Murphys in Sicily

Shannon’s parents came to stay with us for two weeks in October and they had the opportunity to receive the most comprehensive tour of Sicily we had yet provided our guests. Like many of our guests they had been to Italy before but never made it all the way down to Sicily. However Paul and Susan may have been our most prepared visitors yet having read tour books and novels to gain an understanding of their travel destination and the new home of their daughter.
The first day we showed them around our apartment and the town of AciTrezza where they had the opportunity to eat some local cuisine at some of our favorite restaurants. The next day we got started in full speed taking them first to the ruins of the temple at Segesta. The temple there was built by Greeks in the 5th century BC and sits at the edge of a gorge and is surrounded by mountains. Next we headed to Marsala which is on the complete other side of the island from where we live. In Marsala where we had lunch and toured the city square and Duomo. Our path North from Marsala took us along the famous salt marshes of Trapani where sea salt is produced in large ponds along the coast. We ended the first day at the mountain top town of Erice. Erice overlooks the city of Trapani and offers great views of the Mediterranean sea with the Egadi Islands.

The next morning we awoke in Erice and had the homemade breakfast at our hotel. Erice is famous for its pastries so our breakfast spread seemed more like dessert. I wouldn’t have it any other way! We spent the morning touring the convent and the churches of Erice.
Some of the days they were visiting Shannon and I had to go to the base for the day. A few of those days our Sicilian neighbor Agatha showed Paul and Susan around the area giving them the inside scoop on the real Sicily. One day Agatha took them north along the coast between Aci Trezza and Taormina to many of the charming fishing villages. On another day Agatha took them into Catania for a tour of the city and the university where she went to school. Agatha also took them up the mountain to show them the villages up there and took them to the highest points on the volcano you can drive where they could overlook the island and take in views of the craters from previous eruptions.

Together we all took a day trip to Piazza Armenia, which is

about an hour and a half south west of us. In Piazza Armenia there is an old Roman hunting lodge, built in the 4th century AD and buried in a mudslide in the 12th century AD. The site was not fully uncovered until 1960 so what remains is an impressive example of roman architecture and some of the most impressive and best preserved Roman mosaics in the world. The lodge is huge and the mosaics illustrate many parts of Roman life at the time as well as displaying mythical depictions.

After the hunting lodge we headed to Porto Empedocle, a costal town on the Mediterranean sea. Porto Empedocle is the setting for the Montalbano mystery books, which we had all read, so we stopped in the town for some lunch and Susan had a visit with Inspector Montalbano's statue. After lunch we headed over the Agrigento to see three of the best preserved Greek temples in the world.

On the second weekend we all went to the island nation of Malta. Malta is out in the middle of the Mediterranean sea and its strategic location has made it a popular place for world powers to occupy. Perhaps its most famous rulers are the Knights of Saint John who occupied Malta for hundreds of years after leaving Palestine at the conclusion of the final crusade. Their most recent occupiers were the English up until the end of World War II so in a nice change for us, most of the people in Malta speak English very well.

Today Malta is independent and a member of the European Union. We stayed in the resort town of St. Julian which has lots of nice hotels and good restaurants. The first night we went to their famous Blue Elephant restaurant which features Thai food. Thai food is difficult to find in Sicily. The next day we toured the city of Valletta. Valetta is the capital of Malta and it overlooks the main port of the island. Because Malta was subject to so many invasion attempts over the past 1000 years, the entire harbor is walled off turning the whole city into a huge fort. That night we went to a Maltese restaurant which offered traditional cuisine featuring seafood and rabbit.

On the final day of their visit we took Paul and Susan to the ancient city of Syracuse and showed them the ruins of the Greek and roman theaters and the city which features archeological sites and views of the Ionian sea.

During their visit Paul and Susan had the opportunity to not only see where we live and see some sights but to meet many of our good friends here. In addition to spending time with our neighbor Agatha they went to a going away party for our friend Amy where they met a dozen or so of our good friends. They were even lucky enough to have dinner at Monika’s house and got to eat some of her famous German cuisine. Thanks for the visit, Paul and Susan!

Oktoberfest 2009

My friend James came up with a great idea- not only go to Oktoberfest this year but rent an RV and drive there from Sicily. For the last week of the 199th Oktoberfest 5 guys piled into an RV in Catania and headed north to the world’s largest fair. After stopping overnight we arrived at a campground in Munich on Monday afternoon. We quickly cleaned up and headed downtown to the beer tents. Over the course of the week we would hit up most of the major tents at the fair. In the beer tents we met people from all over the world. There was a really positive spirit in the air, everyone was very friendly and excited to meet new people. The tents would close at 11pm and most of the time we would head out to a bar afterwards with our new friends. We also toured the city a bit and tried out some of the famous beer halls such as the Hofbrau House and the Augustiner House. We also found some beer gardens in the main central park of Munich. We met lots of nice people and we would sometimes go to the bars until very late with our new friends. On our last day my friend Sara and her friend Sarah came to Oktoberfest on part of their epic European tour so I got to hang out with one of my good friends from home at the festival too.
Munich is a really nice city, everything is clean and organized. They have very good public transportation that runs until very late. Our campground was actually in the city and we could take the subway from our campground to anywhere in the city we wanted to go.
We stayed for 5 days and it’s a good thing we didn’t stay longer because we were a mess by the end. We were exhausted and all of our voices were raspy from trying to talk in the loud beer tents. We had a joke going that when you met someone you could tell how many days they had been at the festival based on how their voice sounded.

(It is not me in the picture below)