One way to the UK?

Sorry – I’ve been so far behind with this blog that I thought I better write something straight away whilst I can still remember some of the things that happened since last Friday!!! I’ll start from the beginning…

Friday afternoon I left work at 1500, rushed home and did a quick 1/2 clothes change (and shoes) and then Mara and I left for Liverpool St Station. We got there on the tube (eventually) and quickly grabbed our Stanstead Express tickets as there was a trian departing in 10 minutes and the next one was about 25-30 minutes later! So we rushed onto the platform, searched for some empty seats and ended up settling for just a normal double at the back of one carriage (instead of 4 seats around a table). The Stanstead Express was a bit dirtier than the one to Gatwick, but anyway! Arrived at Stanstead Airport, walked upstairs, found the Ryan Air desk and we could check in. See — we timed it perfectly to arrive just on time so that we were there the 2 hours before the flight took off and before check ins closed at 1800.

Due to having nothing to do, and not much in the departure area we went thru security with our little plastic bags separate, then put our shoes through security – saw a group of girls going somewhere that all had cow print wellingtons on! They also had some beef thing on their shirts so they must have been sponsored. Anyway… walked thru security into duty free area. Got something to eat – I hadn’t eat anything all day except breaky at half eight, and then after looking around other shops the screen finally showed a departure gate for our flight, so off we went on a small hike to get to the right area. Found the area and waited… and waited… and waited! Then got annoyed when our flight was delayed 2 hours! Karma for laughing at the people who were getting delayed until 11pm or cancelled all together when we were waiting in the check in line! Waiting and waiting… didn’t even have a book to read so we got some crappy magazines and also a group of ladies trying to go on a hen’s weekend kept everyone entertained for a little while (yup, can drink alcohol anywhere over here). Flight finally left…. let me just say, to keep this entry short, that Ryan Air is CRAP! May be cheap, but not professional or efficient. Arrived in Bergamo airport, went on little bus to terminal, walked thru customs (me on short line, mara on long line) and then into a shared cab to the Hostelling International place… which had reserved for us an 8-bed room… with no aircon, and no fan. I mean it was only a sweaty what… like 38 degrees + humidity in the room! What a joke considering we’d come from a cold London. Ugh everyone was just lying on top of their beds – all girls so no one cared who saw what I don’t think!

Left early morning to central Bergamo… not much to see really, and were going to catch train to Milano but it was a 1/2 hour wait, so we headed to touristic informazione and then cought the bus to Milano. There were about 8 people on board – quick hour into Cordona Station in Milano – felt like it was the middle of bloody nowhere! But we learnt over the next 3 days it was useful we knew where it was! It ended up being our second popular stopping off place to the Duomo which came first. Anyway.. Cardona – grabbed a ticket from the informazione desk then had little issues trying to get them to work!!! The metro guard person then showed us the ‘orange box’ for our ‘tourist’ tickets haha. Whatever! Got the Central Stazione, looked and walked around for quite a while looking for our street and Hotel Bernina! Finally found it, after some looser Italian guys drinking had tried to trick Mara that she had dropped something… hmm anyway!

What did we do the first day? Checked into hotel… of course Lift out of order so up to the very top floor – 4th floor and like 7 sets of stairs later!!! Had cold showers to cool down. I don’t mind lefts being out in places, but everytime they’re out we seem to be on or near the top bloody floor of the place!!! Saturday we also got a 48-hour train ticket (ha, no tourists anymore) and went to the Duomo to look at the Duomo (!) and look at all the shops and find the pizza cafe my friend Dion at work told us to eat at! Hmm lots of shops but not much fashion that I liked, and not much I could afford either! SALDI (SALE) was everywhere but still! When you’re talking about a fashion capital of the world the prices are still quite high — especially in the YSL, Versage, Chanel, Guchi shops etc. Not a bad place for window shopping, but can easily become bored as we found out! To stop the boredom we ate Gelati all weekend hahaha and cuz it was bloody hot! I think I must be a little used to the UK weather if I thought 37 degrees was hot – then again at home we’ve got bloody fans and airconditioners!

I can’t remember (or have time to write individually) about the food we had, but it was all really great! This time around I was impressed with what Italy had to offer. We mainly had salads as it was too hot for pizza etc. The first night I ordered muscles and a HUGE plate of the little ones came out! Fresh, just cooked in water and garlic and with a lemon to squeeze over! Yumm! Have photo – will post once I get off phone-camera!

We jumped on a ‘big bus tour of Milano’ to see all the sights in 1.5 hours. Still, was good to know where things are and to see places without having to hike in the heat!Saturday night cuz we were a little bored with Milano already (all we had left to go into was the Duomo but first day we forgot something to cover our shoulders), so we looked up online Milano… and then day trips from Milano and discovered Lake Como!

This leads us to Sunday – what a nice day! Train to Lake Como from Cordona Stazionne took an hour and had airconditioning and then on arrival we saw the water – and green grass and gelati shops! Mmmmmm. We went on a 2.5 hour walk around the sides of the lake gawking at everything and taking photos of big houses just in case one of them turned out to belong to George Clooney! Checked internet when we got back to London and he lives further up the lake than where we were.. oh well! Got random pics of houses in Lake Como now! We walked and walked and then ate some lunch (prosciotto and salami and tomato/mozarella/basil that we shared) then went for another walk to a big fountain and the swimming pool, and then back to grab a gelati and more sunbaking! Funny how Milano seemed to have no bloody pool, yet there was one next to the Lake in Como…. hmm.

I will have to work now! Will write about some of the comments received from sleezy Italiano and Egyptian men (speaking Italian) soon

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 8:50 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.