Halal Food in Perugia

I wonder if others have the same problem as me when it comes to finding halal food in Perugia. I know some people did write the instruction on how to go to this shop.. but actually, at first, i'm fail to find it..So, if anyone come across what I wrote here.. and still can't manage to find it.. why don't you e mail me at puterisalji@gmail.com.. maybe I can help you bout it. Or drop your comment here.. I'll try my best.

Ok.. if from Centro Perugia.. I think minimetro is the best way to travel.. take minimetro to stazione fontivegge. When you reach fontivegge station and go down the station stairs... In front of you is actually a bus stop.. you can see the railway on your right and the railway station in front..  If you walk straight.. and face left after that.. you can see La Coop, the supermarket on your right and on the left you can see apartments. You can see a wide road.. usually with lots of car between the apartment and La Coop.. the road is like an underpass.. If i'm not mistaken, when I was there, there's an Indian restaurant in crossing above position of the road.. 

So now.. make sure you're standing across that road.. which mean.. you're going to be across La Coop now.. Exactly in front of the apartment.. It's like a parking area there.. (I think there's travel agency around that) You'll see a staircase there.. And you need to climb that staircase.. On your right.. there's several shops.. small shops.. You have to search there.. You can ask people too.. It takes like 2 flights like that.

Just don't expect a big shop.. so good looking.. No.. it's small and it's belong to I think Arab people. They sell fresh meat, fresh chicken and turkey.. and it is halal.. which to me, the best place to get your halal food..

It's tricky to find it.. To me maybe.. I manage to find it because I try to befriend a handsome guy that sell bag at Perugia market.. he's from middle east as well.. Don't remember which part. But he speaks english.. a bit here and there.. So he try to give me the direction and I go searching for it.. Lucky I meet some other arab women there too so I can ask them as well.. the exact location..

So I hope other people can find it..

The 3rd House

I know it has been more than 2 months since I come back from Perugia.. And I haven't update many things regarding my travel.. So, I hope I can steal sometimes to update things on travel.. and add details to the other stuff as well.

Ok. it might sound weird but it did happen.. I move 3 times when I was in Italy.. The last month April, I move again to another house. The owner's name is Filippo.. he is Claudio's friend. Claudio wants me to move out because he needs to empty the house. There are new girls want to come in and stay there. Actually, I don't like that idea of moving.. But I hate to fight with people and it's his house.. so i agree to move out..

Filippo's house is actually prettier.. nice.. I like everything there. But it's weird to me since there are another 3 chinese guys staying with me. Only me and Diana are girls. And I hate that he told me his house got internet when actually.. the service is still not available when I comes in.

I stay in a single room here. They got sink as well in the bedroom.. I never imagine such things before.. The house got 2 bathroom as well and the cooking angle is nice. My housemate are nice too.. the chinese guy are so great with cooking.. they chop things like the chef.. I sometimes feel ashame if they look at me while I cook something. :) But it's a good experience.. we had dinner once together. :)

I stay in this house for only a week.. I got to be home to attend a job interview.. It feels like a burden to let go of my study halfway for april when everything have been paid.. But job is future.. so I have to go home.. This is my chance.. and luckily.. I got this job now. So I won't regret anything's of it :)

The things that I hate the most is.. Filippo don't want to return my money even hundred. I've paid 230.. and stay 1 week and he refuse to return anything to me.. :( I know I can't do anything bout it.. but I'm hoping that he has some mercy to me.. But I know.. these days, people put money in front of mercy..

Anyway.. that's a good experience.. :)

The Registration and Permesso Di Soggiorno

When speaking of registration day.. It's not always as you expected it to be.. A good start. But to me registering to Universita Per Stranieri is a colorful experience. It's not always easy of course when you only know a few words of italian language but it's an experience that when you look back.. you certainly will say, it's interesting. On this day, first I have to choose whether to take an entrance exam or if I want to just go to level A1 or A2, I have to go to another classroom and tell the lecturer which course I want to join. I didn't take the entrance exam because I'm thinking of starting from the lowest point because I never really learn speaking in my country, just some simple grammar. So, I choose to join A1, because I have like 4 months here in Perugia so I think I can proceed to next level later. Also today, I meet Simone, a chinese guy that now is one of my friend here in Perugia. But we're not in the same class.. He's taking A2 from the start. Later, after I get the paper that tell me which course I belong to, I que up quite a long line to pay my fees at Unicredit Banca. It's the only bank inside the Galengga Faculty. When it's done, I head to the Segreteria.. the Segreteria is at lower level from the entrance level. Facing the staircase in front of the entrance, on the right, we have to pass the opening and go straight down the staircase, it's at the end.. They also let me know that I can collect my scholarship later there too.. They handed me the schedule of A1 course and a student card. Yes, I gave them 1 picture to attach to the card. Then I go to the front office, from the entrance on the left.. Just to complete Permesso Di Soggorno. I have to do this because I'm staying here more than 3 months. Honestly, I hate the form.. It's all in italian and I can't understand it so I keep on asking the guy and girl at the counter to help me understanding everything. Then I go to Tabacchi, a shop just outside the Galengga, on the left to buy a duty stamp. I also did photocopied all pages of my passport at a bookshop just near the tabacchi. Then I head to post office to pay the fees of the application and all the completion there. 1st, I pay it at the bancomat counter in post office then later I have to go to the last counter on the left from the entrance to let him check everything and I have to pay him an amount then only it's done. It's quit frustrating at first because the lady at the counter don't talk english so I face a bit difficulties until Inzy comes to help me with the communication. So it's like 73 euros total to complete all this process.. :( Then only it's done.. all the registration.

