Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Trip to Malta & Sicily - Part 2

Man, 4:45am came really, really quickly. :/

BUUUUUT, today was the day for Sicily, so we got over our tiredness pretty easily.

There's a company (Virtu Ferries) that not only does just ferry rides from Malta to Sicily, but also guided tours. It was €117 per person for the roundtrip ferry ride, and the all-day guided tour. We chose the "Syracuse & Iblean Gems" trip. MOST people choose the Mt. Etna & Taormina trip. However, we're SO GLAD we chose to do Syracuse. I'll explain why later.

So, we're up at 4:45am, and have to walk over to a nearby hotel, where a van picked us and a few other people up, to take us to the docks. The Virtu Ferry is actually a catamaran, but it's quite large. I think it held almost 500 people, and it had two snack counters, a casino, and a gift shop on the main deck (no telling what was in the "first class" deck). The ferry left at 6:30am, and it's about an hour and a half to get to Sicily (they're only 50 miles apart).





It was a nice enough ferry. We all had breakfast, then James took a nap while Josh & I played Fluxx.

(btw, you must buy Fluxx, if you don't already have it...it is AWESOME)

(btw #2 - I won, 2 out of 3. In your face, Aycock!)

Hokay, so like I said earlier, we chose the Syracuse tour. I had no desire to go see Mt. Etna. Yes, it's famous, blah blah blah. I've seen volcanoes before. Hell, I've seen a volcano erupt before. You've seen one, you've seen all. PLUS, (and we didn't find this out until later), Mt. Etna can be a huge tourist trap. The tour will take you to the mountain, but if you want to go to the top, you have to pay another €20, and if you want to take the cable car up to the VERY top, that's another €20ish per person. No, thank you.

The Etna tours were done on huge double-decker coach buses. I think there were 2 or 3 buses for just the one tour. Ours, being not as popular, was just a regular coach, and we only had 21 people. I was very thankful for that. Plus, our lunch was included (and on the other tours, it wasn’t).

The tours are also multi-lingual. Our tour was English & Russian. Quite a combination, eh? Our tour guide was a woman who was from Moscow, but married to a Sicilian. I guess the area is a hot spot for Russians?? I don’t know, but it was fun to listen to all of ‘em talk....presumably about borscht & Communism....

The first thing we noticed when we got to Sicily is how much drier the air was. It was still warm & sunny, but it was such a relief to not be sweating QUITE as much. Plus, even though it was a pretty dry place, there was a LOT more green around. Weird, since it's only 50 miles from Malta.



Anywho - first stop, Syracuse.


Archimedes Square



The Cathedral of Syracuse on the Piazza Duomo

Have I mentioned before that I hate birds? Ok, I don’t hate birds, but I’m terrified that they’re going to poop on me while they’re flying overhead. There were about a million stupid seagulls flying around the Piazza, and the entire time we’re walking around, I’m doing a side-to-side dance trying to avoid being directly under these stupid things. I must have looked like a crazy person, but I care not....I didn’t get pooped on. (next time we go on a trip, I’m taking an umbrella to hold over myself the entire time we’re outside - I don’t CARE if I look like one of those people).

We went into the Syracuse Church for a little while. It was pretty, but what was really cool were the human bones on display. I’m assuming they were the bones of Saints, but who can read Italian?? (okay, yes, millions of Italians, but I’m not one of ‘em). On second thought, it was probably Latin....same thing, still can't read it.


We had about an hour and a half to kill while in Syracuse. So, what do you do when you’re in Italy? You eat gelato. Never mind that it was 10:30am. Josh had strawberry, I had lemon, and James had chocolate (although apparently James has chocolate gelato once a day in Malta...lush).

I definitely won the flavor contest. The strawberry was good, but the lemon was AWESOME!!! But, it was soooooo lemon-y, that I could only eat about 2/3 of it. Don't care, still worth it.

So, James and I are walking in front of Josh, while we're all eating our gelato. We're walking along the sidewalk on the edge of the city, overlooking the water. We stop to talk about something. James and I turn back to look at Josh.

Hilarity ensues.

Josh is standing there, eating his gelato. He's got it all over his shirt, all over his mustache, all over his CHEEK, dripping down his neck, dripping down his hand. He looks like a hairy 4 year old (or a mentally-challenged adult), trying to eat his ice cream. It was probably the funniest he's ever looked. He looked so pathetic, but so happy at the same time. Of COURSE I didn't get a picture of it, because he had the camera (and I'm pretty sure the camera strap also had gelato on it). Rest assured, it was awesome.

Anyway, we wander around the town some more. Syracuse ended up being Josh's favorite city from the day.







An hour and a half just wasn’t enough time there. Especially since I spent 20 minutes trying to find a bathroom. :/ It was starting to get kinda hot, though, and I could feel myself cooking - so, it was nice to get back on the air conditioned bus (god, I’m such an old lady sometimes....).

After Syracuse, it was on to lunch - although it was another hour and fifteen til we got to our lunch stop. It was a really nice drive thru the Sicilian countryside, though. Our guide talked most of the way (five minutes in English, five minutes in Russian), talking about Sicilian life.





