Matera and Alberobello: Day Five

Today France was playing against Belgium for the World Cup and they won!  Needless to say, I am missing Paris very much.  I’m beginning to think it’s my happy place. 

Back to recapping my big trip in Italy.  The following day we decided to drive off to Matera to spend a day there sight-seeing.  I’ve been there before a few years back, but the rest of the guests haven’t.  It was amazing to visit and see things through their eyes.  It makes you aware of what you could have missed the first time around.  The groom was the perfect tour guide for this getaway.  He gave us an insight on what life was like for this town since it was considered to be a very poor area.  We went into their museum and learned more about the history.  Unfortunately I had the worst migraine that day.  It woke me up around 5am and it never truly went away, despite me taking aspirin throughout the day.  I have to say, this was not a good day for me health wise.  My migraine put me in a mood, and I often found myself walking ahead or behind the group the rest of the day.  I didn’t want to ruin their experience there, yet I couldn’t shake this headache away.  I felt I was a terrible traveler that day.  I hope no one around me was offended by my lack of social skills.

We had a light lunch at Matera.  We tried the peperoni cruschi which the groom explained was available only in this region.  It was deep fried red peppers, but once you put them in your mouth, they would completely disintegrated with all of its glorious flavor!  I loved it!

The groom felt we had time to hit another town, so we drove off to Alberobello.  Again, I’ve been there before, but the rest of the guests seemed excited to see the trulli houses.  We checked out some shops and even hit a gelato café before deciding we should settle for dinner.  Driving back on an empty stomach is no fun.  We found a trattoria and had pizza and wine (of course) to end our night.  The drive back was long after a hearty dinner, but luckily we got back home safe.

Wine Tour: Day Four

In order to get into the “vacation spirit” I’ve been looking at some ideas for my next getaway.  I get a sudden urge of wanderlust whenever I’m on The Blue line.  Seeing people board on with their luggage gets me excited for them!  I miss traveling but I’m planning on booking something in the upcoming weeks.  I need to get out of this rut.  Luckily I’ve been busy with my friends so I haven’t the time to think bad thoughts.  Summer in Chicago is honestly the best time to be here and I’m fortunate to be here.

Back to recapping my trip 2 months ago!!!  I know I’m so bad.  The day after the wedding we assumed we would be able to sleep in late after such an eventful night.  Yeah right.  Our guests next door started ringing the doorbell around 12pm.  Since the bride and groom slept at the venue for their honeymoon night, we had no idea how to open the door.  We luckily found the right key to get the inside door opened but that alone took 20 minutes to figure out.  It was then when our neighbors told us to get ready right away.  We were all heading to a wine tour back at the winery and we didn’t want to be late. 

We quickly got ready and car pooled over to the countryside.  There, other guests were waiting for us.  Someone made some pasta for us to hold us over, and then the bride and groom showed up with paninis.  It was time for the tour and we followed the groom to the wine cellars.  We also had the chance to check out the winery’s vegetable garden.  There we learned the agriculture of this region and why they produce the vegetables that they do.

After the tour, we all car pooled back to the apartment.  The bride’s aunt and uncle stayed behind to catch up on some rest.  We relaxed for a bit until more guests came over.  We decided to have some light bites along with some wine tasting to get us going.  Tonight we were going to head to the center of town to celebrate a saint’s day. 

Once the sun went down we drove up and luckily found parking right away since the whole town was celebrating.  It was a beautiful evening spent with the locals.  We even heard music from an orchestra playing the national anthem.  I loved seeing everyone’s patriotism!  

Our last pit stop was our favorite café for gelato!  What a treat!

He's turning one!!

Well, it’s official.  I’m going on another trip again.  I’ve notified all of my credit cards, changed my international package on my phone, and over the weekend, had ironed out all of my clothes and started packing.  Since I fly out in two days I plan to finish packing and try to sneak in a workout or two.  As usual, my anxiety is all over the place, but what’s not helping is all the bad news I hear.  I feel people close to me are suffering all types of misfortunes.  I’m hearing terrible stories about friends and family, and how they are treating one another.  It’s making me depressed.  The word vacation is defined as “a leave of absence from a regular occupation”, etc.  This is exactly what I’m doing with my life.  I want to leave it, and come back to hopefully better circumstances.  Is that so wrong to wish for?

