Archive for Italy Trip
Septemer 20: Lago de Como
So yesterday we took the train up to the small lakeside towns of Como and Bellagio. They were quite beautiful and quite expensive. We spent the day wandering around. I added quite a bit to my bright man pants photo collection. After a calm day, we took the train back to Milan. We had decided to spend the night there because we had to catch an early bus for the airport. the hostel we found last minute was a little sketchy but ok. We went out to this club called Luminal with a guy Lauren knows from Lebanon; we left the hostel at 11:45 and by 3:30 we were still out so we decided to just go get out stuff and catch an even earlier bus rather than sleep for like an hour. Got our plane and now here we are in Barcelona. We took showers right away so havent seen anything yet. Iàll update later.
I do have a cold tho which sucks. But iàm having fun!
Day 2: Milano
Lauren’s cousins woke up early this morning to get ready for school, so I was up by 7:45. After a breakfast of tea and some yummy pastries, we got cleaned up and ready to go. Took the bus to the train station and the train to Milan. Walked down to Piaza La Scala and then through Plaza Victorio Emmanuel (I’m totally going to spell all this wrong) out to the Duomo Plaza. Went into the cathedral, took some photos. This guy from Senegal tied these bracelets on our wrists saying “oh they’re free!” (not that he gave us a choice) and then demanded “a donation for africa.” I got him to leave us alone w/a 2 euro piece. Went back into the Victorio Emmanuel center to spin on the bull’s testicles. yay.
We basically just wandered around all day. Went to a public garden, all these little museums at the Sforza palace (totally spelled that wrong) then over to the archeology museum. We did do some window shopping but didn’t guy anything. It’s all too expensive!
Had lunch outside at a little cafe place. Had pizza. Yum. I almost ate the whole thing but not quite. I’ve started to collect photographs of cats and photos of men in brightly colored pants. It’s quite amusing.
I’m getting a bit of a sore throat and I’m quite tired. That’s not good =( But I’ll be ok… We’re waking up early tomorrow to head over to Como. Right now we’re watching Futurama in Italian with English subtitles. Interesting.
I’m trying to upload photos to facebook but it’s not working so well. I’ll do it later…
September 18: Piacenza
Well, I’m here! It’s 9 p.m. here, 12 p.m. for all you at home. The flights went well, pretty uneventful. As we went in to land in Newark, the plane flew alongside New York city, so I got a nice view of the skyline and even got to see the Statue of Liberty. It was pretty cool.
The flight out of Newark left late, but it wasn’t that bad waiting. I just read. The seat next to me was empty so I had lots of space to spread out. I slept as much as I could between the two flights but it was hard to get comfortable. It was really cool flying over Ireland, England, and France and trying to figure out which cities I was seeing out the window. The sun was just coming up so they were just giant clusters of light down below. The coolest one was probably Cardiff.
As we landed, the airline played this video that told the passengers to take the Malpensa Express train to get into Milan. So that’s what I did. (getting my luggage was easy and there was no customs) Only partway there, I realized it was taking me to the wrong station! I found my way to the subway but couldn’t figure out which train to take from there to get to Milano Centrale (where I could catch a train to Piacenza) or how much I needed to put on a ticket. Luckily, Hugo had been chatting with Lauren on Facebook when he and I were on the phone in Newark, and she’d given him her cell phone number to give me. So I was able to call her and go “HELP!” I figured it out (yeah, it was 1 euro haha) and made it to Milano Centrale, where I then bought the earliest and fastest ticket to Piacenza. The plane had gotten in at like 8:20 and it was already 11!
Made it to Piacenza around 12. Lauren and her aunts came to pick me up and brought me back to their apartment. It’s quite charming, but there’s 2 bedrooms for 8 people, including me. Lauren was nice enough to offer me her bed in the girls’ room for the next few nights. Her cousins are 12, 9, and the little boy cousin is 6.
I took a shower cuz I felt gross, ate some lunch, and then Lauren took me to walk around Piacenza. She says it’s basically a place where people don’t have anything to do so they shop and spend money. What, like Danville!? It’s pretty small but so cool to see all the really old buildings and architecture. We got some gelato then headed back to the apartment. I attempted to watch Nacho Libre with her but kept nodding off. I finally broke down and lay down for a nap at 4:30. I woke up in total darkness at 8 to the cat meowing. I was just in time for dinner!
So here I am. Over dinner, we mapped out our plans for Milan tomorrow. I still kind of can’t believe I’m here. Lauren’s family is really nice and speaks in a mixture of Italian and Spanish. They were impressed that I can understand Spanish but now they’re speaking to me in it! Most of the time it’s ok but sometimes they talk really fast. Lauren interprets lol.
I think I’m ready for bed again. Hope you’re all having a good day!
