Before I get into the trip to Milan I want to talk about Wednesday night. Jourdan plays soccer at his school and he has been trying to find a team. He found one and they had a practice on Wednesday and I decided to go. I bought a pair of cleats and shin pads for 20 euros. I was a little rusty but I managed to hold my own. The team is not that good and not too serious so I think I will play with them when I can. The games are on Sunday so I won't be able to play when I go away but I will practice with the team just for some exercise. It is also a good way to practice Spanish and maybe we will go out for drinks after the practices. However, since I got the new shoes I got a huge blood blister on the bottom of my right big toe. It is about the size of a quarter and purple but it feels fine now and is not infected...I'll spare you the picture.
Classes were canceled due to the IES trip to Tarragona from Thursday to Sunday and our plane left at 7:00 Thursday morning. We woke up at 4 and met the girls at the bus to the airport. Everything went very smoothly and we got to the Hotel around 11:30. Since we had all day and no plans, we got a map, got on the Metro, and went to a part of town to get some food. We went to a little place and I got some pasta, wine, and chicken. The food was excellent but I wished I had ordered the pizza because it was unlike anything I had ever seen. A slice was 1/4 of a 12" pizza and about an inch thick, loaded with toppings. I wish I got a picture but its too late now. Next we went to the Castle Sforzesco. Here is a picture.
Right when we walked in we got swarmed by people from Senegal who tied bracelets on our arms and said "take these bracelets to support Senegal, they are good luck. Then they followed us and asked for money. It was pretty annoying and we just walked away. We took a nice picture of them.
On the other side of the castle was a park and a little carnival with some games and rides but we just walked straight through to the park. On the other side of the park was the Arch de Triumph.
It was very detail and large and we hung out there for a bit to rest our legs. By that time it was about 5:00 and we were all very tired from not getting too much sleep. We decided to go to a supermarket to get some food, wine, and beer, and go to the hotel for the rest of the night.
I immediately went to lay down on my bed and the next thing I knew it was 8:00. We went to the girls room to hang out, eat some food, and have some drinks. We also watched the end of a soccer game and watched survivor for a while while trying to translate it. It was a nice mellow night and we caught up on sleep for a lot of walking the next day.
We woke up early and had the inclusive buffet breakfast. We ate eggs, bacon, pastries, fruit, and yogurt. Great breakfast. Then our plan for the day was to go to the old city, walk around, and visit the Duomo. This is the Duomo, which means cathedral in Italian.
First we walked around a bit and our plan was to return to the Duomo later. It was also a gorgeous day outside so we just wandered around. To the left of this picture is the Gallery, which is just a big plaza with some nice artwork and a roof.
In the middle of this is somewhat like a crossroad with 4 stores on the corner. It was interesting to see that the stores were Prada, Louis Vitton, some fancy silver store, and then a McDonalds. Next we just walked around because when I of my professors what to do in Milan, he said just get lost in the old city. We then stumbled upon a famous shopping street that my other professor suggested. It is called Via Della Spiga. Milan is called the shopping capital of the world and this was the main street to shop in and it was quite an experience to do some window shopping and people watching. The average person was dressed like this
Fur coat, fancy purse, nice shoes...very wealthy. It was pretty cool being there and of course I didn't buy anything because it was all way out of my price range. After that we walked around some more and headed back to the Duomo to get some lunch and walk up to the top. We had some amazing pizza for lunch and then walked up to the top of the Duomo. This Cathedral was amazing. Apparently it has 3,500 statues and was built around 1300 AD. Here is a view of the top
Of course just like every other building that every tourist should see, it has scaffolding on the top so you can't get a good picture. There is also a staircase that goes up there but it was blocked off. We hung out up top for a while, took some pictures, and soaked up some rays before heading back down. We then tried to find some Gelato but some how we couldn't find any so we headed back to the hotel where we knew of a place.
In Milan there is a happy hour deal called Aperativo. During this time, the price of drinks goes up a little bit but they offer a full buffet when you order a drink. We went to a place called Kama Sutra. The drink were 8 euros but they had some amazing Indian food. They had some pastas, rice, cuscús, and some amazing curry chicken. It was a great deal. Dinner and a drink for 8 euros...doesn't get much better than that. Then we went to another bar and got another drink before heading back to the hotel. This was a very interesting bar. It had model airplanes hanging from the ceiling, pictures of American movies, pictures of musicians like Elvis and Stephan Tyler, a toy train going around the ceiling, and board games.
On Saturday the girls wanted to shop and we wanted to go to Lake Como for the day so we split up and made plans to meet up later. We woke up pretty early and took a train to Como with not much of a plan. The first thing I bough there was a map with some interesting sites. The first place we went was here
It was very fancy and there were a ton of people walking their dogs. Next we took the Fernacular (tram) to the top of the hill on the east side of the city. Right by the top of the tram was a little pizzeria where we ate lunch. Here is the pizza (pesto and fresh Tomato) It tasted SOOO good.
And here was the view
Yes, these are the Alps. It was a very nice lunch. Here is also a view of the city of Como
After lunch we walked around the top for a bit and looked at the houses. Most of the houses were gated in, and looking out over the lake and to the Alps. I wish we could have gone inside of them because there were some really nice houses. There were a lot of trees too and you can't really see the houses in my pictures. I wish I could see the alps from my bedroom window...maybe when I get rich and retire I will buy a house there haha.
When we went down we wanted to rent some bikes. The information building said that you could rent a bike for 5 euros for the day. We got there and you needed your passport. Mine was at the hotel so we couldn't do that. So we just walked around, got some more Gelato, and walked to the water. Since we couldn't rent bikes, we decided to rent a paddle boat for an hour. It took us about 15 minutes to get past the point but then we just chilled in the middle of the lake and listened to some music on my iPhone. It was a great way to end our day in Como. Here is a POV of the paddle boat
And here is another picture
After the paddle boating we just hopped on the next train back to Milan and went to the hotel to meet up with the girls.
That night we did the same Aperativo thing for dinner. Then we went to another bar in a better area where all of the clubs are. The cover charge to the clubs was about 15 euros so we just went to a bar instead. The drinks were 10 for guys, 8 for girls or a beer for 7. I got a whiskey sour, which was actually really good. I had never gotten one before.
After about 20-30 minutes at the bar I realized that is was a gay bar. None of us really cared though because we had a drink and the music was really good. The girls were also very attractive and were wearing some very revealing clothing. There were 2 Korean girls sitting next to us and our friend went to go to the bathroom. Immediately when they got up the Korean girls started asking about our friends and could speak some English. Then our friends sat down and the girls were totally hitting on our friends. Jourdan and I were very amused by what was happening. Then a girl behind me started to talk to me because she over herd us talking in English and she also knew English. Next here friend who was a guy started asking me questions about the US and New York and then they switched seats. So basically I got hit on by a gay guy. I thought it was hilarious and tried to talk to the whole table but they didn't speak much English. I thought it was really funny though. Soon after that I started to get a little creeped out because the guy kept getting closer to me so we decided to leave and go back to the hotel before the metro closed.
Sadly, check out was at noon and it was raining on Sunday. Our flight was not until 9 at night too so we just watched some soccer and ate lunch. Some how we got separated from the girls and had to meet them at the airport. But we got home around midnight, had some dinner and wen to bed.
It was a really fun trip, and it was good to know how the system works because next weekend I am going to Paris to visit Bjorn. It is also a great feeling to be back in a country where I can speak the language...and it is Spain so this is a sign that my Spanish has improved a lot in just a month.
All sounds awesome, scotty. I'm psyched you're having a good time and getting to see some sights.
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