This time it would be different.
I’ve been to Sicily just a year ago actually. But now I have an incredible taste for adventure compared to last year.
In other words, I’m a little bit crazier now.
Sicily is an island situated right below Italy. It’s the largest island in the Mediterranean sea.
Italy is well-known for its exquisite food and Sicily is obviously no different.
Italy is well-known for it’s exquisite food and Sicily is obviously no different.
So mainly we travelled to Sicily for a brief 2 days to:
- enjoy the great food (and ice cream)
- visit the Etnaland aqua park
- finish off the trip with skydiving.
Day 1
We kick off by catching the early 6.00am plane to Catania, Sicily. As an added bonus, we got to see the stunning sunrise from the plane.
Sunrise from the plane.
That’s a great way to start the day.
Shortly after, we land in Catania and quickly grab something to eat.
Then we head off to the car rental area to get our car for the trip.
Sicily isn’t the most ideal place to drive, so we took a Fiat 500.
As simple as one can get.
Pretty cool, right?
Frankly, I was less concerned with skydiving than with driving.
I was excited but nervous. Because in Malta, we drive on the left. Unlike the rest of the world, of course.
So it always take a while to re-adjust.
I drove a bit in the car park to get used to the car and then we headed off in the wild Sicilian roads.
Our first destination: the accommodation in Catania.
Thankfully, we survived the first drive and got to our accomodation.
We left our stuff there and got ready to head off to..
Etnaland
We arrived at Etnaland at around noon. After the hectic drive, this was the perfect opportunity to wind down.
We got a ticket for the water park, which we found to be fantastic.
The pool was very clean and the slides were a ton of fun.
Also, the queues were not that long. Especially when you consider it was the middle of summer. We spent around 6 hours going from slide to slide. Looking like complete idiots on some all of them too.
Turns out I’m the whitest kid on the slide.
To top it off, we had some delicious ice cream there too.
We left the park around 6.00pm and guess what?
We spent 20 minutes searching for our car in the car park. Because we couldn’t remember exactly where we parked.
I guess the crazy slides had their effect on our heads.
Then we drove back to Catania and had a delicious pizza before we decided to call it a night.
Just like the first day, the second day was going to be a blast!
Day 2
We wake up at 8:30am and pack up our stuff to check out.
This was the big day for us!
Our first ever skydiving experience was scheduled to happen at 3.00pm.
Since the skydive was the major focus of the day, we could chill out and do whatever we want for the other hours of the day.
In fact, we decided to start the day by going to a shopping complex. I ended up buying a cool pair of shoes which I would eventually jump out a plane with.
At 1.00pm we had lunch at the shopping complex itself.
Then we set off for our 1 hour drive to the skydiving location.
This was a super fun ride on the highway from Catania to Siracusa.
We finally made it at the very remote drop zone location.
As soon as we arrived, we were presented with a couple of papers we needed to sign prior to our jump.
I had a quick look at the papers.
They said that if anything goes wrong with our jump, they have no responsibility for it.
That’s a cool way to start! (joke)
We signed the papers, paid the remaining amount due and then we just had to wait.
The only problem was that it was a windy day. And we couldn’t do the jump in all that wind.
So we ended up waiting for around 3 hours to do our skydive.
We took the time to relax, eat yet another ice cream and get some videos in during that time.
Left: Determined before skydiving & Right: Bored before skydiving
Then at 5.00pm the time for the jump finally came.
I met my instructor, who started getting me ready with the equipment needed for the jump. He proceeded to explain what was going to happen in the next minutes.
Following that, I got on the plane with another 2 Italian guys. I was told that I will be the last one to jump out.
We rose up to 500m in the air until we had to go back down again. Turns out there was some plane diversion. Our pilot received news from the Catania airport that we should go down and wait another 40 minutes to fly back up.
That’s what we did.
My instructor took the time again to check all the equipment is tied up well to my body and we got on the plane for the 2nd time.
This time we had confirmation that everything was okay. So the jump was finally going to take place.
Was I excited? Hell yeah!
Was I scared? Not as much as I thought I would be.
I had been mentally preparing and visualising this moment for an entire month to the point I was totally ready for it.
Honestly, I was looking forward to having a super fun time. But also, to get it over with and know that I had done it successfully.
Plus it is so hot being crowded in the plane that you actually can’t wait to get out of there.
So as we reached 4,200m above the ground, they opened the plane door. It was time to jump.
The first guy is out.
It’s a really weird sensation. Suddenly you’re seeing a guy in front of you on the plane. And then in an instant that guy is gone.
Second guy disappears too.
It’s my turn now.
And there we go!
The moment I jumped out, I immediately attempted to take a deep breathe in. While I managed, I noticed it was a bit harder to breathe up there.
Gravity meant I quickly accelerated in my speed downwards. I could see all the fields and the sea beneath me, slowly but surely getting closer.
I caught up with the camera guy and had around 25 seconds to look great up in the sky.
Then my instructor pulled out the parachute. We shot up in the air and landed successfully around 7 minutes after.
When I landed on the ground, I have to admit I felt relieved that everything went well.
I had just did a skydive and it felt fantastic.
Mandatory post-skydive picture
Given we had to wait a few hours for our skydive, we couldn’t really do much after our experience there.
So we headed off to the airport, to leave our car there and catch the flight back home.
By the time we needed to drive, it was 8.00pm and it was getting dark. The car ride to the airport was super fun. I love driving at night, seeing all those lights in the distance.
We bought and devoured a chocolate cannoli while waiting at the airport.
We landed in Malta at 00.30am and caught a cab back home.
There you have it.. our awesome experience in Sicily
A super exciting day at Etnaland coupled with a day focused on skydiving in Sicily. An unforgettable experience.