The Joys of Traveling

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We finally took off - the big day (forgive me throughout, I had forgotten that Italian keyboards have keys placed in odd places). The flight from Atlanta to London was fine, except that we did not sleep nearly enough. I forgot had difficult it can be to sleep sitting up - in five minute incraments before ones head falls to the side, waking one up. In London we checked in over three hours early. We then proceeded to wait in a security check line for the next three hours. As our departure time came dangerously close (and no one in the line had any idea how far it wrapped around and where it ended) we kept trying to find some airport folks to help get us through on time. It was chaos. There were four different lines (all of which of course moved faster than ours). I genuinly believe that people arriving at the airport hours after us got through quicker than we did. For an 11.20 departure time we got to the security line at 11.15. Of course, they stopped Bradley to frisk him, and they stopped me to go through the contents of my entire bag. We then ran on a five minute dead-spring to our gate (not closeby, of course). Strolling up at 11.20 exactly, we made it.

After a bus ride, a metro ride, and some walking, we found the hostel. We checked out the major Milan sights. We saw the grand gothic cathedral (4th largest in Europe after St. Peters in Rome, St. Pauls in London, and one in Seville). We wandered the city square and some streets. I then made Bradley follow me to my favorite kind of activity - cheezy tourist stuff. There is a famous floor mosaic here. It is of a bull - the symbol of Torin, not far from here. One is supposed to step on the bulls testicles (no joke) and spin in place. This brings good luck. We had to wait in line to partake (by we I mean I - Bradley was not game) because its such a popular thing. There was literally a crater in the floor where the balls used to be, because so many spin that the floor gets worn through. They have to replace the mosaic every few years.

Back at the hostel we made really forced conversation with a Japanese guy named Junior (at least thats what it sounded like, so thats what I am calling him) whose english was less than functional. He was nice, so we tried. However, this morning Junior made about as much noise waking up (at 5 am!) as some kid on Christmas morning trying to "accidently" wake his parents up. I think practicing his english is akin to Christmas morn for good ole Junior.

We are going to finish up Milan this morning and try to get on to Cinque Terre in time for just a few sights before the sun sets.

I have pictures, but I just do not feel like fooling with the uploading process. Particularly of interest is one of me gleefully stepping on the testicles of a small, helpless, two-dimensional bull.

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Comments

[Erin]

Nice
What a funny blog, I loved it !!