I am here in Palermo, Sicily with Monique. We got here Wednesday alone but Kaitlin, Hannah & Jessica are coming to meet us Thursday night. I have been to Sicily before but I went to Taormina which is on the other side of Sicily. I loved it there and had a great time. So far Palermo hasn't been what I expected. There aren't any beaches here, only the marina which is filled with boats. Our bed and breakfast is nice though. It's very clean and located close to the marina. Monique and I are the only ones staying there for far. A little weird but nice since we have the whole place to ourselves. The guy who checked us in is an idiot and didn't help us at all, didn't even have a map for us!
We got in around 7pm, changed into cuter clothes then went exploring.
We really wanted to find a restaurant by the water that had some good seafood but nothing stuck out. There was this one place that had outdoor seating and twinkle lights on. Inside we got a bottle of Sicilian white wine and a plate of fried calamari. The calamari was fresh..fishy fresh. That was all we ordered there because we were determined to find a better place.
Well our plan didn't work out..when we started heading to the main square we realized nothing was opened. There wasn't even restaurants around. Until we stumbled upon this strip of kebab places. There had to have been 12-15 different places that all had the same kebab food. A lot of people were at these places so we ate at one of the kebab restaurants that looked most appetizing. A soccer game was going on so every restaurant had a big screen tv playing it. We each got a big beer and inhaled our kebabs.
We had planned that on Thursday we were going to go to the little town of Porticello to visit where Monique's family comes from. After dinner we just headed back to the hostel and went to bed.
Thursday, we were up at 8:55am because the idiot guy was coming to get our money at 9. After that ordeal, we got ready and walked towards the train station to figure out how to get to Porticello. We didn't do as much research as we should have done before we left...
We found the information desk at 10:30..then walked around the piazza 4 or 5 times trying to find where to 1. Buy the tickets 2. Where to stand 3. Time schedule but then we met this really nice lady who was headed in the same direction as us and helped us figure out what we needed to do. We first bought tickets to catch a bus (grant it, Porticello is only 9miles away from Palermo. It's suppose to be a quick trip) well then we were waiting for the bus maybe 35min until the lady said we should just take the train instead. So we returned the bus tickets and bought train tickets. Now we are on the train, it's 11:45 and finally heading to Porticello. We got a late start but I hope it's all worth it!
Porticello reminds me of the little town my dad comes from, Verbicaro. Everyone knows each other, the boys ride around on their vespas, clothes hanging from the balconies and everyone knows Monique and I are not from there. The boys are loving us though. Honking their horns and hollering out, it's some form of flattery. One guy actually got out of his car and asked to take a picture with us! He was pretty hot too.
As we were walking around taking pictures and soaking up the Porticello scenery we stumbled upon this really cute restaurant. The owners were amazingly nice! The owner (who looked like Santa) took away our menu and told us he would prepare us a good lunch. First he brought out two appetizers, 1 with sword fish and another was octopus. Both I was hesitant with but ended up being excellent. Then he brought out two more; 1 were these shrimp & rice fried balls and the other were these meat balls in red sauce but instead of meat it was fish. All were delicious and I probably wouldn't have tried any unless he hadn't brought them out to us. Then for our main dish, we got spaghetti with fish. The fish was this little red fish (he showed us since I didn't know the Italian word). We were both really fished out. The owners were so nice we took pictures with them and they told us to email them the photo!
After our great lunch, we went down towards the water to take pictures. It was so gorgeous out! It wasn't raining and just perfect temperature. Monique and I explored down by the rocks and took a ton of pictures! All of the stores were closed and when I say "all" I really mean the 4 stores that are in Porticello. So we got a bottle of white wine and went to sit on an bench near the water. In Torino stores are usually closed 12:30-3:30 but in Porticello, they were closed until 4:30. The city was a real ghost town until 4:15 when everyone ended up coming outside. Got crowded within 15 minutes!
After Monique got a cute souvenir for her dad, we caught the train back to Palermo. Where we ran into Jessica who had just gotten off the train from the airport. One our way to the hostel, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some snacks and breakfast items. We waited at the hostel until Kaitlin & Hannah showed up. They unpacked and got comfortable then we went to dinner. We didn't venture out too far, just a cute restaurant by our hostel. I was still pretty full from lunch so I got the muscle soup which was really just a bunch of muscles in this delicious red sauce. Monique got the same, Kaitlin got some swordfish then clams with spaghetti which Hannah & Jessica got as well. Over all it was a decent dinner. I'm loving all of this fish, which is weird because I never eat fish at home! I guess if I am going to eat it somewhere, might as well be in Sicily!
