Emily's Adventures

we got on the bus to milan. and for the first time this whole trip the bus wasnt full, infact there was only a handful of us on the bus. everyone kept asking us why we were going to milan, apparently there is nothing to do there as it is an industrial city. if only we were told this before we booked it! we stayed in a really nice apartment which had our own kitchen and to our delight our own washing machine. we arrived in milan just after lunch and spent the rest of the day putting loads of washing on (so domesticated). washing is expensive over here, so when we can do it for free it is awesome. we cooked honey soy chicken with lots of veg for tea and just did some more booking of trains and buses for the uk. the next morning wwe got up early to get the 9am bus to lake como (where george clooney, madonna and many other famous people have houses, and oceans 12 and casino royale were filmed). we walked 20 minutes to the train station only to find that there is a strike on and our train has been cancelled and the next train isnt until 11 and is from a different station. we started walking to the other station and then asked a local for directions who then told us it was too far to walk. we waited for a bus and then got to the train station with half an hour to spare. the train was then running 20 minutes late. we have the best luck...not. we finally got to lake como. it was a lovely day and we sat by the lake in como enjoying the sun. a wave came from a boat and nearly wet us s we jumped up to move and my camera fell out into the lake. i didnt notice, but steph grabbed it just as a wave was taking back into the lake. im so lucky my case kept the water out of it, couldnt believe my luck. we decided to get a ferry to bellagio, the most beautiful town we were told, and where the celebrities have houses. it is a cute wee village with pretty buildings. we got a pizza and sat by the lake for a while. we went for a walk around the lake and the weather started to turn. when we looked back at the village there was fog and dark clouds engulfing it. the thunder and lightening began, and then it started bucketing down. we ran for cover in a souvineer shop. but it didnt let up and our ferry was due to depart in the next 10 minutes. i got a cheap umbrella and we made our way to the dock. the lake was dark and so choppy and you couldnt see far due to the fog. the fork lightening looked like it was going straight into the lake ans the thunder followed only a second behind. we all looked at each other, thinking that none of us wanted to get on the ferry with how choppy it was. the locals told us that storms like this only last 30mins. we got on the ferry and the wind eased so the swell went down, thank goodness. 50mins later we were back on land and had to fight the rain all the way to the train station. luckily the rain had stopped by the time we got to milan for our 20min walk home. for tea we made fried rice with our leftovers. the next day our bus didnt leave until 1.30 so we got a taxi to the hostel that was the pickup point and planned to catch the train into town. the others didnt think we had enough time, so just steph and myself went. we got our return ticket and went to get on the train that had just come in, but the power was out. we waited for a while, not understandin the announcements. then we found out the train was not going and we had to go outside and get the bus. we waited for half and hour to get on a bus and by this time it was 11.30, but we though at least the bus will take us to town and to the duomo. we were wrong, for some reason the train replacement bus didnt go the whole train route, and  stopped at a random station. we got off having no idea where we were and started to walk, after 10 minutes we decided to get a taxi. we got into the square at 12.15 and quickly took photos of the duomo and the mall with all the designer shops. while we were taking photos people kept coming up to us trying to put popcorn into our hands to feed the pigeons, why would i want to feed a pigeon, they are the rats of the sky!! we then had to get another taxi back to the station where we could get the bus, but this time the bus didnt go the whole way back to where we got on it, so after the bus we had to walk. we made it back to the hostel at 1.25pm, very stressed, hot and sweaty. our trip out ended up costing us a lot of time and money and we didnt really see anything cos it was all a panic.