I’m hoping people figure out how to fix their current situations.  I cannot help but wonder why we are hurting one another.  On top of it all, there’s friends I know that are suffering from the threat of losing loved ones to cancer.  It’s a sad time indeed.  I’m lucky to have a few hours within the day of not hearing something so terrible.

I find myself looking back on life and reflecting the good times.  I know it’s possible to extend this part, but then misery creeps out of nowhere.  I want to be alone from all of this drama.  I miss my friend out there in Europe.  I miss the times we had together.  I want to keep my loved ones close by.  

Sorry to rant like this.  It’s been a tough few weeks.  There are moments when I feel incredibly sad.  It’s hard. 

Back to recapping February.  I went out on Friday to see the deejays Chus & Ceballos.  But I couldn’t stay out too late because I had to be up in the morning.  We had to head out to Glenview for a birthday party and we didn’t want to be late.  We only had a small window to celebrate at the party room at Kohl’s Children Museum.  Off we went!

I got my girlfriend’s son baby Jordans, but it was amazing seeing all the gifts he received!  This little fella had quite an entourage!  He loved being the center of attention.  We took a zillion pictures and had a blast.  All of my friends' kids looked so adorable!  I can see why everyone likes dressing up babies.  They can be very fashionable!

Day 11 Locked Out in Lecce

Me and my friend had trouble sleeping that night.  Our hotel room had no air conditioning.  Not to mention, we had a window we left slightly opened but it did not help whatsoever.  Our room was facing the hotel patio and we were too worried someone might sneak in.  We kept spraying rose water all over our face.  We somehow managed to knock out in the end.  That was short lived considering our all-you-can-eat-breakfast-buffet was over by 10am.  We quickly made our way to the patio where we joined other residents of the hotel.  I was pretty much out of it at the table.  I knew we had to checkout at 11am, but first let me wake up.  lol.  I didn't take advantage of the pastries because I was focusing on trying to stay awake.  I knew in the back of my mind we had to pack our things.



Shabby chic!

Had our breakfast outside but the food was setup in here.

Sure enough, like clock work, the housekeeper made her way to our room.  We excused ourselves and continued packing away.  It felt so silly to be rushed like that, but she reminded us that she had to get the room ready for other guests coming in that afternoon.  Afterwards, we walked over to talk to the concierge about the parking situation, but no one was there.  Now what?  We figured we'll take our luggage to the car and write down the plate number from our rental.  When we got back to the hotel, the door was locked, of course.  We didn't know what was going on, so we called up the number listed off Booking.com and someone answered.  My friend explained that the concierge was going to help us in case we got a ticket from where we had parked last night, and then someone buzzed us in.

Despite no air conditioning, I still enjoyed our stay at Pazlazzo Zacheo...

Another lady was walking down to talk to us.  She took the information and said she would let the concierge know once she gets back.  We asked if there was a nearby beach we could go to with sand.  My feet were done from walking on rocks.  lol.  Luckily she gave us directions to one that was 20 minutes away and off we went.  Gallipoli was still pretty quiet around 12pm and we figured we'll check out the beach area.  We knew we had a lot to discover in this town!
We found the beach with no problem.  There was a field lot off the side of the road where a bunch of cars were parking.  We knew we were close by.  We changed in the car into our bikinis and cover ups and started to walk into the field.  We found a wooded area but could hear the sound of the sea up ahead.  Sure enough, the beach was hidden, but we also discovered we were the only women here.  I was surprised we walked in on a gay beach, especially in Italy.  We found a good spot to lay on and got comfortable.  I quickly knocked out since I didn't have much sleep.  It was very relaxing.
At one point my friend was getting too hot and wanted to go out into the water.  I woke up and followed her out there, but since she had her special scuba shoes, I stayed behind.  The rocks in the water were too slippery for me.  I noticed that the men were pretty reserved with another.  They kept their distance a bit when they were among friends.  Me and my friend stayed on the beach for hours, and it wasn't until later on that they got comfortable with one another. 

Turquoise waters at Gallipoli!

Trying to even out my tan!

I started to get thirsty.  We noticed a beach bar up ahead and decided to check it out.  I wasn't sure if it was a private beach bar since there weren't many people there, but they seated us once we walked in.  G Beach Bar had gold trimmings and plenty of lounge seating as well as a dj booth and sound system.  I could tell they throw parties out there, but since it was still pretty early, we enjoyed our spumante and people watched.  Little by little more people started to show up.  I was amazed how quickly it got packed.  I didn't want to leave our spot since now the crowd was getting bigger and better.  We hung out some more until we decided to head back to the beach.  We wanted to work on our tans.

