On and on and on.... we are now in Milan

CHOO CHOO!!

Off on another adventure - and this one's by train!
CHOO CHOO!

April and I arrived in Milan on Friday, April 24, 2009 around 1pm... with plenty of time to kill before we are to meet up with our couchsurfing host, Matt. So, out and about we went... to stroll the streets of Milan without a clue (as per usual).

Knowing very well that Milan itself is not a very popular tourist destination, we weren't really expecting much. April had written down a few sights to see, but our goals for the visit were a little different. We wandered with our packs for about 3 hours... from visiting the Duomo church, to the Giardini Pubblica - we saw it all haha. No, literally that was all we saw! On the way into the park, we passed through this castle-ish thing, and inside the moat we saw a cat. This was cat the first of our journey - with many more to come. It turned out that cats are NOT good luck.

Duomo church on the left, the evil cat that started it all on the right

Inside the garden (giardini), there were numerous Italian couples.... we're in Italy, so I can let you imagine what we saw going on. We had a lovely stroll and used the immaculate toilet facilities that were provided - don't forget to bring your own TP! :)

Classiest toilets in all of Milan - hey, at least we didn't have to pay for them!

By the time we had seen it all, it was about 5:30/6pm and we had to head out to meet Matt. Matt lives in a small suburb of Milan - about 7km from the city's centre - on a dairy farm! We hopped on the metro and then on the bus - ready for Matt to greet us at a gas station. Expecting some dude in a car to show up, we are kinda creeped out by this guy that says hi to us on a bicycle... turns out, that's HIM! Hahaha - oops! Only now realizing that the farm is right behind the gas station, we stroll the 5 mins to his apartment.

We got a tour of the dairy farm - chickens, chicks, a pony, a donkey, cows, calves, an angry bull, and a 3-legged dog later, we are back inside cooking dinner and preparing for our adventurous Saturday.

Apes 'n Ju with baby cows!

One big problem arose - turns out that April 25 is a national holiday and pretty much everything is closed down.. along with limited public transit. After some quick deciphering, we find that the best thing to do is to walk to the nearest train station (6km away) to catch our train to Cossato - where we need to be by noon so we could make our appointment at 1pm. So Apes 'n I head out at 8am on our 1.5hr hike to a small town called Rho. Once we got there, however, we had no clue where the station was! After a little jogging and talking to the locals we finally made it with barely any time to spare.

Cossato

We arrived around 10:30am - just enough time to head to the grocery store, get some food for lunch and then march the 10km to where we needed to be. Luckily the grocery store was open (for the morning anyway), so we purchased enough food for lunch and dinner that day. So, like I said, we were going to walk 10km to get to our appointment, but after talking with a clerk at the store, we realized where we needed to be was actually 25km away - yah, we're not hiking that thanks! By now, it was 11:30 - so we ate our lunch til around noon and decided that we would call a cab. Just to reiterate: the town of Cossato is very small.... it's a Saturday...AND it's a national holiday... you do the math. Needless to say, it was quite a feat... 1. Trying to reach a cab company on the phone. 2. Trying to speak Italian (when you don't know the language) to a cab company on the phone 3. Trying to get another Italian-speaking person to speak to a cab company on the phone.

April unimpressed by our 4 hour hiatus in Cossato

By now it's 1pm, our appointment time has passed and we have no cab. We call our "appointment" and after another hour of calling back and forth, they tell us that a cab is on the way. 30 minutes pass and a kind sir shows up and takes us where we needed to be - 50€ later that is. Boo.

We ended up waiting about another 2 hours before it was our turn to go... to go where you may ask? Well, see for yourself:

All that hassle just for that!! Hahaha... what an experience though! Phew! April claims that mine was more of a fall than a jump, but I beg to differ... the photos prove that it was the other way around.

Jump or fall? Okay, I think we both fell.... let's check out the video replay

We luckily made it back in time to catch the next train to Milan at 7:15pm, and ate our glorious sandwiches on the train. Getting back to Matt's place turned to be a difficult task since the bus we needed changes stops depending on the day.. and well, we ended up at the wrong one (obviously) based on instructions from our host. Thankfully we had our cell phone and Matt had the Internet.... and well, we got home.... eventually, and basically went to bed to gear up for a football-filled Sunday.

Sunday... if the name of this day couldn't be more opposite....

You've all heard that David Beckham was on loan to AC Milan for the remainder of the season right? SO DID WE.... and who so happened to be playing on Sunday? You guesssed it!! Our mission for Sunday - AC Milan vs. Palermo football game at San Siro Stadium! Woot woot. Too bad it poured rain literally ALL DAY. Blegh. The walk to the game (an hour) was a cold and wet one indeed, but we made it!! Now if only Eurpeans knew how to queue properly... then there wouldn't have been such a disgusting mob at the ticket counter full of cigarette-toting, beer-drinking fans. Boo!

San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy - oh and David Beckham's bottom!

AC Milan ended up winning the match 3-0... and we ended up getting our glance at Becks - yes Amber, you are jealous.

After the match, Apes 'n I headed down to the canal area for some dinner... and YES it was still raining. The restaurant that looked appealing did not take credit cards, so it was our mission to find an ATM. It only took 45 minutes - that's quick in European time haha - ya right! Back to dinner - it was a lovely meal, with lovely wine, and lovely homemade gnocco fritto - not gnocchi, gnocco. Look it up!

Gnocco Fritto!

Encountering yet ANOTHER bus problem - the 10pm bus never showed up!! AH! We had to wait an hour at the bus station for the next one! Finally one shows up, we wait around a bit.. watch a gang come on the bus and try to start a fight with this guy in a pink shirt....bus driver finally notices and kicks them off... and ahhhhh we're headed back to the farm for a good night's sleep before heading off to Venice the next day! No big deal.