Week 18
Day 120
We have a few more days to relax in Noto before we start our adventure to Morocco. Today we meandered through town and saw some new churches that we hadn’t seen/noticed before. The whole town seemed soggy from all of the rain last week.
Day 121
Today was a nice calm day. We enjoyed reading on the balcony most of the day. Then we made pizza again. It wasn’t as stellar as the first time but still good.
Day 122
Today we tried to catch up on the blog. Luckily we haven’t done much in Noto besides cook, read, play scrabble and walk around. So hopefully we will be caught up by the time we leave here on Friday.
Day 123
Another beautiful sunrise followed by storm clouds rolling in. It seemed like a perfect last day in Noto, Italy.
Day 124
We started our three days of travel to Morocco today by taking the bus to Catania. But first one last stop to Cafe Sicilia!
After Cafe Sicilia we walked through the main street and it looked like there was going to be some kind of festival. Men were dressed up in period costumes. We didn’t have time to ponder this though and headed to the phone store to get a new data card for our last three days in Italy. Noto is so small we hadn’t bothered getting a new data sim card when the one from France ran out but we thought we should have one for travel days.
We waited for the bus for a short while and then we were off to Catania. Katie got a little carsick on the bus but survived.
Once we were in Noto we were back to the Bed and Breakfast we had stayed at on the way to Noto. It was comforting going back somewhere familiar. After putting our bags down we headed for the beach. We had plenty of time and we were ready for an adventure. Unbeknownst to us, Catania had severe flooding the night before (we learned this later when we got back to the place). As we walked around we assumed the flooding in parking lots that we saw was just from the heavy October rains that we had been experiencing.
We found a “shortcut” to the beach through a parking lot and a “forest”. Unfortunately part of the wooded train was flooded, as well as the street on the other side of the woods.
We managed to get through to the main street near the beach. Most of the establishments were closed so we kept walking. Eventually we ended up eating gas station arancini and what tasted like a kolache. They were actually good and did the job of filling us up so we could keep wandering around.
Eventually we went back to the bed and breakfast and had Simpsons pizza for dinner. It was just as delicious as we remembered it!
Day 125
We had an early trip to the airport (5AM) today to fly to Milan. That meant we saw the sunrises at the airport and also had an entire day in Milan. After arriving in Milan we wanted something quick and easy and went to McDonalds. It was a mistake. It is always a mistake but we always forget.
After the airport we hung-out at the mall across the street until we could check-in to our bed and breakfast. The place is right on the other side of the airport so we got to see some “plane peepers” who were waiting at the end of the runway to watch the planes. The check in process consisted of us getting keys out of an unlocked mailbox and reading the directions on the paper to get into an apartment complex. It was pretty shady to say the least.
After we set our stuff down we went back to the mall to have dinner without all our baggage. Cameron ended up getting terrible microwaved lasagna. After “dinner” we went to the grocery that is in the mall to pick up some things. Specifically toilet paper because there was none at the place and we also picked up pie, juice, nut bars, and snacks (a balanced shopping cart!). We especially enjoyed the poop emojis printed on the toilet paper.
Day 126
Today we finally traveled to Marrakech! We walked back to the airport after checkout, which was very early for our flight that was this afternoon but we didn’t have anywhere else to go. We tried to go through security but were told we had to go back and get a stamp from the airline first.
We headed back to the Ryanair counter and we were told we were too early and no one would be at that counter until later. We ate some mediocre airport food to kill time and Cameron found the airport chapel on the way to the restroom. Then we headed back to the counter and this time they stamped us at the desk and we made it through security without any issues.
After security we needed to go to the international terminal and go through passport control. We made the correct assumption that there would not be good food/hangout options down there so we stopped and had drinks before passport control. We also raced on the escalators (see Cameron being aerodynamic below). Lots of people were anxious and trying to push past the line at passport control. We enjoyed being extra early and unconcerned about the line.
We boarded our plane and both promptly fell asleep. Cameron eventually bought coffee and it was a little bit of an event with the packet of milk and drink spout that was also a filter.
Landing in Marrakesh was a breeze. We were towards the front and were some of the first people off the plane. We then made the huge mistake of filling out our declaration cards for passport control at a desk rather than in line. Basically our entire plane was in front of us. The picture below of the sunny outside of the airport was taken at 5:45 the colorful one with the circles after immigration control was taken at 8:34. That was not the most fun way to spend our first 3 hours in Morocco.
We got a taxi for cheaper than prices we had seen online. With a lot of dodging and weaving he eventually got us to within 200 meters of our hostel. Cameron did a good job spotting signs pointing us in the correct direction. We are in an eight person room but we are the only ones in there! Which means we are paying $5.17 each for a private room. Win!
We enjoyed some Berber whiskey (mint tea) on the rooftop terraces and headed to bed. We are excited to share our Marrakesh experiences in the upcoming weeks.
Keeping Up With Cam and Katie 