Weekend trip to Palermo

Ciao tutti!

I apologize for the lack of posting yesterday. I know you were all wondering if I got kidnapped by the Mafia in Palermo. No - I didn't even see the Mafia (the point is not to know who is a mafioso, so you're not supposed to see them). The school had an impromptu film showing yesterday, so the computer room was occupied.

I must begin by bragging a bit. Clay and I headed to Palermo by ourselves. We had no one with us who spoke fluent Italian, which is a first for an entire weekend trip. Yet we managed to survive! We left Saturday morning at 6:15 a.m. to walk down the steps and catch the train to Palermo. When I told the Ferraris we were taking the train, I was informed that the bus would've been faster. Oh well. Live and learn. The train left at 7 a.m., but we then had to catch a connecting train in Messina. The connecting train was late, and there was some confusion. Based on our experiences this weekend, I have decided to dedicate tomorrow's blog to everything transportation. So, I will hold off explaining this until later.

We finally arrived in Palermo at 12:45 p.m. We really had to use the bathroom (I'm not quite sure why we didn't go on the 5 hour train ride), and we were starved. We headed off to find a quick hot table with a bathroom. We finally found a hot table, but without a bathroom, so we ate quickly. Then headed back to the train station to use the bathroom. You might be wondering now why we didn't go while we were at the train station. Well, good question. The cities here are great at ripping people off, and in order to use the bathroom at most train stations, you must pay. Yes, you read that right - you must pay to use the restroom. At the Messina station, you pay .50 euro. But Palermo makes you pay a whole euro. By the end of the weekend I had wasted about 3 euro to use the bathrooms.

After all the bathroom/eating/late train situations, it was about 1:30 p.m. We had initially thought we would stay in Palermo for the day and return late at night. At this point, though, I realized that we would need to stay the night. We then bought a bus ticket for Monreale, the first must-see sight in Palermo. It had been recommended to us by several people. I'm actually very surprised we made it up there, considering I wasn't entirely sure what the ticket guy told me about changing buses and where. Still, we got up there.

I believe Monreale is technically a separate town from Palermo, but it's only about 10 minutes away by bus. The biggest attraction there is the cathedral. Most of the Cathedral has been rebuilt over time, but some of it remains intact from when it was first built, which was around 1170. To learn more about it, you visit Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monreale. I have been sending folks to Wikipedia since there's a good chance it's not always completely accurate. But I know I can get a link there, and if you want to do more research on your own, you can. Anyways, it is my understanding that the interior architecture and art in the Cathedral is still intact, which means that what I saw was made back around 1200!! The interior is absolutely gorgeous, and I will upload pictures to dropshots.com/sebrock for everyone to enjoy!

Let me back up here for a minute, though. When we got off the bus in Monreale, we first went into the door that seemed to be the obvious entrance. It had a sign (that we didn't stop to read), and the door was open. Turns out this place was really an art museum. Through the windows, we kept seeing people in the courtyard of the church, but we couldn't figure out how to get down there. We finally left the deserted museum, and on the way out, read the sign that said the building was an art museum. We then walked around the entire church looking for the entrance. There was the large gate, but it was closed. We found a walkway into a courtyard, but from there, we couldn't get into the courtyard we had seen from the museum. On our second time around, we noticed some confused Asian tourists who had found a small door in the corner between the church and the museum. Turns out, this is where we had to buy tickets. With our tickets we went into the courtyard and walked around. It was neat, but from there, we couldn't find any door to get inside. We figured out the church must be closed off to the public. At this point, we were really disappointed. Not only had we been ripped off at the bus station, but we had now paid 6 euro to walk around a dumb courtyard.

We went back outside and decided to catch the bus back. Outside there were a ton of people in the square, and we soon realized why - the church opened in 10 minutes! So we could get inside, and in fact, that's what our tickets were for! We were very thankful we hadn't given up any of the million times we thought for sure there was no entrance or way to get inside. But, the inside was well worth the trouble! The interior is decorated incredibly. I honestly can't even begin to describe how gorgeous everything was. Hopefully the pictures look good enough.

A guy was playing the organ while we were in there, and the music was gorgeous. After snapping lots of pictures, we just sat and enjoyed the music for awhile. I should also note another way they rip people off here. The church is dark inside, and while there are windows, it was an overcast day, so it was difficult to get pictures. After we had been inside for about 10 minutes, I noticed some lights come on in different parts of the Cathedral, but only for a few minutes. As it turns out, you can put one euro into a machine to light up different areas of the church for three minutes. So once you get in, you can't even get pictures unless you pay more! Or, you can wait for other people to put in money, which is what we did. Anyways, that's a total rip off if you ask me.

After enjoying the church, we left and waited at what we thought was the bus stop. We then found the real bus stop. But after waiting there for another 15 minutes, I finally noticed the large sign that said the bus doesn't stop there after a certain time. A nice man came and told us where it picked up and took us down there. We then rode the bus back (possibly for free due to our confusion, which I will explain in tomorrow's transportation blog).

