When I’m researching beautiful places to visit I’ll often do a google image search. The Mt Etna National Park in Sicily was no exception and I had in fact ruled it out based on the lacklustre results I’d found. Photo after photo of barren black lava landscapes left me less than enthused. Fortunately due to an unexpected prolonging of our stay on this small island we ended up doing a few things we wouldn’t have done otherwise. The problem with doing google image searches is that tourists, generally speaking, all go to the same place to see the same thing, and take the same photos. There’s much more to Mt Etna National Park than barren black lava flows but you wouldn’t know it looking at the travel photos on the net. Hopefully this blog post will go some way to re-dressing the balance.

In this photo I am hiking in deep volcanic ash (like very fine sand) on a nearly vertical incline (okay, not quite but it was steep damn it) – that was very very hard.

One of the things I love most about hiking up big steep things. The romantic in me will never tire of being able to touch the clouds.

Before we left Australia, one of the things I was really excited about was getting another autumn. Two autumns in one year, my favourite season! Images of shockingly colourful autumnal forests was a staple of mine whenever I would fantasise about travelling. This might sound strange to non-Australian peeps, but most of our trees are evergreen so a whole forrest full of deciduous trees makes the nature lover in me get all giddy with glee.

Until Mt Etna we hadn’t actually seen any autumn colours – a very discouraging state of affairs given that winter was just around the corner. I had no idea that we would find our autumn when we decided to give the Mt Etna national park a go. We were both astonished by the vivid colours. On our first leisurely walk in the national park I commented to Mike that just when I think I’ve seen a place so beautiful nothing could ever compare we go somewhere new and see something even more beautiful.

However, Sicily stole my heart not for it’s beautiful scenery but for it’s beautiful people. I honestly never knew that people could be so kind and open and genuinely friendly. We were treated like family by complete strangers. We were invited to stay at people’s homes, join their celebrations and were taken on personal guided tours that lasted all day and all night and then invited to do it all again. I think Mike has done those stories justice so do head over to his blog to read more.

Related posts:

1. Zingaro National Park Mike and I love a good national park. Although we’re...
2. Best of 2009 – Challenge, Album, Place, Food It’s that time again. A bit of Best of 2009...
3. A Mediaeval Hill-top Town in Sicily Erice encapsulated many of the simple things that bring me...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

December 9 Challenge

Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?

See “New Food” entry below.

December 10 Album of the year.

What’s rocking your world?

I discovered “The Flight of the Concords” this year and I can’t get enough of their albums. They make me laugh out loud every time. A spin off from this is that I also discovered David Bowie, which I wrote about here.  

The old school Bowie songs that are rocking my world (for all those closet Bowie groupies out there) are “Boys Keep Swinging” , “Alabama Song”, and “Ashes to Ashes”.

I’m really going to geek out now and list the often cheeky sometimes torrid lyrics that make his music so deliciously freaky:

“Life’s a pop of the cherry when you’re a boy”… “When you’re a boy you can wear a uniform, when you’re a boy other boys check you out, when you’re a boy you can learn to drive and everything”.

~ Boys Keep Swinging

“We must find our way to the next whiskey bar or I tell you we must die”… “Oh show us the way to the next little girl. Oh don’t ask why, no don’t ask why. We must find the next little girl for if we don’t find the next little girl I tell you we must die”. [creepy, no?]

~ Alabama Song

“Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Major Tom’s a junky”.

~ Ashes to Ashes

December 11 The best place.

A coffee shop? A pub? A retreat center? A cubicle? A nook?

It’s a tie:

Ireland

VS

Sicily

They’re so different they’re the proverbial apples and oranges so I can’t decide between the two. The photo of Ireland is of the Dingle Peninsula. It’s a place that could make you believe in faeries and magik. The photo of Sicily was taken on a hike in the Mt Etna national park. I remarked to my partner Mike on our hike that just when I think I’ve seen a place so beautiful nothing could ever compare we travel somewhere new and see something even more beautiful. However, Sicily stole my heart not for it’s beautiful scenery but for it’s beautiful people. I honestly never knew that people could be so kind and open and genuinely friendly. We were treated like family by complete strangers. We were invited to stay at people’s homes, join their celebrations and were taken on personal guided tours that lasted all day and all night and then invited to do it all again.

