Day 29 – Venice/Milan

When we woke up, the girls had already left and it was just the two of us left. If you can remember, when we visited Venice, the campsite had apparently only charged us for half of what we expected. Last night when the other girls paid, we realised that they had just given us half of the bill and it was normal price – regardless, we payed our share this morning before hopping on a bus to take us to the train station. Although we were only here for 2 days really, we had seen as much as we could, or as much as we could afford.

Again, I had to purchase full train tickets today as my replacement wouldn’t be arriving for another few days in Milan. To make sure that we were sitting together, instead of the machines that we had used since knowing how to work them in Rome, we visited the ticket office to make sure we could be together (and to get a receipt for how much I paid for the ticket). For the second time, it wasn’t as expensive as I thought.

As you may remember, I lost, misplaced or had my interrail passes stolen, probably in Florence if anywhere, and the landlord said that both her and the cleaner had found nothing in the flat. Well… on the train my phone lit up with a picture message from the landlord lady – “Look what we found!!!! Is this what you lost? :)”. Yes, they found my interrail pass and showed me a picture for proof, exactly where I had told them to look – behind the bed!. Although you would imagine my relief, I was much more angry at the fact that she had only told me this now (probably only looked for it now as well) and that she had the cheek to send me a smiley face.

I rang my mum with the news and she too was annoyed, but happy at the same time. I suppose that I it felt good knowing that I was right and it was where I thought it was be – both in the right city and in the right place in the flat. Maybe I should be a detective or something? I had already bought a new one though, so what do I do now? I read my 4th book of the trip and promised to sort out this whole mess in Milan, no point trying to do anything on this train.

In Milan, we were staying with a good friend of mine, Calvin, who attended the same school as me. He greeted us at the train station and asked us about our trip, whilst I asked about his studies, as he studies medicine in Milan University, albeit taught in English. He directed us to the tram stop and then he admitted that he forgot to get us tickets and the machine was miles away. He didn’t seem to care too much and said that it will be fine, it’s just one trip on the tram. However, he didn’t sit down as he likes to stand and keep and eye out for any inspectors at the next stop.

Without any inspections, we arrived at his apartment and met his Polish flatmate. Calvin had made us spaghetti carbonara and taught us the proper Italian way to make it, whilst we talked to his flatmate about Poland, food, university and how both of them hitchhike around Europe if they travel to concerts, or back home in the Polish flatmate’s case.

We didn’t want to do much today because we knew we would be here for several days and wanted to spread everything out over those couple of days. We literally sat around and worked out what we would do for a long period of time, as well as sorted out my interrail tickets and booking Expo tickets for tomorrow. I had decided to forget about my lost/now found tickets and use my new one.

We decided to go out for dinner to an aperitivo restaurant and our Polish friend would meet us there later. Calvin had picked up a remarkably good accent and a large vocabulary of Italian words. He said that he didn’t but when he could say to the waiter to wait 5 minutes for his friend and other things in perfect Italian, we knew he was just being modest. This time, they had only a menu for drinks and it was €10 for a cocktails and an all-you-can-eat buffet, and I emphasise that point. They had everything from pizza, curry, chips and chicken, salad, lasagne, pasta and even chocolate Nutella with some brownie dessert. We all went up and down several times and by the end, none of us could move. We had literally filled ourselves up to the point that we were rolling out of our seats.

We left to see a square, that Calvin called the party square where all the university students hang out. Unfortunately, tonight wasn’t a big party night and so it was reasonably empty. We bought our two hosts dinner and so they insisted on buying us drinks – our Polish friend bought my girlfriend beer. She doesn’t like beer but instead of being rude, she just made sure that she was topping up my cup every time I sat it down. At the square, we watched this family who had brought their children as well and they were running riot around everyone. Inevitably, the young boy had knocked over and broken someone’s glass and the father had given off to him in front of everyone, then took him home.

As we made our way to the tram stop, we saw the cathedral at night time and it looked remarkable with the lights shining up the spires. We also saw some other places but knew we would have to see them all during the day. Waiting at the tram stop were the inspectors – 3 of them, one for each door to block people getting off. The first tram came and went, as did the second and third. It was only us and the inspectors and they must have caught on why weren’t getting on any of these trams. We were waiting for them to get on so we could get on the next one behind it.

Finally they got on a tram, and we boarded the next one that just happened to be the right one to leave us right outside the flat. It was so risky to use the trams and buses this way but it was strangely exciting to always keep an eye out and be ready to get off if we see any. Calvin did get caught once as he saw them at the stop, got off the tram and got on the next one that came along. Little did he know that the inspectors like to do that too and at the next stop, they changed trams and unfortunately Calvin was in a tram with only one other person. It was a €30 fine I think but he was more annoyed that he was caught. I should emphasise that he doesn’t always do this, only when he is here for a few days or for a while during exams, when there is no need to buy a monthly ticket.

That night we all slept like babies, still struggling with the amount of food we had in our stomachs. For the price, it was so worth it, but maybe next time we might take a couple of hours to get through it. Hopefully we will all deflate in the morning.