This plan was hatched nine months prior
and the ticket was bought in early September after having determined the public
holidays of May and having studied the Premier League fixtures. The itinerary
was drawn out slowly and apart from reshuffling the destinations in terms of
their order, the plan was more or less formed in January 2014. I delayed
purchasing the regional tickets and match tickets until early April 2014 (and
even then, still had to make changes when the footie fixtures were changed) and
only booked London accommodation in February 2014. Accommodation at
destinations was also booked from February 2014.
Friday, 25 April 2014
I was supposed to depart later tonight;
however, read the text sent by MAS advising that the flight had been delayed to
05:00 the next morning just before sitting down to dinner. A quick frantic call
to MAS was made to confirm situation and to assess my other options. They could
bump me into the flight bound for Paris or Istanbul; however, I still needed to
find a subsequent flight out if I were to stick to my schedule. Told the MAS
customer service I would call back if I decided to fly to Paris (another
problem is that I had already dropped my bag off at the KL CAT in the
morning...). I had a quick dinner - truth be told, I had already lost my
appetite by then but forced myself to eat because I didn’t want to risk getting
gastritis. After dinner, I quickly assessed other options available. Dad
suggested going to Akak’s so at least she and my bro-in-law could send me to
the airport early the next morning. We left at 21:30.
We reached Akak’s about an hour later
no thanks to the crazy mad Friday evening traffic. Bought new flight ticket,
changed the airport transfer and altered my accommodation booking. Only went to
bed at a quarter to midnight and even then I had problems falling asleep.
Saturday, 26 April 2014
KUL-LHR
I probably slept all of an hour because
I was up again before 2 am and despite my begs efforts, sleep just wouldn’t
come. Finally got up at a quarter to 3 to get ready. We left for KLIA at 03:15.
The airport was deserted when we arrived and having only my cabin bag
(backpack), I went in immediately. We had all boarded the plane by 05:10 but
the flight only took off at 05:40.
After performing prayers, I tried to
sleep but well, I’ve never had much luck sleeping on flights and this was no
exception. I refused to watch any inflight movie as I didn’t want to keep
myself awake unnecessarily (even though sleep was elusive) so I just shut my
eyes and willed for sleep to come. To no avail. Sigh.
We landed at a quarter to noon and I
rushed off to clear immigration. The bag was late in coming out (well, it being
an A380, of course there were more passengers and consequently more bags). I
then rushed to take the tube to Earl's Court. Despite my best efforts, the
easyBus was late and as a result, I only arrived at Gatwick 10 minutes after
bag drop-off had closed. Well, just my effing luck again. Had to pay £60 to change
my ticket to the next morning.
I was too knackered that I didn’t have
problem dozing off. I couldn’t sleep soundly but I did manage to catch a couple
of hours or so of sleep.
Sunday, 27 April 2014
LGW-PMO
Woke up after 4 and went to perform
prayers. After prayers, I went to drop off my bag. The queue was long but very
fast. I cleared security and made my way to the gate quickly, not wanting to
miss the flight again. We left grey drizzling Gatwick behind and took off on
time. I managed to catch some kip on the way. We landed at Palermo Airport just
before 11:00. You can either take the train to the train station from the
airport (it’s hourly though) or the airport bus to the train station. I wanted
to take the train but the ticket machine only accepted coins r card (no paper
bills!) so I made my way to the bus stop. Now, on weekdays, there are buses
directly from a Palermo Airport to Agrigento where I was heading but not on
Sundays so I had to take a train to Agrigento. Otherwise, it’s just one bus
ride. Instead, I had to take a bus from the airport to the train station and a
train to Agrigento.
We arrived at Agrigento some two hours
later and I made my way up the stupid steep hills of the city, huffing and
puffing and panting hard to B&B Amélie but when I got there half-dead,
there was no one there. I rang the doorbell many times and even borrowed an
elderly neighbour's phone but no one picked up. Finally, after 20 minutes of
frustration, I left my suitcase and went to find B&B Fiore di Girgenti (which I had actually booked
earlier and then cancelled) to ask if there was any available room. Finally, I
was in luck. There was a room left and it was a family room. The owner wanted
€35 and I was only too happy to pay it. I got a large room with a double bed
and two single beds, a mini kitchenette and en-suite bathroom (the room I
booked earlier and then cancelled was a single room with shared bathroom). I trudged back up to
After freshening up and performing
prayers, I went to check out the town. It’s a pretty hilly town and you’d
really need to be climbing stairs - there's no avoiding them! I noticed there's
a sizeable Muslim minority there, I don’t know if they are descendants of the
island’s long-ago Arab settlers or if they are immigrants from Tunisia. There is
also a sizeable African community, hardly surprising seeing Sicily is very near
to Africa.
I returned to my room just after dark
and had dinner. Tried to switch the TV on but couldn’t seem to get the remote
to work. The TV was mounted above the door and it was too much effort getting
to it. Anyway, I needed sleep.
Monday, 28 April 2014
I woke up for morning prayers after a
good night’s sleep. After breakfast, I checked out. The owner helped to store
my bags (€2 to store bags) and gave me the keys to access the storage place. I
walked up to the train station to get the bus to the Temples. Bus tickets were
bought at the train station bar (€1.20 one way). Traffic was already building
up outside the train station and tempers were flying. There were a few bus
services running to the temples and they were all late and I hopped on the first one that
came along.
The journey took slightly longer than
scheduled and I reached the temple entrance (after panicking if the bus had
passed by it) about 10 minutes later. I bought a combination ticket (the
temples and the archaeological museum) for €13.50. Locals and EU citizens pay a
lot less of course. I went in and walked to the Temple of Concordia, the Temple
of Hera and the Temple of Ercole. After that, I crossed over to the Temples of
Zeus and Dioskouroi. After having my fill of the ruins, I walked out and walked
up the road to the archaeological museum. I spent close to two hours there.
I returned back to Agrigento and bought
lunch. Just like the Amalfi, Sicily also observes siesta and most shops were
closed after 1 pm. I decided to walk to the bus station and wait there for my
15:30 bus to Gela. The bus turned out to be small mini-van like and some
passengers had to stand for about 25 minutes.
A resident of Agrigento
The bus pulled into Gela station at 17:10.
A couple helped determine for me that there was no bus service to Ragusa but
there was a train service to Siracusa at 17:42 which will pass through Ragusa
so I bought a ticket. We arrived at Ragusa station at 1903 and I made my way to
B&B Gilda at via Delle Palme just off via Archimede. Ragusa is made up of two
parts: Ragusa Superior and Ragusa Ibla. My B&B was in Ragusa Superior.
After checking in and paying for my room (there’s a city tax of €1), I went out
into the evening and walked to Corso Italia before returning to the B&B.
There were 60+ TV channels but none,
absolutely none, was showing the Arsenal-Newcastle match.
To be continued
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