This morning we woke up, had breakfast, and started the trek back down to the train station! Luckily this time it was all downhill, so we didn’t have to sweat as much (it was still a lot). It’s just so crazy humid here that any amount of physical exertion has you sweating and it so gross. We made it to the train, took the train back one stop to Levanto, and met the bus there. We got all loaded up on the bus and headed off. I didn’t notice anything wrong, I was busy updated my journal and filling in details that I had left out, but I guess people were getting sick from the way the bus smelled. We pulled off into a gas station/rest stop, and it turns out the bus was broken somehow. So they called for a new bus, but it was going to be 40 minutes. So we crammed all 60 of us essentially into a minimart for 60 minutes while we waited. Meanwhile, a storm rolls in, so it starts pouring rain, with thunder and lightning. After a particularly big crack of thunder, half the lights in the mini mart go out. And theres no sign of the new bus, even though it’s been 40 minutes. Finally the bus arrived, we transfer all of the luggage in the pouring rain (they moved to the gas area so it was as covered as they could get it, it really wasn’t a big deal) and piled on to the new bus. We take off, and the storm just gets stronger, until its dumping sheets of rain and hail, and there is lighting out every window of the bus. It was so incredibly amazing, I loved it! Pretty soon the storm passed and it was no big deal.
We made it to Milan, and the bus dropped us off in the city center. We’re staying in a hotel about an hour outside the city, right next to the airport (for tomorrow), and so the bus was going to pick us back up at 5 in the same spot. We headed off to find food and look for the Milan Duomo. We ended up at this little bistro/café thing, and it was interesting. I couldn’t tell if the server didn’t like us because we only speak English, or if I was just reading the situation wrong, but she didn’t seem to want us there at all. I ordered something that I wasn’t really sure what it was, but it turned out to be zucchini and quinoa falafel, salad, and a huge serving of fresh steamed green beans. It was amazing, and I could’ve eaten three more plates of the green beans.
Then we kept going on to the Duomo! It was incredible. It was interesting to get there, as the streets have clearly recently been blocked off, and there are soldiers with machine guns standing around. I’ve noticed that more frequently in Europe, and it’s odd. It’s not something you see in the US (at least I haven’t), but I guess it works. Once there, the square was insane. It was full of tourists, but there were probably more pigeons than there were tourists, they were everywhere! I have never see so many pigeons in my life. The Duomo was gorgeous. It was so ornate and beautiful, I would have loved to spend more time there.
However, you needed advance tickets to get in, and my friends all don’t see the beauty or enjoyment in standing around a building like that, so we barely spent any time there. Instead, we headed across the street to the mcdonalds because people were still hungry (my joke about getting mcdonalds in every country is becoming more true than I want to admit). Those of us who weren’t hungry ended up getting deserts from the McCafe, because they actually looked really good. I grabbed a few macaroons, and they were so good. Seriously hit the spot.
After that, we started wandering back to where the bus was going to pick us up. We wandered past a store called Decathlon, and it looked interesting, so I wandered in. It was like the target-walmart-ikea mash up of sporting goods stores and I was in heaven. It was a good thing that I a)don’t have very much money and b)need to fit everything in a suitcase home or I would have bought everything in the store. I did end up buying a hammock though! It was small, compact, and super cheap, so I figured why not. Plus now I have a fun story about where I bought my hammock, and I can say I went shopping in Milan.
Then we kept going on to the Duomo! It was incredible. It was interesting to get there, as the streets have clearly recently been blocked off, and there are soldiers with machine guns standing around. I’ve noticed that more frequently in Europe, and it’s odd. It’s not something you see in the US (at least I haven’t), but I guess it works. Once there, the square was insane. It was full of tourists, but there were probably more pigeons than there were tourists, they were everywhere! I have never see so many pigeons in my life. The Duomo was gorgeous. It was so ornate and beautiful, I would have loved to spend more time there.
However, you needed advance tickets to get in, and my friends all don’t see the beauty or enjoyment in standing around a building like that, so we barely spent any time there. Instead, we headed across the street to the mcdonalds because people were still hungry (my joke about getting mcdonalds in every country is becoming more true than I want to admit). Those of us who weren’t hungry ended up getting deserts from the McCafe, because they actually looked really good. I grabbed a few macaroons, and they were so good. Seriously hit the spot.
After that, we started wandering back to where the bus was going to pick us up. We wandered past a store called Decathlon, and it looked interesting, so I wandered in. It was like the target-walmart-ikea mash up of sporting goods stores and I was in heaven. It was a good thing that I a)don’t have very much money and b)need to fit everything in a suitcase home or I would have bought everything in the store. I did end up buying a hammock though! It was small, compact, and super cheap, so I figured why not. Plus now I have a fun story about where I bought my hammock, and I can say I went shopping in Milan.
