All In a Day's Travel

So on our third day, Thursday, we ate breakfast in Munich and groggily hopped onto a train through the Bavarian countryside. Watching the sun rise on the green hills and clock-towered villages was gorgeous. I wish I'd been awake for it.

We changed trains in Ulm, Germany. Easy enough. Went smoothly. Then, we had a 2-minute layover in Shaffhausen, Switzerland. As we stepped off the train, a very forward Swiss customs officer stopped us and pulled us aside, asking for our passports and pulling us into his little office for a moment. Now, we would have liked to be angry at him for delaying us and making us miss our connection, but that was not an option, because we watched our connecting train pull out of the station as we stepped off our train. *shrug* So we spent an hour or so toting our luggage around this beautiful little village in northern Switzerland. Not a bad way to spend an hour. We found a great little confiserie in which we bought some amazingly smooth chocolate, and I finally tried one of those little glazed salmon and capers thingies. It was tasty. At least I think it was because I could almost taste it. My nose was plugged up, so I had taken Loratadine, an antihistamine, which seems to effectively remove my sense of smell and consequently my sense of taste.

We boarded the train, continued through the Swiss Alps with beautiful vistas of waterfalls and high bridges over wide, green river valleys, and on through snowy mountains to Zurich, Switzerland, where we locked up our luggage and found a cafe with the nicest older ladies you've ever met. I ate a really good little vegetarian sandwich made with freshly baked bread. We pretty much fell in love with Zurich right away. I was struck by the fact that you walk from a very metropolitan, urban-looking area, one block into a winding, cobblestone pathway on a hill. Beautiful.

After lunch in Zurich, we hopped on a train and finished our trip to Milan. The feel of the trip immediately changed. We loved that we could actually understand much of the language now (German was kicking our @#$%). And this time, the customs officers were on the train, and they were no pushovers. I was awakened by a gruff Italian in a long, black coat accompanied by a uniformed officer a la henchman. In my grogginess, my brain was unable to load the Italian phrases quickly enough to communicate efficiently with the fellow, and I blearily grasped at words. He asked to open my luggage. Actually, when I say asked, I mean said so in a way that made it clear that I was not dealing with your friendly neighborhood greeting party and I'd best comply or the green henchman would have his way with me. And that was no henchman you'd want to have his way with you. He took apart my luggage and opened things, smelled things, turned things on and off. When he'd had his fun, I put it away, feeling slightly violated and thinking, "Welcome to Italy." It was like something out of the movies.

2 minutes later, several policemen came through the car demanding, "documenti!!" So once again, we pulled out our passports. Such friendly law enforcement officers.

Leaving the train, we noticed some stark differences. This was no longer the quaint, friendly tone of Bavaria. We were suddenly in an almost pretentiously metropolitan, dingy city with enormous buildings and egos to match. Greg had been carrying his Superman pillow throughout this trip, and in Germany and Switzerland, cute little old ladies would call out their delight and approbation of this cherished travel item. Now, in fashion-conscience Milan, the glances were more of disdain or shock that somewhat would dare be seen with such a monstrosity. But nevertheless, the more we walked around the crowded streets, the more this place also grew on us.

Another thing I noticed: Italians are fairly forward in their expression of...interest. I'd heard this about Italian men, but what I wasn't quite prepared for were the occasional lingering glances of the women. Neither Italian men nor Italian women seemed to have much reservation about making it clear when they saw something that interested them. Fun.

We met up with Jacob, our friend on an internship there, and Austin, Greg's friend from England. After dropping off our luggage at Jacob's place, we went to downtown Milan to meet Jacob's friend, Antonella, to walk around downtown, eating gelato and enjoying the very active ambience of Milan. I sang in front of the famous Teatro alla Scala opera house. Afterwards, we found a little cafe in a very cool little area of downtown Milan, narrow cobblestone alleys lined with cafes and bars. I ate a pizza mozzarella bufala. Very nice. My first Italian pizza!

Then we crashed at Jacob's place (it was now fairly late), sleeping in until it was time to head out to the lakeside village of Como. But it's too late to write about that.