We got this?

The view from our temporary home in Milan

My history with travel is definitely not the average persons history: I don’t usually choose the most sought after destinations and I often find myself in either sketchy or ridiculous situations. Today was unfortunately no exception.

Part of the reason I chose Milan is because I’ve never been to Europe, and I really wanted to see what all the fuss was about (and eat everything in sight). So silly me thought “Good job Caitie! You picked a super stable country with modern amenities to live in, this semester is going to be sooo easy!” 

NOPE.

Before we even get off the ground we had plane issues, I’m talkin 2 hours of us just sitting on the plane as it was still parked at the gate. Oh and let me tell you about this plane: You know how some Greyhound busses have TVs hanging from the ceiling- not the flat screen ones that fold up- I’m talking the chunky TVs that are basically a growth in the ceiling and covered with that really weird carpet material? Yeah we had one of those, but wait it gets better! The reading lights on the plane didn't work so we all got to sit in the dark for 8 hours. This plane also made some pretty concerning noises and by the time we were in the air I was partially convinced that the original issue that delayed our take off had not been fixed. This poor plane should have either retired or it should have been sent to plane heaven a long time ago. None the less, we did make it to Milan!

Going through security, getting our baggage, and catching our bus was very easy and painless- we even had a nice man walk us across the street and take us to office of Filberto (the guy who’s apartment we are renting for a few days). Filberto was helpful by giving us directions the apartment- we had the option of grabbing a taxi or using the metro (we chose the taxi)- but when we left his office to go get a cab we were told that all of the taxi’s were on strike. Of all of the days for this to happen, of course it would be today. Ugh taxi’s are dumb.

 Sean, Meredith, and myself now had to not only navigate the metro on our own, but we had to manage 6 suitcases and 6 carry-on’s between the 3 of us not to mention doing so with ZERO Italian speaking skills. 

Somehow me made it to the correct stop and had to haul our luggage up to the street and walk a few blocks to our apartment (befriending 2 lovely old Italian men on the way that gave us directions)

After power lifting our luggage up 4 flights of stairs we made it to our temporary home and proceeded to all pass out for 3 hours on the couch-bed (the smaller of the 2 beds) because we were all too exhausted to move.

I don’t think we would have made it through the day if we didn’t laugh at every single ridiculous thing that happened, and there were many of those moments. My personal favorite was Meredith climbing over the ticket booth on our way out of the metro because her suitcases got stuck in it. 

Meredith and Sean are both saints for handling today as gracefully as they did, and its only Day 1

And now we sleep, again.

-Ciao