milanoops

Much to the surprise of my pre-planned travel itinerary, I found out in Florence that I was going to be spending a night in Milan on my way to Bern, Switzerland.  Now, this is probably gonna be the hundredth time I've said it, but I could not wait to get out of Italy.  My diet there consisted of the occasional apple, Kinder Bueno bars, and gelato, though I did have toast one or two times at the hostel in Venice.  The language barrier was tiring, especially since I was alone and didn't even know how to say "excuse me" on public transportation.  I hated getting lost, and I was running out of money.  This is not because Italy is a miserable place to travel.  It's actually incredibly beautiful and worth every bit of suffering.  I'd do it over again in a heartbeat.  But that's all retrospective.  While I was there, when I wasn't busy being awed, I was busy being miserable.

So an extra day in Italy was sounding pretty dreadful when the man at the train station told me there was absolutely no way I could get from Florence to Bern on Monday morning.  Much to the surprise of my doomsday fatalism, everything was fine.

There's really not much to say about Milan.  They have a nice tube system.  For some reason I had to borrow fifty cents from some really nice tourists to get to the hostel.  I eventually found it.  It was run by a surprisingly unwelcoming Irish bloke and his friends (from various other countries) but I got a room to myself for mos of the day.  It rained a lot.  I got a slice of pizza from a fast food place because I decided I'd die without it.  I followed a nun, found, and went inside a cool cathedral.  It rained some more. I passed a lot of cheery-looking flower stands and contemplated buying some.  More rain. I met a nice woman from New Zealand who, in exchange for the use of my iPod charger, gave me some really delicious chocolate.  I called my mom from a balcony and it continued to rain.  I had peanut butter for breakfast the next morning and left.

And that is literally it.

Thank god I plan trips as neurotically as I pack for them.  I left two blank days on my EURail Pass for those just-in-case emergencies (or whims if you're an optimist).  20 euro (for the hostel) + 10 euro (for the ticket reservation) + 3 euro (for the pizza) = a minimal amount spent in exchange for a valuable learning moment.

One word of serious advice, though, to anyone traveling with a EURail Pass: The trains in Italy are not as mind-blowingly awesome as the trains in Germany/Austria/Switzerland.  They are usually late.  They are crowded and the air conditioning is usually broken.  You must make a reservation (10 euro), and I'd recommend making it days in advance.  At the very least, as soon as you arrive in a city, make your reservation to get to the next one.  This is especially important if you are traveling on a busy day, like Monday morning, Friday afternoon, Sunday night, &c.  This last bit of advice can be useful in the other countries mentioned as well.  I made one reservation while in Germany because I was traveling to Munich (a popular destination) on a Sunday (a popular day).  I didn't actually need it even then, but it was nice to have that added security.

Basically, what you're meant to gather from this post is that Milan was neither pleasant nor miserable, just a little unexpected blip where I continued my favorite game of "Follow That Nun!" and spent a ridiculous amount of time just listening to it rain.  Next stop: Bern, the city where I realised things!  What sort of things?  You'll just have to wait and find out!