Lipari: Day three, down time.

Today was supposed to be our last day here, but i woke up this morning and the first thing i did was I went downstairs to schedual another 2 nights here. We went and ate breakfast at this restaurant down the road. The place we are staying at is supposed to have breakfast but for some reason they are not doing it so they are giving us these vouchers to go to this restaurant for breakfast instead. Its okay, they have this bread thing that i can eat, it fills me up, and i just get water with it. Breakfast here in Italy isnt that big of a deal anyway.
After breakfast we went down to the port to make resvervations for the guided tour to the volcano and all that, well it was full. So we are now going on Saturday to Stromboli and Panarea. Tomarrow we are going to go to Vulcano island and going swimming in the mud and jacuzzi volcano water. Since we were left today with nothing to do we hopped onto a bus and went to the other side of the island and went swimming in the Mediteranean. It was cool because in the distance we could see Panarea Island and Stromboli and we could see the steam coming out of Stromboli, it was awesome. I fell alseep on the beach and i now have a hand print sunburnt into the middle of my chest. Prety cool, right? Sunburnt on october 23rd.















We were at the beach pretty long, long enough for me to get a good nap in at least. We got there at 11 in the morning and left around 2 or 3. Got back to our room at 4:30 and we've just been chillin ever since. I took a shower and went down to the super market to buy three things things.

Water: Water here comes in two sizes, a normal 12 oz. plastic bottle and a HUGE bottle, it doesnt even say the size, its gotta be 48 oz at least. And this supermarket sells these huge bottles of water for 28 cents.
Cookies: Suprisingly, in all of italy and france, and switzerland, this one super market on a tiny island has soy products, not only that but they also have rice milk. They have these vegan soy cookies that come in bags. Two flavors: Chocolate chip and hazelnut.
Lotion: For the sunburn of coarse!

I come back and Morganne is reading and i just sit down and hop onto the computer, catching up on news: national, international, and with my friends.

We leave the doors open in our room to our terrace, because it is so nice. But the flys here are so bad, we havent had much of a problem untill today. They wouldnt leave us alone. I hate flys...

Morganne eventually falls asleep and im still on my computer. Looking through my Itunes and stuff.

Before i left to Europe, my good friend Conor told me one thing: that im going to miss country music.

What he meant in that (country) was the bluegrass and folk music that is getting pretty popular in Traverse City, with Seth Bernard and Daisy and Breathe Owl Breathe and Luke and the rest of Earthworks. And he is right. Here in Europe you dont ever hear anything like bluegrass or folk. Im sure its here but I feel that kind of music is something you have to dig a bit for, so whilst in my travels i never hear it. So the playlist that i have been listening to the most on my itunes is the folk playlist. Its all iv been listening to, with an occasional dabble in some hip hop or hardcore or something. But the bulk of my listening has been the TC folk scene.

Okay, im getting into music now, this is going to get long now. Iv been trying to avoid talking about music in this blog for so long now because i know if im going to talk about music i might as well start a music blog and not get my travel blog involved with it...BUT....

Back at home, before i left i had a HUGE cd collection, i dont even know how many i had, probably somewhere between 600 to 800 cds, i dont know. Well, I put them all onto my computer. It was approximatly 60 gigabites of music, a little more. Before i left i boxed them all up and sold them to Sound It Out records in TC ( the money from this is pretty much what is getting me through europe ) so if you want any cd's i suggest going there to their used section, i kept mine all in really good condition and there is alot of all kinds of music, new and old. But also when i got this computer i would go to the library and check out cds and put them onto my computer. And i would do hardrive trades with friends, when we would trade our external hardrives and take music from eachother. I am also dipping a bit in downloading music. All in all i have about 120 gigs of music on my computer. Which is ALOT. I wanted it to be this way so that when i am here in Europe i am not spending my money on records (it turned into a bad habit) but i am still able to go into my itunes and listen to something new everyday. Literally, its like everytime i open up my itunes its like im walking into an AWESOME record store where i dont have to buy anything!

Also a good thing that comes out of this is that when im back in TC looking for a new house to move into i dont have to worry about the 7 boxes of cds iv had to mess with in my past moves. I am actually pretty excited about that because going to Europe gave me a reason to get rid of alot of junk that i dont need, so when i head home i have it narrowed down to just a couple boxes of nick nacks and a bag of clothes that i have to move. Its pretty nice.

