On to Palermo

It was a busy travel day. After breakfast we walked to the location where the Flix bus was to leave. There was a lot of unusual noise on the streets and it sounded like some sort of demonstration was going on. We had decided to walk with our suitcases as a taxi would have cost 48 Euros. As we went down the Main Street we noticed a lot of police on motorcycles and in vehicles. Then we realized that the demonstration was heading right towards us so we diverted our course, passing the opera house - built to honour Bellini who was a Catania composer. It turned out to be a Pro-Palestinian demonstration. Quite disturbing - much of Europe appears to be that persuasion. During our walk we received an email that the bus was delayed. When we finally made it to the bus stop people told us that civil workers were on strike and that was why the bus was late. Traffic around us was almost at a standstill and the bus was 90 minutes late arriving and even later leaving.

The bus ride itself was a bit of a strange experience as the bus was full and had a lot of interesting people - including the two ladies in front of us who had their chairs laid back so far that Tim could hardly fit in his seat and the guy beside us who watched things on his phone with the sound turned up. Oh well, after a very slow start we arrived in Palermo.

Once there we called our landlord and he said that walking would be the best way to get to the apartment. Palermo was much cleaner than Catania and did not have very much graffiti. The landlord buzzed us in and showed up shortly after we did. The room was shabby chic as well - but the emphasis this time was on chic. Very clean and well appointed. The tin roof which was our only view offered a varying selection of cats who came up to the screens when they heard that we were in.

We walked around the waterfront and stopped for delicious pizza and salad before we decided to call it a day.

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