7/16 – Well, we made it to Milan finally! Hello Italia. Although several randies tried to claim their seats were in our little train cubicle, we indeed arrived in one piece to the train station in Milan that night. From there we got a taxi to Minas Hostel… Minas had a really nice staff and we were pumped to have a private 4-person room and private bathroom! On the downside, Minas definitely exaggerated the “AC in the rooms” – it was quite steamy in our room so we kept the windows open despite the hoards of mosquitoes that quickly made themselves right at home in our bathroom.
Later that night we ended up ordering two pizzas, thanks in large part to the receptionist who understood enough of our Spanish to be able to order us delivery pizza in Italian. Shortly after what seemed to be a convoluted phone call, the pies arrived at our door, along with two “complimentary” beers. Why we got complimentary beer is still a mystery, and we quickly realized that one pizza would have more than sufficed. But as the poor, traveling, hunger games competitors that we were, we gladly accepted the challenge before us and dug right in. Regrets and self-loathing soon followed. This night was also the starting point of another trend for the trip: sleeping in underwear above the sheets. If I recall correctly, we enjoyed a nightcap of hand-washing our clothes in the bathroom sink.
7/17 – The next day we took on Milan with fully charged batteries and wanderlust to explore the fashion capital of the world! But first, we walked from Minas back to the main train station to make the rest of our train reservations for Italy. With that pesky errand taken care of for the last time, we strolled down Buenos Aires and sipped on the best-iced lattes of the trip. I also enjoyed a mini cannoli. We lustfully window shopped, only breaking down to actually enter a handful of shops.
Later we navigated ourselves over to the Duomo of Milan, where we were quickly informed that “no mini shorts” were allowed inside the premises. Evidently we were sporting mini shorts, news of which I had no idea previously. Obviously giving up that easily was not an option, so I put Cass’ cardigan on to cover my bare shoulders, and then wrapped my sweater around my mini shorts so that my legs were (more or less) covered down to my knees. It was quite a fashion statement let me tell you; even the cute guards laughed at the sight. Inside the cathedral was beautiful, as they usually are.
Unfortunately, shortly after our trip to the Duomo, my favorite, most multi-purpose purse broke; I was sad. On our way back to Minas, we stopped at the nearby grocery store to get some beverages for the evening, at which point in time I accidentally broke a six-pack of beer- so that was a low point. After showering, eating another ad-hoc meal, and getting ready, we treated ourselves to some classy Euro cooking wine and discount champagne in our room. Eventually, we took a taxi to a club called Lollapalooza… admittedly it was lame at first and we were annoyed that we paid to get in. But after getting our free drink and hanging outside for a bit, the place improved tenfold and we quite enjoyed ourselves. I do not recommend repeatedly requesting popular Spanish songs at Italian clubs though, your chances of success are not very good. On our way home, Brianna and I made the fatal assumption that Tay and Cass would follow us into a delicious looking hot doggie shop. After B and I had inhaled said hot dog, we realized Tay and Cass had indeed not followed us so we took our own cab back and reunited with the other two at Minas! Heck of an evening.
SAMHOPEHANSEN 