Something to eat in Parma! Not ham!!
The good news is that I have finally found something to eat in Parma, capital of Italian gastronomy. Even better, it was not a plate of ham that you could buy at the supermarket if there was a supermarket. I finally got the strength and less heat stroke to walk under the railway bridge to African immigrant city, where there were lots of restaurants for ‘lavore’ which is not laundry as you might think but workers. I.e. cheap and plentiful. I ignored these however, having seen a sign saying ‘couscous’.
So you would think I ate couscous, but no. No couscous today. The Tunisian guy of course spoke French and I ate Tagine-cake with chips and salad and chilli sauce. Delicious, and no snotty comments when I chose coke instead of wine. I bought two big boxes of Tunisian cakes, watched an uproarious comedy show in Arabic that I didn’t understand a word of, and paid only 14 Euros for all of that, which he seemed to think was expensive. Not after 25 Euros for a tasteless droplet of lamb and a small potato, sliced in half, it isn’t mate.
I had to get a present for the contact teacher, and resorted to the Body Shop, as everything was closed, it being Thursday. That’s not closed because it’s Sunday, or because we close on Monday, but because it’s Thursday. Just so that’s clear. Oh and Saturday of course. In fact, this populous seem to do very little work. At first I thought it was because it was August, but after three months holiday, it’s now September, and they haven’t started up yet, so ………….
Earlier, I tried to eat in a cafe the contact teacher recommended but it sold only pizza and I couldn’t work out how to ask for something else. Then I tried to buy stamps in the post office but they wouldn’t serve me as I had no ticket, nor had the woman behind me and a fight broke out, so I left. A fight broke out in front of me at the supermarket the other day so I had to leave there too. Then I headed for the supermarket i had spotted in the distance but it had closed and the woman informed me ‘It’s Thursday’. Yes of course silly me. Then I found myself trapped in a romantic courtyard and had to walk all the way round to get out as everything had closed where I had entered.
Some things are easy of course. You ask for ‘cappuccino brioche’ and get a fine breakfast sitting on a beautiful terrace in the early morning sunshine in only 20 degrees or so for only a couple of quids.
I am beginning to understand how it took Caravaggio seven years to finish his monstrosity in the Duomo. Apart from drinking coffee, it is really hard doing anything or finding anything.
Never mind, I finish tomorrow and go to Udine, where it is freezing cold and raining and the people are basically Austrian. Tomorrow night they are taking me out with loads of English people to eat a plate of pig meat and fried bread.<-->
Tags: jill
September 6th, 2008 at 12:12 am
The lavore bit explains the little spanish I used know where the B & V sound almost alike. Lavore then becomes Labore, or labour.
All in all though, you seem to be having more trouble/fun than in Cuneo where, if I recall, everyone was really polite and helpful in the post-office and there were no fights!
Now you’re going into the cooler area at least it’ll stop the heat-stroke! More like Britain where we’ve just had another big dose of October/November type wind and rain (but slightly warmer).
“Just like ‘Bladerunner’” as I said to some people on my course today.