SC - period travelers reports

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Mark Harris wrote:

> I like these kind of stories. Who was "Liudprand of Cremona"  and what
> culture was he from? What kind of comments did he have to make?
> 
> Stefan li Rous
> markh at risc.sps.mot.com

Liutprand was Bishop of Cremona, 10th century.  He had been sent, if I
remember the story correctly (it's early and I'm barely into my first
cuppa), as an envoy from the Holy Roman Empire to the Byzantine Court to
arrange the details of the wedding of the Holy Roman Emperor to a
daughter of the Byzantine Emperor. After being kept waiting outside the
Emperor's palace in Byzantium for several weeks while his credentials
were checked (apparently it rained a good part of the time), he was
admitted and served what he considered a typical Byzantine meal, which
he described (and I paraphrase) as follows: Foul and stinking, soused in
oil like some drunkard's mess, and the whole thing sprinkled with some
vile fishy liquid!

Horrifying, yes, but just close enough to probable reality that you can
tell it was probably an attitude thing, having nothing to do with the
food.

When I told my friend Ld. Ateno this story, when I got to the part about
the food being soused in oil and sprinkled with fishy liquid, he, having
enjoyed some of my more unusual feast fare, said (and I quote), "Cool!
So it turned out all right, huh?" He was joking, but sometimes I can't
tell...

Adamantius