[Note: this blog post is ridiculously long winding and, no doubt, boring, but hey, I jotted this down as notes troughout the week so it’d be a shame to not at least try to put it somewhere here]
Monday: arrival
Allright, so off to Italy it is then!
After what seems to have been quite an endless stream of preparations, a wonderful a final weekend spent among good friends, and an evening of quasi-panicked packing until midnight (I seem to know no other method), the alarm clock wakes me at an unforgiving 5 AM. I hug my mom goodbye, promise her that yes, she’ll get to make good use of the skype headset I got her, and take off to the airport with my dad.
We arrive an hour before check-in even begins, so at least that’s one less thing to stress about. Since it’s been dozens of flights ago since I last did an actual check-in with Ryanair, I’m pleasantly surprised that they even out to except my bulky keyboard bag without troubles! And as for stress, come to think of it, I feel strangely stress-free even this close to leaving Belgium for months. Could be the having slept only 5 hours.
After a flight of about 2 hours where I feel a tad overdressed (as I am the wearing multiple sweaters and a jacket that brought my luggage weight over the 20kg limit), and reading for the first time a bit more about the Puglia/Lecce in the tourist guide I bought (well look at that, Lecce is “the crown jewel” of Puglia!), I get off the plane in Brindisi under a blistering sun. Also, yes, the keyboard made it alive! So far so good.
I take the train to Lecce immediately (asking some students which cell provider best to take, they happily recommend Tre, which is met with laughter by others later – Wind is the provider to go!), take a chance sending a message to my earlier (and wonderful) CS hosts Nico and Simona, and yes they can come to pick me up! Seeing them is like meeting old friends, and arriving with the feeling I already know at least some people is a wonderful difference with my Erasmus student experience in Madrid.
When I inform them that yes, I’m here to stay this time, they boast not without truth about having convinced me to choose Lecce over Bari, and we head straight to a Spritz Aperol (or was it Aperol Spritz?) on a terrace in the city center. Yes baby! Inside, bartender Enrico is relaxedly strumming an accoustic guitar, and when I strike up a conversation about it he informs me that I can get one for 49EUR at a local guitar shop – tempting! A week later I’ll be able to add Enrico to that lovely mental list of ‘people ran into by accident’.
After catching up with the CS hosts, they head home and I spend the afternoon happily getting lost in the city center, hunting for a city map, marveling at the wonderfully kitchy Baroque architecture. But, honest is honest, I’m too excited to just BE here to really pay attention to details, let alone bother to read more in the tourist guide I brought. Let’s save that stuff for when I get a visitor. (I’m fixing up this post for publishiing one week later, and while looking for a wifi-enabled bar I sneaked up to some group of French tourists with a guide, and learned my first ‘historical tidbits’ on the monuments I’ve been walking past for a week!)
I found a map!
Later that afternoon I finally get to see the flat (which I arranged torugh a friend-of-a-friend before arriving): turns out it’s big! And central! And with a rooftop terrace that has sun all day long! (especially the last one in that list is a wonderful surprise as I don’t have that at home)
Another jackpot: my flatmate turns out to be a cool laid-back guy (we skyped before so it’s no surprise but hey), and turns out to have many friends (many of them from ‘ifuti’ or something, Puglia’s equivalent of Santa Anna, i.e. ‘elite extra uni education’), 3 of whom arrive a bit later to clean and prepare the rooftop terrace for tomorrow’s festa to celebrate la laurea (graduation).
Evening dinner, with flatmate and rejoined by CS hosts (who had helpfully taken my luggage for the afternoon), savoring a Rustico, a Calzone (local specialty) at the closest thing they have to a frietkot here, and Drehe, for Puglia what Mahou is for Madrid (i.e. the go-to beer if you don’t want a Becks).
Tuesday: first full day, first party
Yes, that’s pear juice!
Flatmate turns out to love (and be great at) cooking pasta, so whips out something nice for the seven of us that are there in preparation of…
The first rooftop party! About 40 people, no problem with the neighbours, meeting Salvatore (young entrepreneur who I met on my explore trip, the one to bring me in touch with the flatmate, and an all-round energetic guy who genuinely loves helping people – including crappy Italian muttering me – even if he casually dismisses it as ‘networking’), and meeting lots more friends of Pierantonio. This includes the outgoing and language-loving Patricia, who people remark is a lot less ‘pazza’ than she used to be, is doing a Phd in international relations, and happily proposes to teach my some Italian in return for English. It’s a deal! It’s her I will run into a week later, and luckily she still hasn’t forgotten about her promise.
