Ziatitina

Here you have it. After weeks of exciting stuff, a holiday in the sun and another weekend away my body has obviously decided to stick up a finger and tell me to get lost.I am in true snotty monster conditions with a really bad flue and not a happy bunny. Whether it was divine intervention, some weird germ I picked up on my travels or simple body reaction I don't really care....I do not ever want to have to pass a day like yesterday ever again. In case you're wondering, yes I do like a good old moan - especially if I'm sick. Should it get too boring, you always have the option of scrolling down :) Where was I? Oh yes, yesterday.... after Micha's and Tim's wedding celebration (more of that a little later) I went to bed with a slight sore throat which in my modest opinion was due to singing along to way too many german Schlager songs, and not only. Sunday morning comes along, I am even awake at 10.30...but can hardly move. Every single bone in my body must have been switched to complete rebellion, once I start shivering it hits me...oh, please...no. It's definitely not a hangover, that feels completely different, it could only be the more advanced stage of a full-on flue. Ahead of me I had: 1. getting up and packing, 2. breakfast with whoever managed to appear, 3. a 3 hour drive from Bremen to Duesseldorf, 4. a 1 1/2 hour flight back to London ( PLUS waiting time at the gate) 5. a half an hour waiting time at Heathrow for the luggage and 6. half an hour journey home. I'll keep this short: it was a NIGHTMARE.

Anyways, considering that my day has been extremely boring and mostly spent with sleeping trying to get better, I should really focus on the event that I had the pleasure attending: Micha's and Tim's wedding in Bremen. Once again I found myself at Heathrow airport on a Friday afternoon following usual procedure. Once I found a queue that wasn't 50 m long it suddenly hit me that the annoying bell like noise I heard over the speakers was indeed the fire alarm. Great! Fire Alarm & Evacuation at Heathrow Terminal 1 and me in the middle of it. The part I found most amusing was the voice over the speakers advising travellers to " follow staff instructions" ...rrrrright.... the were plenty of yellow-wested individuals standing around, but not a single one was telling us where to go. At least I crossed the street, while most of the travellers were standing in front of the main doors and that was that. Fire brigade arrived in slow motion ( the first one) - obviously not in a rush, second one arrived shortly afterwards with a decisevly faster pace and a few of their men stormed the building ( once they fought their way through the waiting people...).

 

 I can pretty much tell what you are thinking right now. Why on earth would I want to take a random picture of a fire engine in front of an airport. Easy to answer: I like fire engines (no, really!), I was bored out of my mind and everybody else was doing it. So I told myself, why not? Something to put on the blog, otherwise you won't really look at it ever again.

20 minutes later (in which obviously nobody told us what was going on and nobody even tried to move the individuals in front of the main doors) very low voices starting appearing to instruct staff to re-enter the airport. Considering my flight was scheduled to leave 1 hour and 20 minutes later I made my way there as well and rightly enough was almost in the front of a queue 2 minutes later. We still had a 30 minute delay though....

 

 

In Dusseldorf Bert was already waiting with his little red Spider (Alfa Romeo), ready to hit the road and reach Bremen as soon as possible. Considering that we lost the oil cap at a certain point on the highway and had to improvise a pit stop and a repair we did reasonably well and arrived at the Hotel where a big group was already celebrating around 10.30pm. Big cheers, hello and a couple of pints ( they actually serve smaller measures there...) later the atmosphere was definitely chilled out and we were all looking forward to the big day.

Micha and Tim got married in the main cathedral in Bremen which is an absolutely amazing location. A small coughing fit from my end caused a few stirrs as I somehow managed to get that going during their vows. Could it get more embarassing? Yes. After the first offer of a Tic Tac from the blond lady diagonally on my left in front of me ( try to get a Tic Tac out of its box without making a noise AND suppress further coughing instincts...) I got offered another weird coloured candy shortly afterwards from another guest sitting behind us. I was purple of embarassment and tried to ignore the evil looks from another gentleman. Oh well...at least the bride and groom where not at all mad when I apologised at a later stage. Thinking about it, could that have been the first sign of the flue that was about to hit me?? I doubt it...

 

 

 Here they are, the happy couple in front of the Bremer Dom with their families after the ceremony.

That lovely bride's bouquet got thrown into the crowd of single women shortly afterwards, and you may attempt a total random guess about who caught it....yes, little me. :) Not that surprising really...I seem to have a tendency to catch them, it's now the 2nd in 2 years. Hooray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A short time later we were making our way to the Stadtpark where the wedding reception would take place. It was a gorgeous sunny day and everyone was in true party spirit. I can only say that in my opinion we had the coolest car of the entire wedding party... nothing beats a little red Spider!!! :) Anyways, here is a selection of a few random pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We LOVE pink ties!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a lovely Reception, sit-down dinner and dance afterwards until early hours of the morning. Julia and her boyfriend Stefan even re-composed a little song which we helped out performing as background singers and we managed not to make total fools of ourselves. Well, the biggest compliment obviously goes to those two, as they did all the writing and ultimately Stefan who did most of the singing :) I hope to receive some more pictures that may even show the lovely surroundings...my little camera wasn't really performing to standard.

The happy couple is now chilling on a beach in Greece enjoying their honeymoon. Voices whisper that they didn't even make it to their honeymoon suite and instead left straight away to the airport. Good for them, it just confirms what I already think: it was a glorious event!!!!

I am back off to sleep now, my medicine is kicking in....best of greetings to everyone and to those who were present this weekend I can only say: Spider-pig!!! :)

Tine x

How about this???

