Food Archives · Page 4 of 4 · Bon Voyage on a Big Adventure!

September 13, 2018

Days 63- 69: More Vietnam! Our Time in Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City

Rich and I had heard really amazing things about Hoi An, Vietnam, and Hoi An came through! We stayed in an amazing AirBNB with one of our favorite hosts, ate delicious meals, and enjoyed wandering and exploring each day.

Rich and I felt a bit sick and rundown in Ho Chi Minh City, and we know long stretches of travel can do that to you. We still enjoyed our time there and found a few gems we would definitely revisit if we ever make our way back.

Day 63: Travel from Hue to Hoi An on a SLEEPING Bus

So the bus ride from Hue to Hoi An was only about four hours long, but the only type of bus available for the journey is a sleeping bus.

The sleeping bus has bunk bed- type accommodations as well as free WiFi. Woot!

Unfamiliar with a sleeping bus? We were too. Instead of having normal bus seats, you recline for the ride so you are able to get some sleep.

Once you go sleeping bus, you will never want to go back. Despite being a few inches taller than the typical passenger and perhaps needing another inch or two of leg room, the seats were remarkably comfortable. It was also great to have your own space (no offense, honey!) for the ride.

10/10 experience. Sleeping bus for the win.

sleeping bus to hoi an — Just a little sleeping bus selfie…

Rich sleeping on sleeping bus to Hoi An — Rich sleeping IMMEDIATELY on the sleeping bus. Seriously, we had not been moving for more than 10 minutes when he was 100% asleep.

We got to Hoi An and got a bit turned around when the google directions took us to the wrong address for our AirBNB (we were on foot with our luggage on the wrong road…), but our hostess Vuong somehow found us on her motorbike and graciously drove us to the right location.

The AirBNB was beautiful. We had arrived!

Super cute and cozy (although my bed making skills may leave a bit to be desired!)

Day 64: Enjoying the Beach in Hoi An

Our AirBNB included breakfast, which the first morning was fresh fruit in the refrigerator which I ~~cut~~ hacked open with the largest knife I have ever seen.

knife in Hoi An — Did I mention it was a pretty big knife?

Dragon fruit! Do we have this in America?

fruit in Hoi An — I have literally not a clue what this fruit is called. Didn’t keep me from eating it.

Then it was time to head to the beach! Our AirBNB included the use of two bicycles so we pedaled about 20 minutes through the town, then over rice fields to the beach. Cycling is not my favorite– I also think my bike was a little bit broken– but we made it.

water buffalo selfie in hoi an — It’s normal to stop your bike ride to take a selfie with a water buffalo, right?

The Beach at Hoi An

We paid about a quarter to have someone watch our bikes, and then the second we stepped on sand, we received offers for cheap prices for beach chairs. As we walked, the prices got lower until we arrived at a spot offering free chairs if you bought lunch. Rich asked if we could buy drinks instead and received a pretty nebulous answer that we took as a yes.

We settled in with a beer (Rich) and coconut juice (Amanda) to enjoy some sun! And this sun was hot! I was still overcoming the trauma of the jellyfish attack so Rich and I opted to stay out of the water.

When it came time to pay, of course, the restaurant added the price of the chairs to our bill. We negotiated adding an order of french fries and two beers (beers were about 75 cents a piece) to our order to come out even so it worked out in the end.

Banh Mi for Lunch

We rode our bikes back to town for a much less expensive and very delicious banh mi lunch. We got two banh mi sandwiches with fresh avocado and two cans of coke for $3.75 total.

banh mi in hoi an — Our delicious $3.75 TOTAL banh mi lunch.

Banh mi have saved our budget as we traveled through Vietnam.

Dinner and Lights in Pretty Hoi An

Hoi An at night is pretty spectacular. There are lights and lanterns everywhere, and there is an amazing Japanese bridge connecting the two sides of the river. On the river itself, visitors light “lantern flowers,” representing individual hopes and prayers, and send them out to float. It’s magical.

