16/7 - Ravenna
The night before my phone screen got cracked, my strawberry body gel also fell onto the shower floor and the cap broke. When I tried to secure the cap with a rubber band, I didn't align it properly so the cap got a hole bored in it (there was a piece of protruding plastic in the cover where the gel came out from, and it pressed into the plastic cap).
The night before, I tried putting my SIM card into another's phone so I could check my SMSes (some idiot, probably my brother-in-law, had SMSed me despite knowing that my screen was cracked). Unfortunately, the American whose phone I tried using was SIM card-locked. Among the more interesting bits of information I got was that Verizon phones have no SIM card at all unless you get the US$400 one.
The Body Shop hemp oil someone gave me did wonderful things for my hair, and didn't smell bad too. I couldn't find it in Utrecht and can't find it in Singapore though. Maybe I should ask a branch here if they can import it from the UK. If customs is not happy, we can ask them to drink it and see what happens to them.
The previous day, I'd found that though prices on San Marco's were cutthroat, walking through the alleys near it, prices became more reasonable. I went to a shop manned by 2 PRCs and asked for a Calzone. One didn't understand, and the other had to tell her which. It seems someone's pronunciation is wrong. Oh, but then it's more likely that the PRCs, despite likely working in the area (and country) for a protracted period of time and actually selling the item, and being asked for it everyday, did not know it was properly pronounced that way.
Funny instructions to get to my hostel in Venice:
"From Mestre train station, walk down the stairs from the platform, and follow the arrows to Marghera exit. You will be on a deadend street called via g.Ulloa, walk straight. Turn left at the second street you see, Follow this street, you will cross a street called via g. Rizzardi, and continue one more block Turn left when you hit via g.Durando. Just past the bus stop, cross the street, and on your right there are two streets. One is called via l. Fincati, the other is unmarked. Follow the unmarked street which runs parallel to a gas station. At the first intersection, look right. Via Mezzacapo , 1 and the Hotel Belvedere are on the right, look for the Trattoria sign. (We assure you this is a 5-7 minutes walk!)."
While waiting for my train to Ravenna from Venice, I struck a blow in protest of the price gouging at St Mark's Square by eating brunch at the McDonalds at the train station. After 2 weeks I was getting a bit tired of Italian food and needed a change, so I had a McPremiere, a kind of fusion burger.
At Ravenna there was no all in one ticket machine at the station, but only a reduced functionality regional ticket sales machine which also didn't sell tickets for the expensive trains, and importantly didn't show the train schedules. Meanwhile the station staff didn't speak English. Gah.
There was a stupid machine at the bus stop at Ravenna, but it wasn't accepting coins and only accepted €5 and €10 notes - I only had €20 and €50 ones. So I ended up buying a €1,50 ticket from the driver instead of a €0,75 one.
I arrived at my hostel at 2:05pm. I wanted to see the Dante museum beforeit closed. Unfortunately, the stupid hostel reception only opened at 3:30 (7-10am in the morning, 3:30-?pm in the afternoonand night) - it was a Hostelling International hostel. Damn, I should've realised what the "non-members will be charged a €3 surcharge" notice meant. At least it was reasonably located and I wasn't stuck in a swamp or something.
Hostelworld.com, which I used to book some hostels, had a US$2 booking fee for each hostel booking. There was an option for a Gold Card to save on booking fees but it cost US$10. Very evilly, logging in with your account details was not enough to use the Gold Card - you had to enter your card number at each booking, and this was not made explicit (I only found out when digging through their help pages; it wasn't stated on signup or on the booking page itself). So I bet lots of people get charged without knowing this (they don't give refunds if you "neglect" to enter your VIP card number).
Most Italian water points have no way to stop the flow. What a waste of water.
I saw a woman riding pillon behind a man on a motorcycle and cupping his chest as if he had breasts. Maybe he had nice moobs.
When I finally got to the Dante museum after checking in and walking to the city centre, I found that it was closed for restoration/consolidation of their works (if I read rightly). Damn.
Dante bust in Museum, through barred gate
Tomb of Dante
The guidebook called Ravenna "home to the unpretentious final resting place" of Dante. Compared with overdone Florence, this was simple yet elegant.
Inside
I happened to wander into an unassuming little church, only to find a sarcophagus dating from the end of the 4th to the start of the 5th century said to be of Liberio III, bishop of Ravenna. There was also a nice crypt dating to the end of the 10th century and underwater. Sneakily, it was only visible when lit by a €0,50 donation. I was willing to donate, but had no €0,50 coin, so someone else put it in in the end. There were also damaged frescoes on some walls.
