European Adventures: Italy (Milan)

Hey Bloggie,

I left off with the start of Day 2 in Amsterdam. Let's keep travelling!

On landing in Malpensa, we decided to follow the directions on our hostel's website. It wasn't supposed to take us too long to get to our hostel - one of the reasons we chose this place. But, like all things adventure related, there were experiences to be had.

"The hostel directions were only straightforward if you knew how to navigate the stations. We definitely were at a disadvantage because it took forever to understand what directions the signs were asking us to go. The arrows pointing up, down or to the sides did not necessarily mean for us to go in those directions. We spent a whole three hours getting from the airport to our hostel. One of those hours was spent on the train from the airport to Central City and the other two hours just flew by when we were either looking for trains, or seeking train station exits."

It is safe to say, these train station experiences taught us that to definitely account for extra time to get to locations especially when planning to explore upon arrival. Did I mention we were only spending one night in #Milan? Yeah. By the time we finally made it to our hostel, nighttime was close behind so we were resigned to the fact that our next actions would be to eat, sleep, and try to make the most out of the few hours we had left in Milan. Here's how that went down.

"Our hostel? AMAZING! After we checked in, we were offered free drinks and hor d'oeuvres. The place was alive with great energy. While we were munching, we bought our train tickets to leave for Venice the next day. Each room had a unique sign by the door. It was very cute. We booked a private room and let me tell you, the room and bathroom were gorgeous! After sharing with four people in Amsterdam (one smoked pot in the room), this was extremely pleasant. We freshened up and decided to ask the guy at the front desk for a restaurant recommendation. He gave us directions to a restaurant that was about 30 minutes away. While walking to the restaurant, we were able to enjoy the beautiful sights and ambience - gelato stands, coffee shops, beautiful restaurants that tempted us, etc. The restaurant we went to was very charming but our first two meals were below par. Our calamari had too much oil, our pasta dishes were very al dente (and we normally don't mind al dente), and our waitress wasn't very attentive. However, our rabbit more than made up for what we had ingested. Great rabbit!! On our way back to the hostel, we really wanted to get gelato but since the temperature had dropped, decided to wait until the next day. When in Italy, one should have authentic gelato, no? :) We spent the rest of the night sightseeing our hostel grounds."

Day 3.
As in Amsterdam, we planned to get an early start in the morning so we could go to Duomo to shop. After all, we were in a fashion capital of the world😀. But by now, you must have gathered we were forgetting to factor our exhaustion into our calculations.

"Our early start ended up being a 10 o'clock start with a free breakfast of sumptuous fruits, eggs, toast, and of course, tea. Let me just tell you, Italian grapes are to die for! After breakfast, we packed our stuff, checked out and left our bags at the front desk (amazing advance planning). When we got to Duomo, we spent a bit of time taking pictures and admiring the outfits that were blessing our eyes. We guessed there was a fashion event going on since they were all going to the same place but didn't have time to investigate. There were tons of pigeons at the centre and one very rude one interrupted our photo session by flying right in front of the camera! But, it helped make a memorable experience hehehehe. 
We ran into a costume character - well... I made the mistake of being fascinated and T told me to look away but not before he sighted us and motioned for us to come over. We took pictures with him but unfortunately, didn't have a lot of change with us 😔. I have now learnt to look away lest I deal with the guilt of not having cash. We decided to get our H and M game on since time would only permit us to visit one shop. We were doing great on time until it was time to check out. Check out took an eternity! Which meant, we had to hightail it out of there. Luckily, T's phone was working in Europe so she called our hostel to ask that they please request a taxi for us. I swear, I don't know how we did it but we ran into the hostel, got our bags, probably frightened our taxi driver because we were so afraid we would miss our train. He got us to the station 5 minutes early and we ran again to go find our platform and board our train. Success! We get in, only to find people in our assigned seats. They then help us discover we had accidentally bought our train tickets for two weeks away (thank you auto suggestions and exhaustion)! The train was already moving, so we quickly found ourselves two seats and hoped for the best..."

Before we leave Milan, here are some pictures 😊. Ooo... I noticed the Milan Cathedral in one of Tuface's videos so our bond is even stronger :D.

Here's our song of the week... "Okpeke" by Phyno ft. 2Baba and Flavour. Enjoy your week!
Tonia