I found a fabulous restaurant called Nu online. We are pretty in touch with what we want in a restaurant at this point, and top criteria includes:

Vegetarian and vegan options. I’m not a vegetarian or vegan yet (ha!), but my experience says that places with vegetarian and vegan offerings are just more likely serve healthier food in general. I also eat vegetarian as much as I can to get enough nutrients to make up for the days we are subsisting on coffee, Oreos, and noodles (doesn’t happen often but has happened– Mom, you raised me better).
Fusion dishes. I’m sure it would be sexier and make us sound more adventurous to say we only eat 100% authentically local dishes abroad. We don’t. When a place gets good reviews from Westerners, it’s a good indication that we will probably like it too.
A small menu. We almost always like restaurants that specialize in a few items more than places that have the Cheesecake Factory-sized binder of choices. We are not picky– we can find something we will like on a small menu.

At Nu, we started with pork belly bao buns, and then had a beef noodle ragu and fried rice with sesame chicken entree, and then enjoyed a small cheesecake dessert. Yum.

Rich dragon in Hoi An — Rich with a dragon!

Day 65: Work Day and Pretty Night Out

After no internet on the Halong Bay cruise and an active 24 hours in Hue, we desperately needed to get caught up on blogging and trip planning. Our AirBNB host Vuong brought us egg banh mi for breakfast, and then we spent the whole day inside knocking out work. It was glorious.

Rich working in Hoi An — Work day in Hoi An! I worked from the bed while Rich set up a little office of his own.

Hoi An was one of the most picturesque (read: Insta-ready) places we had visited so we ran out before sunset to take as many pictures as possible.

While taking pictures around 5:30 PM, we realized we had not eaten since breakfast and were STARVING so we grabbed a quick pre-dinner banh mi. Which I then immediately spilled on my shirt– changing our Insta capturing approach. Oops!

banh mi on my shirt in Hoi An — Messy me! After I got in the fight with the banh mi…Can’t take me anywhere.

Hoi An vibes ONLY. This mural was in an adorable little boutique in downtown Hoi An.

Hoi An river — The river that runs through Hoi An is beautiful. This shot is from the Japanese bridge.

For dinner, we went back to Nu. It was that good.

Day 66: Travel to Ho Chi Minh City and American Lunch

Travel to Ho Chi Minh City (previously Saigon) was super easy. A shuttle picked us up from our hotel and drove us to the airport in Danang, about an hour away. We took one quick and easy flight to HCMC, and we were there around 11:30 AM. There was a local bus from the airport to the city, and we were in our AirBNB by 12:30 PM.

For lunch, we found an American sandwich shop called Journey’s, and it was like being back in America. Beyonce and Jay-Z on the stereo, crispy bacon on our BLT, and delicious air conditioning.

american sandwich in hcmc — Pressed about this amazing American sandwich

We were so full our dinner consisted of snacks (read: Oreos) from the Circle K. So like basically we had the most American day ever.

Day 67: Visit to the War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace

The War Remnants Museum

After our visit to the Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi, we were prepared for the War Remnants Museum to tell a decidedly North Vietnam/communist-friendly account of the conflict, and I think that is a pretty fair assessment of what we experienced at the museum.

I’m mostly glad we went because it certainly deepened my understanding of the history surrounding us in HCMC (Saigon at the time), but the images were especially sad. The effects of Agent Orange were devastating, and the how young soldiers on both sides of the war were was striking. For better or worse, war can seem abstract in America, but in so many places we have visited (Croatia, Malta, Vietnam), war is something that happened on that corner, and it is not abstract at all.

If you are in HCMC, I would recommend visiting the War Remnants museum, and I would also recommend a big lunch and a nap afterwards. It was deep, and I know I needed to retreat and recover to process a bit after our visit.

An American helicopter at the War Remnants Museum on Ho Chi Minh City.