So along with all the Earthwork friends:

Iv been listening to alot of Bon Iver, Beirut, and Bowerbirds. Ha, all start with B, wierd, huh? They all remind me of hanging out in TC, especially with Mat and Nate, and Anthony, and Ian. Who i all miss alot. Im glad i was able to spend my last night in TC with them for Anthony and Joannas birthday party.

But when im not listening to them (the tree Bs)

I just got Modeselektor's newest album: Happy Birthday which i have been liking alot! Which also got me into TTC, which, funny enough, is a French hip hop group.

Im still listening to that new Ceremony too, it never gets old and i can listen to it real quick! Im pretty sure you can listen to their whole discography in about 20 minutes. Before i came to Europe i got into With Honor which is still ringing around here. And Inti got me listening to alot Gorilla Biscuits and Sick Of It All too.
I wish i could be there to see that Have Heart/Blacklisted show in Detroit. But thats okay because i just found that Ceremony and Verse is playing in Rosswein Germany on November 22nd, so i AM going to that, I will go to that show, i will be major bummed if i dont!

On the train between Switzerland and Rome i found myself listening to ONLY Wu-tang clan, i didnt even realize it untill i got off the train that i listened to all of 36 chambers about three times, Ghostface (Rachel, if your reading this, i found the Ghostface Killah/MF Doom collaborations!), ODB and Gza the entire ride.

So, in a nut shell thats the music thats been keeping me moving, along with the good food and people and scenes. Exactly what i want to keep me moving here in Europe.

Lipari: Day two. Picture Day.

Morganne and I taking a break on our walk along the coast of Lipari Island.


Lipari village at dusk


Plants and greens are everywhere on this island, its great.


Greens, on the terrace outside our room.


Looking out onto the terrace from the inside of our room. Plants are literally spilling into the room.


This is the view from our room, its awesome. Its like your still dreaming when you wake up and walk out in the morning.


We climbed that hill right there in between the trees. Those are tombs there on the ground.


Lipari Island. The furthest mountains you see there is Vulcano island. If you click on the image to see the full size image and look to Vulcano island you can actually see the sulfur gas seaping through cracks in the ground. Pretty cool.


Vines and cactus growing along the walls on the streets.


The other side of the island


The Mediterranean Sea




Morganne, jumpin the right way before she falls the wrong way.


Flowers



This truck has been here for a while. Wanna know how i know that? The vines have grown through the engine and are totally engulfing the side.


The dead rats i wear on my feet everyday.


So, wanna know our plans? Cause they have changed...again. We were going to Tunis, Africa but we have changed our minds. I have always wanted to go to Africa. Africa seems like a mysterious continent that know one really ever talks about, let alone anyone goes to. I have always wanted to go to Africa and while in Rome Morganne and I pulled out the Eurail map for the first time on both of our trips. Well we saw that there was a ferry going to Tunisia dropping us off in Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia. So we got really excited, made plans to go and everything...to Africa, thats what we were telling each other. We were going to Africa. But i have been thinking alot about going and I realize that when i think of going to Africa i think of actually going to Africa, the congo, safaris, gorillas, wildlife. Not a big city, a city that doesnt even have beaches. Tunis, is a city that is quite similar to a city like Chicago, or New York. Cool cities in America, but not cool cities when you are travelling in Europe. So we have scrapped that idea. We are going to stay a bit longer here on the island, its too beutiful and relaxing to only be here a couple days. Tomarrow we are going on a tour of a couple of the islands around here. Panarea and Stromboli. It is a guided night tour of Stromboli, which is an active volcano rising out of the Mediterranean Sea. We will make a small stop in a small village on Panarea, which is an island on the way to Sromboli. We will be able to explore Panarea and get to go swimming. Since this is volcano land here there are cracks in the earth under water where steam is bursting through, all along the coasts of these islands the water is like a jacuzzi. After Panarea we will head to Stromboli, hike up the volcano to the crater and watch the lava splash through the ground and also watch the sunset. As you may be able to guess, im pretty darn excited to see this.

