Milan

Day 1

I had big plans for today.  First, once I arrived at the station in Milan I planned on booking my train reservation to get me to Lyon tomorrow.  Then, I was going to go see the sights for the rest of the day – museums, palaces, churches.

But, when I got to the train station, I found out that all of the reservations to get to Lyon tomorrow were booked.  So, I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out how to get to Lyon.  At one point I thought I’d figured it out (there were reservations available for Torino -> Lyon, so I would just need to buy a ticket to Torino).  But, by the time I got to the station to buy the reservation, those ones were sold out too.  Drats!  So, in the end I just ended up buying a full-price ticket for the journey to Lyon.  While this may result in me returning to Canada with an unused rail pass day, it will at least let me get to Lyon to see my friend Caro.

So, once I’d gotten all of that sorted all of the museums, palaces and churches that I’d planned on seeing were closed.  But, I decided to head out to the main square of Milan to do some sightseeing and people watching anyways.

I did a good bit of wandering before getting some dinner.  Dinner was simple (I’d decided to go to a cafeteria) – I got some pasta, a roll, and a chocolate protiferole for dessert.  The pasta wasn’t much better than what you’d expect to get at a cafeteria in Canada, but the dessert was very good – and I chose a table with a view of the main square, so there was lots of people-watching for me to do.

After dinner I went back to the hostel (with a small pit stop at the train station to print the e-ticket I’d bought online).

Day 2

My train to Lyon doesn’t leave until 4 pm from Milan, so I decided to sleep in a bit today (it also helps that check-out isn’t until noon).  I packed up my belongings, had breakfast and did some checking on the last few segments of my trip…..bad news!  I was hoping on spending a night in Paris, but all of the hostels in Paris are booked (as are all of the cheaper hotels).  Thankfully there’s still hostels available in London, but I have no idea what I’m going to do about Paris.  I’ve asked Auntie Rosie if her friends can put me up for a night, but maybe I can also just spend another night at Caro’s place.  One thing is official: I dislike travelling in tourist high-season.

Well, after finding out that there’s yet another kink in my plans, I checked out of the hostel.  I took my backpack to the train station, checked it there, then went out to see Milan for a few hours.

I went to see the Duomo (including the inside), I wandered around the main square, checked out one of the oldest streets in Milan, got some lunch at a sidewalk café (including a very good cappuccino), then went back to the train station to catch my train to Lyon.

The train ride to Milan was long but uneventful.  For about the first 2 hours I was sitting in the wrong seat (I was in car 5 instead of car 6), oops.  But I’m glad I figured that out and moved because the seat in car 5 was broken, and any time the train slowed down it would pop into reclined position.  Once I found the correct seat I was golden.  I settled in, pulled out my laptop and did some blogging, as well as downloaded my photos.   The views on the way out of Italy and the way into France were awesome.  The mountain ranges really reminded me of home.  I tried to take some photos, but I don’t think they turned out terribly well (the three pane glass of the train windows causes a continual reflection).