Well, it's been a while....

Yes, too long since our last post. In Barca the hostel comps were always packed with people, and in Milano our hotel charged €1 for 15 minutes of internet - rip off.

Here's my rundown of Milan:

We arrived as scheduled, but the bus proved hard to find, so we took a taxi. No one had heard of the hotel (no one= taxi driver and the people she yelled at asking where it was) so the ride cost us more than it needed to, but oh well. The hotel, though budget was pretty nice. No AC and the breakfast wasn't great, but the room was nice and private too.

We didn't do anything except eat that night. The next day we went to buy our train tickets at the station (we forgot to on arrival) and ended up with a different time than planned as it was cheaper. Then we walked down towards the Duomo. On the way we got some super delicious ice creams: Meg had chocolate cherry and 'buon biscotto', while I had the latter and cafe latte. At the Duomo we enjoyed the pretty building and tried to stave off African men forcing stringy bracelets on us (You're beautiful! It's free, a gift from Africa! I love you! I'm a good man! A euro for Africa? Come on, give me a euro....). Meg gave money to one of them, but learnt her lesson by the second one.

We wandered into a shopping mall next to the Duomo and came across a photoshoot for Italia's Next Top Model. This was phenomenally exciting for me, as I am a longtime watcher of the Next Top Model series. We stayed and took pictures of the photoshoot, which featured several models flying through the air, all in the same dress and make up. It was amazing to see how it's all done. We also had a snack of a pizza pasty that tasted a bit doughnutty (panzerotti) which was delicious and oozy with cheese.

After that we wanted to go in the Duomo, but sadly Meg had ignored her own advice and didn't bring a cardigan to put on over her revealing (by catholic cathedral standards) dress. So I went in with my cardi on, but was promptly ushered out again a few minutes later as it was closing time. Oh well, it wasn't as pretty inside as out.

Then we trekked out towards a restaurant we had read about in the guidebook, Il Verdi. On the way Meg stopped to photgraph a flowerstand man, and his colleague gave us each a flower for free - take note creepy, pushy African bracelet men! Sadly at this time I began to feel a migraine coming on, and by the time we made it to the place I felt awful and couldn't eat. I had already ordered my €9 plate of pasta so that went to waste, as I brought it back in a doggybag but couldn't stomach it even a few hours later (luckily for Meg, she could).

We got a taxi back to the hotel because of my migraine, and the driver was awful. He swerved all over, opening a starburst packet and sticking a cigarette into the flaps of the air conditioning vents on the dashboard. Finally we were back, and after a brief rest and a shower I felt better, and we had a late night chat before sleeping our final night in Milano.

So today we came to Florence on the train. The train wasn't as nice as the Spanish fast train, but it was a good journey because the views outside were pleasant. The man next to me had terrible breath, but I managed to survive it by listening to my ipod and daydreaming. On arrival we realised that the train station was different from the one I had planned for. Yes, it turned out that the nice woman gave us a cheaper train but failed to mention it went to a different station. We emerged in the sweltering heat of Florence and had no clue how to get to the hostel. With the aid of a map we found a bus stop to take us to the other station, and when we got on the bus we realised we were both covered in sweat - more so than before. It was gross. At the main station we got our tickets to Rome, then walked to the hostel.

And thus here we are, at Academy Hostel in Florence, less than a minute's walk from the Duomo. We share a bedroom and bathroom with 4 other people here, the beds are singles not bunk beds, and we have found out that they do breakfast for free too so that is something to look forward to...

Until the next blog,

Mojo