Holy shit. I leave Italy in 3 days. That deserves an expletive.
I am freaking coming back to AMERICA in TRE GIORNI. NON E POSSIBILE.
I'm can't tell whether I'm excited or not. I really miss home and can't wait, but this has been my home for the past 4 months. What am I going to do?
My favorite Goo Goo Dolls song is Sympathy, and the one like goes: "And I'm not sure where I belong, 'cause nowhere's home and I'm all wrong."
That's kind of how I feel right now. I miss home home. I miss Bonaventure. I already miss Italy.
We had a goodbye party at Lunabar, our normal Tuesday night hotspot, last night and all the bartenders and Djs were thanking the Americans for an awesome semester. It's weird to think that I'll probably never see these people again. Not only the Italians and whoever else lives in Perugia, but even a lot of the Americans.
I'll definitely see a few of them. No doubt. But the casual acquaintances in classes or that we went out with... what about them?
What about Simon and Naoimh and Roberta and all the Umbra staff that we've become so accustomed to seeing and hanging out with on the steps of the Duomo with and just everything.
I finished my finals and I only have to hand in my creative writing portfolio tomorrow at noon. Then I'm donezo.
Gotta clean the apartment and pack up. I'm coming home.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
That Awkward Moment When… (Horseback Riding, Last days in Perugia, Easter)
Holy wow. As I write this blog it is currently Easter Sunday, which means I have 6 days before I board the bus to Rome to head home to America.
It’s hard to believe that the only place out of the country that I’d been before this was Canada. Now I’ve been all over Italy, Ireland, England, and France. And I haven’t even seen half of what’s out there yet.
We've been going out a lot since classes have been over. I was wearing heels one night and wanted it to be forever documented that I once looked tall:
Take that Mary!
We've also been spending inordinate amounts of time together. Can't you tell?
Also, up until yesterday the weather has been PHENOMENAL. This is in the Medieval Gardens.
Anyway, before nostalgia kicks in, this post isn’t for me to complain/be excited about going home. It’s mainly about my adventure with Kara and Mary when we went horseback riding on Friday, from which I am still sore as I write this.
So in our useful little Umbra handbook, there’s a section for Do-it-yourself-adventures!! Under this section it suggests all sorts of things, but the one that caught our attention was horseback riding. We contacted them and after trying to work around all of our schedules we figured out that Friday was the best day, and afternoon was the best time.
We had to take a bus way out of the center where we live, so we got away from the city. It was great! We took the bus to its last stop then our contact came to pick us up to take us to her home/stables. Awesomely enough, her name was Veronica (shout out to my best friend Ronnie! I’ll be home soon!) and she was super nice. She seemed really excited to have us.
She has a freakin’ gorgeous house. And her property is huge. She owns 5 horses, so she took one, Kara, Mary, and I had ours, and Veronica’s daughter took her horse.
First she had to gather all of them.
Then we had to find out which one was ours.
When we got there, we had to groom our horses to get to know them and just really to groom them since they’d been out in the fields all day.
Kara’s was Fury. Don't worry, she wasn't like her name suggests.
Mary’s was Luna.
And mine was Jada!
We groomed them and Veronica did their saddles while Mary, Kara, and I got out helmets. Veronica gave us the basic tips and instructions for riding and how to best manage each horse. For instance, I was riding on a Western Saddle (the one with the pommel) but had to use both hands on the reins (which is English style) to better control Jada.
Next we mounted our horses so Veronica could adjust our stirrups.
We then had to try and control our horses and walk them in a circle. Except getting the horses to start is the hardest part and when they have a new rider they try and test them. Also, all the horses wanted to do was eat, so we had to yank their heads out of the grass and make them listen to us.
Jada didn't pull too many shenanigans.
Fury was apparently and angel.
Then we set out for the trails. Now, not that this is a little known fact, but usually when I ride a horse someone is leading the thing and I just have to hold on. Not this time. I had to actually control Jada when she was walking. Fortunately the horse was used to the trails and quite well trained, so she usually just went the best way.
Now all of the horses were quite well-behaved, but Mary’s was in heat so she was a bit more independent. Mary couldn’t get Luna to do anything she didn’t want to do. Luna kept stopping throughout the trip.
