Milan

I really wanted to go some place cool with Mom so we flew to Milan, Italy. It was perfect warm weather the 4 days we were there. This is us soon after we arrived. Can you believe that's the train station behind us?! So incredible!

After we found our hotel we went straight to the Duomo. Isn't it incredible?

I kept saying how it looked like an ice castle and kept thinking of the White Witch (from the Chronicles of Narnia) and how she should live in a place like this (even though it's actually a church).

This woman was standing out-front and center of the Duomo yelling at the top of her lungs and throwing water on the Duomo. She was making such a scene!!! Greg listened and said she was saying, "Idol worship is over" or something like that, because the church was so ornate and beyond glorious- but to the point of being gaudy.

Whenever I go into churches there are always candles lit and I love it! I have always wanted to take a picture, but thought it would be disrespectful. Usually the candles are very small and round, but these were tall and skinny and it was so beautiful! So I took one anyway.

Cathedrals are the most rotten things to take pictures in. The lighting is all wrong. If you don't use the flash you're all fuzzy.

But if you do, the you're a ghost and everything else is darkened. It just never works out.

I really liked the stained glass in this one. It was different. This church was different all the way around. Still very Catholic, but there was abstract art hanging, instead of the traditional paintings. Really wild stuff. Many abstract paintings of Christ on the cross. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, but came to enjoy it. I really like abstract paintings and feel they can really enhance emotion. But it was really different for such a reverent subject.

In fact, I felt so overwhelmed I felt I needed to go to confession:

This is a little covered area for shopping right outside the Duomo. One of our favorite shops was just for gloves. There were so many cute gloves. All leather, all colors, SO MANY different designs! If they weren't 60 euros a pair I would've boughten some.

We found a hat store that we loved too. We kept trying them on! It was so fun!

Who knew hats could be so beautiful! That's what we kept saying, and also how we wished we had somewhere to where them.

Time for dinner. We ate at a restaurant right in front of the glorious Duomo and had pizza.

In Europe there's no such thing as "boxing it up" so if you don't eat it, it really goes to waste. But this time we had a little something to tuck it away into . . .

I was really hoping that no one would see me, because people would find it very strange. I wish Europeans caught on to this concept! On our way out we saw an American restaurant, but it looked really snazzy. Can you figure out what it is?

Everything was strategically lit up in a fancy way.

If you look thru the windows you'll see BIG pictures that look all artsy.

Did you see the M's on the windows? McDONALDS!!!! Can you believe it? It was so "cool" inside. We were freaking out.

Then we stumbled upon a display of pictures outside.

It was actually pretty neat. It had really old photos of Milan and showed the progression of things. Like a picture of a newsie selling papes and then a stand with papers in it. Pictures of how things were, how they are now, and somewhere in the middle of it.

We found an old well . . .

Day 2: Shopping Time

Milan is basically the fashion capital of the world so we had to go shopping! We discovered we hate Prada. The dresses in Prada look like the sewing maching barfed. It was wierd and not ugly, but hideous. Armani, however. OH MY GOSH!!! I would wear anything in that store! It was HUGE!!!! Usually designers have just a little tiny shop, but Armani was like a department store with lots of floors. I loved EVERYTHING I saw. Every dress, every shoe. Classy, but trendy. I liked it, and so did Mom.

This is one of the many kid designer stores we saw. 100 euro onesies. But they were the most beautiful onesies I've ever seen.

In the airport Greg looked at a Milan book and found some addresses for discount/factory outlet stores for designer clothing. Basically all the "last season" stuff. So we went! It was in the middle of a neighborhood. Very unexpected location. It was like you had to be a local to know. We just saw this sign on a gate and walked down and we were in the middle of an apartment complex, but somehow there was this store there!

It was really fun going thru all the racks, but everything was still way too expensive. Then it was lunch in a park.

Mom and Greg bought some 5 euro glasses on the street!

How cute are they?

The weather report said expect clouds so they left their sunglasses at home. I was the only wise one, though I ended up buying some later, anyway. This guy in the metro tried to rip me off. I talked him down from 20 euros to 7. But then he "claimed" he didn't have enough change so I really paid 7.50. They were really worth 5, but it all happened so fast! I've never talked anyone down before. It was kinda fun, but I still think I got ripped off a little. Oh well. Learn as you go, right?

By then I needed to just relax, so we found this really cool park with all these rock formations. We walked around looking at them. The whole time Greg and Mom were talking about whether they were natural or man made. We kept finding holes in them (you can see one in the pic) and you could tell people were living in them. I thought, if I WAS homeless, that would be the best place to live. You've got your shelter from the rain and people, and then you have the peaceful park right there when you want to be outside.

But this is really what I needed.

And this . . .

Then we needed a quick bite so we went to the snazzy McDonalds which had an INSANE view of the Duomo.

Then off to the Opera! This is in front of the Teatro alla Scala, a seriously old and famous opera house.

None of us had been to an opera before, so we were all really excited. This was basically the hi light of the whole trip. It was somewhere around a 100 bucks a ticket, which is definitely splurging, but opera in Italy is once in a lifetime right? We read online that people get crazy dressed up for it so I was feeling WAY under dressed and Greg packed his suit, even though we were WAY limited on space. We're all antsy and smiling and walk to our very own box. Someone opens the door and then-

Are you kidding me? This is the size of the room? For 5 people? We look down and discover our seats-

You've just got to be kidding. And then we discover we aren't the only ones. There are 2 others and they have the front row seats which means this is our view . . . the back of someone's head.

But if we stand like this -

We get to see this, almost 1/2 the stage.

To say I was mad is definitely an understatement. I cried twice before the curtain rose. I was BEYOND upset. I felt like I'd thrown away our money along with my Mom's. The whole thing was my idea. I was just thinking, "Why am I dressed up? I want to leave! I have lost my respect for this place. I might as well be in my pajamas!" I basically spent the whole night like this, which gave me a nice view of the wall 3 feet in front of me.

I got really tired half way thru and I kept leaning on the wall, and then moved to the corner for more support, then ended up on the floor, and eventually laid completely flat on the floor and tried to sleep.

But it really was beautiful . . . it was just like an old movie. It was the most elegant and beautiful room I'd ever been in. It really was overwhelming.

When my anger subsided, and I heard the voices singing, it really was incredible, even though I couldn't see anything. I kept trying to weigh it out in my head, "I can't see anything, but it sounds so incredible! Would I pay $200 again for this experience?" It was sort of hard to decide. It really didn't matter, because it was over and done with and the only way I'm ever going to an opera again is if I get front row and center- forget about anything else. If we're going at all, we're getting the best seat in the house.

This is a market we found the next day. It was small but the best market I've been to yet! Everything was so cheap, but cute! Usually things are too expensive for me or just plain undesirable. There were so many things I wanted to get!

At this point the camera died. The first night we were in town we had a REALLY nice waiter who got out our map and told us to go to "Old Milano" which had lots of canals. We went our last night and loved it! It reminded us of Portland. Everyone dressed all hip, really eclectic restaurants. It definitely had a different feel, like "this is how Italians really live." We always just go to the tourist spots, and this definitely wasn't touristy, but it was still really pretty.
We got kebabs and they were really good. I swear, the best kebabs I've eaten are always at total dives. For me, it's all about the sauce and some are just better than others. Then we ate our chocolate, that we bought at the market, in the hotel room. The three of us sitting on our beds eating chocolate together, late at night, felt like a slumber party. Then we flew home the next morning. Overall is was a really great trip.