Cruise - Day 5 - Palermo

It’s now one week ago that we have come home and it’s already becoming a blur.  One port begins to look like the other.  I can’t really recall what the port in Palermo looked like.  I don’t have any up-close pictures of it.  I only have pictures of approaching the island and far from the port.   Was that the place with the horse and carriages? I asked Jens, “wasn’t that Napoli?”  He couldn’t remember either.  He said, “basically all the ports are the same.”  I agree that they both contain ships and water but I think they differ quite a bit.  Not that it matters, but you see – this is why I am doing this blog so that I can remember as much as possible.  I actually had to go to Google Earth just now to see pix of the port.  I’m still confused if this wasn’t actually the place with the horse and carriages and not in Napoli.  It make more sense now.  Yes, Yes – the horse and carriages were lined up along the harbor and it’s a much prettier place to do a horse and carriage ride. But basically everything in Italy was so discombobulated. And who in his right mind would take a carriage ride through Napoli.  It was mostly alleyways with mopeds.  One thing is for sure however: It was nice to get away from Napoli and very nice in Palermo.  But again the traffic was just nutos.  Millions of cars on just 10 miles of road – something like that.   

Anyway…………

 

We thank god that breakfast can be enjoyed on our own balcony in private with a bit of sun and the view of what looked to be like an interesting island coming our way.

Approaching the jagged terrain of Palermo.

 

What must have been at one time an entrance to the city.

 

Arrival in the port.

Interesting shops.

 Lovely buildings.

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A nothing church from the outside with amazing inside.

 

Time for another espresso break.

 Fascinating palazzos

Another amazing church

On one of the websites I read it said you must absolutely try the amazing cannelloni. Its origins are from Palermo, Sicily.  The website said that no matter how delicious you have had one in the states, nothing compares to the cannelloni of Palermo.  Well who ever wrote that web page has never been to Boston.  My nice, Nicole, who lives in Connecticut,  took me and my parents to a joint in Boston but the line to get into the bakery actually went around the block.  We were on a limited time schedule so we didn’t have time to stand in line and wait.  Next-door to the bakery was another café also serving cannelloni.  We walked right in, sat down, ordered and ate.  Eh – no big deal.  As good as an Oreo.  When we left the coffee shop, the line into the bakery next-door had died down a bit and we decided to get in line anyway and give it a try.  One hour later we walked out of the bakery with a box of 6 different flavored cannelloni.  We took them back to the hotel and sucked ‘em up.  They were incredible!  They were out of this world.  We wanted more.  More cannelloni! More cannelloni! More cannelloni!  No wonder people stood in that crazy long line. More cannelloni!   This picture shows 2 Oreo cookies disguised as cannelloni.

5 of the evenings are casual wear – meaning shirt and tie.  But according to friends who have been on cruises – anything goes.  2 of the evenings are formal events.  Gowns and Tuxes are preferred.  Well, I don’t have a tux and they lost my gown at the dry cleaners so shirt and tie it was for most of the evenings.  Just by chance we were at one of the lounges where they were serving free cocktails and champagne on formal night.   Most people were dressed very nicely – not one person in a tux – but what made it so funny was to see 2 guys come down the glass elevator in bathrobes.

 

All you single guys looking for Italian love – it can easily be found on this ship.

Along with the free drinks is free music. Free?

Check out the notepad on the piano.  It really is a “note” pad in the literal sense of the word.

Risotto Risotto Risotto.  I’ve had so much risotto I’m about to gag.  I told Jens that, “If I see just one more risotto dish on the menu card, I am gonna pewk!”   What the hell is risotto anyway?!!  Risotto Risotto….. hummmm  Risotto…… Sounds an awful lot like the Danish word “rester”  (pronounced more like rawstah)  Food in Danish is “mad” (pronounced more like math)  “Madrester” or literally “rest-food” or “the rest of the food” translates to English as “left-overs” From my years of learning Danish and meeting people from other countries and listening and talking about funny language tongue-twisters, you begin to learn that languages “borrow” from other languages and words in your language most likely have its origins from another neighboring language.  And most likely all of it originated from Babylon.  Risotto – Rester – the rest of – left overs.  Do you see what I am getting at.   Last night on the ship we had zucchini and eggplant.  Tonight we have Risotto di zucchini and eggplant.  One evening we ate championne alla Gorgonzola.  The next evening it was Risotto championne alla Gorgonzola.  One evening it was Jumbo Shrimp.  The only thing jumbo about these shrimp was the antenna-tentacles that stretched out from one end of the plate to the other.  By the time you peeled the shell from the part you want to eat, it was mini shrimp.  The next night its Risotto di Jumbo shrimp surpris-si.   If you can find the shrimp, you yell out - SURPRIS-SI !!

Anything you served yesterday and still hashing it out a day or two later is Risotto.  Ok but the portions were always small and they did have – surprise surprise – Risotto di Leemona.  “Risotto di Leemona?”  “Hey Jens did we have anything with lemons yesterday? I asked him.  “No, but we did see a lot of kids at the pool drinking pink lemon-aide”   So I tested my limits and asked for the Risotto di Leemona knowing that if I didn’t like it, I didn’t have to eat it.  My eyes were huge with surprise as they brought out a large plate of the mush with these weird yellow lemon-peal thingies sticking out of it. – Gag!

I was telling Dan’s friend about this story and then went onto tell about the time there was fresh hand-made pasta on the menu.  Sounds delicious but I’m thinking – wait, if tonight it’s fresh pasta – what about all the other dinners?  Right – risotto del la pasta.  The fresh pasta was just like the pasta of all the other evenings – 10 minutes over cooked and then rinsed.  In all the other places I have been to in Italy, the pasta dishes are always al-dante.  Al-dante means - don’t eat too much cuz its gonna expand like crazy in your stomach. So Dan’s friend cuts me off and asks, “You do know that the Indonesian guy who makes up your cabin and cleans your toilet is also the same guy in the kitchen trying to make Italian food?”

And when he said that, all I could think of was Risotto della poo poo.  That one question put it all in perspective.  Suddenly it all made sense.

These children have been trying to get my attention several evenings in a row now.  One evening one of the little girls brought her ship provided entertainment coloring-book in 5 languages to dinner.  She walked up to me and had a page open with a French Flag, pointing at it.  She was asking me if I spoke French.  I said “No, here! Let me!”  Took the book from her hand and flipped back and forth, pretending to look for a Chinese flag, “Chino? Chino? Where’s the Chino!!? OOooooh – no Chino -  but I speak Chinese.”  She grabbed the book from my hand and ran back to her mother.

They were being very pornographic the entire evening and the mother is encouraging them and asking me to “Please-ah, you take-a da foto offa me bambini – no?”

“No!”

Layees en Gemmen!  Goo evennina. Tonighta we havea da specttacolo show justa ford-a youa Layees en Gennem.  Layees en Gemmen, pa-leeza – sitta backa anna relaxa Layees en Gemmen anna givea bigga applouso Layees en Gemmen to da specttacolo singerrrrrs annnnnnn dancers Layees en Gemmennnnnnn!