Hey, hey, hey! I’ve been enjoying my spring break and FINALLY had the chance to do some traveling. With the whole apartment mess, I had to cancel a ton of my traveling plans. Oh well, life happens! Anyway, let’s catch up from where I last left off. It was Easter, I was homesick but Isma treated me to a day in the mountains. Then it was study time and examinations. Kill me. But hey, there was fun to follow the not so fun so I hope you enjoy!!!
Tuesday 04/06: most boring day ever. Breakfast. Study. Lunch. Study. Study. Study. Attempt to kill myself. Study. Grocery store. Dinner. Study. Sleep.
Wednesday 04/07: I woke up at the crack of dawn to finish preparing for my exam at 10:30 am. I was counting down the minutes until examination period was donezo. See this is the thing…I sort of forgot that I was abroad to do work so that may or may not mean I wasn’t exactly up to date on my reading.. In other words, I had a shit ton to cover. Guess I learned my lesson and now know not to procrastinate. Then again, though, it’s pretty difficult when you’re in Europe and have the world to explore. Wouldn’t you agree?
Anyway, the exam went pretty well but it was trickier than I thought, which was a disappointment. Fingers crossed that I did all right, though.
I bumped into Ava as I was leaving Bocconi and found out that they found a different apartment. Originally I had contacted this guy who needed someone to fill his room. Unfortunately the space was a little expensive for just myself but he was willing to make it a double. Since the girls had wanted to stay together, I figured that it might be an option for them and passed along the information. I had found a place and they were still in need, so why not? I sent this guy a message, told him about the girls, and put them all in contact. And what do you know? All turned out to perfection and Ava and B are moving in. No more “dungeon” for any of us. Thank the lord for that.
After leaving Bocconi, I felt like wandering. I had been cooped up for the past couple of days and needed sun on my face and was gasping for fresh air. I walked for what seemed like forever, going in and out of stores, attempting to discover new treasures. I’ve been searching for a bracelet to add to my wrist of “never take me offs.” Each bracelet I currently keep on my left wrist has significant meaning and therefore, never comes off I want to find something in Milano that reminds me of my experience and the love I’ve developed for this city. I discovered a pretty sick little silver shop and spent my sweet time looking through the cases until I came across a fatty piece of turquoise on a silver beaded bracelet. The bracelet itself was so-so but the piece of turquoise was flawless. Fortunately, the woman who owned the shop said we could change the beads to accommodate my wants. Too bad she was impossible and kept trying to convince me of something I didn’t want. Oh and don’t forget her ‘tude. She kept talking on the phone every time I tried to finalize what we were trying to establish. I ended up giving up on that little endeavor and peaced. Another bracelet is bound to present itself in good time.
Isma wanted to have lunch in one of his favorite outdoor restaurants because the weather had finally decided to embody this thing called beautiful. Sun was shining from every direction, there was a perfect whisper of breeze, and smiles grazed the faces of every street-walking Italian. Gelatos in hand of course.
I met Isma near Porta Genova and he picked me up in route to the lunch. When we arrived, we managed to get the best seat in the house. I swear this man knows everyone. We were smack dab in front of the garden, sun glittering on my face. Blissful? Hmm, let me think about that one...
Lunch was pretty good but nothing special. We were both a little disappointed by the quality of the food but I was decently satiated so I couldn’t complain. Isma promised they were usually better and I believed it. If there is one thing that man knows, it’s good food in this city. Goes without saying we were meant to be friends.
After lunch, you know I was down for gelato and Isma has a hard time turning one down so we stopped by a place on my list of “must-haves.” It didn’t live up to its reputation and I wasn’t impressed. Due to my dissatisfaction, after I left Isma to spend the day on my own, I stopped by Chocolat. Two gelatos a day is always better than one. For all of those shaking their heads, come to Italy and then you’ll agree.
The rest of the day was spent walking around, soaking up each breath of fresh air. That’s somewhat of an ironic statement seeing that Milan doesn’t exactly scream clean but whatever, outside is outside. By the time my day ended, I was absolutely exhausted. I had walked the streets for hours and finally made my way home only to plop straight down on the couch and pass the heck out to an episode of Sex and the City.
Isma came home and startled me from my rest. We had plans to go to one of his beloved little restaurants. Blitz is a small, family-owned place that’s been around since the 70’s. The restaurant is covered with pictures and all the tables are tightly nestled next to one another. It’s a funny little spot.
Dinner was amazing, per usual. I devoured my huge salad that was so lovely adorned with avocado. Damn do I miss that stuff. Next was a pasta that had me debating licking the plate clean. It featured eggplant, one of my most coveted vegetables. Let’s just say there was nothing left when the waiter came to clear the table. I got another one of those “really?” looks. Too funny these Italians questioning my stomach size.
When dessert came around, the waiters brought us a bunch of piggy jars filled with cookies and candies. Talk about a cute and unique idea. I wanted fresh fruit so that’s exactly what I ordered. I was stuffed to the brim by the time I made it home and landed onto the couch for a movie and relaxation time with Isma and Olha. The exam was over and that whole school thing wouldn’t harass me until finals time.
Thursday 04/08: Olha and I were lazy bums and slept in all morning. I don’t even remember when we actually woke up but I’m going to guess it was some ridiculous hour in the afternoon. We’re growing girls, so no judgment.
While Olha showered, I made myself a nice little breakfast before getting dressed and ready to go. Olha had dropped the bomb that she had planned on taking me to her agency, NEXT, to meet with her booker and the rest of the staff. Today was the day apparently. Could the girl be anymore amazing?
Walter picked us up at the apartment and before I knew it, we were in the office and I was shaking hands with someone named Alberto. Walter, Olha, and Alberto talked back and forth in Italian before Alberto turned to me and asked me to follow him into a private office. I was introduced to the “team” and he looked at me and said, “We really like you and would love to get started. It’s a yes! Come in on Monday to meet with the owner and get final approval to sign.” Woah, did that all just happen in 10 minutes? Apparently the whole process was a lot simpler than I thought. Beside myself, I was living on cloud 9. I might actually have the potential to work in Milan for one of the best agencies in the world. God must be looking out for me. Olha was super excited and bragged, “I told you so!” No words to express my feelings. Simply lucky. Oh and this little thing called, blessed.
Since Olha hadn’t eaten anything, we found a cute restaurant and sat to order something. Two seconds later, up walks a platinum blonde Russian in black boots and a leather jacket. Svetla is Olha’s best friend in Milano and, of course, a model. She’s a few years older than Olha and has been working in the business for quite some time. Oh and just for the record, she gives Angelina Jolie a run for her money with the whole pouty lip territory. 10-15 minutes after Svetla showed up, Mario arrived with the birthday girl from last week. We all sat and mingled until Walter decided it was time for a change of scenery.
We walked back to the car and 5 of us piled into the car. Walter wanted to stop by his buddy’s bar near Corso Como for some aperitivo. On the way, we swung by a casting and picked up another model friend of theirs, Elena. The four of us snuggled tightly in the backseat until we showed up at the bar. Nothing special but free aperitivo so no complaining.
For an hour or so, the group of us just kicked it at Walter’s buddy’s before heading home. We were meeting up again later on at that lounge Bambu to be followed by 11 and The Club. Olha and I made dinner, got cleaned up, and threw something on. Can’t forget the 5-inch black boots I threw on. Don’t hate.
Bambu was really fun. I ended up meeting these two hilarious guys that were, for some reason, totally infatuated with the fact that I live in SD. Giuliano had studied at UCSD years ago and wants to move back to sunny, San Diego one day. I don’t doubt him; best place in the world. Nello, the other guy, couldn’t get over how tall I was and they decided to nickname me “la grande.” Thanks guys, I really love being called the big one.
We left Bambu after an hour/two hours to head over to 11. 11 is super swanky and has a total chiller vive. You walk up this spiraled staircase with a giant crystal chandelier that dangles down the middle. Our private table had a giant velour couch that hugged up against the wall. It was heavenly. The music is amazing and Olha and I couldn’t help but dance. The rest of the table was popping bottles of Moet and lighting sparklers. I swear, these people never rest. One hell of a life.
Marco Fendi was there and we were having so much fun chit-chatting on the couch. He was telling me all about this huge art project that he was working on and the dinner he was throwing in celebration of it. Marco wanted me to show in it and wear the designs but the date of the event coincides with my trip to Budapest and Vienna. While walking in a private Fendi showing would have been unreal, I knew that there was no way to just break off the trip with Brittany. We booked the whole things more than a month ago and I wasn’t about to just bail out on her. Everything happens for a reason so I have faith that something great will come along next. When I broke the bad news to Marco, he said he’d just have to plan something else special to make it happen. Love you Marco!
From 11 we made our way to The Club. I legitimately despise this place but Olha insisted I join. Our table was great and I had fun dancing but it’s impossible to breathe inside. To every direction is smoke floating upwards and poisoning your nose and lungs. Just my cup of tea…NOT. I stayed for a pretty decent amount of time before my eyes were watering too hard and I couldn’t stand another second. I stepped outside and a friend of the group’s, GG, followed me. I had met him earlier on that night in the club and had talked to him for a minute. Anyway, he followed me out and asked if I wanted company. Sure, why not. We talked for a while until I was just ready to get out of there and get home. The driver, Alessandro, whipped me home and made sure I didn’t have to take a cab back by myself. Door to door service? I most certainly don’t mind.
