Well I made it to Sicily quite easily. they kicked everyone off the boat around 7am and then I started my epic journey to find the hostel I was staying in. The directions were awful and to make a long story short I went entirely the wrong way and had to catch the bus all the way back to the other end of the line. By the time I found the hostel and made it up the two flights of stairs with my back pack on I was not feeling very nice. I got into the reception and came across as v. peeved with the receptionist when I told her the directions from the dock were very poor. She got peeved back at me since she apparently wrote them for the website.
I got into my room dumped my stuff then went out forraging for food because I still hadnt had brekkie. After filling my stomach (gawd I would just love to have a simple fruit salad or steamed veggies at the moment) I took the map the receptionist gave me and headed up the road to the old castle that now houses the Sicilian parliament. That part was OK but the best was the Byzantine church next door. Even though the church was under restoration it still made a very big impression. The gold mosiacs on the wall covered everything and were very beautiful. After this I went back down the road towards the hostel and dropped in on a church. I think it was supposed to be significant in some way but frankly I have never been in as many churches in my life as I have in the last few weeks and it takes alot to make me see the differences.
After the church I was feeling v.v. tired from my trek so thought i should go back to the hostel and have a nanna nap since I figured that all the sights are v. close to the hostel itself so I could come out that afternoon. Three hours of sleep later I woke up and thought oh well everything can wait. Eventually i had to eat though so I headed off down Via Vittoria Emanuelle. Very seedy at night so I wont be going back there.
today I got up reasonably early and headed off down the road to Theatro Massimo to check out their famous opera house. All very lovely and the tour guide did it in Italian so I cant tell you any interesting facts. After that I accidently stumbled across some markets - once I went down the laneway I realised that they went on forever!! It turns out that if you go in further you get to the main fish, fruit and veg markets for Palermo. I thought it was great and enjoyed the atmosphere there immensely - all the shouting and dickering that went on was great. I subsequently went into a church just off the markets because it was mentioned in the guidebooks as being a bit goofy with marble. They were right in their quotes - it was way too weird for me. It was marble gone mad!!
From here I wandered down the road a bit more and went towards the docks where there was supposed to be a nice exotic garden according to the receptionist at the hostel. All it was was a park with a few palm trees around it. Since palms are something I frequently see in Brissy I didnt stay for very long and didnt find it that exotic.
This arvo I might just cruise and go and do some washing because tomorrow I plan to go about 8km out of town to see Mont Reale.
Ciao
I got into my room dumped my stuff then went out forraging for food because I still hadnt had brekkie. After filling my stomach (gawd I would just love to have a simple fruit salad or steamed veggies at the moment) I took the map the receptionist gave me and headed up the road to the old castle that now houses the Sicilian parliament. That part was OK but the best was the Byzantine church next door. Even though the church was under restoration it still made a very big impression. The gold mosiacs on the wall covered everything and were very beautiful. After this I went back down the road towards the hostel and dropped in on a church. I think it was supposed to be significant in some way but frankly I have never been in as many churches in my life as I have in the last few weeks and it takes alot to make me see the differences.
After the church I was feeling v.v. tired from my trek so thought i should go back to the hostel and have a nanna nap since I figured that all the sights are v. close to the hostel itself so I could come out that afternoon. Three hours of sleep later I woke up and thought oh well everything can wait. Eventually i had to eat though so I headed off down Via Vittoria Emanuelle. Very seedy at night so I wont be going back there.
today I got up reasonably early and headed off down the road to Theatro Massimo to check out their famous opera house. All very lovely and the tour guide did it in Italian so I cant tell you any interesting facts. After that I accidently stumbled across some markets - once I went down the laneway I realised that they went on forever!! It turns out that if you go in further you get to the main fish, fruit and veg markets for Palermo. I thought it was great and enjoyed the atmosphere there immensely - all the shouting and dickering that went on was great. I subsequently went into a church just off the markets because it was mentioned in the guidebooks as being a bit goofy with marble. They were right in their quotes - it was way too weird for me. It was marble gone mad!!
From here I wandered down the road a bit more and went towards the docks where there was supposed to be a nice exotic garden according to the receptionist at the hostel. All it was was a park with a few palm trees around it. Since palms are something I frequently see in Brissy I didnt stay for very long and didnt find it that exotic.
This arvo I might just cruise and go and do some washing because tomorrow I plan to go about 8km out of town to see Mont Reale.
Ciao
posted by Toni Black at 1:27 PM
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