December 12 New food.

You’re now in love with Lebanese food and you didn’t even know what it was in January of this year.

I well and truly conquered my seafood phobia this year, which I wrote about here. I’m still not a seafood lover but I do salivate over a nice fresh piece of pesce spada (a Sicilian favourite – sword fish) and I know I can eat texture challenging jiblets like oysters and tentacles if I must.

Related posts:

1. Best of 2009 – A whole bunch again! Oh good lord, I’m atrociously behind in my posts and...
2. Best of 2009 This year has been a year worthy of reflection so...
3. Best of 2009 – Workshop, Blog & Moment of Peace I’m batching my responses to “Best of 2009″ so here...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Driving through Southern Italy and especially Sicily it seems every other hill top has a village or remnants of one perched precariously on its summit. Given that Sicily was conquered by anyone who was anyone throughout human history I’m guessing building delightful villages on the most inconveniently high precipices they could find was not an endeavour in aesthetics and picturesque vistas. I am very glad they went to the trouble though coz it’s just so cool.

Erice’s castles and churches were home to all sorts of shenanigans, including sacred prostitution, animals to be sacrificed allegedly strolling up to the altar, and the goings on of a mysterious cult who claimed descent from Venus’ famous Trojan son, Aeneas. Mike and I ascended the tower’s spiral staircase that was evidently made for vertically challenged people and took in some lovely views of the village and visited the main church, Chiesa Matrice.

While we were strolling past ceramics stores in the town I pondered the tragedy of travelling the world and seeing beautiful things but not being able to buy any of them because we live in a motorhome. I came to the happy realisation in Erice that I can and should be buying (small) local hand-crafted items for our future cottage in the hills. So, I bought a small circular hand painted ceramic tile that I just can’t wait to hang on our cottage wall and smile every time I look at it.

Related posts:

1. Mt Etna National Park, Sicily I’m woefully behind on the travel blogging front. In fact...
2. Siena Duomo – The Gothic Marvel the Renaissance Forgot We’ve been travelling through Europe for seven months now and...
3. A Beautiful Day I made a “stuff I actually want to do” To...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

hiking up mountains with spectacular views…

and blissfully stumbling through bogs to get to places like this…

So understand that when I say Zingaro National Park is spectacular know that my bar has been set pretty high. There are several walking trails and we took the coastal route so of course there were the obligatory pebble beaches and spectacular coastal views with the clearest of waters that we have come to expect of Italy’s coast.

Curiously there were charming, sometimes dilapidated buildings throughout the park. Some were being used to display local crafts or house exhibits on the local fauna and flora but others just looked abandoned. Thankfully most of the human-made additions to the park were very much in keeping with the natural environment and only added to its beauty.

We were surprised by the lushness of the vegetation and the diversity of plants. Up until our visit to Zingaro, our experience of Italian flora has been of arid, desert like landscapes of cacti and dry scrub or agricultural fields of olive trees or vineyards. Zingaro had the expected cacti and spiky plants but it also had a ground-cover of thick lush clover that you’d expect to see in Ireland, wild fennel everywhere, and is apparently home to over 25 species of orchards. Basically, there was a lot of green stuff.

In conclusion, it was pretty.

P.S. Most photo credits go to my very talented partner Mike.

