Heute habe ich Geburstag!

Today is my Birthday! happy birthday to me!
We are doing a spread-out celebration, starting with a concert we went to last monday. It was actually FREE since we won the tickets for it (participated on a mexican-swiss internet portal). The perfomer was Julieta Venegas, a mexican singer (and i really like her too!). The venue was really small and we got to be very very close to the stage. We had a great time!
Check out the pics here Julieta Venegas in Zürich

The next part of the celebrations will be throughout next week, when we go to PRAGUE and MILAN!!! yes, how's that for a birthday? (well, it IS a big one). Gera's parents arrive tomorrow morning (friday), and then we'll go to Prague for the weekend and then to Milan for a couple fo days. I am really excited to be going to so many different places, I love it!

As always, I will keep you posted.
PS. the hand is much better! the Sicily blog is posted below, and i think for now I am all caught up with news. Oh, and Abril and Roberto are moving to Minneapolis in June!! (read her blog for more details)

Sicily (part 2 of 2)

Thurs. 22:
The next day we had a full-day excursion to Piazza Armerina and Agrigento booked. I remembered it being at 8am, but after checking my receipt before going to bed, I was sure it was at 8:30. So that morning we woke up, got ready and headed for the breakfast area. We took our time (we had plenty). We went back to our room to get our stuff and head for the meeting point (conference center), and after looking at the receipt again I realized (in horror) that it was at 8AM, and it was already 10 past. We ran (literally!) out of our room and started heading towards the meeting point, but then we realized it was probably better to go to the bus station, since it was closer and it was more likely that if they were waiting, they’d be there. So we ran the other way and ran and ran. We were expecting to see a bus full of happy tourists pass us by and wave. We got to the bus station and they were still there! We got on the bus (all embarrassed to be late), but then we were “saved” by another couple who was even later than us, so we were not the last ones on the bus after all.
This was a long trip. It was like 2 hours to get to Piazza Armerina, where we visited a very old villa, with walls and floors covered in beautifully preserved mosaics. It is thought to have been the Emperor’s Palace (for when he was in town), or the villa of an animal hunter who sold his animals to the gladiator fights (because of all the different animals depicted on the mosaics would act as a sort of catalog “would you like a wild boar with your lion?”).
Then we were back on the bus a headed for lunch. (where the food, quality and quantity, was very disappointing). Then we were just a short bus ride away from the Valley of the temples. It was spectacular! Temples here, temples there, temples everywhere… well, not that many, but several, and they were all very cool.
The return trip was even longer, and we were running late for the Gala dinner, which fortunately was going to be at our hotel, so we didn’t have to waste time getting there. The dinner was at 8, and we didn’t get back to the hotel until 7:30! We barely had time to change and run downstairs.
The food was good (except for desert), and they had some people playing music, singing and dancing. The seating was not assigned, so we ended up seating with some people from Austria (I think) and the infamous Disco Stu/Elvis with an afro.

Frid. 23:
Friday we checked out of our hotel in Taormina and checked in at a hotel in Goradini Naxos (the beach town below Taromina). We had to take a bus there, and we didn’t know exactly where to get off the bus, so we ended up taking a cab from the bus drop off to the hotel. We checked in and looked for a place to have lunch. We opted for a little restaurant across the street, where a little old man was using his charm to push Tiramisu, he succeded and we had some for dessert. We also had some wine with lunch and after a short walk on the beach (it was cold and cloudy, but we were finally face to face with the sea), we went and took a nap. We woke up hungry again, and went back out looking for a place to have dinner. We found a great little place with a very good grilled fish platter and a couple of super nice waiters (I think one was the owner). We liked it so much we went back there for lunch on our last day in Sicily.

Sat. 24:
I really did not have much planned for our stay in Giardini, because there really isn’t that much to do. We found a book about Catania near the breakfast area, and decided we should do that instead of just staying and doing nothing in Giardini. I had not researched Catania, so I told Gera that as long as he told me where to go, I’d go (I don’t like to feel unprepared and lost). So we took a bus and go there a bit before lunch time. The book we had found was in German, and although we’ve been studying for a few months now, we couldn’t really use the book as our only guide (lets just call it an “inspiration”).
From the bus station we followed the signs to the tourist information office, passing through a Greek Theater on the way. There was a wedding photo shoot (we deduced that much because the guy at the door hummed the wedding march “ta ta tara, ta ta tara”).
The tourist office was very helpful and gave us a map and a route to follow to see all the sights within a walking distance. They also told us a good place to have lunch. It was really good (I had penne pasta with pistachio sauce, gera had a steak with mushrooms).
I did not realize Catania had so many “historical” sights, but I guess for a city that old they must. I did not like it a lot, though. It was dirty and old and smelly (but I guess for a city that old…). It was good that we decided to go and I was glad we (meaning I) had the courage to go even though we didn’t know what/where/how to do once we got there.
Back in Giardini we bought some chips and sodas for dinner and called it a day.

Sun. 25:
Our last day in Sicily went by very fast. Fortunately it was sunny, so we had a great time walking around the excavation area behind the museum, and got great views of Etna. It was also warm enough to dip our feet in the water (although the locals stared at the “crazy tourists deeping their feet in the water”). I was sure to check in the morning the departure time of our flight from Catania to Milan, and I was sure it was 7 o’clock, so we planned what bus to take and when to leave around that. Later that day, after the museum visiting and the feet-dipping, I started to wonder if it was really 7 o’clock, or 17:00… Well, stupid military time! It turned out to be 17:00 (which is 5pm!). It was already 3pm, and the next bus to Catania was not until 4 pm and we were not going to make it. So in a moment of desperation (and there really was no other choice) we took a 90 euro cab!
We made it to the Airport on time, and there were no other setbacks. But we will never forget to double check departure times (for tours OR planes).

