keepin the vibe alive

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so, i have finally pinned myself down for long enough to sit and write a new entry. im in sicily at present, i think i mentioned that i was on my way here whilst writing and sitting in that lovely little airport in london. well here i am.

sicily. a town called palermo to be exact. a town where no one speaks english (and i mean no one) and traffic lights act as only a suggestion, not an actual law. beautiful beautiful. there is a magic here, i can feel it. being somewhere so embedded with such an intense culture is a truly stunning thing to behold. how can i even begin to explain what i see when i step out of my hotel every morning? even the everyday, mundane details of life are not mundane here. when sitting at traffic lights, people pray to the madonna. they stop on the street only to gaze up at shrines that have been set up all throughout the city and cross their hand from their head to their heart, then to either side in the shape of a cross on their body. in the majority of the abundant random alleys there are shrines behind glass cases, surrounded by flowers and backed by a picture of the mother mary. religion, catholicism, is a way of life here like i have not experienced, except maybe in bali, but the religions are so different it is impossible to compare.

how do i start to describe this? the streets are somethign i can only explain by saying cobbled. they have been worn down by years and years of use and no apparent fixing. side alleys contain most of the hidden treasures palermo has to offer. the hidden away shrines, the crustily painted loovers hanging open up on the 6 story apartment buildings. peoples washing hanging out over the street, italian women shouting to each other in a language i have no grasp of whilst putting out said washing. men standing on the street, their primary goal, it would seem, is to leer at young foriegn women whilst smoking multiple cigarettes and speak to each other in either hushed tones or loud so as to draw attention to themselves.

my friend kym has taught me an imporatant rule. never say ciao back to a man if you dont want him to follow you all the way down the street shouting ;ciao bella, ciao, ciao;.. apparently returning the greeting gives him the right to follw you, pursue you, and possibly even, if the mood strikes, sleep with you. needless to say, i havent been greeting too many of these overeager, overaged italian men with a bright ciao!!

i have been staying at a hotel called regina hotel, which is quite a lovely change from sharing with 12 snoring strangers in dorms.. but i guess the cost is, less interaction with people. thats not to say i havent been interacting however.i have, just not in any conventional language. i have been using my own form of sign language to communicate mostly, and i can make myself slightly understood to people. the people at the hotel speak not a word of english, which is funny, because i swear on the website it said ^english speaking staff^ .. haha. but the main man at reception is lovely. we have good chats. i speak to him in english, and he speaks back to me in italian, but i think we understand each other. who knows, i might have that hot love affair yet? ive still got about a week. and he is only about 80. not exactly over the hill. haha.

on the weekend, before this intense rain set in, i went on the train with a couple of aussie mates to a little seaside town called cefalu. it was about an hour away from palermo, a beautiful picturesque ride, mostly with a view of the seaside. when we arrived, we grabbed some pizza and beer from the local, and headed down to the beach to catch a few much needed rays for my slightly albino skin. i must tell you, it was absoulutely breathtaking. think any sicilian or italian movie youve ever seen, and mutliply it by ten. just think, a view of white and blue villas right on the water, with the turquiose blue waves lapping their sides, and a view of mountains in the background. not to mention the sweet sound of church bells in the distance behind, and couples wandering down the cobbled streets to your right, hand in hand, licking pistachio gelato. honestly, i dont think it could get much more italian than this. i apologise profusely for the obvious overuse of cliches, but i have no other way to describe this place. just so SICILIAN!!

ive found myself just wandering around the streets most days, just revelling in the history and culture. i find it funny that, here, they have no need to modernise, make things better, newer (although thats definitely not to say that making things newer makes them better). its just an odd contrast, because i find everthing in australia to be always changing, modernising.. and here, there lies no obvious importance in changing or in the modernisation of their life or where they live it. for example, the other day i was wandering down one of the main streets, and i looked behind some metal bars, and there was an obvious bombsite. not a bomb site, like as in, your mum tells you ;your room looks like a bomb has gone off; but like a real bomb site. from world war two apparently. just sitting there, behind a fence, on the side of one of the main streets in palermo. and the funniest thing is, the other side of the building that had been blown up is still functioning as an apartment block, with people living there. so, one spare lot, with remnants of WW2 bombings, and people living in an attatched building as if there wasnt rubble connected to it. i just find this totally mindblowing, a completely differing reality to mine.

im going to go and forage for some dinner, probably rice crackers and pesto again, the money is becoming scarcer, and im trying to save so i can bring back lovely things from thailand. only a week and a half and illl be there, and only a month yesterday till im home! yay yay yay. i have loved it here but im ready for the aussie summer buzz and all that comes with it. bring it on!

give me some feedback, i feel like im finally getting the hang of this blog thing. ill try and put up some of the amazing photos ive taken if the computer allows me in the next couple of days. you really have to see this place to believe it!

big love to all the people. keep the vibe alive xx

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