Rachel and Katie Do Europe 2008: July 8, 2008- Katie arrives in Milan!

Hello!!!!!
Yesterday was a great adventure! Italy has a transportation strike and I had to pick Katie up at the airport 40 miles outside the center of Milan. Let me short hand this part: Sunday the train service said the train would run until 9:00 am so I could ride the train to the airport and then back to the center of Milan with Katie- so I purchase the 11 euro tickets. Awesome. Monday morning at 4:45, they inform me the trains aren’t running. Awesome. I run to the bus, catch it to the airport, make it on time, 35 minute to the airport. Awesome. Katie arrives a few minutes later. We get outside and miss the bus that we want to take so we get on a different one that takes us a few stops further from Tara’s apartment. It takes us 2.5 hours to get back into town on that bus because of the strike. Awesome. Then, the metro isn’t working. Awesome. So we have to find the tram that goes to Tara’s house. Miss the 29/30 twice and have to wait an hour for the 9. Awesome. The 9 takes the longest way possible and it takes another 45 minutes. Awesome. So…not only did it take us about 4.5 hours as opposed to about an hour total, it also cost about 70 euro instead of about 4. AWESOME!!! We hate strikes!!!!
But don’t worry- we ended up having a pretty great day (minus the fact that I had to force Katie to stay awake so she didn’t get jet-lagged). Once Katie got settled in we rested for a few minutes and then walked into town. First we walked through Piazza del Duomo where some African men tried to tie bracelets to Katie arm while I had to tell them “no gracie” over and over so that Katie didn’t have to be the bitchy American. Then we walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, where I showed Katie a fancy McDonalds and then we did as the locals do. We spun on the balls of the bull on the mosaic on the ground of the Galleria, which is supposed to bring good luck. We got Luini’s (where Tara took me on my second day in Milan) for lunch and ate it on the step of a church in the piazza. Then we headed over to the Duomo to take a look inside, but Katie got shut down by the guards because she is a hoochie and had her knees showing. Since Katie is a hood rat and didn’t bring any appropriate clothing we had to go shopping. Tragedy. We peeked around the sales (famous sales that happen twice a year in Milan where people from all around the world come to the most expensive stores where stuff is like 50% off) and we went into La Rinascente and some other cool shops. Katie ended up getting a cute black dress at United Colors of Benetton. We then headed back to the Duomo. The inside was beautiful. Above the alter of the church is a nail from the cross where Jesus was crucified. It was brought to Milan by St. Helen. After touring the Duomo we went up the tower and checked out the view. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast so we couldn’t see the Alps. After seeing as much as we could without Katie falling over we walked back to Tara’s apartment grabbing some gelato on the way. Yummmmmy!!! Then we rested and got all dressed for dinner with Lauren, Noelle and Christina (Tara is in the mountains with a friend). Dinner was amazing!! The place we went to makes their own pasta! After dinner it was around 10:00 and Katie could barely keep her eyes open so we walked over to the wine bar with girls so Katie could see how cute it is and then we caught a cab home (another 12 euro because of the damn strike!!!). It was funny to see Katie face when the taxi driver was driving. He was insane and all over the road. It was Katie’s first experience driving in Italy and hysterical.

Today, we got up and have just been relaxing around the house and then we are going to walk down the main shopping street, to the castle and then we are going to eat lunch on the top floor of La Rinascente. Then we are going to relax a bit and make some dinner so we can get to bed early. We are headed to Greece tomorrow at 4:00 am!!! Soooooo excited!

Check you all on the flip side!

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