The “Reunification” Palace

This is a government office building used by the Americans and South Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. On April 30, 1975, a North Vietnamese bulldozer rammed through the Palace’s front gate, signifying the fall of Saigon and an end to the war. The Americans had finished evacuating the day before.

The Vietnamese call it the Reunification Palace because they celebrate the reunification of North and South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese ex-pats refer to this time in history as Black April.

The palace is fascinating because everything in it has remained untouched. It is like walking on to a Vietnamese set of Mad Men. It is also one more reminder that this was a war fought in our parents’ lifetime.

Outside of the Reunification Palace in Saigon.

The Cabinet Room in the Reunification Palace

The heaviness of the day wore us out. We went home, ordered Indian delivery food for dinner, and ate on the couch in our pajamas.

Day 68: Rest, Recovery, and Rooftop Bar

Rich woke up feeling terrible with a sore throat. We picked up hot tea and a Gatorade equivalent at the Circle K and stayed inside to rest and recover.

I have no way to back this up, but I think some of the air pollution was getting to us. There is so much exhaust in the city, and people cook, using a variety of fuel sources, out on the sidewalk. My throat was okay, but my breathing just felt a bit labored. Add clean air to the list of American things I take for granted.

After a day inside, we decided to head out to a rooftop bar to take in another view of Saigon. The bar was located on the 28th floor of the Sheraton, and the views were really amazing. We were glad we ventured out.

Enjoying the views and each other (as always)

The view from the Sheraton rooftop bar in Ho Chi Minh City. I did not expect HCMC to be nearly as modern feeling as it was.

Day 69: More Rest Needed and Change of Plans

Rich woke up feeling better but not great. We had some pho from the restaurant downstairs for lunch, and then we headed to an incredible coffee shop named The Workshop to work. I was able to blog a bit while Rich worked on travel planning.

Our original plan had been to head to Sihanoukville, Cambodia from Ho Chi Minh City. However, the only way we could figure out to get there without spending way more on a flight than we wanted to spend was to take a 13+ hour bus ride (on a sitting not sleeping bus– the horror!). While there have been points in the trip that we have “toughed out” some situations, neither of us were quite feeling up to a 13 hour bus ride on a route that had a few particularly unsettling reviews.

So we decided to go to Thailand instead! In my humble opinion, something I really appreciate about our marriage is the agility with which Rich and I change course when we decide it is the right thing to do (travelling this year being a prime example). And a flight to Thailand and a hotel with a pool when we arrived sure sounded like a win.

While we didn’t see quite as much in Ho Chi Minh City as we had planned, we enjoyed its modern feel as well as being able to learn from its significant history. Stay tuned for how we enjoyed our last minute change of plans to visit Chiang Rai, Thailand!

September 12, 2018September 12, 2018

Days 60- 62: Halong Bay and Hue, Vietnam

If you follow our Insta, and you should be following our Insta (@bonvoyagebigadventure), you know that we had way too much fun with the Halong Bay jokes.

Amanda: Rich, we sure our a Halong way from home…

Rich: It’s going to be a Halong trip if you keep telling jokes like that!

View of Halong Bay — Taking in Halong Bay, Vietnam

Halong Bay, Vietnam is BEAUTIFUL, and we mostly enjoyed our trip– more on that below– and really enjoyed our time in Hue.

Days 60-61: Our Halong Bay Cruise and a Monster Attacks

Halong Bay, Vietnam is a UNESCO World Heritage Site filled with immense beauty and small fishing villages where, until recently, for multiple generations the people have lived their lives almost exclusively on the water.

Based on all of the research conducted by our expert trip planner (Rich), we concluded that the best way to see the Halong Bay was on an overnight cruise. After even more research, Rich selected the Bhaya Cruise Line for our cruise operator.

The Itinerary

Day 1:

The cruise company picks you up directly from where you are staying in Hanoi. You take about a four hour van ride to Halong Bay.
You are greeted with a welcome drink, board the ship, and receive a safety briefing while you eat lunch and the ship sets sail.
You cruise until you reach a fishing village, at which point you spend about an hour kayaking in and around the village.
You return to the boat and enter “safe” waters to enjoy a swim.
Then there is happy hour with half priced drinks and a cooking demonstration.
Then you enjoy a bbq dinner on the top deck of the ship, and there are optional evening activities (a movie, night fishing) after dinner.