I came in, took a quick shower and hopped into bed. All in all, it had been a great day.
Friday 04/09: Go figure, I woke up super late and had the whole day to do whatever my little heart desired. I decided to pamper myself that morning with a long hot shower, scrub down, and hair washing. Perfection. I followed it up with blow drying the locks and dolling my face up. Then I hit the town.
I walked from the apartment into the center, which is a pretty decent walk. The weather outside was beautiful and I love walking so the combination wasn’t one I was turning down.
I spent my day running errands and doing a little shopping. I picked up my favorite perfume from La Rinascente and moseyed into a few stores to try on a couple things. No finds but I had fun exploring.
I was tired and headed up only to meet Isma at the apartment. He had been in a funky mood all week and I couldn’t tell what was up with him so I did my best to cheer him up and spend a little quality time with him before Olha got home.
Isma and I were making plans to go grab some dinner when Olha called me to tell me about an event that she was taking me to tonight. Apparently Walter and Mario had invites to a Playboy Party and we were all supposed to come along. One of the women who was joining was a shoe designer and had wanted to show off some of her designs so home with Olha came a pair of shoes I was supposed to wear. It was a whirlwind of plans in about two minutes but I was up for the adventure.
Olha and I tried to convince Isma to come with but he wasn’t having it. He insisted on going back to the office for a while. I felt so badly for skipping out on dinner with him, especially with the mood he had been in all week, but I didn’t want to disrespect the woman by refusing her shoes for the evening. I promised Isma a raincheck.
The event was supposed to be somewhat nice so Olha and I dressed up. I threw on a satin dress and strapped on those heels. I was ready to go.
The Playboy Party was, not to be rude, super lame. The event was supposed to be a dinner and that it was not. I had to use my fingers to stuff my face full of appetizers and we were served some sushi but nothing substantial. I was dying. I hadn’t eaten dinner purposely because Olha told me it wad a dinner event. Oh well. We did meet, however, this hilarious old guy who is apparently the biggest Playboy man in Italy. He dated Bridgette Bardoux and a couple other big name stars. Walter was stoked on meeting him. It was adorable.
The group decided to leave the event early and head towards Corso Como for another round of 11 and The Club. Before we made our way, though, we stopped by the bar from the other day so that Walter’s buddy could whip us up something to eat. Thank the Lord.
Once stomachs were full, the giant group of us made our way over to 11 for some dancing. I was having an amazing time and enjoying ever second of the night until I found out that we off to The Club. I told Olha I was going to grab a cab home because I had absolutely no desire to go in. The place sucks. Every time I go, I end up feeling like crap and just want to go home. Unfortunately, Olha told me that I needed to go in order to show off the shoes for a little while. Damnit.
I sucked it up and stayed for a little while until I was hacking up a lung and needed to break outside. Once again, GG (remember the guy from the other night) followed me outside. He’s a rather interesting person but pretty intense. GG is super into the spirit and mind, taking the mind to new levels, and all this stuff about energy and what not. He believes in different mental dimensions and was telling me all about this stuff. That he kept discussing happiness in life and how money doesn’t provide any of that, etc, etc, etc. Well anyway, the conversation was an interesting one but I was ready to get home so I told him I was getting ready to leave. He insisted on driving me home. I talked to Olha and she assured me that there was no danger there whatsoever. I trust her so I accepted his offer.
GG thought it’d be nice to get some tea or coffee and I was very in the mood for a tea so I said yes. As we made our way to his car, I realized that I was about to hop into a fatty black Porsche Cayenne. Hmm, was this not the guy who just said that flashy things and money meant nothing?
Well anyway, he drove us around trying to find a place to get something nice. First he took me to the Bvlgari Hotel. Closed. He followed that up with the Four Seasons. Also, closed. I said that I didn’t need anything that I could make my own tea at home. Apparently that was not an option because he proceeded to drive around until we came across one little place that was still open. Granted it was something like 3 am so it wasn’t too much of a shocker that the city was dead.
We sat and talked for a little while about who knows what. Unfortunately, GG speaks crappy English and when he tries to explain things he just rambles on and on and on, hardly making any sense. It’s kind of frustrating. I always do my best to speak in Italian with him but he’s always so into these conversations about energy and the mind, blah blah blah.
About a half an hour in, I was dying. I could hardly keep my eyes open and couldn’t comprehend any of what he kept babbling on about. I apologized for needing him to stop and asked him to please take me home. An hour later, seeing that he talked to me outside for way too long, I was home. Lights out and I was done for.
Saturday 04/10: Today was a boring day spent doing laundry. It was a pain-in-the-ass process this time, though. Isma had told me he would take my things to the laundry mat earlier in the week but that never happened. I had asked him numerous times to show me where to go but because of that weird mood he had been in, that never happened. I was in desperate need of washing so I just sacked up and made the trip to Arco. That meant loading up two huge bags full of clothes and strapping my backpack on with my computer only to take the metro to the Duomo and then trek across three blocks to the tram to make my way to the dorms. Yuck.
When I finally made it there, my back was a goner. Just my luck, only one of the machines was open so that meant the process was going to be a lengthy one. What ya gonna do?
I spent way too much time there throwing in load after the other from washer to dryer. Annoying process but a mandatory one. I did bump into Simone, one of the other students from USC, and she and I chatted it up a bit. I hadn’t really had the opportunity to get to know her properly and she was so incredibly sweet. Other than conversing with Simone, I just did stuff on my computer and ate lunch at a little café across the street.
Finally Olha called me and asked me where I was. I had her keys because we hadn’t made an extra set for me yet. She and Walter were on their way back from Como and were going to pick me up on their way back to the apartment. Phew, thank goodness no more metro/tram lugging.
Right around 7 pm the two came and picked me up. We went from the dorms to Walter’s friend’s house to view their new puppy before finally getting home. Originally I was just going to kick it at the apartment with Olha and Isma but GG got my number had insisted on taking me to one of his favorite restaurants. He was picking me up at 09:30 pm and we’d be grabbing dinner. He seems to love and appreciate food the way I did so I trusted that if I went to dinner we’d be in for a truly delicious dining experience.
He picked me up and this is where the whole night starts. First off, I get in and he is longingly looking into my eyes. He says, “Hi baby.” Who are you calling baby dude? I hope not me. Oh yeah that reminds me, I forgot to tell you that he had called me earlier to make the plans for dinner and with his crap English was trying to talk to me about plans and all about me and some nonsense. He said that I was an angel and the one of his dreams and that he had told his secretary all about “the girl from San Diego who stole his heart in one second.” Oh Lord. Well this shit continued as soon as I got into the car. I thought I had made it pretty clear the other night that I was just interested in friends but apparently when he asked me, “So are you interested in spending time with me? Do you want to get to know me? Find out more about me?” and I responded with, “Yes, I love making new FRIENDS and getting to know people better”, he thought otherwise.
So yes, I get into the car and he takes me hand in his and he is weirdly caressing it and stroking it, telling me all about my energy and the type of person I am just through the message written in my hands. Hmm, okay. We start driving off and he continues to discuss all the things he told his secretary about me and how he is moving to San Diego and how I am the girl he has been searching for. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I’m not pretentious like a lot of the girls he knows. I don’t care about the rich, flashy things. I am blonde and blue eyed. Apparently all these things are what make me the perfect future wife for him. The conversation just continued on and kept getting weirder, of which I no longer even remember probably because I just dismissed it from my mind.
When we finally got to the restaurant he wanted me to decide between the Bistro and the Restaurant. I didn’t care and I think I told him that about 49872398 times but he still insisted on taking me back and forth to make a decision. I was on the verge of screaming when I finally just said, “GG please just pick a restaurant. I have never been to either and while I realize they are both Giangacamo, you know the difference between them better.” He chose the Bistro.
As we walked in, we bumped into Giangacamo himself who popped a bottle of champagne in the honor of GG and my presence. The two of them laughed back and forth in Italian, while I chimed in when I could. All the while, GG is looking into my eyes and telling me random things. So damn weird.
When it came time to be seated, we were given a lovely little table. The restaurant was really cool, resembling an old library stacked with old bookcases. The menu looked good but was pricey, let me tell you. GG demanded I order anything I wanted.
So dinner was pretty yummy but I know that you all want to hear more about the ridiculousness that was coming my way from GG. Well how about this one: I told him that my Dad was going to England to go golfing and he says, “This is perfect. Now I can meet your father and convince him that I will move to San Diego to be with you.” Okay wait woah. I did NOT invite you to England and I don’t even dig you. You are 33 years old and bald, smell like organic spice lotion all the time, and talk about telepathy as our potential means of communication. Yeah that’s right, we had a conversation about telepathy and how all humans are apparently totally capable of it but that they must find the inner energy to emit this power. The guy was making absolutely no sense especially in his broken English and I was just getting frustrated. I kept arguing that telepathy is only capable by one who believes in it. If you don’t have any faith in the power of telepathy then there is no way in hell it’s going to work. He kept nodding along with everything I said but then would tell me, “Me sorry, I no understand.” Oh my effing God. That meant me having to re-explain things a good 2-4 times. This happened numerous times throughout the night until I would usually just say, “let’s end this conversation and move onto something that you will understand.” I didn’t mean to sound bitchy but come on, why are you going to talk about something like the government or economic policy when you can barely explain yourself clearly. He would ramble on and on in circles and repeat the same things over and over and over again. I was ready to rip my damn hair out. I had absolutely no focus on what he was saying and would make my best attempt to contribute something important.
