Danny and Madrid

I had a direct flight to Madrid from Catania. It was a quick flight and when I landed Danny was waiting for me!

It had been probably 5 years since I had last seen him. We were both drinking on my last night in Kansas before I went to Antarctica. When I came back he was gone to Spain.

It was in the evening so we got dinner with his husband and sister in law then went to bed

In the morning Danny tells me ok your on your own today. when you leave the house to the right is where the hookers hang out and the left is the tourist stuff.... Thank Danny Thanks!

So at first I went left to see the tourist stuff

I spent the day walking around and eating their version of Mexican food!

I saw a lot but really saw nothing I feel. I had come mostly to catch up with my friend so the site seeing was a plus

I went back to Danny's place and he came home. I was a bit early though so I decided to go right and see what the hookers looked like in Madrid. Ohh I was disapointed. I see normal girls better than that in Moscow!

He had this pork leg he would gnaw on

That evening we walked around

The next day Danny was free so we hung out and caught up on old times

We had a couple beers on a roof top terrace

We killed the day out and about

We went out to some clubs with his friends that evening.

The next day I was on a flight rather early in the morning so I headed off.

All in all the vacation was exactly what I wanted to catch up with friends!

Sicily on Scooter!

For my entire stay in Moscow I have had a friend in Sicily with the US Navy and another friend living in Madrid, Spain. I had been saying for 3 years I would come visit yet I never managed to do it. Well finally the time has come!!!

I landed in Sicily after an uneventful flight and the scooter was waiting for me. Trevor meet me also and I followed him back to his apartment.

He had to work the next day so I was on my own

I took off cruising around. Here you can see Mt. Etna in the background

I must admit it was a rather beautiful country scenery wise

I came through a town called Monteresso Alto. It was cool so I hung out in the square a bit

Looking back at the town as I exited

I was headed back to Trevors place on some back roads and came across some caves.

Of course I had to explore them!

That evening we went into Catania to look around

Italians love their cemetaries

It was a quiet night then the next day we went back to Catania for a bit

Roman Ruins

This was one of the Allied cemeteries near Catania

The next day we went to the valley of Temples

It was crazy to see all this old stuff. Just to imagine how it was built

Trevor and I 

I was on my own on the third again so I headed out

A little town near Agira

I had been reading a book about the Canadians who fought in WWII in the area. So I decided to visit their cemetery

It was a beautiful day so I sat down to read some more. It was such a strange feeling to be reading about these guys and to look up and see ohh this guy is buried here.

This is the view from Agira

On my way back to Trevors place I stopped by the German War Cemetery

I made it back to Trevors intact.

This is his joint

We had some stunt riding sessions

The next day I headed out for Madrid. Trevor and his friend went to the airport with me and we got a Swarma then I checked in! All in all it was a good time had be all!

Hand Written Boarding Pass

It was time to leave Bishkek and head back to Moscow.

We made it tot he airport no problem with our electronic tickets. The small airport was jammed full of people. We made our way to the front and were told to get in another line. So we did by the time we got to the front of that line we were told our airplane tickets were no good.

We asked to see a manager. Once the manager appeared there was a heated debate about what happened and what was going on. Finally they decided to let us board the plane. They printed a boarding pass for Okcana and then hand wrote a boarding pass and gave to me...

Of course she had no issues getting through the security and getting on board but I had all kinds of troubles with my hand written pass. Finally after a lot of struggle we were on a plane that was completely full and reeked of goats...

It was a fitting end to a great trip! :)

Snow Boarding and Dead Goats in Kyrgyzstan

After dinner when we got to the hotel that evening. I told Okcana "ok we should call some of these places to go ski to make sure its open and we can go." She went to get the list and realized she had thrown it away by accident at the restaurant!!! We asked the hotel lady if she knew of a place but no. Then we asked if there was internet, no.

I called a friend in Moscow and he got online and found a few places and sent us the phone numbers. So we found a place that was good now to figure out how to get there. 

In the morning we asked the desk lady to call a taxi for us. She said taxis wont go 20km out of town. She said to take a taxi to the edge of town and they will drop of us and there is always other cars that we can negotiate a price and they will take us. Fine but how do we get back? "ohh someone will give you a ride back" was the answer.

Well we got to the edge of town and negotiated with a man and his car. His last passengers were sheep, you could still smell them, but we made it to the mountain no problem!

It was nothing special all the buildings were old shipping containers. It had a lift and all day snowboard rental and access to the mountain was $20.00

I had no urge to snow board so I just sat down and read a book but Okcana was pretty excited!

After about 6 hours she was ready to go. So she started asking around for a ride but nobody would take us. So we decided it was about 5km, 3 miles, back to the main road and we could flag someone down there so we started walking.

While walking one car stopped and it was a nice old man and his son. they said they would give us a ride to Bishkek.

We all started talking and we saw these people on horses.

We stopped and they explained they were playing Kokpar.

Its kind of like polo with 2 teams on horse trying to get a ball across a goal line for points. The catch is the ball is a dead goat.

We watched for a while and talked and our new friends asked if we had been to this traditional village thats set up kind of like a tourist area. When we said no he decided we needed to

So we stopped to check it out and got a private tour, nobody else was there

Our tour guide

Where they would sleep with coals smoldering under them

Inside of a huge Urt

Our new friend on the right

After that we went back to Bishkek and he stopped at a restaurant that served traditional food. We all ate and enjoyed the company. We tried to pay for the food and he refused! We offered to pay for the taxi ride, NO! He said we were his guests and this is how it works.

We were very humbled, thankful and a bit embarrassed.

It was the end of a great day!