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)

Friends in Sicily

Shannon and I were fortunate to have many visitors in the last 6 weeks. Our friends from the States came to Sicily to visit and we had a great time showing them the things we have learned about our Sicilian home.
Christina and Kelly came in late August when Sicily is still very hot. We took the girls out in Aci Trezza on their first night and introduced them to our favorite pizzeria and to some of the places to get a beer. We took them to Pontile which is a bar on a platform built over the volcanic rocks on the shore. The sea comes right up under the platform where you sit and it makes for some nice views. Then we took the girls over to Mario's bar where Antonio taught them a new drinking game. The next day the girls went on a day of the beach and shopping, thankfully they left me behind. They started off at Taormina to do some shopping and then went down the hill to Isola Bella beach. However after the beach they were headed up the mountain to do a wine tasting and the car died. Shannon called me and I was able to get my friend Chris to come and help. Chris is a mechanic but he was unable to get the car started so he was nice enough to tow the car all the way back to Aci Trezza. Later that night we took the girls out to a seafood dinner in Aci Trezza where we got them the Misti appetizer which comes with different food every time we go there. Some of the things they tried were whole small fishes, octopus, urchin and calamari all caught in the waters off Aci Trezza. That night we were seated at the table next to the mayor and he must have been taken by the three ladies because he bought them all another shellfish delicacy.









The next day we took the girls down to Syracuse to take in a little bit of ancient Sicily. We saw the ruins and the church and had a nice day in the town. We took them to Shannon's favorite Sicilian restaurant for dinner where they tried some of their famous pistachio pasta. That night we had a real treat for our visitors. Our friend Derrick was having a party on his rooftop. The theme for the party was a "white trash party" so people were supposed to dress up like they might be white trash. The ladies did not dress up but I did. The party was a whole lot of fun. The party was so much fun the next day was necessarily a day of recovery and was spent at the lido sunning platform down in town. In the evening we took them to Cafe del Mar which has a pool party every Sunday night and then we went out to dinner with a big group of our friends. They left early the next morning.

The next weekend our friends Matt and Christa came to visit. Matt and Christa were going to spend over a week in Sicily and do some touring around the island besides the area Shannon and I live in.

