niente dire [lost for words]... literally!

23 November 2007

Our flight from London Heathrow to Milan Linate cost us 120UKpounds. Not bad really, considering we only booked the other day. This was our first time to book online on our own. It was unbelievably easy! This was also one of our easiest check-ins ever. Thank God!

I don’t know about Kanootz but as soon as we boarded the plane, I already started to feel nervous about the language issue. I wasn’t sure how we’d find our way from the airport to Milan Stazioni Centrale… ‘pero bahala na si Lord!”. In Linate airport, we found a shuttle bus that took us to the train station for 5Euro/e. Thankfully, all I had to say was “Buon Giorno! Due biglietti, per favore.” Relief!

At 30 minutes length, the bus ride to the central station was almost like an orientation tour of Milan. It went all around the city, past the Duomo. Cool! Not a bad ride at all! The only thing is, I wasn’t quite sure whether I liked what I was seeing or not. We read somewhere that unless one has a healthy heap of credit cards (for high-end shopping) and a keen liking for the nightlife, then Milan isn’t the place. Well, we have neither.

milan's duomo cathedral

Upon reaching the train station, I was even more nervous as it meant we had to buy our tickets to Turin. Somehow, my prayers were heard and we quickly made friends with a lady in a black overall tunic. Her name was Zara. She was on the same plane, and also Turin-bound. I was a bit cautious, and even more so upon learning she was originally from Somali. But she had such a kind face and was willing to help us out. So, I said to the Lord, I will take away my prejudices, and will trust Him with our safety.

milan stazione centrale

It was raining that evening. Milan’s central station was dark, damp, smokey, and sorry to say but... dirty. We waited for our train for 1 hour. Zara even insisted to buy us some cold drinks. Anyway, after an hour of secondary-smoking, the information board finally told us to go to our boarding gate. The train was even more DREADFUL! The ticket did not indicate which carriage / seats we were supposed to get. So, we picked one at random. Being a Friday evening (workers from Turin head home for the weekend), it was packed! We didn’t realize this. So, 2 great big backpacks in tow, we squeezed and squashed in / with all sorts of people and all sorts of smells. I could tell that Kanootz’ patience is running out (it must be really bad then, and it isn’t just me). Without prior seating reservations, we ended up sitting on the corridor pull-downs. This meant that within the 2-hour trip, we had to get up every 5 or so minutes to let people through. I tried to convince Kanootz (actually, myself more than him) that it’s okay, it’s not that bad. Truth was I couldn’t tell him that all this discomfort was already making me miss home terribly. In retrospect, first class tickets would have saved us more.

At least, I told myself, in 2 hours or so, we’ll be in the company of Kanootz’ family. At least, we were heading towards more familiar people, although in an unfamiliar place…

written by

garcia on November 23, 2007 from Milano, Italy

from the travel blog: Got 2 see what's out there!

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