Day Four/Friday, June 3: Mount Etna

Mount Etna lets off some volcanic steam!

This was a long, exciting day!

After our complimentary breakfast at the Garden Hotel, we walked down the street to catch a city bus (2 Euros each).  Then we hoped to catch another city bus to Mount Etna, hike around a little and return home.

But we got off the first bus too soon.  And that led us to an entirely different plan.  We got off in a big plaza (Plaza Cavour).  We started trying to ask people where the train station was, but no one understood the words "train" or "railroad"  or even "choo-choo."  Later, I realized I should have shown them the city map where the train station was marked, and used the word for train that was on the map:  "ferrovia."  We asked at the bus ticket counter ( the local kiosk for newspapers, cigarettes, etc.).  We asked at the bank.  We asked a police officer.  And more.  Just could not find anyone who spoke English. 

Finally, a young woman who understood a little English pointed up the street.  So, we went up the street.  There we found the "Ferrovia Circum Etnea."  It was not the downtown train station, but a public and tourist train, which took passengers on a circle route, all around Mount Etna.

So we said, "What the heck, let's take the train around Mount Etna."  Tickets were 7 Euros, for about a 4-5 hour ride, with a 3-hour stopover in one of the cities along the way.  The guy at this train station spoke only a few words of English, but he tried very hard to make sure we understood where and when the train was going.  Then, he gave us 2 baseball caps with the train logo on them, and some free postcards!

The train was kind of an old one, and it started chugging up toward the mountain.  Mount Etna is about 10,000 feet up.  The train only went up about 3,000 feet.  The mountain top was covered by clouds, so if we had gone up higher, we would not have been able to see the view down.



The train that circumnavigates Mount Etna



We took photos out the window of lava fields, lava rock walls and cottages, wild flowers, horses and goats, the lower mountain tops, volcanic craters along the way, and of course of Mount Etna.  After about 2 hours, the train stopped in the city of Randazzo, where we had 3 free hours.  We walked around, shopped a little, had an ice cream cone and some cookies at a little shop, saw an old church, old convent, etc.

We talked a little to a young Irish couple -- the only English-speaking people we had heard all day -- who were also on our train.  The woman later helped us find a connecting train and to buy the tickets for that train.  Not sure we could have done this without her help, despite our years of travel experience!

As we waited for the connecting train, a middle-aged man with two young children came over to talk.  He was from near Paris, France, but had gone to school in Philadelphia for a while.  He was also on the first train with us.  He had once ridden Amtrak trains all across the U.S. and back.  He had been working in the field of engineering, but his wife had died and he had switched careers to spend more time with his children.  He was now a farmer!

So we traded stories about farming -- I grew up on a farm, and my youngest brother still farms, when he has time from his full-time job at a bank!

We also talked to him about President Obama, government health care, travel, immigration, Libya, WWII (his grandfathers had both been imprisoned by the Germans in the first days of the war) etc.  Very interesting!  When we got on the connecting train, Bob suggested that I give the 2 train caps we had been given to this man's children, which I did.  They were very appreciative!

French engineer/farmer with 2 children
wearing the train caps we gave them.

He showed us where to get off the train to catch our bus.  Again, we ran into some "challenges" getting back to our hotel.  As we rode the bus, an inspector came around looking at everyone's tickets.  When we showed him our all-day bus tickets, he shook his head "No" and showed us someone else's ticket.  We kind of sunk into our seats, worried that he would throw us off, or give us a ticket/fine, or both!  We breathed a sigh of relief when he got off at the next stop.

At the bus transfer point, we showed the driver our tickets before we got on the bus this time.  He also shook his head "No" and pointed to the ticket kiosk.  Bob ran over and bought 2 more tickets.  We later figured out that there were 2 bus lines, one serving the city, another serving the suburban area where our hotel was.  We later suggested to our hotel that they provide guests with some directions about how to buy bus tickets and where to catch the buses!

We finally got back to the hotel.  We had started out about 10 a.m., and got back about 8-9 p.m.  Very tired!  Which is why we got pizza at the same place as last night.  While there, I saw a guy load a little box about the size of a microwave oven on his back, put some pizza in it, then jump on a motorcycle to go deliver it.  Check him out below:

Pizza delivery guy, pizza on his back, rides a motorcycle.

When we got back to our hotel, we had an email from the guy from the Bronx.  He thought it was "awesome" that we just jump on planes, without knowing in advance where we are going, he said.  He also said we were like "hoboes jumping on a train."  So we decided to call ourselves the "Hobo Haleys."

In the next blog, you can read about us Hoboes exploring the city of Catania.