*phew*

alrighty.. part 2 of the April madness is done. :)
left work early last Thursday, dashed over to Gatwick airport (thank goodness for Gatwick express and for double checking departure airport the day before travel.. ;))
Arrived in Catania, Sicily right before 9pm, and was tossed into the driver seat immediately. No rest for the wicked, or something like that. If i thought the streets and roads of Crete were mad, that's nothing compared to Catania and the surrounding areas... Was hard to find our way to the base, even with the GPS and 2 ppl who had spent a week on the base already.
After a bit of a muck-up with the base access for me, we finally managed to stay the night on the base, and pretty much passed out around 11pm, dead tired. Got up early on friday, mrB had an appointment and then class until noon - and then we did some american shopping on the base.. quite nice, indeed. :) even after a small intermezzo with my UK bank stopping my ATM card, due to 'fradulent useage' in the US.. phahaha, not easy when we travel to Europe, but use an american ATM.. ;)

then, after loads of running back and forth like chickens without heads, in pouring rain and thunderstorms, we finally get on the road.. drive for about an hour north, along little mountain roads, absolutely in awe at the way their cities are built, like clusters on the mountaintops. :|
We arrive in Taormina, park the cars, walk some 100 steps, get lost in the city, end up on the right path, find some Gelato - YUM!! (insert slight pause here, with some angelic music, as our mouths were enjoying themselves..) ok, on towards the Greek theater. on the mountainside, with views over mount Etna and the sea, lays this amazing structure.. (read more abt it here: http://www.deliciousitaly.com/Siciliatour18.htm)

i think we walked around here for the better part of a couple of hours, until the sun started setting.. dragged our feet back to the city, found a little outdoors restaurant, where we indulged in pizza and pasta, and some not too exciting house wine. continued our trek thru a darkening city, found another bar/restaurant where we enjoyed some hot chocolate (that was so thick you could almost stand the spoon in it on it's own, but OHHH, so good), some more wine and some really nice Italian music in the background.

we found the cars, and started out trek home again.. by the time we were home, it was past 10pm, and everybody was dead beat.. we had rented a room across the street from the base (in a hotel NOT recommended for anyone ever in the area). yuuuck.. you know it's bad when you can see dirt pattern on a daaark red carpet.. blaaaah. but, it was close, and had to do for the night. :)

got up around 9am on saturday, did some quickie shopping and then drove just over 2 hours down to Arigento, and Valle dei Templi.. Oh, my god. i think my jaw pretty much hit the floor and didn't move for the 3 hours we were walking around there.. absolutely amazing.. pics to come, just haven't had a chance to upload them yet.. but.. imagine climbing around on 2500-2700 year old ruins.. seeing burial chambers, statues, caves, the temple of Hercules - all with a modern city ontop of the cliffs in the background.. absolutely amazing.

we walked, and walked, climbed, jumped, walked, peered, peeked, walked, walked and walked some more.. blaaazing hot, but none of us were really bothered by it. (they had a Gelato stand about half way down the road.. ;) )

and i think we took some 200 photos, just in one day. as i said, i'll post some of them later.

left this wonderful place, continued down the road down to the sea, tried to find an open place to eat, but.. were out of luck, as we tried to find dinner at 5pm, when everything is closed between 4 and 8.. so we had to settle for a place that was a little bit less than we were looking for, but.. whatever, it was food. spent a good 2 hours here, just sitting around, enjoying the sun, people watching, eating, drinking, resting our feet. ended dinner with more Gelato (and mrB dropping his after only a few bites.. aahaha, insta punishment!!) walked thru the market for a while, found nothing of interest, did some more people watching and slowly made our way back to the car.

our 2 friend pretty much passed out in the backseat of the car, 2 minutes after we started driving, and the drive back to the base was pretty uneventful.. unfortunately all our cameras were stone dead by the time we drove beneath mt Etna, it was absolutely surreal - the haze around the mountain, lit by all the lights.. very pretty, but very spooky.

came back to Catania, repacked, passed out, and got up early, early Sunday to make it back to the airport on time. :(

didn't want to leave. at all.

i am sure there's way more to tell, like the way the cities are clustered ontop of the mountains, and they've got tiny little villages with massive apartment buildings, the cool old men in velour track suits, and the cool little kids speaking italian.. the niceness of the ppl working on the base, the smell of the trees, the madness of the roads, the wonderful old aqueducts, the crappy roads, the great food, the people in general, the african street peddlers, the guy without an arm and leg, the car we rented, the GELATO, the language, the brusqueness of the people, the lushness of the whole island and the massive lack of sleep, but.. that's for later. :)