Day 45!

Sorry this has been so long coming.. has been a mission to find internet and time (internet was down at both Milan and Rome hostels...

After the last blog I went across the road to a cool little Pizzeria and watched them making pizzas in a real wood over for a while.. was pretty straight forward, but very cool! Anyway, I ordered some Ravoili takeaway and then went back to my hostel to eat it. I rang home a little bit, and then sat down to eat my ravoili, which was actually tortellini (but tasted great anyway!!): Unfortuanelty I didnt have any utensils.. but thats never stopped me before ;). After packing up I listened to a sermon and then did some reading for a while before going to bed.

In the morning I got up at about 8 and had brekky. I discovered they DO have milk!! So I got my two little buns and drink and used my peanut butter and it wasnt too bad (altho the peanut butters almost empty already... I polished that up, had a shower and then checked out. I decided I didnt really wanna cart my big pack around, so I used a safety deposit locker and then went into Milan again. Today I enjoyed Milan alot more.. I think yesterday I just got unlucky and walked around a bunch of bad streets.. and even though I saw alot of cool places i didnt like it that much. Today was cool tho!

First i went to the castle which was totally great. Really big and had a large grounds aswell. The castle itself had big walls with little holes in a uniform pattern in it, and inside lived a bunch of cats :). I had squatted down to photograph this hilarious cat with its tongue perpetually out.. and then this ragged old cat with one eye like jumped up in a pillar right by my and started staring me out.. it was funny as. there were a few dead pigeons here and there, and one cat had somehow squeezed into one of the small holes, turned around, and was now peering out of it :). The cats had their hangouts, and there seemed to be a couple of groups.. kinda like prides sorta i guess. I then left the castle and bought a belt for a bit more than I could have got it (Always need small notes and change when you deal with these sneaky street sellers.. and then i walked though the castle gardens which were gorgeous. there werent many people around and it had a really nice relaxed feel, I loved it! I then walked back through the castle, watched the cats for a while again (some people came and fed them for a bit) and then got some awesome gelato (man they have a million flavours here! and wandered around the city a bit.

At 2 oclock or so I went to a nice looking restaurant and decided id sit inside seeing as yesterday i got charged 2 Euros for sitting in the canopied section outside. The pizzas from this place looked great so I ordered a 'Bizmark' pizza and a large mineral water. Ok this pizza was HUGE!!! They all were.. and man was it ever delicious!! Im so going abck there if I can in Milan! It was seriously like almost the diameter of the 2 person table I was sitting at by myself.. It had tomato, ham, egg, and something else.. It was devine!! :D.

After this delicious meal I payed up, got charged 2 Euros for sitting inside (grrrr... restaurants...) and then went to pick up my bag and to the impressive Milan train station. After a bit of searching I found my train and hopped on for the 4.5 hour ride. This was really beautiful! Around Milan are so many small beautiful townships. Some I saw photos of in the hostel , and some I passed in the train. One of my favourites was up on this hill, with vertical cliffs all around.. it was really dramatic and beautiful. Looked like a bigger version of a place James told me about (that im gutted I cant go to).. Anyway, this train ride inspired me to come back to Italy again, but to have a bike or car so I could travel around and see these many beautiful small townships.

Once I got in at Rome I got off the train and walked around the trainstation trying to find a tourist information.. but gave up and decided to catch the Metro out to my hostel. Grr!!! All the Metro machines were broken, and there were tons of people! By the time I had finally got on the train it was dark, and I might as well have caught a later train from Milan.. Oh well. I got off at my stop and then had to catch a bus.. OK.. the Hostels instructions were to catch the 32 bus and get off at the 6th stop.. WHAT KINDA INSTRUCTIONS ARE THOSE FOR A BUS AT NIGHT!! Busses dont stop at every stop like trains, and it was too dark and foreign to see exactly if we were passing a busstop or not.. I got off after I tought I must be nearby and low and behold I was right next to a big stadium and a Madonna concert was about to begin!! There were people everywhere, and traffic going crazy.. people trying to sell me tickets.. and I had no map and no idea where I was. I knew I couldnt be too far off as I had caught the last bus.. but if it wasnt for that fact I woulda been really lost, coz my phone card doesnt work here either so I couldnt contact the hostel easily. I would my way around asking people if they knew where the street my hostel is on was.. Most ignored me or shrugged, and finally I got some rough instructions from a police officer and arrived at the hostel.

The receptionist there was totally rude too. He treated me like crap, told me nothing, and then just went onto the next person.. just wanted to get rid of me.. I think he has lost my hostel card too, which will be a right pain in the bum.. :) anyway.. Im not too annoyed or anything, I know it sounds like it.. Its not all bad. A shame Italys been not the smoothest for me tho, and the Italians ive met have been so rude.. Oh well.

I got to my room and met a really nice British guy who told me a bit about how the hostel worked and stuff which was good. Then after spending about an hour, and loosing about 5 euros in stupid machines, and getting told to go away and buy something from the restaurant when I asked the receptionist for change I got some laundry tokens, bought a lock that I needed, and did some laundry. While waiting the 1 and a half hours for the laundry I read for a while, listened to a sermon, and relaxed a little after the madness or the last few hours. I hope I dont have another fiasco when I get to Venice!! Altho seeing as the streets are water, and I have to catch a bus to some indeterminite stop on some island and then find the hostel.. I might be wishing for too much :S..

Oh, and the thing I bought from the Restaurant was this delicious icecream ball thing with some kinda stuff on the outside with vanilla icecream, with light coffee flavoured icecream in the middle, and a soft cakey base.. mmm!!

Around midnight I was finally done and crawled into bed.