The trip to Sicily was not at all planned for me. I got it as a gift to spend quality time together. What a great idea! We flew out of Vienna at 6am, so we stayed there one night.

Catania

When we arrived in Catania, we were surprised at how underdeveloped the city is. It reminded us a bit of Jordan. There was a lot of dirt on the streets, dog poop and also nowhere like a supermarket in the center. But in the end we had a great day, sampled lots of local delicacies and just floated through the day enjoying each other’s company.

We went for a walk at the fish market and watched in amazement as they cleaned the squid. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to clean them well last time, so we wanted to learn our lesson this time. 

Quite soon after walking through Catania we found that there was not much to do. We discovered a cool cafe outside that I would normally find very mediocre, but since we couldn’t find anything better, we thought it was pretty cool. Everything in that town was so dirty and it looked like time had stopped there. We didn’t really care though, because we enjoyed long conversations together, as we always do. It felt like the sense of connection that was there in the beginning but suddenly disappeared for a few long weeks came back. So I thought that was great.

 

 

Syracuse 

The next day we wanted to rent a car, but unfortunately we weren’t allowed to because we didn’t have a credit card in my name. And Toubar can’t drive in Europe because his Egyptian passport is not valid here. Toubar argued a bit with the man at the counter but soon found out that there was no point. A similar thing happened to another couple. This whole incident led to the fact that we had to rent a car with a manual gear shift, which I was terribly afraid of before this trip. I was afraid I wouldn’t know how to operate it, as the last time I drove such a car was about 6 years ago. In the end, it went pretty well and I think I became a pretty acceptable driver in those 4 days. 😀

Our first stop was Syracuse. We walked around and had a great dessert called Cannoli, which I craved for the rest of the trip. And then only had it once more on the last day. Sadly. Not to lie, our very first stop was the city of Augusta, which looked similar to Syracuse on the map, but there was nothing interesting there. Our only interesting stop was a local cafe with our first Sicilian lasagna and roasted eggplant. Also, the sun, coffee and our classic contemplations were great!

Mt.Etna & Taormina

The third day we made a trip to Etna, well not all the way up, but to a place called cratéres Silvestri. There was snow and it looked beautiful. 

Then we moved on to a village off the coast of Taormina where we couldn’t find parking, so we didn’t set foot in town until just after sunset. Luckily it was a very touristy place, so we weren’t too sorry. Below the town of Taormina was a terribly cute island aptly named Isola Bella. We enjoyed the view and ate boiled eggs on the lookout, which T thought was funny and said he couldn’t imagine another partner with whom he could enjoy boiled eggs on a lookout like that. 😀

 

Cavagrande, Noto &  Calamosche Beach

The next day we visited the Reserva Naturale Cavagrande National Park. We had no expectations and expected our walk to be mainly around the local villages, but we ended up walking around a beautiful canyon on an overgrown path and enjoyed the whole trip very much. We walked back to the car though the road, but no one was driving so we didn’t mind at all. 

We then moved on to the cute little town of Noto, which also had such a shabby and neglected vibe about it. Like all the towns we visited in Sicily. It looked nice, but very old and neglected. 

 

Our last stop was the Riserva naturale orientata Oasi Faunistica di Vendicari. A deserted beach that we reached via a broken road and Toubar thought we were going to have a broken car.  I always replied that we had full insurance anyway, so we could break the car as much as we wanted. Which was a great feeling. On the way back from the beach, Toubar gave me the task of mindfully eating a cookie, which I had a big appetite for, but I also knew I would have a bad conscience if I just ate it fast. We call it “ludmiling on it”, after my mom, who bites her food slowly like that so she doesn’t eat too many calories and stays slim. I ate the biscuit for about 15 minutes. The car rides were long, especially in the evening, so we came home very tired and went straight to sleep. We didn’t even have dinner. 

 

Novara di Sicilia

On the fourth day with a rental car, we visited the village of Novara di Sicilia, from which we took a walk to Rocca di Novara, which Toubar referred to as the stone. There was a crazy wind up there and we were standing right in the clouds which were flying by very fast. We had a coffee and prosecco and mozzarella after the walk in our favorite small and I enjoyed mindfully observing people and situations. How they buy food, how they talk, what kind of relationships they have with each other, and in general how it all goes. T asked me if I minded that these people could notice I was watching them but I said no, I didn’t mind. That especially in a situation where I’m a foreigner, they don’t even feel bad because they maybe think that we all look at each other like that in the Czech Republic.

On the way back we were caught in a terrible fog, we couldn’t see a meter in front of us. It was quite a challenge to get down the mountain and I was scared. 

 

On the last day we had planned to drive somewhere else and return it at 1 p.m., but of course we overslept, so we returned the car at the last minute. We forgot to fill up with gas and no gas stations were open in the area, so we returned it even later than planned. Luckily they didn’t charge us any extra money though. 

It was bitterly cold outside, so right after the airport we ended up at a local restaurant that had absolutely every Sicilian specialty. The last thing I had was Arancini and Cannoli. Then we worked there for about 3 more hours and went into town. There we ended up at a restaurant with lots of meat and pasta. And the last stop was this cool cafe we discovered on our very first day. 

The day of departure was interesting, because for perhaps the first time in our relationship, we arrived somewhere on time. We were at the airport on time, we didn’t have to run or rush. We were reminded of this moment about 5 times. That it was probably the first and last time we’ll be on time somewhere.

Sicily was a beautiful trip at the turn of winter and spring and especially a meaningful trip for the two of us to reconnect.