Sicily

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Ah! It's been so long since I've written I don't even know where to start. We finished up the olive harvest in Pisa and got to watch the olives be pressed into olive oil. It was pretty exciting and they sent us home with a jar of our own handpicked olive oil! It was so strange though, the olive oil is kind of spicy when it's first made. I think I'll miss it so much at home because I don't think I'll be able to find fresh pressed olive oil.
From Pisa we made our way down the coast by bike to Naples. It was my unfortunate choice to spend the night in Rome on the way because I thought it would be less expensive. We planned to take the train one stop out of Rome in the morning to avoid biking through Rome but discovered that the train doesn't take bikes. We spent two hours lost in Rome and it was so crazy!
I thought Rome was so scary to bike in but when we got to Naples it was so much worse. It felt like I was biking through India. Cars didn't drive in their lanes, I almost got hit so many times, and it was just madness. I didn't like Naples so much. It has a reputation for having high crime rates and the mafia is based there. I thought that it probably wasn't as bad as everyone says it is but the guy who ran our hostel was very persistant about me not taking a purse with me and us being back in the hostel by night. He was pretty nice though and one night he even cooked us home made pasta! Yummm! Pretty much in Naples we ate a pizza and saw Pompeii but not much of the actual city.
From Naples we took the train to Sicily so we could work on another farm. We spent nine hours on the train and another 2 on the bus. The worst part was that the train didn't allow bikes but it was the only train we could take so we had to figure out a way to bag up our bikes. Since we're ghetto and we don't have real bike bags we decided to just buy some plastic garbage bags and tape them around our bike. It was so dub! On the train platform Kuba and I were all greasy, taking apart our bikes and taping garbage bags over them. These prep school kids walked by in their little suits all staring at us. I felt like a homeless person! I just wanted to be like, whaaa? you think you're going to turn out better than me?
Despite the shame we made it to Sicily and we'll be on the farm until Friday. I'm sad because it's Thanksgiving on Thursday! I'll miss you all so much!

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Comments

[Dad]

Naples
Wow! Sounds like the Naples I remember from 1967. Extemely bad traffic and those round go around things. Little cars driving all over the place. Sure glad you made it out OK and sure glad I didn't know you were doing it. When I was there Visuvious (wrong spelling I'm sure) was not in it's eruption stage yet so we climbed it and peaked over the cauldera. What a site. There use to be a big Italian naval base there too so probably lot's of crime like you say. Naples would not be my pick of a place to see but still it is Europe so what the heck. I miss you too. Thanksgivin won't be the same without you. But looking forward to Christmas with you. Take care bike safe (and hopefully in safe places). Love, Dad

[Mom]

AHHH!!!
So not sure where to begin with this. . .are you nuts?? Staying in a city where there is mafia?? Did you at least wear your helmet?? HA! Ha! You mentioned about being homeless?? Well you are not!! You have a home in Puyallup, WA such as it is. . .I love your blogs and read them over and over again. Counting the days until you come home! You will be missed at Thanksgiving very much. .but just think what you are doing?? Biking, training all over the place and making memories that you will remember forever! All of us here can not wait until you come home!! I am glad we raised you to be daring and that you had this opportunity to travel. You will never regret it I guarantee it! And remember. ..NO ONE is better than you!! Love you much!!

[Aunt Bevie]

Happy Thanksgiving
Oh Sara....those folks in Italy will never be better than you. Grandma would be so proud of you making such good use of garbage bags! We will miss you very much on Thanksgiving and will have a glass of wine and think of you! Hope to get to talk to you soon and can not wait to see you at Christmas in Hawaii!