Travel Like us!

I'd like to give a homework example for everyone to try this in your own town.  You don't have to go far away to get a sense of what it feels like.  I highly recommend you take a week to do this.  It will refresh all the things in your life that you enjoy and help them feel special again.

If you work you can just modify your schedule to do this while your working (i.e. take the bus/train or bicycle/walk to work and then do this with all the rest of the day/night).

Traveling Constantly
I'm not sure we have properly described how much different our travels really are from most peoples "vacations".  Think of this;
every 2.5 days you pack up everything you own into as small and lightweight as you can fit on your back. you venture off to the train or bus station to figure out what bus/train to take to your next destination. You travel for anywhere from 1 to 4 hours to arrive at your new town.  you get of the train/bus and get a gps lock to find your way to your new home.  You meet a brand new person/family and introduce your self.  We have brought many things to our couch surfer hosts, wine, chocolates, alcohol.  you get situated with them, put your things down, get situated in  your bed/couch and talk about the schedule ( dinner, plans to go out, what they want, what we want, how tired they/we are). hopefully decide on some sort of schedule for the night, maybe domain (tomorrow).

Homework for those who want to try this at home:
-You can do this alone, or with a teammate.
-Pack a backpack (no suitcases! they are too heavy) with a weeks worth of clothes, and comforts (only what you can carry as you won't have a car).
-Make some plans with friends for staying there for 2 nights (it's better to ask friends your NOT used to staying at their house, the less you know them the better), alternatively you make a profile on couchsurfing.org and ask real hosts on CS.
Note: You will need 3 different sets of people to stay with.  Do the planning via email,phone,txt for setting up your week of travel for each place.
-No car!  Do your travel with bus/train/ or calling friends to come get you.
-Make sure to carry your stuff for at least 1-2 hours each day you travel(every 3 days). just go on a walk if they are going to come pick you up.
-If you speak any other languages your REQUIRED to first speak in them to your host, then translate to english if they don't understand.  This is HUGE.  even if you suck at your 2nd language you need to speak it 100% of the time.
-Then set off!

Some things to remember!
-Be respectful at all times
-Bring something for your hosts (this requires you go out and find a store by foot or locate one before you arrive. no bringing anything from your house!)
-Your not allowed to help cook or clean that is your hosts responsibility, but ask anyway so they can say no
-Your not allowed to cook by yourself while staying with them, if you go out by yourself or your teammate you can buy food, but you must carry it in a day-pack  Set your goal of spending to something reasonable (i.e don't go out each meal and spend $20).  I'd say you should be able to get away with no more than $12-15 a day average in food.
-try and make some plans with your host, and some plans by yourself/teammates so you have a spread of time spent with them and spent apart. this works well if you work during the day for example.
-Your not allowed to visit any other friends you know while your on your journey, you can meet strangers and ask them out for dinner and activities, but nobody you know except your host (if you know them)

buoni viaggi ( good travels )

A Sicilian Christmas

In Catania, Sicily - a Christmas tree made
out of real cactus leaves, then painted gold!

Christmas is huge in Italy. In America, we think we've got the prize for over the top Christmas celebrations, but I think it's even bigger here. Each city we goes to has displays of lights strung between the buildings on the main streets, and every shop has a Christmas display. Fortunately for us, however, the endless repetitions of "Rockin' around the Christmas Tree" and "Jingle Bells" is not part of it.

There are some very curious new twists to Christmas here - the decorations include little Santas climbing up ladders to apartment balconies; the juxtaposition of a picture of Santa near a palm tree in Sicily (there are still flowers and blue skies here); and stacks of traditional Christmas cakes near the registers of every grocery store. 

Parade of Santa Lucia

And especially, now that we are in Sicily, there are the sweets. Although we've been told that these sweets are available year-round, I suspect that the displays get even more fantastic for Christmas time. Sicily is famous for its cannola, a crispy shell of pastry which is filled with a sweet fresh ricotta, and often edged with chopped pistachios, which grow here. There is also an endless parade of cookies. We had thought we would avoid the over-abundance of Christmas-time treats by traveling this holiday season, but that has definitely not been the case. Carb and sugar overload - and how tasty it has been!