The girls were tired from traveling all day so we came back to the hostel and watched a movie. Tomorrow we are going to go downtown Palermo to do some shopping then ask how to get to the real beach and maybe even rent some vespas!!
Friday, in the morning, was horrible! It was raining cats & dogs. When we first left the hostel it wasn't raining and we thought it wasn't going to all day. But we were wrong! There was a huge open air market that we all wanted to go check out. As we were walking there it started to sprinkle. Hannah, Jessica & Kaitlin had to buy umbrellas since they didn't think it was going to rain. Once we got to the market, it really started to pour. I was wearing my Tom's and they now are ruined. Still soaking wet.
To get out of the rain, we stopped at a restaurant to get lunch. Then we asked the waiter where to get a good cannoli. He directed us to this cafe down the street. We were in heaven! There was so many sweets to choose from. I ended up getting a mini cannoli & a cream puff that had cannoli filling inside. Both were really delicious. After we picked out our sweets, we headed back to the apartment to change our clothes and relax a little. The rain was too much to go back out in.
After a few hours, it finally stopped raining so Hannah, Jessica and I went out towards the main downtown square to go shopping. There was a lot of people out shopping. They must of had the same idea since there wasn't a lot of people out earlier. I found this cute ceramic bowl that says Sicilia on it which I want to use for my rings.
We headed back to the hostel to meet up with Kaitlin & Monique. We got changed for dinner and went to another cute restaurant near the hostel. I ended up getting the muscle soup again, Hannah & Jessica got pasta with clams, Monique got pasta with scampi and Kaitlin ordered these balls of swordfish with shrimp. Everyone was satisfied with what they ordered. We asked the waiter where to go for a few drinks, which just happened to be down the street from us. We bar hopped a little and met some girls who are studying in Florence. It ended up being a good night :)
Saturday, well since we had such a good night, we didn't wake up until 12:30. We had planned to go to Mondello, the beach area right next to Palermo. Because of our slow start, we didn't make it to the beach until 3pm. We went to the grocery store and bought stuff for lunch. It was a struggle to find the bus which took us to Mondello, but after asking people on the street every 3min we found our way!
I'm laying on the beach now as I write this. It's a perfect day and a lot of Italians are out here. The water is so clear but freezing. I instantly got cold when the water touched my toes. I don't know if I'm getting tan because there is a strong breeze but still so nice here. I love being here at the beach. We already said we're coming back here tomorrow but going to get here a lot earlier.
We went to dinner at a restaurant near by our hostel. Kaitlin and I shared muscle soup (again, my 3rd time getting it) and I got this delicious spaghetti clam, shrimp and lobster pasta. It was so good that I stuffed myself sick. I am all fished out now!
Sunday, we got up and headed to the beach but we still didn't make it there until 1pm. Instead of heading straight to the beach, we went to get lunch. Since I had so much fish, I got a sausage and mushroom pizza. It was a nice change of pace. After we ate, we finally went to lay out. Except while we were eating lunch, it was sunny and gorgeous out. Then we get to the beach, and the sun disappears! It was freezing. So we sadly only got to lay out for 35min until we were icicles and left. Hopped on the bus and headed back to Palermo.
It was only 5pm so we got a few bottles of champagne and hopped on a random bus to "tour" the city. We got on a bus that this old man was already on. He was trying to talk to us but his Italian was hard to understand and then he just started crying! We got pretty creeped out so we move up to the front of the bus to get away from him. Once we got back to where we got on the bus, we got off and walked back to the hostel.
I took a quick 25min power nap then we went down by the marina to watch the sunset...we pretty much missed the whole thing. We went to dinner where Hannah & I shared these ricotta cheese balls and I got a lamb chop. Monique & Kaitlin got muscle soup again, Monique got ravioli with salmon and Kaitlin got a fish. We didn't do anything at night since we were waking up at 6am to head to the airport.
Being here in Sicily, Wednesday to Monday has been a long trip but a good one. Tried lots of food that I probably wouldn't have and got to see some pretty things. I liked being in one city for a long weekend because I actually got to know the city. Knew where to go and how to get around which was a nice change of pace. Overall, good trip!
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