Goodbye, Belgrade

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Hello, Milan! As many of you know, I was battling for a while over where to take my free night between Dialogue and meeting up with my friends. Options ranged from Frankfurt to Hamburg to Milan to Zagreb. I obviously ended up in Milan.

I regret nothing.



As of about10:20this morning, my Dialogue experience was officially over. The bus headed outat 10:30, but since I was staying in Belgrade a bit later, I headed out for a run and got out of their way so they could load the bus. It was definitely sad to see everyone head out, but many of them are headed on to cool things as well.



After my run, I made sure a few things were settled away (room bill, credit card, etc.), then headed out to one last ethnic lunch. A taxi ride to the airport, and I was on my way to Milan. I got in to my hotel around6:30, dropped my stuff off, and turned right around to go to the city. The airport is about a half hour train ride away, but the trains run often so it was pretty simple to get to Milan. Since I got into the city around 7:10ish, and the last train leftat 11:30, I pretty much banged out all the quintessential tourist things.



First, the Sforzeco Castle and Sempione Park. The castle was pretty awesome, but I loved the park more, possibly because it made me feel home. First, it was just pretty. It also felt like the Boston Public Garden, and I have to factor in that this is the first place on this trip where I've seen runners who aren't tourists. I'm not going to lie, that made me so happy.



Then, of course, there's the important Via Dante, en route from the castle to Duomo di Milano, which I of course had to hit. Conveniently located right next to Duomo is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the famous shopping gallery.



After my full tour of Milan, which, I might add, included getting lost for half an hour, I found a restaurant on Via Dante, where I had probably the best bruschetta I've ever eaten. The pasta, to be honest, was underwhelming, but that might be because it's a touristy restaurant and, given that it's Italy, I had super-high expectations. The wine, however, was as amazing as expected. The gelato even better. Then there was a thunderstorm, which came right overhead and gave some amazing views of the strikes, followed by the train ride home. On which I fell asleep and almost missed my stop.



On that note, I have to get up for my flight to Hamburg in 5.5 hours, so I'm going to bed.

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Photos

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
If you didn't know, this is open at the ends. I always thought it had doors