A Fun Weekend...
This past week was pretty busy…so, what do you do after a busy work week? you relax….On Friday I decided to do some club hopping …First stop, a local Mexican restaurant called Chili-Peppers. The only Mexican restaurant on the entire group of islands…I hung out there during happy hour drinking some beer and having some appetizers… after a few hours there I decide to look for another bar. I started to make my way toward the ferry landing…Along the way I came across one of the many outdoor bazaars that are being held during the summer….vendors were out selling many homemade trinkets and souveniers (just image a swap meet at night)…also there was area in the piazza where many of the locals were dancing to a musician playing the accordion…I spent a few moments there taking some picture before running into some friends who were at another local bar called Gorillaz…As I sat on the patio and drank another glass of beer, I watched as more and more people began to show up, mostly young adults…mind you this is around 12:30 in the morning and I was on my way back to go to bed, and here we have people on there way out…I finished my two beers and finally made it back to the boat around 2:30 am.
The next day I was just gonna relax but a friend of mine invited out to have some Filipino food at a going away party at military housing complex…It was good to have some Pansit, Lumpia, chicken wings and steamed rice…It felt like heaven…I was so satisfied with my dinner I went back to the ship…
On Sunday, I was invited to go on a spaghetti boat ride…All I was told was that we were going to go island hopping and eating, so I said sure I’ll go…Come to find out that these ’spaghetti boat ‘ rides are very popular during the summer months among tourists…These small boats take between 20-40 people on a tour of the surrounding islands, stopping at several beaches and will serve a pasta meal…So our trip started at 11am as we departed from Palau. Our boat traveled between the island of Santo Stephano and Caprera and headed toward the island of Santa Maria. During our 45min ride we pointed out many of the attractions of La Maddalena. Such as Caprera is where Italy’s national hero, Garibaldi lived and passed away. There are also many famous landmarks such as Bear Rock and Garibaldi…
At around noontime we pulled into our first beach in Santa Maria.
Cala Giorgio Marino, which means the Natural Pools, because the water is as blue as the water in a swimming pool…some of our group swam in the water [The Mediterranean] while others snorkeled…After about two hours we returned to the boat where we were each served a plate pasta with seafood sauce. It was delicious. We were also given a bowl full of clams…as we sat and enjoyed our lunch we were en route to another beach that we could enjoy. Along the way, several notable landmarks were pointed out to us such as some granite rock sculptures and the
Spiaggia Rosa (Pink Beach)located at Rozilli. The final stop was Cala D'alga, a beach on Spargi surrounded by many large rock formations. We spent about 2 ½ hours there swimming and snorkeling. When the time came to leave, an ice cream boat pulled up next to us ,... Yep, an ice cream boat...to sell us whatelse? some ice cream, soda and beer, that was pretty hilarious…Our trip concluded when we arrived back at Palau at 6pm…All in all a very fun weekend
A Geography Lesson...
First of all, I would like to say "Hello" to the whole Thursday Night Crew for coming over and restarting our traditional dinners...Is it my turn to cook next week???? letme know, I'll get right on it...
Secondly, some of you guys are probably wondering where exactly in Italy I am...So here's a quick geography lesson....
La Maddalena is the largest town located within a set of seven archipelago islands. The town lies on Isola Maddalena. The other six islands, in order of size, are:
Isola Caprera,
Isola Spargi,
Isola Santo Stefano,
Isola Santa Maria,
Isola Budelli and
Isola Razzoli. Only Maddalena, Caprera and S. Stefano are inhabited.
Currently S. Stefano houses a
NATO naval base, at which US nuclear submarines are housed. It is on this island to which my ship, the USS Emory S. Land (AS-39), is home ported.
The main access into and out of the archipelago is via the frequent car ferries from nearby
Palau on Sardinia that run into La Maddalena. There are roads only on Maddalena and Caprera.