Here’s how the order was: Veronica’s daughter, Kara, Mary, Me, Veronica. We were supposed to go in a nice line, equidistant from each other. Except this is what happened:
Ok so my paint skillz are a little lacking. We weren't walking towards a cliff btw that's just me being lazy. We did, however, go to a castle:
The base was from like the 13th century. It had a lot of uses and history, like rich people used to send their illegitimate children there, and it was used during the inquisition and such.
"Guys, we just rode horses to a real castle."
After exploring the castle and once we managed to tear our horses away from all of the grass around it, we continued onward.
The next trails were really rough. They were steep and had lots of hills. Thankfully, the expression "The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh" is not in fact limited to the song or to horses specifically with sleighs attached to them. Unfortunately, the expression could read "The horse knows the way to carry the rider except for the fact that the horse goes the path of least resistance for itself and doesn't care that the rider is getting hit in the face with branches and bushes."
Still, I was glad that I didn't have to direct my horse on the hills. Mary's horse stopped at every bush that had one particular flower to eat and Jada kept trying to pass her. But Jada had to stay between Luna and Veronica's horse because Luna does not like the other horse and tries to kick it. Also, whenever Kara would fall a little behind Veronica's daughter she would urge her horse to trot to catch up. No big deal, except Jada would see Fury trotting and try to do the same. Most of the time Luna wouldn't go, so we would have to be content with walking, which I was actually fine with. Trotting was scary for someone who had never ridden by herself before (AKA ME).
Mary looks happy, but there were many times when Luna would do whatevs she wanted. Also, I kept saying "That awkward moment when..." because sometimes Luna would just stop. And Mary would kick her. And she'd stay stopped. Then she'd... relieve herself. Right in front of me. And in the middle of the road. Many awkward moments when you just have to wait for the horse in front of you to do its thing.
Kara's horse was awesome. 'Nuff said.
So through all the steep trails and bushes hitting us, we got to our second point of interest: an Etruscan Tomb.
Creepily hidden in the middle of the woods, it was from like the Second Century and had only relatively recently been discovered in the 1920's. It was completely covered with dirt until somehow someone found it. Apparently other excavations were attempted (you could see in the forest where these huge holes had been dug) but no other tombs were found. There was all sorts of gold and stuff in the tomb 'cause it apparently belonged to an Etruscan prince, but the people who found the tomb sold it to some German dude. Allegedly the guy who sold the stuff died a year later and no one knows quite how. He took a gun into the woods to shoot some birds and somehow he died.
Weird.
There's a big stone door on the tomb that you can open and close too. Kara took a picture of me doing it, but alas it was on her camera. Neither of them wanted to touch the tomb. We'll see how my life goes. I meant only respect and awe, Etruscan royalty.
Anyway, we followed a path through the forest and came upon this huge plateau. It was just amazing!
So wide and free. We spun around in it a la Sound of Music. Veronica also gave us snacks and we ate those here.
We had to pass the tomb again on the way down.
So after that we made our way slowly back to Veronica's house. We had to groom the horses again then take them down to the stables.
We fed them too. Hungry hungry horses.
After that we wandered around the property for a while. We didn't want to have to rush with the grooming, so we told Veronica we were fine taking the last bus. She took us back to a bus stop that had a bar across from it so we could chill there. We chilled until the bus came.
I should have known this bus would be trouble when IT ALMOST PASSED US WHEN WE WERE AT THE STOP. Not our fault the stop was poorly lit and had a tree near it. Geez.
Anyway, the bus didn't go all the way into the center. It stopped in San Marco, which is quite a bit outside the center. We had to call the Umbra Emergency number because we were in the middle of nowhere and had no idea how to get home. Logically, I can't make my mind understand the bus system. I don't get why a bus would only go half of the route back into town when the other bus 5 hours ago did all the stops. I mean if it went a liiiiiiiiiiiiiittle closer to the center it would have been fine. But no. Umbra gave us the number to call a taxi, and we took another unnecessary taxi ride. Oh Italy. I'd never ridden a taxi before I met you, and now I don;t even know how much I've spent on them thanks to public transportation mishaps.
