Domo, Arrivato!

So, I arrived in Palermo after around 18 hours of travel, but unfortunately, my luggage wasn't so lucky.  It may be in Brussels, and it may be on a vacation in some other part of the world, but for sure where it is not, is here with me in Mazara.

After filling out all of the forms, along with hundreds of other people whose luggage had been misplaced (evidently this is a huge problem that has happened to a lot of people), I made my way to Mazara, about an hour from the airport.

I dozed a little on the ride over, as I had only slept for maybe 30 minutes during all of the flights.  Finally, at around 5:00 pm, I did make it to Francesco's parents' house.

He handed me a swimsuit, a t-shirt and a pair of flip flops, which is pretty much all I will need for the week anyway, and we made a mad dash to the beach to soak up the remaining few hours of sunlight in what was a beautiful day in Sicily.

I had to charge my phone, so I couldn't get any pictures, but, at the beach, after taking a refreshing dip in the ocean, careful to avoid the mini sized "medusa" (jellyfish), I said hi to many of the people I met last year.

Then, a quick espresso, in a plastic cup that was just sublime, and also geared me up for our beach volleyball match.  We lost, but had fun and I think I was less bad than Francesco thought I was going to be.  I was just a bit rusty.

Now, I am waiting for Fran, his sister and Claudia to pick me up.  The plan is to head to grab a bite for dinner around 10 pm, go check out a reggae-ish band, then, since it is Saturday night after all, head to a disco.  And to think, my white belt is sitting in the bottom of my luggage in some location unknown to me.  I can almost hear it beckoning.  But, instead, underwear reversed, and no socks, I am otherwise wearing my airplane attire of a button down and jeans.  Let's hope that luggage gets here soon, as we are headed to the island of Ustica early Monday morning.  The way things are looking, I may be doing some shopping here in Mazara.  Well, nothing is open on Sunday, so scratch that.  More likely is that I will be wearing a bathing suit and flip flops during the day, and some variation of this outfit at night for the foreseeable future.

Okay ragazzi, I think I hear that Vespa revving outside, which can only mean one thing.  Time to head out for the evening.  Ciao for now!