There was one conversation we did have where the issue of language was brought up. He completmented me on how well I spoke Italian and how quickly I had learned it. I asked him if he ever planned on learning English, to which he responded, “I no care about learning English. For me its stupid and useless.” You tard, you are speaking to someone whose Native tongue is English. I was so irritated and explained that the English language is actually the most commonly used language in the business world and allows for the most communication amongst different speaking countries. To his, he just kept poking at the fact I was “defending” my country and how cute that was. That just ticked me off and I was getting more and more irritated with every word he uttered.
Let’s not forget that when he asked me if I was a virgin and I responded yes, he clasped his hands and then took mine to continue doing that weird stroking and caressing of the fingers. He followed that up with some sort of energy routine where he tried to make my hand levitate. Weirdo. Oh and then he starts talking about how I am a virgin for him and that I am no perfect. He then started to rub my head and play with my hair at the dinner table. OH MY LORD. Oh it gets better though. When I went to the bathroom, he watched me all the way there and all the way back. When I sat down, he says to me, “Your legs are the most beautiful, perfect legs that God has ever made.” Then he proceeds to take them in his hands and rub them. Not okay. I kindly removed his grasp and scooted away.
The night was full of utter nonsense and irritating conversation and rambling and whatever else the hell he wanted to add to the night. When it came time to get the bill and leave, he accidentally stepped on my foot. God forbid he do that because he then took my leg and foot and kissed them all over, apologizing for the mistake. Dude, relax it’s just a foot and I’m wearing converse, I will survive.
GG insisted that he take me to the best gelato in the entire city, which I had heard about and had wanted to visit. I was ready to go home but he was not so he proceeded to drive around trying to find it. It was closed by the time we got there. Oops, oh well, let’s go home. Nope he just keep talking and driving around the city. I focused more on the crazy snowing of flowers from the trees than I did his conversation. It was a super windy night and all the little white flowers on the many trees were showering this weird pollin into the air. The wind had it circulating around us and it looked like it was snowing. Way cooler than listening to GG try to explain the transition from delta state of mind to theta, none of which made sense in his Italianized English.
When he finally dropped me off, I was more than ready to be home. He was a really sweet person but just so out there and said way too many creepy things and kept trying to make me think that I was someone special when in reality, I’m sure the guy just wanted to take me home. You picked the wrong girl, sucker.
I thanked him for dinner and for all of his hospitality and said goodnight. He was not happy that I didn’t lean in for either a hug or a kiss but I didn’t want any more weirdness to go down. I’d hit my limit for sure.
I zipped up the stairs, got into the apartment, showered, and got ready for bed. I had been coughing a ton in the car and hadn’t been feeling to well. When I was finally back at the apartment I really didn’t feel too great and tried to just rest. I fell asleep in no time and hoped that the morning would bring a better feeling.
Sunday 04/11: I woke up only to find that what I thought might be a small cold had turned into a full-blown plague. When I finally opened my eyes it was 01:30 pm and all I wanted to do was turn back over and sleep off whatever illness was poisoning my body.
I walked out to find Isma getting ready to go the pharmacy because he, too, was experiencing the sore throat, mucus-clogged throat (yeah tmi, get over it), achy body, and heinous cough. He hacked his way around the apartment until he made it out. I made myself a giant cup of tea and climbed under the comforter on the couch.
A little while later, Isma showed back up at the house with gelato for the both of us. Apparently, Italians like to cure sore throats with ice cream. Brilliant medicinal concept if you ask me. We oohed and aahed at the cool sensation over our burning throats before I passed out and didn’t wake up for a good 4 hours.
The rest of the day was spent on the couch and watching movies with Isma. He had to head back out again later on to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy so I made a little something to eat. Too bad Isma brought back another gelato for another “soothing” therapy. I wasn’t complaining.
We made some more tea and vegged until we decided that sleep was much needed. Fingers were crossed that tomorrow would be a day with clear breathing and the ability to speak for more than 5 minutes without coughing up a lung.
Monday 04/12: Isma had to take off early in the morning to get to Bergamo and Olha was still in Como with Walter so it was just me in the apartment. Still not feeling too hot, I took a nice long shower and washed my hair. I spent the morning more or less just primping. I dried my hair, shaved my legs, moisturized the bod, made myself a nice breakfast, watched a little Will and Grace, dolled myself up, and got dressed and ready to go.
I decided that it was a pretty day and that I wanted to walk rather than take the metro to the city center. Stupid idea seeing that I was sick but I’m stupid sometimes. It was a long ass walk but hey these legs were made for walking, so that’s just what they’ll do. (No pun intended.) I ended up doing a little shopping and found a couple cute finds before making my way to Isma’s office. He had called me earlier and asked me if I wanted to grab lunch. I was starving so I was all in. I know I spend a lot of time with him but I genuinely think he just yearns the companionship. He’s such a sweet man and at times I feel perhaps he’s lonely, which is exactly why he likes to spend quality time talking or enjoying great food and conversation. He’s always looking out for me, making sure I’m okay, and feeing all right. Since I got sick, he’s been so sweet, constantly checking up to assure that I’m a-okay. He’s definitely adopted that fatherly role and it’s really comforting being so far away from my own family.
Anyway, I met Isma and had a delicious chicken salad and fresh bread at a great little café around the corner from his office. When we finished, I parted ways and continued running errands and shopping around. I wanted to meet with Flaca and Vincent for gelato seeing I haven’t seen them in 22986461097 days but they were both busy in class. Blah.
I figured it was time to head home when it started raining. That and I wasn’t feeling too great. I needed to get some tea and medicine in me and bundle up in my giant comforter. When I unlocked the door and got situated in the apartment, I got everything ready to go and wiggled my way into the perfect little spot on the couch only to drift off into dreamland.
Isma came home and wanted to go out for dinner. I wasn’t about to turn that option down so I hopped in the car and we were getting ready to take off when Olha called and said she was coming home from Walter’s and wanted to come too. Isma and I made a couple laps around the block and waited for her to come home before all making our way out for Mexican. Unfortunately the place Isma and Olha wanted to take me was closed. This started the wild goose hunt for a legit Mexican place, which in the end resulted in a big fight between Olha and Isma. Olha kept arguing with Isma about where she wanted to go and that Isma didn’t know anything, etc, etc. Isma had it up to here and insisted that we go where she wanted but that he wouldn’t eat. I sat awkwardly in the front seat trying to calm everyone down and remind them that it wasn’t worth fighting over. The response? Pure silence.
When we finally found a place to eat, the air had cleared and we enjoyed a lovely dinner. Nothing too special but the food was nice and I cleared my plates, as did the rest of the crew.
Home sweet home, I showered and slipped into pajamas. I was feeling worse and needed to get to sleep. I was supposed to meet the ex-roomies in the morning and much earlier than I would have liked. Thus, sleep was obligatory.
Tuesday 04/13: I woke up with the intent of going to meet Ava and Blakeney to finalize everything with Anna, our old landlord, in order to get back our security deposit. Unfortunately when my alarm went off, I had a fever and was hacking up a storm so I opted out of the meeting in an attempt to get better for my upcoming trip. I slept another 3 hours until my phone rang and my bbm was buzzing off the hook. When I managed to lift myself out of bed to grab my phone, I was startled to hear Ava on the other line rather upset. Apparently the meeting had not gone as planned and there was a lot of frustration and yelling back and forth between the girls and Anna. Based on the information being shared, Anna wasn’t giving back our security deposit and the girls had to pay a full months rent for the half month they stayed in the apartment. Ava said that things got so heated that at one point Anna threatened to call the police. Uh oh. I told the girls not to worry one bit and that all would get squared away. I was going to call Anna, set up a time to meet with her personally and would also talk to Isma just for backup’s sake. No stress. We’d figure it out.
I got myself dressed and ready to go meet Isma at his office. Despite my feeling super faint and disgusting, he insisted on taking me to lunch. I also needed to print all the necessary documents for my travels and he suggested I do so at his office. Sounded like a plan to me.
He met me at the metro stop near his office and I hopped in the car. On the way to the restaurant I explained the apartment mess. He assured me that there would be no police involvement. There was no denying that we never had a formally drafted contract therefore legality didn’t have any legitimate place in regards to the situation. Exactly what I predicted. I got a hold of Ava and told her not to sweat the situation. I was going to make my way over to Anna’s after lunch to see what I could figure out.
After Isma and I went back to the office and printed off what I needed, I walked off towards Anna’s and perhaps a little gelato? Yeah, who am I kidding, of course I got gelato. But anyway, I showed up to the apartment and chit chatted with Fernando, the doorman, for a little. He asked me why I hadn’t come in the morning and explained that the ladies had been screaming at one another. Oh god. It doesn’t help that the three of them never got along too well so I can only imagine the chaos that erupted when dealing with something as serious as the situation at hand.
