Posting from Palermo. Belissimo!
Perhaps I should start with some contact information, in case people want to send me hate mail or something. My postal address is:
Postboks 313
N-8201 Fauske
Norway
My Norwegian cell phone number is (+47) 976 09 765. Use ths while I'm in Norway.
My Swedish cell phone number is (+46) 073 0458887. Use this while I'm in Sweden.
My British cell phone number is (+44) 07951658867. Use this while I'm in Britain.
Tomorrow, if things are open, I will get an Italian phone number!
If there's something that I must here about and you cannot reach me, then you can call my father's home and leave a message there: 756 46 275.
I need a better place to post this information. Perhaps on the sidebar of my bloggity-blog.
Now that that's out of the way: Palermo is a wonderful city! Everyone should go at least once! Although, learn from my mistake and try to bone up on at least a little italian before you get here. Not many folk speaky the english, so even things like ordering pizza can be difficult. Earlier tonight I tried to order a slice and got a whole 'za! But it was only three euros so it doesn't matter. Food is DAMNED CHEAP here! You can buy nice oranges for .80 euros a kilo! Tonight I bought a .66L bottle of beer for two euros.
Alright, time for a little filler. I got back to Fauske from Sweden a number of weeks ago. Soon after the last post from Sweden, I think. And was planning on going somewhere warm before deep winter set in. So I checked on Ryan Air for the cheapest flights I could find, and this is what I came up with:
29 Nov @ 17:55-19:25 Bodo to Oslo (Norwegian Air: return flight: 1111NOK)
30 Nov @ 17:25-18:25 Oslo to London (Ryan Air: return flight 396NOK)
03 Dec @ 06:10-10:10 London to Palermo (Ryan Air: return flight 287NOK)
14 Dec @ 10:35-12:40 Palermo to London
16 Dec @ 19:00-20:00 London to Oslo
19 Dec @ 09:55-11:25 Oslo to Bodo
That works out to be around $300CAD. Not bad. It's hard to fly anywhere at all in Canada for that price... So, now you know what I'm up to for the next little while. Another 10 days in Sicily, ah belle! Perhaps I'll even learn a few words before I'm done!
Right now I am concluding the first day in Palermo. I actually just got back from visiting a couple of the local pubs. That's actually quite a strange story in itself. Last night, you see, I didn't sleep at all, on account of me having a crazy early flight. The bus to the airport left the station at 4:20am, so I figured it would be easier just to not sleep than to risk missing the bus. What a crazy notion! I forgot to accout for the effect that would have on my first day in Palermo. Another thing I didn't do before getting here was book a place to sleep, so I spent most of the day wandering around in a sleepy daze, looking for a place to house my sorry butt for the night. I got some great pictures of Palermo on the way though! Those will be posted some other time. Right now I'm using a public computer with no USB access. Bummer. Anyway, after about 6 hours of wandering the streets and asking people that don't speak english where the fuck I am I finally found this place (http://www.hotelcortese.net/). It's a fine hotel, and only 35 Euros a night. I think I got my room key around 3:30pm. I showered, and, OH GOD did that feel good. You don't know about the horribleness that was the hostel (or should I say "hostile") in London yet, but know that the showers were McNasty. So, shower in the filth yesterday morning, then adventures in London all day, then staying up all night, then an hour on a bus, then waiting time in the airport, then a 3 hour flight (perhaps the most uncomfortable two and a half hours of sleep in my entire lifetime), then wandering lost in the heat of Palermo, navigating cobblestone streets in the sun. I was gunky and smelled a little funky, and called a monkey (but that's a whole other story). Bottom line: shower = good. My feet are blistered and a little swollen right now. I can feel them pulsing. Taking off my boots will feel lovely.
