Day 7 (Oct 31) Happy Halloween

When I woke up today, I decided to relax, and not do any exploring. Since Dario was home, we talked for awhile. I got caught up on world issues on CNN International, and the latest election news, I also checked my emails on the computer. Ciro came by on a break from work (he only works 10 minutes from his apartment). We discussed the plan for the next few days. The train I needed to take from Palermo left at 8:25am. He said if I didn't want to take that one, I'd have to wait for him to get back from Ventimiglia. He found a place for me to stay in Cefalu and in Taormina, with reasonable rates, and vacancies for when I would be there. He talked about when I got back we could try and drive down to Tasca d' Almerita winery. We went there last trip, and I could say hi to my friend Sacha (pronounced Sasha, and yes, he is a dude). Sacha is the Sicilian George Clooney look-alike, all the ladies last time wanted to smuggle back with them. I have zero doubt this guy has any problem with the women.

While I was on the internet, I went ahead and signed up for a Facebook account. (You can see the new profile badge in the left column, yes that's a picture of me as a little kid). When Ciro got back from work around 2, Rosario came by, and we all went looking for some car part he needed on the scooters. I went just to get out of the apartment, and didn't want to miss a chance to hang out with Rosario.

Francesca was going to pick me up around 9:30 - 10 that night to go out. I talked to her on the phone and told her it had to be an early night, since my train left pretty early. Ciro said we would eat dinner early (lolz, at 9) so I'd be ready when she got there. Once we got back, we talked more about my train adventure. He said I needed to pay attention and make sure I got out at Messina, or I would end up on the Italian mainland. The ride to Cefalu should be about 40 min, we needed to leave his apartment by 7:45, I needed to pack my small suitcase, and we'd take the scooter to the station. Once I got to Cefalu, I would have to find my bed and breakfast. I'd have to find my way into town, and then using the address he wrote down, find where I'd be sleeping. He wrote down all the addresses, and train times for the trip there on a couple small pieces of paper. I would stay in Cefalu until Monday, and then take the train to Messina, change trains, then to Taormina.

I started packing my bag up, and I almost told Ciro to call Francesca back, I had a hunch my 'early' was nowhere near her idea of 'early' (I was right too). I decided to risk it, I mean it's hard to turn down a night with a beautiful woman. Alessandro and her picked me up around 10, and we went to a bar down the road. This place was packed. It was chaos inside to get a drink so I decided to not even mess with it. Alessandro asked if I wanted one, and I said no thanks, but he talked me into it. Once we all had a drink we went back outside. It was crowded out there too, we pretty much had the streets around the place full of people, and you'd have to move every few minutes to let a car by. We slid into a great spot though, between a parked car and the tent awning outside. I met a few more of her friends, a couple of them knew a little English even. Two of the girls could easily be models, they were gorgeous. This bar was just the meet up spot, and once the whole group got there, we all split up into cars and left. I was back in the car with Francesca, Alessandro, and a second Alessandro (who spoke English) and we sped off.

We drove to a different part of town, and parked down an alley. By now it was close to midnight, so I was already dreading waking up. This place had a live band, and most of it was open to the night sky. We found a spot we could all fit in, and everyone else started showing up, Alessandro #2's best friend is named Pietro. He was hilarious, spoke a tiny bit of English, but you could tell he was the life of the party wherever he goes. Every few minutes, he'd walk over to where I was with some girl I hadn't seen before, and clear his throat then say "Dominic, I present to you ____(insert girl's name)" Apparently since I was the new face, they all wanted to meet me. I would talk to them for a few minutes, or try to at least. One of them came back later and tried to get me to dance (I am not a dancer, trust me). I had no idea where the bar area was, but they each had me try whatever they had brought back. I was trying to stay sober, since the train ride was so early.

Alessandro #2 and I talked quite a bit, he could not believe, that is possible in America to sleep with a woman the first night you meet her. I tried to explain one night stands, but he couldn't believe it was true. In Sicily, the whole dating process is very slow. He said if you did sleep with a girl, her father might wake you up the next day with a gun, literally.

The band stopped around 2am, and we hung around til almost 3am. I was looking at 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up, so I tip-toed to bed when I got back to Ciro's. Luckily he had given me the extra key before we started the evening.
I went straight to bed since my bag was already packed.

ciao!


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