Hello everyone!
Sorry for my status as M.I.A. on this site. I promise I'm alive and (very) well. After looking back at the calendar I'm blown away that I've now been in this city for two weeks. Or blown away that I'm in this city at all but I'm loving it. So I'm going to attempt to recap what I've been doing for two weeks, and in the future, work on posting more consistently and frequently now that I've got a routine. This recap might involve multiple posts for the purpose of time and making sure pictures actually load so bear with me. Without further ado, here we go.
My day of traveling was a long day and by long day, I mean about a 38 hour day. I left on June 1st at 3am from my hotel room, and after after a lost passport scare..., I flew out of Cincinnati at 6 in the morning. I arrived in Atlanta at 8 in the morning and was supposed to have a flight to JFK in NYC at 6:00. My time in Atlanta started with a Qdoba burrito at 10 in the morning, acceptable because I had then been up for 7 hours so it was my lunchtime despite the stares from other airport-goers and even the burrito rollers at Qdoba. Shameless. Anyways, this layover ended up turning into a 6 hour layover and me, along with the others that had my same flight in New York, panicking about missing our international flight. We took off from the ground in Atlanta at 3:30, made it to JFK at 5:30 and the 10 of us sprinted to the moving sidewalks, to the trolley, and then to the gate making it with about 10 minutes till they started boarding the plane. Though this paragraph is a little boring, it's all to show that it was indeed a long day.
When I finally sat down on the plane I landed in Italy. It was the start of being surrounded by completely Italians. The flight attendants were having difficulty getting the outspoken Italian women to sit in their seats, understand which seats were their correct ones, how to actually put their luggage in the compartment and get their seatbelts buckled so we could take off in a timely manner. At that time, I was wondering what the hell I got myself into. Now, after two weeks here, I understand that the behavior I was seeing is completely normal and now funny to me.
I ended up with a super kind Milanese man sitting next to me. I think he got the sense that I was nervous and started asking why I was going to Italy. When I responded to his Italian saying that I didn't speak Italian, I think he started to get the picture. Over the ride, he continued to talk to me while I had headphones in, in which I would have to pause my movie and then later rewind to get to the part I was at, which didn't seem to bother him and, ultimately, not me either.
On the plane, I enjoyed two terrible Delta meals (Delta you really let me down this time), one movie, about 20 minutes of cumulative sleep (no bueno/non bene), and several good tips from the man next to me about where to go and what to do while I'm in Italy. When we got off the plane he told me good luck and that I was going to have a great time. After 7 hours on a flight and over 24 hours already traveling I was not buying it.
I got off the plane at 8am Milano time, saw that I had a $300 charge already billed from ATT from solely landing in another country, navigated Italian signs until I got to the longest customs line I've ever seen, picked up my luggage and then kicked into panic mode when my credit card was locked and I had $12 US dollars in my pocket. I attempted to call my bank forgetting that it was precisely 2:00 in the morning until I scoured around the airport and found a "cash machine" that allowed me to withdrawal my money. I used my first 40euro to buy an Italian sim card (which long-story short I haven't had to use yet because ATT was being somewhat helpful) and bought my ticket from the airport train station. It was here that I figured out that "binario" means platform and I got to the train just as it was about to leave from the station.
My train ride was fairly view-less and I overheard a group of Italian women talking (in Italian which gave me a little confidence about my skills) about the Caitlyn Jenner magazine cover and another Italian business man complaining on the phone. I got to the Central Station and was already in awe of the sheer massiveness. You can feel the bustle of the city in that train station. I walked with my two bags of luggage, getting tons of stares with two bags instead of one, tried to find "armarios", which is the Spanish word for lockers, with no success for the solely Italian speaking workers, because my hostel room did not open until 12pm. (I've come to find that I know more Spanish than I realized and this Spanish will come out when I'm trying to speak to Italians. It's about a 50% chance that they understand what I'm saying). I decided to go ahead and head over there anyways so I got a taxi and got my first glimpse of Italian driving.
To get straight to the point, I thought I was going to die. For a road designed to be two "lanes" there were three cars cramming to fit each on the left and the right side of the white line that used more for suggestion than anything. About the only two rules they abide by are to stop at red lights and try not to hit the pedestrians. Vespas are fair game. This kind gentleman dropped me off at the corner of a street, gave me my bags and then took off. Real nice. (Are you getting the picture that my 36 hours was a bit of a hectic whirlwind?) I had no idea where I was but luckily found myself about 4 blocks away from my hostel and myself and my two bags rang the doorbell outside and walked in.
The hostel was actually really nice and the two asian kids behind the counter (I now know that I was staying in Italian China-town) happily checked me in early. She was super excited to find out that I was America, which was apparently very clear, and she put me in a double room that was open despite the fact I bought a single room. A room all to myself was exactly what I needed. It was the best feeling to lay on those two twin beds pushed together after a long and hectic day. I stayed in the room for a bit and tried to get ahold of ATT to unlock my phone for the new sim card (again realizing it was now only 4 in the morning in the states and I'm pretty sure the kids behind the desk thought I died. I finally got up, put on my new Supergas, "the Italian peoples' shoes" which now show the signs of constant walking and public transportation, and did some in-depth research on the Milan metro system. I've come to learn that the Milan public transportation system is one of the best in Europe and it is absolutely fantastic. There is no real reason to own a car in this city and you can get pretty much anywhere you would like to go by foot, bike-rental, car-sharing, tram, bus, metro and train. Go Milan.
I got on the yellow track and headed to the Duomo. When I was climbing up from the metro underground onto Piazza Duomo, the massive Duomo was opening up before me and it was incredible. I walked around the Piazza and also got my first glimpse of the insane amount of pigeons and the insane amount of soliciters trying to sell me bracelets, selfie-sticks and anything else you can imagine. I took a walk through the Gallerie Vittorio Emanuele II, which is absolutely amazing. I walked into the intersection of Prada, Versace and Louis Vuitton and knew I was in the fashion capital of the world. I took a stroll around a few of the blocks and decided that my initial plan to climb to the top of the Duomo was not going to happen today. I went to a caffe and had my first experience ordering, which involves first buying a sandwich and then handing your receipt to get your sandwich. Ended up explaining the wrong sandwich to the cashier but did manage to ask for it "caldo" and got my first hot panini. I picked at my sandwich at the stand-up counter, very common here as people apparently have 0 time to sit and enjoy a panini or a coffee (will explain their coffee shops later) and stared through the window at the Piazza watching the people.
I got back on the metro and headed to my hostel around 2:00 in the afternoon and I was asleep by 6:00. I woke up around 12 completely confused about where I was, what time it was and struggled to fall asleep again. This gave me a good amount of time to call ATT and get my phone straightened out. Figure out my route to my apartment the next morning and finally fall back to sleep.
So there we go. Day 1!