After the store, I ran off with one of the girls to find a grocery store because she’s vegan and needed food for the night. We literally had to run to make sure we could get to the store, and then back to the bus on time. I was dripping with sweat and it was a little miserable, but we made it back to the meeting spot in time. And then waited, and waited, and waited. The bus, of which the driver had threatened to leave us if we were not all there exactly at 5, didn’t show up until 5:30. It was actually really frustrating, but we survived and off we went to the Holiday Inn Express near the Milan airport. It was nice to be back in a familiar hotel again, with fantastic wifi and big rooms. We found a pizza place near the hotel (because it’s in the middle of nowhere, there’s literally like one pizza place nearby and that’s it) that had interesting reviews on google. One of them said that it was the best pizza they’d had in all of Italy. We debated whether that was sarcastic and something to fear, or if the person had a bad trip, or what, but decided to go because we needed food. Holy cow, the review was the most honest thing I’ve ever read. I split a calzone with one of the girls, and it had mozzarella, artichokes, ham, olives, spicy salami, and tomatoes in it. I could’ve cried, it was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. Who knows why this tiny little pizza place was so good, but it was another life changing meal that I will never forget.
Then it was just a relaxing night at the hotel, catching up on things that needed to be done on the internet and taking a long hot shower!
Then it was just a relaxing night at the hotel, catching up on things that needed to be done on the internet and taking a long hot shower!
DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: 7.14.18
This morning I woke up early so that I could enjoy breakfast without 60 other people also there. I’m definitely looking forward to being home and being able to make my own breakfast, but I’ll miss the omnipresent Nutella that you find in Europe. Then I packed up and headed downstairs to meet the group! It’s a bit of a three ring circus to travel with us right now due to the fact that most of the girls have been shopping everywhere we go, and therefore the luggage has just grown. Quite a few had to purchase another bag yesterday in Milan to be able to get on the flight today with baggage weight limits (spoiler alert, I’m not one of them). But we all got loaded onto an airport shuttle and headed off to the airport! We split into two groups, as we’re on two separate flights. The other group has a layover in Paris, but I have a layover in Amsterdam. The line to get bags checked in was extremely long, and I ended up at the back of it because I was helping one of the other girls in the group as she had a bit of a breakdown. Normally I’d be freaking out, but it was 9am and my flight doesn’t leave until 1pm. Finally got things checked in (and way under the weight limit) and made it to security. The lines were crazy long, but it went so fast because they don’t have anything weird here. Just pull your laptop out and walk through, who cares if you have shoes or a jacket on. Very different from an American TSA experience.
We didn’t have a gate on the boarding pass, so we were checking the screen to see where to go, and an older Iranian woman approached us and just kept saying “Iran, Iran”. She clearly didn’t know where to go, so we helped her look on the screen. I motioned towards my boarding pass and she pulled hers out, and it had the gate listed on it. She clearly was lost and had no idea how to get where to go, so one of the other girls and I walked with her down to the other end of the airport to get to her gate. We reached a point where she had to go through passport control, and we couldn’t go with her. With the help of google translate and motions, we told/showed her where to go and to give her family big hugs when she got back to them. She started crying and gave us both big hugs. I just hope she makes it to her plane and makes it home to her family soon. Right before we left, another person, who was going through passport control as well, approached her speaking Persian, so it seemed as though she would have continued help on the other side.
Then we headed off, but we still didn’t have a gate assignment, so we wandered into a store for a while to window shop, off to a bathroom, and eventually found some other girls from the group who were also just sitting and waiting to figure out where on earth we were even supposed to go. Eventually it got posted and we made it to the gate and then on the plane. It was a quick, hour and a half to our layover in Amsterdam, and then after a two hour layover in Amsterdam, we headed onwards to Copenhagen!
It was fun to land in Denmark, country #8 of the trip! There we met up with the rest of the group (they had been routed through Paris and landed twenty minutes after us) and got on a bus. We drove off to Sweden, country #9! We are staying in Lund, a small little college town, and it may be my favorite place of all of them so far. Our hotel is amazing. It was built in the 1800's, and is the weirdest little maze of rooms and space, but we have a kitchenette in our room, so for once we can have food that is kept cold!
It was fun to land in Denmark, country #8 of the trip! There we met up with the rest of the group (they had been routed through Paris and landed twenty minutes after us) and got on a bus. We drove off to Sweden, country #9! We are staying in Lund, a small little college town, and it may be my favorite place of all of them so far. Our hotel is amazing. It was built in the 1800's, and is the weirdest little maze of rooms and space, but we have a kitchenette in our room, so for once we can have food that is kept cold!
We stopped by a grocery store, but ended up grabbing dinner at a kebab place nearby, and then walking around. It stays light until after 11pm here, and so we wandered to the park and explored while talking to one of the professors about what the plan is for the week. Overall, we've been here for about 6 hours and it might already be my favorite location of the trip.
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