After three days we left Thessaloniki for Palermo, Sicily.. An excellent decision since the weather there was absolutely stunning and warm and wonderful. We ended up going to another small beach town in the north named Cefalù [say it with me now.. Sheff-ah-loo] and to Mondello Beach which is about a 20 minute bus ride from the center of Palermo. I'll give you a lowdown on the highlights of Sicily, which also happened to be my favorite stop on the trip...
- The traffic is absolutely ridiculous. I don't think they have lines on the road, and even if they did they'd completely ignore them. Being a pedestrian.. HA. You're lucky if you get a curb to walk on, much less a crosswalk.. But it's also kind of fun. Lots of honking. And cat-calling.. meh.
- To go along with the traffic, there are people trying to sell things everywhere. They walk between stopped cars wanting to sell roses, wind socks, wash the windows with their soapy water.. you name it. You're worse off as a pedestrian, because beggars send their children up to you while you're eating to beg for money or food or sell you roses. Even on the beaches people walk up and down trying to sell kites and food and all kinds of weird stuff.
- I ate octopus. BLEHHHH.
- If you ever visit Palermo, be sure to go to the Catacombe dei Cappuccini. It's so freaking creepy to be surrounded by dead people who are mummified. Everywhere. In multiple corridors, hanging from the walls. There's even infants and children. It was awesome/terrifying. We weren't allowed to take pictures in there obviously, but here's a link to the Wikipedia page.. To see better photos than the ones on there, just go to Google Images and type in "Catacombs Capuchin Sicily" or something along those lines and you'll find pictures.. Enjoy, ya sickos. Heh heheh.
- Try to learn basic Italian if you go there, at least a few key phrases because the language barrier can be frustrating, especially when most people clearly understand English but refuse (or can't?) speak back to you in it. Here's a few to get you started: Ciao [hello/goodbye.. duh. It's my favorite standby word if you're in a jam], Grazie [means thanks.. people will always respond to this with 'Prego' which is not a crude way of saying you look pregnant, but a catch-all phrase that's like you're welcome/thanks/ready?/etc.] and my personal favorite, Acqua "Senza Gas" [means still or natural water.. aka not bubbly mineral water, ew.] Also, the word 'stop' in Italian is 'stop' ..True story.
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| View of mountains from the plane. |
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| Views of the Italian coast. |
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| The plane and some of the mountains of Sicily. |
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| First views of the Sicilian coastline from the plane |
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| Palm trees! :) |
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| Pomegranates at the Capo market. Mmm |
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Melanzana (eggplant) at the Capo market. If you're familiar with Neopets at all, I think these look like
Ummagines.. hahahaha. Er.. forget I said anything... |
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| Streetside in Palermo |
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| Laundry drying on balconies |
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| A very random, elaborate Baroque church we stumbled upon while walking through the markets. |
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| The Cathedral of Palermo |
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| More Cathedral |
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| A park filled with palm trees between the Cathedral and the Palazzo dei Normanni |
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| My own self in aforementioned park. |
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The Politeama theater. [pronounced pol-eetz-ee-ama] It's not as cool as the Teatro Massimo which our hostel
was right by, of which I didn't even get a picture of the front. Ha |
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| Palms :) |
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The Cappella Palatina, which was the chapel for the Norman kings of Sicily. The whole chapel is covered in
mosiacs, which date from 1132 to the 1160's. It's absolutely stunning to see, especially how intricate and
elaborate the designs are. |
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| Houses in the Northern part of the city. |
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| Buildings downtown. |
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| The port and docks.. and lots of boats. |
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| Plants :) |
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| I don't actually know what these are, but my best guess is they're some sort of gate to the city from the port. Haha |
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| Looking out at the sea. |
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| Chickening out about stepping on the rocks. |
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| Palm tree and it's orange dangly things. |
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| Dusk over the port in Palermo. :) |
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| Sunset over the Old City. |
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| Pizzaaaa for dinnerrrrr. !!! |
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| Gelato! Be careful when saying 'gelato' though because the waiter might think you're asking for money from him.. |
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| Train ticket to Cefalù! :) :) |
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| Cefalù! |
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| The Tyrrhenian Sea |
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| Gorgeous beach.. although I think I reached my quota of seeing bare-breasted old women for the year.. |
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| Beachhh. :) :) |
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| A tiny seashell! (and my super well-manicured nail.. haaah) |
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| What you receive when you order "mixed fish" ..lots of octopus complete with suckers and baby shrimps. |
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| TIRAMISU. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! |
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| An advertisement for someone who specializes in ceramics painted by hand, I believe. |
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| Homes and businesses in Cefalù. |
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A pretty doorway.. I could have taken pictures of every single door in Cefalù probably.. they were all so
unique and gorgeous. |
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A nice selection of magnets. Of which I did not purchase any, although I do kind of like that mosaic starfish now
that I'm looking at them.. |
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| The Cathedral in Cefalù |
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| Virgin Mary and the lil J-man. |
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| So.. these exist. And I'm obsessed. |
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| Mondello Beach! :) |
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| This was considered winter.. Yeeaahh.. Upper 70's. Really rough. |
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| Wavves |
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| Hello Mondelllooo |
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| Sea! |
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| Fun Fact: That's Melissa's towel. |
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| Swimming awkwardly and probably discovering that the water is salty. |
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| :) :) :) |
The mountains, the sea, the mass quantities of dog poop by the dumpster nearby the hostel.. *sigh* I'll miss it all. But truly, Sicily was amazing, I would absolutely go back in a heartbeat (after I brush up on my Italian skillzz.) Do be aware that if you go there and you are blonde, people will stare and honk and shout variations of "wooooo" out of their car windows at you. My two favorite Italian men encounters were A) when a group of men were arguing/in a heated discussion about something but stopped as we walked by to clap their hands and say "You are beautiful women!"/"Ayyy" and then resume their argument. Example B was when we were sitting at a restaurant when two Italian guys approached us, one who spoke English and one who did not, bought us roses, gave us their Facebook names and tried to go on a walk with us. I swung the rose around and broke it, and also made faces which prompted the English speaker to ask me "Why can't you just be normal?"
I do not know, Italian man. I do not know.
Stay tuned for my next post about Venice! Hopefully I'll get it done before I go off to Oslo, Norway this weekend.. So busy!
xx