Milan

On Friday 8th April, Janet, Caitlin, Greer & I headed to Milan to start off our 3 week Easter holiday! The night before I slept from about 9:20pm-12:10am then got up, had a shower and got everything ready for the final time. We all met at Highlands just after 1am (Rose even came to say bye, aww) and headed down to the bus stop to catch a 2am bus. It was so early, the bus station wasn't even open so we waited outside till the bus came 15 minutes late - it was alright though, because we had an hour and a half to spare (this was the last bus to get us to the airport in time). I felt really thirsty and faint on the bus, don't know why, but once we arrived I was okay. We couldn't check in till 4am and it was only 2:50am by this time so we sat down, bought hot drinks, listened to Italian phrases, read an Italian phrasebook, etc. Once we checked in, we waited until 5:45am in the 'lounge', I got a yummy yoghurt/berry/granola thing to keep me going. We lined up for aaaages, then still had to catch a bus to the plane.

The flight was 1 hour 45 minutes and I slept a little bit on and off. I woke up at one stage to an amazing mountainous landscape - obviously we were nearly there! The mountains changed to flat gridded areas with houses spaced far apart. Once landed, we caught a bus to another terminal (had to strip down to t-shirts!), then a train to Cadorna station, then the underground to QT8 (don't worry, this was the only station with a name like that - but we found out it had a story, can't remember it though). A man working at the station gave us directions to the hostel. It was a short, nice walk although we were already dying from the heat (found out later it was only about 25 degrees). We couldn't check in yet but we paid and left our bags in the luggage room and I changed from my jeans into a skirt. We walked to the supermarket and bought salad, donut-shaped bread, olives and cheese for lunch (and raspberries for me), and tried to find sunscreen but they didn't have any! So we bought super expensive stuff from a pharmacy then sat in a little park in the shade and ate our yummy lunch.

We talked about what we'd do for the rest of the day/weekend and decided we'd go to see the Milan Cathedral/Duomo which is the world's largest Gothic and 4th largest cathedral in general. We went back to the hostel, grabbed our bags and took our sheets up to our dorm, which we'd forgotten was a 4-bed and was a nice surprise since the rest we'd booked were 8-bed dorms. Janet & I had single beds and the others were in a bunk. We headed back to the station via a nice quiet pedestrian road at the back of the hostel and bought 2-day tickets. We got off at the station which, according to our hostel, was where the tourist info place would be, but we couldn't find that, so we followed 'Stazione Duomo' signs around for a bit on a wild goose chase. The buildings were all amazing though, and we definitely saw a lot of them. We got back on the train since we thought it would be easier to find the station that way. The station steps led straight up onto the Duomo and seriously, it is so intricate and HUGE. We took photos out the front, of course, and experienced the people I'd read about who give you birdseed and bracelets 'free' and then try to make you pay, so we stayed away from them. Janet pretended she was German and we got a little worried when one responded 'German? Guten Tag!' but luckily that was the extent of his German.

Anyway, the cathedral is on one side of an amazing square with empty space in the middle and other gorgeous buildings taking up the other edges, including a big arched building which we later realised was actually on lots of the tourist-y lists I'd printed out. We went inside the cathedral; there were 'no photos' signs but everyone was. It was gorgeous and again, massive inside. I don't really understand any of the religious stuff but what I saw were beautiful ceilings, stained glass windows, huge painted banners, prayer candles, statues, thrones. You could tell how important religion is for some people - lots of bowing of heads, muttering of prayers, hands drawing the cross.

We got our first Italian gelati in a little van outside, very exciting. I got ciocollato (chocolate) & frutti di bosco, which I couldn't quite work out but which was still yummy. We sat down to eat them outside the Duomo and read through the print-outs again, figuring out that the glass-covered arched arcade was the Galleria Vittoria Emanuele II with lots of designer brands - Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci - all in gorgeous buildings, and a Maccas in the same style of building which amused us a little. There were also little horse and rider figurines 'riding' around by themselves, sometimes getting in the way, sometimes falling over of their own accord. Also people splatting these toy things, which we saw all over Italy (photos needed to explain properly). Once through the other end, we sat down near some grass and a Leonardo statue and decided to find the Opera House which was apparently nearby, before realising it was across the road. Which kind of wrecked our plan to take up some more time. We walked a bit more through the streets, then trained back to the hostel to ask where we should go for dinner - they recommended a pizzeria so we went and found that. I got penne with tomato/spinach/butter sauce which was nice and the others enjoyed theirs too. We sat outside the restaurant in a little tent thing and it had cooled down a bit by that stage so it was quite pleasant.

We went back to the supermarket to buy fruit for dessert - I got a yummy container of pineapple, strawberries, blueberries and grapes. Back to the hostel, Janet & I had showers in adjacent cubicles so had a good chat. We managed to lock ourselves into our room and the receptionist had to come up and told us not to lock our door from the inside, which meant it had to stay open during the night, sooo safe.

A couple of random notes I wrote down from this day: the toilets at the hostel were really low; the lights in the bathroom turn off after 5 minutes which is very inconvenient if you're in the shower but yes, good for the planet; and there are shops in the underground - typical Italy!

