Hello Palermo

Slept in this morning after a late night.  Sea is so calm, flat as glass.  I’ve seen bigger swells on the Brisbane River!!  The weather is perfect for sailing.  Headed out to the rear deck and for once in three weeks (yes we are half way through our holiday) we couldn’t do anything or go anywhere.  The forced recuperation and relaxation was sensational.  The day was so perfect.   

Got into Palermo and to disembark we had to go down to the car park.  Unfortunately they only allowed drivers to the cars, the passengers had to wait in the marshaling area on shore.  This marshaling area changed every 3 minutes and Pam was stuck in no-man’s land waiting for me to get out from the bowels of the ship.

Below decks was no different, everyone trying to get off first, horns tooting and abuse hurled constantly, I was chicken and an Italian ‘friend’ and I waited till last to drive off to avoid the anger.

Lucky for me Pam was waiting at the spot I was directed to and Kate had woken up and told us it was 24 minutes to the motel.  These 24 minutes was away from the docks, through the city centre and up the hill to the motel.

It is the worst 24 minutes of our lives.  We thought Italians were crazy drivers.  Sicilians have a death wish.  There are no lanes marked except an occasional centre lane which everyone ignores, 5 cars are packed into 3 lane roads, scooters are stopped in between them. There may be room for 2 lanes each way, at least 8 cars are across the road all overtaking and driving towards you.   Red lights and stop signs have no relevance at all and no-one looks at anywhere except where they want to go. There are no indicators and the horns are going constantly.  We got onto a one way street at one stage, phew; just drive…nope, scooters coming towards us, cars coming towards us, a BUS coming towards us. Round-abouts are so chaotic.  With 4 lanes (with only room for 2) on the round-about and 4 lanes joining every 10 metres it’s every man for himself.  If you get stuck on the inside you have to bully your way out to exit.  If you are on the outside you have 4 lanes of traffic coming straight at you and they don’t stop.  Everywhere you look there are scooters and bicycles competing for room (and usually winning).  Then there were pedestrians crossing the road??  All this in the dark at 9pm....what is wrong with these people??  I couldn’t even see or hear Kate, I had to rely on Pam saying 300metres turn right, 100 metres turn right, turn right NOW, it was like a rally drive!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pam has become quite aggressive in her manner towards drivers; her finger is going to get sunburnt from hanging it out the window!!!!  I used the horn today for the first time but it was really for practice only.  I think I got ‘tooted’ 18 times in 24 minutes.  Only because I was polite and let drivers in front of me.  I don’t know what we’ll do tomorrow, build a wall around the motel and defend it gets my vote.

Made it to the motel, very nice and overlooking Palermo, I need a drink!!!!!!

The only other ship we saw in almost 24 hours - the ferry going from Palermo to Genoa we guessed.

The tourist.

This is what we did all morning.  We wore ourselves out so after lunch.....

We had a little lie down.

Jet streams over the Mediterranean.

The back end of the boat showing the ramps up against the boat.

Coming into a peaceful sleepy Palermo at sunset - little did we know the chaos ahead.