So, this was written on July the 27th:
Yesterday we finally had the opportunity to go to the beach! I say ‘finally’ even though it was only our second full day because I had envisioned getting off the plane and jumping straight in the sea. I should have done more research than “Catania is a city by the sea, excellent!” Turns out its mostly a port, no Barcelona style beach on my door step after all. So much for swimming everyday before brealfast! Its not all bad though, there are ways of getting on the sea from here, only they all involve getting public transport from what I’ve heard.
Anyway, lets get back to the good news!
Luisa, our hosts apprentice architect offered to take us and the two other volunteers who are from Lithuania to the beach. It was their day off but we had to get some rooms ready in the morning. We would meet at the train station and get the 1:56 train.
Austeja and Agne
The rooms took longer than expected, it turned out one had cockroaches so our newly cleaned kitchen had to be turned upside down and inside out! At 1:40 we got back to the house and found a note from the girls saying meet at 1:30!! We grabbed our swimming stuff and ran, ran, ran to the train station which is a 20min walk or so!
We made it with 5 mins to get the tickets and realised we had no idea where we were going. They hadn’t said, thinking we would get them all together.
I ran to the only train leaving at the designated time, while David queued for tickets, with the intention of finding the girls and saying we would get the next one. Miraculously David came running along the platform as I was trying to sign language through a dirty window.
Safely on the train David was amazed that it had cost 15€ for us both, one way! A very expensive trip to the beach and we had only bought 20€ with us for the day, leaving all valuables at home (camera included I’m afraid, luckily the other volunteers took theirs!).
It should have cost us 2€ or so each, turned out we bought tickets to the last stop! We tried to explain our predicament to the ticket man but he was having none of it.
At least we were on the train!
Two stops later, Luisa picked us up in her little car and we sped off to Aci Trezza where we had a fantastic lunch of aranchino (fried rice ball with a filling of choice such spinach and cheese or meat and tomato sauce) and granita (like sorbet) with brioche, the last part is a traditional summer breakfast!
Aranchino al Ragu, Aranchino al Spinachi and Luisa’s Pizzete!
A note on granita: I was wondering what the difference is between granita and sorbet and google has been no help saying granita has ice crystals – there wasn’t a single one, it was as smooth as can be! So I asked Luisa and she has explained that here they call the lemon one sorbet because its creamer although still no dairy products. Also, the smooth granita is only in Catania, apparently if you have it in Palermo its crushed ice with a fruit syrup poured on top.
Aci Trezzo is a fishing village with a busy little harbour where we caught our boat across to the island.
The boat man was an interesting character, very piratesque with his gold earring and mad hair. We later saw him dive from the top of the island rocks! I admit to closing my eyes, everyone on the rock clapped!
Getting on the boat :)
Isola Lachea is one of a group of massive rocks/small islands which are formed from underground lava but according to myth, these are the rocks that Cyclops threw at Ulysses.
Image taken from philosophyforchange.wordpress.com
It was wonderful, so picturesque, the kind of place I have only seen in magazines! And the water! Oh the warm sea! How amazing. I could have floated in it all day long until I stupidly wanted to see how deep it was and landed on a sea urchin.
Excellent.
At first I thought I had just hit a particularity spiky rock, then I looked at my foot and it was covered in little black spikes. I floated to shore and managed to get a whole one out. That was me finished for the day, I found a nice rock to sit on, kept my foot in the water and was reassured by locals that everyone does it once… Except amazing Luisa whose dad has always warned her not to touch the bottom or be very careful.
Nevertheless I still had a good time at on the island chatting to people and paddling :)
To finish off the day we were locked out the house for an hour when we discovered a giant padlock on it that only the host has a key for… But we got eventually!
I soaked my foot in hot water, in vinegar and I have it wrapped up in olive oil which supposedly helps them out or just to disolve… I counted 25 on the day. If it doesn’t get better I think I will have to got to the doctors. But normally our bodies are good at getting this kind of thing out. As long as it doesn’t get infected! I’m being positive though.
Traveling Bugs and other Animals 