Day of my life

Here it goes, the day of my life, unimpressive, incredibly boring.

8:22 Looked at my phone, too early, back to sleep
9:45 Looked at my phone, too early, back to sleep
11:00 I hear some noise in the kitchen, eyes half open, ah whatever, turn around, back to sleep
11:45 Nature is calling
11:49 Switching on netbook, checking news, emails etc etc
12:56 Wasted time on doing nothing
13:22 Wasted some more time, took laundry and managed to put into the machine AND switch it on
14:15 Realised I am hungry and ordered Pizza
14:45 Pizza arrived
16:00 Some more sleep
18:50 Friends sends me over video of Steve Jobs speech 2005 Stanford University
19:05 Watching  more videos, having more conversations about random videos
19:45 Trying to figure out purpose of live
19:46 Gave up to figure it out and continued to live
20:21 Writing random blog entry instead of inspiration speech on the day of my life

There are not many of those days, but the do exist, the lazy days, the random days, the days of my life.

Ciao Milan

Happy Monday to all of you. I just got back from a weekend break away in Milan. How much I missed the feeling of taking off and the dizzy and light feeling in my head can't be described easily.

After work I was on my way to the Gatwick Airport to take another cheap easyjet flight, this time to Milan. Milan is the second largest city of Italy and the capital of Lombardy. I had been before to Italy (Venice, Verona, Torbole and Limone) and was curious what would expect me here. Once again I arrived with no plans in regards to activities and just hoped to have an amazing time, I didn't get disappointed.

Upon arrival at the Malpensa Airport I took one of the Shuttle buses in front of the Terminal 2 Arrival Area. You can buy the tickets inside or directly from the bus (cash only) and with 10€ one way or 16€ return not too expensive.The trip took around 50 minutes to the Central Stations from where I took the Metro into the City Center - Duomo, where my Hostel was located. Be aware that homeless people will try to help you to get a ticket from the vending machines located on the Underground station from the Metro and will ask for money or take change depending on how much you have put into the vending machine  If you don't want to get hassled just say No and ignore them, they will go away. The machines are really easy to use as you have the option to chose a language and just follow the instructions (one way ticket is 1.50€). For more information check under the section 'Get Around' @ http://wikitravel.org/en/Milan.

Finding your way around Milan is really easy as there are plenty of signs in English.

My hostel 'Ostello Bello' was located just a 8 minute walk away from the Duomo and everything was in walkable Distance around me. The room clean and the service was great, I was welcomed with a snack and drink. If you forget your towel you can borrow one, if you forget your washing lotions you can take some. They pretty much offer everything you might need for free or just a small charge. I really enjoyed my stay here and can only recommend it.

After dumping my bag into the room, I quickly freshened up and headed towards the meeting point for the first night to meet some fellow travelers from Couchsurfing (did I mention I love this site?). We went to the Lato B (you are required to fill in a form for the Fitel Card by law, check Associazione La Freccia - Circolo FITeL), which is small place with a lot of other world travelers that enjoy the best thing in the world - TRAVELLING! So plenty of stories to be heard and told, making new contacts and enjoying a great night in Milan. The city was vibrating and buzzing, everyone was standing in front of heating lamps or around the plenty of squares in the area. 

There are so many places to go to, it is difficult to just have one favorite. I guess you have to be lucky, walk around and just pick one. Plenty of places offer great Aperitivo where one can enjoy fingerfood while having a drink as cheap as 8€.

Waking up the next morning and quickly getting a cappuccino (no Latte in Italy) and went to the meeting point for the next meet up and was hoping at least some people would turn up to explore the city together. It was better than I expected and around 10 people showed up.

Together we enjoyed what Milan had to offer for the next few hours:

Duomo

La Galleria

The Bull in the middle of the Galleria has the story that if you turn around three times with your heel around the bull balls it will bring you luck.

 La Galleria

Leonardo Da Vinci

Piazza Mercanti - Speaking walls

Stand in one corner and talk while the other stands in the opposite corner and listens. Thats just amazing.

Street artist with talent.

Those are actually veggies. I still wonder what he would have done with the carrots

Castello Sforzesco

Nicely decorated in scaffolding

THE COUCHSURFERS

Thanks to everyone for coming out!

Church Santa Maria del Carmine

Panzerotti

It is like a pizza but folded. It was great, but the queue was massive and even longer on the other end.

La Borsa and the middle finger

The most recent and much discussed artwork by maurizio cattelan arrived today in milan's piazza affari, in front of the italian stock exchange building.  The controversial monument is made in marble, about 4 meters high and has been allocated on a base that brings the sculpture to a total height of 11 meters. during the making process, the famed italian artist changed the title from 'omnia munda mundis' - literally meaning 'to the pure [men], all things [are] pure', a latin sentence that has entered a relatively common usage in many countries - to 'L.O.V. E.'

This was followed by a visit to the San Siro Stadium to watch the AC Milan vs. Verona match (get to the station Lotto with the red line and change into the Bus 49). The tickets were pretty cheap with just 20 € and the view not too bad. Luckily Milan won 5 to 1 so the atmosphere was infectious and you could feel and see the passion within every Italian that came to the game.

True backpacker meals. Weird that I actually missed this

Afterwards we headed to the Navigli Quarter (Porta Ticinese) where you find everything you need for a night out and there were a lot of options. I had a yummy cone with ice cream and we strolled along the dried out river through the rain. Observing the Italians and tourists mingle together.  

Then it was bed time.

Next day same game again, but this time with only one other member from CS. It was understandable as it was raining and pretty miserable.

At first I went on top of the roof of the Duomo where I had some nice foggy views over the city and the mystic catches you quickly once you are up there.

We continued to walk aimless through the city and stopped by some museums to check how much they were (minimum 10 €) so we gave it a miss.

Had some totally overpriced lunch near the Duomo, where a coke would cost 4,50 and a covercharge of 2,50 € had to be paid as well. They don't tell you that when you enter the restaurant though. I would recommend to look for the side streets outside the city center for something decent to eat.

Risotto a la Milanese

Corinthian columns at the Basilica di San Lorenzo Maggiore

I wanted to visit as well the Cimitero Monumentale, but it was covered with scaffolding and construction works around. Passing it by bus it didn't seem like you could get in. I was on my way to the airport anyway so I didn't mind.

And then I was on my way back home. So much happened that it didn't feel like just two days at all. I love these little weekends!

Until next time from the next trip (or with random thoughts).

Happy travels to all  :)