G Beach Bar

CHEERS!

It was now later in the afternoon and we laid out a bit longer.  We started to get hungry.  We didn't know what to do next.  Our options were to either stay in Gallipoli one more day or drive out to Lecce which was back towards home.  Leave it to us Chicagoans to get FOMO out in Italy!  lol.  We drove out to Lecce instead.
The drive was an hour long.  We were getting our second wind again.  Lecce is another touristic town with retail and boutiques, and we were in the mood to shop!  We had trouble finding parking  because of the traffic again.  Once we drove into a lot, we weren't sure if it was ok for us to park or not.  It didn't matter because the inevitable happened.  My friend broke the key off the rental car.  UGH!!!  To make matters worse, it wasn't the key to the car.  Due to the high theft rate in the southern part of Italy, some manufactures install a steering wheel lock to further prevent cars being stolen.  My friend broke off the key to the steering wheel, but luckily she managed to pull it out of the lock.  We grew worried because we still were uncertain if we could leave the car in that lot.  We noticed people parked nearby and would walk up to the machine to pay for parking, but it looks like it was out of order.  They would end up driving off.  We didn't know what to do. 
It was now Friday night, early evening.  We noticed a couple of policemen nearby and ran up to them for advice.  I could see that the cop knew we were in a big jam.  He called up a locksmith and talked to someone about what had happened.  Once he got off the phone he told my friend that the locksmith said they wouldn't be able to help but told us the directions to his shop in case we wanted to stop over there ourselves.  We knew we had to do something, so we ran to find the locksmith.  Along the way we found a hardware store, and stopped to ask if they could help, but no such luck.  It was getting frustrating for us.  To make matters worse, my friend's phone was low on battery life.
We eventually found the locksmith's shop but he told us there was nothing he could do.  He told us that he had told the cops that we were out of luck.  I asked him who would have such a key and he said either the manufacturer of the car or the car shop would have the spare.  My friend was hoping we wouldn't have to use them as a last resort since technically we were still 3 hours away from home.  She had no choice but to call them up herself.
I could hear her frustration talking to the car shop owner on the phone.  They didn't quite understand what had happened.  I was amazed this was the first time anyone ever heard of this problem, much yet a car shop.  She even took pictures off her phone and sent them to the owner so he could "see" what she was talking about.  Apparently they were under the impression she must have did something in order for the key to break off like that.  She explained over and over again that all she did was turn the key.  I couldn't help but question why they were giving her such a hard time.  Eventually, he explained that he does, indeed have a spare to the lock in the sterling wheel.  It was a nerve wrecking.  Now the question is, how can we get the key if we're 3 hours away?
Unfortunately, her boyfriend was with his father at the dentist.  He wasn't sure if he would be able to pick up the spare before they close the shop.  Me and my friend were stuck at the moment.  We were put on hold until we figured out what we could do. 
We went to a café where my friend could charge up her phone.  It was now past 6pm and we were stuck, literally.  We were still nervous about the fact that the car was at a lot where the meter box was broken.  All we needed was a ticket on top of all of this.  My friend looked at train schedules in case her boyfriend had to jump on one in a moment's notice.  There was one at 7:50pm that would be perfect.  We waited until she called up her boyfriend to see if he got to the car shop on time to grab the key.  He couldn't talk at the moment, but she quickly told him the train schedules.  He was using his assistant's car to drive his dad to and from the dentist.
We tried contacting him once more and this time he said he couldn't talk because he was jumping on the train.  We couldn't help but ask if he got the spare key (hey you never know), but low and behold, he had it!  That brought a sign of relief.  We decided we now know we have 2 hours to kill, so let's go eat!

Lecce at night...

We walked around Lecce's main plaza.  It was now 8pm and we were window shopping and trying to figure out which restaurant we should try out.  My friend has a theory that if a restaurant looks packed, they must have good food.  Since there were so many restaurants to choose from, we knew we wanted to sit at one that was busy.  The problem was, no one was budging from their seat.  It was now Friday night and people were enjoying their evening.  Me and my friend settled next to a restaurant that had available seating right away.  We were hungry and never really ate anything else besides breakfast.  My friend was on the look out for the restaurant next to us since it was packed.  I ordered a risotto with potatoes and it was delish.  She ordered a salad and wasn't too pleased with it.  You see?  She proved her theory once again..
 