It should be noted that on every single trip I have taken, some type of problem has arisen with transportation: be it planes, trains, cars, subways etc... gah.
Anyway, we chilled around Perugia for the weekend. they have all sorts of stands selling breads, cheeses, meats, olives, and all sorts of knickknacks, and we went to the Saturday market by the football stadium to check out all the stuff they have there. Then I took a 3 hour nap because I haven't napped in weeks (the weather has been great so I'm like I ONLY HAVE X NUMBER OF DAYS IN ITALY I CAN'T WASTE TIME) and it was raining outside.
I went to this restaurant called Osteria Del Tempo Perso - the Osteria of Lost Time. It's a slow-food restaurant where they make everything from scratch and it's super cheap. Except the meal took 3 hours. This isn't much longer than the average Italian meal though. I'm gonna miss such long dinners. But also I miss being in and out of a restaurant in an hour.
Anyway, today is Easter, so Mary and I went to mass this morning at the Duomo. We couldn't understand any of it, but it was nice to go. It really made me miss home when I saw families all together and knew that I wouldn't get to have a nice dinner with my family. We can't even really make anything nice because we are limited to frying pans.
Things I can;t wait for at home: Microwave, working oven, dishwasher, real washing machine, dryer, toaster.
Nevertheless, Mary and I made a nice breakfast/brunch after church:
Eggs and "toast," plus a breaded veal cutlet for me (I like bein' fancy, Mary doesn't like killing baby animals...) for brunch. Except the "toast" pan is awkwardly shaped.
With that awkward moment when your "toast" goes from bread to burned, we ended up making the toast kind of in the egg pan.
I also bought a cannolo (one cannoli) from the festival, but opted to save that once I saw that Morgan (another roommate and my past roommate from Bonaventure) had bought an Easter Cake. Or a Torta di Pasqua to be artsy (see what I did there?)
Check out the rest of my album here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150285651329968.403816.697649967&l=01f5b585f0
Buona Pasqua a tutti! Fra sei giorni ritorno a la casa mia! I'm coming home in 6 days!
It’s hard to believe that the only place out of the country that I’d been before this was Canada. Now I’ve been all over Italy, Ireland, England, and France. And I haven’t even seen half of what’s out there yet.
We've been going out a lot since classes have been over. I was wearing heels one night and wanted it to be forever documented that I once looked tall:
Anyway, before nostalgia kicks in, this post isn’t for me to complain/be excited about going home. It’s mainly about my adventure with Kara and Mary when we went horseback riding on Friday, from which I am still sore as I write this.
So in our useful little Umbra handbook, there’s a section for Do-it-yourself-adventures!! Under this section it suggests all sorts of things, but the one that caught our attention was horseback riding. We contacted them and after trying to work around all of our schedules we figured out that Friday was the best day, and afternoon was the best time.
We had to take a bus way out of the center where we live, so we got away from the city. It was great! We took the bus to its last stop then our contact came to pick us up to take us to her home/stables. Awesomely enough, her name was Veronica (shout out to my best friend Ronnie! I’ll be home soon!) and she was super nice. She seemed really excited to have us.
She has a freakin’ gorgeous house. And her property is huge. She owns 5 horses, so she took one, Kara, Mary, and I had ours, and Veronica’s daughter took her horse.
When we got there, we had to groom our horses to get to know them and just really to groom them since they’d been out in the fields all day.
Next we mounted our horses so Veronica could adjust our stirrups.
Then we set out for the trails. Now, not that this is a little known fact, but usually when I ride a horse someone is leading the thing and I just have to hold on. Not this time. I had to actually control Jada when she was walking. Fortunately the horse was used to the trails and quite well trained, so she usually just went the best way.
Now all of the horses were quite well-behaved, but Mary’s was in heat so she was a bit more independent. Mary couldn’t get Luna to do anything she didn’t want to do. Luna kept stopping throughout the trip.
Here’s how the order was: Veronica’s daughter, Kara, Mary, Me, Veronica. We were supposed to go in a nice line, equidistant from each other. Except this is what happened:
Ok so my paint skillz are a little lacking. We weren't walking towards a cliff btw that's just me being lazy. We did, however, go to a castle:
After exploring the castle and once we managed to tear our horses away from all of the grass around it, we continued onward.
