Being Spontaneous!

So, like I said, Sean and I spent last week together... actually, I just took him to the airport (boo hoo). We had a great time re-connecting and building on what we've been working on over the past few months. Every time we see each other is great, and it always feels better and better.

We shared an amazing dinner at Blauwe aan de Wal (where I went KJ's last weekend in town) to celebrate my birthday one week late. We had an amazing dinner and a nice "date night".

Happy after a yummy dinner!

We decided on Friday night that we wanted to have a little adventure. Because Belgium is pretty close, we made that our destination. No bookings, no plans, no nothing. This is NOT travelling KP-style, which made it all the more fun (at times...)

First stop... Antwerp. We had a nice lunch in a cafe, and enjoyed just walking around.

Love on the main square

Our end destination for the day was Bruges, which I hadn't been to yet, but had heard was a cool town. It definitely did not disappoint. We enjoyed seeing the city, but were totally exhausted after a night of not much sleep. We needed a nap, big time (okay, I especially needed a nap. Happy KP quickly becomes Grumpy KP with a lack of sleep!). We went from one hotel to another, and everything was fully booked! :( (this is where the planning junkie in me was starting to this this spontaneity thing was a bunch of crap!). We finally were able to find a place, and after an hour nap, I was SO much better!

We spent that evening drinking beer and just walking around the beautiful city. It was totally relaxing...

Happy again on Markt Square

Beautiful Reflections on the canal

Minnewater Park

My sweet boy...

Oh boy... I had help drinking all of this beer, I promise! ;)

We didn't get up until 10 the next morning, which was so nice! We made our lazy way out the door, and walked back to the market square to get the view of the city. That's usually the first thing I like to do when I get to a city to get the lay of the land. It was beautiful to see all the tiled roofs & canals...

View from the top of the bell tower

Chocolate at one of the many chocolate shops in Belgium - so amazingly yummy!

We took a tour of the "Half Moon" brewery, which was fun. The best part - we got to sample the beer at the end! :)

The Half Moon Blonde Ale

After this, we drove to yet another cute Belgian town, Gent, where we stopped for lunch. We then made our way home and enjoyed our last evening together. It's always so hard to say goodbye, but the good news is that I'll be in Portland in less than a month! :)

Agrigento & Piazza Armerina

On Thursday morning, Fabio, Karyn, Sam, Tess, and I got up at the crack of dawn to begin the 3 hour drive to Agrigento, which we all really wanted to see. The best Greek ruins outside of Greece, including arguably the best-preserved Greek temple ANYWHERE are all located in this city. I really enjoyed seeing the ruins and imagining what this majestic place once looked like.


Temple of Concord, the best preserved temple. This at one point was made into a Christian church, which is why it is so well-preserved... amazing - it's 5th century B.C.!


Temple of Hera

Temple of Castor & Pollux - this one still even had some of the original marble on top - wow!

Karyn was in heaven here - she loves Greek ruins!

The group - hotter than hell, and ready for gelato! Karyn, Fabio, Sam, & Tess

We stopped at this beautiful beach on our way to the Piazza Armerina. We had a wonderful lunch overlooking the water, and then walked onto the white rock cliff. I thought that it would be hot, but it was surprisingly cool and felt like chalk (left my feet all white too!) So relaxing!

All of us on the rock!

Our last stop of the day was the Piazza Armerina, which is a huge complex that was built in the 3rd & 4th century A.D. The mosaics were amazing, and were mostly preserved when the house got flooded & covered in mud in the 12th century. Much of it was closed for renovations, but again, it was fun to imagine what this must have been like in its glory day.

The "Bikini Girls", one of the most famous mosaics in this building.

On Friday, I celebrated my 29th birthday with a day on the beach. Karyn & I shared the wonderful dinner that I wrote about on my "food" entry. :) Saturday, Fabio and I got up early to take Sam to the airport so he could fly to visit his family in Venice, and then he & I spent the day eating our way through Catania. Our flight got in at 2am on Sunday... I couldn't wait to get to the airport, because SEAN was there to pick me up at the airport! I was sad to end my vacation, but couldn't wait to spend some time with Sean. It was amazing to see him, even though we were both exhausted. We spent Sunday together, but then Sean went to London to visit the city from Monday to Wednesday. I was the one that suggested he go, since I am quickly running out of vacation time (imagine that!), and he's been to Amsterdam, oh, about 5 times now! I was happy he got to see another city, but SO ready to have him back on Wednesday night!

Between this amazing vacation and my visitor waiting at the gate, KP was a very, very happy girl!! :)

Mt. Etna

Fabio, Alex, and I decided that we really wanted to tour Mt. Etna, the famous volcano on Sicily. It is currently erupting, although not at a "scary" level. The last big eruptions were in 2002, and the tour that we took brought us right up to the craters that were left from these eruptions.