After Lipari we will head back to the main land of Italy back up to Rome, visit Inti for a couple of days and then head to Nice, France. Then to Barcelona for Dia De Los Muertes and Halloween. After Barcelona we will explore southern Spain and then we will seperate by November 7th. Morganne will head up north to Paris and I will head further west to Portugal.

Time, when i think about it, goes by pretty darn quick.

But to think, im a little over three weeks into my journey. Like i said when i was a week into this, it feels like iv been gone for 3 months already.

Lipari: Day 1

Ever hear of Lipari?

Its a small island off the cost of Sicily. It is one of a group of islands called the Aeolian. Strombli, Panarea, Salina, Filicudi, Alicudi, Vulcano, and Lipari make up the Aeolian Islands. Lipari is the largest of the bunch, therefore it is the most popular. Pretty small city. The island itself is almost like if Traverse City was an island, and warm all year round, and was italian. It is very nice here. One of the first things i noticed about the island was that it was really quiet. No sirens, car horns, loud cars, dogs barking. Really the loudest thing here are the children playing outside and the birds.

Palermo: Last day Beach Day

So i am now used to the time change. I am going to bed at a normal time and waking up at a normal time now. Rather than being wide awake at 2 in the morning and forcing myself to sleep, i am now falling to sleep around 11 or 12 at night.

And this morning i was awake at about 8:30. Perfect, free breakfast. The hostel im at has a breakfast from 8:30 to 9:30 and i had me some toast and these little gram cracker things. It wasnt to bad. Oh i also drank a lot of orange juice. For some reason i have been craving orange juice ever since i got to London and it has taken me this long to get my taste.

Morganne and I just kind of hung out and talked about our future traveling plans. She is also thinking about buying a Smart Car when she gets home. Smart Cars are little environmentally friendly hybrid cars and they are everywhere here in Europe. So we were looking at the stats on those. Pretty cool little cars.

After we finally collected ourselves we headed out to a bus station and caught bus number 806 to Mondello. A little village north of Palermo. Mondello is where the beaches are and the bus dropped us off right at the beach, it was perfect.




This beach was like the beaches you see on the commercials for vacationing in the bahamas or jamacia or something, but this is Sicily!

So i went swimming on October 20th in the Mediteranian Sea, and it was warmer water than anytime i went swimming in Traverse City this past summer. I still have sand in my hair and there is sand in my bed. It reminds me of the summer days in TC when sand never seemed to leave me.

Also, in my hair, is salt! Salt water, im not used to this stuff. I jumped in and it was not fresh water. It was very very salty water!

Here are some other pictutres of my stay in Palermo:

This is Morganne using my computer on my bed lastnight.

This is the park that i was talking about, this doesnt do it justice though, there was way more activity than this.




The beach was not down this way...





This was the Tea Room/Bar that we hung out at the other night. It was a really nice place.

Weekend in Palermo, Sicily.

So it hasnt been too bad here in Palermo. Its warm and sunny, nice people and we are at a good place to sleep.

Yesterday Morganne and I wandered around down by the water again, looking to get in, and go swimming. But we ended up walking into a rather rough part of the city. Not ever finding a beach, or one clean enough to step foot onto.
But the park though was full of people, I dont think i have ever seen a park used THIS correctly. As in there were families and kids, hundreds of them, playing soccer, having picnics, playing Frisbee, riding bikes. On the edge of the park was a huge market that literally had everything you would need, from fruits and vegetables to underwear and shoes. I have never seen a park look so fun!

So we sat and played cards for a couple hours in a shady spot of the park. Its funny, its October and we are seeking out the shady spots to get out of the sun.

Later on we were back at the Hostel and our friend that we met here from Croatia, Matco, wanted to cook dinner. He invited his friend Annie and us 4 ate Rice and fruit salad. It really wasnt bad. It was actually really good. After dinner we walked around the city for a bit looking for this place that was having live music. We found it, but the music wasnt starting for an hour or so. So walked around and found ourselves in the African neighborhood. We went to a bar and we were the only white people there, and everyone was looking at us....it was alright. We kept walking. Definatly into neighborhoods that were a bit....uncomfortable for 4 white tourist. We decided to just go back to the bar that had the music. It was a really nice place, was also a tea room so i got some tea. It was Black Chocolate tea and was so good i kept the tea bag so that i could put it in my bag with my clothes and make them smell like black chocolate tea. We hung out there and visited with Matco and Annie for abit and listened to music. It was good music. A guitar player and a bass player and they played covers. It was fun.

