Through Milano, Made it to Scudellate!

What a whizzing day. After waking up at 4:30am to catch a 5:10am train to make the 7:10 plane to Milano, you might be surprised that I'm pretty beat right now...And of course none of the traveling was absolutely smooth, however, I lucked out that none of the trains, planes, buses, or tubes cased disastrous effects for the rest of the trip.

First, Paddington Station. I managed to get there before 5:00...also before the main gates opened. After finding an open entrance, I made my way to a ticket machine to pick up the tickets I had bought the night before. Should be easy, right? Wrong. To get the tickets out from the machine, you must put in your credit card...which happens to have a chip and pin system in the UK, so my poor American card wouldn't work. So I tried the ticket office - which of course appeared closed. After trying another three or so machines and wandering around frantically for 5 minutes, I finally found somebody who worked there. Of course he had the magical touch, or at least the smarts to push open the automatic sliding door, which in England apparently works...I talked to the Lady behind the counter to get my tickets, which it turns out wasn't for the right train. Another 10 pounds and 5 minutes later, I was left 2 minutes to quickly sprint over to the 5:10am Heathrowe Express.

Then, after a fairly smooth flight (which I slept through), I arrived in Milano. Oh Milan was absolutely stunning. Compared to eclectic London and planned Paris, Milan was a perfect balance of historical and modern, tall with short, and green with buildings. The modern architecture in Milan did the best job at incorporating both the vernacular forms and materiality with the fascist modernism of simple geometries and sleek lines. Just beautiful. Unfortunately, my attempt at navigating the city was less than beautiful, thus lending no time to take pictures. I started my journey through the city by thinking 'Oh, I have a small map with few details and no road names. I can navigate with no troubles at all! Besides, the train station looks so close to the one I arrived at on the map.' Well, both assumptions were soon to prove VERY false. After taking the wrong direction for about a dozen blocks, I finally conceited to ask directions. Luckily, the hotel I stopped at had more detailed maps, however, the man at the counter suggested I take the metro. Take the metro? And miss the beautiful city? Of course I wouldn't do that because I had just inherited super powers of navigation and was going to walk. Another terrible, terrible idea. Lesson #342 of Europe - Always follow the locals' suggestions. After getting lost for half an hour and asking directions twice more, I managed to get around the huge construction project going on right in the middle of the city and finally find my way into the train station. And then had to pay .60 euros to use the bathroom. What a freaking cherry on top. I was sweating and panting so bad, I didn't care about forking over another Euro and went straight for the cold water tap (which was still luke warm...gahhhh).

I managed to get on the train and sleep/enjoy the countryside and still get to Chiasso with half an hour to catch the bus up to Muggio. After meeting up with one classmate, Colby, by chance at the bus station, we made our way up to Muggio, where by another chance, four more classmates got on the bus. We went up as far as the bus would take us, but were still about 30minutes downhill from Scudellate. A few classmates met us there and we all waited the hour and a half for the next small bus to take us the rest of the way. We managed to catch the beginning of the world cup match between England and Germany...which ended sadly with a huge loss by England. Very disappointing.

Now I've unpacked my things and settled into my top bunk and small locker. The landscape is to die for! I'm enjoying it so much. Pictures and more to come!

Ciao