We finished up our meal and then walked over to the packed restaurant.  We figured we'll have some wine and wait for her boyfriend to arrive.  A group of good looking men sat nearby and were speaking Italian.  My friend of course, understood everything they were saying, and at one point, one of the men were egging on another friend to introduce himself to me.  Of course, her boyfriend called at that very moment to let us know he would be arriving in 10 minutes.  We quickly got the bill and ran out of there.  I felt bad not being able to give this guy a chance, but her boyfriend rode a 2 hour train ride to help us out.  It is what it is.  I figured it would be better to leave in a hurry before the guy had the nerves to come up to me.  At least we shared a glance!  

Feeling magical in Lecce!  Too bad we were going through an ordeal but we tried to have fun despite what was going on.

We got a little lost finding the train station in Lecce, plus the area wasn't so great so we were very nervous.  Luckily we found it in time before her boyfriend arrived.  We quickly ran up to him like he was some sort of a super hero!  The past few hours were frustrating and we just wanted to go home.  We made our way back to the car, but now it was 11pm.  More people were out, especially teenagers.  It took us a while to find the car because we were going in circles for a bit.  Now the time has come for us to try the spare key!  We were nervous at the moment because we didn't know what to expect.  Her boyfriend was behind the wheel and noticed right away how difficult it was to put in the key.  Luckily he unlocked the steering wheel but when he tried the car key we were screwed once again.  The battery was dead.  It was awkward because he knew right away that my friend had tried charging her phone in the car.  We insisted that she barely charged her phone for 30 minutes while we were waiting on him.  What else was she suppose to do?
He jumped out of the car and went up to people who were getting into their cars at the parking lot.  He asked if anyone could help him jump his car.  One of the men suggested pushing the car to get the engine going.  Me and my friend along with 2 other men started to push the car as hard as we could so it would start moving fast.  Luckily the car turned on and me and my friend jumped in like stuntmen!  We did it!!  NOW let's go home once and for all!
       

Day 10 Gallipoli

We messed up.  Because we had a long day we ended up oversleeping.  That was definitely not the plan.  I packed up my suitcase because we were not sure how long we would be out on the road.  I had a train ticket to leave Foggia on Saturday for Rome, but we weren't sure if we were going to head up north.  If we were, she was going to drop me off in Rome herself.  I was excited for our road trip.  I didn't know what to expect.  We quickly had our coffee and made our way to the auto shop.  We crossed our fingers when we walked in.  The problem with not being able to get a car to rent was the fact that most Europeans were still on vacation.  They were not returning them in time, and kept holding on to their vehicles.  Low and behold they had a car for us, but they still had to run a maintenance check on it.  We were told to come back after 3pm and we should be all set to go.
What did we do in the meantime?  We went for gelato of course!  I was craving it real bad.  We went to our usual parlor in town and treated ourselves to our delight.  I ordered a double scooped fig gelato!  It was delish!!

THE BEST!

So many flavors!

When we  went back again to the auto shop, we  FINALLY got our car!  By now it was close to 4pm.  My friend decided to go south again.  We felt it was late in the day and figured we would enjoy more of the night life in the south.  After a 4 hour drive we made it.  Of course, we were pulling into Gallipoli when everyone was getting off from work.  The traffic was coming from everywhere.  It took us about an hour to find parking.  Back at the auto shop we made reservations at a hotel.  Looking for that took us another 40 minutes.  We were frustrated, hungry, hot because of the humidity, and nervous lugging our suitcases around in such a massive crowd.  There were so many people around us!  We had trouble trying to get through.  We were going in circles.  Eventually, we asked someone who gave us the right directions and sure enough, walked right into it!  We were so relieved.  The bad news was we might have parked in an area that might give us a ticket.  The concierge told us to make sure we give her the plate number of the rental.  She was going to find a way to take care of it for us if we did get one.
We made our way to our room.  It was beautiful!  We had the patio to ourselves.  I was curious to see who else was staying with us at our hotel.  The bad news was our room had no air conditioner.  We both took turns taking a shower to cool off.  I got my second wind and was feeling pretty excited to checkout Gallipoli at night.



Changed into a tunic dress with my converse.  I wanted to be comfortable, and since we were in a new town, wore my fanny pack as well.

We were starving at this time.  We walked down to the fish market.  There was so much going on.  It was overwhelming.  A lot of people knew right away that we were tourists and were trying to get us to come to their restaurant.  We settled on a place and my friend went over to see what they had.  She was in charge of the menu, so I trusted her selection. 

