Hi all, I know it's been a while, but I opted against writing about this trip because it made me a bit upset to think about, only because mom who never asks for anything asked me to bring her home a gold bracelet from Italy. I got one with pearls (cause that's dad's birthstone and I wanted to surprise her) and I got myself a beautiful pair of leather gloves. Then I left them on the train and they're lost and it pretty much makes me want to cry every time I think about it. ANd it sucks that this colors the wonderful time I had there, but unfortunately it does.
Milan itself, though, was a beautiful, wonderful, and interesting experience. The first thing that we noticed was that it was not the cleanest city, and that the graffiti culture is SO different from the US and Geneva. We stayed in a hostel near the university, and so we were not in the historical/touristy district of the city. It was really interesting to see the dichotomy of it though; we saw the fashion capital part and we saw the down-and-dirty, life-in-the-city side. The hostel was called the New Generation Hostel, and it was, in fact, really really nice. It was super clean, with marble floors and stairs and industrial-era decorations. Me and my two friends were in a quad with some guy from Florence who came back in at 5:30 in the morning and opted to take a phone call....whatever. I think it must've taken us an hour and a half to find it because we opted to not pay for public transportation from the train station and though itd be a better experience to walk, anyway. It was far, but we saw the bustle of city life and the streets with shops, bars, clubs, and restaurants.
After we settled into the hostel, we went out to dinner in the Porta Genova district and wandered down two of the really populated streets until we found this adorable place called Seven. It was a cozy place that was totally popping with people, with warm lighting, the Italian spirit and books lining the walls. Can I just stay that I LOVE ITALIANS. They were all so alive and talkative, and willing to converse and interact. So different from all of the people in Geneva. Anyway, we ordered beer, which was German and came in HUGE glasses. Then I ordered a guacamole salad and my friend ordered a steak (we split meals), and my other friend got a burger. They had these little potato wedges and whatever dressing we dipped them in was HEAVEN SENT. Our waiter was also the NICEST guy. He brought us a free basket of the potato things, and gave me the wifi password even though he wasn't supposed to. We managed to get by trying to use french as the middle road and lots of hand signals. For dessert I got crème brulée and my other friend got conolis (i have no idea how to spell that word) and everything was JUST SO GOOD. We left our waiter a tip because he was awesome, and we google translated a little note into Italian thanking him. We were outside trying to decide where to go from there and we saw him come out with out not laughing and he gave us a huge smile and waved. Awesome. Then we went to this bar and I got a drink called Picasso. Remember what was in it, but it was blue. We just chilled there and people watched until it was time to go to bed. We headed back and passed out until the next morning, when we dragged all of our stuff with us and ventured to the Milano Duomo. The cathedral. I can't even understand the emotion that I felt the first instant seeing it. The exit from the metro emerges to a big courtyard. And across it there was this magnificent cathedral. We had been talking as we walked up the stairs and i swear, it was like in a movie. On the stairs we cut off sentences and froze and all simultaneously exclaimed. It was beautiful. And then a second later we got acosted by men giving away "free"bracelets which they then demanded money for after they had tied it on your wrist. We took tons of photos of the cathedral, and went into the "Dome" where there are BEAUTIFUL shops and paintings. It was breathtaking. The ceiling was all glass going up to form a dome. This is where I bought the bracelet and gloves at the end of the day at Vigano Milano. Simply beautiful. We walked all around, and stumbled upon a castle (still not sure what it was but it was awesome), and then to this HUGE arch from the time of the Romans. We completely just enjoyed wandering around and eating food and taking pictures of everything and each other.
The bracelet was my last stop. First we went into this place on my friends suggestions. Ya know. WHere NOTHING is on display and they take you to sit down and look. The second we walked in, the woman, i could tell, was like what the hell are these people doing here. Yeah so I got shown a 5000 euro bracelet. Sorry mum, but no. That's when we went to get the ones from Vigano. I am getting upset just thikning about it. But after buying them i was SO unbelievably content and happy. We got THE BEST gelato (obviously, because it originates from Italy).... and headed back through the Alps on the train. Then I realized I left everything on the train, foudn out today that it is officially lost and now I am going to try to look online for them. I bought them in real life once, so it still counts.
Recently I have been up to my ears in the most amount of stress I've ever encountered over my Midterm for the Grad institute. I've spent a total of 23 hours working on it in the past 4 days. I spent 12 1/2 on Sunday. I just need to GET IT AWAY FROM ME so i am doing this blog, looking at Christmas dresses online and working on my translation of my consent form for my thesis.
livin the life.
Thursday we leave for Barcelona.... I'm bringing homework. WIll report back soon contingent upon me not losing anything.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
E.