Day at Sea #1

6/24/2012

Our first day at sea was extremely laid back and there really isn't too much to write about. We did a few things such as eating, eating, swimming, eating, and bingo. We ate a lot, we didn't win at bingo, and the pool was nice enough. So really just a non-interesting day on a very large ship in the middle of the Mediterranean. In the evening, Michael, Kit and I went to the "Molecular Bar" where there are some interesting infused drinks, etc. etc. I had something called the "Watermelon Felon" and I don't remember what other drinks were had, but Kit's drink had straight up Peppercorns in it, and Mike's was topped off with Liquid Nitrogen for a smoking effect.

Bella Sicilia

6/23/2012

Sicily is absolutely gorgeous. I wish that we had more time to explore every corner of it, because I'm sure that even though the island is small there must be a whole lot to see. We were given a wonderful tour by the stunningly handsome and charming Ricardo. He drove us all around the eastern corner of the island so we could see the various natural beautiful sites of Sicily. We visited the Alcantara Gorge at a couple of different stops. Apparently the water is freezing cold, but we weren't close enough to go in, so I cannot vouch for that. But the way the water and the volcano have shaped the walls of the gorge is absolutely stunning.

We then drove to a deserted Byzantine-era church which was really lovely as far as deserted... Byzantine era... churches go. I really love old buildings, so I thought it looked pretty cool, but I think it maybe wasn't the most interesting thing to everyone else. Then we drove up to Castiglione which is a small town built on top of a hill where an old castle used to be. Some of the castle is still there, but mostly it's just been built over with modern houses. The views were breathtaking. We could see the top of Mt. Etna (which even had snow on top) and all through the valley below. After wandering around a tiny bit, Ricardo drove us to Linguaglossa where we went wine tasting and had lunch. We tried four different wines and I thought they were all rather good. I prefer white generally, but the reds were also lovely.

After wine tasting/lunch Ricardo drove us to Giardini Naxos where he lives (we didn't get to see his house) and he said that all of the young people live there. It's a young beach town, but it wasn't particularly interesting. 

There was a beautiful sculpture of Athena Nike on the waterfront (which is where we stopped) and so that was worth it. Giardini Naxos is just below Taormina where we spent the rest of our time in Sicily. Taormina is an old town that is a few streets long, has beautiful views of the water, and lots of shops. My goal in Sicily was to eat an Arancini because they come from Sicily originally. Mom and I shared one, it had beef and rice in it... it was delicious:

We wandered around Taormina for a little while and bought a few things here and there. I sent some postcards, mom bought some marzipan (her favorite), dad visited the Greek amphitheatre that's there (where they were subsequently holding a film festival later that night! Looked interesting), Mike and Kit found some interesting thing to drink with salt and lemon and soda water, I just stuck with plain fresh squeezed blood orange juice, so divine you have no idea.

We had dinner in the main dining hall this evening which was alright. I don't think the food is very good onboard. And here's the thing, I've been living with vegetarians for almost a year now, and so I've grown accustomed to looking at the vegetarian options on any menu, and there was not a single menu item for vegetarians that had any kind of protein. They don't eat meat, but they do eat all kinds of proteins, so that was supremely disappointing for me to see. If I recall I went to bed early because I was so exhausted from being in the heat and sun all day.