The next day, Saturday 9th April, we went down to breakfast about 8:30am. We had weird but okay cereal, rolls, creamy cheese, jam, THE best hot chocolate you have ever tasted and bad orange juice. Then we headed off to a 'canalside' market - first we walked through fruit and veg stalls and a jewellery shop where we all got special matching rings and I got a couple of others (literally the only ones which weren't massive/ugly) for €1 each; the market came to a T and we headed off to the left, with lots of clothes and accessories stalls, many with the same things. Janet and I got backpacks for €5. It got really hot and crowded so we were relieved to eventually come out at the end. We found the canal on the map and walked to find it, crossed a bridge and walked back to the station past some more stalls on the street, fruit and veg shops, and what looked like a big Italian family having a nice bbq. We trained back to the Duomo and sat at the same spot as we had the day before, already feeling exhausted from the heat. We'd decided to walk to the top today so when the queue shortened a bit, we got in line and walked the 165 steps, with a little kid in front of us counting each one in another language (I forget). As you walk up the spiral staircases you can't see anything so coming out at (nearly) the top it was surprising how high we'd gotten. Seeing all the intricacies up close was fascinating. After walking through some beautiful sections, we went even higher. We sat up there for a while in the shade and just relaxed a bit. Caitlin got a call asking her to be a God mother and was very excited.

After a bit, we headed back down and got a late lunch at a pizza place nearby, right opposite a popular and delicious-looking chocolate and gelati place. We had a really nice waiter and got 2 pizzas between us (plenty) - both with tomato and mozzarella, one with ricotta and spinach, the other with rocket, some other tasty cheese and fresh tomatoes. We first became acquainted with service fees here. After lunch, we looked in the chocolate place but decided it was too crowded today. Then we were going to get McFlurries (cherry or chocolate cornetto, smarties or 'brownies') but the line was too long and then shut down. We saw the bull image on the ground with its testicles worn away from all the people spinning on it for luck - too many people seemingly waiting to do it. We ended up getting gelati from the same place as yesterday - this time just got cocco (coconut), nom nom.

I bought a Universita' Milan t-shirt so, feeling like it justified the purchase, we went to find the Uni. It wasn't a standout but it was still pretty. We sat in a small shady park near the uni for a while, then decided to head to the Golden Quad - four streets of designer shops. 5 minutes into walking I realised I didn't have my special ring but luckily it was right where I'd been sitting at the park. We eventually found the Quad - gorgeous buildings as usual - only walked 2 or 3 streets of it before seeing a big M sign for a station so trained back to the hostel. It was 6:30pm by this time but we were still full from lunch. We all collapsed on our beds for a while, J gave me a good massage then we went to the supermarket for fruit. Crunchy apples at last (the school ones suck)! We also got some peas to share, just to continue our healthiness. Slept about 10:30pm.

On our third and final day in Milan, Sunday 10th April, we had our last breakfast at the hostel (since we had to leave reeeally early the next morning) and then headed off to a castle. We saw a few marathon runners on our train and once we got off we saw so many more - we'd managed to be in Milan for the Milan marathon, but not only that - the finish line was right outside the castle so it was very crowded. We managed to get across the running track to the castle, marvelled at every brick and bought tickets for all the museums which are located at various areas in the castle, €3 for 'students'. First we went through the Museum of Musical Instruments; we had fun taking photos of each other 'playing' the instruments. This continued on to the Museum of Decorative Arts, which included gorgeous cutlery, vases, door knockers, plates, porcelain things plus more; following was a small oriental section. We saw the Museum of Furniture, then the picture gallery which was way too big - room after room - for our increasingly-hungry stomachs.

We left the castle (much more crowded by this time) and walked down one of the main streets we'd explored on Friday, past so many pizza shops pretty much on the road and chose the cheapest one. We sat inside and it was actually a really nice restaurant - antipasto platters, fish in a tank, lots of shelves full of wine, flowers everywhere. We got 2 pizzas between us again, they were that big. This time we had tomato/mozzarella/capers/artichokes/mushrooms/olives (delish) and mozzarella/carrot/cherry tomatoes/celery/spinach.

We walked back to the castle, this time it taking us longer to find a way in through the crowd. We tried to find the Egyptian Museum but with no luck thanks to the map. We did (we think) find the Ancient Museum and a Michelangelo section, full of sketches and other things. We were all getting a bit tired, Janet went outside to find a spot in the park behind the castle and we went on a search to find the photo archives, but they were closed. So we also went to the park, called J away from her perfect spot surrounded by Italian guys to come and meet us and found another shady/sunny place to sit and relax. It was a really nice atmosphere, lots of people just relaxing, some stripped down to their underwear to sunbake.

After a while, we headed back to the station, getting gelati from a little van on the way - I got fragola (strawb) and biscotti (like cookies & cream), so so good. We ended up buying daily train tickets as our 2-day ones had just run out, but then we realised that the trains didn't run early enough to get us to the Central station to catch our train to Venice in the morning. The guy at reception did tell us there was a bus we could catch though, and we could use our train tickets, so that all worked out. We went and checked out the bus times, then Maccas which was close and finally tried McFlurry Brownies! It was pretty damn good, a bit like Milo mixed with soft serve and crunchy choc bits. We sat in a nearby park in the fading light surrounded by daisies, ate our McFlurries and leftover olives and peas. Back at the hostel, we got codes for the wifi and sat in the dining room being antisocial for a bit. Headed to bed about 10pm, up early the next morning (see next blog post!)...