Fernando sent me up to Anna’s and I was prepared for the worst. When she opened the door, though, she greeted me with a big hug and offered me both something to eat and drink. She and I sat down to discuss the whole misunderstanding and try to come to some sort of final agreement about the apartment, rent, and deposit. The whole thing had been blown totally out of proportion. Anna never threatened them nor did she tell them that we wouldn’t get the money back or that we’d have to pay some ungodly amount for the rent. The language barrier between Anna and the girls had created way too much confusion about what was being laid out. Thank the dang Lord I speak Italian. Just wish I had been there that morning…who knows, maybe we could have avoided this whole situation! The poor girls were really upset and Anna was frustrated. It was no good all the way around.
By the time I left, everything was 100% under control. Anna would give us back the security deposit as soon as the girls paid the rent. Completely rational. The issue with the rent, however, was that the girls hadn’t given her enough time to show and rent the apartment to another tenant. For the month of April, unless she found someone to rent the apartment, the girls would have to pay the full month’s rent. It’s a sucky situation seeing that they were only there for less than half a month and I feel really bad that they have to pay the rent but at this point, it is what it is. I promised Ava and Blakeney that I would take care of the whole thing and handle giving their money to Anna. Ava and B were not fans of Anna and I didn’t mind figuring it all out.
Anna gave me a big hug goodbye and invited me to dinner at her house in the next few weeks. She really can be so incredibly sweet! The two of us walked down the street and ran a quick errand together (both needed to photocopy a few things) before parting ways. I’d be in touch with her sooner than later to give her the girls’ rent and retrieve our down payment.
I headed back towards the apartment and managed to turn the wrong way, leaving me with what turned into a 45-minute walk. Seeing that I love to be outside and walking in the fresh air, I had no complaints.
By the time I got home, however, I was so exhausted and ready for some downtime. Too bad I still needed to pack and get a few things done before my early ass flight. Translation: Downtime was out of the question.
Isma made dinner and I continued to pack and do far too many things on my computer. I was registering for classes the next day and that meant stressing about what to take, when, and what filled my requirements. Annoying.
It was 2:00 am when I crawled into bed and my alarm was set for 04:30. Best night’s sleep ever here I come!
Wednesday 04/14: The sleep I was hoping to get turned into no sleep. I tossed and turned the whole 2+ hours, coughing and trying to get comfortable. Success? None.
When my alarm did go off, I hopped out of bed and got myself ready quickly. I threw the last of the last in my bag, threw my backpack over my shoulder, popped an apple in my mouth, and started walking the few blocks towards the train station. Brittany and I were meeting there to take a bus to the Bergamo airport, from which our plane was departing.
The bus ride was easy and spent catching up with Brittany. I hadn’t seen her for the last 2+ weeks of spring break because her mom had been visiting and I had been dealing with crappy apartment issues. As you can imagine, we had tons to catch up on, which made for the perfect time killer.
The airport, for being so small, was actually really nice. 1. It was clean. 2. They had cute little cafes to sit and relax. And 3. There weren’t crowds of annoying, weird people. Speaking of people, I did, however, bump into Brian. If you don’t remember, Brian is one of the guy’s from SC also studying at Bocconi. He is such a nice guy. He, too, was off to Budapest for the weekend so we found seats together on our open-seating flight. I was actually quite impressed with the flight: smooth take off and a perfect landing. Thatta boy pilot.
Once we landed, we quickly found the bus we had booked ahead of time and made our way towards the city center. We weren’t going straight to the boys’ apartment but to a more general area of the city that we would then have to catch a cab from. No biggie…or so I thought. Before we could grab a cab, I needed to get some money from the ATM. Hungary uses a currency known as the forint, which let me tell you, is WAY different than any euro or dollar. Enter ridiculous bank story. So I go into the bank to take out money for both Brittany and I seeing that my account doesn’t get charged any stupid fees. I found a bank and walked in. Interesting fact about Budapest: NO ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH. So yeah, it took a good 10 minutes before someone finally understood that I was asking what the Hungarian currency actually was (didn’t know at this point). Simple enough question I thought but god forbid they respond with “forint.” Then I asked how much one forint was to a dollar or to a euro. Nope, couldn’t help with that one either. Fed up and getting frustrated, I headed to the ATM outside to withdraw money. I’ve used an ATM plenty of times before so I figured it wouldn’t be all too difficult. Wrong. They had 6 different options, just like they do at any ATM. I picked the largest amount, which was 100, and assumed that it would equate to something around 250 Euro or so. In Italy, the highest option, unless you press “other”, is generally 250 so I put two and two together and hoped for the best. Big mistake. The ATM spit out 100 THOUSAND forint. Yeah those fu*&# didn’t tell me that everything was done in thousands. Apparently Hungarians like to deal with ridiculous numbers when it comes to currency.
Having just taken out the equivalent of more than $515 American dollars, I was hating on Budapest. Things only got better when we were scooted into the nastiest cab I’ve ever been in, toothless old man included. Oh and once again, no English was spoken. He starts rambling off in Hungarian and I’m looking at him with a blank stare, shaking my head, and saying, “Dude, I don’t understand.” That didn’t stop him from babbling on in one of the world’s most difficult languages to understand. It’s #2 in the most challenging languages to learn too.
When we finally reached our stop, I was beyond relieved. Get me out of this dang cab. Oh but I was hopeful all too soon. I handed him one of the five, 20,000 forint bills that I had been given by the ATM machine. Old Toothless just looked at me and waved his hands, shouting bogus words aloud. Mister, why do you keep talking? I don’t get a damn word that’s coming out of your mouth. I finally understood that his shaking of the head and waving his hands at me meant that 20,000 forint was way too much and that I needed change. Start my wild goose hunt for change. It took 11 stores and 6 people who told me they spoke English but were obviously lying to finally find one person who DID speak English and was able to actually change the money. Everyone else looked at me like I was crazy when I showed them the 20,000 forint bill. Really Budapest? Why do you make 20,000 bills if NO ONE takes them?
Once I found change, I handed it to the guy, who then demanded a tip. I was over dealing with him for a second more so I let him keep the change and peaced. I threw my bag over my shoulder and treaded into the rain in attempt to find the boys apartment. We had to wait outside for a little until Max came down. Upon seeing him, I was feeling much better. Max and Max are two of my beloved boys from SC, both of whom are studying abroad in Budapest for the semester. I absolutely adore the two of them and lucked out big time when they agreed to host Brittany and me for the night. What better way to spend my only night in Buda than with two of my favorite AEPi boys?
Their apartment was huge and really nice…but very much boy inhabited. The place reeked of beer, there were red cups everywhere, the dishes were piled high, trash was abundant, and the best part? They had a proud shelf of over 70 handles of alcohol. Oh boys, gotta love ‘em!
Brittany and I spent some time hanging out with the two of them so I could catch up and get hugs and loves from familiar faces. Then it was off to lunch and exploring for us girls and school for the two boys.
I had been dying to get Subway because well, I miss it and they don’t exist in Italy. Eastern Europe, however, seems to dig their Subway. The boys told us that it was kind of a let down and that we’d probably want to try out a place called La Arriba, which they claimed was just like Chipotle. So yeah, upon hearing the word Chipotle, Brittany and I were sold. We found it pretty easily, ordered our food, and dug into heaven. Oh how I missed Mexican.
After lunch, Brittany and I took off on an adventure to find cheap bathing suits. Budapest is known for their thermal bathes and neither of us remembered to bring suits. Whoops. So yes, we needed something to wear in water and we were determined to come up with a solution. I figured that bathing suits would be stupid expensive this time of year so we might have to think outside the box. We took off for the mall and started looking. We checked every store that might have bathing suits but no luck. Finally, I opted on a lingerie store. Score. While all the women’s stuff deemed a little costly for what we needed, the kids’ stuff wasn’t. So what did I walk away with? Oh that’s right, a 9-11 year old sized pair of boy undies and a 12-year-old girls’ tank bra. Sooooo stylish and sexy.
With our fancy new garments in bags, Brittany and I headed off to take in some history We decided on a place called the Terror House, which featured information and memorabilia from the Nazi and Soviet presence in Hungary over the past century or so. We rented headsets so we could actually make sense of what we were seeing. Good and bad idea. It was really interesting but the recording was WAY TOO LONG. I am talking a history book here. You had to wait in each room for the recording to wait otherwise you’d miss things. Annoying. Overall, I watched some really captivating videos and learned some interesting facts about the terror in Hungary over the years. Talk about one suppressed country. It’s only been a decade or so since they’ve actually been independent.
When we finished our history lesson, we walked the excessive distance to the main statue of the Pest side of the city. See Budapest is actually divided into Buda and Pest, which are separated by the Danube River. Buda is older and more classic, while Pest is an urban region. Anyway, we walked down famous Andrassy Street until we reached the monument and found a beautiful park/pond. There was a restaurant situated right along the water’s edge and seeing we were both tired and parched, the two of us quickly got a table. Still sick as ever, I needed some tea to calm my throat and haggard cough. Brittany opted for a beer and some traditional goulash stew. She couldn’t stop raving. Had I felt better, I probably would’ve gotten some too but hey, when you’re sick you’re sick.
