Passportfolio: Passport to Milan

In order to get to Prague from Italy, we needed to fly out of Milan, so we decided to make a trip out of it. Vishal and Forrest's future roommate, Taylor, and his friend Will from UT had been studying abroad all semester in Milan and were excellent hosts! They showed us all around town, and introduced us to the lively night club scene in Milan. After traveling for two weeks, it was such a nice comfort to have old friends and some wonderful hospitality. Because our group was a whomping eight people, we couldn't all fit in Taylor and Will's apartment, so we stayed in the Zebra Hostel instead. After traveling to three different hostels this one finally fit the traditional description of a hostel - I'm talking 24 beds in a room, community showers for about a hundred people, a community game room and lounge, and a do it yourself kitchen. I was loving the experience.... until I discovered that there were mosquitos. Yuck. They ATTACKED us in our sleep, and I even had a bite on my face that lasted for a whole week! I could definitely have had done without. Luckily I made friends with some Canadians who lent me their bug spray, but it could only do so much.....

Even though the mosquitos sucked, I still had some great journeys in Milan. I had a brand new book when I flew out of Austin, but due to much traveling, it was finished before we even arrived in Italy. My Dad suggested Les Miserables, and I happily downloaded it onto my iPhone when we were in Cinque Terre. I began reading and then realized that it was 7000 pages long on my phone. Talk about a marathon. By the time we arrived in Milan I was desperate for the printed version of the book, and so I set out on an adventure to find it. There was a lovely bookstore called American Bookstore that was located by Il Duomo (I know, there are a lot of these in Europe... this one was my favorite though). Also, little did I anticipate, it's extremely difficult to get an english novel in Europe - so this bookstore was a goldmine. I asked the hostel manager how to walk to Il Duomo and I set off with a limited time table, needing to meet everyone that night for dinner. By the time I arrived at the church, I was ready to get there - and I couldn't find it anywhere. It turns out that the store was across from el castello (the castle), rather than Il Duomo. Luckily my italian isn't as awful as my czech and I was able to get some help from various store owners until I finally made my way there. And let me tell you, the place was heaven. It turns out that the printed version of the book isn't much better, for it is 1300 pages long and weighs about 3 pounds, but I still love the print.

I rushed back to the hostel after obtaining my treasure and met everyone for a traditional homestyle pizza dinner at Taylor and Will's favorite spot. It was DELICIOUS. That night we all just hung out and caught up and shared our respective travel stories. Probably my favorite thing about traveling is meeting travelers.

The next day was full of touring as we went to Il Duomo (made it onto the ROOF!) and El Castello. And then, the unthinkable happened. Little did we know when we were planning our trip, but THE POPE was in Milan while we were and was speaking in the town square at 5. We all camped out for a spot and witnessed, in person, the Pope. It was unreal. I still can't believe the luck we had.

Our flight was at 7 am the next morning, so we resolved to pull an all-nighter and enjoy our last night out before arriving in Prague. The basic path of the night was dinner, club, cab at 4:30 am, bus to airport, and finally our flight to Prague. Needless to say, it was a great night, but it set me back MAJORLY on my sleep schedule.

Milan was such a great end to our pre-trip and Prague has been so incredible (with the exception of the rain). At this point I'm about halfway through my summer abroad and can't wait to explore more. Stay tuned for a post from Croatia - we leave tomorrow!