Stuck in Milan

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  Milan, Italy
Saturday, July 19, 2008

While everyone else was showering, I made a multi-hour attempt to get my photos downloaded onto the computer and then uploaded onto Facebook, only to have it fail miserably.  At which point I gave up, and went to take a shower myself.  Since we weren't ready to head out until around midnight or so, Scott, Andrew, and I weren't
able to coerce Buck and David into coming out since they had to be up
and out the door at 5am.  So Scott, Andrew, and I left Buck and David to pass out of the couches, while we went in search of some Friday night fun in Milan.  We ended up at the place for which we were quite under-dressed (got to love the fashion capital of Italy!), but which had the most incredible mojitos.  Not only did these things taste incredible but they were STRONG!!  After two drinks, the guys both needed to sit down due to the strength of the mojitos.  Scott and I, realizing how drunk we all were, how late it was, and having gotten bored showing each other photos while Andrew talked with some cute but really tiny Italian woman, were able to get Andrew to agree to leave.  I sadly can't remember for the life of me what we were talking about on the way back, but I know I didn't stop laughing and made the comment of "that needs to go into the blog" at least twice!

Once home, we ate leftovers, had some limoncello, and launched into some serious discussion about life and relationships.  Scott disappeared to deal with his 80 mg of email, and Andrew and I ended up having that night of drunken conversation that I eventually have with all of my closest friends, where they get caught up on the serious emotional shit in my life.  Not surprising because it was Andrew, I still ended up finishing the evening laughing.  Scott came back from emailing and at this point we realized it was 4:30am, when we thought Buck and David
needed to get up.  Scott and Andrew launched into some serious
clapping, and after successfully waking them up, they informed us that
they didn't need to get up for another 30 min.  So we said goodnight and goodbye, since we wouldn't see them in the morning and Scott headed to the laundry room (his bedroom for the night since it has pullout bed) to call his girlfriend Stephanie and then go to bed.  Andrew and I made a feeble attempt to clean up and then headed to bed ourselves.


The plan had been to wake up early enough in the morning to see the city, but since the guys both wanted "another 30 minutes" and I was already up, I spent some time re-researching Andrew and my travel plans to Barcelona and realized that we should be getting to the train station as soon as possible to get things squared away, rather than waiting until later in the day.  I also found out that the one thing I really wanted to see in Milan, da Vinci's original painting of the The Last Supper, needed a prior reservation made to go see it, so that was out.  So Scott, Andrew, and I packed up our stuff and tidied the house and Andrew and I headed out to the train station while Scott went in search of things to see in Milan before he had to head out to Pisa later in the day.

From here things get crappy.  Andrew and I get to the train station and after waiting in one line for about 20 minutes, are told that since we have a Eurail pass, they can't help us and we are sent to another line.  We wait in this line for a full hour, only to get up to the window, tell the guy we are trying to get to Barcelona, have him tell us its not possible until Monday, and then send us to the Information Office, unwilling to discuss the matter any further.  Thankfully there was no line at the Info Office and the guy there was nice, even remarking on Andrew's height (the common icebreaker).  He printed out a bunch of local train options and then told us that he couldn't print tickets there and we had to go back to wait in the International Tickets line, the one we had just been in.  After literally another hour in line, we get up to the counter with all of our train options, only to be told that everything was either full, or at least full to Eurail tickets and we would have to pay full price of the actual ticket (crazy expensive).  We also couldn't even book the whole trip through and were going to be left in places were, assuming the trains arrived on time, we would have about 30 min to get off the train, find a ticket booth, get through the line, get the tickets to our next destination, and then get on the train before it left.  Yeah right!  I should mention that throughout all of this time at the train station, we kept running into other people having the same issues.  Not only are the people working at the station for the most part completely uninterested in even trying to help, they won't discuss multiple options with you and basically every train is booked solid.  I am starting to think that they just don't let people leave Milan!!  We got so frustrated that Andrew even went to see how much it would cost to rent a car.  (I think the drop-off fee alone was €1000!)

At our breaking point, and literally being left without a single possible solution by train (even with 4-5 changes and being willing to travel all day and all night), we threw our hands up and decided to head back to the apt in Milan to try to find a flight.  Luckily for us, we had somewhere to head back to.  Aside from being tired from lack of sleep, and completely frustrated with both Milan, the entire train station, and Eurail pass in general, my chest and knees were both throbbing.  We got to the apartment and I immediately passed out on the couch.  Andrew really stepped up and while I slept, he researched flights, found the cheapest one, and bought our tickets.  We are now headed on an Iberia flight tomorrow morning to Barcelona.  So much for the stupid Eurail pass we bought!  I think we will certainly be heading to the train station in Barcelona on Sunday to at least purchase our tickets for the rest of our trips in Spain.  Its just too bad we didn't just plan to fly from the beginning because then we could have spent the day hanging out with Scott, instead of him needing to bum around alone, and I could have actually gotten to see Milan.

After my nap, and finally coming to some conclusion about tomorrow, Andrew and I headed to the market and bought food for dinner.  We made a great dinner of chicken, pasta, fresh mozzarella, and fresh tomato with a lemon butter sauce and had a couple glasses of Pinot Grigio.  Finally relaxed, Andrew is not napping on the couch while I bog.  Hopefully tonight we can find a fun chill place to hang out and then tomorrow we will be up at 6am to head to the airport.  Once in Barcelona, we will be meeting up with my friend Edie who will be joining us for the Barcelona, Seville, and Madrid leg of our trip.

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