From the restaurant, we made our way to the Bathes. The process of purchasing tickets was a total pain in my ass because once again no one could explain anything in English and all the prices and what not were written in Hungarian. It only took 15 minutes to get a pass to get in and find a dressing room. Oh but then we had to find towels and rent those, which had a deposit on them that you’d only get back once you returned them. Hungary, you are way too complicated for me.
The bathes ended up being really nice but there were so many weirdos there. Let’s just say I saw WAY too many old men in speedos. Their secrets were most certainly out. The medicinal bathes were nice but everywhere we went there were tons and tons of people. The saunas were great too but again too many people. OMG one of the saunas was heated at 100 degrees Celsius. Umm, so yeah I passed on that one.
When Brittany and I had reached our bathing limit, we headed to the dressing rooms to change and head back to the boys’ apartment. When we showed up to our lockers, Brittany’s was empty. In complete and utter panic and wearing nothing but a towel, she was having a mini heart attack. I tried to keep her calm and remind her that the woman overlooking the dressing rooms had probably seen that her locker was unlocked and took her things to a safe place. But in a whirlwind of crazed emotions, she went running off. I mean I don’t blame her. She had her new leather jacket, passport, all her money, train tickets, and everything you could possibly think of in that locker. I probably would have freaked too.
As I predicted, the woman guarding the dressing room had taken all of her things and put them in a security area. Brittany was relieved beyond belief but still a little shaken up. But hey, all was going to be a-okay.
Heading back, I suggested taking the metro. Budapest is the first city in Europe that created an underground railway. The particular line we needed to take just happened to be that specific railway. It was much more shallow to the surface than most metros and had the funniest little chime that played every time we arrived at a stop.
Straight off the metro, we met the boys to grab a set of keys and then parted ways again for dinner. The two of them had to go to dinner with one of the girls also studying abroad, whose parents were visiting. Fortunately the apartment was surrounded by great places to eat. After checking a number of menus, we opted on a place with both delicious food offerings and reasonable pricing. To start, we both ordered pita and aborigine cream with fresh vegetables, which was to die for. We followed that up with a “cook your own meal” of chicken, vegetables, and sauces for dipping. Essentially, they brought us raw chicken breasts marinated in oil and spices, which we then cooked on a hot stone. Both delicious and fun.
Having finished dinner, I was exhausted and in need of a shower. Thank goodness the boys had left me a clean towel to use. Once I dried off, I slipped into pjs, took some cough medicine, and snuggld up into their big chair to register for classes. Lucky me, I had registration at 10 pm European time to finalize my class schedule for next year. Talk about annoying and stressful. Luckiyl I managed to lock in a sick schedule and couldn’t be more excited for next year.
Anyway, so I’m in pjs, face washed and all that good stuff. You think I’m getting ready for bed right? Yeah, not so easy. Unbeknownst to me, the apartment turned into one giant rage-fest with 15 people all downing alcohol and playing beer pong. I think by the time everyone left to go drink at a bar and dance at a club, these people had consumed 4 handles of Vodka and an ungodly amount of beer. I told Brittany to go out with them and have a good time because I wasn’t about to go with. A) That just isn’t my scene and I could care less about smoky, drunken clubs. And B) I was sick as sick could be. With both laryngitis and bronchitis, I could barely speak and coughed every five-minutes. I was having so much fun!
I said goodbye to everyone and attempted to make a cocoon on the couch. As much as I love the smell of beer in my hair, I was thinking “how about not.” I wrapped myself up in blankets, which smelled clean enough, put my hood up, popped a cough drop in my mouth, and drifted off to sleep. I wanted to get up early to see the city and make the most of my last day in Budapest.
Thursday 04/15: I woke up and slipped into the bathroom to get ready quietly. Brittany and the boys didn’t get back until 6 am. It was 9 am now and the last thing I wanted to do was wake them. Before I knew it, though, Brittany slipped in 10 minutes after me. She didn’t want to miss out on the fun of the day. That’s my girl!
We took off from the apartment and made our way towards Buda, searching for a place to call our Vienna hostel along the walk. We needed to call to see what time our check-in was. Depending on what time we needed to be in Vienna, we’d either have little or a decent amount of time in Budapest before hopping on a train to Austria. Our search wasn’t going very well until I finally waltzed into the Four Seasons and kindly requested the use of their phone. The receptionist was a doll, dialed the number, and handed the phone to Brittany. In 5 minutes, we were all taken care of and wouldn’t have to check in until 11 pm. Perfect.
From the Four Seasons, Brittany and I searched for breakfast. We were both hungry and in need of food consumption pronto. Unfortunately, breakfast wasn’t all that simple to find. Really? How hard is to get some eggs, toast, and fruit? Apparently pretty hard. 10 places later, we found a cute little hole-in-the-wall café. The woman working was really sweet but, again, couldn’t speak much English. It took probably 15 minutes to explain that I wanted a fried egg over easy, some bread and jam, a tea, and a bowl of fruit. Her confusion of what I was asking for was so great that even after I showed her in an English/Hungarian dictionary, she had me come back to the kitchen to show her how to make the egg. On top of that, the poor thing ended up forgetting my fruit, which I then had to remind her of later. I think she may or may not have hated me…a lot.
Stomach full, Brittany and I made our way out into the rain to cross the Chain Bridge and climb the hill to the Buda Castle. The scenery was absolutely beautiful but the rain, not so much. At this point, a downpour had graced us with its presence. My vans were soaked and I was getting more and more over Budapest.
My adoration for this city was only confirmed when we had to walk from the castle to the train station (a LONG LONG walk in the rain) in order to buy our tickets to Vienna. We arrived, waited in a line, and then were told to go to another line. We find the other line and are told that the wait is an hour and a half. I then needed to use the restroom, which was going to cost me money. I pretended like I didn’t understand, ignored the guy, walked in, used the bathroom, and walked out. I’d had enough of the bs.
Fortunately, we bumped into two guys who were trying to travel to Slovakia. They weren’t about to wait in this stupid line so they headed off to figure out a solution. 10 minutes later, they come back with good news. Pointing us in the right direction, they sent us to a little office right next to the first line we’d waited in. According to the two of them, there we could easily get tickets, get special deals, and most importantly, could speak in English. Hallelujah! The process of getting our tickets was a breeze and took 5 minutes total. Why didn’t the people in the line next door tell us that? Stupid Budapest.
At this point, Brittany and I were starving. Everyone had been telling us about this place called the Hummus Bar or something like that. Seeing that I hadn’t had hummus in ages and was craving it more and more each day of its absence, I was so in. It was a tiny little place that you had to walk up these tiny little stairs to sit down. The food was amazing, fresh, plentiful, and cheap. I ended up cleaning my plates, yes plates plural, along with all the fresh veggies I had purchased at the market next door. Oh lord, bad idea. I was so excessively full that I couldn’t eat until the next day. (If you want to see just how much I ate, go to my “From Buda to Vienna” Album on Facebook. If it looks big, it was infinitely bigger in real life. Sometimes I think I was born a fat kid in a lanky body. Thoughts?)
Feeling like an oopma loopma, I just wanted to walk around for a bit before heading to the apartment, packing up all our stuff, and making our way to the train station. We said our goodbyes and huge thank yous to the boys before shlepping our bags onto a metro. The metro we took this time was MUCH different than the first. The escalators were so steep that you honestly got nauseated just looking down. Gross, especially with my epic stomachache on board.
We made our train in time, got on, and immediately fell asleep. We’d been walking around all day and my batteries were donezo. That and my plague was having a field day on my bod. I wasn’t feeling too hot.
Pulling into Vienna, I wasn’t all that happy to see it raining. Ugh, no more rain. I was pretty indifferent to everything at this point, though, so I didn’t care about the rain, the heavy bag I was carrying, the disgusting sound of my cough, or the walk we had to make to the hostel.
Once we checked in, I dropped my bag and plopped myself onto the bed. Our room was a tiny little dorm with one bed, an armoire, and a dinky little desk. All the bathrooms were outside and there were shower rooms downstairs. I felt awful for having to share a bed with Brittany given that I never failed to wake up at least twice in the night to a coughing fit. I was praying she didn’t get sick.
We showered, slipped into sweats, and climbed into bed. The bed was incredibly comfortable and I was out in minutes. Unfortunately, I woke up later and couldn’t stop coughing for a good 30. I felt so bad that I just left the room for a little while so I could try to cease the attack. As I said, the last thing I wanted to do was to get Brittany sick or wake the sweet thing up. The least I could do was leave to wake up the hallway instead.
Friday 04/16: I woke up feeling a little better but not significantly so. I was out of cough medicine and would have to wait until getting back to Milan to get another prescription. I’d be relying on wimpy cough drops for the next two days.
From the hotel, we made the lengthy walk to the city center of Vienna. Along the way we kept our eyes out for breakfast. Once again, absolutely no luck. Europeans just don’t dig breakfast the way I do. Every place we walked into only had ham and cheese and other things that most certainly didn’t tickle my fancy. Oh and you’re allowed to smoke in the restaurants in Eastern Europe and that most certainly wasn’t appealing to weasy Wile.