The next trails were really rough. They were steep and had lots of hills. Thankfully, the expression "The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh" is not in fact limited to the song or to horses specifically with sleighs attached to them. Unfortunately, the expression could read "The horse knows the way to carry the rider except for the fact that the horse goes the path of least resistance for itself and doesn't care that the rider is getting hit in the face with branches and bushes."
Still, I was glad that I didn't have to direct my horse on the hills. Mary's horse stopped at every bush that had one particular flower to eat and Jada kept trying to pass her. But Jada had to stay between Luna and Veronica's horse because Luna does not like the other horse and tries to kick it. Also, whenever Kara would fall a little behind Veronica's daughter she would urge her horse to trot to catch up. No big deal, except Jada would see Fury trotting and try to do the same. Most of the time Luna wouldn't go, so we would have to be content with walking, which I was actually fine with. Trotting was scary for someone who had never ridden by herself before (AKA ME).
So through all the steep trails and bushes hitting us, we got to our second point of interest: an Etruscan Tomb.
Weird.
There's a big stone door on the tomb that you can open and close too. Kara took a picture of me doing it, but alas it was on her camera. Neither of them wanted to touch the tomb. We'll see how my life goes. I meant only respect and awe, Etruscan royalty.
Anyway, we followed a path through the forest and came upon this huge plateau. It was just amazing!
So after that we made our way slowly back to Veronica's house. We had to groom the horses again then take them down to the stables.
After that we wandered around the property for a while. We didn't want to have to rush with the grooming, so we told Veronica we were fine taking the last bus. She took us back to a bus stop that had a bar across from it so we could chill there. We chilled until the bus came.
I should have known this bus would be trouble when IT ALMOST PASSED US WHEN WE WERE AT THE STOP. Not our fault the stop was poorly lit and had a tree near it. Geez.
Anyway, the bus didn't go all the way into the center. It stopped in San Marco, which is quite a bit outside the center. We had to call the Umbra Emergency number because we were in the middle of nowhere and had no idea how to get home. Logically, I can't make my mind understand the bus system. I don't get why a bus would only go half of the route back into town when the other bus 5 hours ago did all the stops. I mean if it went a liiiiiiiiiiiiiittle closer to the center it would have been fine. But no. Umbra gave us the number to call a taxi, and we took another unnecessary taxi ride. Oh Italy. I'd never ridden a taxi before I met you, and now I don;t even know how much I've spent on them thanks to public transportation mishaps.
It should be noted that on every single trip I have taken, some type of problem has arisen with transportation: be it planes, trains, cars, subways etc... gah.
Anyway, we chilled around Perugia for the weekend. they have all sorts of stands selling breads, cheeses, meats, olives, and all sorts of knickknacks, and we went to the Saturday market by the football stadium to check out all the stuff they have there. Then I took a 3 hour nap because I haven't napped in weeks (the weather has been great so I'm like I ONLY HAVE X NUMBER OF DAYS IN ITALY I CAN'T WASTE TIME) and it was raining outside.
I went to this restaurant called Osteria Del Tempo Perso - the Osteria of Lost Time. It's a slow-food restaurant where they make everything from scratch and it's super cheap. Except the meal took 3 hours. This isn't much longer than the average Italian meal though. I'm gonna miss such long dinners. But also I miss being in and out of a restaurant in an hour.
Anyway, today is Easter, so Mary and I went to mass this morning at the Duomo. We couldn't understand any of it, but it was nice to go. It really made me miss home when I saw families all together and knew that I wouldn't get to have a nice dinner with my family. We can't even really make anything nice because we are limited to frying pans.
Things I can;t wait for at home: Microwave, working oven, dishwasher, real washing machine, dryer, toaster.
