We plan to spend the next 4 weeks travelling around Sicily - the island of hot summers, lemon everything, the mafia and a touch of African influence into the Italian culture.
From one mafia stricken city to another, an exhaustive travel day led us to the land of the black trench coated mafia - Sicily! The hostel (which was a Grechy recommendation) had an excellent location next to a huge fresh food market which stocked everything and anything! It also had a great restaurant/bar that at 11pm on the dot, filled with 200-250 locals who ate, drank and were very merry.
As the temperature hit a soaring 35 degrees, we spent the next 2 days at a private beach - Aci Castello, where we had all day use of the sun beds, showers, umbrellas, pool and assorted luxury items for a reasonable 7 euro per person. The beach itself is made up of black basalt rock from Mt. Etna - a massive volcano sitting behind Catania. The turquoise water was super warm but had a series of random ice cold patches coming from some volcanic fissures. It was quite exhilarating hitting one of these patches but was a welcome relief from the heat!
First stop - Catania.
CATANIA 28/8 - 1/9/07
From one mafia stricken city to another, an exhaustive travel day led us to the land of the black trench coated mafia - Sicily! The hostel (which was a Grechy recommendation) had an excellent location next to a huge fresh food market which stocked everything and anything! It also had a great restaurant/bar that at 11pm on the dot, filled with 200-250 locals who ate, drank and were very merry.
After dropping our bags off and heading to the bar we were approached by about 10 young Sicilians who were mostly studying medicine at the local uni. They turned out to be awesome people who were very interested in talking to some Australians about life, love and of course.... the football! The Grechy lookalike was an absolute classic bloke who had us in stitches! We shared many a laugh and hope to see them again in Australia where we can repay their hospitality! Saluti!!
As the temperature hit a soaring 35 degrees, we spent the next 2 days at a private beach - Aci Castello, where we had all day use of the sun beds, showers, umbrellas, pool and assorted luxury items for a reasonable 7 euro per person. The beach itself is made up of black basalt rock from Mt. Etna - a massive volcano sitting behind Catania. The turquoise water was super warm but had a series of random ice cold patches coming from some volcanic fissures. It was quite exhilarating hitting one of these patches but was a welcome relief from the heat!
We found a beer stand which sold the local brew for 1 euro a bottle next to a great little park. We sat next to the fountain with the locals and contemplated life in the true Italian way!
The locals didn't start eating until at least 10pm. We couldn't resist the smell coming from a BBQ cooking fresh meat from the market. After a 10 minute explanation of his assortment (all in Italian) we Si, Si'd our way to 2 mouthwatering 'steak' sandwiches. They could go down as one of the best things I have ever eaten! It wasn't until several hours later that our local mates informed us that it was actually horse! They couldn't understand the look of astonishment on our faces...... eating Phar Lap?? Tastes better than it sounds!
MOC MOC AWARD - The springs in all the bunk beds in the hostel were the loudest springs in the world! The only thing that was louder was the express train zooming past our window early each morning! And the only thing more annoying than the noise was constantly getting eaten alive by the mossies.
FOOTNOTE - The people, location, 2 for 1 drinks and everything else about the hostel was fantastic!
1 comment:
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