Sicily (part 1 of 2)

ok, it took me a while to get this posted, but here it is! (second part coming soon)
sicily pics are HERE
(they are in order when you view them as a set only, and you can view as a slideshow, although you would miss the comments)

Sat. Feb. 17:
Our flight left at 7AM, and we barely made it! You see, we don’t have a car, so we had to take a bus and a train to get to the airport. Fortunately, the public transport system is extremely reliable, but even then, the earliest we could get to the airport was 6AM, and that was before check-in and security, and unless we wanted to sleep there, that was the way to go. We transferred in Milan, where we found a huge statue of Hagrid (Harry Potter character) made entirely out of Legos! (I took a picture). We landed in Catania, and then took a 40 minute bus ride to Taormina (but we had to wait for the bus for more than 1 hour). In an attempt to empty my fridge of all things perishable (we learned a very important lesson once when we left a cucumber in the fridge for a couple of weeks), I had made us sandwiches (bread, ham and cheese, the perishable trio). Abril teased us and said we were going to look silly carrying around sandwiches on the airplane. Well, when we ate our tasty lunch in Catania while waiting for the bus I thought “Not so silly now, huh?”.
After walking from the bus station through a series of death traps, we finally reached our hotel (most of the road had NO sidewalk, and was steep, and there were buses and cars speeding by!). We had booked a hotel online, but a couple of days before our trip, we were “upgraded” to a sister hotel (apparently, someone messed up our reservation). The new hotel was supposed to be nicer and was almost twice the price!! (and we did not have to pay the difference). I did not find it all that “fancy” for a 4-star rating, but it was ok. We checked in, and were back out again within a few minutes. We had only a few hours of sunlight left, and we wanted to walk around. We first went to some gardens right next door to our hotel, and then went to Corso Humberto, basically Taormina’s mainstreet. There, we ate gelato (the first of many!), and had some pizza sold by the slice, which turned out to be microwave pizza!! But it was still good, and we were tired and hungry, so we did not care. We ate our microwave pizza on a park bench and then headed back to the hotel. It was only like 7:30 pm, but we were so tired (we woke up at 4am) that we went straight to bed!!

Sun. Feb. 18:
The next day we headed to Taormina’s main attraction: the Greek Theater. It was a bit chilly, but the sun was out, so it was beautiful. The views from the theater were amazing! We thought about going to the beach, but the cable-car was closed, so instead we went up to the Castello, a small caslte on the top of a hill (more like a mountain!). The book said there were 500+ steps to get there, but it felt like way more. I started counting, but gave up around 70 (not much incentive). It was a nice warm day, and we enjoyed it a lot. The actual Castle was closed, (we knew this beforehand thanks to the Hieftjes), but it was worth the 500+ steps! We walked around town some more, ate some pizza for lunch, this time it was not microwaved!, We also had some more gelato (that stuff was good!). While Gera was at the welcome reception for the conference, I went for a walk with with Kara (another lab-wife, hehe). We got to see the Carnival parade floats. The very small parade was struggling to get by those tiny little streets packed with people, but it was fun and festive! There was a float with a “Mexican theme” where the dancers were wearing zarapes and had painted mustaches, funny! After that, the welcome reception was over and we were done for the day.

Mon. Feb. 19:
Monday was rainy and cold. Gera had his talk this day, so I was by myself most of the time. I walked around a bit in the morning, then went back to the hotel. I went back out to meet Gera for lunch. We went to a restaurant recommended by frommers, and had some ok food. He went back to the conference and I went back to the hotel. Later that night, we went to a very nice restaurant with the Hieftjes and the rest of the Hieftje group. We had a very nice dinner and a great time! (Thank you!) And to keep on with tradition, we also had some great local wine.

Tues. Feb. 20:
On Tuesday I went to a scheduled excursion to Syracuse and Gera stayed at the conference (muaha, ha... evil laugh). On this trip, we went first to a Greek Theater and other ruins (greek theaters seem to be all over in sicily!). Then we had a huge lunch (they just kept on bringing out more and more dishes! and for desert: cannoli). And finally we went to Ortyga (an island) and visited the Piazza Duomo, where according to the tour guide, Dolce OR Gabanna (fashion designers) has a house! (Haha, the things I remember)). Oh, and there’s also a very, very old church and some very nice buildings around it. This was an all-day trip, and by the time I got back to the hotel it was almost time to go out again to the Young Scientist’s Ball (a big dinner and dancing party, with a “mascarade” theme because it was fat Tuesday). I had bought and painted some masks the day before, so we were set! Some people had more elaborate costumes, like a guy dressed as what we thought was Disco Stu (the Simpson’s character), but later found out was supposed to be Elvis! (when did Elvis get an afro?)

Wed. 21:
Wednesday Gera went to the conference (again) and I went for yet another walk around town (I tell you, those conferences get on the way of our vacationing!! Haha). We met for lunch (pizza) and then we went to meet up with the tour people for trip to Mount Etna. We were lucky enough to get the same guide as the Syracuse trip, because apparently one other guy was very boring. “Our” guy had a sense of humor and talked about everything and anything and kept saying “Mamma mia!” and “I don’t like it!” (when referring to newer churches or buildings). The volcano’s last eruption was on 2002 ( i think) and you could see where the lava had run down because there was no snow there (since the ground was still a bit warm). The view from up there was amazing, it was snowing too!. Although it was a very short trip (it took us longer to get there than the time were actually there) it was a great experience and I brought some lava rocks with me!. Later that night we went out for dinner, and ran into Bill and Kara (lab-wife mentioned before) also former members of the Hieftje klan. We had dinner together and they told us about their boring tour guide.