Nevertheless, Mary and I made a nice breakfast/brunch after church:
Check out the rest of my album here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150285651329968.403816.697649967&l=01f5b585f0
Buona Pasqua a tutti! Fra sei giorni ritorno a la casa mia! I'm coming home in 6 days!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
I think there's more sand in my shoe than there is foot, And we're being ARTSY (Ancona, Palermo, Trapani, Favignana)
So this is the last big weekend I had in Italy (next weekend is Easter and the last weekend here so I'm sticking around the love of my life, Perugia) so Mary and I decided to go to Sicily. Our roommate Leigh had some last minute plan switches, so she came with us as well. All in all, it was an... interesting (but amazing!) trip.
First, we took the 7:40 train to Ancona. I actually had no idea where that was, but the train there was cheapest and the flight to Trapani, Sicilia was the cheapest as well.
I googled it: it's a little north of Perugia but to the east on the coast. Huh. I thought it was south. Wrong.
Anyway, we got there at 10 at night and took a taxi to our hotel. We stayed in a hotel since there is only 1 hostel in Ancona with a 53% rating on hostelworld, and because we booked last minute with the addition of Leigh. It was all right; it was about the same price I've paid for hostels and was in the middle of nowhere. Whatever.
So we go to the Ancona airport at an UNGODLY hour to catch our 8:55 AM flight. And by ungodly I mean we got up at like 7:30. The Ancona airport is small... REALLY small. But it was no big deal.
So we fly into Trapani and take a bus to the place where our hostel is, Paceco. It was just outside of Trapani. No big deal. Except the directions were confusing, so we asked some nice old man where Via Dante was. He tells us to go up the street, then says some other stuff, counts to three in English and tells us to turn left. Right. Sounds easy.
We assumed he meant go three blocks then turn left. Except three blocks later is not Via Dante. 5 blocks later is not Via Dante. So we turn around.
Thankfully a really hot boy was walking up the street as we went back down.
"Let's ask him," Mary suggested.
"I'm intimidated by his beauty," Leigh replied.
Despite this, we asked him "Dov'e Via Dante?"
He went to tell us, but then just turned around and waved us on to follow him. He took us all the way back down to the street where we had asked the old man for help... turns out the intersection we were at was Via Roma (the street we went up) and VIA DANTE. Then something weird happened:
"It's number 92."
...
Our hostel was number 90, but we did have to go to 92 to check in... apparently the hostel was THE ONLY ACCOMMODATION IN THIS PART OF TOWN. This didn't reeeeeeeeeally make me feel safe, but the hostel was AMAZING. Probably the nicest one I've stayed in, or at least up there with nice ones.
It's run by a family, and they were super nice. They told us a great restaurant to eat lunch at. It was a bruschetteria and we all got reeeeeeeeeeally good bruschetta.
Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Mountains and cloudssss.
So after we wandered around Paceco for a while we headed into Trapani the caught a train to Palermo, the capital of Sicily and the 5th largest city in Italy.
It was a long train ride but the scenery was amazing.
Uhh Palermo was kind of cloudy and we were only there for like 2 hours because the last train to Trapani was really early and there's no other way back.
Ironically, we got texts from Ryanair on the train back: Our flight had been switched from the Trapani Airport to the Palermo Airport 55 miles away... Our flight was at 8:20 AM. We weren't freaking out yet, we just had to figure out how to get there early. Also, there was an email that Leigh could read on her Blackberry and we were thinking maybe we could get a refund then just stay in Sicily for an extra day (our classes are done so we didn't have anything to do on Monday) if we had to. No big deal.
Also, apparently there is a distinct lack of foreign visitation to Paceco, the area we stayed in, since when we got back the people were staring at us and screeeeeeeeeeaming "STRANIERI!!!" that means foreigner. One guy even chased Leigh (And couldn't understand that her name was Leigh... none of them can) then got in his car and kept circling the block to tell her she was beautiful. We walked into a gelateria or something and the women in there glared at us like we were doing something wrong. It was strange.
The next day the owner of our hostel took us to the port so we could got to Favignana, the largest and most beautiful of the Egadi Islands.
It was a beautiful day!
So we got to the island and disembarked. We were just amazed by how pretty it was. The water was such a stunning color:
We wandered around the island, loving every second of it. I could see myself vacationing there. We were hungry so we decided to get legit seafood.
I got Salmon Bruschetta. I also tried fried Calamari.