The 2nd HOUSE

I don’t know how to say about things that has happened. I’m grateful to my God, Allah. I’m such in huge misery here at first. But I trust in patience and praying. And if God want to help us, He will.. and it becomes a bit miracle to me.

There’s this one day I go to internet point with Inzy. It’s the first time I got chance talking to my beloved boyfriend after a few days I reached Perugia. When I’m about to go home, there is this man come to approach me and he ask me if I’m from Indonesia and I said no, I’m from Malaysia. He start to tell me that he has been in Malaysia. I don’t understand everything that he said because I’m still new to Itallian Language and it’s the early week. But he offer me to show some panoramic view of Perugia. I went inside the church to see how beautiful they design it and go to this panoramic site. He told me that he is a lecturer and he also has room for rentals. He offers to show his house. I went to see his house and it’s the first time I realize that I had choose the wrong house and I have plenty other options.

I go home and tell Inzy about what I’ve seen and she said it’s a good idea to move out in February. Later, we’ve been seeing this landlord a few times and have coffee. It turns out that in February, he got only 1 room free from use. It can be double. I thought of moving there with Inzy but later Inzy told me her sister will come and they will move in that room so she will help me to find a single room.

At first I’m kind of worried so I thought of going to agency. But I did heard news that you need to pay deposit to the agency. Many rumors and I don’t know which one is actually the correct one. One told me the deposit is 100 euro and if you move to other house, they won’t give it back. Another I heard we can just take the deposit after a month stay. So, if you think you need the service, go and ask the agency how is it.

But the landlord that I just know told me not to go to agency because he has friends that has free rooms. So I went to see this room. It’s good and then I pay 100 euro as deposit. But later my landlord wants to move me to other apartment so I went to see it. Lucky one that I saw is nice and I agree to move in.

The day I move in, he try to tell me to move to other place he owns later next month. I’m worried the whole day and then I text him telling I like staying in this house and don’t want to move out. Later he just agrees. So, attention to this kind of situation.. I think it’s like cheating when you show a room to a person and she pays for what she see and say she wants to stay there for how many months.. but you try to moves her. The other girl that live with me is so nice that she usually agree to the landlord. Now she’s in other house. So it’s up to your opinion and how you want to stand on about it. For me, I think I deserve what I’ve been promise.. Unless I like the other room, maybe I consider moving.

So, the condition of this house.. It’s small. But It’s better than my first house. The heater and water.. everything’s good. It suppose to have internet but I can count last month how many time it function. The actual land lord is on holiday right now for a month and the guy who in charge on behalf of him.. don’t know why it’s not fixed. I don’t know it’s him that don’t fix or some other repair company that respond late.. but it’s frustrating..

The other things I like is the comforter.. It’s warmer than the old house so I can sleep good :) I think it has the duck feathers inside.. And I got TV of my own in my room. And I learn another things too.. the first time I live with people from other countries. It’s a bit weird and they don’t belong to the same culture so everything unexpected.

THE 1st HOUSE

Ok.. Actually I’ve been forgetting this blogging thing for like several months. It’s already 2 March now so I just go randomly on the topics of whatever I’ve face. So first, we’re talking about my first house. Yes, it means I’m already in the 2nd house. Ok.. I don’t simply move because I want too.. It of course comes with reasons.







It’s winter, and my 1st ever.. and I don’t even know how a heater looks like. Blame me.. but I’m from Malaysia. I know how air conditioner looks like. I even know that we got chiller system.. Iced chiller system with all the AHU and so on.. I’ve heard that cold can be a killer. Of course to me when I’m allergic to it. My family got asthma and cold is something I try my best to avoid. So I’m staying in a house that don’t have a modern heater. Ok, the different that I just learned here.. The modern one that I prefer is the build in one. It was installed in the house. It’s heated with the gas that you have to pay the bill monthly. Often the system is together with the water heating. So you don’t have to heat the water with electricity. The old one that I used in this old woman house is.. remember those fairy tales that got the fire place? It’s almost the same as that except that it’s not wood you’ll use.. You will use the gas like your stove.. here they call bombola.





