Milan, Martina, and Marissa: here I come! Thursday after class, I packed up all my stuff for the weekend and Kyle, Chris, Nick and I headed to the train station to catch the train to Brussels Charleroi Airport to
begin our Italian adventure. And the trip to Milan was quite a stressful adventure. Once we got to the Maastricht train station, things started going wrong. First of all, it’s important to note that we left The Guesthouse at 3pm for a 7:20pm flight. We should not have had an issue, but we also should have checked the train schedule before we left.The first thing that went wrong was that we arrived at the train station at about 3:15. The last train heading to Belgium had just left at 3:09. So now we had to wait until 4:09 for the next train. We get on the train at 4:09 and as we get off the train in Liege to catch our connection we see the name of our train on the screen but the train is nowhere to be found. It left the station just a minute early or else the clock in the station was a minute slow, but either way we missed it. Now there wasn’t going to be another train going straight to Charleroi until way past the time we had to check in. (On Ryan Air, they close check in for any given flight 40 minutes prior to takeoff—even if you’re not checking luggage. Damn those discounting fools.) So we asked this French-Asian-Belgian train conductor what we should do and we thought he told us to take the next train to Namur and then go to Charleroi from there. We were now cutting it so outrageously close that we were in serious danger of missing our flight altogether. We just had to hope that we would get into Namur and be able to jump right on the train to Charleroi because we knew there was also a shuttle situation from the Charleroi train station to the Charleroi airport. We got on the train to Namur and this really nice Belgian girl who spoke English assured us that we were indeed on the correct path to get to the airport. When we got to Namur we ran to the screen to see where the next train to Charleroi was going to be and learned that it had just left five minutes before. Unbelievable! At this point it was either cut our losses and go back to Maastricht with our tails between our legs having missed our flight and eaten 100 euro or take a chance on an incredibly expensive cab ride to the airport. We had no idea how far the airport was, but we figured that between the four of us, the cab ride wouldn’t be too awful. Plus, we weren’t ready to give up on our trip just yet. Luckily the cab ride wasn’t awful. It ended up being a little over 60 euro, and we made it to the airport just in time to check in (ten minutes to spare even!). We figured out the gate situation in this incredibly crazy airport and boarded the plane where I immediately passed out in my seat before we even took off. (What can I say? I was stressed. Sleep is my escape mechanism…) I woke up in Milan an hour and a half later and stumbled down the stairs from the plane onto the tarmac. (yes, the tarmac…) We made it to the shuttle and then to Milan without too much trouble and Marissa met us at the Central Station. It was SO great to see her. ☺
After we dropped our stuff off at Marissa’s apartment, we went to Bar Magenta to have some dinner. Thursda
ys are Coyote Ugly at that bar, and so there was a couple of girls and an effeminate man dancing on the bar. It wasn’t actually all that Coyote-Ugly-ish. After dinner, we went for our first gelato (the first of MANY) at Milan’s best gelato spot, Chocolat. Gelato. Is. The. Most. Incredible. Thing. It’s like ice cream but a thousand times better. But I’m getting ahead of myself. On the way to Chocolat, we finally met up with Martina! It was SO crazy to see her. I think it had been five years since she was in The States, and it was just amazing to hang out with her again. It was like no time had passed at all. After Gelato, Marissa went home because she had class in the morning, and Martina showed us around the city.
She showed us the castle, which is amazing. It’s lite
rally a castle, complete with moat. Well, it’s a non-operational moat currently, but it’s definitely a moat. So cool. We saw the Duomo, which is the third largest church in the world. It’s so beautiful. Martina said that they had just finished doing some upkeep on it and that it had been covered for three years. I’m so glad I got to see it. It’s gorgeous. Martina showed us some outrageously expensive shops (it is Milan after all) and then we hit a late night pizza place before we headed back to Marissa’s for the night.The next day we slept in a bit, and then went for a walk with Marissa. We went down to the castle to see it in the day and had our first taste of sunlight in a while. I didn’t realize how much I missed the sun here in rainy Maastricht! The castle actually has a huge park inside it and behind it, so we walked around there for a while and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.
