July 3rd (Written July 5th, on a train, somewhere)

We woke to an ocean swim, the water was cool, but not cold and the sand soft between our toes. The same could not be said about the wall of rocks piled by the high tide. All of it was dark black from its volcanic origins. We floated about until we were good and pruny before heading up for showers and breakfast.



Breakfast was a combo of highs and lows. It was, for Erin, the first breakfast in a while with something other then "a bun," yogurt to be exact. On the down side, the coffee was terrible, that may have been an operator malfunction, but the button's were not labeled in Italian, never mind English.

We left our luggage with the desk and walked into the city, we shopped the quaint stores in search of beach towels but failed (little did we know we wouldn't find anyone selling beach towels until our last day in Italy.) Around noon we hired a boat to take us around the Island of Stromboli to see "the scar of flame."




Our ride was really nice, we didn't see any liquid lava, but we got a hot gas geyser and a rock slide, and a lot of smoke.


Our Captain/Guide spoke no English, but he had the universal gestures for eruption, explosion and lava flow down pat. Erin was regaled with my standard lecture of Hawaiian lava types and why the names are backwards.


The boat took us all the way around the Island and out to the lighthouse Island of Strombolicio, where we swam from the boat. The water was crystal clear, and it seemed like it was only feet deep, but it was really tens of feet or more.


The swim was great until one of the snorkellers who we met out there said "Jellyfish" which put me off, and out of the water.



We made shore in the heat of the day and sought out lunch. All the restaurants were closed for a siesta, but we found a nice bar, with a great view. Italian bars are more like small cafeterias; you can get pre-made food, like sandwiches and pizza, which can be reheated, as well as drinks and deserts.


A Biera, and a hotdog roll, and a gelato later and we made for the beach where we idled the day away.

At 5 we boarded our ferry for Naples, sad to leave that smoking gem of the Aeolian Islands.

The boat to Naples was hard on Erin, rough water, higher speeds, and no fresh air and no clean windows made her queasy. Even I was affected, but mostly I was just hot and sticky. It was a grueling 4 hours, but it was still a great day.

We scurried away from the port by taxi and found our hotel. It was in a sketchy alley; from the outside we were worried, but wonderful on the inside. Our first order of business was showers, and then dinner. Knowing we would be late, we purchased rolls, prosciutto and pecorino from Stromboli and made our own sandwiches.

We ate, and then like every other night, we slept the sleep of the dead.

July 2 (written July 5th, 2007 while on the train in Stazione Central in Napoli)

This was a strange day, we spent it mostly waiting and sweating. We started by checking out and then stowing our luggage at the hotel. We then walked basically all the way to the port to get a "no fee" Traveler's Cheque Exchange location, Banque de Costa. We entered through the man trap, past the armed guard, and the signs warning of kerchief clad gun toting bandits. Taking a number (117) we took a seat, and read the sign. "Now serving 90," we were in for a wait, ten minutes later "now serving 91" a long wait. . .

About two hours later I was at the counter, and I stayed there for about 20 minutes carefully stringing together from my Italian phrase book "Thank you, and sorry about the problem with the phone." While in the meantime my teller yelled at American Express over the phone. Once every thing was sorted out she handed me my cash and smiled appreciatively as Italian syllables crashed over my lips like a storm tossed ship against the rocky shoals.

We made a swift departure nearly three hours after we arrived, and headed back to the hotel, grabbed our luggage, and a bus back to the port. We grabbed a quick bite, and then boarded our hydrofoil.


Much to our dismay, the windows of the hydrofoil were encrusted with salt, but some of them were open so we got a little view, and a nice breeze.

We transferred at the Island of Salina, with a long enough pause to enjoy a gelato, all be it a very melty one, before on to Stromboli.



We arrived near dusk on the smoking island, the sun reaching the horizon beyond the volcano, it cast its long shadow over the town. We took a taxi from the port and were glad of it. The taxi was more of a pickup truck the size of a Smart Car with a bench in the flat bed. The rocky volcanic flow the town was build on was hilly, and the roads winding and narrow. More then once our taxi bounced off retaining walls of the building's foundations.


Our hotel, which had the distinction of being the only one I booked through, and booked through the use of pigeon English, turned out to be a lovely place. The Villagio Stromboli was a stucco clad Escher painting, of stairs and bridges built into the ancient lava flows (as opposed to over them.)


It had a fine view of the volcano and was perched over a black sand beach, accessible from stairs descending on pillows of magma.

