an evening in catania with a bloke from bramley!

Hi all,

as requested, im guna describe today as mega, rather than the over used ace. we have had a great day in catania, done loads in the baking sun, lovely. last night was a heavy one, drinking in the under ground bar which is in an old lava cave with a running river through it (its amazing), with a posh, but nice young couple from cheltenham. he was in i.t, really nice fella, bit like tim nice but dim, and she work just to pass the time, rather than needing the money, and liked horses, enough said really. really nice people tho, and big league of gents fans, so after 4 litres of wine at 3am, the locals were well aquainted with papa lazarou! anyway, with a steaming hangover, we hit the fish market, one of the best in sicily after breaky, and it great, really dramatic etc, and i chatted in my broken italian to a few of the guys, and one let me try a local fav, a raw shellfish called ricchi. its a black spikey ball outside, and inside it has 6 little bits of meat, orange in colour, and he let me try one. willing to try anything pop. with the locals, i had a go, and it was nice, not much of it, but nice. after the doing the market, we got the train at about midday to taormina, about half hour along coast, and cliff top coastal town, picturesque to say the least. we had lunch in a little pizzeria, and the waiter got a guitar out and sang old italian folk songs for the eaters, which was fun. after wandering round the old town, we did the the greek ruins that are there, which has a great amphitheatre, and just rested there for a while and soaked up the sun and views. by this time however, kerrys feet were getting bad. to cut a lond story short, she got really badly bitten by mozzis on our last night in mazara, and shes had an allergic reaction, so they have swelled up and are blistering badly, and shes in a bit of pain. luckily tho, in our room 2day, a med student who lives in bramley (!) looked after her, told her to put them under the shower etc, so hopefully she'll be ok for climbing mount etna 2mo. we are booked in for a 8 hour hike, so i hope shell be ok for it, would be annoying for her if she missed out. anyway, we got back to the hostel, at about 8, had tea of cous cous and stew, and now im here. sorry, not very detailed 2day, but im tired and kerry needs me to rub savlon into her crusty toes, truely a labour of love! hope all is well,

alex and kerry. xxxxxxxxx

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