24/5/09 Milan

We stayed the whole night in the common room (which had a sign on the door saying it closed at 10 so no one bothered us. I got some sleep in and some good work. I got up around 4 to shower and we hung out with this hilarious surfer kid named Tigger by the computer in the hall before heading over to the train station around 5:30.

We took a regional train to the next stop before getting on a train to Milan. We sat in one of the Joe DiMaggio coaches the entire time, turns out that’s where we were supposed to go. I slept nearly the entire way.

We walked from the train station (which was really impressive) to the center of the city by the opera house. The city is modern, but still with an Italian feel. We went though the large glass-domed arcade and into the Duomo square.

The Duomo is a huge church started in the 1300s with all sorts of spires on it. We were hungry so we ate at the end of the square looking at the church. I had a margherita pizza and we shared a caprese salad. Mary had some good ravioli in tomato sauce. Very good.

After Mary was a sucker and bought a string from an African, we tried to go into the church by Mary’s skirt was too short again, but she was prepared with tights this time so we went into the store next to it and she changed in the bathroom.

There was a service going on and Mary was really excited to go to a service in Italy so we sat down. We were in the back and it was a little quiet but it was cool. We did the whole shake hands with people around you thing, some kneeling, and the coolest part was when they gave out the little Christ crackers and Mary made me get one, even though I don’t think I’m allowed to. Christ could use some salt or frosting or something.

The inside was a lot like Notre Dame except a little taller and brighter. A good old church either way.

From there we did the fashion quadrilateral walk, but since it was Sunday about 99% of the stores in the city were closed. Kind of a bummer but a lot less tempting for Mary to buy some 445 Euro pair of shoes.

It was around 90 degrees so we went to get some gelato from the arcade. I had mint chocolate, cream, and pistachio. It was good, like all my gelato.

From there we went to the church that has Leonardo's The Last Supper. We couldn't actually see the painting because it is in terrible condition and they only let a few people in to see it with timed tickets booked months in advance. We walked around the church a little which was alright and sat outside on the curb by a water fountain and rested for a while. We were tired and sweaty.

We went into the new fashion area, of which most was also closed except for one shoe store that we spent some time looking around. I tired on a few pairs but didn't get anything.

We stopped for dinner at a little outdoors cafe, I had the four cheese pizza while Mary had buffalo mozzarella pizza. This wasn't my favorite four cheese and I could barely finish it, let alone half of Mary's like I usually do. We signed our named for a while on the paper placemat when we were done.

But I wasn't stuffed enough for gelato after. I had chocolate chip, cream, and chocolate fondue, the chocolate fondue being among my favorite flavors I've had anywhere.

We walked to the train station and got on the bus to the airport, which took about an hour. Unfortunately we were supposed to go to the other airport, I really messed up and freaked out a little. Our bus ticket got us one free return and we bought another and got on the first bus to the train station back in Milan because there were no connecting buses between the airports.

I called home and found out that the flights the next day would be over 300 Euros, so it was pretty important we make it. We were lucky that we left early, but we ran into tons of traffic on the way back to the train station, but soon it picked up and were were back with an hour before we had to be at the airport.

We talked with the bus driver and he ended up saying that we'd be fine. A huge relief. And we were. On top of that, the flight was delayed for 15 minutes, but we cut it really close.

The flight back was fine and we got on an early EasyBus since the flight ended up getting in early.

We got my cards out of the flower pot and in my room Amy left me a poster of Tower Bridge in French (awesome), Chinese tea, a magazine, and her pants that fit me well. Pretty awesome and funny.

We crashed pretty quickly.