A culinary delight - cannelloni with phlegm sauce!

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Geo: 38.0699, 13.176

Had a nice sleep. I didn't want to wake up! I was dreaming about Chinese food. Dim sum ... mmm ... mmm ... For breakfast, I walked to a bakery. Sadly, no dim sum was available 😞

I had a cream-filled croissant. It was only OK. But then I had a little bit of hazelnut heaven - a hollow tube stuffed with chocolate hazelnut cream. It was sweet, but delectable. I wanted to sit and have a coffee with it, but I didn't have time before the train to Palermo.

I used the Internet when I got there. I needed to kill time until my stated arrival time at the hostel - after getting burned in Agrigento, I decided to wait a little bit before going. There won't be any cheap Internet cafes in Sardinia so I am catching up a little bit on the blogs now.

Got to the hostel - they had laundry with a dryer, yes!!! Had a quick lunch at a cafeteria while I waited for the laundry to finish washing. Cannelloni with peas, veggies ... I don't think there was any meat inside. The bechamel sauce was way too thick ... the consistency was similar to phlegm, I am disturbed to say. The melon I had was not very ripe. It could have been a pretty good lunch with better melon and bechamel sauce, but at least it was cheap.

Had some gelato after. Ohh .... good stuff ... settevelli (chocolate based - excellent) and cassata (some type of Sicilian cake). It was also good, but the settevelli overpowered it a little.

Palermo - there certainly is some stunning architecture here. Fountains, plazas, gardens ... it's a great place to walk. Absolutely nothing like Naples, though comparisons have been made between the two. But I think there was a guy that was sizing me up to pickpocket. I noticed a creepy guy following me so I stepped into a shop's doorway. He awkwardly followed me and we looked at each other. I crossed the street and he went the other way.

Walked through a market. Very local with fruit, meat, fish, clothing, etc. I bought some jeans for 13 euros - woo hoo! The store also had "Yike" brand shoes, complete with Nike inspired logo.

Met a German lady named Steffi at the hostel. We had a nice chat ... we've had similar life experiences. She's going through a bit of a rough spot right now. Twice she has used travel as an escape. Could be worse - she could have done it three times like me!

We had dinner together and she chose the place. A mistake! Of course, I could just have easily chosen a bad one. It was pricey and mediocre. They had an antipasti buffet but it was nothing like the one in Cefalu both in quality and quantity. Maybe 1/4 the choices and everything was a variation of eggplant or peppers. The wine was pricey and bad but the bread was quite good. The clam spaghetti was a bit salty, but decent.

Back to the hostel - it's a good place that is quiet with a more mature crowd. The owner or daughter Claudia is quite friendly and helpful. Good location, too. Our other bunkmate Paul was from the UK, but is living in Tokyo teaching English right now. Nice guy.

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