So, shower. Nap for an hour. Then head out to see what the night life in Palermo has to offer me. The first problem was finding the nightlife. As previously mentioned, asking for directions when people can't understand you and you can't understand the response totally sucks. Sometimes it is really funny, so I try to do it as often as I can! I stopped at a pizzaria for an espresso (oh man, I think I'm totally hooked on espressos now - they just taste damned fine while here in Sicily) and an entire pizza because it was raining. I was walking around with a big box of pizza, trying to find some live music or something as interesting to watch, when some guys in a bus opened the window and pointed at the pizza saying ... something. I guessed correctly that they wanted a slice, so I gave them a couple. Between the three of them they could only manage a very few english words, but I asked them what there was to do on a saturday night in Palermo and they pointed and babbled an indication that I should get on the bus with them, so did. Where we were going, how to get back to the hotel afterwards, who these people were, what the heck I was doing, were some of the many questions I asked myself as we babbled and laughed and pointed and mimed to one another. I found out that they were mere teenagers (15, 16 an 18). We had an "I Tarzan, you Jane moment" as well, which was nice. I decided after a while that they weren't neo-nazis or sadists or anything too weird, just a couple of kids who liked to ask people they didn't know for food, and smoke in the backs of buses. We rode the bus a while (which was actually free, after another confusing babbling session the driver - I still haven't figured that one out), then got off within walking distance of the hotel. Another question's answer revealed! And wandered around until we found some "disco-club", as they called it. They kept saying, "Four girls. No girls, no party," and wandering around looking for four girls. I wasn't sure what we were doing for a while, and then the three of them concentrated on getting me to understand that it was cheaper to enter the club if you have a girl with you. "Oh, is that all?" I said. Blank stares. Then I turned around and approached a group of five girls and asked them if they were going to the disco. It turned out they weren't, but one of them spoke english. English! Hooray! She was able to interpret the boys for me, and the rest of the girls too. I was surrounded by teenagers again! This has happened a lot since I decided to start going to discos in Europe. It's really interesting to see what the night life is like in different coutries, although it is often remarkably similar to the night life in Halifax or Toronto. Not that surprising, but sometimes the musical choices are very surprising! And international beers are good too. A long story short, I didn't go to the club with the teeny-boppers, but I am meeting up with some of them tomorrow and they are going to show me around an interesting part of Palermo. They live there, so they should know it best. Perhaps I will get invited to a Sicilian meal with a Sicilian family, or something equally exciting!
Wow, that is a lot of ranting for tonight. If I end up staying another night here, or somewhere else with internet access, I will fill in about my three wonderful days in London.
Buenos nochas. That's Spanish for Good Nachos.
Postboks 313
N-8201 Fauske
Norway
My Norwegian cell phone number is (+47) 976 09 765. Use ths while I'm in Norway.
My Swedish cell phone number is (+46) 073 0458887. Use this while I'm in Sweden.
My British cell phone number is (+44) 07951658867. Use this while I'm in Britain.
Tomorrow, if things are open, I will get an Italian phone number!
If there's something that I must here about and you cannot reach me, then you can call my father's home and leave a message there: 756 46 275.
I need a better place to post this information. Perhaps on the sidebar of my bloggity-blog.
Now that that's out of the way: Palermo is a wonderful city! Everyone should go at least once! Although, learn from my mistake and try to bone up on at least a little italian before you get here. Not many folk speaky the english, so even things like ordering pizza can be difficult. Earlier tonight I tried to order a slice and got a whole 'za! But it was only three euros so it doesn't matter. Food is DAMNED CHEAP here! You can buy nice oranges for .80 euros a kilo! Tonight I bought a .66L bottle of beer for two euros.
Alright, time for a little filler. I got back to Fauske from Sweden a number of weeks ago. Soon after the last post from Sweden, I think. And was planning on going somewhere warm before deep winter set in. So I checked on Ryan Air for the cheapest flights I could find, and this is what I came up with:
29 Nov @ 17:55-19:25 Bodo to Oslo (Norwegian Air: return flight: 1111NOK)
30 Nov @ 17:25-18:25 Oslo to London (Ryan Air: return flight 396NOK)
03 Dec @ 06:10-10:10 London to Palermo (Ryan Air: return flight 287NOK)
14 Dec @ 10:35-12:40 Palermo to London
16 Dec @ 19:00-20:00 London to Oslo
19 Dec @ 09:55-11:25 Oslo to Bodo
That works out to be around $300CAD. Not bad. It's hard to fly anywhere at all in Canada for that price... So, now you know what I'm up to for the next little while. Another 10 days in Sicily, ah belle! Perhaps I'll even learn a few words before I'm done!
Right now I am concluding the first day in Palermo. I actually just got back from visiting a couple of the local pubs. That's actually quite a strange story in itself. Last night, you see, I didn't sleep at all, on account of me having a crazy early flight. The bus to the airport left the station at 4:20am, so I figured it would be easier just to not sleep than to risk missing the bus. What a crazy notion! I forgot to accout for the effect that would have on my first day in Palermo. Another thing I didn't do before getting here was book a place to sleep, so I spent most of the day wandering around in a sleepy daze, looking for a place to house my sorry butt for the night. I got some great pictures of Palermo on the way though! Those will be posted some other time. Right now I'm using a public computer with no USB access. Bummer. Anyway, after about 6 hours of wandering the streets and asking people that don't speak english where the fuck I am I finally found this place (http://www.hotelcortese.net/). It's a fine hotel, and only 35 Euros a night. I think I got my room key around 3:30pm. I showered, and, OH GOD did that feel good. You don't know about the horribleness that was the hostel (or should I say "hostile") in London yet, but know that the showers were McNasty. So, shower in the filth yesterday morning, then adventures in London all day, then staying up all night, then an hour on a bus, then waiting time in the airport, then a 3 hour flight (perhaps the most uncomfortable two and a half hours of sleep in my entire lifetime), then wandering lost in the heat of Palermo, navigating cobblestone streets in the sun. I was gunky and smelled a little funky, and called a monkey (but that's a whole other story). Bottom line: shower = good. My feet are blistered and a little swollen right now. I can feel them pulsing. Taking off my boots will feel lovely.
