I think this is what has made me most excited about my travels abroad because most of the places I have been have not at all resembled the conceptualized versions I held of them (Portugal and Sicily being the most different). So despite living in the ghetto of Sicily for 2 nights (where a tour guidebook said that money laundering was one of the biggest activities in the city) we felt pretty safe and got to experience some great sights.
As per usual, we spent most of the day on Friday traveling (bus, train, bus, plane, bus=9 hours) and arrived in Trapani, Sicily at about 5:30 pm. We immediately threw down our things in the B&B (which was actually pretty nice) and then headed straight for food. Much to our amazement after the owner of the B&B had promised us lots of options for restaurants just down the street, we couldn't find any food. We finally stopped in a store and asked a woman about where to eat, but she just looked at us blankly and replied, "you don't have a car?". Not exactly what you are hoping to hear when you haven't eaten much all day. We finally did find a pizza shop where you could choose your own pizza toppings and they would make it fresh for you. This took about 40 minutes and I'm pretty sure all of our faces were glued to the pizza making process for all of them in hopes of speeding up the process. Luck did seem to turn our way though when we found a pastry shop that offered the world's largest and best chocolate chip cannolis for only 1.50 euro each. It was an amazing find and gave us the energy to sprint back to the B&B in the rain (while ever so carefully carrying these precious food items) and eat straight for about 30 minutes in our room. We decided to stay in that night since we were all exhausted and let's be honest, there weren't many places to go out in that town anyway.
Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the B&B and then waited around for the bus to take us to Marsala. We had some time to kill so we went to the main square of the town and played cards while a bunch of old Sicilian men watched us closely and asked us questions about America and Obama (of course!). Then when it was time for our bus to come we headed to the stop, only to figure out that we had been waiting at the wrong location which sent the 7 of us American girls sprinting around this square trying to find the correct location through asking a series of questions to the same old men who had been watching us all morning. Each one seemed to have a different answer as to where the bus was supposed to pick us up so we finally just stood on the street corner and decided to take the next bus that came. It didn't end up being the exact bus we wanted, but it got us to the bigger town over so we were just pleased to make it out of Paceco. Once we were in Trapani we figured out the transportation a little better and made it to Marsala (40 min train ride) where we went to the Marsala wine factory and were able to do a free wine tasting. The most interesting information we found out there was that people in Sicily don't use the Marsala wine to cook (unlike the rest of the world), but rather use it as a celebratory drink. For lunch we did manage to find a place that served veal marsala though so we were pleased to be able to try it there. After lunch we hustled back to Trapani where we caught another bus to Erice. This place was gorgeous!! It was the biggest mountain around and gave us breathtaking views of the coastline (especially at sunset!). We spent quite some time up there and even took the cable cars up and down so that we could get a better view of the city while we waited for the bus. This part was definitely the best portion of the trip! The whole day I had been feeling pretty weird, but couldn't quite place what was causing the odd pains until I put two and two together that I had been drinking a lot of the Sicilian tap water. I stopped drinking it by mid-afternoon, but it left me feeling pretty crummy all night which was unfortunate, but we opted for another chill night anyway so it wasn't too big of a deal.
Sunday we ate breakfast, paid the owner (who had no idea how much I owed him, very odd experience) and then headed down to see the historical center of Trapani before we headed out. We ended up just doing some wandering around the city, saw a couple of cute churches, happened upon a local festival with food, ate lunch (the eggplant in Sicily is to die for, words can't even describe) and then grabbed a couple souvenirs as we headed to the bus stop. We managed to make all of our public transportation modes back home and arrived in Parma around 9:30. It was definitely a long weekend, but as usual totally worth it!
It seems to me that our program is practically over at this point which is hard to believe. I have my last official cooking lesson this week (so sad!), starting to prepare for my final projects and exams, and only have a couple more weekends of traveling left. I'm definitely excited about all of the things I have coming up, but also very ready to see family and friends too. It seems that all of Italy decided that this weekend would be a good time to put up all of the Christmas decorations so everything seems to be in full-swing. Nate even told me that they started doing
horse-drawn carriage rides in Parma this weekend which I can't wait to see! I absolutely love this time of year!
On Friday we are headed, as a group of BC students, to Verona for the day to learn about some of the history of that city. Then a few of my friends and I are headed to Venice afterwards. We decided to stay just for one night (Friday) so we won't actually have a lot of time there, but I think it will still be good to go and see it with some friends. We will be there for quite some time when the family comes, so I'm not too worried about missing out on anything.
Hope all of you guys are doing well. I still continue to be impressed with the BC football team! Hope all of you enjoyed that game. Keep sending me updates!
Ciao ragazzi,
E
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