Once you get over the tentacles, it's not half bad.
After our lovely lunch, we decided to explore the island in search of beaches. Wandering through the sand leads to the title of this blog, said by my constant companion Mary.
We found a small beach but wanted to find a different one. Rather than ask for directions, we decided to wander. Instead of finding another beach, we found this:
A field of flowers is not a beach, but it's still nice!
After some more wandering around the island, we found come cool rock formations and such to explore.
Please note: it would have been faster to get scooters or bikes for the island, but Leigh doesn't know how to ride a bike so that would have been awkward.
We stuck to explorin' the coast. It was such a nice day!
We had this strange obsession on this trip with taking artsy photos. Leigh took a photo of me taking an artsy photo, but she hasn't uploaded it yet since uploading things takes more time than we have left in the semester (10 days at this point!) so I'll have to check that out later.
But here's two of my artsy photos. I can't even explain how I had to position myself to get such angles. That's for only me to know. But you can still enjoy the outcome.
Flowers, water, sky. When I think about coming home it makes me want to cry that I would want to give all of this up. But I really am excited to come home. But look at this.
This is probs my favorite picture I took of the beach. Not sure why. I mean, I know why. It's ARTSYYYYYY.
We were chillin' on the beach for a while (I got sunburn on my face and mary got it awkwardly on like half of her chest while Leigh oddly just got tan) as the world just seemed to float on by. Honestly this was one of the more relaxing trips I've been on because we didn't have a set itinerary of exactly what to do when. We just went with the flow.
The flow of the INCREDIBLE water that is. I'm not much of a beach person, but I loved this so much.
I often think to myself: Am I ever going to see something this beautiful again in my whole life? Then I usually see something else in Italy and I know that I will continue to see things that take my breath away. But since we're leaving Italy soon, I'm gonna have to be more creative with seeing beauty. Man I'm getting nostalgic already and I haven't even left yet!
Getting to our flight was a disaster. Our hostel guy was like "Oh let me eat dinner then I'll come back and explain to you." At 9:30 this was a good plan. He didn't show up until 12:30 and told us where to take the at 5:55 AM to get to trapani to take the bus to Palermo airport. Except when we get to Trapani we find out that the bus only leaves at 4:30 AM, 7:30 AM and every 3 hours etc... But our flight was at 8:20 and the trip takes nearly an hour. We had to call a cab, which was an ordeal since the 24 hour cab number didn't work. We went to a tabacchi and got a number then took a 130 euro cab ride to the airport. Honestly, that's not too bad all things considered, but it was unnecessary. Thanks, Ryanair.
The drive there was beautiful though, with the sun coming up and Sicily's beauty in general.
The flight wasn't bad, and we got home safe. That's all that mattered.
Yay View! Boooo Ryanair!
More artsy.
Artsier.
And back to Pisa. Leigh had never seen the tower, and I had never arrived in Pisa during daylight hours. It was new for all!
And we got to watch Jersey Shore IN ENGLISH in our hostel. I'm feelin' ready for home, but not quite yet.
Exams and presentations and last minute food eating and all the stuff we couldn't do yet gahhhhhhhhhhhhh so much to do in 10 days!
You can check out the rest of my album here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150278666134968.393303.697649967&l=8e41a98276
Can't wait to see everyone!
First, we took the 7:40 train to Ancona. I actually had no idea where that was, but the train there was cheapest and the flight to Trapani, Sicilia was the cheapest as well.
I googled it: it's a little north of Perugia but to the east on the coast. Huh. I thought it was south. Wrong.
Anyway, we got there at 10 at night and took a taxi to our hotel. We stayed in a hotel since there is only 1 hostel in Ancona with a 53% rating on hostelworld, and because we booked last minute with the addition of Leigh. It was all right; it was about the same price I've paid for hostels and was in the middle of nowhere. Whatever.
So we go to the Ancona airport at an UNGODLY hour to catch our 8:55 AM flight. And by ungodly I mean we got up at like 7:30. The Ancona airport is small... REALLY small. But it was no big deal.
