Thursday afternoon came around and I was studying in the library. One of my Italian friends calls me around 3:30. "Are you coming?" Pause. "Where?" Pause. "To Milan." Pause. "ohmygosh. I always get confused between Giovedí (Thursday) and Venerdí (Friday)." Yeah, practically fluent; I don't even know my days of the week!
I hadn't even packed my bags and it takes at least an hour round trip to go to my apartment and back and we had plans to do things the first night. We decided that they should go ahead without me and that one girl who was originally going to take the train later that evening would take my spot in the car and I would take her train ticket. That was great, except the train was leaving in 90minutes.
The gods were with me. I sprinted to the bus stop, and the bus and I got there at the exact same time so I didn't even have to wait for the bus. I just threw my stuff in the suitcase (I knew I would be wearing my purple jacket all weekend, so what does it matter what I wear underneath, right?) and took the bus to the center. In the center, I met up with a friend because we were both taking another bus to the train station (about 15 minutes). We waited, and the bus didn't come. We waited some more, and the bus still didn't come. We switch off between looking at our watch and looking down the street hoping to see the bus come. Finally my friends says that she thinks her dad might be in the area and so she calls him to please take us to the station. Luckily, he was really close, he picks us up, and speeds over to the station. We run to our platform, and get there just in time!
The rest of the trip went beautifully. Milan is huge and more international than the other cities I have been to in Italy. A lot of my Italian friends were saying that Milan wasn't even worth seeing for these reasons. But no matter anyone says, the Duomo is amazing! Except for St. Peter's Basilica, I have never seen a more impressive church. Even though it's so big, there is still a lot of detail in the small things. Then there is also the galleria with all the fancy shops. (Joy, you would be in heaven!) And then almost as an afterthought, our friend who was actually from Milan took us to the castle. A CASTLE!!! How is that an afterthought?! :)
The drive home was much more peaceful than the ride over and I discovered an interesting thing at the gas station. First of all, there are long lines for the gas. (We know what that means- price ceilings! 8) But the price of gas here is so high that there must be something else going on as well.) Then there is someone who pumps your gas for you. I was thinking how nice this was that no one has to get out of the car in the bitter cold to pump the gas, until one of my friends told my to put on my jacket because we were all getting out. What?! Apparently, many Italians get out of their cars while the gas in being pumped in case of dangerous fumes. At first I thought it was my Italian, but I asked them to repeat it 3 times and this is in fact what they said. Not only did I think the danger of poisonous fumes was worth the sure death of freezing outside, but I've also always loved the smell of gasoline (and I like the smell of permanent markers-- yes, I realize I've lost a lot of brain cells in the process). Maybe Italy has different gas, or maybe they just value their brain cells more, but we all got out of the car.
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