A tour of Milan

After a crappy night sleep and a luke warm shower I departed the Hostel determined to walk the soles off my feet and do Milan in one day. First stop was a cafeteria not far from the hostel for a cafe machiatto, I thought i said it well but something gave me away as not being Italian, but anyhow I got a great coffee and a glass of water for 1.40 euros. Milan is a very "zig zaggy" town so I kept the sun in my face as much as possible and found the real Milan in no time at all. Magnificent narrow cobblestoned streets, old rickety trams, new modern trams, Juliet balconies everywhere and dog poo all over the place. I think everyone in Milan owns a dog, since they all live in apartment type homes then thgey walk them a lot and don't opick up after them (with apologies to the one elderly lady who did pick up after her dog). So while the sensational buildings and grand architecture make you keep your gaze skyward, it does pay to keep one eye to the ground. If anyone is interested I did manage to avoid standing in Italian dog poo.


I found magnificent public park complete with fairground and dodgy side show operators (now we know where they all go when the Royal Melbourne Show is not on), joggers, and lots of families and, of course, lots of dogs and the occasional doggy by-product. I said uno due to a fellow jogging past with a football which he duly obliged by passing the ball to me and running past for the return; I did not however to play kick to kick with him for the next 15 minutes but is was fun. A brief chat later (when he found out I was from Australia I was exotic, I could use this to my advantage later) he carried on his jog with the ball. His football skills were a lot better than mine, I had to decline a "keepy-uppy" contest because all he would have to do was get to two to be the winner. Just outside of the park another magnificent building was the acquarium. The fountain out the front had a Hippo head squirting water into a crystal clear carp pond, which while not remarkable was certainly different. The old palace was also a sight to behold and made me wish my camera had power. Anyhow I found a use for my SIM-less IPhone and took some photos which worked out okay. In frustration at not being able to buy a cable to charge my Kodak I later bought a new camera.
　
Next was Castello Sforzesco, the photos on facebook speak for themselves. I'm not sure that we could ever build anything like this anymore, I suppose there is no need. Maybe if John Howard was still prime minister he might have renovated the Lodge to something similar, people let him get away with a lot of stuff so he could have tried his hand at that.

Knowing there was a game on at the San Siro I decided to find a good pub and watch the game on TV. I could have gone to the game, there was plenty of empty seats but I am determined that my first game in Europe will be Liverpool v Manchester City, nothing else will do. The pub atmosphere was great, the people very friendly and I was once again exotic, I could get used to the fame very easily . It wasn't looking great for the hosts in the first half but a second half blitz saw them get home 5-1 against Genoa. Inter by the way, I wouldn't watch AC if you paid me, well it depends how much I suppose, if you were to offer me $1000,00 for example to watch them then i think I would take you up on the offer but I wouldn't cheer, that would cost $2000.00 but it wouldn't be sincere. Sincerity would cost extra and would need to be negotiated at the time.


Back to the hostel via the supermarket. I had an evil plan to buy some cheese and wine to break the ice in that morgue that passed for the guest lounge. The supermarket was small, about the size of an Aldi but if the deli was in Australia it would have been called gourmet; Reggiano that would have been $40.00 dollars a kilo in Melbourne was not more that 10-15 euros here and what a great selection. My evill plan did work but not initially how i expected, the first person i got acquainted with was Mark, a pom originally from Sheffield but now living in Nottingham. We talked about the Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs as they were bands he would be familiar with from his home town, and while we got along famously, I did not go to Italy to talk to poms. Next however was Linda, a gorgeous young lady who was born in Tunisia, lived in Venice but was spending time in Milan for work. She could speak french, italian and english.  Once again she thought I was exotic, I was thinking the same about her. I awarded her with the Royal Order of the Koala.


Making mistakes is human, repeating mistakes is stupid, so after nearly topling Mt bunkbed on myself again I promptly chastised myself and did it correctly. It was hard to stop pissing myself laughing when the bloke on the bunk next door did exactly the same thing, dumb arse.


Another dreadful night's sleep then off to the Metro for a train to Centrale Stazione and then to Marseille. I don't know why other people in this Hostel don't consider others when they persist in constant chatter all night but then again, it was cheap accomodation,  and I would never have had that great evening drinking vino rosso, eating cheese and talking to the very common mark and the very exotic Linda ROK (Royal Order of the Koala).