This Ain't No MARTA

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! Valentine's doesn't seem to be a huge thing here. I haven't seen too many commercials, signs or sales for it. Then again, I haven't walked into a Wal-Mart lately either. I intended to write this blog on Tuesday, and it's already Thursday! I skipped my second lesson yesterday and went back to the house because I felt really sick. It's just a cold, but I couldn't concentrate and just wanted to sleep, which I did all day. Angela was incredibly sweet and kept me bringing me things - tea, an apple, juice, etc. She also kept asking me if I had a fever, and then she'd put her hand on my forehead. I guess some maternal habits are picked up all over the world. Anyways, I feel much better today, although I sound pretty gross, and I wanted to share my thoughts on transportation before I forgot everything!

As I alluded to in Tuesday's blog, we had a few surprises with our travelling efforts last weekend in Palermo. I'll start with the train system. I absolutely love riding the trains - perhaps because it's such a novel thing. Before this weekend we had ridden the train a few times before without any problems (minus the getting lost on the way to the train station in Acireale). We hopped the train in Taormina with no problem, and we knew we had to change trains in Messina. When we got to Messina, the train was 45 minutes late. Until then I was under the belief that the trains were always on time (unlike the buses, which are always late). We figured out which platform we needed to be at, and the longest train I've ever seen pulled up to it. Some of the cars were sleeper cars, and some of the cars had a sign that said "Siracusa" in the window. Something didn't feel right . . . In our defense, even some Italians looked a little confused and were asking questions. Apparently, for long distances, cars are attached together, and half of the cars will be left in one place. In this instance, the train dropped off some cars to go to Palermo, while the first half of the train kept going to Siracusa. This is obviously very tricky. Not only do you have to get on the right train - you have to get on the right part of the train!! We're very lucky we didn't end up heading to Siracusa.

Another tricky thing about the trains is the "destination." On the way to Palermo, Palermo was the destination of both the train and our ticket. This means we had bought a ticket to Palermo, and the train's last stop was in Palermo. If you buy a ticket for one of the smaller cities, chances are you're on a train headed to a larger city that will stop briefly in a smaller station. So, you have to know your geography. On the return trip, we had a ticket from Palermo to Taormina, with a change in Messina. We assumed that since both Palermo and Messina were large cities, the train would be headed to Messina. On Sunday, an hour before the train was set to leave Palermo, we started looking at the screens to see which platform the train headed to Messina was on. There was no train headed to Messina, which of course led to a moment of panic. We then started looking around to see which train would logically be stopping in Messina (which is on the other side of Sicily). The only train leaving at 15:00, when our ticket said the train was leaving, was a train to Milan! We decided this made sense as a train to Milan would have to cross Sicily and stop in Messina. So we got on that train (after figuring which cars were the sleeper cars). And once in Messina, we actually got on the train to Catania, which meant that we had to pay close attention and make sure we got off in Taormina. The train only stops for about 2 minutes at the smaller stops, so you have to know when to get off, which is really difficult in the dark, even at the Taormina station which we know well.

The NEXT tricky thing about the trains is ticket validation. This actually isn't a difficult concept, but we always have to make sure we remember to do it. Once you purchase a ticket, which we usually do from a self-service machine, you must "validate" it, which means you stick the ticket back in the machine and it stamps it to let the train folks know when you bought it (which is really silly since the time and date of purchase are usually printed on the ticket). Anyways, when you buy a train ticket, it is actually good for I believe up to 30 days of the purchase, which is helpful in case you miss the train you were supposed to catch. If you forget to validate the ticket, however, you receive a huge fine. Coming back from Acireale, we actually forgot to validate the ticket. We ran back to the machine to do it, but couldn't find the slot (it was actually taped off). We got lucky though because they never checked our ticket on that trip.

There are several types of trains. The newer ones have larger seats with more leg room. Usually the seats are grouped into fours, so typically your leg is right up against someone else's. This can be quite awkward if that someone else is a complete stranger. There are also trains with individual compartments and about six seats in each compartment. On the way back from Palermo, Clay and I had an entire compartment to ourselves, which was nice. We like the compartment trains best because they remind us of Harry Potter. We half expect the snack cart to come rolling by any minute.

