Old World Sicily Here I Come ...

Say goodbye to Deeanna - she is heading to airport (she had to wait overnight on cold floor and take a different flight home since she couldn't travel through Amsterdam to get home due to Volcano errupting in Iceland.)

Internet is slow here at times (so I couldn't post pictures till now) After finding out about the volcano I did not know if I Should Take the train to be safe (and Have 11 hours of travel time, or more) or take the plane. My mother sent me an email travel Saying That Looked good going my direction so I headed to the Metro station at 5:20 in the morning. At 5:34 it WAS still not open so I waited in the dark early morning hours on the street up until finally a man came up and unlocked the doors. I ended up not having to pay the 1 euro because the booths were not set up to make us pay yet. Ended up on the 6:22 express train to the airport. Once there it Took a while to find where to check in for my flight. The lady had me check my large bag (with locks on it and all for free - I guess they don't scan luggage?) and I took my back pack and bag with breakables onto the plane with me. It was a 55 minute flight and we landed with water on one side of us. Went to rest room and then waited for luggage.  But none came and sign saying it was my planes luggage went off monitor.  I went and asked and way in the back were two pieces of luggage mine and another lady who couldn't find her bag.  Wow - they are fast getting luggage off plane here (and most people had carry on's only. I then went to find bus to Palermo train station. Got on bus and realized I did not purchased a ticket. Turns out driver takes your money on the bus and gives you a receipt so it worked out ok anyway. Cost was 5.80 euros for the 1 hour 15 min trip (with all the stops). I found out later that I could have taken a train from the airport, but the bus ride was quite the experience since cars and motorcycles and busses "Fight" for a place on the narrow roads that are lined with cars.  It was actually an adventure and I thought omeone was going to die for sure but with in inches..they all did live.  I them took train to Cefalu. It Was Brought tears to my eyes for a moment, Knowing I Was in Sicily and passing through Where My relatives Terms Came From. The ocean is a beautiful green blue with the sun on it and just mesmorizing.  And the hill sides and mountians are so green - like Oregon.

Got off at train station and Looked Like Water WAS close enough so I figured I Could find my hotel with the map I Just Happened to see Take Another Girl at the train station. (Thanks Jesus) But wind Streets and street names are not on sides of building are faded or nonexistent at times and I did not factor in the bad rock work on the roads and old cobblestone streets...hard to pull a bag on.

A man on a corner wanted me to rent His place next time and wanted to show me WHERE IT WAS close to beach so I followed HIM Down to the prominade and saw a great view of the city (see above) and he pointed where his apartment was, pointed me towards mine and was gone since I wouldn't rent from him. I walked that direction for a long time and didn't see it.  I called and had to turn around and still couldn't find it.  (Not sure how I missed it with 3 signs out front and one sign was rather large).  I was struggling to keep my bag upright all the way with the bad streets of cobblestone. (Deeanna, You Would not Have liked this trek at all, and then getting lost, and then 67 stairs to bed and breakfast lol). Anyway, I must have walked right past it, so I looked at map and thought I WAS off to the left so I tried going back a different way and that did not work, went up road further, checked out another street. Just then an old man, who could not speak English, came out of his house and he limped to where I was.  I showed him on map where it was and he tried to help me find it as he limped down the road with me, but we couldn't find it. Then then good looking construction worker decided to join in the hunt and then His partners did too and finally, between all 3 of them we found it just around a corner. So I went inside and up, up, up, up, up, up 5 flights of stairs with luggage and all. I was already sweating since it was such a nice sunny day. The view from the terrace is worth it (there are 5 rooms up here and 3 of them have views of ocean (However mine is limited with a 2 x 2 window - lol) but i can use the dining terrace and it is a GREAT view from this high up .

The Square where the Church is happens to be where the locals come out for a drink at night so I had a few drinks there (see information a few paragraphs down from here)

Sicily is JUST what I expected. Still old school into housing, not speaking English for the most part and I was the only tourist on the plane. It was a fun experience into what I was really looking for most on this trip. Cefalu is a beautiful little town sitting right on the ocean. Everyone has their laundry hanging outside windows and the streets are one lane only, all going one direction with cars and vespas trying to avoid hitting people walking down the streets with very small sidewalks - so everyone walks in the streets. As you can see the people are just what you expect and enjoy having their pictures taken.

A man mending a fishing net...

Especially fond of having his picture taken was Angelo.  I'd guess he's in his 80's and he decided he wanted to buy me a glass of wine even though we don't speak each others language. Then we walked to another little sidewalk restaurant by the Dumo (church) and he bought me hot chocolate as we tried to communication in Italian as he doesn't speak English.
We set up to meet at 6pm tomorrow for another drink. From what he told me he had two wives and both are gone (not sure if dead or divorced, my guess dead.  And no kids). He used to work with olives (for olive oil) and oranges I think. He was teaching me some new words as best he could with the language barrier; such as sole for sun.

Worst rip off... (see above) in the court yard, just to the left of the Church is a little door with a sign (see above). You pay 2 euros and walk up to door go in and all you see is what is in the poster. (and it says "no pictures" LOL - like you'd need to take any - it was so old)  Took me 10 seconds to look and leave. I wanted to stand at door and tell people "do not do it, do not do it.  It's a rip off"  A sign says "Offering" but he expects you to pay before he'll let you go up stairs - pretends not to speak English to get money ... maybe he doesn't ... but that is not an offering, it's a rip off.  * smile *

Turns out one of the "features" of the little ole town is an old "laundry" area where the water still flows freely today in little cement areas where they used to take laundry to do it each day (in the old days). I'm not sure when Italian kids go to school because you see them all the time out site seeing in public, in groups with teachers I think looking at history like we are and also out at the beach and such during middle of day.  See below:
note couple sun tanning topless in front of kids. LOL

Some guy is Showing His art "stuff" in an interesting dome shaped building inside.

And this 3 legged symbol represents Sicily and it's triangular land shape (it is also on their flags). It's for sale in all shapes and forms to that have the 3 legs on it.

The large "rock cliff in a lot of the pictures in the background can be hiked up and you can spend 2 hours walking around looking at things and the view down over the city is spectacular I know I will go do that one day for sure. Pictures will be outstanding. There Is Also a cross up there that is viewable from down below.

Cefalu is a beautiful little city...

OK need to get to bed Since I did not get any sleep last night. Have very bad internet service so I hope I can get this posted and with pictures too.

Thanks for all your prayers in regards to getting to metro at 5:30 am and making the correct choice on going to airport or the train station with the volcano errupting in Iceland (I went to airport and air traffic going south was ok - north was shut down for 2-5 days. Let the new Sicily adventures begin...