So, shower. Nap for an hour. Then head out to see what the night life in Palermo has to offer me. The first problem was finding the nightlife. As previously mentioned, asking for directions when people can't understand you and you can't understand the response totally sucks. Sometimes it is really funny, so I try to do it as often as I can! I stopped at a pizzaria for an espresso (oh man, I think I'm totally hooked on espressos now - they just taste damned fine while here in Sicily) and an entire pizza because it was raining. I was walking around with a big box of pizza, trying to find some live music or something as interesting to watch, when some guys in a bus opened the window and pointed at the pizza saying ... something. I guessed correctly that they wanted a slice, so I gave them a couple. Between the three of them they could only manage a very few english words, but I asked them what there was to do on a saturday night in Palermo and they pointed and babbled an indication that I should get on the bus with them, so did. Where we were going, how to get back to the hotel afterwards, who these people were, what the heck I was doing, were some of the many questions I asked myself as we babbled and laughed and pointed and mimed to one another. I found out that they were mere teenagers (15, 16 an 18). We had an "I Tarzan, you Jane moment" as well, which was nice. I decided after a while that they weren't neo-nazis or sadists or anything too weird, just a couple of kids who liked to ask people they didn't know for food, and smoke in the backs of buses. We rode the bus a while (which was actually free, after another confusing babbling session the driver - I still haven't figured that one out), then got off within walking distance of the hotel. Another question's answer revealed! And wandered around until we found some "disco-club", as they called it. They kept saying, "Four girls. No girls, no party," and wandering around looking for four girls. I wasn't sure what we were doing for a while, and then the three of them concentrated on getting me to understand that it was cheaper to enter the club if you have a girl with you. "Oh, is that all?" I said. Blank stares. Then I turned around and approached a group of five girls and asked them if they were going to the disco. It turned out they weren't, but one of them spoke english. English! Hooray! She was able to interpret the boys for me, and the rest of the girls too. I was surrounded by teenagers again! This has happened a lot since I decided to start going to discos in Europe. It's really interesting to see what the night life is like in different coutries, although it is often remarkably similar to the night life in Halifax or Toronto. Not that surprising, but sometimes the musical choices are very surprising! And international beers are good too. A long story short, I didn't go to the club with the teeny-boppers, but I am meeting up with some of them tomorrow and they are going to show me around an interesting part of Palermo. They live there, so they should know it best. Perhaps I will get invited to a Sicilian meal with a Sicilian family, or something equally exciting!
Wow, that is a lot of ranting for tonight. If I end up staying another night here, or somewhere else with internet access, I will fill in about my three wonderful days in London.
Buenos nochas. That's Spanish for Good Nachos.
posted by Shaun at
1:02 a.m.
5 Comments:
Non sia un weiner, upload le immagini!
Here's some useful Italian in case things get a little rough in Sicily:
Che cavalo dice? (What the hell are you talking about?)
Non sparare cazzate (Don't talk crap!)
Con chi credi di parlare? (Who do you think you are talking to?)
Credi che sia nato/a ieri? (Do you think I was born yesterday?)
Ma tu ti droghi (You're on drugs!)
Hope this helps..
A. from Wolverhampton.
OMG! You posted!!!
Your package is on the way, but I think in the confusion i send it ground? Though I don't know how/why, it was send it that way or pay $60 to send it 7 day air... Dude, i love you, but i'm not paying $60 to send a $40 gift.. ;) So it'll likly get there a bit after xmas.. I meant to send it a week or so ago, but i was sick (like rally sick with this nastey flu) for a week and a bit...
Anyway, Your gifts were a hit, but you forgot to send DIRECTIONS for the Lefsa bread! I remember having it at your place once, but not how to make it.. and the non-english directions didn't help! lol!
Ok... bad news tho.. some of the figurines had minor broken bits :( Fixable though.
Ok.. work now.. talk to you later.. post the damn pics.. have fun in sicily!
Verification word: izuku :|
Shaun, I love reading your posts! :) Too funny. You really should do it more, and if you're not blogging often, I hope to high hells you're at least keeping a journal!
Cheers!
~Dawn
Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!
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