Right now, we are staying in a lovely B&B in Siracusa, on the island of Ortigia. On Thursday night, we watched the parade of Santa Lucia (Saint Lucy) as the statue returned to her alcove in the Cathedral. St. Lucia is the patron saint of Siracusa - she is also celebrated many other places in the world, especially in Sweden. In Siracusa, the statue leaves the cathedral on December 13 and returns a week later on the 20th. There was even a fabulous fireworks display, which we could see from the roof of our B&B!!

We return on Monday to Catania, to the home of a lovely couchsurfing family, Massimo and Paola and their two teenaged children. They have generously opened their doors to us for Christmas. Over and over again as we've traveled in Italy, we have been blown away by the hospitality and generosity of our couchsurfing hosts. We greatly look forward to seeing the holiday with our Italian friends, and we're thinking of all of you at home! Buon Natale - Merry Christmas!

It's harvest time for oranges - and they are plentiful,
juicy, and cheap - 0.50 euros per kilo! :)

Locorotondo & Mozzarella fresca!!!

For five nights in Locorotondo, we were hosted by a fabulous couchsurfer, Antonio. He and his fiancee, Paola, treated us to wonderful food and conversation. We ate local cheese and wine; his mother cooked a fantastic dinner; we had potatoes baked in the oven with melted fresh-smoked mozzarella (amazing!!), and Paola made us risotto with saffron. And, last but definitely not least, we tried Antonio's homemade cognac and mirto - a liquor made from myrtle berries.

The incredibly fantastic highlight of our stay was to go behind the scenes at a local cheese shop. We were able to see the whole process of mozzarella making, which they make fresh each day. There are actually five types of mozzarella, ranging from very small balls, to larger fist sized pieces.

To make the mozzarella, the curds are added to a large basin, and very hot water is poured in, along with a pitcher mixed with hot water and salt. The cheese-maker stirs the mixture around, and then stretches it on a traditional wooden paddle. Over about 15 minutes, he can get the cheese to stretch above his head. Then, they put it into an extruder machine, which allowed them to pull off manageable chunks to form the smaller mozzarella types.

The mozzarella was incredibly stringy, moist, and sweet - not anything like what we call "mozzarella" in the states. Really, the US mozzarella does not deserve the name - what we ate here was heaven. The shop also makes a smoked mozzarella and some other aged cheeses. 

At about 6pm each night, local restaurants and shops come by to pick up their portion to sell. The mozzarella is put into tubs of water to keep it fresh. This was mozzarella made using cow milk (instead of water buffalo milk, which is made more in the Napoli area where it's wetter).

We intend on passing on our knowledge of how to make the best damn mozzarella when we come back! Yum....

Growth

What is it to be friends?  What is it to help them grow?  How do you help someone grow?  This is the challenge I undertake everyday in my life with myself and others around me.

What is it to be friends?

For me this is an elusive term.  I've never treated this word like any other. For me it is more transient. I feel friendship is like two planets orbiting around each other. Each drawing in the other with their magnetic gravitational pull.
When they are close, they draw each other in, comfort each other with their presence, and influence each other in remarkable ways.
When they are further apart, they have less impact on each others lives.  I think we are always in a flux between states with our friends and love ones.
There is always this changing state the way I feel with my friends.  That is why I have a hard time pin pointing what the word "friendship" is at any given time.  Sometimes I feel like an acquaintance, others a best friend, and everything else in-between.  It depends on how close I feel to them and how close I feel they are to me.

What is it to help someone grow?

I've always found that in my life I grow best when I'm uncomfortable.  When I'm in an unfamiliar situation or something new to me I do not fully understand.  When I'm uncomfortable my mind is more open, I seek out others perspectives and ways of seeing the world.
Getting into this state can be challenging or it can be very easy, depending on if you seeks it.  I find, ever more this state of unbalance in my situations helps me learn faster, helps me make better long term decisions, and overall makes me a better person.
This is why it is my goal as a friend to help my friends get into these uncomfortable positions in life.  I find more often than not, I cross the line and end up going just over this invisible barrier between comfort and uncomfortably.