We ended the day with , I daresay too much wine (I need to learn how to say one glass, as I keep getting one bottle) shellfish with eyes, and a canoli.



That night, when our heads hit the pillow, we were already asleep...

July 1?!?

Yes, yes I know it is missing. I'm trying to back fill the ones I didn't journal, while transcribing the ones that I did. I am also taking my sweet time about it. I will probably do a lot of typing catch up at the cottage. July 1 was a good one, I got pick pocketed, or groped by a stranger... Wait and see!

June 30 (Written from the Circumvesuvia on Route to Naples (From Pompii)

From Gatwick to Palermo the flight was short and comfortable.


On landing we were herded onto a bus and taken to the terminal. After 3 minutes in the baggage area we were summarily marched back to the bus, as we had not gone through Italian immigration.

Once loaded, the bus carried us thirty feet or... to the proper entrance. Immigration was manned by to tired looking men, whose lazy eyes skimmed our passports and waved us through

Luggage collected I made my way to the train to downtown.

The last leg of my journey, the train from the airport to downtown, was the hardest. I had no expectation for how long it should take, but it took longer then I expected, and felt longer still.

A short (yet expensive) taxi ride later, and a walk up some stairs and I was at Hotel Sicila (pronounced Si-ch-illa.) I knocked on the great wooden doors (a faux pas I was soon to be informed of) my rapping not only summoned the desk clerk, but also the cutest girl in Italy.

I had arrived.

June 29

The Flight to Gatwick was relatively uneventful, I read, and I slept. Strangely, for me, I slept lightly, waking with each passing in the isles, or dimming of the light. Landing in Gatwick I was greeted by traditional English weather... rain (in hindsight apparently I was graced the storms that mid to late July wrought on England.) The walk from the arrival gate to the terminal convinces me, we have landed in France and I must walk through the Chunnel.

After many hours of loitering, and getting a coffee that cost 1.70 pounds, I made my way to my connecting flight. As we queued at the gate, we were sent directly across the airport, as our gate had become blocked with an Air Portugal Flight. After a cross airport run, I boarded and was on the way.

As the last grasp of gravity was broken by the plane, I felt a great relief. All of my work and stress stayed below on the tarmac. I hope my stress can charter a flight home without me; I don't much care to share another plane with it.

Penned (with pencil) by my hand, July 3rd 2007, at the Ritrovo Ingrid, Stromboli, with Biera in the other)



Ps Erin wants gelato, so I wrote that fast.

Pizza!

This was a great shot from Erin's adventures in Erice. She was actually seated at the table right outside from the kitchen, and had this great view of a the flaming pizza maw.

Avast there be nerds of the port bow (Strange Signs 3)

So this was in Palermo, and I wish the store would have been open as I'm always amused by nerds in there natural habitat, but still an image I couldn't pass up for the geeks back home. It was dark, and we were scared of pick pocketer, and muggers, so I didn't stay long enough to fix the glare.

G

More weird signs...

So this sign indicates where to flee in an emergency, and clearly that direction is up. What is a little strange about this, is that the sign wasn't in the basement, it was near the top of the main turret of Castle Sant'Angelo, and the only thing that sign would lead you to is the room... clearly an effective place to flee a fire from, because fire doesn't burn up...

The actually vacation images are getting sorted and put together right now, just having a few upload issues. IPhoto is not the best software I've seen.

Geoff

The Start of Italy Pictures

Hey all, I got my pictures finally imported into iPhoto last night. Apparently, iPhoto doesn't like video's, so much so, that iPhoto instead of ignoring them, just randomly crashes, sill software. Anyways, I start our picture tour with this silly one.

Erin and I took some images of some of the more amusing signs on our trip, in this case, it is a strict warning about getting fresh with the subway in Napoli is strictly forbidden, or at least strongly warned against.

From Italy 2007

July 5th, in Rome

Hey All, just a quick note here as I've left the official journal back in the apartment. We have arrived in Rome on the 5th, and after some chaos at the train station, and a bunch of cabs who wouldn't give us a lift, we managed to get to our apartment. The place is nice, little dank, but nice. We are looking for clothes detergent as I accidentally packed, and then proceeded to haul, fabric softener...

Anyways my lack of brain's aside, we are going to wander a little bit of Rome today, and maybe see the Castle that was in Angel's and Demon's, a great work of fiction.

