Today: a whirlwind of a day followed by a madcap night! I woke up, had breakfast, took a little time to consolidate and locate some legit looking places on Yelp. Then I went out towards the city center, the ducal palace and the great cathedral.
The ducal palace was weird. It hosted some Picasso exhibition but it was expensive, and would be cheaper at 2. I thought I’d return (never did). I tried to see some of the other exhibitions there but they were all closed. I went down a creepy staircase that shouldn’t have been open and nearly accidentally broke into a closed exhibit #notswitzerland. And in stark contrast to Venice, the palace wasn’t too much in itself (or at least I couldn’t see so much of it!).
Then I went by the cathedral. The exterior was marvelous. The front had these enormous stone lions with the most poignant expressions. There was a mass inside, so I couldn’t go in, but I went in later and the interior was also really amazing. I started wandering around the streets outside and came upon a deserted museum in a weird place. Curiosity prodded me to enter. I went in and got talked into buying a museum card for the day for 12 Euro. Great call. And this odd museum (Domenico?), which was originally a residence of the priests who looked after the cathedral, turned out to be the best I went in all day! They had an amazing collection of beautiful Baroque oil-on-wood paintings which looked just as bright, shiny and colorful now as the must have when they were painted. I was pretty floored. They also had a basement with some Roman pottery and some really old indigo-dyed tapestries showing agony-of-Christ scenes.
After that I headed for the Palazzo Bianco/Rosso and ended up in a cool park with an Oriental museum. I went in (because museum card) and was again astonished! Everything was beautifully laid out on 4 floors, with a gap between sides of the floors rising through all the stories forming an atrium. The stairs were designed such that the only way to traverse the museum was a loop–up and down and up again. Beautiful bronze Buddhas with really moving expressions, wild full samurai armors with savage masks, bronzed dragons and ceremonial pots and vases–man, I would love to have some replicas of those in my future homes. Some of the most beautiful objects I’ve seen in a long time. (Consult the gallery for photos).
Finally I reached the Palazzo Bianco, and was totally underwhelmed. A huge selection of paintings, but none with the bright immediacy of the oil on wood scenes in the first museum. And the palace was nothing to write home about architecturally. The paintings went on and on. There was a bridge to another palace with yet MORE paintings. Finally I was totally burned out, went outside, and sprinted up some steps to a sweet viewpoint. I sat there enjoying the majestic view and consuming raisins and nuts.
Went back to the hostel in the hopes of going out for aperitivo and hit the common area, after stopping at the grocery store and provisioning up with fruit and beer. Went back to the hostel, settled down in the common area. Vith was chilling there with a basket of moldy mandarins he’d just bought. We bonded over the frustration and chowed down on the free good ones. We took our beers and adjourned to the common room, where a German dude, Alyosha, was wailing away on the guitar, and Kiran was hanging out with his own beer. We chilled there for a while. Ceres / Nuriye had recommended us an aperitivo but wasn’t able to go. She drank a bit of wine with us and then the four guys, me, Vith, Josh and Kiran went out for the aperitivo.
I led us to the place, which was awesome. We got one drink and all you can eat food for EUR 7.90. Vith tried to order us all beers for manliness’s sake; I stopped his folly and ordered myself a cocktail that I couldn’t just buy for a euro at the grocery store (it was delicious, but very feminine-looking ;))
We chowed down on the buffet, which included freshly grilled calamari and paella. What a deal! Kiran was trying to give us a pep talk for picking up girls, which was hilarious. Then the other guys decided to go outside–I figured they were having a smoke–while I finished my third enormous plate. Turns out, they found a table with four Italian babes. So we paid and went out to join them–apparently this is a normal thing to do?! The conversation was interesting as none of the babes (I don’t mean to be disrespectful, I just think this word fits the context) spoke particularly good English–it was kinda awkward, but cheery Vith kept the whole thing going and encouraged one of the gals to “skull” (chug) their drink in true Aussie fashion.
The gals decided to take us to a bar called “the Kitchen” where we had cinnamon whisky, and then we hit another random place where there was live music. That was very entertaining. But unfortunately the gals had to go meet their friends at the station. We went with them to the station, met their bros. They said they’d walk with their bros to their hotel room and then come back down to meet us. I thought that was a bit suspicious and said as much to my comrades, but they cheerily agreed to meet the gals in 20 minutes. Then, as soon as the gals had left, my comrades unanimously agreed to ditch them. Geez… they could have said something…
Anyway, I went with them. We wandered around and hit a grocery store to buy more alc. Sadly, none of the grocery stores sold alc after 9pm, which pissed Kiran off supremely. The wandering continued, in search of some suitable bar, until, lo and behold, we passed through a square and ran smack dab into a group of 4 German girls. We struck up a conversation, and, as it happened, the girls welcomed the company. They took us to this awesome bar run by some elderly Italians that served günstig (my new favorite word for cheap but high-quality) asinello, a close cousin of limoncello. The first round for the 6 of us desiring asinello was on me and came to 9 EUR. :D :D And that stuff was tasty!
We hung out in the bar and adjacent alley. Turns out the gals were all au pairs, using babysitting as a way to essentially go on exchange. I was mostly chatting with one girl named Cara, who was not so rowdy as the rest and more amenable to subdued conversation. She wore my fedora neatly perched on thick, face concealing black curls, and we chatted about life as an au pair, cultural differences in Germany vs. USA vs. Italy, and so on. Meanwhile Kiran was going all in on his previous commitment ;)
Eventually, after several more rounds of delicious asinello, the other guys invited the gals back to the hostel, which was logistically ridiculous and made no sense (it was 4am). This alerted me to a sideshow whereupon Kiran had given the ol’ knuckle sandwich to a fellow allegedly accosting him; this fellow, totally drunk and nursing wounded pride, was chasing after us, apparently looking to have the living lemon liquor beaten out of him by Kiran. Finally, good old OG Vith talked the guy down. We took some selfies in the square, and all proceeded, improbably, to our hostel :P (except for the German and one of the girls, hmm).
At the hostel, the gals finally realized the absurdity of our invitation (I’m noticing a pattern here, with one party making an absurd proposition, and the other side playing along until the last possible moment and then bailing out) and announced their intention to return home. Then Vith–what a guy! decided to walk them home. It was now at least 4am, probably later. So we did. Fortunately all lived pretty close together.
Now, picture this. It’s 5am and it’s me, Vith and Kiran. Kiran is complaining, why did we have to walk them back, it’s so cold, I don’t want to walk anymore, etc. Hilarious. Vith is a stoic. We wait at a bus stop for a bit–no bus. So, we start walking, goshdarn slowly, back to the hostel. (I hate walking slowly iwth groups if we’re not discussing something really interesting). Then, the last straw. Kiran picks up an injured bird from the ground. He’s all like, I’m gonna take him to the humane society! I’m like, good luck guys! And jog out towards the hostel. I just want to sleep and my absurdity threshold is now exceeded. I meet one sketchy character on the way, but make it back to the hostel alive and crash. Later I learn that poor Vith and Kiran don’t make it back until like 7:30am, somehow. Crazy.