At this point, it was about 5:15 p.m. We had hardly seen anything in the city, but we didn't have a reservation anywhere. I had thankfully written down the names of a few cheap hotels. We decided to try two or three, and if we couldn't find an affordable room, we'd catch the last train back to Taormina, which left at 6:30. Without much time, we booked it to the first hotel on the list. We walked in and I asked for a double room in Italian, or so I thought. He looked at me funny, and then I just took out all the words except double room (which actually means room with two beds). The man made me feel real stupid then when in perfect English he said, "Oh, you must be looking for a room." No, really?? Why else would I have walked into your hotel?? To chit-chat?? Anyways, I know my Italian is bad, but seriously, he had to have understood at least something. He obviously didn't care much about letting me practice, though, as he just spoke to us in English. He offered us a room for exactly the price Clay and I had agreed would be our maximum. After we agreed to the room, we saw the floor plan and realized we had the largest room, and the only one with a private bathroom. We could have found another room with a shared bathroom for cheaper, but it was too late. Oh well, our room was fine. It was a one-star hotel, but it wasn't too bad, and there was a futon and a bed. It was off of a main road, though, so we didn't sleep well with all the noise (my room back here in Taormina seems incredibly peaceful now after the streets of Palermo).

After a successful day navigating the city and finding the hotel, we decided to treat ourselves to a sit-down dinner. We found a real cute restaurant near the hotel, so we stopped there to eat. Normally when I head into a situation where I know I'll need Italian, I practice the question ahead of time, but I forgot to get my words ready before we walked in, so when we got there, I just stared at the waiter. I naturally assumed they would ask if we wanted to sit down, but instead they stared back. Again, I wanted to say - why do you think we're here?? To get a haircut?? Anyways, Clay and I started stuttering to figure out what we wanted to say, and then again, I was made to feel stupid when the host/waiter started speaking in slow English to us while using "sign language." I wanted to tell him I wasn't deaf, but I didn't know that word in Italian. Oh well. I suppose I can't expect everyone to be patient and let me practice my Italian on them. Some people are busy and just don't have the time, so I suppose it's quicker for them to speak in English. I hear we'll run into this a lot when we head to Venice, Florence and Rome. I should also mention that twice now when someone realizes I'm not Italian, they ask if I'm French. Not quite sure why, and I've never met someone whose French, so I don't even know if I look French.

Anyways, dinner was absolutely fantastic. The rain had held off all day, but it finally came pouring down during dinner. We actually ate outside, but it was covered, so we got to enjoy the rain instead of getting soaked. After an early start to the day, I was exhausted, so we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep (in my clothes as I hadn't brought anything to stay the night).
We got up the next morning and headed to the Catacombs. This was quite an interesting experience to say the least. Apparently the Capuchin monastery outgrew the cemetery around the 16th century, so in order to accommodate the dead friars, they excavated below and stuck them down in the Catacombs. Then, people who weren't church officials were buried there as a sort of status symbol. Anyways, there's loads of dead people down there, and about half of them aren't in coffins or anything. So we walk down, and what do a I see? Thousands of decomposed bodies hanging on the wall. The clothes were really well preserved, and a few of the bodies actually still had skin on them that had somehow managed to preserve really well. Their faces were definitely creepy though. Even though it was just skulls, they all had different expressions. Some of them even looked afraid, or sad, as if maybe they knew they were about to die. Or maybe it's just creepy because I was walking around in a crypt. Anyways, I really wanted to take some pictures (at first), but I wasn't supposed to. There were signs every few feet asking that you not take pictures because it was a sacred place that should be respected. I had a problem believing this, mainly because the folks in charge of the Catacombs had clearly moved the bodies, and propped them up for display. And now they let people just walk through and stare at them, so how sacred could it be? I think the main reason they don't want you to take pictures is because when you finish, the friar tries to sell you brochures with pictures on it. Since there were security cameras, I couldn't snap even one photo, and in hindsight, I'm not quite sure I want a bunch of pictures of decomposed bodies. Interestingly enough, there wasn't a single sign that said "Don't touch," and most of the bodies weren't in boxes or behind glass, so if I wanted, I could have touched one. No worries, I did not once have the desire to touch one of the bodies.

After the catacombs, we walked around the city. Palermo reminded me a lot of Atlanta, except with more dog poop and less homeless people. But the feel of the city, the noise, the buildings and cars all had the same feel as Atlanta. After walking down to the port, we decided we were ready to head back to Taormina, so we headed to the train station. Unfortunately, it was only noon, and the next train didn't leave until 3 p.m. We sat and ate for awhile, and then we just played Sicilian cards to fill the time until the train arrived. A man near us saw us playing Italian cards, and gave us the thumbs-up sign, which we thought was cool.

There was more mass confusion to get on the 3 p.m. train, which again I'll explain later. The ride home was nice, though, as I got to see much of the landscape that I had missed on Saturday because I was sleeping :) Our train was late getting into Taormina, and we met up with some other students at the bus stop. We decided to split the cost of the taxi, especially since I was already late for dinner at this point, and my phone wouldn't put me through to the Ferraris.

It was a whirlwind trip, but I absolutely loved it. I bet Palermo is a fun city to live in. There seemed to be tons to do and see. Plus, the stores are way cheaper than Taormina.

Back at the Ferraris, we have a full house! Two English boys moved in while I was gone. They are 17 years old, and while they are very very nice, they really make me appreciate my little sister. Hannah can be messy, yes, but she's never once left the toilet seat up! Last night, a Japanese woman moved in as well, so there are now four of us on my floor, and Gerhard is downstairs in the private room, so that makes five us all together. The English boys and Japanese woman leave this weekend, so peace and quiet will return to the Ferrari house next week. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the chaos!

Ok, this is long enough. A domani!