Anja had to catch a 5:30 am train to milan to get to her plan on time so Emilee and I slept in a little and cleaned the house before leaving. We were sad saying by to Sestri, even though the trains had been infuriating and we didnt have much to do, it is a beautiful small town that felt familiar after 3 days. I would love to go back in the summer and really get to experience it. The train ride was easy enough, we chatted with the old man and his wife who told us the history of Milan and Genova in a mix of English, French, and Italian. Everyone speaks another language here so thankfully I can get by asking people “Ingles? Francais?” And they will most likely answer in one of them.
Emilee had a train from central station at 4 and we arrived around 2:15 so we quickly got on the metro to the Duomo. Neither one of us had ever been to Milan but we figured out where we wanted to go. We walked around the Duomo for a few minutes and then explored the outrageous shops of the Gallery Victor Emmanuel. The most beautiful shops are flanked by the most incredible cafes, none of which were even close to our price range.
By this time it was time to say goodbye to Emilee and she went back to central station, which I might add is absolutely beautiful. The prettiest station I have been to in Europe yet.
So there I was! Once again alone with all my bags, but this time I had no where to go... Since we didnt have internet and I only decided to come to Milan on a whim, I didnt have a hostel. Thankfully one of the cafes in the Piazza del Duomo had wifi so I was able to sit there and surf the internet for the first time all week. It really is weird being so disconnected from the world like that, especially since I had no phone or anything. I checked my emails and lollygogged not realizing it was getting darker outside. When I finally looked up, I panicked to see that it was sunset and I had no hotel, no map, and darkness. I did not want to walk around Milan alone at night. So I picked the first hostel that came up on the webpage, wrote down directions, and hightailed it to the metro. It was easy enough to follow the directions of where to get off and which streets to walk down, but when I came to the cross streets, the house number was no where in site. I must have walked down the street it was on three times before asking an old woman walking by if she knew it. She only spoke french and had never heard of the hostel before. At this point I was panicking because I hadnt passed anything even close to a hotel on my walk there. I asked if she knew where there was free internet or wifi but instead, she invited me into her house to use her computer. She lived right around the corner with her super old mom that she took care of. She let me into her house and on her computer where she recognized the picture of the building the hostel was in and walked me there. She was so nice and I was so absolutely appreciative I didnt know what to do. It was great.
So I made it to the hostel which thankfully had room because I didnt have a reservation. Ciao Bella Milan is in the student neighborhood and the hostel is run by international students. An American answered the door and 2 Aussies checked me in, and was I happy to hear English. Italian is hard! I was hungry but I didnt want to spend my whole trip to Milan alone so I walked upstairs to the girl dorm and asked the 4 girls inside if they wanted to join me. Turned out, they were about to go to the bars and have dinner and invited me along. Only 2 of them knew each other, Sarah (German working in Paris) and Maya (Canadian working in Paris). The other two, Anita (Austrian working in Switzerland) and Shen Shen (Singaporean studying in Sweden) just happened to be traveling at that time and agreed to come out as well.
So we all took the metro to the neighborhood of canals. Milan is home to the Aperitivo, which means that in most of the bars, if you buy a drink for €7-10 then you get to eat at the buffet. The food ranges from cold cuts and cheese at some places to lasagna, pizza, pasta, bread, and meat at others. We luckily found a good place and had a buffet of pasta, salad, pizza, potatoes, and dessert with a cocktail for €8. Its a great idea, super cheap, and delicious. The canals are lined with bars, art studios, and antique shops which were closed at night. Its one of the oldest neighborhoods in Milan and very historically important for transportation. The girls were all very nice and it was great to go out and get to know them.
We went to another bar along the canals called StraRipa. It looked inviting and had live jazz music. The waiters inside were all so nice and the bar gives out play do when you get a drink. What a great idea, give people alcohol and let them play with silly puddy. It was great. We ended up making dice out of the play do and playing drinking games with them. The staff got a kick out of that because they had never seen anyone actually play with the dice they made. It was a really fun night and we ended up having to take the tram back to central station at 3 am and walking 30 mins from there... I was very happy.
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