Our next stop was Palermo in Sicily. Sicily is absolutely beautiful and amazing and everyone who goes there falls in love with the countryside, etc, but Palermo is not. The airport flies you in there and you’re supposed to use this port city as a jumping off point for other locations in Sicily, but because we were cheap and had limited time, we just stayed in Palermo and the nearest beach, Mondello. The weather wasn’t even nice enough for the beach to be as fun as it could be—it stormed every night and each day was cloudy and overcast, though we tried to tough it out and get what sun we could.
Our first night, we got off the bus at the station in Palermo and it was absolutely pouring rain, and we had a 15 minute walk to our hostel. It was miserable, and the sidewalks were so slippery we almost ate dirt every other step. After checking in and drying off a little bit, we were starving but didn’t want to go far to find food. We were hurrying down the street but everywhere we looked we just found bars—however, as we were about to dash by one place we noticed plates and plates of food set up on the counter and jumped in. The middle-aged lady behind the bar didn’t speak any English, but we eventually figured out that if we bought a drink we could have as much food as we like. We loaded up our little plates with some of the most delicious dishes ever; it wasn’t Italian food, but it was just a mix of great stuff. Since it was early, Kelli and I were the only ones there, and we sat there for two hours enjoying the food and the warmth while the owner brought us more food, pretzels, chips, crackers—we left stuffed! When we finally got up to pay, there were two younger girls working the bar with her who spoke a little English, and we realized that we had run into a lesbian bar! No wonder they liked us so much, they thought we were lesbians too! We should have realized when we saw the sign outside, but we were so hungry we didn’t even see it, just the food. It was the funniest thing, and became something of a joke for the rest of our spring break. Whatever, they were really nice and we had mounds of food super-cheap; those lesbians really knew how to take care of us!
In Palermo we also met a British family who was staying in our hostel and saw them literally everywhere we went; they were practically family by the end. The father is a photographer who spends a lot of time in Sicily taking pictures and tries to bring his family every once in a while. He was showing us his work and talking about his business and matter-of-factly said, “And, we give a small percentage to the local mafia…not much, but enough…” There were two daughters, one tiny blonde one with a really thick accent who was adorable, and an older one who we joked was our daughter when we were one the beach. We saw them one day on Mondello, and she hung around us and talked to us, or would run into the water and wave at us to make sure we were watching her do whatever trick, and then run back. She practically buried herself in the sand and was completely coated, her skin looked like a rhinoceros, and then she said, in her little British accent, “Yeah, the worst is when you get sand in your bum. That happened to me when I was little, but I don’t do that anymore.” Meanwhile, she’s got sand everywhere, not just her bum, and we had to try really hard not to laugh.
Also on Mondello, we were getting lunch and I caved and bought this amazing-looking cookie. It looked sugary and sprinkly and had a huge lump in the middle, filled with what I assumed would be some type of pudding or custard…It was a hard-boiled egg, shell and all. Luckily I didn’t just bite into it, but as I came across the egg I was completely flabbergasted. What was it doing inside my cookie? I peeled off the shell and ate it, since I paid for it, but it was the weirdest cookie I ever had. The cookie portion was good, but it just made no sense as to why the two would be together. If anyone knows why, please enlighten me, I would like to know!
Pictures from Palermo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelgoesgreek/sets/72157626612678422/
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