Milan (in review)

this is from the other night when we couldnt get internet, but i typed it up on Microsoft Word anyways:


Whew so…. Currently I am sitting in our hotel in Nice, France.. which offers wi-fi but for some reason only allows Skype to work and not the actual internet explorer. Therefore, this is me… on Microsoft Word… (which apparently just bought Yahoo … lol we are watching BBC news ) typing up my blog for the day. I feel like I need to get out an account on Milan while it is still fresh on my mind. So here goes:

Day 1- We got into Milan kinda late on Monday … flew into Bergamo Italy airport (cheaper that way- Ryanair.com btw for anyone looking for cheap flights within Europe... Every time they land, they blow a horn … you know that tune that is always followed by people screaming “CHARGE!”?... ANYWAYS, I was very impressed with Ryanair. And of course dad liked it because apparently it was started by some Irish guy.) Bergamo Airport was about a 50 minute bus ride OUTSIDE of Milan… Once we got to Milan, probably the worst case of circumstances possible ensued… but despite of the rain, dad being overprotective of me, and getting turned around, we finally got into our hotel just in time to turn right back around to eat some dinner.

Well, the only thing we could find (the only thing we EVER found while we were in Italy) was a Pizzeria…which, by the way, who knew dad doesn’t like pizza? Not me… but anyways, luckily, on the menu, there was also pasta. Pasta with some sort of meat, but my Italian wasn’t good enough to tell him what KIND of meat. And apparently the waiter’s ENGLISH wasn’t good enough to tell him either because, when dad asked what “__________” meant, the waiter responded “sheep”. SHEEP? I thought? SHEEP PASTA?.. but dad seemed rather excited about sheep pasta, so he went ahead and ordered it. Much to his surprise, 10 minutes later, a lobster head covered in noodles was placed in front of him. Apparently, what we thought was “sheep” was “sea”? That’s the only thing we could figure.

We did have internet in that hotel as well.. but you had to pay 2 euros/hour for it, so we tried to use it sparingly. At least that first night. (BTW- typing on Microsoft Word is really quite annoying… it keeps correcting all of my errors… but I like my errors. Blogs –as im sure you’ve noticed from mine- don’t HAVE to be perfect lol- there should be “blog mode” on Microsoft Word)

DAY 2- By this point, Dad had developed a bruise on his heel ( I know right? You’d think I’m abusing him over here).. so we took it slow. We walked down Buenos Aires which was a big shopping street with middle-price-ranged boutiques/ shops. I was so good. I did not subject Dad to any shopping while we were there. We made our way to the center town where, out of nowhere, pops up The Duomo rising above every other building… ill try to post pictures of it on here.. it was quite breathtaking. For a minute, I thought Dad was mad… but I think the look I was reading on his face was just a look of astonishment. .. not anger. It was very cool to witness someone’s first encounter with one of Europe’s greatest cathedrals. We checked out the inside, we bought tickets to check out the roof (so cool).. and then…. We made our way to the square. Huge piazza. Where lots of people and lots of pigeons mingled…….. Here Enters some random guy from Egypt... who creeps up on me and places a hand full of corn in my hand, and within seconds, I am COMPLETELY surrounded by pigeons. Pigeons on my head, Pigeons at my feet. Pigeons on my arms and certainly in my hands. This continues for several minutes with dad holding corn, me holding corn, us both holding corn. Thanks to random Egyptian man, we DID get some pretty cool pictures out of it. At the end of it all, knowing he wasn’t doing all of that out of the goodness of his heart, we go to give the man several Euros as a “gift/donation” (also maybe as a thank you for not stealing my camera which I was afraid might happen) But when we gave him 4-5 euros, he said that no, he wanted TWENTY euros. Seriously. 20 euros. Clearly, he did not get 20 euros. We left and went along our merry way and he went on to creep up on other tourists. Anyways, well worth the 5 euros. I loved the pictures.

After the Duomo, we succumbed and had a coffee in McDonalds before heading out for our reservation at Santa Maria della Grazie to see Leonardo DaVinci’s Last Supper. I had to buy these tickets about 2 months ago. When we got there, there were signs everywhere saying “sold out” “no cancellations today”. SOOOO glad I had the foresight to pre order our tickets. The visit lasted no more than 25 minutes. You had to go through a series of doors, each blockin out the contaminated air of the previous room. The Last Supper was….. well, I’m glad we saw it just so that we can say we saw it…. But.. I guess like the Mona Lisa, I was a little disappointed. Maybe I woudnt have been if we were allowed to spend more time in front of it, but.. it’s a frescoe ( for those of you who may not have been aware of that ).. and the room is dark and dingy.. and you cant get too close to the wall that It is on to truly observe it.. but.. like I said, Im glad we did it.

After the Last Supper, we went into a pub to grab dad a bite to eat and there, we witnessed soccer team spirit at it’s finest ( apparently, there was a game coming on that night)… Manchester United flags were everywhere and drunken boys were screaming their little chants together.

Day 3- we checked out the Castle (just the outside area) and went to see what was supposed to be a real lively part of town, but … it was rainy and there weren’t a whole lot of people around, so we just ended up coming on home, buying like 3 or 4 hours of internet service and stayed in for the majority of the day so that we could regain our energy after our travels in Amsterdam and Milan

Today, we woke up and caught our train here to Nice. Dad made friends with some Italian people on the train, but I was too exhausted to be social, so I put in my earbuds and drowned them out =) Tonight, we ate KFC and window shopped for shoes. My boots I bought with Erin when I was in Paris are shot. Literally. All my socks smell terrible because my shoes have holes in them and so, consequently, when it’s rained, my socks have gotten sopping wet. Then , tonight, right as we were on our way back from dinner, I could feel the sole of my shoes break in two… probably because they have been damp for about a week.

Tomorrow, on the to-do list: buy new boots =) Probably run into Sephora to spray another random perfume on me… that’s become a hobby of mine lately. Well.. until I get home and have internet access again ( in roughly 48 hours)… Love to all and Gros Bisous!