Milan is okay...

Welcome to the first, and unfortunately abridged addition for the second leg of our trip. This internet cafe in Milan is quite possibly the most annoying one we have ever been to, so updating the blog at length and remembering everything will be difficult.

I had a hell of a time getting from London to Venice in one day through Rome. I spent an amazing day with my amazing girlfriend in London before boarding a Ryanair plane to Rome. There was turbulance, quite a bit of it and I sat next to a lady who went to Rome to meet her mistress (still a guy) who she met on a girl's weekend a few weeks back. I became her psychologist, as she was asking me what to do with her life, if she should divorce her husband of 16 years, what to do with her kid etc... Twas fun. The plane was also 2 hours late, and since I timed it to make my 10:50 train to Venice, it became a marathon getting to the train.

But I made it. just barely. I sprinted with my bag to a bus, boarded it (it was also twenty minutes late) and then hopped the subway 4 stops before sprinting anohter 200 metres to find the train delayed 15 minutes. Thank the good dude!!! The train was horrid; people were sleeping in the hallway, their was no bar car and it was hot, but I made it to Venice at 5:30AM, made friends with an Iowan named Greg and began wandering around Venice.

Venice is lovely. All the transport is done by boat, which is kinda nice at first but annoying after a while, because it takes ages to get anywhere. My hotel was in Lido, the furthest island from the city centre and it took over an hour to get there from the train station. The hotel was nice though, as I got a huge room to myself (the attic) and no curfew, while the guys ended up at a Christian hostel with a midnite curfew and a lockout, located on an out of the way island. They would not stop complaining about the hostel, citing it as the worst one ever. I'd read http://adamfisch.livejournal.com to read more about that.

I did not meet up with the guys until 7PM, so the day involved lots of walking with Greg, an amazing lunch near the guy's hostel featuring one of the freshest and best sandwiches I have ever had: couple that by eating it right on a Venetian canal with a friend = perfect.

I split with Greg who had to go back to Rome and went back to my hotel for some rest... I then met up with the guys in Santa Maria square and we proceeded to walk through town, ending up at the local Chabad called Gam Gam for dinner. Joe is orthodox, so we ate with him because it was shabbat. The dinner was quite nice... They laid out dozens of tables right on the canal and we ate communally, like a family. Free food too, which was nice... I almost knocked a girl into the canal, which would have been horrid because the canals are extremely dirty, so thankfully that was averted. Post Gam Gam they had to make curfew so we went for a drink and I slowly walked back through Venice, taking the last boat back to my hotel.

In the morning I went to the beach and walked around before boarding the boat to meet the guys at the train station. Therein we left Venice for Milan, which I am in now.

Milan is a frustrating city... It is huge, dirty, cosmopolitan and busy, and in my opinion has a very arrogant feel to it. Last nite we found our hotel and went for dinner. Dinner was fantastic and quite cheap (best pizza I have had yet), before we took Kowski back to the hotel because he was feeling ill. He just recovered from a bout with strept throat, but we feel the bug is kicking back in and he has been in bed since last nite. We are quite worried about him, but we hope he'll bounce back. He is still in bed now, and after I update the blog I am gonna head back to the hotel to check up on him.

Last night the three of us went out and found the student neighbourhood, which consisted of a big square with bars and people relaxing and drinking. We'll hopefully head back there tonite. Today we went to the Duomo, but had to return to the hostel when they would not allow us in with shorts. Then we got back and hiked up its stairs for the view, which was marvelous, but upon proceeding to sit down and play the guitar, we were kicked out of the duomo for sounding too much like 'woodstock.' Some religions just confuse me... playing guitar is considered rude, wearing shorts is rude, pedophelia is okay... Alright, I'll stop.

I laso bought a water to find out it was carbonated today and my new mountain co-op pants broke! The zipper fell off. I saved it to present to them when I am back in Toronto... Lunch consisted of Panini... lovely panani and there have been copious amounts of gelato consumption. Today we gotta go back to the train station and try and get Kowski out of bed, before heading to Nice tomorrow. I'd like to return to the student area, as I liked it and not much about this place has impressed me. Apparantely I HAVE to go to Rome and Florence and see the David, so that will be done later this year or next hopefully...

If Kalman or Lance is reading this, e-mail us back ya fockers...

peace-

Sanity Music - Beatles in the internet cafe... one redeeming quality.