Alex & Fabio at the crater


Lava, lava everywhere!


Our trusty bus... okay, it was our second bus - the first one broke down!


Alex loving life as usual!


K Pitty braving the lava! :)

Siracusa & Noto

We got up on the early side to head South to Siracusa, or Syracuse. ;) It's another town with some great ruins... these are part Roman, and part Greek.


The Roman Theater - this one was used less for plays, and more for gladiators v. animals! :)



The Orrecchio di Dioniso, which had amazing acoustics! According to legend, Dioniso used to keep prisoners in here to hear all of their secrets


KP at the entrance to the "ear"


The Duomo in Siracusa... built to incorporate pieces of the Temple of Athena that was once on this site - beautiful!


Karyn, Fabio, & I drove to Noto to see the Baroque town, while the rest of the group went to the beach... the town was pretty unimpressive, but the gelato was amazing! :)

Taormina

After our few days in Palermo, we drove back near Catania to Taormina, where we had rented a house for the week. The house was decent, but definitely had its quirks... the bathrooms didn't really have a shower per se... the bathroom WAS the shower and the shower was the bathroom. Taking a shower meant getting the whole room wet... very strange. Only two out of the four bedrooms were air conditioned, which led to nights of either being too hot or too cold. Our electrical system was easily over-loaded, which led to much running up and down the stairs to reset the circuit breaker. The best part of all? The HUGE terrace. We spent many hours out there soaking up the sun (and the wine...). It was such a relazing location... I truly, truly disconnected from work during my time away. It was an amazing feeling!



We're now up to Sunday... we spent the day in Taormina, where there is an amazing Greek Theater. Because this island has been conquered by so many different people over the years, there are amazing ruins from many different times. The theater is actually well-preserved, and Fabio went to a concert in it later in the week.




Another "through" picture - view of the city through the theater


The Greek Theater


View of Taormina from the Theater


Love this shot of the beach!


Greek Theater Ruins


After viewing the ruins, we went to the beach called Isolabella... another rocky beach, but, again, it was so relaxing!

Palermo & Monreale

Okay, now that Sean is gone (sniff), I have some time to update my blog. I want to write everything before I forget!

So, we arrived in Sicily late in the evening of Wednesday, July 8th. We spent one night in Catania (on the east coast of the island), and then the next morning, picked up our rental cars and drove to Palermo (kind of the northwest part of the island). I was so happy that Alex was driving Karyn and I around - this driving was scarier than some places I've been in Asia. Even if I knew how to drive a manual (I don't), I'm pretty sure I would never even try to drive in Italy! In some places, there were no traffic lights. You just GO when you can, and you must have confidence. If I were driving, I think we would STILL be stuck at a left turn. ;)

Palermo was a pretty cool town. We spent three days in the area. The first day, we got in pretty lunch and spent most of the hours that things were open (everything closes between 12 and 3) having a two hour lunch. We decided after that day that we better do things differently afterwards or we'd never see anything! After lunch, the girls went back to the hotel to swim, and Karyn, Alex, Fabio, Sam, and I explored the city. The sites were marginal compared to other places I've been in Italy, but the city still had a charm all its own.


Chiesa San Cataldo

After seeing a few beautiful churches (filled with mosaics, which I love!), Karyn and I walked back to the hotel. On the way, we stopped through the beautiful Botanical Garden. It had some amazing trees that I have never seen before! They were called Banyan trees, and they grow sideways AND up and down... they kind of send shoots out of their branches. It's really cool! :)


Banyan tree with lots of shoots coming out

Karyn in the beautiful garden

The next morning, we got up on the early side and drove to the small town of Monreale. There isn't much there besides an absolutely amazing church full of beautiful mosaics. It was cool to see all the familiar Bible stories laid out in mosaic-form. There were over 2000 mosaics inside!

The mosaic over the alter

Mosaics along the aisle

Karyn & Fabio in the cloisers at Monreale

I love trying to take pictures "through" something... this is the cloister from a different angle

After Monreale, we were ready to quit the sight-seeing for the day and hit the beach! We stopped by this quaint little beach... really a local place. It wasn't a sand beach, but I was still happy to soak up the sun, read my book, and take a dip in the clear water. Ahhh....

Our beach haven...

Our last day in Palermo, Alex, Karyn & I went to the Capuchini Catacombs for a sight unlike anything else I've ever seen! The catacombs house hundreds of bodies from the 1500's onwards. Some of the bodies were presevered using something special which cause the bodies to still look almost lifelike. It was kind of cool, but kind of creepy at the same time. After about 30 minutes, we were ready to get out of there! When we returned back to our car, we found this:

MISSING HUBCAPS! Only in a town run by the Mafia... yikes!

