Mt. Etna & Carnevale!

Sat. Feb 25 - I had to leave with Rosario to Mt. Etna at 7am to be able to get to Augusta Bay by 8. The ride was very tiring, but as soon as I got there and met the 5 people I was escorting, I woke up a little better. The ride was fun and got to meet them pretty well since there were so few of them. One of them was from Soulard which was pretty funny. We talked about St Louis for awhile and everyone asked me a bunch of questions about my time here. They were from the USS Kawahawa, which is a civilian supply ship. The sky was beautiful but once we got to the top, it soon became a blizzard. I met a few other snowboardin friends up there but the weather was absolutely nasty. We tried walking up a few hundred feet, but we eventually just gave up and boarded down. My face and eyes were getting bombarded by ice, snow, and wind. It was very frustrating and I was very sad that the whole day was now a waste. The ski lifts were closed due to the wind and it didn't look like it was going to clear up anytime soon. I ate some lunch and then just walked back to the van and took a nap. We had to leave the mountain by 3pm and I was so ready to leave around noon. Oh well, they all had a good time up at the sit-down restaurant sitting my the fireplace. We finally got back and I immediately went to my room to lay down. A group of us were gonna go to Acireale for Carnevale, but I couldn't get ahold of them. When I woke up from my long nap, they had already left. I called my friend Matt from an Etna trip and asked him if he wanted to go. We met up and left around 9pm. I have never been there and he just rented a car for the weekend so I knew this was going to be an adventure. I called some people to get directions and we got there in good time. Luckily, we could see the ferris wheel from right off the highway so we found the center of the carnival pretty easily. We finally found a parking spot and walked to the carnival. I was thinking this was going to be some fancy party with a parade and people dressed in costumes. Yeah, I was soooo wrong. This was a freakin school carnival. Kids running around, trashy carnies, drag queens, and people walking around hitting each other with rubber hammers and noise makers. We rode two rides, the ferris wheel and something kinda like the octopus. I ate a chicken and mushroom panini and we were the laughter of the panini stand. I couldn't understand a word they were saying and they couldn't understand us. We ended up getting a good deal and they asked us for some US dollars. I dont know why cuz it's not worth as much. It was funny though and the panini was delicious. It was getting boring and the weather was getting really cold so we left around 11:30. We got back and went dancing at Strike and met up with some people there. The night was alright, but the Carnevale was really disappointing. I can't believe thats what that was and people make such a big deal about it. Oh well, I'm glad I didn't cancel any plans for it.