Cupcakes and Barbara Beach

My weekend began this week on a Thursday, with a "Cupcake/Alcol Party" planned by me and a couchsurfer I've been seeing a bit lately, Vale. She wanted to cook some "American sweets" so we made chocolate chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting, and chocolate chip pancakes. Besides a few burnt cookies, it all turned out well, and we invited over a few of Vale's friends, and many couchsurfers I'd met. It was an international evening, with Italians, Americans, a Swede, and a Korean, who was a friend of another couchsurfer. The Swedish girl stayed the night, as she was visiting Catania from Modica, where she lives in a B&B and teaches English to the owner's children, and coming to my party was a last minute decision.

The next day, I woke up too early (it's getting to be so hot here!) and cleaned. (Aside: maybe I should have more parties, the apartment is always cleaner afterward) The Swede and I went to get a granita (I got almond a strawberry) before she got on the bus back to Modica. She invited me to Modica, a 2 hour bus trip from Catania, which I should take her up on, as it's known for its "Baroque center."

Then, last night I went out with Vale and a friend of hers I had met the week before to another discoteca on the beach called Barbara Beach. (Before getting there, I thought it was Barabara beach.)

This discoteca is unusual in that, while it does have the mandatory "house" dance floor, it specializes in rock, and the rock dance floor is much larger, and much more crowded. The night started at 11, and we got there maybe around 11:30. There was a live band from Palermo playing, which was very good, but no one was dancing yet. Instead, we got a drink, sat in the sand, touched the water (it always seems warmer at night) and chatted. After the band, the dj came back on and started playing rock music, and everyone started to dance.

What was also unusual about this place was that just as many men, if not more, were dancing here: in my previous experience, in Catania, Bologna and Rome, much more women are on the dance floor, and the dancing men are just trying to find women. Instead, most people were just jumping around, punching fists into the air, and moving too a music. There was very little sexy-dancing, let's call it, and hilariously, most of it came from guys, which was hilarious (one was dancing on a table).

The music was like a trip into the past. There were a few recent songs, like one by the Arctic Monkeys, but the majority was 90s favorites: Nirvana, REM, Weezer, Offspring, etc., and there were even some older favorites, like the Beach Boys and the Beatles. We danced for hours and had no unwelcome advances (thank goodness) and it was a great time.

Tonight, a friend I studied at the Bologna language school arrives in Catania, I hope I can show her the best of Catania, and even get some traveling done.