Milan Day Trip, 06/09/2013

Once again, hello.

So on an overcast Sunday last week, I decided to finally make the trip into Milan, the nearest major city to the airport I'm cooped up in. The main motivation for heading out was nothing other than sheer boredom in my room. Since this place is literally connected to the airport there is NOTHING worth seeing within a 3km radius of where I am sitting right now. I want to get out and see things, but I had been largely hesitant to go places since I would be going by myself. As I expected, being a tourist alone is much different than exploring with friends and family.

Anyhow, I wake up late after working Saturday (around 10:00) and laze out of bed and prepare for the day. The other great thing about my location is that I have a train 20 feet from the hotel, making Milan a quick nap away. A "quick nap" is the only unit of measurement I have to reference the trip, since I slept each way.

The train ends and I leave the station. The hazy fog of sleep finally wears off and I realize I am in Milan, and I have no idea where I am. No map. No reference point. No prior research made going on the train. I whip out my handy-dandy iPhone to load up a map. Cannot connect to a server, but I can still access Twitter, Facebook, and email with a charm. So I had to use my cub scouts orienteering which I am never good at (for reference, I tried to take I-95 SOUTH to try to get to the Granite Run Mall before). I happen onto a large map on a street corner and find out I am a block away from Castello Sforzesco (Photo below not by me, I am not that skilled):

 

 

Its pretty amazing, and from my brief look into where to go before I left for Europe, this was one of the three things I wanted to see in the city. Score! But there is a good reason why I do not have pictures of my own for this beautifully restored 14th century castle. Walking inside, I was quickly identified as a tourist (my generally confused look certainly didn't help, along with the backpack and camera I had) and was ambushed by the wonderful peddlers found across Milan. I had no idea this was a common occurrence in the city, and being alone, I was happy to see a smiling face walking towards me. I was able to socialize with him for a little before he shakes my hand after exchanging names and then puts a piece of yarn on my hand. "It's for good luck, from Africa," he tells me, tying it tightly to my wrist. He then explains that since he gave me a wristband I should "...give money for Africa." Some others head over and begin huddling around. I decide to throw some money his way and get out. Less than 10 minutes in the city I was targeted and schemed into giving my money out to people for no good reason.

 

Leaving the castle I stretched the sleeve of my coat over my arm as much as possible. This yarn-band or whatever was not only my shame, it was my cue to everyone that I am the patsy that falls for anything. I head down via Dante towards the famous Duomo di Milano, finding plenty more yarn peddlers along the way. Some are much more persistent than others, and I eventually resorted to showing my shame-wrist and telling him "I've already got plenty of luck, buddy" to get him to back off. I finally make it to Piazza Dumo and find this:

 

 

It was truly amazing. Construction for the cathedral began in 1386 which makes the scale and intricacy of this building astounding. There has been plenty of restoration and additions made over the 400+ years this has existed, but the giant columns inside show how grandiose it was even upon its completion:

 

 

 

If you are ever in Milan, religious or not, this is a mandatory stop. There's plenty to places to eat just outside in the piazza, as well as fulfilling the social habit of people watching, since this area is always mobbed. The other good reason to visit the Duomo is due to what's right next door, Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II, the world's oldest shopping mall:

 

 The gigantic arched entrance

 

 Yep, the inside is a big glass ceiling

 

 Not to mention art all along the ceiling

 

The center domed area branches out in four directions

 

It may be hard to see in the photos, but all the prominent fashion retailers are there. Prada, Louis Vuitton, you name it. There are also very fancy -- and of course expensive -- restaurants dispersed among the four humongous hallways. I of course did not go in any of them, since I do not care for high fashion and I did not feel like paying over 40 euros for a meal. It was amazing enough to go inside, take some pictures, look at the store displays, see others experiencing the location the same as me, and generally soaking in this culture attacking my senses.

 

By this time, it was getting later in the afternoon, and a storm was expected to run through the area around dinner time (and boy was it a big one, a lightning strike that night sounded like an explosion from my room). I hoofed it back to the train station and took another trip to slumberland on my voyage home. It was an excellent first trip, all in all. It was close by, I was given a quick lesson on people trying to make a quick buck off of visitors, and I got to see everything I wanted to see before heading home. There was still that missing element of experiencing with someone else, which I found to be a big part of travelling on this excursion. When there is nobody with you to react with from the sights, parts of you wonder what you may have missed. Maybe that's just me, but I think Milan could only get better when with another person to enjoy the sights.



