stayed and walked down the main street with all the shops and restaurants. The shops were all big-designer names and everything was really expensive. I was starting to wonder what the big fuss was about this town. It was gorgeous architecture and roads, but the stores were way over priced. I did buy a few fun things, but we just continued to walk the strip until we were soaked and really cold. I bought some cool presents and we got some really cool shots of us with the MED behind us. The view from up top was awesome, you could see for miles down the north and south coastline. I wish it wouldn't have rained so bad b/c then I could have gotten some really cool pics of Mt. Etna from Taormina. I tried to upload the pics I took, but my blog is being really strange with uploads lately. Ill get em up there eventually though. We left Taormina around 4 because he needed to get back to base and take over for his friend that was taking his duty for the morning. The drive back cleared up a little and we stopped to eat at an AutoGrille. That drive along the coast is breathtaking for sure. He dropped me off and I went and saw a movie with some friends. I got home and worked on my homework for a little bit. I have to prepare for my green-week at work in ode to St. Patty's Day. I'm going to wear something green everyday!

Greek/Roman Ampitheater in Taormina

Looking south down the coastline from a piazza in Taormina