So we fly into Trapani and take a bus to the place where our hostel is, Paceco. It was just outside of Trapani. No big deal. Except the directions were confusing, so we asked some nice old man where Via Dante was. He tells us to go up the street, then says some other stuff, counts to three in English and tells us to turn left. Right. Sounds easy.
We assumed he meant go three blocks then turn left. Except three blocks later is not Via Dante. 5 blocks later is not Via Dante. So we turn around.
Thankfully a really hot boy was walking up the street as we went back down.
"Let's ask him," Mary suggested.
"I'm intimidated by his beauty," Leigh replied.
Despite this, we asked him "Dov'e Via Dante?"
He went to tell us, but then just turned around and waved us on to follow him. He took us all the way back down to the street where we had asked the old man for help... turns out the intersection we were at was Via Roma (the street we went up) and VIA DANTE. Then something weird happened:
"It's number 92."
...
Our hostel was number 90, but we did have to go to 92 to check in... apparently the hostel was THE ONLY ACCOMMODATION IN THIS PART OF TOWN. This didn't reeeeeeeeeally make me feel safe, but the hostel was AMAZING. Probably the nicest one I've stayed in, or at least up there with nice ones.
It's run by a family, and they were super nice. They told us a great restaurant to eat lunch at. It was a bruschetteria and we all got reeeeeeeeeeally good bruschetta.
So after we wandered around Paceco for a while we headed into Trapani the caught a train to Palermo, the capital of Sicily and the 5th largest city in Italy.
It was a long train ride but the scenery was amazing.
Ironically, we got texts from Ryanair on the train back: Our flight had been switched from the Trapani Airport to the Palermo Airport 55 miles away... Our flight was at 8:20 AM. We weren't freaking out yet, we just had to figure out how to get there early. Also, there was an email that Leigh could read on her Blackberry and we were thinking maybe we could get a refund then just stay in Sicily for an extra day (our classes are done so we didn't have anything to do on Monday) if we had to. No big deal.
Also, apparently there is a distinct lack of foreign visitation to Paceco, the area we stayed in, since when we got back the people were staring at us and screeeeeeeeeeaming "STRANIERI!!!" that means foreigner. One guy even chased Leigh (And couldn't understand that her name was Leigh... none of them can) then got in his car and kept circling the block to tell her she was beautiful. We walked into a gelateria or something and the women in there glared at us like we were doing something wrong. It was strange.
The next day the owner of our hostel took us to the port so we could got to Favignana, the largest and most beautiful of the Egadi Islands.
After our lovely lunch, we decided to explore the island in search of beaches. Wandering through the sand leads to the title of this blog, said by my constant companion Mary.
After some more wandering around the island, we found come cool rock formations and such to explore.
Please note: it would have been faster to get scooters or bikes for the island, but Leigh doesn't know how to ride a bike so that would have been awkward.
We had this strange obsession on this trip with taking artsy photos. Leigh took a photo of me taking an artsy photo, but she hasn't uploaded it yet since uploading things takes more time than we have left in the semester (10 days at this point!) so I'll have to check that out later.
But here's two of my artsy photos. I can't even explain how I had to position myself to get such angles. That's for only me to know. But you can still enjoy the outcome.
Getting to our flight was a disaster. Our hostel guy was like "Oh let me eat dinner then I'll come back and explain to you." At 9:30 this was a good plan. He didn't show up until 12:30 and told us where to take the at 5:55 AM to get to trapani to take the bus to Palermo airport. Except when we get to Trapani we find out that the bus only leaves at 4:30 AM, 7:30 AM and every 3 hours etc... But our flight was at 8:20 and the trip takes nearly an hour. We had to call a cab, which was an ordeal since the 24 hour cab number didn't work. We went to a tabacchi and got a number then took a 130 euro cab ride to the airport. Honestly, that's not too bad all things considered, but it was unnecessary. Thanks, Ryanair.
The drive there was beautiful though, with the sun coming up and Sicily's beauty in general.
The flight wasn't bad, and we got home safe. That's all that mattered.
Exams and presentations and last minute food eating and all the stuff we couldn't do yet gahhhhhhhhhhhhh so much to do in 10 days!
You can check out the rest of my album here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150278666134968.393303.697649967&l=8e41a98276
Can't wait to see everyone!
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