After passing copious restaurants and cafes, we finally found a place that could accommodate. Our food hit the spot and our waiter was an absolute sweetie. He showed us all the places to visit on our map, told us what to see and do, and even asked ME how much I wanted to pay for my meal. Best service ever.
One of the places our waiter suggested seeing was an aquarium/zoo right around the corner. While Brittany wasn’t as excited, I was totally stoked on it. The only way I managed to convince her to pay the admission was via the 9th floor rooftop that gave us a beautiful view of the city.
The aquarium/zoo was so random but so much fun. They had tons of fish and not as many cool animals but they did manage to pull through with alligators and monkeys. Unlike the San Diego Zoo, where monkeys are enclosed in cages, these monkeys were free to roam where they pleased. One little guy seemed to take a liking to me and kept following me around the platform. At one point, I was convinced he was going to try to climb up my leg. Too bad his butt was covered in little poop droppings and I wasn’t about to let him climb up on my nice pants. I prefer my clothing poopless, thank you.
The overall experience of the place was fun and the view from the top was beautiful. I had fun taking pictures with all the animals and enjoyed seeing the grandparents with little ones.
After our walk down childhood lane, Brittany and I followed the waiter’s advice again and found the famous market called Naschmarkt. The second I saw dried fruit, I was in heaven. The first little stand we came up to had a really funny guy that kept making me try every type of thing he had. Thank goodness he did because I would have never tried dried figs before and oh my lord, they are the world’s most amazing things on the planet. If you have never had them, I DEMAND that you go right now to your nearest Trader Joe’s buy a pack (better get two) and dig into deliciousness. I’m not kidding.
The market continued to amaze me as I traipsed onward, ogling every brilliantly colored fruit and vegetable. There was everything you could possible imagine. Fresh bread, dried fruits, hummus (oh hummus!), cheeses, meats, sweets, etc. It was Vienna’s gift to me. I couldn’t get enough of this place. I really really wanted to have lunch there and make a picnic out of all the delicious things but Brittany wanted to hold on until tomorrow. She was a little hummused out and I was too…kind of. We made plans to have our market picnic the next day. I could hardly wait.
I shed a tear as we walked away from the market and towards the center. Soon enough, we found ourselves in the museum district, surrounded by impressive buildings and history galore. Brittany and I weren’t all that into seeing any of the museums other than the Terror Museum, which Brittany was convinced was really far south from the center. We decided to just tour around the main attraction area, go see the St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and then look into a walking tour.
Vienna is filled with shopping. I am talking tons and tons and tons of shopping. Everywhere you looked there were stores. I know it’s going to sound crazy, but I’m pooped on shopping. I like finding interesting, special things rather than always having to parade in and out of these big stores. It’s exhausting. Don’t get me wrong, though, a girl has to shop every once in a while, though.
Anyway, as we strolled around, Brittany and I spotted what looked like a tourism office. We asked about walking tours and were disappointed to find out that they were pretty expensive. Fortunately, though, there were one-hour bus tours that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. Plus they had special offers where you could do two different bus tours or three tours for better rates. Brittany and I both really like learning about the history of the cities we visit so we figured it was a perfect option. The weather wasn’t gorgeous either so being in a bus deemed a nice change of pace.
The bus tours tourned out to be a huge success. The second followed right after the first and we didn’t even have to move buses. We head headsets that explained tons of interesting facts about Vienna, the architecture, the palace, the museums, the history, etc. It was definitely worth the money. I would suggest to anyone that visits, do it!
Hopping off the bus, we were both hungry for lunch. I spotted a Subway earlier and was ready to finally get my 12-incher. I had been waiting for way too long and fingers were crossed that Vienna Subway was better than Budapest Subway. And it was. I ate that 12-inch turkey with a smile and finished every last bite. Yummmmm. My brother would have been proud.
After lunch we walked around a little, did a little hopping, and Brittany found a great gift to buy her dad. I went into some random hat shop and amused myself by trying on a number of absurd looking hats. Yes, I’m really that easily amused.
About an hour in, Brittany started feeling not too hot. We booked it home by foot (a good 35-minute walk) so she could rest a little. She was complaining of serious nausea and we all know how shitty that can be. I just wanted her to feel better.
We spent about an hour or so at the hostel until Brittany decided it was time to head back out. We had been told to try out a place called Sky Bar. It was located on the top floor of a department store and we’d been suggested to go by a couple of people. When we showed up, the crowd was whack and the room smelled of smoke. Granted they have “non-smoking” sections but when those sections are located in the same exact vicinity as the smoking sections, they sort of become smoking sections too. Not that hard to figure out that hot air rises and fills a room. Come on people. Anyway, we were over this place and decided to search for a restaurant that apparently served the best schnitzel in all of Vienna. Too bad we couldn’t find it. Instead, we spotted a Greek restaurant that looked both open and delicious. Perfect combo.
The restaurant turned out to be a total success and Brittany and I had a great time. Better yet, our waiter was Italian and I could finally speak in a language that someone understood. He was pretty impressed with my speaking skills and asked me how long I’d been learning. Only 2 ½ months mister! Italian is such a fun language and I cannot wait to take a class next year and maybe, just maybe, be fluent. That would make living in Italy some time down the road that much better.
After dinner, Brittany and I walked around and went down to check out an area called the BARmuda Triangle. It’s an area in Vienna that is scattered with bars. My interest wasn’t the bars, however. Vienna is known for having the best gelato north of the Alps so you better believe that’s where I was headed. While it was no Italian gelato, it was some dang good gelato. I was happy.
30 minutes after our gelato consumption and random picture taking, Brittany and I made the epic walk home to the hostel. We made record time, too. We were walking at an ultimately impressive speed. Potential speed walkers for the Olympics? Maybe so.
With a shower and a comfy bed to crawl into, the day had been the best of the trip.
Saturday 04/17: Brittany and I didn’t have to check out until 11 am and seeing that we’d covered the mass majority of the city yesterday, we treated ourselves to sleeping in and oh was it wonderful.
We quickly got ready, packed our bags, checked out, and shoved our stuff in the storage room before taking off to grab a quick bite to eat and see the Torture Museum. Turns out that the whole concern for it being so far away was totally bogus. Interestingly enough, it was right next to the aquarium/zoo we’d gone to the day before.
The museum was kind of lame. The figures were so ridiculous and the size of the musem was puny. The only interesting component was the book of a pamphlet they gave us to follow along with the signs written German. It was definitely interesting to learn about all the torture devices but I had been hoping for something a little more gruesome. What can I say; I’m intrigued by that stuff.
As planned yesterday, we were off to the Saturday Flea Market and the delicious food market we’d walked through. Since we had passed on buying stuff to make a picnic lunch yesterday, we figured today was the perfect time to do so. I could hardly wait to stock up my bags with fresh veggies, fruit, bread, and hummus! If you thought I’d gotten enough after my epic and rather sickening consumption on Thursday, you underestimate my hummus eating abilities. Too much hummus just doesn’t exist in my world.
The Flea Market was more or less filled with tons of junk. There were tons and tons and tons of people and we all know how much I absolutely love that…NOT. Digging through piles of other people’s crap, I did come across a little silver bracelet with three charms on it: a K, an angel, and a Scorpio sign (for my Nanikins, of course!). Made for me, right? Seeing it’s been my tradition to buy a bracelet in every city I visit, I knew this was the perfect choice. When I asked for the price, the woman quoted me at 48 Euro. Absolutely not. I bargained my way down to 12.50 and left with my one-of-a-kind antique bracelet. Exciting!
We wandered through the market for a little while longer and I snagged two other little charms to add to the bracelet. I was quite content with my finds but felt bad that Brittany hadn’t found anything. She had really wanted to find a cameo for her mom but everything we came across was cheap and crappy so I refused to let her buy any of them.
As the Flea Market transitioned into the market, my enthusiasm for lunch grew. With choices galore of fresh goodness, I picked up some spinach, carrots, tomatoes, red bell peppers, some apples (for later), a peach, a roll, and an array of hummus choices (tomato, spicy, and original) plus tzatziki. Unfortunately the guy giving me my container of hummus filled it way too much. Round 2 of crazy hummus eating was looming. Oh well!
Don’t think we left that market without grabbing some more dried fruit. I was officially and utterly obsessed with dried figs and every other fruit I’d gotten the day before. By the time I stocked up on all the necessaries, I had spent a good 25 Euro on my dried fruit refill.
Brittany and I couldn’t get out of that market fast enough. There were way too many people to handle and we were both dying to eat our food. We found a little grassy area, parked ourselves, and enjoyed a perfect little picnic on a perfectly gorgeous day. We couldn’t have asked for better weather on our last day in Vienna.
We followed lunch with a walk around the city, enjoying the sun. We ventured through parts of the city we’d seen on our bus tour and strolled along the Danube. If you have plans of traveling, Vienna is a really special place and a pleasure to visit. 50% of the city is covered in greenery and it makes for a wonderful mix between old architecture and the beauty of nature.
Brittany and I decided that we had plenty of time to do something cultural again. Everyone had told us how amazing the Natural History Museum was and one of ten of the best of its kind. We agreed that if it was anything more than 5 euros, we were over it. Well, lucky for us, it was exactly 5 euros at a student rate. Hey, hey, hey.
