Arrival in Palermo

Coach from Parker’s Piece at 3.40 am, arrive Stansted at 4.35, checking in luggage for the 6.35 (?) flight. I had plenty of time, and had to wait near the screens for the gate to be announced. I made my way there, and was quite a way up in the queue at the gate. The flight left without incident, and while I tried to sleep, I failed, mostly due to the posh couple beside me having an academic conversation about Cambridge colleges.

Arrived at Palermo airport at 10 am. I was excited to see palm trees and a billboard advertising a cous cous festival. The airport was very small, and suspiciously quiet. The train into the city left at 11am, after waiting for about 15 minutes, and the journey hugged the coast, giving me views of small houses scattered between olive plantations, and a LOT of mountains. The train arrived at 12 pm after stopping in the middle of nowhere a few times. I had a good memory of the map that I’d studied, but couldn’t find anyone to give me an actual map of the city, so made off in the direction that I expected Via Roma to be. Turns out I was lucky, but crossing the road was a major mission!

I walked up Via Roma, dodging people the whole way, until I found Via Vittorio Emmanuele. I turned left as the directions had told me, but didn’t find the hotel. I sorted the numbers out, and realised that I had to be another block up. I found the entrance to the hotel, which had a building site on the ground floor, and walked up the marble steps, not expecting anything very good for my €16 per night. I was surprised when it was nicely decorated, and the woman on the desk spoke good English. I managed to cancel the two nights I wanted to spend in Catania, and paid my bill on the spot. The room was very nice, and I was sharing with another girl, Melinda, from New York, who seemed very nice. She went out soon after I got there, taking the only key with her.

I went out without being able to lock the door, and went in search of cash. I couldn’t get any out of the machine for some reason. I got some gelato, pistacchi and bacio, and took it to eat at the forbidden fountain – it was delicious. I texted Andrew to let him know that I’d arrived. I then walked down Via Vittorio Emmanuele to the sea, past the marina and across the main road to a park, from which I could see Monte Pellegrino. There were cool tiled ‘sunbeds’, which I sat on for a while. I then walked along the shore to Via Lincoln, then up past the dodgy clothes shops to the Mercato Ballaro markets. Most of them had shut, but I managed to get €2 of olives, which was a huge bag considering that they were €5 a kilo. I also got bread, ham and juice.

I walked back to the hotel, had a little to eat, and had a nap at 5pm. Melinda came back in, turned the light on in my face, and went out again, locking me in! I stayed in bed for a while longer, contemplating calling reception to let me out. Melinda came back around 8pm, though, with a stack of food, which she offered to share with me in recompense for locking me in. I had a shower, did some planning, and went to bed properly at 10.30. As we were trying to go to sleep, a guy with a piano accordion started playing the theme from The Godfather under the window. Very appropriate.