So, as I said, lunch was included. And this was hands-down, the BEST lunch we have EVER had. It was held near the town of Ragusa, outside, by a lake, next to the restaurant. There was also an Italian Harley meet-up going on at the same time. They all seemed pretty drunk (and high - there was definitely some weed smoking going on), and they thought we were the funniest people in the world. Couldn’t understand what they were saying, but I KNOW they were laughing at us. Not in a nasty way, just more of a “haha, look at the crazy gringos!” A bunch of ‘em even let some of the people on our group sit on the bikes to take pictures (insert eye roll here).



Anyway, lunch was by the water. It was all-you-could-eat, and best of all, all-you-could-drink wine. The three of us must have gone thru a whole bottle each. (The Aycocks know how to get their money's worth). First off, antipasto. Plates of spicy olives, sundried tomatoes (love), eggplant caponata (I normally don’t like eggplant, but this was amazing), bread (which actually was the only thing that wasn’t that great), salami, and cheese. Then, they brought out little bread pockets stuffed with onion & cheese. Then, they brought out a sort of stromboli filled with tomato sauce & parsley.

Following that, the pasta course. Penne in tomato sauce with fresh cheese. Now, any of you who know the Mister, knows that he’s not a pasta fan (he doesn’t trust the way it wiggles....his words, not mine). He’s ok with penne, farfalle, angel hair - anything small (he cuts up the angel hair - what was I saying earlier about him being a hairy 4 year old?). So, because this was penne, he was fine with trying it. It was TO DIE FOR!!! He said it was the best pasta he’s ever had, and I think all of us ended up having two helpings of it. It was absolutely amazing, and I’m really upset that we don’t live in Sicily....

Next up - the main course. Although, at this point, We’re all pretty full. First, they come out with platters of sauteed mushrooms, apples, and almonds in a lemony sauce. It was for the meat dish, which was sauteed pork. I was the only vegetarian on the trip, but they still made me a special plate. They brought me a plate full of fresh quartered tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil & sea salt. I was a little upset that I was so full, because good lord was that good....

BTW, we’re still drinking our wine.

Next up, was the dessert. They just brought out baskets of fresh apples & apricots, then if you WANTED, they would bring you some cannoli. We actually didn’t have any of it, we were so full. Blurgh.

It was such a relaxing meal. We chatted a little bit with the English couple (they were from Oxford, so we chatted about that - I did a summer semester at Oxford). Then a puppy came to hang out, and I got irritated with the Russian lady across from me that fed the puppy practically a whole pig’s worth of pork chops from off her plate. :/





We were SO full, and happy, and slightly buzzy, that it was such a drag to get back on the bus. I could have laid in the shade and hung out there all afternoon.

But, it we were on our way to the town Marina di Ragusa. This stop (I think we were there for an hour and a half??) was really just to let people have some beach time. We didn’t have our swimsuits, but we were wearing shorts, so we waded along the beach, people-watching for some time. Josh had never been to the Mediterranean before this trip, so he wanted to be able to say that he’s been in the Mediterranean.



I must admit, I got a little cranky during this stop. Once again, we were trying to find a bathroom. I was trying to find a place to get some water, Josh was trying to find a place to get some cigarettes, and we just started snipping away at each other. BUT, our snips are always very short-lived, so we were soon back to our happy Aycock selves.



Our last stop was Modica. This was my favorite town that we visited in Sicily. This town is situated in a deep valley, with buildings going up both sides of the valley. The sun was down (yes!!!!), and it wasn’t really busy - it was around 6pm on a Sunday night, after all.





First stop was to a gift shop to try some Modica chocolate. This ended up being the best kind chocolate that either of us has either had. There were probably 20 different flavors (peperoncino was our favorite). It’s like a crystallized chocolate, that’s a little crunchy. VERY different, but really good - and I’m not even a chocolate person.




Josh walked up 250 steps to go see this church. I did not.


But, we did then go to this church. Mass was going on, and we stepped inside the door, but then I felt weird because I was in shorts & a tank top, so I left. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - I may be a heathen, but I’m a respectful heathen.

We walked around a little bit longer, stopped into a restaurant to have a rest, and try the local drink (some bitter, orangey liquor cocktail - ick), and it was back to the bus, to go back to the ferry.

The ferry ride back to Malta was not NEAR as nice as the ferry ride to Sicily. There were easily twice as many people, and I think they were all stupid. They were definitely all irritating. But, then the soccer game started on tv, and it calmed down a little bit.



We got back to Malta around 11:30pm. Such a LONG DAY!!!! We grabbed some takeout from a nearby chicken & fry shop. Lexie came over to pick up James to take him back to her place. Josh and I were asleep in bed before they even left the apartment; we were SO EXHAUSTED.

But, man, that trip was awesome. :)

1 comment:

  1. I am so hungry now for that Sicilian lunch. It sounds wonderful! and Sicily sounds wonderful.

    ReplyDelete