Day 2:

There is optional sunrise Tai Chi, followed by a continental breakfast.
You travel to a cave to explore.
You cruise back to the bay and enjoy brunch.
You disembark, and the van drives the four hours back to Hanoi.

The Good

For the first several hours of the cruise, we were loving life. Navigating Hanoi had been a lot, and now we had a beautiful cabin to stay in and delicious food to eat, and we had to do zero work to obtain food and be surrounded in comfort. We could sit back and enjoy a little luxury!

And, of course, Halong Bay is breathtakingly beautiful with some of the most amazing vistas in the entire world. Watching the sunrise from our cabin was spectacular. We also sat for about 30 minutes on our private balcony overlooking the bay while the boat was cruising and we had returned from kayaking, which was heaven.

Rich in Halong bay — Handsome Rich and the Halong Bay

We loved sitting together on our private balcony.

The Bad/Meh

Visiting the fishing village felt a little invasive, and honestly distasteful, to me. We were a group of people wealthy enough to afford a cruise paddling around a neighborhood mouths agape trying not to say things like, “I can’t believe these are people’s homes.” (Read more nuanced research on the positive and negative effects of “slum tourism” here.)

You could say that we were looking at the beautiful, brightly colored houses, but I think that would be disingenuous. Had I lived in those homes, I would not want people paddling around looking at me, remarking upon the way my community lives. The original cruise we booked had us paddle through a cave, and then we received an email that we had received an “upgrade” on our cruise the day before. I would have preferred to paddle through the cave.

Instead, we did a walking tour of a cave which was also super meh. We were not exploring, we were walking about 100 yards total around in a circle. Had we known more what to expect, we would have enjoyed sitting for a few more minutes together on our private balcony.

Rich’s first time wearing a life jacket!

kayaking in Halong Bay — Kayaking through the fishing village. Amanda paddles; Rich rests his feet.

The Ugly

I got stung by a jelly fish. Or maybe by seven jellyfish. I had stings all over my body.

The staff made a big deal about docking in a spot with water that was “safe” to swim in, and I was actually the one pressuring Rich to jump in this time. We were two of the first people in the water, and then a young guy jumped in a minute or two later, and it was clear something happened to him in the water. We were remarking on what it might be, when I felt like I had been electrocuted– pain shot through my body like electricity.

“Something got me,” I said. “I have to get out now.”

Rich, who was wonderful while the attack was happening and for the entire time after, later conceded that his first thought was hoping I was okay and his second was to get himself out of the water before whatever it was came for him.

As soon as I was back on the boat, my skin turned prickly red and white bumps and welts appeared. And it hurt. I was really trying to be brave because, I mean, we are around the world adventurers (ha!), but it was scary and it hurt. In retrospect, I can’t believe I didn’t cry. Or that Rich didn’t cry either! I was a wreck, and gore/medical emergencies are not his favorite.

One of the staff members on the ship poured vinegar on me. Another started rubbing limes on my welts. One said not to shower, the other said shower immediately. We went back to the room where first I took a cold shower and then Rich read to take a hot shower and the we rubbed every medication in the First Aid kit all over my body. Rich was as calm and cool as a cucumber.

My frustration with the situation was that a.) I was the most uncomfortable I have been in years and b.) if they told us there was a chance of there being attacked by a jellyfish (but probably 7 jellyfish) I would have opted out! I got stung as a kid so I had done this before. It hurts!

Based on the staff’s quick response, it clearly had happened before. Another guest told me at breakfast the next day that they had participated in a night fishing activity and seen about 20 jellyfish in a five minute period! Come on!