I snap lots of pictures, thinking they’ll make a great excuse to add everybody I talked to on FB so I can ‘taggare’ (who’d have thought it was so simple) them in it.
Drunk Italians putting our terrace to questionable use
Wednesday: more firsts
Holiday! Primo maggio turns out to be a holiday also here, and since it’s something like 35 degrees the first thought is (naturally) going to the sea but we settle on a nearby folk festival (red wine and ‘drowned courgettes?’ a volonte), as well as ‘pizzica’ music and dance everywhere, first time over 30 degrees, so it’s shadow-hunting, and bbq – also, more new people! Including niece of Pierantonio who invites us to try the delicious chocolate pie she mate. (I score a minor ‘foreigner being smooth in Italian’ hit when I reply her ‘come era che ti chiamavi?’ without missing a beat with ‘tesoro, dopo questa torta mi puoi chiamare quello che vuoi’) (darling, after this pie you can call me whatever you want) Yay!
Chocolate pie together with the Iacovizzi siblings!
First view of the sea, though it’s apparently an ugly one and uninviting, though just sitting on the beach is nice and peaceful.
First words in the regional dialect ‘salentino’! (‘mena’ -> close to our ‘allez’ – or the ‘dai’ I learned earlier, ‘moi’ being ‘now’, ‘vagnoni’ instead of ‘ragazzi’. Most other dialect words I learn from hereon our not really fit for publication.
First taste of local bar scene (il Paolone student bar), and the famous ‘passegiata’! (my tendency to want to be holding a beer/drink in my hand at all times is frowned upon, just being together and strolling around is the end goal and not a means here). The city looks like gold in the evening lights, even better than Ghent!
People playing, and dancing to, typical Puglia folk music named ‘pizzica’
Moving between two bars one of our company points out a small statue of woman’s head carved high up in a wall, which was apparently done because there were 2 lovers that lived across the street and couldn’t see each other (Romeo & Juliette style), so the guy sculpted her image out of her wall so he could look at it out of his window at all times.
Thursday: even more firsts!
– ZeroDD, meeting Luca, my extremely likable Erasmus Entrepreneurs host! Immediately start working on Joomla! site for The Qube, local startup initiative he and Salvatore are involved in. My first true dip into the illustrous world of CMS systems, where content, pages, menus and ‘templates’ are all managed from a (in my case, infuriatingly slow) admin backend, where the database’s CREATE statements are done clicking the ‘do database CREATE statements button’ (just kidding, the button really says ‘do the techie setup stuff’), and where the frontend has as many shiny AJAX widgets as the backend lacks. But it’s a big world, and a thriving ecosystem, so I’m glad to be learning about this stuff, honestly.
– ‘come tomorrow at pomeriggio’ (=afternoon) because they are not often at the office in the morning. I can live with that!
– not sure what to do at night, so plan C: the local Erasmus scene! Added random spanish girl from the ‘erasmus lecce’ fb group, she says they meet up at midnight on Santa Chiara (bursting with activity so impossible to do her ‘when you hear spanish that’s us’ direction), but overhear somebody speaking with a foreign accent about ‘tutti i spagnoli ubriachi’ and ‘erasmus’ so I introduce myself, and am enthousiastically greeted, and found some erasmus! (though the girl I came for not there) They introduce me to ‘il Zei’ where there is ‘tandem’ i.e. language exchanges each Tuesday at 20:30.
Friday
When I arrive at 14:00 at my new work, I get a surprised ‘what are you doing here so early?’, as it’s apparently not pomeriggio yet. I learn that they are about 2 hours later in everything than Belgium here. I can live with that!
We have a meeting on the first progress on the web site – actual work and teamwork and talking over approaches, texts to use… feels good!
At night: hanging out at Salvatore’s place – which is nearby – with his flatmate and some other girls. Me and Salva decide to pretend I don’t speak Italian and see for how long we can pull it off. I must say it’s quite relaxing to a speak language I don’t have to concentrate for, and interesting how fast the girl that was too shy to speak in front of me (even in Italian) starts to steer the topic to sex stories as soon as I leave the room.
