Last weekend was my long awaited trip to Sicily that me, Kathleen, Jenah, Gina, and Casey have been planning for several weeks. Just a week before our trip there was a school organized trip to Sicily, and half the people's stuff got stolen on the overnight train. Their wallets, computers, cameras i-pods, and all that good stuff. Some guy got into people's compartments in the middle of the night and stole a bunch of the students' things. So after that incident Syracuse canceled anymore trips to Sicily. This was the last one.
We were kind of frightened by what happened to the other students, but that didn't stop us from going. Our trip was really intense and tiring, but well worth it. We booked plane tickets to fly into Palermo, which is northern Sicily. We wanted to see Siracusa...since we all go to Syracuse, but Siracusa is all the way in southern Sicily. There is also not much to see there in terms of touristy things. We also really wanted to hike Mt. Etna, which is the most active volcano in Europe. And Mt. Etna is pretty close to Siracusa (it's actually 3 hrs away, but at the time we thought it was pretty close). Gina and Casey made it to the airport literally 10 min before boarding because they got on the wrong train to Rome. We thought they were not gonna make it (it would have sucked because it was also Casey's birthday that weekend). We were all extremely happy that they made it. Our flight was about an hr and a half from Rome to Palermo. So we have planned beforehand to arrive in Palermo, and take the 3 and a half hr bus to Siracusa. Palermo is one of the biggest cities in Sicily, and it's pretty rundown trashed and gangsta, just how I like it. But we didn't get to see much of it. After we landed in Palermo at about 12 noon on Friday, we took a bus to the central bus station, and then another bus to Siracusa. We arrived in Siracusa around 7 pm. So basically we spent all of Friday traveling.
Once we got to Siracusa we went straight to the hostel. Our hostel was actually two apartments with a common area, kitchen, and several bedrooms. We got picked up at one of the piazzas by a guy and a girl who took us there and explained everything to us. They were both really nice and incredibly helpful, and the guy was GORGEOUS. They told us where the best places to eat were and what there is to do in Siracusa. They also gave us advice on how to get to Mt. Etna in the morning. Casey and Gina decided that they didn't want to hike Etna because Casey just wanted to have a chill and relaxing birthday. That was really shocking because the whole reason we came all the way to southern Sicily was to hike Etna. Friday night we had nice dinner at a Trattoria next to our hostel, and just decided to make it an early night. We didn't realize how small Siracusa was, but it's probably much smaller than Florence, and Florence is tiny.
Jenah, Kathleen, and I were on our own the next day. All three of us woke up at 5:30 in the morning to leave our hostel 6 on the dot (we had to make it for the 6:30 bus to get to Catania, which is the town right next to Mt. Etna). We actually did leave our hostel 6 on the dot, but we were not able to open the downstairs door...there's a certain method to do it and we werent able to figure it out for at least another 4 min. So at that point we were already running late, not to mention it took us another 5 min to orient ourselves and figure out exactly where to go to catch the bus. Jenah is a really intense person when it comes to traveling with her...she likes to wake up super early, rush through everything to see as much as possible in one given day, and not take any breaks. It's really fun traveling with her, but sometimes it's frustrating to keep up with her. So she was leading us to the bus and Kathleen and I were walking like 10 steps behind her. We knew we were running late but we didn't want to tell her until the latest possible minute because she would freak out and start sprinting. So when it got to be 6:27, Kathleen and I decided to ask her how close we were to the bus stop. She was like, "pretty close...why?!?" And we told her we only had like 3 minutes to get there. So she freaked out and we all started sprinting. The second we reached the bus stop, our bus came! So it was perfect timing!
It took about two hrs. Then we had to take another bus to get to Mt. Etna from Catagna which took about an hr. As we were going thousands of feet up the volcano, we were kind of surprised to find out that it was completely covered in snow and that people were skiing. We were not very prepared for the snow. We were all wearing sneakers that get easily wet. However, we all brought hat and gloves and wore many many layers because we knew it would be very cold there. We wanted to get a guide so we could go close to all the lava and craters and not get lost but guide tours were out of season, so we had to hike ourselves. We took a ski lift even higher up the volcano and started our hike from there. We went away from the ski areas and were in the middle of this beautiful landscape filled with snow, and the steaming volcano in close vicinity. We were so high up, we were literally above the clouds. We took some great pics!