With the busier, fuller trains, it is sometimes difficult to find a seat. The Sicilians don't form lines ever (I'll probably do a whole blog on this amazing phenomenon sometime), so when the train arrives, everyone runs up to a door and shoves onto the train. And from there, it's just mass chaos. You can actually reserve a specific seat, which we accidentally did on the train back from Palermo. It's an extra charge, so no one ever does it, but we didn't understand what the machine was saying, so we accidentally saved ourselves a seat on the practically deserted train. Oh well. Live and learn.

There is also smoking in many of the trains. And even the trains that say no smoking have smokers in it. Probably the scariest thing about the trains is the ticket guys. They always look big and mean, and I get the impression theirs is not a fun job. On the way to Palermo, an Asian man had gotten on with a ticket to Catania. He didn't speak much Italian, but the ticket guy kept yelling at him in Italian. I'm not quite sure how the guy got confused - Palermo is the opposite direction of Catania - but I felt bad for him still. I realized that could easily have been us at any point. Usually the ticket guys come in and yell "BIGLIETTI", which is tickets. On the way back from Palermo, the ticket guy came through and told me to take my feet off the seat in front of me because my shoes were dirty. I did, but if I knew Italian I would've told him that the seat was way dirtier than my shoes were (it was an older train and everything had a brown tint to it). I think he just wanted to complain or be mean about something. Anyways, forgetting to validate a ticket or getting on the wrong train doesn't go over too well with these guys, so hopefully we never mess up!

No onto the buses! The only buses I had taken until this weekend were to and from places, not inside a city, if that makes sense. I think the buses are even more confusing than the trains to be honest. First off, they are never on time. I think I've left once on time. Second, they have a million stops, none of which are marked, so again, you have to know where to get off, which is difficult if you're headed to a city you've never been to before. Usually we just get off when everyone else gets off as that's a good sign the bus is done traveling. Or we eavesdrop and figure out where other people are going and then get off with the people headed to same place as us. The Catania bus stop actually makes a lot of sense. They have designated slots where the buses pull in, so you know when to get off, and you know which bus to get on.

Buses sometimes take longer because at smaller stops, there isn't a ticket office, so passengers pay the driver. So we have to wait for the driver to make change, etc.

Palermo was the first time we had ridden a bus in a city, and it was extremely confusing! We figured out which bus to get on and how to change buses after I asked the ticket guy. On buses within the city, you also have to validate the ticket like you would on a train. After we bought the tickets, we validated them, and then hopped on the bus. We changed buses just fine and made it to Monreale. They never once took our tickets, so we thought, well, we'll just go back on the same tickets! We got lucky, because it doesn't really work that way, but they never checked our tickets on the way back either. We finally saw a sign on the bus, and we had a bought a ticket for a specified amount of time (ours was for 2 hours). We then validated the ticket, and at that moment, the two hours began. If anyone had bothered to check our tickets for the ride back from Monreale, they would've seen that our tickets were no longer good (although we thought they were for the longest time). We were lucky, though, as the bus was crowded and the guy didn't seem too interested in checking tickets, and I'm guessing they never check tickets on the bus as it would be mass confusion and a waste of time. In Palermo, there is the driver and then a serviceman, so as soon as you get on the bus, you can buy your ticket from the serviceman, and then validate it on one of the machines on the bus. But, the bus has three doors, so you can climb on in the back, and if the bus is crowded, the serviceman would never notice. In fact, four teenagers climbed on through the back door, and they never bought a ticket. Even if the serviceman sees you, there's a good chance you have a valid ticket from earlier. Still, it was nervewracking when I realized halfway through the trip that we didn't have a valid ticket.

Anyways, that's the transportation here. I'm sure it makes more sense to people who live here, and I really wish we had more public transportation back in the states as it's a lot easier (minus the validation part). And I'm sure I'll be confused with transportation again once I head up to North Italy. :) This was probably a boring blog for most of you, so I'll try to think of something more interesting for tomorrow. A domani!