Day 049: My very first guiding job.. viva Etna

Bonaserra tuti,

...oggi ho fato mio primo excurzione como guida da vero,
io solo con autista del pullman i il cliente Jetair.... la storia qui sota:

Today i did my first real guiding job, with Jetair clients to Etna.
Normaly monday is my day off, but because the're no dutch + french speaking guides available today, and Evy and i booked 36 people to the Etna excursion, a solution had to be found quickly.
So i was to be the guide on the bus, for the whole day.

Sunday evening i studied all info i could get on this excursion, thanks to Margriet and Noemi, that was more than enough to "be speaking" all day. Things about vulcanology, historie of eruptions and demolished cities, fauna and flora, myths and legends, local crafts and agriculture,...
I really loved it. I guess this is something i want to do again. To contact to the customer is much closer, i have time for a chat, i can answer questions cause offcourse during the journey you stop and meet other guides from other buses who have much more knowlegde. Also the busdriver, who only speaks italian, is a true source of info. I really had a nice guy today, Franco, and we collaborated very well.

On the Etna more than half of the clients were conviced to go up with the cable car and the jeeps to 3000m, all had a great time and that really made me happy, to get all these "thanks" and "we're really happy that you conviced us to go up". The atmosphere on the bus was really like a true holiday-vibe when we got to the second part of the trip: the Alcantara Canyon. Although we lost some time on Etna cause a truck with some of our clients on board got stuck in vulcanic ashes somewhere between 2500m and 3000m, people didn't mind that we could only spent few time in the Canyon. They did understand, so i got the Franco to ask if they could take a regular public bus to do the trip again, and he kindly explained which line to take. Real team work!

That makes me think of another funny moment: At a certain point between Etna and Alcantara, i got to tel the myth of the founding of 7 villages who all start with the same name: Aci. I spoke about the myth of the young fisherman Axi, a descandent of the first Greek colonists, who fell in love with a nimpf who also had a demon as an admirer. The demon offcourse was ugly looking and made no chance to gorgeous Axi, so he used his power to turn the nimpf into a sea - the Ionian Sea. Axi was so dissapointed that he turned to the gods and convinced them to turn him into a river, so they could be together. Very romantic story, don't you think.

The real history about the 7 villages is a major destruction of the original city of Aci, somewhere during the greek-roman occupation, by a hughe earthquake followed by lave fluds who destroyed the original city. The families who had lived their, maybe didn't get allong that well, cause they decided to go live further away form eachother and founded their own new village. I had to sum all thes 7 villages and got no further than 2, so i looked at Franco, who said some more, but because it's really hard to reproduce names you never heard before, i put the mic unther his mouth so he could speak directly to the bus. People really loved it and some of them clapped their hands. You should of seen his face, he was glowing of proudness. Teamwork, it works!

Etna alive and kicking!

Ciao again,

Not worth mencioning in Sicilie, but apparently the news got al the way to Belgium:

Yes, dear reader, my neighbour Etna, the vulcano has roared one more time.

Last night at 2.00am a stream of lave came - very silently cause i didn't hear - down the east flank and has melt down a significant amount of snow. But, no earthquake nor before or during the eruption, no ashrain, no sulfersmell. If the tourguide of todays excursion hadn't mentioned it, i wouldn't have noticed at all. The eruption last untill 10am and didn't cause any casualties, unless a growing interest in the "visit Etna by jeep" up to 3000m excursion, so thank you Etna!

Day 002, Visit Etna

Buonasera a tuti,

Com'estai? Va béné?

On monday i joined the excursion to Vulcano Etna. What can i say? it's really worth the trip!

While climbing up the road with the bus, we made a stop halfway to walk over the remaining lava from the 1992 eruption. some honeysalespeople pushed - letterlijk - some spoons of local made honey in our mouths. lovely fresh, lemen, orange, hazelnut, pistache,... you name it and there exists a honey kind. Being a capo de grupo - tourleader aka host - a got my free sample. Jammie!! We went on further - ontelbaar veel haarspeldbochten - and some kid almost got sick - kotske leggen dus- on Evy, my chief hostess. luckely, the busdriver delivered a plastic back as recepient in time. Thanks Allesandro. Finaly we arrived at the parkinglot.

Beautifull view up there. At 1900m, where the ski station is based, we where lucky to be in the sun but the valley was al cloudy at the time, about noon i guess. With one off the guests, we desided to take the cablelift up with the skiers, for a more spectacular viez at 2500m. it was breathtaking - letterlijk en figuurlijk - a stunning view over and under the clouds. not that cold - maybe 5° - and no wind. i felt like on top of the world!

Afterwords, back at 1900m, i build a snowman with some kidguests and offcourse we had a snowfight. One of the guests made many pics and even a film. i hope to youtube it later!

Later on we took the bus back to the Alcantara Gorge - canyon is mss wat veel gezegd - and enjoyed the stunning lava walls and massive water flow in the Alcantara river. Had some real italian home made icecream with hazelnut flavor. Pics will come later, hold on there!

Day 001, getting around Taormina

Buongiorno a tuti,
After a quiet night sleep - diagonaal welliswaar, gelukkig in dubbel bed - i got up in the morning to meet with Evy, my lovely chief hostess, to drive from hotel to hotel to do the welcome meetings with the freshly arrived guests. Al zeg ik het zelf: we make a great team. We did make it to almost al rendez-vous hours in time, had nice chats with all the guests and sold excursions pretty well for a first day. Our number 1 excursion is "Visit Etna", we've got 11 out of about 25 guests to join us to visit vulcano Etna (3323m) and the Alcantara Canyon. I promised 2 families with kids that we are going to build a snowman on top of the Vulcano. that really works as a sales trick, but i'll have to really do it too. I hope they'll help me out. that reminds me, i have to buy a big carrot the fix his nose! i'll get a picture, don't worry.
So tomorrow, it's Vulcano day! really looking forward to it.
Things are going great so far, the hotel where i'm staying for now is ok. i'll definetly get a motorbike (50cc) to get around in Taormina ( = my zone), cause traffic allready is dence and finding a parkingspot is impossible in these narrow streets.
Didn't had time to find an appartment so far, but what the hell, i'm fine in Hotel Ariston ****.
And my german and italian collegues have been advised to look out for any available places. so i'm not alone searching. Tomorrow i won't have time to buy a simcard with italian phone number, but maybe the day after.

Laat maar iets van jullie horen
Buonanotte, a domani


Some pics from BRU APT: here and here

first impression upon arrival

hey people,
finaly i'm here. after a smooth but 1 hour delayed flight, i arrived in Catania Airport. after an other delay of about an hour - some passengers went missing - the bus could finaly take us to the hotels. for tonight and until i find a flat of my own, i'm staying in hotel Ariston **** in Taormina, a little village glued to the seaside. vulcano Etna is always in sight. apparently the day before yesterday, there was a minor eruption. cars, streets and balconies were covered in very fine black ashes. Fijn stof voor de vrienden. Nobody really cares over here. happens all the time. i'll keep that in mind before a hang my undies outside to drie.
As proof that the world is a small place: in my hotel are people from my home town Waregem, who live in Groene Wandeling, about 200m from my moms house, believe it or not. nice people! but the cool thing is that they took their grandma. she's a laugh! 80 years old but full of childish humor! naughty granny.. i'll tell you all about it tomorow.
for now: buonanotte!