Absolutely beautiful. This place is as if I have stepped into one of my dreams. The colours are so bright, and the food! The food is pura vita! I use to think Americans eat a lot, but Italians eat double what we have, however they are all so skinny, I think its because they walk a lot. I have been all over the city of Catania, Taormina, and small towns I don't know the name of. Markets are my favourite, the different foods, smells, and flavours in the air, its incredible. I went to a little market a few days ago, and bought a bunch of grapes (uvas) and its cost me seventy cents, less than one Euro. I was blown away, its so cheep to buy food here, we have breakfast at a local cafe everyday for one Euro a person. My family is so good, Mama Stefania brought me to the large outdoor market today, where they have everything you could ever imagine. They resell Gucci, Loui Vuitton, and Ray Bands for 2 to 25 Euros. It's stollen merchandise, but the poliza don't care here. They are so many people too, everywhere. I like it so much, my first day a lady opened her shop just so I could go inside and buy a pastry, she gave me a free one too. I don't speak much Italian, but I can say "Io Americano, no Italiano" and "Grazie" and a few other things like hello, goodbye, nice to meet you and such, so it's not too hard to get around. People here are either really nice, or wont bother with you. Or are overly nice, and my host mum has to tell them to back off. She is so wonderful, my whole family is just so warm and welcoming, they make me amazing food everyday, and we go out to eat at cool little restaurants and cafes a lot. The other night we went to a bar, and ordered really good beer! They don't even I.D here, and there is no law against public drinking, so I can have wine at the park with my lunch. I love it. My host papa is a wine maker, and we have the best kinds every night with dinner. The drivers here are crazy. There are not a lot of rules for driving, and no on wears a seatbelt! You can park pretty much everywhere (with a few exceptions) and people just walk out in front of cars, causal as! There is no problem with beeping, if you're driving too slow people just honk at you until you go faster. When there is traffic, and you have to wait, people just sit there and honk until the line moves. It's insane, but hilarious at the same time. I so love the architecture too, so old and detailed. There is a lot of lava stone here, from the volcano (in the picture below) and so the city is so hot because the black lava absorbs the sun, and just radiates it. I am so grateful right now, my world feels like its opening up. Today mama Stefania and I had such a good conversation about politics and school and the world, she is so smart, I love talking with her even though sometimes it's hard to communicate ideas and such. She calls her self a Communist, it cracks me up when she says it cause she is so cute. They make me espressos every day, that are seriously so freaking good I could die. My english is deteriorating right now, it's hard for me to say certain things cause I'll try and translate them into Italian and I get all muddled up. So talking to me is ridiculous! I met a lady from England today, and was having a really difficult time speaking correctly. I wish I could put how I am feeling on here, and make other people understand, it's pure joy. Italy is like a dream.
They. All. Wear. Black.
No seriously, like I have been looking for one that doesn't have any black on, and I can't find them. Also I have come to realize that if you study Italian for five months on Duo Lingo you are not proficient in anything other than "thank you" and "I'm sorry." At least I'm not. They stare too, not in a bad way, but when you catch an American staring at you and make eye contact, they look awkwardly away. But not Italians! They just keep looking, and will smile if you smile, but don't break eye contact. It kinda freaked me out at first, I thought the ladies on the plane were creeping, or I had something on my face, but I soon came to realize that that is a norm here. They are really serious too. I try to joke but either they think I'm special or just don't get it. I'm pretty ready to be done with Aeroportos. I slept for a good six hours last night, but could definitely use more. Yesterday at bag check, I sent off my forest green backpack, only to realize a minute too late that i had stuck my phone in it temporarily. I ran back and asked if there was any way I could retrieve it at this point, and the lady there told me to hang out for a minute and she would radio someone to get it. A minute turned into an hour, and I got concerned. But she was happily taking the whole time and eventually asked for my boarding ticket. I handed it over and she check my flight number; proceeding to change my seat to one without anyone next to me so I could sleep more comfortably. She is my angel. Thanks to her, I curled up and passed out the second we took off, only waking up to consume substance that would get to breakfast. I landed in Naples this morning at six or so, and had to get onto a different plane to fly to Milan. Arrived there, than got to take two different shuttle busses to get to the right terminal. I'm actually boarding for my last flight now, so I should probably go. Arrivederci Day two and I can’t handle my shit.
