In Which I am one step closer to being friends with Kate Middleton

I just got back from Milan yesterday.  I do not recommend it.  It is boring.  How can Italy possibly be boring you say?  Because Milan has one tourist attraction.  The Duomo.  Granted, Il Duomo is magnificent, and you can go up on the roof, which is cool.  Apart from that and the shopping center right next to it, there is really nothing there.  Oh yeah, unless you want to pay 40 euros to see Da Vinci's last supper.  I did not.

The trip started out with a little hiccup.  My friend, Jacqui, and I paid 9.50 euros to take the train to the airport at six in the morning.  Three stops later, our train broke down.  Thinking we would be late for our flight, we shelled out 40 euros to take a cab to the airport.  Once there and through security (my makeup turned out not to be a bomb, thanks for checking) we saw that our flight had been delayed for two hours.  Essentially, we had no reason to get up at 5:30 in the morning nor to pay for a cab.  Great.

Once we got to Milan, it was an hour long bus ride to the central station, then another hour on the metro/tram to get to our hotel. Oh yeah, it was half raining/half snowing.  Again, great.  But our hotel was really nice, and the tram line it was on took us directly into the center of town.  The Italian people are extremely nice as well.  This was our experience in London.  Paris still takes the cake for meanest city in the world.  Whenever we needed directions or a dinner recommendation, everyone was quick to help us as much as they could.

Like I said, the Duomo is pretty much the only thing in Milan.  But it was just stunning.  We walked around on the inside for a while before climbing the 250 stairs to the roof.  You can walk around on top, getting views of the entire city.  It was really cool, and definitely worth the trip.  That was definitely my favorite part of the weekend.

Il Duomo

Rooftop Party!

Americans Against European PDA, get a room

Next to the Duomo is an enormous department store called Rhinascente, basically Milan's answer to Harrod's.  This is where Kate Middleton comes in, I found her Issa engagement announcement dress!  It's a beautiful blue wrap dress by Issa.  I was sorely tempted to buy it, but I figured the powers that be (hi Mom and Dad!) might be a little disapproving of that decision.  Still, tempting.

Pleaseeeeeeeee???

I can't write a blog about Italy without mentioning the food.  Yes, it lives up to the legend.  Pizza, ravioli, and tiramisu were my foods of choice, and I was not disappointed.  So good.

It also happened to be fashion week while we were there.  Good thing I only packed a backpack so I had one pair of pants and two shirts with me.  We were definitely not part of the glitterati this time around, but it was fun to see the wacky things people put on their bodies.  It's just hilarious.  Heel-less high heels, rainbow hair, and fur coats seem to be big this season.  Take note everyone.  And P.S, someday I will be one of them, so you can all start sucking up to me now because I won't be bringing everyone with me.

On Sunday, it was snowing even harder than on Saturday, so we decided to call it a day early and head to the airport.  The guy at the kiosk was nice enough to change our tickets for free to a flight for two hours earlier.  Thank goodness he did, since the weather delays caused our early flight to take off two hours late.  Essentially, we sat in the airport for six hours.  I spent good money on a bad book.  It also turned out to be book 2 of a series, so now I'm in the frustrating position of wanting to know the ending but not wanting to put forth the effort.  Icing on the cake.

All in all, I liked Italy, though I wish we had gone somewhere different.  The luxury of not caring where we went as long as it was not expensive came back to bite us in the butt this time, but spring break is next week so we'll see what happens on my next adventure.

Ciao!

In which one of my nightmares comes true

You know that dream that everyone has where they somehow end up in public with no clothes on?  That actually happened to me.  But more on that a little later.  This morning I had to go to the immigration office to get a specific stamp in my passport.  Here's how it went:

Get to this place in the middle of nowhere.

Wait.  In a line outside of the building.

Get in. Go upstairs.

Wait.

Get my name called.  Go to another room.

Wait.

Get my name called.  Have an eye exam.  Read a paragraph in tiny print in French. What if your vision is perfect and you're just bad at reading French?  These are the things going through my mind during the agonizingly long waits.