The museum was in a magnificent building and featured the most impressive collection of animals you’ve ever seen. We are talking about rooms of bird species, insects, reptiles, bears, cats, monkeys, fish, etc. I couldn’t believe how many different types of each category they had collected over the years. It was really cool to experience. That and it made for some great picture taking. Check out the silly pics in my album.
From the museum, we made the long walk back to the hotel to get our things, hop on the metro, and make our way to one of the many other train stations in Vienna. Rather than take a flight from Vienna to Milan, we had booked an overnight train. And lucky for us, too, seeing that all the airports had just been closed down in result of the volcano chaos. Looks like we’d made a really good choice in booking a train rather than a flight, regardless of knowing that the eruption would occur.
Originally, Brittany and I were all excited for our overnighter on the train. That was until we saw our room. Oh. My. God. Smallest, hottest, room of our lives. Our room was a 3-man and we both had assigned beds that bunked along the wall. There was a little ladder to get to each bed and I managed to luck out big time with the assignment of the very bottom bunk. God loves me. Unfortunately for Brittany, she was stuck at the very top and it was about 5, maybe 10, degrees hotter up there. While I was right next to the air conditioner, she was in the tropics of there. I felt so badly for her but I wasn’t about to give up the bottom bunk. I love you Brit but as sick as I was, I needed to comfort. I had a vice-like headache and was coughing like mad.
The train ride was an expected 12 hours 35 minutes. Some 2 hours in, I noticed that we weren’t moving. This continued for about 30 minutes until I finally got out of my “cell” of a bed and found someone working for the train. Apparently all the chaos with the airports had left people relying on the train systems and thus there was a bunch of traffic and backup on the tracks. We’d be standing still for 2 hours. Lord, no.
It felt like Christmas morning when we started moving again. Journey to Milan was in motion. We made another stop a little while later, at which our bunkmate hopped on. She was a sweet little old lady, who I’m still confused as to whether she was German or Italian. She spoke Italian but sometimes it sounded like she had a German accent. I really have no idea. Well anyway, she changed and climbed straight into her middle bunk. Soon enough she was snoring away and I was hating life. I just tried to pretend like I couldn’t hear here. Note: That doesn’t work. But I guess my excessive coughing equated to her snoring. I considered us even.
Sunday 04/18: I hardly slept on that bumpy, crazy train ride. The snoring of my bunkmate didn’t help either. So as you can imagine, when I pulled into central station, I was beyond thrilled to be home.
I walked straight to the apartment, made myself some breakfast, took a shower, and rested on the couch. I managed to get unpacked and clean up my room a little but was generally pretty lazy. Isma wanted to go to lunch a little later so I summoned the energy and got ready to go.
Lunch was delicious and we followed it up with a movie and some napping back at the apartment. Come 5:30 pm or so we looked at each other and realized just how lazy we’d been all day. I had gotten home at 9 am and hadn’t done crap since …well other than eat. So we put our shoes and jackets on and decided to take a nice long walk. It was exactly what we needed. We walked through the gorgeous park near the apartment, which spans quite a good distance and is an absolute pleasure to stroll through. Then we made our way towards the center to shop around. When it started getting pretty late, we turned around. Isma picked up some tulips for my bedroom and then it was time for dinner making.
The rest of the night was spent dealing with the shit of the shit but hey life’s full of shit sometimes. For those familiar, tears are exhausting and so falling asleep was no issue. Unfortunately, school started at 8:45 am the next morning. Can anyone say yuck?
Monday 04/19: As expected, I woke up to my alarm and was too sick to get myself up
and ready for school. I had a fever and was coughing up a storm. I turned back over and fell asleep. My second class wouldn’t start until 1 pm so I had time to rest.
When I finally woke up, had some breakfast, and opened the windows, I was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful day calling my name. The sun was shining and the sky was a magnificent blue. Despite my plague, I was excited to get outside.
The beautiful day was darkened by a little thing called class. School was death. Boring doesn’t even begin to explain. I hate my classes more than I could begin to put into words. They’re miserable. In one of my classes, the teacher for part one, who was horrific (no exaggeration), was just replaced by a French woman. And guess what? She sucks just as badly. Her damn French accent is so heavy that it’s impossible to understand a word she says. Its just blah blah blah blah and blah. For example, she pronounces valley as valet and everything else just sounds all nasal and retarded. I may go bald by the end of the semester from ripping my hair our in frustration.
When class ended, I decided to go home for lunch and to drop off my computer. After that I walked towards the center in order to run some errands and get my new bracelet fixed. It felt so wonderful to be outside in the sun. I spent a pretty decent amount of time running around, trying to take care of a few different things before Isma offered to pick me up on his way home from the office. It was starting to get a little chilly out so that sounded way better than any metro taking.
Before heading home, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up the necessities for dinner. We whipped up some delicious homemade tomato sauce, cooked a steak, and made some vegetables. Mmm, mmm, mmm. No dinner is sufficient without a gelato afterwards so that’s exactly what we did. Isma told me had discovered a new place on his way to work so we decided to walk there. I’d actually seen this place a number of times but hadn’t tried it yet. Good reason, too. The place wasn’t anything special and the gelato was way too hard and lacked legit flavor. Disappointed, we decided to go for round two. Originally we just wanted to see if our favorite place near tto he apartment had banana (my favorite flavor). It’s a rarity to find so we assumed we wouldn’t get any. Well, what do you know? They had it. Round 2 of gelato it was.
With cones in hand, the two of us walked back to the apartment. I was in utter bliss. Best banana gelato I’d ever had. Could’ve died happy in that moment.
Back at the apartment, I showered, did some work on my computer, made some tea, and watched a little TV before climbing under the covers and drifting off into dreamland.
Tuesday 04/20: I slept in nice and late because as you all know, Tuesday is my perfect day. No class until 4 pm. I made a nice breakfast, huddled under the comforter on the couch, and watched a movie on demand. Then I spent my sweet time getting ready, taking a shower, listening to music, and just doing whatever I well-pleased. Today was my day and I had nothing to do.
With time to spare, I decided to take the long way to class. You all know me and how much I love to adventure and discover the new. Along my way, I found two new amazing gelato places, both of which I sampled a cone, as well as new restaurants, an amazing shoe store, and a really sick silver and ethnic jewelry shop.
After my trek across the city, I made it to class. Boredomville once again. I learned nothing. I mean literally, nothing. When 5:45 pm came around, I was begging to get out of there. I took off to get the last part of my bracelet fixed and then continued onward toward home. Once again I took the long way home and discovered little gems about my city.
I walked in the door and was totally pooped. My legs were hurting and I was ready to just crash. It was past 8 pm and Isma still wasn’t home. When he finally did get back, we decided on making dinner and then crashing. Long day for both of us.
Wednesday 04/21: I woke up later than expected and had to bust my ass into gear in order to get to class on time. To my complete and utter surprise and satisfaction, class was enjoyable. Get ready for it…our new teacher is AMERICAN. In other words, speaks comprehensible English. Thank the Lord.
In between class one and class two, Blakeney and I caught up. I hadn’t seen her in forever. It’s so weird not living together anymore and only seeing she and Ava every once in a while. Thank goodness they are really happy in the apartment I had given them the info about. The guy they live with is really nice, the girls have separate beds, and the apartment is both clean and new. I’m really happy it all worked out.
Blakeney and I headed to the French lady class. Ahhhhhhhhh, help! I don’t know how to explain just how horribly awful this class is. I don’t know how in the world I’m going to survive the exams.
I went home, made lunch, and relaxed for a little. The day was beautiful, though, and Blakeney had invited me to meet her in the park to soak up the sun and enjoy some gelato. I started walking back towards Porta Romana and found myself shopping along the way. I went the way I had the day before so I could go into that amazing jewelry store. Thank goodness I did because I came out with two new finds. That and I made friends with the owner. He was so impressed with my Italian speaking abilities that he gave me a special price on my Tibetan turquoise and one-of-a-kind silver bracelet from Toureg in the Sahara Dessert. Not too bad.
Thanks to bbm’s lameness and Italy’s awful network, B and I were having serious issues communicating with each other. I would have called her from my Italian phone but it had so conveniently just run out of credit that morning. Just my luck. Our messages were taking 45 minutes to an hour to go through and this left us having no idea of what the other was doing. In the end we missed each other and had to rain check it.
I decided to make my way up to the WIND store to recharge my phone before going over to Carolina and Mercedes’s apartment. I hadn’t seen those girlies in ages! It was so good to see them and spend some time catching up, snacking (on the most incredible homemade Portuguese soups I’d ever had!!!), and planning future trips before we both head back home. I don’t even want to think about leaving them.
Isma called me with plans to get dinner in Brera. He wanted to take me to a delicious Italian place in the heart of Brera, which as we all know I absolutely love. When we arrived, I laughed because this was the restaurant I had taken my sister to when she was visiting! I guess I really know how to pick ‘em.
Dinner was delicious and I devoured my entire pizza. Oh Italy, how I’ll miss you and your scrumptious food. What am I going to do without you? Guess I’ll just be moving back as soon as graduation comes.