The old woman said the bombola should stand at about 3 months so I thought maybe I just buy it once while I’m here.. Little that I know it’s not a correct calculation for a girl that was born and raise in Malaysia. The winter is so cold and I spend much time sitting in front of the fire place, trying to get myself warm. Not every inch of the house is being heated and believe me that the window is not so air – tighted and there’s always cold air coming in even a bit.





To make the matter worst, the water heater in this house used the electricity. You have to wait 15 minutes to wait for it to get heated. It’s an old system. My house in Malaysia got water heater too.. and it’s warm as soon as we turn it on. I wonder how this woman lives in this cold country and can tolerate that. The sink in kitchen got water heater too. But not in my small toilet that I usually use. And the water heater in the bathroom that I use to bath, not only I have to wait 15 minutes, I can’t let too many water come out of shower or I risk myself bathing in cold since the hot water not so much available.





Guess what, the bombola finish after the twelve days.. I’m so shock of it. And you know how much it cost to have new one? 30 euro. Me and Inzy agree to buy a new one and that one also finish after like 10 days.. I still remember the day I shiver and wear so thick clothes because the house so cold and our gas is finished. I think it’s mean the landlord don’t offer us the electric heater she has in such this day because she always worry her bills will come up even though she seems nice other time and offer you to taste her cooking.That's the nice part :)





If this sound horrible to you.. she’s sometimes stand in front of the Universita Per Stranieri, Perugia. I guess we should stick to what others tell us.. Never really trust these land lords that stand in front of the uni.. too many horrible stories.. unless you dare to try.Maybe to you it's fine.. I don't know..

Moving..

(4^th January 2009)

We wake up early in the morning. I had some breakfast and sitting with me is a Brazillian guy who claims that his grandfather is actually from somewhere in Lombardi and he is actually here to ask for citizenship. He said he has traveled to several city from the south and now it’s time for him to travel around Umbria before his appointment. He talked about how much he loves Asissi and staying there the whole day to enjoy Asissi and today, he just about to enjoy the day at Lago Trasimeno. I did got excited heard about all this wonderful place and can’t wait for the day to travel.

Inzy at first told me that Ching Tat will help us so we can use minimetro just like yesterday. I actually feel so tired thinking about all the bags I had to carry and prefer a taxi ride but she thinks we can make it so I just follow. Inzy change her plan and want us to use the bus from fontivegge station but when she ask the woman there, she said that there’s no bus stop near our house. Upset, we just take the taxi to our new house. It’s 12 euro.. Not that cheap.

SEARCHING FOR HOME

We wake up early on Saturday to search for rooms. The hostel prepare some breakfast. It just some bread and cereal. I get myself cereal and a bread with honey. We sit at the same table with a muslim woman. She said she’s from middle east and coming there with her baby to go to hospital.

Inzy has already send some message to house owner. However, most of them got only single room to let. I am worried if I can’t get good room. Perugia today is very cold. I think it’s because it is so windy. Everytime the wind blow, I get so cold. Not many people on street today too. We meet Ching Tat in front of university admin. The man yesterday still nowhere to be seen. Then we try to look at the house we went yesterday. Inzy ring the bell and finally a woman open the window and then she agree to open the door. She invites us in. Then Inzy ask her if her room still empty then she agree to let us stay inside the room. The room looks good to me but I have to share with Inzy. But it’s big almost the same size of my room at home. I pay the rental 220 euro.

After that, we tell her we will move tomorrow and then we go out. Inzy bring me and Ching Tat to see the surrounding, including the university. It’s tiring walking up and down the hill. At last, we decide to go to big coop near the train station. There I get myself yogurt and some apple and a chocolate bar.

Then we just go back to hostel even though it’s about 3 o’clock that time. Then we had our meal and chat.. later it’s getting dark and an Itallian family comes in. We chat sometimes and then I feel so sleepy and decide to just sleep.

The Arrival Day

When I arrive in Rome, the surrounding is still very dark. It’s about 6 am in morning. That time, the temperature is said to be around 5 ºc. I don’t know if actually I need to wear my winter coat. I see what the Italian do. They did take their jacket. And the plane did not stop like in KLIA, directly attach to building. It’s like the old Subang air port or LCCT that we need to feel the outside air. Coming down the plane stairs, I can feel it very cold. Lucky I bring my winter coat on the plane with me so I don’t really feel cold. It’s my first traveling abroad and my first winter. It’s the first time I feel that when I breath out. I can see the cold air like fog. It’s weird to me :p

The arrival part in Leonardo Da Vincci Air Port is not so big.. It doesn’t look like a grand place like we have in KLIA. This is the first time I see different people dressing in nice winter clothes. It’s cool the way people dress especially with skinny jeans and leather boot on top of jeans. I envy them for their good dressing. I go to the toilet and here, the toilet didn’t have water tap or bidet. So I have to get use with using the tissue paper.

