The train station
Something we learned is to travel a bit more prepared. We didn’t know exactly where our hostel was or how to get there. We also made the mistake of trying to walk on our own and not pay money for a taxi. It took us an hour to find our hostel and we finally found it at 7 pm. The walk was also a bit frightening because we realized our hostel wasn’t in the ABSOLUTE best part of Milan, it was a bit sketch. But thank goodness our actual hostel was pretty nice. You had to be buzzed in to get into the building and we had six of us in a room and didn’t have to share with any strangers. We were also able to lock our room when we went out so we felt safe leaving our stuff in the room.
We’re starting to get used to European time, including eating dinner later than we normally would. We went out to dinner at around 7:30/8:00 pm and walked around until we found something we thought looked good. We stopped in a family-owned Milanese restaurant who was thrilled to get business from 13 Americans. I got bread and homemade orchietti and meatballs to eat; it was good!
Orchiettie with meatballs
And of course we got wine with our meal, it really is cheaper than water! I’ve only ordered white wine so far (I can’t read the menu so I just ask for whatever they recommend), but I think I’ll start ordering some red soon to try something different!
After dinner, we went home and rested a bit before we went out. Another difference in the European time is how late people go out and how late they stay out. The clubs in Milan didn’t even open until midnight! So we took the metro to downtown Milan around 12:30 am and met some really fun people on it that happened to be going to the same club as us (Club Alcatraz). One of the girls was visiting from Brazil and was in Italy learning Italian. She spoke great English and said she knew how to speak six different languages, just because she wants to learn them. And her parents only speak Portuguese! It was crazy, good for her. I hope by the end of this trip I can say that I can kind of understand three languages!
We made it to the club around 1:15 and it was awesomeee. The club was HUGE, it was the size of a warehouse. We said it compared to the size of a big Walmart. There were probably at least a thousand people there. When we arrived there was a concert going on which was really cool. Once the concert was over a DJ took over and was playing some American music and Italian music and we actually recognized some of it. We danced the night away and made a bunch of new friends.
Club Alcatraz!
Saturday we woke up and got pizza at a local place down the street from our hostel. It’s funny because we can’t read the menus at most of the places and a lot of the workers don’t know English, so we randomly guess what we’re eating a lot of the time. We call our foods things like “mystery pizza.” My friend Jackie and I split a pizza that said it had cheese, buffalo, and “rocket” on it. We were laughing and decided we had to get it to figure out what it was. We thought buffalo was going to be the spicy sauce and were disappointed to find out that it is actually just mozzarella cheese. And for future reference when you all visit Italy, “rocket” is arugula. Another one of my friends got asparagus on their pizza, not quite sure why. Then we took the metro again and headed into Milan. We walked around the main plaza and saw the huge Catholic Church/Cathedral the Duomo and the galleria shopping strip. Outside the Duomo people came up to us and gave us bird food and the pigeons would flock to us and eat out of our hands. It was so weird!
The Galleria
Feeding the pigeons!
The Duomo construction began in 1386. The inside is beautifulll, filled with gorgeous statues and stained glass up the walls.
The Duomo
Outside the Duomo
Beautiful stained glass wall
There were also bodies of dead priests on display from the 1500s! It was awesome just being in there and I had the chance to say a prayer while kneeling in a pew. Mom you really do have people praying for you all over the world!
Saying a prayer in the Duomo
The galleria was also really cool, filled with expensive stores like Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc. While walking through we also got to spin on the bull’s balls! Haha it’s a tradition and is supposed to give you good luck!
Spinning on the bull’s balls!
Emily, me, and Jackie at the local coffee shop. The shops are adorable.
That night we decided to try something different and went to a local Chinese restaurant. It was actually technically part Italian and part Chinese… interesting combination. One of my friends ordered a mystery pizza again and it ended up being some sort of seafood pizza. It was salty and tasted like fish, we think that it may have been oysters on it. They have some interestinggg pizza here. I ate some dumplings, wonton soup, and sweet and sour chicken. It was pretty good at the time but it’s one of those places you look back at and ask yourself why you ate that food. Probably wouldn’t eat there again, but at least it was cheap! We were also served complimentary aperitivos (an alcoholic drink they serve before/for the beginning of the meal). It reminded me of sangria with an interesting fruit at the bottom of it, still not sure exactly what it was. We said it reminded us of a pomegranate, but it tasted like a ball of wine.
Me and some friends at the Chinese restaurant with the towels they gave us to wipe our hands with
After dinner we went out to a different place called Club Hollywood. It was a smaller club compared to the one we went to on Friday night but it was still fun. Somehow we made friends with some people at the club who had a reserved section with couches and free drinks and they let us all join them so that was pretty convenient!
Club Hollywood!
On Sunday we had to be out of the hostel at noon so we headed to the train station for our train at 1:10 pm. We got hungry while we were waiting so we grabbed a quick snack from McDonald’s! The McDonald’s there was a lot cheaper than the one here in Lugano and unfortunately we are already missing American food so we decided to get some. We made it back to Lugano around 2:45 pm and it was nice to have the day to relax after a busy weekend. It felt like we were there for more than just two nights!
Like I said before, we learned a lot on this trip. Another thing we learned is that we just need to be extra careful while travelling. Some people in the areas we are going to travel aren’t quite as kind as most Americans. We have to be conscious of our purses and luggage at all times. I could see people eyeing my things constantly as I was walking, so I made sure to be very aware of what I was carrying and the people around me. Unfortunately we did have a couple people get money stolen/lost, so some of us learned our lesson first handedly about keeping our purses close and not letting them leave our sight. These pickpockets are crazy good it’s scary.
But overall, Milan was a really fun time! If you all are looking for some good shopping and a crazy nightlife, I would recommend it! We are definitely going to have to make a trip back to Milan for the flea markets, the aperitivo bars, and the cheaper grocery stores.
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