Two stories in one

My first trip abroad, I went more consciously in a sense that I started dreaming about travelling, was a trip organized by a travel agency. I think that time I wasn’t ready not only for backpacking I wasn’t even aware about different possibilities of travelling, such as buying cheapest flights or booking hotels by yourself, or even planning the whole trip by yourself. I suppose I had to grow up to such ways of travelling. Anyway, during that trip from a travel agency which should be considered as boring I experienced two interesting stories, not so funny that time.

It was in 2008. My mother and I went to Sicily, to a small village near Trabia, around 20 km east of Palermo. It was the seven day trip only and we wanted to see as much as possible, not spending a lot of money on the other hand, so we bought two package tours: Lipari Islands (Aeolian Islands) and Unknown Sicily, leaving some money for a train to Palermo.

San Nicola d'Arena

The Aeolian Islands or Lipari Islands are a volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily, named after the demigod of the winds – Aeolus. To get there we were driven in a bus and then in a ferry. Just after getting to the bus I noticed a bus driver looking at me almost constantly. I was smiling to him, because in my naivety or innocence I thought it was due to my appearance. It was nice, but in way also disturbing.

On the way to Lipari

There wasn’t that kind of situation in the ferry, so I easily admired the beauty of the sea and rocks during two hour cruise to Lipari, the biggest island, to the main town called the same – Lipari. There we went for a walk around the city to just see how locals live. After the walk and coffee we were taken to Vulcano, another island, where my mother went to see how volcano looks like inside and to smell sulfur. I stayed on a black beach.

Lipari

A view from Vulcano

In the next day we went for the second tour. We were driven to Gratteri, where we noticed only old people living there, the Sanctuary of Gibilmanna, where the bus driver wrote a message to a tour guide asking her for telling his greetings for me aloud, and then to Castelbuono, a town especially famous for the castle which its name derives, and around which the city grew up in the 14th century. At the end we ate traditional dinner with great food.

The bus driver didn’t stop writing… So the last night I went for a date with him. I don’t know what I expected that time. I suppose – just a nice chat with a local. But… he had different expectations. He thought I was a sex tourist and the sentence “Je t’aime” would open all gates. He made a mistake, but I needed to explain it strongly and it took me a few hours!

The second story is connected with a train. To get to Palermo we had tried twice. For the first time we had waited for almost two hours and every train had been cancelled what we had learned waiting for any. The second try was more successful. We decided to go one of the earliest train with school children. But there was a problem with tickets…

There was no cash desk or cash box at the train station. You could only buy tickets in a town, in the shop located not so near the train station. I was aware that we could pay a fine, but decided to try to buy tickets from a conductor as we can do it in Poland. I made a mistake. I had a huge argument with the conductor who had not been speaking English at all, wanted to give me 100 euros fine or call the police. I don’t know how I managed to convince her and a helping girl, but we didn’t pay any fine at the end. But it was close and hot in the same time!

Somewhere in Palermo. I have lots of bad photos, a few without me and my mother or with a quite good shot... Such a pity I didn't pay attention that time to taking good photos, just for memories!

Despite two adventures I had very good memories of Sicily, maybe because we had a house for only both of us, or maybe because I like Italy and its culture, and I understand explosive characters of Italians, having the similar one. So do you want to fight? Joking!