One-day trips around Sicily: Castellammare del Golfo

Hello, amazing people!

I know, it's been a very long time, but extreme temperatures are my strongest creative kryptonites, and we've been experiencing some pretty hot days here lately. If you also add a lot of stress from organising something very cool (I will have a life update very soon) and Sicily's general tendency to play dead every August... It was very difficult to get concentrated on anything other than ice water.

Last year I had a post about Castelammare del Golfo, but as I like to go there as much as possible, this summer I decided to reinforce my recommendations also by making a short video about it. 

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Editing this video was a real struggle - I've made it, it disappeared, I started making it again, then noticed that some footage disappeared... But! In the heart of any problem lies an opportunity, so I decided to use all this situation to teach myself some lessons.

I hope you will like the video! Enjoy and see you around!

One-day trips around Sicily: Villa Cattolica in Bagheria

Hello, beautiful souls!

Today I want to suggest one more cool destinations you can visit in one day if you ever find yourself in Sicily and in need of some paintings, photographs, vintage movie posters and killer tiles. Seriously, #tilesgoals.

Coat - Sisley | Sweater - H&M | Jeans - Zara | Boots - Bata | Bag - Pieces via Asos

So yes, if you are in Sicily, you have a free day and want all of those things, you need to visit the museum at villa Cattolica in Bagheria.

But first, chack out my video on YouTube (and remember to subscribe) and read till the end of the post to know some of my suggestions and tips. 

#45daysofblogging 15: Castellammare del Golfo

Day 15 - September 1

Sicily gave me many amazing things – a community to belong to, the new language, lots of great experiences, both personal and professional. But the biggest treasure I found here were people. And sometimes those people were from the same country and even city, then I am, but we’ve got to meet only here, in the land of fried food and beautiful sea. 

So yes, during my EVS life decided that I need a roommate that actually lived in Kyiv at the same time I was, worked in the place I loved to come to and I’m pretty sure we’ve seen each other before, as we remember the same Spanish conversation club, that was my Saturday morning activity for a bit.

#45daysofblogging 04: Valdemone festival in Pollina

Day 4 - August 21

Welcome to the day 4!

Yesterday I suddenly got a chance to visit the annual festival of street theater called Valdemone for the first time. The first time I've heard about it two years ago, when I was still a volunteer - every bar in Palermo had the festival's sticker on walls, doors, mirrors etc.

But as I don't drive, have no car and at that point had no idea where is Pollina, I just admired the cute vintage bicycle on the logo and wished for one of the stickers to put on my laptop. And forgot about it for two years.Until yesterday, when I was invited to visit the festival's last day.

Travel essentials - part 1

I know that there are so many people that always wanted to travel, but never had an opportunity. Trust me, I was there - the first time I saw a sea I was 14 years old, and I've never left Europe until I was 28.

But the wonderful thing about traveling is that it doesn't have to include three plane flights and different continents, and it's okay to start small. A trip to another town can be a great experience and bring you a lot of positive emotions, meetings and a better understanding of your own country.  

When I lived in Chiang Mai, any trip I wanted to take, be it to Vientiane, Bangkok or Siem Reap, always came with quite a bit of preparations. All of them came with at least 6 hours bus ride, so my travel necessities always included a travel backpack, packed for at least 2 days, some food, a travel pillow, a pair of socks, a hoodie for overly conditioned buses/trains and a lot of other things. 

Since I came to Sicily, I cannot stop saying thank you to the universe – I can take so many of my “One -Day Trips Around Sicily” it’s mind-blowing. In 3-4 hours I can get to another side of the island, even if I need to change trains. As Sicily has so much to offer, it takes me basically no time to reach Greek temples and amphitheaters, ghost cities, volcanoes, salt ponds of Marsala, hot springs of Segesta, beautiful beaches, ski resorts and hiking routes. And I gladly take any opportunity to see new places.

I usually travel with the small studded backpack you already saw in many of my posts, as it is one of the honorary citizens of my “Trusted WEARdrobe”. Its size is absolutely perfect for a day of travel – not too big, but fits all of my necessities.

Asos backpack - my travel mug (bought in Lidl) - a pair of sunglasses - my Kindl Fire tablet in the Angkor Recycled cover (I bought on a night market in Cambodia when I lived in Asia three years ago and had to bargain for it like crazy) - my phone and a pair of headphones - my one and only bomber jacket (DIYed from a men's sweatshirt - let me know if you are interested in a tutorial) - the small notebook I bought in Budapest (my friend Racha and I have matching ones - what a great project it was!) and the pen - the only lip balm I can use (Nivea/Labello Pearl shine) and the smart lipstick from Kiko  

  

Here is what I normally put there to discover Sicily: 

One-day trips around Sicily: Taormina

Taormina has been on my Sicilian travel bucket list for a very long time. It’s one of the most popular tourist destinations and normally is really overcrowded in summer, so after some debate my friends and I decided that it will be very nice to see it now, during the low season.

In my experience small Sicilian tourist towns (such as Cefalu or Isola delle Femmine) tend to change completely depending on the season, and during winter months they are look a bit deserted, but romantic. So if you are thinking whether visiting Sicily in winter is worth the trip, my answer is - definitely yes. It’s not going to be a beach vacation, but also you will not be dying from +40 C heat while exploring the island’s most valuable treasures.

One-day trips around Sicily: Piano Battaglia

One little known fact about Sicily – it’s cold in winter. And people are constantly get surprised that I notice that.

Yes, technically +11 C is not cold, if you are in a place with normal level of humidity. But unfortunately Palermo is not one of this places, which makes surviving summer and winter here extremely challenging. 

I first came to Palermo on April 6 2014. In about two weeks I was coming back to the office from lunch and met one of my colleagues downstairs, but the entrance to the building. I was wearing my coat, the biggest scarf I owned and a pair of boots, and I was still freezing – the wind from the sea is usually so cold it really gets to your bones. My colleague, who was also wearing warm clothes asked me: “But do you feel this cold or for you it’s okay?” At that moment I couldn’t even feel my nose, so I just nodded as a puppet and mumbled something like: “Oh, I can for sure feel the cold”.

But I was ready for this – I did my research before the project and knew that the humidity is going to be crazy (even though it didn’t really prepared me for my first Sicilian winter! I will never ever forget December 31st 2014 – first snowstorm Palermo have seen in more than 30 years, 100000000000% humidity and putting blankets on windows to keep my room from turning into a freezer). And yes, I feel much better in Kyiv at +4 that in Palermo at +12. But nevertheless - Sicilian winter is beautiful. Blue sky, orange trees, flowers, beautiful sunsets and… no snow. Because I was never a fan of snow, especially in a city – it’s messy, makes everything more difficult and eventually gets gray and dirty.