June 13 (as of 14:28)
So at 2 pm, I was on the top of a hill, with the train leaving in less than 28 minutes. The downhill ride was surprisingly long, as it was so steep, I had to apply my brakes the entire ride. Anyhow, with a minute to spare, I made it, bought a ticket for me, but could not get one for my bike. Then I found out that in Sicily bicycles ride for free...nice!The train tracks were built right next to the coast and I must admit that seeing the mile-long beaches made me wonder what I was doing and why…but now I was on mission. We arrived on time and it turned out the next train was an express one, not only did it have an hour delay, it would not carry bikes. Oh well, the following one, leaving in an hour, would allow bikes on board.I thus had some time to spend in Messina, a town I had already visited some ten years ago, as the very final destination of my first Balkan trip (starting in Austria, riding down to Albania, from where I took a boat to Bari and rode through Calabria to Messina). Back then, on the return leg, I had taken a ferry to Naples and then a number of trains to Vienna - took me like 24 hours. In 2012, it was the final of Euro 2012, which Italy lost big time (4:0) to Spain. I watched the game at a huge square with public viewing, after the loss, Messina was a mess - angry crowds throwing empty beer bottles around. This time, in the early afternoon heat, the town was very quiet, looked very clean and tidy. Many impressive buildings were to be seen, but I had one goal: a decade ago, I had the best fiocacca ever, so started looking for the places selling these - was successful at locating a shop - however, the ovens were still dormant. They did sell arancinis, which are Sicilian ride balls that are stuffed, coated with bread crumbs and then deep fried. I bought quite a load for the 20-hour boat ride ahead of me.
My train to Palermo started on time, but started getting more and more delayed. It was scheduled to arrive at 8 pm, with the ferry leaving at 9:30 pm, so I would have an hour and a half to reach the port, purchase a ticket and board the ferry. The issue was that further we got into the trip, the longer the delay got. 5 minutes turned into thirty, this into an hour - we arrived at 9 pm, leaving just 30 minutes to reach the port. That was 15 minutes from the train station, so somewhat tight. Would they allow me to buy a ticket and get on the ferry so close to departure? I was quite surprised to see a long queue in front of the ticket counter. I found out our boat had over 4 hours of delay, so instead of 21;30 the scheduled departure was at 2 am, middle of the night. After quite some wait and confusion, I got my ticket and now had couple of hours to explore Palermo, which I had left so hurriedly a dozen days ago.I literally stumbled into a fellow biker, Perer, who was also waiting for the same ferry. He had ridden from Chiemsee in Bavaria, Germany, all the way to Sicily and then saw lot on the island - was en route to his home after being on the road for seven weeks. He had spent three days chilling in Palermo, so he gave some advice as to where to go.It was quite late by now, around 10 pm, but the party quarter of town, which I did not visit previously, was full of young people eating, drinking, laughing on this Monday night. I had some delicious grilled meat for a reasonable amount, it was served on wooden skewers. The town made a much better impression than the last time, as with most Sicilian cities, number of beautifully lit monumental buildings decorated the public squares. I was riding around till past midnight, then boarded the ferry. My first action was to find a suitable place to pitch my tent, it was a lot smaller vessel than the one I had arrived with. It was a covered spot on the back deck, proved to be perfect, it remained in the shade even the next day.
Our delay expanded to five hours, so when we pulled out, I was already snoozing in my tent.