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Spring Break Part 4: Catania

Taylor and I arrived in Catania late last night like at 11pm and we walked to our hostel which was like a 20 minute walk from the station. We walked along the board walk and a few rotundas and side streets to get to where our hostel was. It was interesting because Catania is a party city, and at one point we walked by this high-end classy club where everyone was wearing suits and nice dresses.

We checked in our hostel which had a huge restaurant next to it and there was a LOT of people. But once we got into our hostel it was nice. Taylor and I's room was tiny and had a bunk bed and a great ensuite bathroom! It was comfortable sleeping in the bed. Our window looks down at train tracks and walls. So trains go by every so often. Once we checked in, we also booked a Mt. Etna tour for Sunday and to our surprise it was only 50€ for a half-day tour.

Here was our room:




We took turns for showers and went to bed since we were getting up early-ish for breakfast - tea and bread with jam again, and for the Mt. Etna tour. And this tour really turned out to be the most wonderful trip/tour.

We met our tour guide in the lobby of our hostel, and another girl who was going with us named Chandra, who turned out to be an Australian hairdresser residing in the UK and was currently in her second month of solo traveling. I want to say that's gonna be me in a few years, not counting the hairdressing bit. We also picked up a middle-aged Italian couple (Lorenzina and Carlo) at a different hotel who spoke pretty decent English and oh my gosh they were the most cutest couple I have ever seen. They were so in love with each other and so goofy together! They also had an interesting story - Carlo was married when they met and he divorced so they could be together. Not gonna lie - I'm glad that was the case because they were so perfect together.

Anyway, our tour guide had a four wheel jeep wrangler and he took us out of Catania. Just outside Catania, we stopped at a bar for coffee and pastries... and to my surprise, he treated all of us! I got a cappuccino and a strawberry pastry, and I can't thank him enough for his kindness. After the bar stop, our guide took out the map and showed us where we were going to go. We all climbed back inside the car and headed for the volcano.








We arrived at our starting point and our tour guide gave me hiking boots, a warm jacket and a beanie hat to keep me comfortable since it gets colder up there!


And then we were off! (Lots of pictures to follow)















Along the trek, we picked up a German girl who got lost and she just joined our group after our insistence. Her name is Leandra and she knew very basic English. She seemed to be my age and I think she was traveling solo for a while. With her, we all climbed down the side until we reached solid ground instead of ash and headed down a trail back to the jeep.



We drove to this cliffside rest stop that had a restaurant and because I was feeling faint during the trek and Lorenzina's snacks of breadsticks and chocolate helped a little, I got a LOT of food (though small each - a panini, cannolo, some other things. Lorenzina let me have some of her beer too. I also didn't realize that most of the price is being covered by the tour guide and the couple and I only owed them 10 euros. Have I ever mentioned how nice they are?!






After eating, we climbed up this hill that was right next to the restaurant and then all of the sudden we got bombarded by snow! We could feel the sudden drop in temperature right before it hit and the wind was so strong I felt like I was gonna fall off the hill. We then climbed down and saw a caldera on our way back to the jeep.







We got back into the jeep once again because now were we going to check out a lava tube! We were given helmets with lights attached to it. And so, we drove to this area that looked pretty flat, until I saw a hole in the ground. We jumped down inside and our tour guide told us how it formed and such close to the entrance.










 Lorenzina jumped in and hugged me for a photo. She's so cute!

We found out that Carlo was claustrophobic so he couldn't go far and had to exit the tube. When we were inside deeper, Lorenzina and the tour guide went back to make sure Carlo is okay since he cannot be alone on this tour. Meanwhile, us kids decided to check out further inside the lava tube!!! It was pretty freaking cool and my camera was the only one of all our cameras that could capture decent pictures in the dark with flash.







We exited the tube and then we were off to go back to Catania. Instead of the normal way going down the roads, our tour guide took the completely OFF ROAD way all the way back to the highway. It was ridiculously bumpy but hilarious.



 
And then we were back in Catania. Turns out Leandra, the German girl, was also from our hostel! What a coincidence. We were expecting to get dropped off but the Lorenzina, Carlo and the tour guide decided we should stick together a little longer and we all got drinks and chatted for a while. And then it was time to go.

 I just realized now that Taylor is toasting my drink here too along with his, haha. :)

Afterwards, Taylor and I walked around Catania and saw some monuments and churches. We're into stuff like that since we like to admire history and architecture. I'm really glad that this is one of the many things we have in common together, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to see so much of things!