Sardinia is a region of Italy that sits just south of the Island of Corsica in the blue Tyrrhenian Sea. It's about 160 miles long, 68 miles wide, and 115 miles west of the Italian mainland . It has survived invasions by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Byzantines, Spanish Savoyards and Italians, and local festivals still reflect those cultures. Numerous prehistoric castles, villages, temples and tombs can be found throughout the countryside, and with its perfect weather, tourists arrive in droves, many by ferry. And believe me there are a lot of tourist right now, but there will be more in August their peak vacation month.
This is also where you can find the famed CLUB MED. In fact there are two CLUB MEDs in the area. One can be found on the Caprera, and the other can be found on there side of the island where my ship is...We have been told that we are FORBIDDEN from going to the other side...
As I explore the other islands, I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures and post them for all to see...As a matter of fact, there are plans to rent a zodiac boat and go visit some over this weekend...
So everyknows where I'm at...I shouldnt hear "Where?" from any of you guys...In the next couple of weeks were scheduled to visit Rota, Spain. Where's Rota? That's be on an upcoming blog...
Until next time, stay safe, be good and take care of one another....
My July 4th Holiday
After finally recovering from my 2 days of flying, I was able to sit down an enjoy a decent meal. Mind you it may have been shipboard food, but that was the best meal I had in the past 48 hrs...
Now the question is how to I get to land...apparently, these water taxis run approx once an hour to each of the ports...so in fact it could take close to 45min to get where you need to go...I decide to go and visit La Maddelena, since I had heard so much about it...I left the ship to catch the 12:45pm ferry...Man, was it hot! ! ! I look up at a display they had set up and it said 91'F. Thankfully it wasn't humid, the sun was just hot.
Now that there's daylight I can see that our water taxi looks like the size of a 45-ft yacht with a lot of benches...a bunch of us got on board and were off...First stop was Palau. The water taxi doesnt go very fast, that's probably why it takes so long to get to where we are going. The a distance the port of Palau looks nice. Lots of hotel and plenty of little shops. Reminds me a lot of Catalina Island. Many of the buildings were on the hillside...lots of people were in the streets, others were driving their cars while others drove scooters. Scooters are a popular thing here. All ages ride scooters, if fact I saw an old lady (maybe in her 70's) with a helmet on racing down the street. It looks like everyone on the island of Oblia comes to Palau to ride the ferry across to the La Maddelena side. There are these 2 huge ferries that take cars to the other side...
The boat ride from Palau to La Madd is a bit longer, almost 25min...as we got closer and closer, I noticed that La Madd looked the same as Palau except, it appears that La Madd was more younger and hip. The landing was lined with boats, both personally owned and for rent. I heard that some sailors rented
ZODIACS and visited other surrounding islands big boats couldn't get to. I walked to the piazza (not Mike from the
PADRES) the big open area in the shopping square. It looked to be set-up for some little carnival with rides and concessions. You can see restaurants all over the place, selling [what else?] italian food. It's sooo hot inside that most restaurants have tables and chairs outside. It's all bunched so close together that you cant tell where one restaurant ends and the other one begins...
As for myself, after walking up and down the alleyways countless times I finally stopped at one and had a lasagne dinner...i was somewhat displeased at the size of the portion and disappointed with the taste...it was kind of bland, nothing special (Edie's Lasagna blows this out the water). Then I went and had some Italian ice cream (i think its called
Gelatissimo or that might be the name of the store) anyway that made up for dinner...The ice cream was soooooooo frickin' gooooood, I even went back for another (larger) cup.
It has been said that Italians rest in the afternoon so they can party at night, and I guess that's true 'cause as I was exploring the town only a few stores were open for business, but by the dinner time a lot of the stores had opened there doors, selling everything Italian, but nothing name brand.
I made my way back to the ship around 9pm, just in time to see the sun set. I guess they dont
'spring forward, fall back over here'....Oh by the way, the Italians beat Germany are are going to play for the
World Cup...It's going to be a madhouse here if Italy wins it all...I can't wait! ! ! !
A Week In Review, Part II
After finally boarding in Frankfurt, it was a quick 90 mins to Rome...