So the Halong Bay cruise was not my favorite. We attempted to do the fanciest, most luxurious thing of the whole trip, and I ended up having the worst experience! I preferred eating hot dogs and camping in Iceland! Go figure. You live, you learn.

Day 62: Hue, Vietnam

After we disembarked from the boat, we had a six hour ride back to Hanoi, then we took a super easy bus back to the Hanoi airport, and then we flew to Hue, Vietnam. We got to our AirBNB at about 10:00 PM, which was actually a room in an adorable boutique hotel.

We sat next to a gentleman on our flight who had also been on our cruise and talked travel and life the entire flight (not like us– we are way too introverted to enjoy talking to strangers). He, his wife, and his teenage daughters live in Lisbon, Portugal, but he and his wife had lived in New York working in investment banking in the 90’s. We really enjoyed exchanging travel stories, and they were incredibly encouraging when we told them about our trip.

The gentleman also shared that despite owning his own investment banking company in Portugal, the most important thing he does every day is to make it home in time to have dinner with his wife and daughters. The family was really wonderful, and it was our pleasure to have met them.

Exploring Hue

After being on a boat for several days, it was nice to stretch our legs a bit. We walked about 30 minutes to the Imperial Palace, a complex filled with beautiful buildings from when Hue had been the capital of Vietnam.

golden dragon in Hue — Rich with a golden dragon! He likes to have his picture taken with animals and creatures, FYI.

Amanda at the Imperial Palace, from when Hue was the capital of Vietnam

We then walked another hour to visit the Thien Mu Pagoda, or the Pagoda of the Celestial Lady, an ancient temple overlooking the river. Most tourists do not walk quite this far–opting to take inexpensive tuk tuks instead– so we got curious looks both on the way there and on the way back!

We returned back to the hotel where we took advantage of the hotel jacuzzi and fell asleep in hammock chairs (I know, rough life!).

For dinner, we ate at one of our favorite restaurants of the entire trip: Nook Cafe and Bar. I had a delicious veggie curry and Rich ate honey fried chicken with coconut sticky rice. Yum!

This is Rich’s happy, I’m-about-to-eat-food face.

Hue was super hip, and I think we both could have happily stayed longer, enjoying being in a Vietnamese city that is a bit more modern with a slower pace than Hanoi. If you are planning a trip to Vietnam, we would definitely encourage you to add Hue to your list.

August 29, 2018August 29, 2018

Days 48-51: More Sicily! Trapani and Agrigento

After a great- and food-filled- day in Palermo, we jumped on a train to explore more of Sicily, starting with Trapani and then heading to Agrigento. Sicily is a large island, much larger than Malta, and we could have spent a whole additional week there taking it all in.

Map of Sicily — In Sicily, we visited Palermo, Trapani, Agrigento, Siracusa, and Cefalu.

Day 48: Sicily Is Closed on Sunday.

Rich and I had an early bus/train combination (7:20 AM) to Trapani. The bus portion was really nice, followed by a slightly grimy train experience, which is totally opposite of travel in the U.S. (I love Amtrak). Still, we arrived safely in Trapani at about 11:00 AM.

crossaint in palermo, sicily — Healthy breakfast before leaving Palermo (ha!)

Our AirBNB host was kind enough to allow us to drop our luggage at our apartment since we arrived several hours before check-in. On the 20-minute walk from the train station to the apartment, I couldn’t help but think that we had arrived in a ghost town. We were clearly on a main street, and we passed 4-5 other people. Everything was closed and really quiet. It was extra creepy.

Rich does 100% of our travel planning, and usually my role is ride-or-die eager participant, but I may have asked, “So, umm, why do people come here?”

Turns out it was Sunday, and Sicily is the most Catholic place I have ever been (saying a lot since I went to Catholic high school led by Dominican Sisters and have visited the Vatican). On Sundays, everything closes, and apparently, everyone stays inside.

We ate lunch at the one open restaurant we had passed, and then Rich and I went to the one open grocery store to get food to make dinner. We took a long nap after lunch, made a huge pot of pasta (huge- Rich bought enough pasta to feed a family of 15), and stayed in the rest of the evening. A true Sicilian Sunday!