(Six hours later, when I reveal our ‘secret’ by suddenly pleading her in passionate Italian for one more of her stories leaves the entire group open-jawed and laughing. Mission succeeded!)
The nearest pizzeria is run by Napoli folks. Where in the rest of the world “it’s run by Italians” is an indicator of good things to come, in Italy itself “it’s run by Napoli people” fills that role, as pizza was apparently invented there. And indeed, the pizza is delicious and the setting is nice, prices are wonderful, only the caraffe of wine we order is less so. When the Maitre D’ sees our still half-ful caraffe when we leave he inquires, we admit the wine was not so great, he gives it a taste and agrees, apologizes profusely and promises us a top quality bottle the next time we stop by (which we will) to make up for it. It’s a date!
PIzzeria Nautilus
We go to see a cover band together with the CS hosts at what turns out to be a ‘Belgian bar’ (I obviously get my company to try Westmalle Tripel), strike up a chat with the bartender during a smoke outside and inquire (not for the first time here) about the best way to join a local band, an approach to meeting people and places that proved quite succesful while living in London. Not much luck though, though apparently there are frequent gigs and even jam sessions here, so this won’t be the last Friday I spend here.
We then proceed to rejoin the earlier company (which has grown to about 8 by now) again at student bar Paolone, savour the local shots (1 EUR each, strong as hell, and carefully mixed, lit on fire and put out again… They do take their shots seriously here, nice!) and get happily intoxicated with the rest of em. Passegiata, all fine and dandy, but it doesn’t hurt to have a crowd who don’t object to going ‘Spanish style’ for once
Italians (just like the Spanish) don’t go for fries or kebab after going out, but rather something sweet. No problem, when in Rome, eat like the Romans do I say! The only shop that’s open only has donuts left, and proceeds to fill those with chocolate and cream (they like doing that, it’s in the local pasticciotos as well). No complaints!
Yes, this lady is putting chocolate between our ‘fourth meal’ donuts!
Saturday
Day: detoxication, basically.
Evening: my first fishing trip! Scenery on the way there is great, but the true prize is the actual location. Nobody in sight, gentle hills-and-trees landscape glowing in dusk, and rugged rocks steeply declining into a green-blue sea (which I am eager to jump in but as climbing out again would be a tad difficult I manage to restrain myself. and anyway, wouldn’t wanna disturb the fish!)
Interesting sea landscape near Otrtanto
Fishing!
My 3 fishermen companions set about preparing their fishing gear in the little bay they find, merrily mocking each other’s and themselves , boasting about earlier fishing attempts and relentlessly making fun of the low number of fish they catch. (this will turn out to be really the case on this trip as well, but I observe soon that obviously the real fun is in the excitement when suddenly something pulls the hook, not the count). While they get their gear ready, I climb to the highest rock to take in as much of the scenery as possible. Pics can’t possibly catch it, but I make a pathetic attempt anyway.
When night falls, turns out fishing newbie Wouter can be of use! I gather wood and am proud to get a camp fire (‘fallò’ as I learn later) going quickly – Boy Scouts past and all – and have it shimmer out again just the right amount for roasting fresh fish on it.
Sunday
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Our bombola (the big container with the gas to cook on) is empty, oh no, we need that for coffee and pasta! I vow to call to fix it the next day.
It’s a rather lazy day, so we head over to Salvatore for coffee and heating a delicious oven dish (so my flatmate’s home does not only contain lemon and orange trees, but a ‘mama’ that cooks insanely well too? Mental note: try to visit that place)
I have heard talking on multiple occasions of the Sagre, festivals held in the region’s little towns, entirely focussed about some particular food item. During summer there is supposed to be at least one every evening, but we discover that there’s an early one in Villa Convento nearby, focussing on ‘Puccia’, a local dish aptly (and as it turns out, accurately) described by my flatmate as pane con varie robe dentro (bread with various stuff in it).
Sagra della Puccia in Villa Convento
We each have a different Puccia (including one with tasty horse meat, which doesn’t bother Lokerse Feesten veteran me the slightest). However, there’s some rain so not that many people out, so all in all it’s not that exciting, my companions assure me that normally sagra’s are a lot more vibrant than this one, and I gladly believe them and hey, I ate some more local typical stuff!
Monday
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See my earlier blog post!