So- the first week back after Easter gives us a long weekend (muchly needed) and we packed our bags and headed of to Milan for a weekend in the sun. Twenty six degrees – so happy!
In order to save money we travelled from Charlerois in Belgium which involved a two hour train journey (including changes) but we had booked in online and only had hand luggage and sailed through security, and since it was Belgium to Italy, no boarder control. The only need to show passports was for proof of identity on the plane so we went from France to Belgium to Italy and showed out passports once! I know it’s an open boarder and all that but it’s still weird to have no boarder control in an airport!
All went according to plan and Milan was hot but we were fed up after trekking to the metro station to get a weekend ticket (48 hours for five pounds; that gets you unlimited travel on metro, bus and tram.) We then trekked back to the bus stop and had to count the number of stops to make sure we were at the right one- the club below the hotel ‘The Rolling Stone’ was a dead give away!
We stayed in a place called ‘hotel America’ it’s labelled as a hostel and you can get rooms really cheap, ours were thirty euros a night but we chose a room for just the three of us and our own bathroom (although the water wasn’t exactly reliably hot…) We had a nap as we were so tired and we were planning a big, big night out.
So at six we started to get ready- the water was still warm at this point- but had no idea where to eat, hoping that our lack of Italian- not for wont of trying- would make us endearing we asked the guy at reception who was wonderful! He drew it all out on a map, and pointed us to the student area for aperitifs where we started with a cocktail and found a nice, reasonably priced restaurant of which I didn’t even notice the name! We didn’t care, we were so hungry and the calzone was delicious!
Two bottles of wine later, one in the restaurant and one in the room, we were dressing to go out, deciding to stay local and go down to ‘The Rolling Stone, two floors down. We spent an hour looking over the balcony waiting to see people go in. Eventually we gave in and not having a clue what to do, and not wanting to wait, we got ‘drink cards’ for thirteen euros which let us in right away. The drink cards were a good idea, you don’t pay for any drinks to the end! The measures were really generous and we were dancing before long, after a while we came to realise it was a gay night- it was brilliant! Semi- naked men dancing and some bizarre Italian comedian… I think…although research suggests he was on TV but that could be a bad translation…
We left about two after much dancing but were exhausted and decided to have a late start, the hotel provided a small breakfast and then we were off to visit everywhere! We got on a tram to the centre and found the Duomo (Cathedral), it was not hard to miss, it is enormous and absolutely amazing- there has been a church on the site since the 5th century! Inside there are five naves and forty pillars, the nave is about 45 metres high! We then wandered on to the castle (which is also huge, and impressive) back to La Scala (the opera house) wandering through the covered walkway ‘Galleria Vittoria Emmanuel II’ built in the 19th century which now houses nice restaurants (too pricy for us) and designer shops (it is Milan.) We had a long lunch before heading out in the afternoon sun to a few churches, a drink by the canal and home for a rest before grabbing a bite to eat in by the Duomo; we only went to a pizzeria which was pricy but you could see the Duomo from our table (even if the view was obscured.) We headed home early (about ten) and watched some bizarre Italian television before crashing for the night. We knew we would need to be prepared for the long seven hour journey home.
We checked out at eleven this morning, saying an extended thank you to the guy at reception whose name I never asked but who was so kind to us! We discovered that he gave us a free map which he was making other people pay for (four euros fifty!) and he gave us the balcony table this morning at breakfast, he told us that last night was the closing night at ‘The Rolling Stone’ had we known we might have gone down, but we would have paid for it by tonight!
All in all the trip was amazing, no glitches and thanks to Rachel’s forward planning we weren’t too lost! She organised everything so I have to say thanks to her for that, and to Andrew for putting up with our stressing a particularly my minor panic attack at Charlerois train station today- fifteen minutes to catch a train and we couldn’t find the ticket place- I was stressed! Sorry!
I know I have yet to write about my first week but it pales in significance next to this, just general chem. work, maybe I’ll add a bit during the week… we’ll see.
Anyway, the first blog of the last term- that’s terrifying- anyway, until next time…