Today Morganne and I are taking a bus ride to a small village near Palermo, there are beaches there, so we will go swimming hopefully!

October 16th to the 18th

So, i havent been able to get online for a bit now. We have been on the move again.


I was sick for a night in Rome, which wasnt too good. But I didnt let that stop me from going to the show at the castle. The band that played was called the Business. They are an old skin head punk band from the U.K.. I dont quite agree with them, nor the people at the show. But i did agree with the castle though that the show was at. It is a "Castle Squat". Basically the story behind it, the short story at least, is that some punks found an abondoned castle, not being used for anything at all, except to use up space, and they started throwing shows at it. Now it has grown to an official indoor and outdoor venue, a bar, and a resteraunt. All being ran by punk kids, with no help from anyone else, no security, no insurence, nothing. The goverment basically looks at it as "Well, we can control these kids better if they are all in one place, rather than all over the city."

So, thats something that is impossible in america! But this place was insane, crazy. You'd think you would only see it in a wierd si-fi movie or something. You walk in and there is just this long hall way (remember, this is a castle) the walls are covered in grafitti and posters and just huge random things. It is lit by just about every kind of bulb you can find and type of lighting out there, from black lights to green lights to flourecent lights. And you can only imagine the kind of people there.


And thats just the entrance in it. The hall way breaks a couple times into these long rooms and in the second long rooms is where they have the indoor shows. Right outside of those is a kind of courtyard where they have outdoor shows. Thats as far as i got in the castle. But i think it would have been a bit of an overload if i were to have seen the rest.

The show was good, regardless of the beliefs and horible stomach ache. I wont let that stop me from having a good time and listening to music.

So, the next morning was supposed to be the morning that Morganne and I were going to leave, but we decided to stay one more day. We went to the Vatican, and to much suprise it was very confusing. The Vatican Museum is NOT in the Vatican. The only place you can go IN the Vatican is where they keep the tombs of past Popes. So we went to that and then to the rest of the museums.




They dont let you take pictures in the most impressive part though, the Sistin Chapel. Which blew me away. From top to bottom, it is covered in amazing paintings. To think that someone spent time painting all of that!

I am also using some of Morganne's pictures too, her camera is better and the battery lasts longer on it.

But the whole Vatican experiance was rather impressive. As was the entire Rome expiriance.

So, yesterday: We voted, we took our ballots back to the embassy and forced them to take them. They did, so, we did our part in the election! After that we went back to Inti's house and I packed up my stuff. We headed to the train station and jumped on the next train going to Naples. While on the train going to Naples, I had the third presidential debat downloaded on my computer, so we watched it. Even though we had already voted. But we watched it....and we still felt good about our decision.

We get to Naples and we just kind of hung around. We knew that we wanted to eat pizza. Pizza came from Italy, from Naples, Italy. So this was the place to get pizza. Unfortunatly, the adapter plug that i got for my camera charger sucks and i wasnt able to take pictures in Naples. But trust me, your not missing much. It was a rather shock when we got there. Kinda dirty, kinda chaotic, definatly not very impressive after Rome. If you ever want to see how a city runs with out the use of any traffic signals or lights or lanes, go to Naples. There was no order to how the cars got around there.

So we got off the train and we just wanted to chill out for a bit. Arriving in a new unfamiliar city has quite the impact on the mental system iv learned. We checked our bags in at the train station so we could just walk around without having to worry about getting mugged or anything, well, we still worried but we just didnt have to worry about our bags.

Morganne asked a group of girls about where to get the best pizza. They didnt quite understand us, but they point us to a pizza place at least, the one they thought was good. "Go there, then left." Okay, so thats what we did, we went "there" then left. Left being, the rest of the city...

