Salamanca and So on: Milan

Milan: September 24

Milan was at the end of the journey. I was absolutely exhausted. And very very sick. Over the week I had lost about 4 pounds just from walking, I had averaged about 4 hours of sleep, and still had no voice. Frustrated, tired, hungry, sore, and ill, exploring Milan thoroughly was not an option.

We arrived in Milan around 2pm (3 hour train from Venice put us in late).

We found the Metro station, bought a 24-hour pass to get around the city for 3 Euro (SO cheap!) and we Metrod to where we thought our booked hostel was. (We had booked it that morning online.. We didn't want to deal with confusing translation problems.)

Anyway. Our Hostel man was the kindest person ever ever. And spoke perfect English, and it was overwhelmingly welcoming. Our Hostel room was bizzare. Three beds, one sink, a bathroom down the hall. No towels. Of course. No extra sheets, either... in fact.. no sheets! ugh!

Not that it mattered- we had a 3:45 am wake up time, so our sleep was going to be non-existent.

We relaxed for about 15 minutes... washed up a bit. We then decided to go to the main touristy area.. with the Duro and everything. We got there... milled around aimlessly... tempers very very strained. I was still horribly sick and dead. We were hungry, dehydrated, and kelley was in need of a cash machine. An hour later we had found one, had found something snack on, and decided to tour the cathedral. I had to use Esther's shawl to cover my bare shoulders to be permitted into it. Here's a cool video of the Cathedral... albeit creepy ish: Here.

After the Cathedral we decided to tackle the list of museums we wanted to see. I really really wanted to see the Divinci Invention Museum but it was closed. As was the Astronomy Museum, as were all the others. At 4:30 pm. ugh. And "The Last Supper" required a reservation. Ugh again. There was one art museum open and it didn't look to spectacular on paper... but we searched for it anyway. After going not-the-most-direct-rout we found it and were turned away because we were not EU citizens. I was sure there was something we could do about it, but patience was thin and we didn't really care at that point. We instead took pictures in the foyer of the museum, which we pretended were artsy, but they weren't. Lol. Example. (I look kind of angry... it's hard to tell maybe if you don't know it ahead of time.)

I pouted for about an hour afterwards, and then decided that it would be best to get some coffee to ensure that I didn't collapse or something. (Very tired and dehydrated).

We stopped in a cafe... I ordered Tea AND coffee, which confused our bartender-ess. She thought I was paying for Esther's coffee and when I demonstrated to her that my throat was in fact made of death, she conceptualized the idea I needed lots of warm beverage. While zoning out drinking my beverage, I observed how annoyed she was with her fellow bartender. She kept arguing with him in Italian, being very exasperated, and once smacked him on the back of his head in a sort of patronizing way. He made eyecontact with me and seemed to plea for some sort of recognition that he was being abused. It was amusing.

Perked up a bit, we decided to go shopping afterwards. I found no clothing I liked. It's convenient that I am so picky. So far in all of my traveling in the past month I've bought a necklace and a purple dress. Not bad.

We left shopping early because Kelley wanted to ensure that we would get a good spot to view the fashion show that was going to take place in the main plaza. (This was the only thing that seemed to be going for us... this fashion show. We had no idea of its occuring until we got off the METRO and saw the stage.)

After waiting and standing for over an hour, the show began and it was very interesting. I have lots of videos on my Milan Picture Album. They utilized dancing, singing, weird weird weird instruments, lighting effects, etc. Very entertaining, and I suppose a good exhibition of Modern Milan. (Fashion capital of the world, or something.)

I was disappointed that I didn't get to experience the artistic/historic parts of the city, but I was assured that I wasn't missing out on too much. Sigh.

Dinner was lovely. We found a relatively fancy, yet inexpensive, restaurant in another part of the city (called 'Little Venice') and I ate yummy pizza and drank yummy wine.

Around 1:00 am we finally made it to our Hostel (After navigating 3 METRO lines, and walking about 40 minutes) I took a shower, and laid on my bed in my clothes I was going to wear on our trip back. I didn't have a blanket and only slept because I simply had to. (Dramatic, I apologize.)

I was the first to wake up in the morning (as always ..I just get so insomniac when I travel!) and I roused everyone and encouraged them to hurry. We barely made it to our 4:30 bus. Actually, I think we missed it and took a later one. Ah! don't remember. But while rushing to the bus stop (walking more than a half hour in the middle of Milan in the early early morning... ) We found a very nice Italian who knew exactly where the bus was and he helped us get there. He apparently lived in New York for about a year, and might move back. He has two houses in Italy, and was on his way to a flight to... ah, well I don't even know. But I loved his kindness.

Bus to Airport. (I slept and coughed.) Boarded Airplane (After hearing Eine Kleine Nachtmusik section I about 4 times in a row, I dozed off and woke up to find that I was in the air. Completely slept through takeoff. Ridiculous.) Airport Shuttle To Bus Stop in Valladolid, Spain. Bus in Valladolid to Salamanca.