 

 Looks like proper holidays, doesn't it?? Well, unfortunately I am not there anymore. Tough...because I know at least 4 people that are still there having a brilliant time. The latest update (about 3 hours ago) places them in Panarea, one of the lovely Aeolian Islands on top of Sicily. No comment...

 

But let's start at the beginning... last Friday I left at almost dawn direction Heathrow to catch a flight to Milan. That obviously wasn't the final destination, but due to various complications in the holiday planning it was necessary to have a small pit-stop rather than adopting the more direct route. A chilled afternoon, a lovely aperitivo at Radetzki and a family dinner later we were at Linate Airport ready for our little adventure - Ale, Bene, Dada, Mat, Ste and me.

 

Yes, the flight was OBVIOUSLY delayed, but who cares? I even missed out on seeing the Aeolian Islands and the Etna from the plane because I was sitting on the wrong side ( how unlucky is that?), but one can't really pretend to get everything. Catania airport was a mess and we run back and forth about 4 times until they finally decided on which luggage belt to send our bags. Hilarious! So...after a lot of giggles, a bit of worry that all bags would indeed arrive ( and they did!!) and a quick toilet run we were dutyfully picked up by our driver to Portorosa near Milazzo. For those of you who are not familiar with Sicily, it's about 1 1/2 hours drive.

 

 

See that platform? It's not the steadiest of things, but all bags and food shopping had to be carried on board the catamaran like this. How many times I thought I would fall in? I lost count. So, after a brief shopping trip to the possibly smallest supermarket I have been to in a very long time ( all six of us did not fit in it too well), the balancing act, finding a way to put the suitcases into the cabin and a pep talk from our skipper Massimo we were on our way to Isola Vulcano  - the closest Aeolian Island to Sicily. Even thugh we could still clearly make it out in the distance we still had to navigate approximately 2 hours. What a relief to be finally on board! Bring out the shorts, open the white wine and start relaxing!

 

 

 

From past experience on a ferry crossover to Sardinia a very long time ago I knew that the whole "sleeping on a boat" thing would be a bit complicated ( that time I could not close eye all night) and indeed the first night on our catamaran Mediterranea I spent most of the time turning around . Never mind, stumbling on the deck the next morning and finding an amazing panorama definitely made up for a sleepless night. I may just want to forget about the rotten egg smell surrounding us for a little while... Vulcano is well know for its fango (mud) baths. Apparently you can throw your bikini away after visiting them, but they are definitely worth it. From there the holiday was just going to get better. Over the next week we would explore Vulcano, Lipari, Salina, Panarea, Stromboli and Filicudi. Unfortunately the weather got a bit harsh so we could not reach Alicudi, but still.....an unforgettable experience. These islands are all of vulcanic origin with Stomboli being the only active one remaining. This is what gives is such an incredibly beautiful and misterious appereance.

 

 

 

This is the Cava di Pietra Pomice ( Pomice stone) near Lipari. What a sight. Not only...jumping into this bright blue water is definitely worth it. And the more time you spend in it, the better it gets. It has a bit of a swimming pool feeling to it, just better!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Another bay we stopped at near Lipari, perfect for hours of snorkeling. The fish were like something I had never really seen before in Europe. Almost tropical with lots of colours and in many differnent variations. Could have been the Maldives....almost! Bene and Ste even saw a 30cm big crab. Glad I didn't...would have freaked me out just a little... :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Captain Dada

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Underneath the catamaran....in case you're wondering...the yellow thing appearing there are my flippers. Helps a little in deep waters!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Stromboli in all its beauty. Isn't it impressive??

There is a little village on the left hand side whose name I just can remember...but while it is absoolutely gorgeous it is worth mentioning that it only received a proper electricity connection in 2004. Not only that, there are 2 villages sharing land with an active vulcano who spits out clouds of smoke every 15 minutes, and occasionally decides to do a bit of erupting as well. The beaches are black and overall there is a very "vulcanic" feeling to the island. According to its inhabitants ( and the guide) Stromboli is peaceful and lives in harmony with its inhabitants. They call it "Iddu", whether that has any particular meaning.... I don't know.

 

 

 

 

 

Strombolicchio - in all its beauty. The "little Stomboli" is right next door its big brother and worth a visit. Steps lead up to the top and boats can not actually throw their anchor down because it's too deep. Great snorkeling and diving place with crystal clear blue water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It's hard to see , but those two little figures on the top are Dada and Mat on the top of Strombolicchio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some more random pictures :)

 

 

 

Scia di Fuoco ( Stromboli) It still smokes!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is us in the middle of the sea, dragged by the catamaran. What a giggle when all 6 of us where hanging there...you do not want to know how much water I ended up drinking. Apparently, so we got told later, at this point the waters were actually about 1000m deep. Nice....I'm just very glad Massimo didn't tell us beforehand. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lipari - Marina Corta

 

 

 

 

So....while I am waiting for the others to terminate their second week on Mediterranea and receive the other thousand pictures, I have tried to give you a small impression of a truly wonderful week. Some other stories will follow, right now I just can't think properly about everything that happened. My return to London has been slightly traumatising, not only did we almost miss the return flight from Catania ( watch Italians load a ferry with cars and you know what I'm talking about!!) but once back in town I was not impressed by the horrible rain and cold weather and a very busy week at work. But, the weekend is near and tomorrow I'll be heading to Heathrow once more. I really must be loving that airport....well, this time I will be gone for only 2 days. Micha & Tim are getting married in Bremen ( Germany) and I surely can not miss that! Watch this space :)

To conclude this entry I would like to share a last impression of our "floating house": Mediterranea in all its splendour.

Right...now I just need to make sure that my tan won't wash off in the rain!! :)

Baci Tine