Costa Saracena-Castelluccio, Sicily
Letter #79: 4 days of unpaid vacation time, enjoying the sun and sea in the Mediterranean's largest island. 🏝️
5/20/24
I arrived at Vincent Bellini Catania Airport around 7:35pm on Sunday night. The airport was small and dated, easy to navigate, and it took me no time to collect by bag from the conveyor belt. I walked the 300m or so to reach the rental car area and set out to find a grocery store. The AirBnB I’m heading to has a kitchen and is somewhat remote, so I plan to cook all my meals while lounging at the pool with a view of the sea. 🥹
It was dark by the time I left the rental car parking lot, but I reminded myself how often I’d driven in foreign countries by now, that there should be to fear in driving at night here.
The roads weren’t particularly easy to understand at first, and very rough with potholes and uneven surfaces. I could see how their condition may account for the car I was driving—not as smooth as other rentals I’ve had—in general things were just…bumpy. 😆 As the roads weren’t well marked in a way I was familiar with, I found myself pulling into strange, abandoned parking lots rather than onto the highway, struggling to follow the prompts from Google Maps. I gave it a few tries before finally pulling into the lot at Lidl. I had been to one of these grocery stores and knew they weren’t the most inspiring stores (reminiscent of a sadder Aldi), but I simply needed to find a store open past 8:30pm.
The WiFi and cell service is next to none here, and I relished in the thought of unplugging for the next few days. I find that I quite enjoy when my phone is useless while I’m abroad, especially when having the sea stretched out before me, the sun out and shining bright against the clear blue sky,
I unpacked and organized my belongings, put the groceries away, and jumped into the shower. I fell into bed around 12am, strangely not nearly as beat up as I thought I’d be after nearly 19 hours of travel and only 3-ish hours of sleep in the plane.
The room was perfectly silent and cozy. I slept through until 6:30am when I awoke and realized I’d never set an out of office for work, and still needed to submit our payroll that day. I opened up my laptop to complete my final two work obligations before I’d close my computer (for work at least) for the next 4 days.
After snapping a quick shot of the sun rising over the sea, I put my eye mask on to shut out the thin beams of light creeping in behind the shutters. A wave of calm and pleasure washed over me as I anticipated my days spent soaking up the sun.
I crawled back into bed, thinking I’d sleep another couple hours, and potentially having already beat jet lag.
I dreamt heavily—often of ex-boyfriends which is always a strange recurrence—and woke up feeling completely refreshed. I grabbed my phone expecting it be around 11am…only to read 3:30 on the screen. I thought this can’t possibly be right! I slept 14 hours?! I had missed nearly my entire first day here!
I was a bit flustered because it whittled away my pool days to only 3 now, but I reminded myself I had booked another 3 weeks of poolside stays after this. Although the big difference is that I will be working remotely during the afternoons for the remainder of my trip. These 4 unpaid vacation days I took butt up to the Memorial Day weekend holiday, which gives me a nice long break from work. While I can’t take abundant vacation time and risk not being paid, it’s a fair price to pay to be an hourly contractor that is not limited by the tax limitations of a corporation—I can work remotely from where I want, for the duration I want.
I, somehow, wasn’t even hungry when I woke up at 3:30pm. I had only had a few sips of water over the past 14 hours. I put on my bikini and was down at the pool within 20 minutes, resolving that I’d make myself a big dinner later and have only one meal that day. (I couldn’t waste precious time in the sun by cooking three meals inside that day!) I’d have to see if I could will myself to sleep by 10 or 11 to reset the jet lag, and have time for a run the next morning.
But the sea is wonderful. The weather is mild—sunny enough to sunbathe, but not unbearably hot where you have to be in the water constantly to avoid passing out. Mid May in Sicily might just be the PERFECT time to visit.
I decided to spend the remainder of my afternoon reading and writing, without any music to distract from the waves crashing against the cliffs below me, and the birds cooing in the palm trees above me. If you’ve seen Season 2 of The White Lotus, their filming of the swirling water against the rocky shore is EXACTLY what it’s like here…
Hey! Would you like to connect over creativity, self-growth, and problem-solving? Please book a time on my Calendly for us to chat! I can’t wait to see you. XOXO.
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