 

For dinner, we ate dinner at this place called MiniPizza, where we literally got our own mini pizzas and I got a bottle of Heineken and they were only 1€!!! Sicily is so cheap! Usually they are 6 or 7€. One of these days I'll get Italian beer...



We headed back to our room and watched the movie Troy on Taylor's laptop and turned in for the night.

The next morning we slept in a little and got up to check out the fish market!






A delicacy in Sicily is horse meat. And no, I didn't eat any. I also saw a lot of goats and pigs chopped in half in display - you could see their skull, brains, other organs and bones by the way they cut them in half. It was sad!!! I don't particularly like seeing that since I really like animals. But I was watching a couple young guys chopping up pigs and they were smiling and kinda showing off to me their skills in cutting.

Taylor and I stopped at one of the stalls to look at some fish and I asked what one particular batch was and they were baby anchovies! The vendor scooped some up and let me try some and so I did. It didn't really taste like anchovies - it was actually kind of good??? Then another vendor across from us joined us and put the baby anchovies on top of this red circular piece of food. He offered it to Taylor but he didn't want it, so I took it. I thought it was tomato.


Turns out it was pepper. And it was the hottest thing I ever had in my life. It felt like I was on FIRE. I couldn't breathe nor feel my tongue. It was so bad even the vendors felt bad for me! They kept giving my pieces of food to alleviate the heat like carrots and mushrooms and made Taylor buy me water. Shame Taylor didn't capture the whole thing on video. He stopped it JUST as I ate it.

After I calmed down and I was checking out the swordfish, the same vendor just handed me two gigantic butcher knives for me to play with and took pictures for me. A lot of locals and people in the other vendors were smiling and watching me and Taylor joke around and chat with the two vendors we just kind of befriended.

It was such a funny personal experience with the locals. It's not something you'd get on tours. It's one of the reasons why I rather book stuff on my own and make the best out of it. Either your heart or your own two feet can bring you to the best places. Not those tour buses or anything like that. You make your own trip and the experiences you'll have will come out in a brilliant way to keep in your memories for years to come. Actually, I'm not very good at being philosophical but here's a quote: "We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls." - Anaïs Nin





After checking the fish market out, we came back and checked out of the hostel and put our bags in luggage storage and we went off to check out the remaining monuments we wanted to see like the Roman Theater, and Castello Ursino, and then grabbed lunch.



 Roman Theater.



Suddenly in San Francisco?




Castello Ursino

Unfortunately, no photos allowed in here. But there's really neat historical artifacts from the turn of the 1st and 2nd century (if I remember dates right).

 We headed back to the hotel to get our stuff and Taylor and I went to the bus stop area. We had to split up here. I was taking the bus to the airport while Taylor was heading to the train station to continue his spring break in Syracuse, Agrigento and Palermo. Since he was going solo, I got overly worried and made him message me whenever he arrives at each city! I checked five times making sure the bus I took was going to the airport. I arrived there quicker than I thought and I had 4 hours to kill. It was so early that there was an earlier flight to Rome I could've taken! But I didn't know how to change tickets and I don't think that was possible anyway... so I waited.

In hindsight, I shouldn't have left so early... but I probably wouldn't have spent my last hour relaxing in the terminal and then seeing Lorenzina and Carlo from the Mt. Etna in the same terminal!!! It was so funny. At one point I looked up and I saw Lorenzina and I was so surprised! And so was she - she tilted her head in confusion realizing it was me and started hitting Carlo to point at me! Turns out we were taking the same flight home, so they made me sit between them before boarding and chatting. We exchanged email addresses to exchange photos from the Mt. Etna tour, which I will do later this week.

Last view of Catania. In the day, you would've seen Mt. Etna right at the edge there.

So I finally landed in Rome by 10 PM, a little later than I had hoped and after taking the train to Trastevere, I found out the trams weren't running so I asked a businessman to translate the tiny paper sign that explains why the trams weren't running - I couldn't translate the bit where the buses were. He helped me out and we both ran to the bus stop when we saw it arriving. As soon as I got back, I was so ready to sleep... until I found out that my group from my management class did absolutely nothing for homework. UGH. It's always up to me to make sure our group assignments are done. So stressful. I was finally able to sleep after getting it mostly done and had to get up early to complete it and post it for our teacher.

And thus, spring break draws to a close.

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