We wait 2 hours to reach 9.00 o’clock.. The Sulga bus from Rome to Perugia arrive across the street of the arrival air port at 9.00. Lucky we manage to catch the bus. It written Asissi at the bus body but at the front mirror screen that show the direction is written with Perugia. At first, there is only three of us, me, Inzy and Ching Tat with an Italian man. I really thought that there’ll be only us and the bus is not that popular. But then the bus start to turn to Rome bus centre and we wait there sometimes for the other passengers. At around 10 plus, the bus start the journey to Perugia. I didn’t got chance to see the real Rome. The part that I see is not really different. Yes they got some interesting old structure but what I see is mostly modern design building. Later when the bus reach highway, I can see lots of sheep grazing. There’s also some cows which look the same like in the Fernleaf milk tv advertisement. It’s pretty interesting scenery to me since I never see such view. There is also beautiful high mountains with white snow on the top of it. When we far from Rome and near to Perugia.. we can see thick… very thick fog. The view distance start to reduce. I think it probably so cold outside.

Then we reach Perugia. It’s around 12.30 pm that time. And it is cold in Perugia. Even with winter coat I still can feel the cold. After I get all the stuff comes down from the Sulga bus, Inzy start to search for Mario Spagnoli hostel in a map at the bus station. But we didn’t see any sign of it. Lucky I’ve written down the address. The hostel is at Via Cartonese. Even though Inzy has been here, she’s too not sure how to get to the hostel because she never stay at the hostel. Inzy can speak Italian so she ask a man there and he told her that we should wait for a bus at across the roundabout. The bus should be G.. So we carry our bag crossing the road.. I feel so difficult to handle all my stuff but trying my best, I can manage so.

When we reach at the stop, we just wait there. Inzy ask a man there is it the right place to wait for bus and he said yes but we should buy ticket at another place or we have to pay more for fine. We both don’t feel like crossing the road with all the stuff anymore so we decide to just pay whatever the price. After that, a G3 bus pass and we just look at it wonder if that the correct bus. Then afterward we check back the bus route at the board there.. it say we can take any G bus.. G1, G2,G3.. because all of them will pass Via Cartonese.. So we wait and wait.. 2 G bus pass but it stop at the other side. Inzy is not satisfied then she ask a woman there about it. But she said it is Ok to wait at this place because it’s the right place. Not long after that, the bus stop..

The bus floor is about the same level of the side walk so it’s not so difficult to get the bag on the bus but the bag is so heavy. Inzy bought two ticket from the driver. The price is 1,50 euro for a ticket. The bus going around Perugia, far from the centre. When we think that we have been far, and no one inside the bus except us, Inzy ask the bus conductor did he’s going to stop in front of Mario Spagnoli hostel. He said he’ll stop somewhere there. It’s weird that the bus driver stop and park his bus sometimes for smoking but Inzy said they sometimes did that. Only after that he continue driving. Finally, he did stop exactly in front of the hostel. Inzy ask me if I think it’s the correct one.. I said maybe because it’s the same as in the internet picture. She said that the hostel staff told her that it’s near the centre but it’s actually not .

The hostel entrance door is quite far from the main road so we have to pull our bag all the way from the main road to the hostel. The road by the time we arrive got path lope with water so it’s quite dirty for our bag and it’s quite hard to avoid the path lope. The hostel staff are very nice. After they give us the room number and bedsheet, we go upstairs to get things settle. Inzy said it still early so it be good if we go out and see advertisement for the house rent. I just agree with her. After all, we still haven’t had our meal since in the flight. After paying for a night stay, we go to the town centre by Metro.

Metro is actually a small train like the LRT but so small.. It works fully computerize. Not a single staff works to run the metro. It is much convenient than bus. There is so many of it that we don’t have to wait long for it to come. It’s three plus when we get to Perugia centre. I follow Inzy to walk along small path looking for advertisement for room. All advertisement that I saw is in Italian which I don’t really understand. Inzy pick several numbers. She also shows me the place she previously stay and ring the bell. But no one is coming. We also meet a man that Inzy know has room to rent but she said her friends did complain about the room. But we just agree to take a look tomorrow.Then we just have our dinner in a pub café. I had Italian risotto with seafood. So tired, then w e go back to the hostel to sleep.

It was only 8 when we reach our hostel. But since in Malaysia is already sleep time, I got so sleepy. In Perugia, at 5.30, the sky is already dark. So at 8.. I feel so ready to sleep. There is another person in my room other than me and Inzy. She comes in and we talk a bit. She is a Russian and traveling alone. Then I just sleep..