We walked for a bit, left, and suprisingly we actually found the pizza place they were talking about. It was closed. So we decided to continue to walk and wait for abit. Alot of resteraunts here in Italy wont open untill 7 or 7:30 at night. So we went to a park. pretty run down. It was where all the kids hung out after school also, driving their scooters around, playing soccer (futball) with a basketball, and looking at each others cell phone. We decided to play a game of cards. No one bothered us, and it was kind of interesting watching the kids interact with eachother.

After about an hour we headed back to the pizza place, its about 6:30. Its still not open. So we went down the side walk and asked again "Where can we get really really good Pizza here?". The guy didnt understand. He just pointed us down the block further, to another resteraunt, a mexican bar called Mexican Bar. So we just kept walking knowing that the best pizza in the world was definatly not coming from a Mexican Bar. So a little further down the block and we see a guy unloading his trunk of Water bottles and taking them into a dance club that was just about to open.

Morganne: "Do you speak english?"

Man: "Umm, yes."

Morganne: "Do you know where we can get some really good pizza?"

Man: "umm, yes. Where are you guys from?"

Morganne: "New York" (This is where Morganne is from, not the city, but the state. And i figured in a situation like this we can just leave it at that, rather than explaining to him where Michigan is and that I dont live in Detroit. Because that is what happens.)

Man: "Oh, well, yeah. You want the best pizza in the world? Well *pause* you just wait, about 5 minutes and i will take you there. The best pizza in the world. But the neighborhood is a bit a rough"

We waited about 2 minutes and the guy was ready. We were on our way, driving through chaotic Naples with some stranger guy that actually likes to help out American because he used to live in the states and we helped him out so much, thats what he said.
We enter into this area of the city and he says "This place is kind of like Harlem....but with white people....and chinese."

Iv never been to harlem, but this area was pretty bad, shattered windows in store fronts, literally, piles of garbage on the corners of streets. I saw a washer and dryer just thrown in the middle of the street. It was bad. He told us how to get back to the trainstation which was pretty simple and he told us that if we did have to ask for help that we should pretty much ask only old ladies, no men of any age, and no young woman, otherwise we have a large risk of getting robbed. He also told us that we shouldnt ask them if they speak english, and he told us the proper way of asking how to get to the train staion. Because in Naples people speak a different dialect of Italian. Even if you speak Italian, normal, you are at risk of being robbed in Naples. Let alone English.
He also taught us how to properly order a pizza at this place. I asked him "Well, what about a pizza with no cheese?" and he told me "Oh no, they wont put any cheese on these pizzas. They put Mozarella."
Mozarella here in Italy, is not cheese. It is of a substance on its own, not cheese though. So he drops us off infront of the best pizza place in the world. They're not open yet. So we are stuck in a pretty horible part of an already rough city, one american guy and one american girl. We decide that we shouldnt talk that loudly and we should just keep our heads down and walk, not making eye contact with anyone. We walk back to the train station making sure we know the way and then we walk back. By the time we get back its open and we are the first ones in. We get the menu and half is in italian and half is in american. Perfect. so we order. About 4 mintues later two massive pizzas are sitting infront of us. We eat them, and it is, indeed the best pizza iv ever had. Even with no cheese, this pizza beat every cheese pizza iv ever had. The sauce was perfect and the crust was perfect. It was soo good actually that we i oredered another one and ate it right there! No joke. Not only was it the best pizza iv ever had it was also the cheapest. For 3 euros i got a huge pizza all to myself that was the best pizza ever. So i ate two of them.

After dinner we head back to the train station and hop on the next train going to Palermo. We arrived this morning in Palermo, Sicily. And it is great. Some how through out the night they got the train that we were riding in over onto a ferry and across water without us knowing, i dont know what the deal is with that. But here we are now, in Sicily. Its really warm and there is a large body of water and we are at a great hostel. We just went down to this massive market right down the road and baught everything we needed to make pasta (for the next few days) for about 5 euros, including a bundle of bananas, a baquett, a bottle of Mango nectar, and a huge bottle of water. We are here for a couple days and then we head to the other side of the island where we will hopfully see more nature than city. Something that i have come to miss alot on this journey. After Sicily we have more travel plans but i am keeping those secret. I will just tell you that by the 28th we will be back in Rome for a day and then we will head over to Barcelona via 19 hour ferry ride across the Mediteranian.




This is Palermo, Sicily.