Accidentally In Switzerland... Wait... What?

July 1^st-13^th

     Hi. I hope you read the last post because it was an epically crazy one. If you haven’t, feel free to check it out and then come back to this one. Okay. Go. I’ll wait for you. So click away my friend. Right meow.

Cathedral in Milan. Not Hogwarts.

     Look! I told you I’d wait. And here I am. So at this point in my journey, I arrived in Madrid, met Leah and went for midnight food. Though it wasn’t very tasty, I was very glad to see Leah again. I had thought I would visit Madrid a few days later, but since my iPhone was stolen, I had no camera. Well technically I did, but I gave it to Leah to take home when I was in Alicante. Lucky for me, she was stopping in Madrid before she headed back to the US and I could meet with her/get my camera from her. Win win! Sadly, Leah had to leave the next day and I was once again on my own.

Egyptian temple! Featuring my new traveler backpack.

     When Leah left, I went to meet my new host, Nadine. She was from Eqypt and I really liked staying with her. During the days, she had class and work so I went to Plaza Mayor and bought a lot of things. I even bought a new traveler’s backpack for 30 euros! I like it. It’s blue and stuff. Pretty much the first day amounted to wandering, spending money, and arroz con leche (So ridiculously tasty). I ate it at a place called Museo de Jamon which means Ham Museum. There was certainly a lot of ham there. Scarily, Pancho wasn’t there. Hmmm. When I came back for the night, Nadine and one of her friends Merijn were hanging out in the kitchen so I made A LOT of tea and we drank every drop. That’s how you know it’s good company. No empty silences and no full mugs.

Homemade pie and homemade friends. Not sure what that means.

     The second day I tried to go to Toronto, but it didn’t work out so instead I wandered again and got lost. It was great. I wandered directly to a metro and made it back just fine. Nadine’s place was literally right in the center of Madrid by Sol, so it was never difficult to find. Also, there was a Sephora nearby, so I used the testers to make myself up. When night fell, we went to a bar and just hung out with a few other people for about an hour or two. Very chill and enjoyable. Sadly, I was to leave the next day and Nadine left when I woke up. I spent the next morning watching all of my television shows and staying in bed. Don’t be mad though because when I left the house, I visited this really cool Egyptian temple, a palace, and a cathedral. All of this PLUS I made it to my train early. #likeaboss

You may now kiss the bride.

     Back in Barcelona, I met with Antonio and Euodia again. This time they were living in a bigger apartment with about six other people. I’d like to tell you all about the week I spent there, but really all we did was go to the beach, watch Dexter, and just generally have a wonderful time. I think Antonio and Euodia are among my favorite new friends and I really hope to see them again in the future. Maybe at my place? Skip forward and I’m on a train to Milan. Kind of. It was four trains. The one to Paris had a night layover, so I stayed with Guillaume again, met a cool dude name Victor from China, ate G’s fantastic cooking, and learned how to make REAL French toast. The next day I went to Lyon first where my train was delayed two hours. This caused me to miss my connection in Geneva. (Side note, I met a cool New Zealander named Gemma on the train and she said their Christmases are in the Summer. WHAT?!!?! SUMMER CHRISTMAS!?!?!? Also, her last train hit and killed a man. And we sat by a New Zealand celebrity named Tina Cross). So basically I was accidentally in Switzerland. I went to the ticket desk because there were no other trains to Milan that evening and the dude said, ‘Get on the train to Brig and we’ll give you free accommodation.’ Alrighty then.

How dare you ruin my picture!?

     So I’m on a train to Brig, but every stop is a tiny Podunk town with no hotels or anything. Soon I am alone on the train with only one other couple. ‘Okay’ I think. ‘Obviously I’m not the only one to miss the connection, right?’ Surely this couple is doing the same thing as m— wait. Where are they… HEY! COME BACK! DON’T LEAVE ME!!!’ Yeah. So now I was panicking. I’m usually pretty good at this kinda stuff, but the only plan I could think of if things went wrong was: Sleep in the high grass til morning. So yeah. I’m alone on a train heading to Brig and I don’t even know which country it’s in. Bleh. Luckily, everything turned out okay, but I was pretty scared searching an abandoned train station for any signs of life. I did finally find the dude who runs the train traffic lights and he found another dude who found me a hotel room.

Martina and I all dressed up for pizza!

     The next day, I finally made it to Milan and met my host, Sabrina. After dropping my things off at her place, we went to the main square famous for its cathedral and so much shopping my brain hurt. There were Prada stores popping up like McDonalds in Texas! Amidst all this shopping, there was a statue of DaVinci and the Scala theatre. Sadly, the Scala was nothing special to look at, but the pictures I have seen of the shows there are the best I could have ever imagined. Martina, a friend of Sabrina’s, was also with us, and though there wasn’t much going on in Milan, they were really a lot of fun. Back at her house, Sabrina’s mother, Grazia, got confused and cooked a feast fit for a king instead of a normal lunch, but I didn’t mind one bit. There were like 5 courses; three of which were pasta. Seriously. I went full food coma and Sabrina had to roll me to the car to pick up another friend, Darku, and another CSer, Nicole. We then went for gelato. Oh my gosh. More food. What the heck? From there we visited the palace and then a club (they all clubs discos). I hate clubs. I tried to not look horrified, but I failed and as a result, they kindly decided to leave and we went off to bed.

Fat. Delicious. Cheesy. And a pizza.

     We woke up in time for lunch the next day and again it was a feast; with three types of pasta, bruschetta, an eggplant thing that rocked my socks off, and a pie which Darku turned up for. Nicole also tried an alcohol called grappa. Apparently even a Welsh girl couldn’t handle it so I didn’t dare touch it. Gelato happened again. Then we all went shopping (I mean come on, we had to: It’s Milan) and bought dresses for the evening. It was a special occasion. My first Italian pizza!!! Ohhhhh sooooooo good! I can’t explain. Just look at the picture and you will know why I had to be rolled out again. This time in the rain. By the time we returned, Nicole went off with Luigi (hahahahahaha Luigi), Sabrina’s brother, to dance and Martina and Sabrina took me to an abandoned parking lot and taught me how to drive stick! Not only this, but we watched excerpts of Harry Potter in Italian. Pretty much fantastic, except for the part where I only got two hours of sleep and then had to get on a train to Rome. Neddless to say, I slept the ENTIRE way. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. In fact, I better sleep now, so I will post more later! xx

Russell