Milano, Italia
This was a bit of a surprise. I knew I had a layover in Milano en route to Istanbul, bbut thought it was only a short one. That must have been a different flight I was looking at, because when I rechecked my itinerary a week before leaving, I realized it was 7 hours. So, not wanting to sit in the small Malpensa airport for that long, and wanting to take advantage of the fact that I was in a country I hadn’t been to before, I scoped out what was going on in Milano before I left.
Duomo is the centre of the city, and the main attraction is the cathedral there. I took the Malpensa Express bus (€5,50 each way, 50 minutes) to the central train station, then hopped on the metro (€1) for 4 stops to Duomo. Sure enough, I emerged from the metro with a full-on view of the cathedral. Inside is your typical cathedral stuff… impressive decoration, carving, stained glass, alters, vaulted ceilings, crypts… all very nice and impressive things, but I don’t know if I’d pay to see it. Luckily, it was free. After leaving, I just wandered as I always do… pretty much in circles as I had no map and didn’t want to get lost and miss my next flight. I did find a tourist office eventually, though, and scored myself a map in a booklet of various things going on in July.
Milano is reknowned for its high fashion, and this can be evidenced by all the haughty-taughty stores around. Even the McDonald’s looked like it might be a fine-dining establishment. The Milano women are incredibly beautiful and fashionable, however one particular fashion trend baffled me. The faux-hawk. For those not in the know, the faux-hawk is a fake Mohawk, achieved by pushing the hair in the centre up into a short, mohawk-like state, and leaving the hair on the sides as-is. It’s been a fashion trend amongst various cliques and social groups in America as well, but is still retarded. It’s basically the mullet of the new generation. Just as Barcelona seemed to be the epicenter of mullets, so is Milano os the faux-hawk. And it just continues to perpetuate a long-standing problem… while Italian women can be the idols of fashion, Italian men are just cheesy when they try.
I had forgone getting a coffee in Schiphol because of how overprices it is, and only had some cheap Nescafe on the plane. But if there’s anywhere I should be able to get my fix, Italy should be it. And, with the heat, some Italian gelato also seemed to be in order. So when I happened across a café serving both, I needed to stop. Having been clued in by my friend of Italian heritage, Mara, that it was considered wrong to take coffee with milk after 10.00, it now being 17.30, I went with the straight espresso. Hit the spot.
Now… I had a problem…. My camera had taken a bath in red Bull in Ireland a few months ago, and ceased working. I borrowed a friend’s when I went to Morocco and bought my ex-girlfriend’s old one from her while I was back in the States at the beginning of June. However, it was shitty and was barely working. Luckily, I only gave her $20 for it. Unfortunately, it was operating like a $20 digital camera. I got by with it in France, but still missed a lot of shots I wish I had gotten. And now it was acting up even more. Not having a functional camera in Turkey was not goint to be an option, so I decided I better break down and pick something up while in Milano. I wasn’t looking to spend a lot of money, as a) I didn’t have it, and b) I wanted to wait for a model I really wanted , so I just found the cheapest not-a-total-piece-of-crap I could, and bought the Nikon L10 for €100. We’ll see how it measures up.
I walked some more and took some shots with the new toy, and looked for a bar to kill the remaining hour I had, and my thirst. I found a nice mega-bar serving ½ litres for €3,50 (in retrospect, not a great deal or anything, but compared to Amsterdam prices, this is a bargain), but even better, free tapas! A nice assortment of chips, olives, pickles, peppers, and open-faced sandwiches adorned the bar. Perfect, since I was also hungry.
It was now 18.40, and my Alitalia flight was at 21.00, so I needed to get back on the metro to the train station to catch the bus back to the airport. Next bus left at 19.10, which I figured should be fine, getting me there at 20.10. I checked my bag in Amsterdam so I could do al this pretty hassle free, with minimal security issues re-entering the airport. Damn good thing I did, as there was congestion in traffic, so we didn’t get to the airport til 20.40. I bolted off the bus and through security to make sure they didn’t close the gate. Luckily the flight was already 15 minutes delayed, and actually took off a half hour late, so all was fine. For once, yay for Italian schedule unreliability!
Tags: Europe, Italy, Travel
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