We landed at the Leonardo DaVinci Int'l Airport and it wasn't what expected...What I had expected was to see us flying over ancient Rome and maybe catch a glimpse of the Vatican or even the Coliseum. To my suprise, as I looked out the airplane window, all I saw was farmland all around. I thought to myself, Did we make an unscheduled stop? But alas, we were really in Rome...I have no idea how far we were located from downtown Rome. The airport was a complete opposite from Germany's...It was still HUGE but very dirty and somewhat unorganized. Leaks from the ceiling, no air-conditioning, people were rude...and to top everything off, when our flight didnt board at its scheduled time, no one made any announcements...everyone just stood there looking at each other, guessing when our flight might be ready.
After an hour delay, we finally board (at 8:22) and are soon on our way...Just after the sunsets and forty minutes later we land on an island named Olbia (part of Sardinia)...After retreiving my heavy ass bags, I was now on a quest to find someone, anyone, who might know where the hell I was going. I walked a few yards before some guy came up to me and asked if I was American...I was so relieved that someone other than me spoke english I could have hugged the guy...He introduced himself as being a member of the Command Sponsor Team and they usually meet all arriving flights to greet sailors...So we loaded up the gov't van and he proceeded to drive me to where I can catch the ferry (water taxi) to my ship...I asked how far are we from it and he said about an hour...MY JAW DROPPED.
So on we went toward a town called Palau (not the same as the one seen on 'SURVIVOR'). The roads were winding and narrow. Some Italian drivers were crazy enough to pass during a turn...CRAZY ! ! !....When we get to Palau, all i can see a lot of people milling around. The streets are lined with little trinket shops similar to what we would see at Seaport Village. We get to the landing and we wait for the water taxi to come...
Finally, at 11:40pm the water taxi comes by. I'm on my own again since the sponsor lives on a totally different island...the ride takes about 20 mins. Luckily, some shipmates give me a hand carrying my bags onboard where I am greeted by the Engineering Chief on duty...He makes some phone calls an has some duty personnel take my stuff to the berthing...after logging me in as checking onboard, Chief tells me to go get some rest. The rest of the ship is on holiday stand-down until July 5th, so come back on that day....I head over to the berthing and find a rack. I took a nice long shower and pass out for the next 12 hours.........
A Week in Review
First of all I would like to thank every one who found time in their schedule to attend Eydee's baby shower on 24Jun06. We received a lot of useful stuff and, believe me, we will definitely use every bit of it....
I had dinner with the Thursday Night Crew at MaMa Santiago's house...Thanks for cooking a delicious Chicken Adobo dinner...I especially liked the adobo soup that was set aside...
Eydee took me to the airport to catch my flight...The lady at the check-in counter was gracious enough to give her a pass so she could get passed the security gate and wait at the gate with me...(I actually gave her a $10 bribe, but Eydee thinks its because she was expecting)...
I departed around 11pm (about :30 minutes late) for Norfolk via Charlotte, NC. As I was leaving San Diego, Edin's flight was just arriving from San Francisco...Once again the Purog brothers just miss each other by a few minutes...
I arrived in VA a little after 9am...I ran a few errands a picked up some junk food in preparation for my trans-Atlantic flight later that evening...I stopped by MArie's parents place to say HI and GOOD-BYE before my flight...They were actually getting ready for a wedding and I only visited with them for 1/2 hour...Nanette and Isa came by to keep me company for awhile...I ended up taking a quick 15-minute nap before I got up and had to go...
After a few quick pics, 'Nette and Isa gave Uncle Patrick a quick hung and off to the airport I went....
My flight to Washington-Dulles was delayed for an hour (what else is new??) which meant that once I landed i would need to run like a bat out of hell to catch my flight for Germany...We landed at 9:38pm and left promptly at 9:55pm, not much time to spare...
The flight to Frankfurt, Germany was long, about 7hrs. We arrived in Germany 11:15am (on-time for once). The international airport was huge and confusing. Thankfully I had a four hour layover. The airport was nice and clean and very spaciuos, unlike Lindbergh Field. I tried to use their phone system there but couldnt figure it out, so I opted to use the free internet they had....