Day 49: Trapani and Erice, Sicily

Greatest Cannoli of All Time in Trapani, Sicily

Turns out, we had also walked away from the picturesque Old Town to get from the train station to the AirBNB. In the morning, when Rich asked if I wanted to take a bit of a longer walk (~35 minutes) to get coffee in the Old Town, I said, yes, absolutely, which was 100% the exact, right answer.

Ladies and gentlemen, with a delicious coffee, I present to you the best cannoli of my entire life:

cannoli in sicily — The Cannoli Dreams Are Made Of.

Imagine funnel cake meets ricotta filling. We picked the spot with the fewest tourists and the most older local Sicilian gentleman, and this analysis paid off. I type this from Vietnam and would pay all of the dongs (dong=Vietnamese currency) to have this cannoli now. All questions about why we visited Trapani were answered.

Trip to Erice, Sicily

We walked the 40 minutes back to the apartment (we were moving a little more slowly post-cannoli), got ready, and then walked another 45 minutes in the opposite direction to a funicular to take us up to the Medieval town of Erice, Sicily.

So a funicular is basically a series of cable cars that seat ~8 people. On Mondays, it doesn’t start running until 1:00 PM so we got in a long line with lots of other tourists at about 12:45 PM. We waited about 30 minutes and then it was our turn to head up the mountain.

funcicular in sicily — Having too much funicular…

funicular pic in sicily — My funicular husband

funicular in sicily — Living the funicular life (which includes puns on puns on puns on puns).

After about a 15 minute ride offering the most spectacular views, we were in Erice. Legend has it that on clear days, you can see as far as Africa. Since the time of the ancient Greeks, a village has existed on top of this mountain. Most of the castles and churches that remain are medieval but some date back earlier than that.

church in erice, sicily — Ancient Church in Erice

The village is super hilly offering breathtaking views at every turn. We had a fun time twisting in and out of the small streets and then enjoying a pizza for lunch.

Walk Into Trapani

We walked into Trapani around sunset to see the churches and explore. Although several of the churches closed earlier than we anticipated, the sunset certainly did not disappoint. Trapani is a major port city in Sicily, exporting tuna and canned goods, and all of the water views were beautiful.

statue in sicily — A pretty statue in Trapani

cathedral in sicily — The Cathedral in Trapani

On our walk, we noticed that there was a pretty big crowd down by the water, that was growing by the minute. We did a bit of google research and turns out that in Trapani, they start celebrating the Assumption of Mary, a Catholic feast day typically celebrated on August 15th, on August 13th by delivering a famous statue of Mary to the town by boat.

We are talking candles, hymns, fireworks, horns, sirens– Mary did not come quietly. It was like nothing we had seen before.

We started watching Mary arrive around 8:30 PM, and at 10:15 or so, we were starving and had to say Arrivederchi. We picked up a gelato on the way home and then ate several bowls of leftover pasta when we finally made it back to the AirBNB.

Day 50: Agrigento, Sicily

Just typing day FIFTY feels surreal. I cannot believe we have been gone so long.

We had an easy bus ride from Trapani to Agrigento and arrived around 1:10 PM. Our AirBNB host Davide picked us up from the train station and drove us to the apartment, which was a huge blessing because our place was at the top of a steep hill I’m not sure I could have scaled with my backpack!

The apartment was super cute and comfortable and was a spot where we felt at home immediately.

The Valley of the Temples

This was one of my very favorite visits of the entire trip! The Valley of the Temples is an incredibly well-preserved group of seven Greek temples mostly build in the 5th century BC.

Rich and I visited Athens, Greece on our very first international trip together in 2013. Hot take: I thought the Valley of the Temples in Sicily was a more impressive archaelogical site than the Acropolis in Athens. Walking from temple to temple in Agrigento, you get such a unique sense of size, scale, proximity, and overall grandeur. It was really magical.