Due to High Expectations... I Am Providing Needles for Your Balloons

Even in the relatively short amount of time I have been here -- roughly three weeks now -- I have developed a rather consistent daily schedule I am living by. This may come as a shock but even though I am living in Italy I have a responsibility here. One that will always take precedence. My company did not put me on assignment to let me peruse Europe on their dime, although I will be doing all that I can to make the most of the time I have here. So here is my daily routine for you all to deflate your enthusiasm with:

06:30-07:00: Wake up, shower, shave, etc.

07:00-07:30: Eat breakfast, check emails from friends/family, catch up with news

07:30-08:00: Drive into work (see below)



My commute

The commute takes me through 11 roundabouts and 3 traffic lights. Roundabouts are fierce when everyone wants to move as fast as their car allows.



My hot ride, Volvo V40


08:00-13:00: Working

13:00-13:30: Lunch

13:30-15:00: Working

15:00-15:15: Head to the bathroom and meet my friend:

He's always right where I left him

No, there's no tricks here. The toilets are ceramic holes in the ground. As they say, "When in Rome Vergiate, Do The Dew™ as the Romans Vergatians(?) do." All I have to say is don't knock it 'til you try it, not that bad honestly.

15:15-19:00: Working

19:00-19:30: Drive home

19:30-24:00: Eat dinner, catch up with people in US, learn Italian, learn about programming, blog, play video games, and watch youtube videos. I can't do all of the above in one night, but most times it's a mix of 2-3 of those things.

Then I sleep.

The end.

For Starters...

Change. Sometimes we are helpless to disrupt its path, regardless of how much we try to hinder it. However, just like time, change can be for better or worse, and that is controlled by our interpretation.

I'm starting with the discussion of change for the first post in this blog since that is something I have been dealing with a lot lately, both in changes to my life as well as many of my friends. First -- since I am the most important -- I will go over my changes, and why I'm starting this venture. My job just recently presented me with a very interesting proposal: a short term (five month) assignment to Italy. This was an opportunity was something I couldn't pass on, regardless of how much effort would be required on my part to make this a reality. The problem is that I am still quite young (25) to be taking a position abroad in my company. Most of my coworkers that travel frequently are over 40, with plenty of experience to support themselves. I, however, am the new kid on the block, and there are plenty of challenges ahead to prove my worth. The other challenge was that I needed to leave about a week after I was given the official clearance to travel, which turned out to be much more dramatic than I had expected.

The packing was relatively easy for me, since I am usually the one of my friends and family to go light on supplies for trips. What I had not prepared for, was saying goodbye to many of my friends. Since graduating from college a few friends had spread out across the US. These departures were fed piecewise so plenty of time was allotted to prepare and properly send them on their way. My trip did not allow such comfort for three close friends, all of which will be gone before I return. This is my one heavy regret from taking this job.

But when placed in the proper perspective, this should be seen as an exceptional time for all of us. We are all moving on in pursuit of our dreams, to find something new and exciting, to find what we want to do with our lives. There's no room to stay remorseful. We simply need to embrace the change and hope for the best. So I'll end this with a ceremonial "pouring one out for my homies". I wish the best of luck to all of you on your future adventures, Dan, Rich, and Laura, and I am lucky to have you all as friends.

 

Now that I've gotten that introspective garbage off my chest, lets talk about the trip so far. My flight over was business class on British Airways, Philadelphia -> Heathrow, England -> Malpensa, Italy. Both flights were very nice, even though I barely slept on either. I had plenty of accommodations to allow me to sleep, but a mix of unbridled anxiousness and crippling stress kept me awake. I ended up spending most of the time trying to sleep, and outside that I played sudoku and checked the flight plan. With about an hour left on the flight to Heathrow, I noticed I could have watched the entire third season of The Walking Dead, which could have brought me up to speed with all my friends, but it was too late AND I couldn't leave without listening to Now That's What I Call a Wedding. After the flights it was a quick trip over to my hotel, since it is connected to the Malpensa airport. The Sheraton is a very fancy place to stay, considering the standard fare three star hotels I've grown accustomed to in my life. See my room below:

 

 

I immediately took a shower upon entering the room, seeing that it had been well over 24 hours since I last had one and I could not show my face in public unless my stank had been addressed. I unfortunately did not know the grout connecting the tiles around the shower basin had eroded and left an easy path to the bathroom floor. After my 20 minute cleaning I stepped on one of the tiles and noticed it made a spongy, squishing noise. It was odd, but I did not think much of it until I opened the fogged glass door and saw about a gallon of water creeping its way into the carpeted bedroom. I quickly grabbed a towel and began soaking up the escaped pool of shower water before remembering that I'm part of the problem since I had not dried myself off yet. Needless to say, I felt kind of stupid for a while after that, which is a feeling I'm used to. Some thing don't change.

That's about all I have in terms of my trip thus far. Today I will be heading to Milan for a day trip, and will be reporting back with plenty of pictures and stories to share.