Milan-o, So Fun-o

Ciao, bella!

This past weekend was a three-day weekend, with yesterday being another jour ferie (holiday).  Most of us took advantage of this by traveling!  Me and my friend Xi went to Milan (oooooh, ahhhh) from Saturday to Monday (actually, we arrived Tuesday morning around 6 AM and BOY am I tired)

Milan was a fantastic city of culture.  We went to a bunch of museums (art, history, archelogy, music, technology, egyptian, just to name a few), saw a handful of cathedrals (The Duomo was spectacular, although my favorite was the Saint Babila Basilica), and of course, pigged out on pizza, pastries, and pasta. (Good God I don't want to see pizza again, ever!)

Milan is considered one of the fashion capitals of Europe, so of COURSE we did lots of shopping!  There was this one mall that was TEN stories, and was chalk-full of famous brand-names...Juicy, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Marc Jacobs, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Jimmy Choo, just to name a few.  They had everything from shoes to bags to suits to dresses, funky hats (they didn't like it so much when we tried them all on and danced around to the Britney Spears song that was blasting over the speakers...woops), books, HD tv's, lamps that were really works of art, furniture, sushi, chocolate delicacies, nuts, fruit, a whole candle section (wanna buy a 49 euro candle? anyone?), soaps, housewares....it was huge!  For us it was more like a museum than a store, because of course we couldn't afford to buy anything.

In the Sforza Castello (this big castle smack dab in the middle of the city) there was a museum dedicated to Michaelangelo and Leonardo DaVinci that was absolutely mind-blowing.  I don't think I've ever seen so many depictions of the Crucifixion in my life.  I wish we had been allowed to take pictures.  It's crazy to think, "that, right there, is an original sketch by Michaelangelo.  I'm literally 2 inches away from it!" And all of the ceilings were painted in these lavish designs...so cool.  The park behind the castle was awesome as well.  There, you could find snack stands, a lake, locals having picnics or playing soccer, (Disney Junior came and put on a show there), playgrounds, and a famous soccer stadium.  Also, lots of little yappy and annoying dogs, which I refrained from punting, because I figured that would be looked down upon.  There was also this pretty sick archway which reminded me of the Arc de Triomphe, and of course I don't remember what this one was called :P

Other highlights:
being attacked by pigeons- in front of the Duomo Cathedral, there are peddelers everywhere just waiting to sneak up on the unsuspecting tourist.  Well, I was standing there taking pictures when all of a sudden someone pushed a bunch of corn into my hand, and what do you know, a whole flock of pigeons come at me like flies to honey (or whatever that expression is).  I was being attacked!  It was terrifying- I have the scratches on my arms to prove it, blech.  And of course then the peddelers say, "20 euro, for bringing the pigeons to you"  What the heck are they thinking?

getting stuck in a bathroom- yeah, in one of the restaurants I got stuck in the bathroom for a good 10 minutes.  There was a person on the other side trying to help me, but of course I couldn't speak Italian.  Good thing I have enormously huge biceps and was able to muscle my way out of that one (not...I had to wait for one of the waiters at the restaurant to wrench open the door. how embarrassing)

chasing away this crazy stalker- we were in a plaza in front of the famous Scala Opera, when this guy aimed his camera in our direction.  Thinking we were in the way of his picture, I grabbed my friend's arm and pulled her aside, saying "we're in the way, he's trying to take a picture."  Except, the creeper ended up following us with his camera!  I moved again, and sure enough, his camera followed us.  After a few rounds of him chasing us with his camera, I finally got fed up and stomped over to where he was standing.  I calmly tried to explain to him that it wasn't normal for people to take pictures of other people, especially when we were obviously trying to avoid it, but of course he only spoke Italian and wouldn't listen.  So, we argued for a couple of minutes until I embarrassed him by causing a scene, grabbing his camera and erasing the TONS (creepy, right?) of pictures of my friend that he had taken, before shoving it back into his hands, grabbing my friend, and running far, far away.  Ugh.

Flooded hostel- so, to save money, we stayed at a youth hostel on the edge of the city.  The accomodations were actually pretty nice; there were nice clean beds and we shared a room with 4-6 other girls.  The last night, however, it was raining pretty hard.  We scurried back to the hostel, up the flight of steps to our room, only to find that the floor was soaking because the two of the other girls (who were passed out sleeping), in an attempt to dry all of their socks and underwear, had hung their clothes from the open window in the ceiling.  Except that when it rained, water poured in everywhere, all over the floor!  Woops, their bad.

Finally, the biggest lesson I learned this weekend was, you get what you pay for.  Also in an attempt to save some cash, my friend and I decided to take a bus to and from Italy instead of a train or a plane.  Well, let me just say, there were so fah-reeeks on the bus with us!  Most notably, a young couple with matching waist-length dreads (dyed hot pink, nonetheless), studded/ripped/baggy clothes, and so many facial piercings I lost count.  Of course when we went through customs, this couple was "randomly" selected to have their bags checked and boyyyyy were they upset.  I guess SOMEONE was smuggling something they weren't supposed to? Tsk tsk.

All in all, it was a good experience.  I found the people there to be a little less patient than in France, probably because neither me or my friend can speak Italian.  I loved the food, the art, the fashion, and the monuments, but it's also true that we ran across some sketchy people (this is our own fault, we really skimped on the cash).  Would I do it again? Absolutely not.  But I'm glad I went once!