We timed our visit perfectly to catch sunset and the transition to night.

There were Christian catacombs at this spot in the early AD years.

When an ancient statue photobombs your selfie

It’s 100% necessary to travel with this much water at all times.

A couple of quick notes for folks considering visiting:

Agrigento is not set up for people to walk to the entrance to the temples. We did because we walk everywhere, but we were on the side of the road at points, walking on sidewalks covered in trash at others, etc. We should have probably taken the bus from our apartment to the Temples, even though the walk was under three miles.
That said, going back on the bus took us over an hour, and I’m pretty sure we drove into totally different regions of Sicily. There were also some groups of rival teenagers on the bus and some social cues between groups that felt hostile but were hard for us to totally parse out with the language barriers.
The entrance to the temples at the bottom of the hill was next to impossible to find (Rich: “Forget this. If we don’t find the entrance in the next 2 minutes, I’m going home.”). Taking the bus might have made that part easier, but just know the signs send you in conflicting directions.

Our Favorite Dinner in Sicily

As you can perhaps surmise, our trip from the Temples back to Agrigento was a bit stressful, and we were hungry. We wandered into downtown Agrigento and stumbled upon the perfect dinner at A’ Putia Bottega Siciliana.

Prices were really reasonable so we ordered two beers, a meat and cheese plate, a dish with honey, goat cheese, and prosciutto, and a baked eggplant dish. The waiter told us we had ordered enough, and he was not kidding– by the time we finished, we were too full to order dessert. The space was modern, the vibe was laid back, and the food was delicious.

If you want my husband to smile, feed him.

Day 51: Sicily Is Closed on Holy Days of Obligation

Rich and I both attended Catholic schools, and we both had to memorize our Holy Days of Obligation (i.e. days that are not Sundays when you are still supposed to attend mass). However, all the A’s in religion class throughout the years mean little if you don’t recall information when it matters most.

August 15th is the Assumption of Mary, a Holy Day of Obligation.

When Davide dropped us at our apartment in Agrigento, he mentioned that the grocery store would be closed, but it was the kind of comment that went in one ear and out the other. When we arrived at the bus station, however, not paying attention to that comment would haunt us.

So to make a long story long, we planned to take an 8:00 AM bus from Agrigento to Catania and then the next bus from Catania to Siracusa. We would arrive in Siracusa around 2:00 PM. However, because of the holiday, the 8:00 AM bus was cancelled, and the next bus would not leave Agrigento until 4:15 PM.

And we learned this when we arrived at the bus station at 7:30 AM and had already checked out of our AirBNB.

Eeeek. When you are unexpectedly super early for your bus trip…

Even worse, we feared that every grocery store and restaurant would close. We like to eat. How would eat? Where would we go to the bathroom? Would we sit in the sun with our backpacks all day? Would our cell phone batteries last until we could find our AirBNB in Siracusa? Would there still be a connecting bus in Catania? Things were not looking good.

This will make a great blog post cheered the spirits of one of us much more than the other.

First order of business: we saw a vending machine. We loaded snacks from the vending machine into my purse. Chances of surviving the day increased.

Second order of business: we walked to the train station. There was a train coming about an hour earlier than the bus, but our last Sicilian train experience had not been great. We would wait the extra hour for the bus and could wait out the day at a nearby park.

Waiting on a park bench. If it can be funny later, it can be funny now. At least to one of us.

Walking back from the train to the bus, however, we saw a light at the end of the tunnel: an open cafe! We found a table inside next to a plug (charging was vital) and proceeded to eat breakfast and lunch in this tiny cafe. We were there for seven hours.

I did get a really delicious yogurt- with pistachios- out of our time at the cafe.

The sight of the bus arriving to take us from Agrigento rivaled the visions of the temples at sunset the night before. The long wait was over!

The bus rides were comfortable, and we made it to Siracusa around 11 PM. Lesson learned: we will now check holiday schedules in all the countries we visit!