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Published: April 9th 2008
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It all began on Easter Sunday, March 23, when we left Paris on a connecting flight to Rome than Palermo. We had to bluff our way through the metro stop by our hostel in Paris to make it to the RER because our 3 day passes didn't make it to the morning of the 4th day. The flight to Rome was fine, but the flight to Palermo did not end on a good note: just before landing, we hit some very rough turbulence, and I came as close as ever to actually throwing up from my overactice motion sickness tendencies. I mean I actually had the little barf bag the airline supplies each seat with in my hands, but luckily I was able to get through it. It was beautiful in Palermo, a lovely warm and sunny relief from the freezing cold we'd been dealing with in Ireland and Paris for the last week. We stayed in the Hotel Regina for the night as planned and made our way to the train station to catch a ride to Milazzo on the other side of Sicily in the morning. This is when my suitcase handle decided to stop working, and I had
a minor breakdown because it weighed so freaking much and Dad was not there to fix it for me! lol. Anyways, the next day our troubles really began. The train ride to Milazzo was gorgeous; it was a beautiful day outside, but of course, when we actually got to Milazzo, it was cloudy and sort of drizzling. 1st obstacle...the busses weren't running because it was Easter Monday, so we had to take a cab (two cabs actually) from the train station to the ferry port in town. When we got to the port, we discovered that all lines were shut down because of "the bad weather." We were supposed to meet at the house we rented for the week to get the key in a few hours, so we didn't know what to do. It urns out that no ferries went out to the islands that day because the weather never improved, but only got worse. As a matter of fact, while waiting to see if the last ferry would go out, we had an awesome pizza dinner at a nearby restaurant and when leaving we were actually HAILED ON! That's right, we were hailed on and poured on while
trying to drag our luggage to the only hotel left in the town with any vacancy. It was a nightmare, but we figured we would stay on the mainland for the night, wake up early, and catch the first ferry to the islands in the morning. Of course, when we left the hotel the next morning, the weather had not improved, and all ferries were still suspended. We sat outside a bus station all day praying that we would get good news at each upsdate, but were always disappointed. Finally, we were told by a policeman that no ferries were going out that day and that we just might get out the next afternoon. This is when we decided that instead of paying double for housing for 3 nights and possivly four waiting to get to the island, we might as well change our plans and go somewhere else. We decided to go to Lake Como for the rest of the week, but of course we were in Sicily (an island off the southern coast of Italy) and Como was in Northern italy only about 8 miles from Switzerland. In other words, we couldn't possibly be farther from our new
intended destination. So we took the bus to the train station in Milazzo and booked 5 tickets on a 10 hour overnight train to Rome. When we got on the train, we didn't know where to go because all the compartments seemed to be full or reserved. This is when we found out that we literally had NO SEATS! Of course, we were stunned, upset, and angry because we had paid for the tickets, but we learned that apparently they sell tickets and expect you to sit on these tiny little seats that fold down from the wall of the train into the aisle with all your luggage and try to sleep while constantly being interrupted and run into for 10 hrs staight! Luckily for Jess, Micki, and I, two ladies let us come into their compartment for the 2nd half of the journey because the other ticket holders did not show up. Bridget and Molly had to resort to the floor in another car. Despit our unfortunate circumstances, we made it to Rome in one piece, just to discover that all trains to Milan for the day were full, and there were tickets for standing room only left. We
had no choice, so we bought 5 tickets at full price enven though we had no seats and stood for the next 4.5 hours to Milan, where we switched trains to get to Como, then took an hour long bus ride around the lake to Menaggio where our hostel was. WHAT A NIGHTMARE! But, I am happy to say that once we got to Como, our problems basically disappeared.
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