After Catania, Palermo felt like a long-awaited, well-deserved rest. 馃榿 Just kiding, Catania also enchanted me, if not even more, exactly because of that old town charm it has and the diversity among people. In Palermo, this was not so noticeable, and although it is much smaller than Belgrade, for example, it has the vibe of a fairly big city where you somehow feel safer, whether it makes sense or not. Maybe because it reminds you of home, so it feels familiar.
Maybe we just got used to Sicily because a few days had already passed, so it was not so much about the different city as it was about the adaptation we needed at the beginning. Although, I must admit that on the day we arrived and got off the bus, the air was much more bearable to breathe than during the previous days on the eastern side of the island.
I mean, the four of us felt it, while Marina, who welcomed us in Palermo and had arrived a day earlier, complained about the heat and the impossibility of breathing, just like we did during our first days in Catania. And we were listening to her, thinking, welllll, you have no idea what we went through, this is nothing.
Anyway, let me start from the beginning of that day, while we were still waiting to leave for the bus. We woke up in that first accommodation, slowly packed the remaining things, little stuff, checked if everything was there, and made breakfast: eggs, prosciutto, mortadella, blue cheese, mozzarella, Nutella, everything as it should be, real Italian-style.
Just when we called a taxi to take us to the main bus station, someone knocked on the door. We opened it and there was a kind but completely unknown older man standing at the door, trying to explain something to us, but we couldn't understand a single word. He doesn't speak English, we don't speak Italian, so we were smiling at each other, even though we had no idea what was going on. Then we started to panic a little because we thought something was wrong, that he wanted to keep us there for some reason, while our taxi driver was coming and we couldn't afford to be late for the bus.
It turned out that he was the landlady's father-in-law, who had just come to check if everything was okay, turn off the main switch as a precaution after we left, and wish us a safe trip. 馃榿
And we got scared for nothing. I immediately started thinking, "Oh nooo, did we do something wrong, what happened now, will he let us leave, etc." I'm simply like that, I immediately think there's some problem and that it's my/our fault.
We somehow managed to understand each other, he waved goodbye to us, we waved back, got into the taxi, and the taxi driver looked like he was around 70 years old, if not older, but why would that be a problem, hm... Okay, we told him where to go, he started driving, everything was great. Haven't told you that we had booked the ride and paid in advance through the Wetaxi app.
Well, that's when the real show began. 馃槀
When we arrived at the station, the taxi driver asked us for around 15 euros. We tried to explain to him that we had already paid via app, but he didn't understand. How do you explain something like that? We started to panic again.
I got out of the taxi and went straight to the nearby tourist information center. There was a young guy working there, and I thought he would know how to explain it to the driver. I explained the situation to him, he said "no problemooo" and went to tell the taxi driver how things were. The driver also said "no problemooo", okay, he called the central office, they confirmed that we had paid, and that was it, great, we could get on the bus, which had already arrived and was leaving in a few minutes.
We got on the bus and settled into our seats. The driver or conductor was reading our names in such a funny way, especially "Djordje", that one was a real challenge for him. 馃榿
And then, guess what, the taxi driver's grandpa walked into the bus and pointed in our direction, like, hey, you guys, come here!
Oh nooooo, our third panic attack was just about to happen.
The bus driver and conductor were completely relaxed and basically like, go, go, it's okay, we'll wait for you.
It turned out that this was the driver's first ride using that system and he didn't know how to enter what he needed on the tablet to confirm the ride and close it once it was completed. My sister and my fianc茅 helped him, he thanked them, and finally we could start our journey to Palermo.
It was definitely an interesting experience, and one of those stories we will be telling for a long time, but believe me, it was a little stressful for all of us. When you have no idea what's going on or what the problem is, even though you know you've done everything correctly.
The journey from Catania to Palermo went a little faster than when we travelled in the opposite direction, probably because there were no delays on the road due to construction work this time. We ate the sandwiches my sister had prepared, took some photos through the bus window and iii in about two and a half hours, if I remember correctly, we arrived in Palermo. WOHOOOO, finally!
The distance from the station in Palermo to our accommodation was not very big, so we took our luggage on our backs and went there on foot. It was a perfect opportunity to get to know the city along the way, and the photos above that I already posted are actually the very first photos from Palermo and our first impressions.
Anyway, when we arrived in front of our accommodation, not even a minute passed before Marina, my fianc茅's sister, appeared on the other side of the street. She had already picked up the apartment keys, so we didn't even meet the landlord in Palermo, hehe.
We hugged each other, went upstairs, brought our things inside, sat down for a bit and had some coffee made in a moka pot. We briefly shared our impressions and of courseee, went out into the city!
Look how interesting the hallway of the building where we stayed is, with these holes covered with grilles on the staircase and different ceramic tiles with so many patterns on the walls. It's really cute! I have more photos of the interior and some artistic ones too, but I'll save those for Photography Lovers, so I don't overcrowd every blog here, which should be focused on travelling, sightseeing and interesting places, while I'm turning it into a diary full of anecdotes and inside jokes. Forgive meeee. 馃グ
Not to make the story too long, we met up, went straight out to explore the surrounding streets and little alleys, and of course, we got hungry pretty quickly.
We sat down at the Capocollo restaurant and ordered different cocktails and two boards full of meat, croquettes, pasta, fries, sauces, well, everything. It was all really delicious and quite a lot of food, but the five of us managed to eat everything and leave nothing on our plates, hehe. We're from Serbia, it's well known that we don't leave food on our plates! :D And it wasn't even possible to do that because everything was truly excellent! Soooo delicious!
As soon as we satisfied our taste buds, you know the drill, we headed towards the Teatro Massimo, famous for the staircase where the iconic scene from The Godfather was filmed.
The Teatro Massimo in Palermo is the largest opera house in Italy and the third largest in Europe. It opened in 1897, and besides being famous for the iconic final scene of The Godfather Part III, it is also known for its movable wooden ceiling (the "star hall"), which opens without motors for natural ventilation.
It's always nice to see the sea and little boats, and this fountain is interesting too, but that's pretty much it. There are some luxury restaurants, boutiques, everything in a kind of minimalist style without charm. It looks more like a 3d unfinished model than an actual city, honestly, nothing special. So while we were walking along, we were looking only towards the sea and watching how the lights in the distance beautifully reflected on the water's surface. Now that is beautiful!
On our way back to the apartment, which was located near the Pretoria Fountain, just around the corner from the busier Via Vittorio Emanuele street, we went by a park with giant Benjamin (ficus) trees. I had no idea they could grow so big. It was a real surprise for all of us. We thought they were perennial indoor plants that could grow into a small dwarf tree for a bigger flower pot at most, and that was it. This discovery really amazed us, we learned something new, yayyy!
Later, near the apartment, we stopped by a caf茅 and pastry shop Cagliostro, some of us for ice cream and some for espresso, you know how it goes. :D
And that would be it for our first day in Palermo. More precisely, half a day, since the first half was Catania plus the journey.
See you in the next one with new adventures. There is still so much more to tell, stay tuned and thank you for reading me. Lots of kisses! <3
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