back from Palermo

[aryanhwy]

I got back home around 6ish yesterday evening, early enough to make a pizza and enjoy two serials of Doctor Who before bed (though I can't say I know how "The Robot of Death" ends, since I think I slept through the final episode of that serial). It's grey and rainy here in Amsterdam, but rather than finding it depressing I'm actually finding it rather cozy. I'm ensconced in the office with a cup of tea, I've made it through most of my emails, I've got my books and my homeworks scattered around me, it's nice.

We got in to Palermo late on Saturday night and didn't do much other than take the taxi to the hotel and then go to bed. Sunday registration for the congress didn't start until 4pm (and went until 8pm), so Benedikt and I did some sight-seeing. I have to say, my first impressions of Palermo weren't the greatest. It was muggy (unlike Greece, which was hotter, but much more comfortable because it was drier), dirty, dusty, noisy, and in the course of 24 we got ripped off by two taxi drivers. Oh, and no one in the city seemed to understand the concept of giving change -- they seemed to expect everyone to pay in exact change every time. Since all I had in my wallet was a stack of €50's, this was difficult. By the time Sunday evening came around, and I had to deal with congress organizers who didn't really speak anything other than Italian to try to find out just where exactly the university residence was. (When I finally got the question across, the answer was, thankfully, very easy -- "See the orange building? Take the second entrance.") I was so disgruntled by the time I finally checked in to my lodgings Sunday evening that I said to heck with it and went straight to bed without bothering about supper. The rest of the week got incrementally better (until Saturday was quite fantastic), but even by the end of Monday, the first day of the conference, I wasn't too thrilled about being there.

The sight-seeing we did on Sunday was lots of fun. We started off by going to the Norman palace, which wasn't quite as impressive as I'd hoped -- or, rather, it wasn't quite as Norman was I would've hoped. The Palatine Chapel was gorgeous, but quite a bit of it was under scaffolding for restoration.

We then waited 45 minutes in the sun for the bus to Monreale, where we went to both the cloister and then the Cathedral. That was definitely worth it. It is astonishingly beautiful, and I only hope that the pictures I took show a hint of that beauty. Certainly I'm fairly sure that my pictures are better than the ones in the Wikipedia article!

So that was Sunday. More to come.

Comments

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

It's not that they don't understand the concept of giving change; it's that they are culturally programmed to expect that you have thought ahead and whatever you give them is both fee and tip. The difficulty arises when there there is a disconnect between cultural expectations.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Most of the places I went to did not expect tips of any kind. All of the restaurants posted very clearly in their menus that service and tip would be added on in the bill, and people that sold entrance tickets for museums, etc., never seemed to expect to receive tips (and did seem to understand that they should give change), but were just never prepared/capable of doing so -- I don't know where they put the money they took in from other ticket purchases, but it never seemed available for giving back in change.

Since the ATMs in Palermo tend to disgorge money in €50 increments, I wonder how people are ever expected to break their large bills and get smaller ones.

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of an old story of a Mexican foreman talking to an American project coordinator and explaining, "the problem is you Gringos think that mañana means tomorrow, when usually we just mean not today."

Just because the sign says "gratuity included" does not mean that the server won't assume that if he's given a larger bill the balance is intended as a tip as well. Personally, I wouldn't travel in Sicily without securing a goodly number of smaller denomination bills - or hitting a "sali e tabacchi" immediately after hitting the ATM to change my larger ones.

Of course, this is not to deny that certain amount of gouging of tourists isn't going on. I remember vividly one day in Brindisi listening to a Nona loudly scold a vendor with the words, "What? Do I look like an American??"

[baron-berwyn.livejournal.com]

At first glance, I wondered why you'd gone to a small town in North Dakota, then remembered you're in Europe. (In ND, they pronounce it PAL-er-mo.)

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Rest assured, if I'd gone to Palermo, ND, I wouldn't have done so without stopping by for a visit!