Dinner was obviously followed by gelato and a walk around Brera. Then it was off to the apartment for a quick shower and the drying of my hair. Princess Flaca was celebrating her big 21st birthday before heading off to Amsterdam the next evening for the real day of birth. I hadn’t seen neither she nor Vincent in what felt like 139874509732 years and I couldn’t wait to see them. Going that long without seeing your best friends in the city is a little depressing.
The night was amazing. Flaca looked beautiful, Vincent was just as fabulous as always, and the group we were with was an incredible one. While I had been sick and traveling the previous week, Flaca and Vincent had been living it up in Milan during Design Week. Making appearances at both Vivienne Westwood and Marc Jacobs parties, they had made friends with some fabulous new people. On top of these new faces, Flaca’s uncle had flown in from Seattle to celebrate her special day and visit for 10 days. Best uncle ever!!! Oh and how can I forget that Ces and Joe came too. What a plethora of fabulous faces to share the night with!
I met Flaca and Vincent at their attic of an apartment. We met Gabrielle (crazy cool guy who works for Marc Jacobs), Tio (what we called Flaca’s uncle all night), Joe, and Ces before walking to the club Old Fashion. In 5-inchers, I wasn’t loving the walk too much. Speaking of the heels, everyone and their mother that night seemed to make a point to notice my height. I think the count of comments was lingering around 27 by the time I left. One guy followed me into the bathroom to ask me how tall I was. Another guy crouched down on the floor and scooted along side me, looking up and saying, “Grandissima! Che alta sei!” Or how about the guy who came up and said, “So you’re the tallest girl I’ve ever met, plus you’re blonde and blue-eyed. You must be Swedish.” The comments just kept on coming and the looks I got, oh god. The one major plus to being 6’5” was the parting of the Red Sea effect I managed to create when walking through the massive crowds. It made for getting through giant sweaty groups of people a lot easier, let me tell you.
All in all the night was so much fun. Flaca was having the time of her life, I had met some amazing new people, practiced my Italian a ton, and spent time with some of my most favorite peops in Milan. I left early because I had lost my voice and had class in the morning but it was 4 am and I figured that I’d served my time pretty well. I hopped in a cab, scurried up the stairs to the apartment, chatted with Olha a bit, and then got ready for bed. What an incredible day.
Thursday 04/22: For having gone to bed so later, I didn’t have too much trouble getting myself up. To add to my impressive getting ready, class was actually pretty interesting. One of the major managers at Valentino came to speak for my Management of Fashion and Design class. He had a lot of really interesting things to share about the business and the extreme luxury that is Valentino. Alongside Chanel, it is the most expensive brand in the couture industry.
I was supposed to meet Olha for lunch between my classes but she had been at a job all morning and was totally pooped. I decided to just come home and eat lunch with her at the house. We watched the Sex and the City Movie for a little until I needed to head back to school. I took the subway and had the pleasure of watching a crazy meth drug deal take place in the corner of the car. This one girl was tripping out and was concocting something secretive out of view. So weird.
Class was class and I ended up spending a great deal of time at Bocconi trying to do some computer work, catch up on emails, and cross things off my to-do list. My work was pleasantly interrupted by a call from my girlfriend. Audrey is officially coming to visit me in June and we’re going island hopping in Greece!!! Living the dream much? Umm, how about heck yes. I can hardly wait!
I didn’t get home until super late and even then Isma wasn’t home. He, Olha, and I were supposed to go out for Mexican. We’d tried last week but the restaurant was closed. Olha loves Mexican just as much as I do so we’d been anticipating this outing for a while. Unfortunately, Olha decided to go out with Walter and his crew for her last night in Milan. Olha is heading home to Ukraine for 2 weeks for the first time in a year!!! I was really bummed she wasn’t coming to dinner with us but I totally understood the want to spend her last night with her boyfriend.
The Mexican restaurant we were going to was, according to Isma, one of the most delicious in Milan. I trust his restaurant judgment and was excited for my guacamole. When we showed up to the restaurant, Isma and I were greeted by Isma’s long-time friend, Fabio, and his random friend. Funny group: a 21-year-old girl and a bunch of 50-60 year old men. It made for great conversation and funny stories.
While the food was good, the service wasn’t. It took more than an hour and twenty minutes to get our food. At one point, Isma looked at the waiter and told him that we’d leave if we didn’t get our food in the next five minutes. He wasn’t kidding. We were starving. The food was dusted in minutes after it finally made the table.
Come 11 pm, everyone parted ways and Isma and I took off for gelato x2. I took him to one of those new places I’d sampled earlier on in the week and we went to our favorite neighborhood gelateria for a second cone. I think that by the time I get home, I may be a full-blown addict.
Friday 04/23: I woke up, made some breakfast, and decided to clean. Sometimes I just get in these moods where I feel the need to organize and clean up any and everything dirty/cluttered. Olha and Isma aren’t the most organized so you can imagine I had a lot to work with.
Soon enough Olha appeared from under the covers and asked me if I wanted to come with her to the agency. With rubber gloves on, my hair in a pony, and sweaty, I decided that I’d prefer to go when I was clean, showered, and looking a little nicer. I had been planning on going in on Monday anyway and while it would have been nice to go with her, I didn’t have a problem going by myself.
Once she left, I continued my cleaning. I should have showered and gotten ready because 30 minutes later, Olha called me and asked if I wanted to go grab lunch. I wasn’t hungry nor did I look appropriate but I really wanted to spend some time with her before she left for home. So I threw a pair of jeans, a USC sweatshirt, and my Ray-Bans on and headed out to meet her. She took me to a super cute place near the house called Bianco Latte. Due to my lack of hunger, I didn’t order anything but the menu was impressive so I will be going back, no questions asked.
From lunch, we went to Olha’s bank so she could cash her check from the agency and get money for her trip. While we were waiting, we bumped into her Russian model friend, Lulia, who flattered the heck out of me by asking if I, too, was flying to Dubai for this big Armani shoot. Apparently I “scream” Armani. Talk about one heck of a complement.
Olha and I walked back to the apartment and made it just before it started to rain heavily again. Milan has about the weirdest weather you’ve ever seen. One day sunny and amazing, the next day grey, rainy, and cold.
Olha got all of her things packed up and ready to go before Walter would pick her up. Unfortunately, Olha’s ipod had gone missing and Isma, Olha, and I spent a good 25 minutes searching for it. No luck. I gave Olha big hugs and kisses and said goodbye to them both, as Isma was off to the office for a meeting. I was finally going to get my shower and make an attempt to catch up on my blog. I haven’t been keeping up at all and so I had a good 10 days to remember and write about. My bad.
By the time Isma got back, it was a good time for dinner. Rather than eat in, he insisted on taking me to his absolute favorite fish restaurant in Milan. I was excited.
The restaurant was amazing. First of all, there is no menu. All the fish is freshly caught that day and on display in an ice case when you walk in the door. The waiters just continue to bring you different fish dishes, both raw and cooked. Oh and you get this giant loaf of fresh bread that’s sitting on the table, no basket or anything. Loving it!
The first dish they brought us was a plate of oysters. I’d never tried them and let’s just say that after having tried them, I wont be doing so again. Next, they brought us a tuna tartar and then some sort of baby shrimps dish. Both were really good. This was followed up by a baked scallop crusted with pistachio and garlic garnish. I then ordered a fresh salad to eat before our main dish, sea bass baked in the oven with fresh tomatoes. It was to die for. The whole dining experience was so much fun and I can’t wait to go back. Isma said he loves the place so much that he could go every week. Umm, I wont oppose. Too bad the place was super packed and had a line out the door. Thank goodness Isma has connections.
I had thought about meeting some friends to go out but both the weather and my cough weren’t making it that desirable of an option. I chose to stay home and catch up on the blog, make some tea, get in my pjs, and watch a movie. A much better choice, if you ask me.
Saturday 04/24: I woke up to a bad sore throat and a headache. When oh when will I be rid of this sickness? Tea helped to make me feel a little better but I would love to just shake this thing already.
Isma was going to Bergamo for the day to have lunch with his family and I was left in yucky weather Milan. Ideally I had really wanted to take a trip somewhere. Everyone I know has been traveling up a storm and sometimes I feel like I should be trying to visit more places. But at the same time, I also feel that I should really be taking advantage of living in Milan. How often do you get to LIVE in another country? Sure I could take off every chance I get but that sort of defeats the purpose of living here. I guess I’ll just have to take a trip next week or something. Any ideas?
I decided to make the best of my day by heading out to Corso Buenos Aires, one of the major shopping streets in Milan. I’d never been and figured what better day. It wasn’t anything special by any means but I did discover a pair of incredible heels that I loved. 5 maybe 6 inches, black leather, and super sassy. I would have bought them but I needed to decide whether they were worth 120 Euro (about $160). Maybe I’ll go back next week if I cant live without them.
I came home and have been catching up with all of you ever since. Who knows what I’ll do tonight or tomorrow but let’s hope for something fun and exciting, right? I miss and love you all SOOOO much and can’t believe that I’ll be home so soon. Get ready for me!
Xoxo
Me
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Love reading this!!!! I am worried that your throat is sore again...I guess that calls for more Gelato!! Love you!!
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