I seek out this state with my friends, always re-updating myself with where they are at.  I seek to know them, to comfort them, and to help them grow by putting them in places they feel uncomfortable.  I only find out what others feel is uncomfortable by being with them in many situations, and being observant to how that situation makes them feel. This is different for everyone.

I have found this true in my own life.

Sassi di Matera

Last week our rambles took us to Matera, home to the famous cave dwellings of the Sassi. "Sassi di Matera" literally means "stones of Matera" - the people here built their homes straight into naturally formed caves. The city cascades down the hillsides of a large gorge, with the roofs of many homes literally forming the streets above. It's fascinating.

Matera is one of the oldest cities in Italy, and one of the earliest human sites. Unfortunately, the area was poverty-stricken until recently, as a population boom in the 1900's had caused caves to be overcrowded, with large families, and the infant mortality rate was over 50%.

We saw one cave set up as a museum which showed the daily life of a family. There was only three openings into the cave: the door, a window above the door, and a small window in the kitchen. Not a whole lot of light. In one corner a donkey or cow was kept, roped off - and in the back cave was room for another animal and a laying hen. Small children (family sizes were usually around 6 children) slept in the bottom drawers of the dresser. A large loom was rented in wintertime to make clothing. (Photo Link on the Right for more photos).

In the 1950's, the government forcibly moved 30,000 of the residents, causing Matera to become a ghost town. Recently the government became more tourist-oriented, which brought more people back.

Water cistern

We also saw examples of water collection - rain water would run off of roofs and down gutters into underground cisterns. The porous rock provided some natural filtration. Under one church was a more recent cistern, where a huge reservoir was  built as a backup water supply for the residents.

With its history echoing in our ears, Matera is still an incredible place to visit. The houses and some churches spring straight up from the cliffsides, and the view down the gorge is an amazing panorama. We hiked down to the river below and up to into the national park on the other side, where we poked around into empty caves and ate our lunch looking across the canyon at the city.

Trulli Land

Alberobello, a city of Trulli

We've moved! We're now all the way east across Italy, in the region of Puglia, in a particular area called the Valley of Itria (or in tourist terms: "Trulli Land.") The Valle d'Itria is known for a particular architecture style, found only here: the trulli, pronounced "true-ly."

In short, this region is exceptionally beautiful and green, and has flatter terrain, which has been welcome after the hills of Napoli. We even were able to go out for a 10k run - on paved road - which was novel because we've been walking mainly on cobblestone or sidewalks for the last three weeks. :) 

Trulli il Castagno - our doorway is on the left :)

For the first three nights in the Valley, we stayed at a lovely place called "Trulli il Castagno" or Trulli of the Chestnut. It was a fantastically lovely and relaxing place, and we had it all to ourselves (this is definitely not the tourist season here). Our abode was a renovated part of four trullis - each room is somewhat round, and the ceiling slopes up to the cone at the top. We had a kitchen, center dining space, bathroom, and bedroom, all within the trulli walls.

Trullo are everywhere in the countryside

I've been looking forward to this region since I first began researching our trip here - it is an architecturally amazing place. There are trullo everywhere here. Stone materials abound here, so the people of this place used them to construct these unique structures, and they made them without any mortar, simply "dry-stacking" stones on top of another, and filling an inbetween space with rubble. There are also bizillions of little dry-stone walls along every road as well. 

Today, we also visited another unique place - Grotta di Castellana, or Grottoes of Castellana. It's the largest cave system in Italy, with a 2km tour open to the public, with the culmination of the tour at the "Grotto Bianca" or White Grotto - a cave with only pure-white stalactites and stalagmites. It was spectacular - walls made out of quartz, and unusual formations and huge spaces. But - don't visit it in August! We had only 12 people on our tour; in August, the caves get 1,000 visitors a day, and it's a one-way tour in a couple of sections. 

Tomorrow we are heading to Matera to see the Sissi caves for a few days. Then we'll be back in this area, staying with our CS friend Antonio, perhaps helping him harvest his olive trees, and then flying from Bari to Catania, Sicily on the 11th!