Crypt
Sarcophagus
Church of Saint Francis - where the crypt and sarcophagus were. It's really plain and unassuming from the outside.
Seen in the Dell hostel window, possibly from one level of Dante's hell
There was a place called "Pizza & Kebab fantasy". I'm not sure that a kebab is worth fantasising over, but whatever. Oddly, they had pancetta and prosciutto (I realise I didn't see 'Parma Ham' in Italy - maybe I'd have found it only in Parma) - and no "100% Halal" signs. I think Italian culinary pride didn't allow Pizza places in Italy to be 100% Halal, unlike some other countries I could name.
NDP shop - they had red lingerie too
I then went to the Basilica of San Vitale. The guidebook had not stated a price for admission (perhaps implicitly stating that admission was free), but admission was combined with the Mausoleum of Galla Placida, the Basilica of St Apollinare Nuova, the Baptistry of Neoniano and the Museo Arcivescovile in one €7,50 (full price) ticket valid for 7 days, with a €2 supplement during peak season for the Mausoleum. I was beginning to seriously doubt that the information in my guidebook was a year old at most.
I was intending to see a bit of the Basilica today, and the rest tomorrow, but since entry was not free I decided to postpone my visit in case I ran out of time, since I arrived at 530 and thought I might not finish by 7 (especially since they would close by 645 or even 630). Entry was free for the "religious" (so if I said 3 Ave Marias and crossed myself as I went in, or submitted myself to trial by water I would've gone in free? [Addendum: someone: ""it is actually free entry for those belonging to a religious order, nuns and monks etc. eg french for nun is 'religieuse'"]), journalists (I wonder if places with free entrance for journalists get better reviews) and members of military forces (damn, should've brought my 11B).
Amusing Italian Warning Signs
Map showing how densely packed the World Heritage Sites and other attractions are
The most pathetic "Beware of the Dog" sign I've ever seen. I'm quite sure it was a joke.
Ravenna was totally dead on Sunday. At least half the food establishments were closed. Italy is so religious. Or maybe everyone was at the beach.
I walked through the duomo but it was very blah.
Palazzo detto di Teodorico
Palazzo detto di Teodorico (?)
S Apollinare Nuovo
The laboratorico di Mosaico was offering courses in mosaic making. Wah.
Translation issues: A promo to join the hostel association read: "The price for adhesion" (admission)
Despite bringing my own sheets, so far I'd only gotten to use them at Antwerp. I suppose if I'd booked earlier I would've been able to get cheaper places where I'd have been able to use the sheets. Oh well.
In my hostel bathroom there was a United Colors of Benneton condom dispenser, with pictures of 2 people of different colours (a white woman and a black guy) on it. Wth. Maybe they were promoting interracial intercourse of the sexual variety, the better to facilitate the ambition of: "All we need is a voluntary, free-spirited, open-ended program of procreative racial deconstruction. Everybody just gotta keep fuckin' everybody 'til they're all the same color." (Bullworth)
When you consume Coke that is truly ice cold, which I think you can only get with a really good dispenser or by putting a can/bottle on ice yourself (putting it on the rocks doesn't count - it messes with the concentration and gas distribution), you realise how Coke that's merely cold just doesn't cut it. I imagine it's like the difference between ice cold beer and just cold beer.
someone suggested that I only bring 4 shirts and don't wash any of them (ie Wearing each for a week). Of course, someone has never backpacked in July and anyway I'm not as disgusting as someone. So just as I'd done laundry on my last night in Rome, I did it in Ravenna again, using the drier both times.
No doubt someone would disapprove due to the waste of power, but I had no place to hang everything (there was a drying in Ravenna but it was full, and Rome lacked a drying rack; I also lacked hangers and string) and in Ravenna I was only there for one night, so the clothes might not have dried in time. Furthermore, my room mates would not have liked my transforming the room into a spider's web. Perhaps most importantly, I was on holiday and already had enough frustrations - why add to the troubles?
Having fungus grow on my clothes (or worse - myself) in the pursuit of the blind ideology of saving power was simply ludicrous.
In any event, the stupid dryer didn't fully dry my clothes, so I had to hang them around the room and sleep on the floor (not that I wouldn't have otherwise - as usual it was damn hot; I even slept in a wet shirt to cool myself down). Luckily no one else was hanging clothes.
