Aeolian Islands - Lipari

Stromboli
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We caught the overnight train and then had to hang out in another station until the 1st bus came (7am) then find out how to catch a ferry to the Aeolian islands. We got there eventually.

We were staying on the island of Lipari and the first thing we noticed was the layed back feel of the place (especially compared to Naples). At times this was not always a good thing. The whole place shuts down from 1 till 4:30pm. We couldnt find any info when we arrived so we slept - probably something we needed to do. The other thing about these islands was the lack of english. No one spoke it so it put our charade skills to the test.

Meagan on top of the volcano at Volcano
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The Aeolian islands are made up of 7 different volcanic islands. The main draw card for us here was the island of Stromboli which is a continuosly active volcano with regular eruptions and a trail of lava called the trail of fire. The only way we could see it without getting stuck on the island was to go with a tour. Unfortunatly the weather was not good enough for us to visit so we increased our stay here for an extra night to see it.

We filled in our days by visiting the other islands. The first was one called Volcano. It has the other active volcano in the region and this one you are able to hike up without a tour guide. We made our way up to the top (Meagan with her non-hiking shoes) and were rewarded with a vile smell of sulphur spewing out of vent on the crust of the volcano. It was really spectacular. We saw a couple walking through the smoke and we asked them what it was like. This gave us the courage to try it and instantly we regretted it. It burned. It smelt. It was not fun. After this we headed to the thermal baths and hot mud which the island offered guests to relax in. When we arrived we opened our nostrils and decided not to go in.

A semi trailer that they drive on the islands
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The next day we got onto our tour out to Stromboli. We had a really rough, but fun, boat ride out to the islands. We stopped at another island called Panarea which was nice (very similar to Capri) and then went out to Stromboli - we were very excited. The couple who we met on top of the volcano were on our boat as well and the poor woman was so sea sick they needed about 30 plastic bags for her.

Once on Stromboli we were determined to hike up to the trail of fire (the distance you can go without a tour guide) despite the tour leaders telling us that we wouldnt have time. We didnt make it surprisingly but we had a really nice hike on the side of a really impressive volcano. We jumped onto the boat to go out to sea to watch the volcano erupt at night. We were greeted by some playful dolphins and got some nice views of the volcano but no fire. All of a sudden the tour operators asked us all downstairs and then we headed back to Lipari. We were devistated! We felt so empty and let down. We had a great day but this was supposed to be the icing on the cake and we had to eat dry cake - No one likes dry cake.

Stromboli from the boat
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Our last day was spent relaxing on the beautifly rocky beach getting a little burnt and killing time for our increadibly long journey to Greece.