Related posts:

1. Mt Etna National Park, Sicily I’m woefully behind on the travel blogging front. In fact...
2. Best of 2009 – A whole bunch again! Oh good lord, I’m atrociously behind in my posts and...
3. A Mediaeval Hill-top Town in Sicily Erice encapsulated many of the simple things that bring me...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

As I wrote, ideas that have been marinating for some time became more fully formed and I managed to get them down on paper, despite my limited illustration skills, which often frustrate my attempts to portray what’s in my head. A lot of the inspiration came from words that have repeatedly popped into my head throughout my Europe adventure with my man over these past 3 months, namely “Together we are Courageous” and “None but you and me Little Bit” (actually a Buffy quote). Of course I also draw a lot of inspiration from other people’s artwork (too numerous to mention – see the BlogRoll!) and funky graphic design. I wanted to share a few of the pages of my sketchbook in which I was having so much fun and getting my list on (you can click to enlarge the individual pages):

I had a great time flipping through “Taking Flight” by Kelly Rae Roberts to re-visit projects and techniques I’ve been meaning to sink my teeth into as well as torn out pages from Somerset Studio magazines (I know, torn out pages! How could I?! It was a tortuous decision but half a dozen copies of Somerset Studio probably wouldn’t have fit into my backpack for Europe).

Really the time devoted to my neglected creative yearnings was the highlight of the day but a very close runner up is that I discovered Bowie.

Yes, David Bowie. How do you discover David Bowie in a motorhome in a little Sicilian village, do you ask? If you enjoy laughing and New Zealander accents, check this out, then watch the whole episode. I actually had an outrageous crush on the androgynous legging-clad bloke from the Labyrinth when I was a wee thing in the 80’s so it seems things have come full circle. I thought it was madness that Sarah didn’t join him in his goblin kingdom! It took me a couple of decades to be able to confess that to anyone but you know what, I’m pretty impressed with my 4-year-old taste in men. The man is a legend. I love his outrageous lyrics. I can’t believe Wade Robson hasn’t choreographed a piece to “Alabama Song” for “So you Think you can Dance” yet. If he ever does, I might just wet myself. Listening to songs from “The Labyrinth” gave me so much reminiscing-joy and inspiration! I must conjure up a painting based on these lyrics from “Magic Dance” : “What kind of magik spell to use? Slime and snails or puppy dogs tails? Thunder and lightening, something frightening”. Love it.

If that wasn’t enough joy for one day I should probably mention where we are right now. Nettle (our motorhome), Mike and I are currently in Casa de Franchis, Sicily, Italy.

We’ve been travelling for 3 months throughout Europe at a fairly prompt pace. It’s been brilliant but we’ve both been yearning for the slow travel lifestyle we had in mind when we packed up/sold/gave away all our worldly belongings and trundled over to Europe. Up until 3 weeks ago we’ve had people to meet and places to be, which have all kept us on a deadline. Since then we’ve been hoping to find a place to settle down for a while and get stuck into our respective projects and generally just chillaxing. Finally, after 3 weeks of driving through depressing, run-down, litter-strewn villages in the South of Italy we have found our diamond in the rough. Casa de Franchis has turquoise waters, a beach that does not look like a rubbish dump and a cute little field of olive trees over-looking the bay to park Nettle in. She likes it here, I can tell.

Luckily Mike and I managed to pull ourselves away from our respective obsessions long enough to enjoy the beautiful day and go for a walk. Our stroll turned into a photography expedition for me as I’ve taken to carrying my little camera everywhere and my arty nerves were a-tingle. Is it just me or are these plants really cute? Can a plant be cute?

I love the elegance of these droopy lines:

I just thought this shot was kinda cool:

It feels so serendipitous that we’ve found a “home” just when I’m feeling my most inspired and motivated and ready to get stuck into it. I’ve often agonised over feeling a need to create but not quite knowing What I want to create. Of course that question isn’t going anywhere any time soon but at least I’ve got a few doodles to go on with.

Related posts:

1. Best of 2009 – Challenge, Album, Place, Food It’s that time again. A bit of Best of 2009...
2. Mt Etna National Park, Sicily I’m woefully behind on the travel blogging front. In fact...
3. A Mediaeval Hill-top Town in Sicily Erice encapsulated many of the simple things that bring me...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.