We missed out on using the internet in Naples because the alley we had to go down was filled with gun toting murder's mugging the knife wielding maniac's so we avoided the alley and carried on.

If we have a chance I will come by here with my canned journal posts tommorow, and maybe some digital pictures as well.

Ciao

Geoff

Gatwick Airport

Curses, I accidently erased everything, and there is not going back. Well I'm outta time, so here I am in Gatwick, woo hoo :)

More posts latter on the trip, hopefully with less being deleated by the computer.

Cheers

Italy are GOOOOOO!

Okay, that title is for Elite Beat Agent Fans, so excuse the grammar that is the Asian Video Game Translation Department's fault. All subsequent errors are mine, as usual.

Well this is short, as I'm behind the ball on last minutes. I am leaving shortly for Italy, its a long flight, with a comforting face on the other end of it. I am just about done with this working thing for the next two weeks, and those sections of my brain are shutting down.

I hope to bring you all comentary as we move, but I make no promises, until next time, Arrivederci!

Musings of a mad man

So I'm on a mission, so to speak, to get a whole pile of stuff I need done, and a whole pile of stuff I want done, and then thinking up new manner of things that just to do.

So last night I began enacting this plan with a really nice bike ride, during that ride I got a weird bug bite, and had a race with some 'punk teens', I'm pretty sure I won the race, but in any accounting it wasn't really fair as they hadn't already biked twenty or so kilometers that I had.

After my ride I got my craig's list post up to advertise my old warhammer mini's that are for sale, here is the photo's from the weekend:


I did a bunch of other random stuff, that is too boring to note, and headed to bed.

I had this genius idea of biking in the morning to free up my evening, I even packed a lunch, and got breakfast sort of ready. Then around 3 am, when I fielded a 411 from Palermo (Erin forgot a phone number she needed :) I had a sober second thought, and decided that 5 AM was too far off.

So I reset to a normal 6 AM, slept in, but thanks to pre-made lunch, and semi-ready breakfast I still made my train. As I get down to a busy day, I can happily report our traveler has arrived in Palermo, and after some confusion moved on to Erice successfully. She is not to her disappointment staying in the castle.

So thats the report for the day.

Cheers

GMT Update

Bumped into Erin online this morning, she was making herself comforatable in Gatwick, she said the flight over was good. Really not much to report beyond that. She said they had funny keyboards, thats something to say right? Okay, really no more news then that, so morning all.

Signing off

Girl on the go

Here she is ready to depart, this was taken at good old YYZ

Trip Journal

Morning all, today is the official kick off of Erin and Geoff's whirlwind tour of Italy, and its supporting trip blog. I of course am not leaving today, but Erin is.

We have just resolved the last critical issue, is the green journal going to be the travel journal, or the orange one (the other is going to be the course notes. We have elected green, because it is green, really as good a reason as any I suppose. So as Erin is gathering her things into her carry on, and the cats are strangely less bothersome, unlike yesterday where Loki 'helped' roll Erin's poster.

So today, I will drop Erin off at the airport between three and four, and she will be winging her way to Europe. So what travel excitement does Erin have in store for her you might ask? Well Erin will be flying to Jolly Olde England today, arriving tomorrow morning. Upon arrival she will be greeted by the wondrous Gatwick Airport, oooo ahhhh, where she will play such games as, find the electrical socket, and browse the magazine rack. This will not be a highlight of the trip, but a necessary evil.

After an exciting day in Gatwick, Erin will disembark for Palermo, where a short shuttle ride away she will find her first Italian dinner, and a comfortable bed.
I will be hearing from her around that time, which should be tomorrow afternoon our time. So I will let you all know, my own trip doesn't begin for two weeks, my journal here will be of the usual tripe that I publish, but once I leave, internet terminals willing, I will publish all manner of bizarre travel memoirs.

Cheers

A note would be internet hooligans, just because I'm going doesn't mean my house is open for looting, I will have a full time house sitter so :P and that is pronouced PTTTBBBBBBBBBDDDDDD according to Garfield.

The Amazing Loki

Silly cat got out last night, after devising how to open the front screen door. I should have noticed faster as suddenly it became too quiet. He is safely back in now, but he wants out pretty bad, so door security is paramount. Po isn't an outdoor cat, and I have no intention of letting him become one, especially after a local predator left evidence of its existence in my backyard.


Anyways thats the news from the fort, I'm going to post about my new camera, once I take some images with it, and about our trip to Italy, once I get a breath to do that.

G out