Part 6 - Sicily

The Greek Theatre in Siracusa

Some Father/Son bonding time

The view from one of the islands near Messina

The view from Taormina

So after two quick plane trips one from Munich to Rome and the other from Rome to Sicily, I arrived in Catania. Two parents were there to happily greet me and we headed back to the hotel. I was still feeling like crap and it was hard to eat. In Munich I had basically eaten baby food for 5 days now. I was exhausted, hungry, and it was great to see my parents happy faces. We stayed in a nice little hotel near the water. It was absolutely beautiful there. The weather was warm and nice, and it was just great to be out of the cold. Part of Tuesday was spend in an Italian hospital... talk about opposites. The Italian hospital was crowded, we waited for about an hour, it was disorganized, and since I didn't speak Italian, and they didn't speak English we had trouble communicating. However, there were a few kind people who did their best to translate for us. It was so interesting to be able to see two completely different hospital systems, one based on efficiency and structure, and another based on chaos. But I got the meds I needed and every day I felt a little better. On Wednesday we headed up to Mt. Etna which is the volcano on the island of Sicily. It was a nice drive up, and we saw some cool lava flows, and stopped at a little restaurant for tee. We tried our best to find some sort of tour, or get near the top, but apparently at this time of year it is closed anyway because of snow. We then headed to a small tourist town called Taormina. It was really beautiful. I was still feeling like garbage and not really eating much. I was basically living off of tea, and boy it is something I really enjoy now. We ended up staying in a hotel called the Hotel Roosevelt. Right on the water, it was a pretty nice hotel. They even let me use the internet for free, which was awesome because I had to register for classes. Too bad Roberts blocked me again. Luckily Karen Frasier in the Registration office was extremely nice and helped me to register and set everything up. Anyway, the next morning we decided to try and see Messina and some of the Eolie islands. We boarded a boat and headed out to a small, but very nice island north of Sicily. We had some lunch walked around and simply enjoyed the beautiful day. Then we headed back on the boat and drove to Siracusa in an effort to find a hotel. We arrived later at night and stumbled across an awesome hotel right by the water. The next day we toured the city. We saw the fortress, the church, and other landmarks. It was an absolutely beautiful day and it was just great to be in Italy enjoying the city, the sun, and hanging out with my parents. As far as I can remember this was the first day I had food. We went to eat dinner at a pizza place. At first I wasn't going to get anything, but I decided to suck it up and just eat. I inhaled the pizza, however it was still VERY painful to eat. I didn't even care. It was wonderful to eat again. I can't even explain it in words. The next day we spent in the city, seeing other sites, walking around, and also touring the "Greek and Roman park" This was pretty sweet. There was an old Roman Amphitheater, a Greek Amphitheater, rock quarries, the "Eye of Dionysus", and other ruins. It was another great day in Italy, and sadly, my last. We headed back to the hotel in Catania, and the next day that is where I flew out of. Italy was an interesting place. One of the craziest things was the driving. Mom and Dad had rented a small, stick shift fiat. I was impressed immediately with how smooth the car was handling. But driving in Italy is no joke. It was crazy. Luckily friends of the family had given us their GPS to borrow, and I think without it we would never have found anything. Streets are not labled, they cross in strange ways, miander around and circle back. The Italians drive like... well Italians. They cut in and out, blow through stop signs, and the mopeds were the worst. They would bob and weave through traffic, sometimes barley avoiding certain death. Even when we had the GPS, it was hard to find streets, or they were one way, or there was a festival blocking the path, it was insanity. We constantly laughed at the double, and even triple parking. The Italians basically did whatever they wanted when it came to driving, and it made our trip both extremely interesting and a lot of fun. But by 7 I was safely home in Salzburg and ready to sleep for a long, long time.