The hike was very tough because it was uphill and through the snow. It was slippery and Kathleen's feet and my feet got soaking wet. On our way up we found an area of the volcano that was just covered with molten rock, no snow. The reason it had no snow was because it was steaming hot! There was actual steam coming out of the ground. Our feet warmed up right away, and when we sat down on the rock for a few seconds our butts started burning. It was the coolest thing ever.
So after we got a little warmed up we walked around some more, but our feet were in so much pain because they were soaking wet and freezing. Kathleen and I decided to go back to the lodge to dry our feet. Jenah's feet weren't as wet because she doubled her socks but she came back with us as well.
We sat for about 20 min drying our feet and then Jenah and I decided to go for round two. Kathleen's sneakers were made out of material as opposed to leather so they were still pretty soaked. She decided to chill in the lodge while we hiked around some more. We wanted to hike even higher closer to the part of the volcano with all the smoke. Since my feet didn't dry completely, they got completely soaking wet again in about twenty minutes. The sun was out and the snow became very slushy so that also added to the wetness. I was way behind Jenah and had a hard time keeping up because my feet were in so much pain. I kept on wanting to turn around but I knew how much she wanted to hike up so I didn't want to ruin her day at Etna. There was a point where i couldn't continue and Jenah gave me her dry socks (I will never forget that!). Since my sneakers were all wet inside, her socks got wet in a few minutes so it didn't really help. At that point, I had to turn around and walk back to the lodge because I literally felt I was gonna pass out from the pain. Jenah wanted to continue hiking on her own and I was very skeptical to leave her by herself. If anything would happen, no one would find her. We were literally in the middle of nowhere with no people around. But she kept on being persistent about it, so I went back by myself and she promised to call me every 20 min to let me know that she's ok. I felt like such a loser that I was not able to continue the hike. But I felt much better once I made it back to the lodge. I sat with Kathleen next to the heater, and we both ate lunch and put our socks and shoes on the heater. I noticed that Kathleen got a really bad burn on her face because of the sun and the snow reflecting it. She was wearing her headband and sunglasses so the sunburn came out really funny. I was wearing 70 spf on my face so I didn't get burned. It felt so good to take off my shoes and socks. Jenah came back about an hr after me, and by that time Kathleen's and my shoes were completely dry!
We took the ski lift back to the bus stop and we had about 45 min until the bus came. So we decided to go to a huge crater that was not far away from the stop. It was incredible and it was not covered in snow. Both me and Kathleen were in such a good mood now that our feet were dry. On our bus ride back, our driver was blasting Celine Dion the whole ride. And on our way there, our driver was also blasting music like Michael Jackson and the Beegies. Imagine the driver blasting music on a Greyhound bus?!..would never happen in the states.
That day was Casey's birthday, so after we got back from Mt. Etna we met up with her and Gina for dinner. We went to a really cute Sicilian restaurant. The waiter/owner kept bringing a bunch of appetizers for us to try that were delicious. Everyone in Sicily is sooooo nice, not like in Florence. Also, not that many people speak English. When we spoke to them in Italian they actually answered in Italian and appreciated our efforts. The owner gave Casey a kiss on the cheek cuz it was her birthday. Right before we were about to leave the owner put on music. We started singing to it because we knew the song, so he turned it up and started dancing to it. It was so funny. After dinner we went back to our apartments to sleep because we were all really tired and it was pretty late.
Sunday was a very lazy day. We got up around 10, left the apartments at around 11 and explored Siracusa. We had to be back at the apartments to meet the owner so we could pay her and give her the keys. For the most part we just chilled by the rocks and the beach. It was very relaxing to watch the waves hit the rocks and make a splash. We
went to a fish market as well and got to hold some really creepy looking swordfish.
We also got some gelato and then me, Gina, and Kathleen went to a ghetto playground and fooled around on the seesaw.
We took the bus back to Palermo,and then two other buses just to get back to the airport. We got there at around 8 30 pm and spent the night there because our check in was at 6 in the morning. During the entire night, we were all paranoid about our stuff getting stolen so 2 of us at a time took hour long shifts throughout the whole entire night. Gina and I had a shift from 1-2am and then from 4-5am. We played really funny games to keep us awake before going to bed like Cheepuxa, the blinking game, and the laughing game. Everyone really liked Cheepuxa and we got some really funny stories out of it. Our watchman shifts worked out really well and we managed somehow to make it through the entire night. It was a looong and tiring day/night. We finally checked in at 6 in the morning on Monday. We felt so gross and dirty by the time we got back to Florence. I was so happy to be back and take a normal shower. I had to go to class a couple hours after we got back.
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