l'avventura del autobus

Ellie, Lindsay, and I made plans to hop on a bus and take a trip to Mondello for dinner and new scenery yesterday evening. I needed a good nap and wanted to buy MY TICKET HOME FOR CHRISTMAS so I told them to go ahead and that I would meet them there later. Around 7:30 I was all excited and ready to go. I walked to the closest bus station, scanned the buses for the right number, found the one, and hopped on. We were off! "Hmm.." I thought, "why is this bus taking me into town? Oh, perhaps it's because it's a weekend route." HA weekend route...so we got to one of the main piazzas in town and I decided to hop off and recheck the bus number. 102 HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE IT JUST SAID 544!!! Oh goodness. I started walking to a bus stop where I was sure I could catch the right bus. After waiting at least 15 minutes in the drizzle the correct bus pulled up and I hopped on, in the back, where there are no windows and the sea breeze could whip my hair! Alright, so we're chuggin along and I end up being the only person headed to Mondello for the night. But it's okay because at least I'm headed there! We're weaving through the city streets when we find ourselves in an impossible situation. The bus that I'm on and a bus headed in the opposite direction decide to try and fit at the same time down a very narrow street (think El Segundo with cars parked on both sides but smaller). NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. All the while there is this man smoking a cigarette walking back and forth behind me saying "bellissima" again and again. I was wishing for windows at that point. After a good chunk of confusion time my bus puts itself in reverse to make room for the next bus. Whew. We did it. I found the girls waiting for me at the mermaid fountain that is the center of Mondello. We had the nicest dinner in the upstairs section of a cozy restaurant where we could see the moon shining on the sea. We talked and talked and ate and ate. It was really fantastic. I could see the 806 bus back into town passing by below us every 20 minutes just like it was supposed to. After a bit I decided to check the time to make sure the bus I had just watched go by wasn't the last. OH. Five minutes to 11? Yeah, that was probably the last one seeing as how the schedule says that route finishes at 11. Well we laughed about it and decided to ask our friendly waiter about other buses and taxis. He was helpful but with bad news. Yes, that probably was the last bus and yes, taxis into town are quite pricey. BAH. We got gelato, because what else are you going to do at 11 in Sicily without a way home? Every time one of us would ask another what some of the flavors were like the server was very fast to scoop out a sample. I asked a lot ;) finally I had my cappucciono and nutella cone waiting to be devoured and Ellie says, "Oh, there's a bus..." but Lindsay's on it and notices that the 806 bus was just sittin' there waiting for our gelato and laughter filled selves to jump on it! We ran across the street and ran onto the bus and ran to the back to find seats. Sitting down in a cloud of giggles and sighs of relief we settled in for our safe and sure (or so we could only hope) trip home.