On the first night we showed them around the town introducing them to some of our Sicilian friends and later we bumped into a bunch of our American friends over at Mario's bar. The next day we all went over to Agrigento. Agrigento is on the other side of the island and Shannon and I had not visited the site yet. Agrigento used to be the site of the ancient city of Akragas which was established around 582 B.C. There are three temples to explore and two of them are in very good shape. There is also a field of ruins to walk around in and a museum with artifacts found at the site. That night we took Matt and Christa over to Monika's house because she was having a Monte Carlo themed party. Monika is from Germany so she there were many of her German friends there and also people from Sicily, France, Russia, England and a bunch of our American friends. It was cool to show Matt and Christa all the people we hang out with and Matt even won some money at the end of the night. The next morning we rented some kayaks and paddled around the waters of Aci Trezza and Aci Castello. We took them from one end of the cape to the other which is a tour that takes you to a Norman castle and around the Ciclope islands. We pulled the kayaks up on one of the islands and did some swimming in the Tyrrhenian Sea and Matt and I did a little bit of climbing and jumping off the islands. After cleaning up at home we all went up on the mountain and did a wine tasting at the Gambino Winery. Gambino is on the slopes of Mt. Etna and offers great views of the the surrounding terrain and the sea. The next day Matt and Christa took a ferry to the Aoliean islands off the north coast of Sicily. While there they would climb an active volcano and view lava spurting into the air.
Two weeks later our friend Sara would come visit with her friend Sarah. The girls were on a month long tour of Europe and made Sicily a part of their trip. I picked the girls up at the airport and took them into Aci Trezza for a granita treat. After showing them our home I took them down to Syracuse for a tour of the city and its ancient sites. The previous stop on the girls' trip was Rome so they had already seen a lot of churches but I think they liked the Duomo in Syracuse. The Duomo started off as a Greek temple and was subsequently turned into a Christian Church, a Mosque and back to a Christian Church. The cool part about the church is that you can see evidence of each one of these stages. After Syracuse I took them to San Gregorio to pick up some wine. A few months ago Monika showed Shannon and I this store in San Gregorio where you can buy wine. If you didn't know it was there you would never be able to find it because it looks like an alley. The store has 6 Sicilian wines to choose from- each in a barrel 10 feet in diameter. I told the girls that were were going to buy two wines and the man who runs the store let them taste them all to decide. They chose the Nero d'Avola and an Etna wine. You bring your own vessels to fill up and he charges by the liter. After leaving the wine store Shannon called and asked us to pick up some calamari on the way home. We went to the fish market down in Aci Trezza and picked up the calamari we wanted and had the guy clean it for us. By the time we got home Shannon had a very nice spread of appetizers for us so we started the evening drinking prosecco and snacking on the terrace. That night we took them into town where we met up with about 6 of our friends for some pizza. We proceeded to Mario's bar and then to an after party at a friend's house. The next day we had an unsuccessful attempt at kayaking in the harbor, in the two weeks that had passed since we went kayaking with Matt and Christa the weather had changed a lot and the seas were too rough to have any success kayaking. That night we took the girls into Catania. We walked around the Piazza Duomo and saw the church and the elephant statue in the main square. Then we took them to the ruins of the Roman Amphitheater and on to dinner on the only hip street in Catania, Via Santa Filomena. The next day we took the girls shopping for some famous Sicilian ceramics and then up to the beach at Isola Bella and to Taormina. That night we took them to Reitana restaurant which makes the best pastas we have been able to find so far in Sicily. The next morning the girls had to catch a plane back to the mainland.
Shannon and I enjoyed having so many visitors. It is fun to see the sights of Sicily and I enjoy introducing people who we have known for many years with our friends in Sicily. We have lived here for more than a year now so we are pretty settled and used to life on a Mediterranean island. For visitors we have many ideas about what to show people when they come and perhaps more importantly we know how to get there without getting lost.

Scandinavia

It is hot these days in Sicily. Temperatures are in the 90s every day and it has not rained since June. It is the perfect time to travel north to Scandinavia. On Friday, we flew into Oslo, Norway and by mid-afternoon we were being tourists. We stopped at the Royal Palace first and were fortunate enough to arrive in time to view the changing of the guard. The rest of the afternoon we spent on a walking tour of the city.
Oslo is a very modern city, it is fashionable, clean and one of the most expensive cities in the world. The sun does not go set until 11pm each night. As a result, we had to get used to going to dinner with the sun still out and if we got a beer afterwards it would still look like it was the afternoon. The weather was nice- Cloudy to partly cloudy and mid 60s to mid 70s. It only rained one day. The next day we took a boat to Bygdoy Peninsula. On the peninsula we went to the famous Viking Ship Museum housing the finest surviving example of a Viking long ship. There are other ships in the museum along with artifacts found in burial mounds. Also on the peninsula there is a Norwegian village where buildings from different periods and regions are moved from their original location to Oslo. In the village they have many traditional artisan shops, farms and houses with grass covered roofs. We also went to the Kon-Tiki Museum which holds the boats and artifacts from the famous ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl. Heyerdahl built the boats and sailed them across the Atlantic and Pacific to prove that ancient civilizations possessed the technology to make the journeys. To complete the boat museum tour we went to the polar expedition museum which tells stories of Norwegian expeditions to the North and South Poles. In the museum they have a boat built in 1892 that was used by Roald Amundsen on his way to becoming the first explorer to reach the South Pole. To round out the day we took the boat back to the central city and took a tour of Akerschus Fortress. Within the fortress there is a castle from the 13th century and also a museum dedicated to the Norwegian resistance in World War II. After dinner Shannon went shopping, Oslo has many great stores. The next day we took a scenic train ride west through Norway. The trip took us into rural Norway where we saw small villages, many waterfalls and even a glacier. Our train ride ended at the town of Flam where we would continue our journey by boat. Flam is at the inland end of Norway’s longest fjord, the Sognfjord. Our boat took us









