I invite you to examine the map above. Notice where the 'Ostello' is. It's right between the QT8 metro station and the Lotto metro station.When we got to the youth hostel the first time, it was simple enough. Sign-boards guided us from the metro-station QT8 to the hostel.On day two in Milan, we had different plans. We thought we would be a little adventurous. We were backpacking through Europe: we had to do cool, new things; we had to forge new paths!We decided to begin by getting off at Lotto, instead of QT8. No crystal clear directions here, but we had a map, which we could use. Of course.We walked enthusiastically. Then we walked some more. And we walked even further, wondering whether the hostel was equidistant from the two metro stations.We had been told to get off at QT8, so we reasoned that Lotto must be a wee bit further on. A slightly longer walk.So we … [Read more...]
The Crazy Travelogue – V
Coping with a new language, staying with people I did not know and attending school with friends who were much better at French than I was was too trying an experience for me to have written about my experience every day. I wanted to write, but it was all good intentions and nothing more.On the 13th of June, 2004, though, our adventure actually began - three young Indian girls backpacking through Europe. I will never forget those two weeks. Unbelievable, educational weeks. We reached Milan at 9 in the morning and did not know where to begin. We did not speak Italian and we needed to find a youth hostel.We got off the train and walked purposefully down the platform just like all the other people with a destination. There was no other way we could go. And we reached the end of the platform.We exchanged glances, looked around, and learned out first Italian words - ufficio … [Read more...]
The Duomo
'Duomo' just means 'cathedral', but the duomo in Milan is just something else. The first time we travelled in Europe, we started with Milan. That made it exciting in itself. We drank from water fountains. We ate real pizza and real pasta. We tried talking to real Italian people with real Italian accents, sometimes talking real Italian which was a bit hard.And we saw the beautiful duomo.The second time we went to Milan, we did not have any intentions of staying there. We thought we would take the first train out of Milan and go to Ancona or Bari to get our ferry to Greece. That was the plan. So we stood in the long queue at the enquiry counter of the railway station, talking excitedly about all our plans for Greece, everything we wanted to see, everything we had read, mythology...We are always sceptical of people at railway booths. They're usually grumpy. We were more than a little … [Read more...]
‘Stranded’ in Milan
Coming back from France in 2006, we had an Alitalia flight via Milan. Everything until Milan was fine - except one thing. This is an aside, but I must say this. In Milan, like in Vienna, I was asked to take off my belt and lay it in the tray to be passed through the X-Ray machine. That's okay, acceptable. Then, I was asked to raise my hands as I walked through the security gate. If I was comfortable enough to lift my arms wearing jeans without a belt, I would not wear a belt at all, I wanted to tell them. I now make it a point to wear a salwar kameez or tighter jeans.Coming back. Our stopover from Paris was at Milan - and there, we discovered that the flight ahead was cancelled. All kinds of reasons were given to us. 'Technical snag', 'staff on strike', 'no co-pilot'... We had no idea when we'd get a flight back and our visas were due to expire that day.That, we were told, was not a … [Read more...]
Torre Pendente
We had just a few hours at Pisa, but we could not travel all over Italy and not visit the famous leaning tower. So we asked a lady on a train what to do, and she wrote for us the name of the bus stop to which we needed to go to see the leaning tower.We showed a bus driver the stop, written in my diary, and he seemed confused. He asked us a question in Italian. We did not understand. We shook our heads regretfully. "Leaning tower?" we asked.He shrugged. "Torre pendente?" he asked.We shrugged. "Leaning tower of Pisa?" we asked, leaning slightly, to convey what we wanted."Piazza del Duomo?" he asked."No, no, no duomo!" we said. We knew that word. 'Duomo' meant cathedral. "Leaning tower!" we cried. "Seven wonders of the world! Leaning tower of Pisa!" It's strange how the subconscious believes that volume can surmount the language barrier."Pisa," nodded the bus driver, and … [Read more...]
A Night in Florence
"Is the station open all night?" In Florence with no hostel to stay at and frightfully expensive hotel options, we had no choice but to stay at the station."Yes," replied the lady and walked away. I wonder if she even understood the question.We made ourselves comfortable in the waiting-room, as comfortable as we could get. There were other people, thankfully, so we didn't feel destitute. Sitting in the waiting-room somehow bordered on the normal, even though we had not done it before. We lounged on chairs, hugging our luggage, trying to get the seats not to poke us too much. And then, at midnight, they chased us out of the waiting room. "Station-strike," they said.We groaned, picked up our luggage and went out. We were three teenagers outside a station in a foreign country in the middle of the night. Yes, there were others, but they spoke a language we didn't know, they were all … [Read more...]
Learning to Communicate
"Do you speak English?" we asked three police-people standing at a signal in Milan.The policewoman shook her head and turned to the men. "Just a leetle," said one.Then began our attempt to tell them we were lost and looking for our hostel. The hostel had given us a map, but we had walked clean off the map and had no idea how to get back. The word 'hostel' brought no reaction, so we showed them the map and said 'ostello'. We had no idea how to ask 'where', 'how', nothing! But 'ostello' was enough. They brought out another, more detailed map of Milan and had an animated discussion while we watched. They argued with one another about how we could go, one would start explaining to us slowly, another would interrupt...Then the policewoman tried. She said something like 'douce'. We shrugged. She asked again, "Douce, douce?" We had no idea what she was trying to say.Then, one of the … [Read more...]
The FERRY
I had been on a ferry before - to Essel World. I knew all about ferries, I thought. In any case, what was to know? Five hundred people on a boat that could accommodate about three hundred, all carrying fish and other things I did not want to identify. That was what we were prepared for.Like vagabonds, having roamed the streets of Bari all day, we reached well in time for our ferry to Greece. We were tired and dirty, waiting to reach Greece and have a much-needed bath.Then we saw the ferry.It was not a ferry in my dictionary. It was not even a ship; it was a SHIP.We felt almost untouchable on that ship, gaping at it with starry eyes. There was a red carpet and an escalator. There were lounges (in the plural), a Mariners' Club, a swimming pool, a gaming zone, 'playland' for children, a cafe, bars...We mustered what confidence we could to get onto the boat like scruffy … [Read more...]