Friday night, we enjoyed a few bottles of wine and then headed out to an
apperativo (not sure that’s spelled correctly) at a really fancy place called Noon. I’ve never seen so many fancy cars in one place as I saw parked outside this joint. Apperativo is where you pay 8 euro for one drink and all you can eat from the buffet. Can you say heck yes? After Noon, we went to a club called Alcatraz that was having International night. (No cover, two drinks for 10 euro…hey yeah!) There was a 
band playing that was pretty fun. When the band was done playing, this huge curtain opened and behind it was a dance floor on different levels with girls dancing in cages and fog and all sorts of fun stuff. It was crazy. And I’m proud of myself for remembering as much as I have remembered here. I also remember my feet hurting a lot, but otherwise…hahaha…We did make it home by cab and that is all that I care to mention about the rest of that evening. I fell asleep and woke up at the crack of noon the next day. All was well.After consuming my first McDonalds abroad, we decided to go shopping on Saturday. We tooled around Milan and then had some AMAZING Italian food. The restaurant was just this random place we walked past and they told us we only had 45 minutes to eat and leave because our table was reserved for 8:00. But it was SO worth it. I had this pasta with lobster for 15 euro (kind of a splurge, but it sounded amazing). I was expecting, you know, pieces of lobster with noodles and sauce. I was amazed when the waiter brought out an ENTIRE lobster with my plate of pasta. It was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. Oh my gosh. (Except the gelato that we kept eating every time we passed Chocolat…) Martina had told Marissa and I about a play that was going on near her house, but we were too late by this point to make it to the show unfortunately. We went back to Marissa’s apartment and decided to have a chill night. The boys watched movies, Marissa and I watched SNL from a couple weeks before. But then Martina called.
I can’t say no to that girl! So, I left everyone else at home (they were pooped and we had to be out the door by 0540 the next morning—I’m just a beast I guess…haha) and headed to the Duomo to meet Martina. When I got there she told me to meet her at the Zara on Via Torino. I had no idea where that was, so I (international citizen that I am) found someone and said, “Dove Via Torino?” (I’m not sure that’s right, just so you know, but I was trying to ask where Via Torino was. It worked the guy told me…whatever! When I told Martina she said, “Brava!” so I win!) I found Martina and we headed off to her friend Monica’s house. Monica had made this amazing dish. I have no id
ea what it was, but it was so delicious. After we hung out there for a while, Monica, Alessandra, Martina, and I headed out to go to the club. I will at this point remind everyone that Milan is the fashion capital of Italy, that Martina is unbelievably beautiful, that all of Martina’s friends are unbelievably beautiful and tall, and that I am still 5’4” and frumpy. To add to this, as we walked in to the club, Armani Previ, Martina leaned down and said, “Most of these girls in here are professional models.” Awesome. The one and only reason I got into this club was because I was with this cloud of beauty that blinded the doorman to my status as frumpy fourth grader. Another of Martina’s gorgeous friends had a lovely gentleman with her who was picking up the tab for all of us at this really fancy club for our table. So we drank and danced and had a great time. I will also point out that while traveling with only my backpack for weekend trips, I only bring the pair of jeans that I’m wearing and enough shirts and undergarments for the weekend. Needless to say, my attire did not even come close to matching the goddesses in th
is club. SO funny. SO fun. Armani Previ closed at 3am and Martina, the girls, and the gentleman were ready to hit the next place (no joke—they’re amazing) when I begged off. I had to leave the house at 0540 to catch my plane and I had to get the boys up in the morning, too. So the lovely gentleman put me in a cab and sent me home where I took a quick nap before we had to leave in the morning. I felt like I had just been an extra on the set of an even more fashionable “Sex and the City” episode. I still can hardly believe I was in a place like that looking like I looked. Hahaha…I woke up in the morning with no issues and we made it to the shuttle to take us to the airport. The metro had been closed unfortunately, but we called a cab and all was well. After another incredibly long journey, we finally made it back to Maastricht. What a whirlwind.
Next weekend Tiff and Sean will be arriving in Frankfurt and we’re going to get to meet all of our German relatives! CRAZY. My life is nuts over here…
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