We finally got our meal and we devoured it.  As usual, we ordered la fruta di mare (fruits of the sea).  I do enjoy fresh seafood, and the scampi were huge!  We were very satisfied with our meal.  Afterwards, we went for a stroll around il centro.  By now a lot of the shops were closing up.  We heard music up ahead and found a dj playing house music outside of a restaurant.  Everyone was sitting outside at the patio listening.  Again, I was surprised no one was dancing because he was very good.  I still feel Italians are pretty reserved, but at least a group of little kids were dancing for him.  It was too cute!

So many restaurants to choose from!  I was surprised how many people were out on a Thursday night...

We ordered a glass of spumante and then afterwards walked around some more.  We were tired after a long day of driving.  We figured we'll get up in the morning for check out and then experience Gallipoli in the daytime.  After that who knows?  Anything was possible!

Day 4 Kalamata

Since we stayed up late the night before we finally got up around 11am.  We figured today we would spend the day at the beach, but first, coffee!  We got dressed and headed to the centro.  It was relatively quiet in town.  It was nice being able to see the hustle and bustle of fellow citizens.  For most Europeans, they were still on vacation.  We went to visit a friend who ran a coffee shop and I had my first Greek pie for breakfast.  Filled with cheese, the pocket was made of a croissant flaky bread.  You had your choice of ham, chicken or spinach.  Those things are filling!  We went to take a walk around the "old center" of Kalamata and I browsed through a couple of boutiques.  I must say, I was very impressed with the retail I encountered there.  Me and my friend discussed the differences between Italian and Greek style, but for the most part, Europeans DO have a "style" when it comes to dressing.  Since Kalamata is next to the sea, the look around town is more relaxed beach wear.  We chatted at a pub nearby while we people watched.  A couple of gypsies were working the corner and were harassing people taking money out of the ATM machine, as well as stopping patrons outside the cafe.  It's hard to watch especially when they involve children, but Simon assured me it's a bigger problem for them to solve.  Sometimes panhandling leads to petty theft, and eventually it grows to serious theft as well as the selling of weapons.  Yikes!



Hot Greek pies ready for breakfast!  I saw these everywhere at cafes.

People enjoying their morning coffee at the café.

Strolling around at il centro...

Retail therapy

We visited an old church at il centro.

One of the surprising things I found in Greece is seeing a variety of ethnic restaurants.  Here a Greek who use to live in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood opened a Mexican restaurant in Kalamata.

A shot of masticha at a bar.

We headed back and grabbed our swimwear.  The beach was waiting for us!  We settled at a beach club and were escorted to our umbrellas.  I wasn't aware the Brazilian bikini was a huge favorite among Greeks.  I people watched for the most part during my time there.  When I finally had the nerve to dip in the water, the waves were consuming me.  I do not know how to swim very well, but the water felt great.



Time for some sun at Secada beach bar.

Since we spent most of the day there, we opted to checkout the sunset.  I took my time getting ready since I knew we were going to have dinner and stay out the rest of the evening.  Once I showered up we headed back to the old part of Kalamata and I had my first souveki.  It was delicious!!



Had my first souveki at this gem...

More fries!

Now to head back to Kastraki for the sunset.  Unfortunately it was not opened yet so we decided to take a quick drive back down to a nearby beach.  That's when we heard some dance music.  We stopped in a beach bar to checkout the action.  The sun was beginning to set but we had some clouds that ruined our view!  Oh well!

Panoramic view up at Kastraki...



Checking out another beach bar during the sunset.  The music was awesome!

We drove back to town but first we went to the bus station to checkout the schedule.  I was planning on leaving the following day.  We headed to his place to check on his mother who lived upstairs.  She was a handful!  Right away she handed me an ice cream candy bar and started pouring me a glass of orange juice!  Apparently she thought I was too thin.  She was a riot!

We met up with his sister who just came home from work and discussed the bus schedule along with the schedule for the ferry heading out to Santorini.  Looks like I will be catching the 8am bus.  

It's Friday night and we had the itch to go out.  Since his sister worked all week she wanted to unwind as well.  We headed back to the centro for a glass of wine.  We talked about everything which I loved.  It was a change of pace for me.  

The next day we got up early and Simon drove me to the bus station.  I am happy that my friend is doing well back at his hometown.  He's a good man who loves his city and is now getting involved within the community to help improve the conditions in Kalamata.  I am confident he will be fine.