Ryan's First Day in Italy

Just made it to the hotel an hour ago. It was a long haul, and I've hardly slept in the last 32 hrs... definitely tired. The layover in JFK was boring, and their airport was lame in comparison to PDX but things brightened up as I got closer to the final destination. Flying into Italy we were directly over the Alps, and it was much more rugged than I had imagined. Completely amazing. I took the train from the Malpensa Airport to Milano this morning and then spent most of the day packing my bags around the city. This week is fashion week in Milano, so there are plenty of models running around, the shopping is ridiculous, and the architecture is over the top. Castles, duomos, cathedrals... oh my. After a little vini delle casa and a margharita pizza (yummy), I headed north out of Milano.

After a little confusion at the train station, I hopped on a train similar to the one Kate and I road to Salem, MA, and 20 minutes later got out at Monza. Once out of the big city no one seemed to speak English, so it took a while to figure out how to get from there to Agrate Brianza. After figuring it out, I was waiting for bus z314, but apparently I wasn't close enough to the curb because it blew past me without hesitation. Since it's is a national holiday here today, all the buses were running a reduced schedule, so I had to hang out for 2 more hours waiting for the bus to return. Made sure I got on this round and unfortunately the driver didn't speak any English. I tried to annunciate "Colleoni", which was enough to establish where I wanted to go. Funny thing is that it wasn't a typical stop, so he literally let me out on the side of a highway. I had to jump over the railing to avoid getting waxed, and walk through a field in the direction the bus driver had pointed. 1 km later I walked into the correct hotel, totally cashed.

Let the adventure begin. :) ~ Ryan