Shay's Italia Adventures: SICHLLYA

Hey guys, so last weekend we had such a relaxing time in Sicily! It was a quick trip that started Friday night. Jess and I (along with nine others) headed to the Torino airport on Friday night to catch our flight to Trapani, Sicily. We were so excited, but also needed to be slightly careful as Sicily is where many of the refugees from Libya were being transported. We finally get into Trapani (after yet another delayed RyanAir flight) and it is nice and warm. We got to our hostel which was very nice and just headed straight to bed.

The next day we woke up and headed to Palermo. It was a bigger city and had nicer beaches so we took about a 2 and a half hour bus along the water to get there....SO PRETTY. We reached our hostel after sweating for the entire thirty minute walk and changed into our swim suits. After yet another bus ride (Sicily is really spread out) we reached the most beautiful beach I have seen maybe ever. It seriously looked like a Corona commercial. We naturally got hot dogs before laying out in our swim suits (not sure what the thought process was there) got a few beers and laid out for hours and hours. I couldn't believe I was actually in the Mediterranean Sea. The water was pretty freezing so we just went knee deep but some of the boys went for a swim. It was an incredible day and we stayed out until it started to get cold. After heading back into Palermo we separated and went out to dinner. We had an INCREDIBLE sea food pasta dinner and Jess and I split a huge appetizer of calamari and prawns. It was such an awesome meal. We finally finished dinner and decided we had to get desert so we got cannolis, as Sicily is where they are originally from. Let me please tell you that they were absolutely unreal. I could eat one every day, twice a day. We met up with the rest of the crew at our somewhat sketchy hostel and decided to go out for a few drinks. We ended up at a karaoke bar right next door where everyone was singing in Italian. We asked if they had English songs and ended up singing "Sweet Child of Mine, Barbie Girl, and Total Eclipse of the Heart." It was quite a mash up. We stopped at a few more bars and then headed back to our hostel that looked like it was from the movie "Hostel."

Sunday we woke up and decided to just go straight for lunch. We went to a pretty good pizza place that happened to be on one of the main streets. There was actually a marathon going on so that was pretty cool to see. Actually, it was tough to see people in such amazing shape as we are stuffing our faces with pizza and cannolis. We wandered around a couple markets and did some shopping. I have found a new addiction for sunglasses so had to buy some. Afterward we got back on the bus, and headed for Trapani, as that was were our flight was out of. The whole weekend we were joking around looking at the locals saying, "He's totally in the mob. Look at that guy, I think he's the real Godfather, etc." It was funny because most locals seriously looked like mobsters. Once back in Trapani we had a couple hours at the airport to kill. We realized we were heading out of there at the right time because all these military jets were landing in Trapani, due to the situation in Libya. It was an amazing weekend but time to go. We were sad we were only there for 2 days but it was definitely worth it.

Sicily was absolutely beautiful and so much different than northern Italy. I love how each region in Italy has its own dialect, different styles of food and culture, and is just different in general. It makes you want to try everything new in each place. I could definitely visit Sicily (Sicilia, pronounced sichillya by the Italians) again. It was so warm and beautiful!

So what's up next? BARCELONA IN 2 DAYS. I am so stoked, I can't even wait. We are going with some of the people we traveled with on spring break and are just going to do/see it all. I am really trying to keep in touch with everyone via e-mail or skype but forgive me if I am not doing the best job! It's kinda tough with such bad Internet at our apartment. I miss you all (and 'Merica) mucho! Until next week....ADIOS MUCHACHOS!!