down the entire length of the fjord to the sea and then south along the coast where our journey ended at the city of Bergen. The Fjords were really impressive. Glaciers carved them out of the mountains leaving salt water channels that are actually deeper than the sea floor off the coast. That is why huge cruise ships can go through such narrow channels. The scenery was incredible and there were very few towns, it was obvious that they were just too isolated to support anything larger than a village. In Bergen we checked into our hotel and went out to dinner. I had a whale steak. Norway is one of the few countries that still allows whaling and you can even buy it as street food. It looks just like a steak but has a definite fishy taste, I assume because of the whale’s diet. Bergen is the second largest city in Norway but it seems like a small town. It has buildings that date back to medieval times that are still used as stores and restaurants (they are a little crooked though). For breakfast we walked down to the fish market at the edge of the harbor. The main products seem to be fresh salmon and caviar but if you ask them they will whip you up some open face sandwiches. We went to the art museum and the maritime museum but the town itself was the main attraction. That evening we took a night train to Gothenburg, Sweden.
Gothenburg a cool city. It was designed by the same planners that created Amsterdam and Gothenburg also has many canals and bridges. Gothenburg is also a college town with Sweden’s largest university and the Institute of Technology. In older times it was the main push off point for Swedish Vikings and at the Gothenburg museum they have one of Scandinavia’s premier Viking Artifact collections. Our next stop was Stockholm. Stockholm is Sweden’s capital and the city is built on 14 islands connected by a complex network of bridges. Our first stop was at the Royal Palace. At the palace we toured some of the historic apartments and chambers used by royalty and dignitaries. We also visited the armory which has many suits of armor and weapons from over the centuries. The armory also houses royal carriages. In addition we visited the treasury and got to see the crown jewels. We were lucky again and were at the palace during the changing of the guard.
The next day we took a ferry over to one of the island of Djurgarden. The island used to be the royal hunting grounds and today serves as a large public park. The island also has a museum dedicated to the Vasa. The Vasa was a 17th century warship that sank after sailing less than 1 mile on its maiden voyage. It lay on the bottom in Stockholm Harbor mostly undisturbed until salvaged in 1961. Today the 4-story boat has its own immense museum holding the boat itself and many of the artifacts found in the wreck. After the museum we visited a model Swedish Village and then it was time for Shannon to go shopping again.
Our trip to Scandinavia was great. The people we met were friendly and everyone speaks English very well.

Jethro Tull

Jethro Tull released their first album in 1968, in the 41 years since they have made a total of 21 studio albums. They are still touring and I went to see them at the Teatro Greco in Taormina. James and I have been talking about going to this show for a long time. 41 years is a long time for a Rock and Roll band but we saw them perform in a theater that has been around for 2200 years. In addition to being used for performances for a couple of millennia, the theater also overlooks the Ionian Sea and has views of Mt. Etna. They rocked and the show was fun.

Tony and Sara

Tony and Sara are our good friends from DC and they came to visit us over Forth of July weekend. They told us they were in the mood for some good food and relaxation. They came to the right place. On the evening of their arrival we caught up over some appetizers and prosecco on our terrace. Later we headed down the hill for some of the town’s greatest pizza and a tour of our favorite watering holes.
During the weekend we took them to Isola Bella beach near Taormina to catch some rays on the Ionian coast. We also took them up onto the mountain for a wine tour and tasting. The wineries up there offer great views of the Sicilian landscape across to the sea. They also got to see Catania at night when we went out to dinner with a group of friends.
Shannon and I had a great time during their visit. It was great to catch up with some good friends and show them some of the great things about living in Sicily.