"Shifty"

Thanks to my cousin Beth for sending this to me. It brought tears to my eyes.

After visiting Normandy last year, I had a whole new respect for our veterans. Here is a moving story about one of the men who braved D-Day, Shifty:

Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them. I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle", the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat. Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made. Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945 . . . " at which point my heart skipped. At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know where Normandy is?" At this point my heart stopped. I told him yes, I know exactly where Normandy is and I know what D-Day was. At that point he said "I also made a second jump into Holland, into Arnhem ." I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . . and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of D-Day. I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France , and he said "Yes. And it's real sad because these days so few of the guys are left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip." My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say. I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in Coach, while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have it, that I'd take his in coach. He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are still some who remember what we did and still care is enough to make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it. And mine are brimming up now as I write this. Shifty died on June 17, 2009 after fighting cancer. There was no parade. No big event in Staples Center . No wall to wall back to back 24x7 news coverage. No weeping fans on television. And that's not right!! Let's give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet way. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans.

Rest in peace, Shifty.

"A nation without heroes is nothing." Roberto Clemente

The FOOD!!!

Okay, so if you know me, you know that I LOVE to eat (thankfully, I also love to run, otherwise, I'd have a wee problem on my hands!). I went on a pretty serious diet for the three and a half weeks before vacation so I could eat whatever I wanted and not come home any fatter than I already was! :) Final tally - pre-vacation weight loss - 7 pounds. Vacation weight gain - 3.5 pounds. When you see what I ate, you'll be wondering how this is possible! :) I tried to take pictures of anything unusual that I ate... hopefully this is as fun for you as it was for me. Otherwise, more to come...

Pizza our first night in Catania... we got in really late, but were starving. I ate this around midnight, and it was mighty tasty! This was probably my favorite pizza the whole trip (despite half of it being burnt!) It was called Pizza alla Norma, and was made with eggplant and ricotta cheese. Eggplant is really common in Sicily, and I ate it at least once a day! :)

The morning after our pizza, we made the two hour drive to Palermo. We ate at this restaurant, which is famous for its fried yumminess, on our first night there. It didn't disappoint (I even loved my fried spleen sandwich... yep, that's right!)

We rented a house for the 7 of us in a town called Letoianni (which we fondly called "Little Johnny"), and cooked dinner there three times. Okay, I lied. ALEX cooked us all dinner, and we happily ate every last bit on our plates. This evening, we started with a caprese salad (mozzerella, tomatoes, pepper, olive oil, and basil), and finished up with figs covered in melted gorgonzola cheese. Sound strange? Maybe a little... was it delicious? You betcha! :)

Pure yumminess - the figs + gorgonzola & caprese salads... we couldn't eat any more after this, even though Alex had planned for Pasta Carbonata!

Something that is really popular in Sicily (because it is SO darn HOT - over 90 degrees F every day!) is the granita... it's shaved ice with mainly lemon or almond syrup... my favorite was the almond one. So refreshing on a hot day!

So, I have a little rule that I try not to break when I go to Italy - AT LEAST one gelato a day. This day, this happened to be my second, and i don't have a problem with that. This is supposedly (from two guidebooks) the best gelato in the WORLD, so how could I NOT try it? :) This one was interesting - it was rose flavored. Tasted kind of like eating a flower, but it was so deliciously creamy and smooth... mmmm....

Since Sicily is surrounded by water, there is tons of fresh seafood... I decided that I had to try a seafood pizza, just because I thought it sounded kind of crazy. And, let's just say, pizza and shellfish DO NOT go together. :(

Our cheapest meal of the trip... Alex, Fabio, and I all ate for 10 euros - TOTAL at this Italian mama's kitchen. These were sweet dough filled with all kinds of yummies. I had... eggplant! :)

Another fun Sicilian food tradition - brioche con gelato. It's an ice cream hamburger. And, yes, I ate one!

Our evening tradition on our wonderful terrace - Spritzes! :) Alex loved to entertain and serve us these yummy Italian aperativos! :)

This was most likely the best meal I've ever had in my entire life! Karyn and I went out on our last night to celebrate my birthday! The location was amazing - we ate on the terrace of a restaurant that overlooked the sea and the Taormina beaches. This was a "cannoli" stuffed with swordfish... my main dish was also amazing!

Happy Birthday to me... the chocolate cake was my pick, of course! :)

Swordfish is one of the most common fish that is caught in Sicily... this was the first one I had ever seen, at a fish market in Catania... it really does have a sword! :)

My lunch on our last day... I had to try it, because it was Triglia fish, like my mother's maiden surname.

Sean's here this week, so the diet is off, but I'm back to it after he goes back to Portland! :)