Agrigento and panini burgers
Our field trip to Agrigento was quite a day. We got up early and took a three hour bus ride through Sicily. My favorite part? The stop at the Autogrill and my first pain au chocolat since I’ve been here. I’ve really been missing my chocolate croissant every day like at home and like I got used to in France.
We got to the city part of Agrigento and found some nice churches, a convent with cookies and some not so nice locals. I had lost my nose ring so my first priority was finding a new one, which I did for just one euro. Then I got to eat my panino, and I was happy.
The temples were amazing, just that they were made by human hands is pretty impressive. The weather was pretty crap (”a bit blowy” as a British couple proclaimed the hurricane winds on top of the acropolis) but it wasn’t sweltering and it didn’t rain, so it could have been worse. The temples are very well preserved, more so than most in Greece actually, since every culture that came through Sicily used them for one purpose or another of their own religion.
I actually had more fun on the bus ride there and back. I didn’t sleep but stayed awake to take in the countryside as much as I could on one side of the bus. On the way there I recognized some crops but was a little puzzled as to why I didn’t see any vineyards. What I found out on the way back was that all the vineyards were on the other side of the valley, for whatever reason. It was nice to put some context to this place we’re living that is so small and get out of Siracusa for a day.
We were all pretty tired once we got back and pretty much settled for the first place we could find, which was Arab food. The couscous wasn’t awful and the (what I suspected to be) gyros was better. At least we didn’t end up at the American bar again; the Crazy Bull has kind of become ‘our place’ if only because they have onion rings and hamburgers squished panini style.
All I’ve got time for now, I’m in class and we have a quiz, my first real work so far this quarter. Hope everyone had a great picnic day and all the rest!
We got to the city part of Agrigento and found some nice churches, a convent with cookies and some not so nice locals. I had lost my nose ring so my first priority was finding a new one, which I did for just one euro. Then I got to eat my panino, and I was happy.
The temples were amazing, just that they were made by human hands is pretty impressive. The weather was pretty crap (”a bit blowy” as a British couple proclaimed the hurricane winds on top of the acropolis) but it wasn’t sweltering and it didn’t rain, so it could have been worse. The temples are very well preserved, more so than most in Greece actually, since every culture that came through Sicily used them for one purpose or another of their own religion.
I actually had more fun on the bus ride there and back. I didn’t sleep but stayed awake to take in the countryside as much as I could on one side of the bus. On the way there I recognized some crops but was a little puzzled as to why I didn’t see any vineyards. What I found out on the way back was that all the vineyards were on the other side of the valley, for whatever reason. It was nice to put some context to this place we’re living that is so small and get out of Siracusa for a day.
We were all pretty tired once we got back and pretty much settled for the first place we could find, which was Arab food. The couscous wasn’t awful and the (what I suspected to be) gyros was better. At least we didn’t end up at the American bar again; the Crazy Bull has kind of become ‘our place’ if only because they have onion rings and hamburgers squished panini style.
All I’ve got time for now, I’m in class and we have a quiz, my first real work so far this quarter. Hope everyone had a great picnic day and all the rest!