I am so bloody exhausted right now, and coffee did nothing to help. I haven’t slept in thirty hours, and I am starting to loose it. I passed out reading twenty minutes ago across my laptop and books, and woke up ten minutes later in a panic that I had missed my flight. But no, I still have three and a half hours until I can even board. I saw this couple that were literally the definition of perfect. She had dark black hair and a floppy hat, black leather jeans, boots and a black faux-fir coat. (literally black on black on black) He had a skater bro look about him, to be honest I didn’t notice what he was wearing. It’s funny that girls get mad when guys don’t notice our hair color change a shade, or when we get our eyebrows done, but we don’t really do it for them do we? Nor notice what they look like more than a surface glance. Anyway, they were just so perfect together, and it made me really sad for some reason. I cannot wait for the day that I get to travel with someone. The couple was so absorbed in their conversation with each other that they didn’t notice anything else, they would never, could never, be bored. I envied that, not because I can’t be independent, but because I am really alone for the first time ever, in a place where I know absolutely no one. It’s not a bad thing necessarily, it makes you grateful for the times you did know people, and it makes you step out of your comfort zone. I met a guy from Latvia a few hours ago. He was dropping off his mother and while she was in the bathroom we just happened to make awkward eye contact long enough where we had to say something to make it not awkward. He is skiing in Breckenridge this January. And from Latvia. So that is what I know about him. And his name, Lio, no last name. The city was so beautiful flying in this morning. I have (inevitably) caught a head cold, as is tradition when flying anywhere, so I didn’t sleep at all while in the air, do to constantly having to blow my nose (on paper I had found and tried to mash up to make it into a napkin-type material). But watching the city lights of ABQ fade away into the dark, and the new even brighter, bigger and highly gridded lights of NYC come into view, was pretty incredible. We flew out across the ocean before turning around and landing. There were a few boats in the water, shimmering like sporadically placed stars, and they winked up at me, promising a safe landing. One light was especially bright, it was a little flame just dancing on the salty waves, so beautiful that I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Every time I looked away I had to crane my neck back to take one last peek. Landing was very smooth, first time ever for that really. The older couple next to me had slept all night, and I hated them for it. Not really, they had kind eyes but didn’t say one word to one another. I just need sleep, and a tired me is a bitchy me. I forgot how expensive Airport food it, dropped a good twenty on a coffee, Vitaminwater and turkey sandwich. Like really? Ouch. But I needed it. I didn’t eat last night before my flight out, (bad move) and black out for half a second on the train to my Terminal at six am. I’ve never blacked out before, and it’s not what you think. Everything just goes quiet but you can still see, then after what seems like ages it all goes dark, in spotty areas though, not consistently. I didn’t fall, just sat down real hard. So word of warning future travelers, EAT SOME FOOD! And stay hydrated. Anyway, I don’t have wifi cause I’m not signing up to pay 6 dollars a month for it, so this will be posted later. Bag check time. The light had just started to fade, windows streaming their iridescent blue into the lobby of the Airport. I sat with my legs propped up on the chair across from me, absentmindedly turning pages of my new book. I was more focussed on the people, though I should be minding my own business. It's hard for me to not listen when they talk so close. The lady to my left was on the phone with her husband, or boyfriend, I didn't know. She had dark blonde hair and deep shadows under her eyes, as if she had not seen a bed in days. She tapped her foot on the ground, unconscious of what she was doing, and I listened as she told him it was okay, over and over again. I wondered what he had done so wrong, that he was the one more hurt by it than she. I didn't ask. She told him it didn't matter anymore. I refocussed on my book, trying to keep distracted, but they made it too easy. There was a little girl holding a bouquet of flowers, white lilies. She couldn't of been more than three, but she held on to them like they were her only friend. He father told her that "mommy would be here soon" and "only a little longer". It had been a little while since she had seen mum I guessed. It would be a little while until I would see my mum, and whole family really. My coffee that dad bought me had gone luke warm, I was getting too distracted by people, whilst trying to keep distracted with my book. I looked at my phone, only five hours to go until I could board my plane, and fly into my future. Fucking cliche, but true.
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SeaWorld Traveler Archives
April 2016
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