Sicilia, Budapest, and the Final days

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Buon Giorno. I'm here back at the good ol' Syracuse University computer lab and I decided to update all of you on my final days here in Europe, though I will be home in only a day and a few hours. Exciting!

It seems I left you way back in Venice. It seems so long ago. I suppose I'll start at Cinque-Terre...

Cinque-Terre is a national park on the northern coast. They are 5 small fishing villages with many, many hiking trails throughout the cliffs. We spent a good 3 days hiking various trails, and the last day walking through all 5 towns in succession. Luckily the Mediterranean Sea was waiting for me at the end of that very up and down hill hot-hot-hot hike. I got to swim in its delicious water for the first time, and it was every bit as fantastic as I could've ever imagined.

The next big trip was my favorite. It was with my Host mom, Marina, and her church. I, and many many many old ladies, a few old men, and a handful of youngerish folks took a large "pullman" bus to Lake Bolsena, a beautiful volcanic lake north of Rome.

History of Bolsena: http://www.comunebolsena.it/turismo.htm

It was the first day in Italy where from Morning to night I did not speak a word of English and it definitely pulled my confidence level way way up. The people on the trip were hilarious fantastic Italians. We spent the morning at a castle next to the lake, we went to see the town's most famous relic, a host that bled in the 1200s, and finally drove out to la civita di bagnoregio, a cliff town in what I call "The Italian Grand Canyon"... quite an amazing site and a neat town. Marina went hiking down the side and back of it with me and the other younger people. She was the only one above the age of 45, and she climbed better than most of us. That woman never ceases to impress me.

History and pictures of Banoregio: http://www.civitadibagnoregio.it/

Amazing, isn't it? I forgot my camera, so I had to buy one there, so I don't have any digital pictures to post.

My last week I was pretty wrapped up in Finals and getting ready to leave for my travels after the program. It was pretty hard saying goodbye to everyone. I left the day of Finals after an end of the semester party at a beautiful old convent near Porta Romana, the original door to the city's wall. After the party we stayed up all night since my friend Josh and I needed to catch our bus to Pisa at 3am in order to make our flight to Sicily. It was a really fun last hurrah, but definitely not a satisfactory goodbye.

Anyway, the travels to Sicily were complicated and crazy without sleeping, but it made them more entertaining. We got to Tripani where we wanted to catch a bus to Polermo, but there was absolutely no one at the train station except a cleaning guy who, when we asked where we buy tickets, pointed to the machine. Ahh, Sicily. So, finally we found some people who told us where to catch the bus, and waited for another hour until one finally came. Sicilians are so chill. Schedules don't exist. Everyone we asked just said "oh, it comes when it comes". After a good long ride to sleep, we reached Polermo where we met the rest of our group, two girls that are friend's of Josh's from another program. We checked our backpacks and headed out into the city where we discovered that it was a holiday and nothing was open. So we bought a loaf of bread out of the back of a man's car (just a guy, with a car full of bread, selling it on the corner) and shared it with some Nutella. perfect, really. How many times in your life can you buy bread out of a car? or how many times do you want to...

We then took a BEAUTIFUL train ride to the other side of the Island to Catania where we had an awesome hostel in the middle of the market. We made a bunch of friends at the hostel, and actually ran into another girl from Syracuse. So, we increased our numbers the next day for a big group trip to Syracusa to see the greek theatre. We got to the train station and found out that the next train to Syracusa was delayed by 3 hours. 3 hours. But there were several other trains listed as going there before than, so we bought tickets and waited. well, every train that came by was a night train that we weren't allowed on, so we ended up entertaining ourselves at the Catania train station for those lovely 3 hours. But, so it goes, and we finally got to Syracusa. its a beautiful town and fantastically cheap. We bought a bunch of amazing fresh fruit from a man with no teeth and had just a really calm day before making sure we caught a bus back to Catania.

The next day we went on our Volcano excursion to Mount Etna. We had an awful, awful guide, but the mountain is amaaaazing. I stood in a crater and if you put your hands on the ground it’s hot. It’s the most active volcano in Italy. While we were exploring a small, small volcanic cave, a plane flew over head and our guide said that maybe tomorrow there will be an eruption. I thought he was kidding, but as it turns out, when I got to Budapest, they told me that there was an eruption only a few days after I was on the mountain. Pretty cool huh?

The last day in Sicily was spent in Agrigento where was explored the amazing Greek Ruins before heading back to Tripani and catching our plane home. Really a beautiful trip, and I'll share pictures when I can.

Sunday I flew right to Budapest where I met my brother, Rob. We stayed with his friends from Pittsburgh that have been living there for almost a year now. Rob and I explored the town on bikes all week, spent a lovely evening with his friends in the Turkish baths, and ate a lot of wonderful Hungarian food. Saturday we spent in Eger, the wine country outside of Budapest...quite beautiful, and a lot of fantastical wines. Needless to say, I woke up with quite a wine hangover on Sunday when I had to fly back here to Florence for my last 2 days of European Adventure.

I'll leave you with that for now, but when I get home I'll post lots of pictures of it all, so check back.

See you sooon!

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Comments

[Syd]

I can't believe you'll be home so soon! Have a safe journey back, Miss Ferry.