Wait.

Go into a changing room.  Strip off everything above the waist.  Proceed to shiver so hard it looks like I'm having a seizure.  Here's where the nightmare part comes in.  Someone barges in.  Not a doctor, another "immigrant" like myself.  Horrifying.

Wait.

Get called into a big room.  Topless.  Get pushed up rather forcefully against a cold metal surface.  Apparently an X-ray machine.  No paper sheet or anything.  I am not confident in the sanitary procedures used in this room.  Door opens,  strange man enters.  Realizes there is a young woman naked from the waist up.  Coughs awkwardly and leaves.  Get X-rays taken.  Realize they didn't put a lead vest on me.  Resign self to probability of sterility.  Remember I don't like kids that much anyway.

Wait.

Talk to an actual doctor.  For 2 minutes.  Get blood pressure taken.

Wait.

Get name called.  Get sticker in my passport.

Done.  And it only took two hours and four strangers seeing me topless.

In Which I Take London By Storm

Sorry I'm so adorable

I know it's been a while since I posted. So sue me.  But don't really please, I have no time for that sort of nonsense.  I'm too busy globetrotting.  This past weekend two friends of mine and I took a trip to London.  I've been a lot of places.  Like, a lot.  But that doesn't mean I am too jaded to take in all that London had to offer.  In a word (or three I guess), I LOVE LONDON.

We took a train there, which was cool since the last time I was on a train was in Japan (see what I mean about the globetrotting and the jet-setting and whatnot?).  It's a really short ride there, just two and a half hours.  We got in late thursday night, walked around forever trying to find food, and ended up ordering pizza before passing out at three in the morning.  Not so fabulous.

The next day completely and totally made up for it.  I saw, and I'm not lying, Prince William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten-Windsor.  Yeah, I know.  I was ready to pack up and go home right then because the only thing that could have topped that moment was if Kate Middleton was there with him.  For those of you wondering, I did not have to look up William's full name.  I know it from listening to the CD of their wedding and vows on my ipod.  Now that you understand the nature of my obsession, maybe you can begin to comprehend the level of excitement I was feeling.

That's a royal!

We saw the major sights, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye.  It was actually sunny out the entire weekend, which seems like a miracle.  On saturday, we went to the Portobello market.  It's this big open air market with seemingly everything you could ever need.  There's old stuff, new stuff, foodstuffs, and weird stuff.  It was fun just doing something so random.  We didn't buy anything, but it was a good way to start the day.  Our only other mission for the day was to find somewhere that we could sit down and have scones with clotted cream.  Little did we know how much of a challenge this would be.  First of all, two of the major central tube lines were closed.  For the entire weekend.  It took us forever just to figure out how to get to a place that we thought might have scones.  Once we got there, we walked for two hours, stopping in every cafe and tearoom, trying to find our elusive baked friend.  It's a good thing they were totally worth it once we found some at a bakery in an alley.  I'm sorry, mews as the Brits say.

So worth the entire afternoon of searching

Not our friend, and why in the world is the pass called an oyster card?

Sunday was more low-key.  We each had different things that we wanted to do, so we split up for the afternoon.  In the morning, however, my friend Ellen and I walked through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.  Absolutely beautiful.  Besides Versailles, which is way far, Paris doesn't have a central garden or park area of that scale.  In the afternoon I went out to Stratford.  For those of you who are so woefully uninformed, this is where the 2012 Olympics were centered.  I almost had a panic attack I was so excited.  Working with the Olympics is the only thing I've ever been this sure of in my entire life, besides my conviction that blonde hair is the best color.  So that's saying something.  Unfortunately, the complex is closed for renovations until the summer of 2013.  Why they need to renovate a brand new stadium I have no idea.

Casual, me and the worst part of the Olympics, this horrible mascot

All in all, I fell in love with London and I hope that I can go back someday soon, albeit with a larger budget.  The British Pound is not kind to the meager wallet of a college student.