MPD

On Tuesday, Gemma and I woke up, ate breakfast, checked out, and headed off to Milan. Milan is about halfway between Florence and Geneva, our next real destination. We tried to stop at the pastry shop with connoli in the morning, but they sadly weren’t open yet.

By the time we made it to Milan, we were exhausted. Luckily, the hotel was very nice. They even gave us free internet and three beds, so I could push two of them together and have an extra large sleeping area.

Still, we did make it out to see the downtown shopping area a bit. Milan is known for shopping, and the shopping area was the first building in Italy to use glass and steel structurally. While there, not buying anything (way too expensive for us), we decided to get some food. McDonald’s was nearby, so McDonald’s it was. This McDonald’s, however, also served Italian pastries, so I was able to have a McBacon Classic with fries, Coke, and uno connolo. Gemma has a peach cream pastry with her meal. Surprisingly, the pastries were delicious. Not quite as good as the day before, but still pretty tasty. If McDonalds just shipped a few to the US, I would eat there much more often.

Since it was another beautiful day outside, we ate dessert in the square. An Italian man overheard us speaking English, so he turned around and said, “Hello! Have a good day!” with a big grin on his face. We talked with him for a while and got across that we were from America (in response to which, he burst into song), but he really didn’t speak much English; just barely more than we spoke Italian. We tried to say good night in Italian, but he indicated that he wasn’t going to bed yet, so it wasn’t really appropriate. Instead, we ended with the universal “Ciao!” and headed off.

In the morning, we had some time before the 12:30 train to do our laundry. Both of us were beginning to smell a bit (me more than Gemma, I’m sure).

The train ride to Geneva was pretty long, but the reservation fee was only 5 Euro, which isn’t bad in Italy. Once in Geneva, we had to wait for Gemma’s friend Todd to come downtown from his job. In the meantime, we were shocked by the prices for food. We were starved, though, so we decided to split a 17 Euro pizza. Imagine our delight when we gave the waiter 17 Euro, and he said, “It’s too much,” took the ten and the five and came back with a bunch of coins. Swiss Francs. We now had to use a new currency.

Soon we saw Todd and began to explore Geneva. We didn’t get to see his apartment quite yet because one more fencer was flying in, and we had to wait to meet her at the airport.

Todd showed us a cathedral and some rare bookstores, but everything was closed. We decided that we may as well go out to eat and decided on a really nice Chinese place. I, of course, talked to the waitress in Chinese and she was so shocked (or something) that she didn’t respond for a while. I even switched to English and asked, “Do you speak Mandarin?” because sometimes even at places called “Le Mandarin,” they speak Cantonese or something else. Even though she said of course she did, after that it was a little awkward and her English was so good that everyone just stuck with English. The beef fried noodles, though, were really good. Much better than Dublin.

After dinner, we bought Swiss Chocolate ice cream next door. The chocolate in Switzerland really is everything you’d hope, including cheap.

Since it was getting to be nearly time to go to the airport, we started to walk to the train station. We were distracted, however, by a beach volleyball tournament in the middle of the city. A few companies (including one that sells shoes to make you feel like you are walking on sand) brought a giant sandbox downtown. We only had time to watch one game, in which the local favorites lost to a bigger, stronger team.

Nancy’s plan was originally scheduled to arrive at 10:50, but kept getting delayed and she finally arrived at 12:05. Unfortunately, he luggage came off the rack around 12:11, and we couldn’t make it to the last train home by 12:12… So, we slept in the airport instead of a bed.

I’ve actually never slept in an airport before. It wasn’t too bad, though it was a little cold. In the morning, I was woken up by the smell of the pastry shop next to us starting to bake at 5am. Our train left around 6, so Gemma and Nancy bought pastries and we started the journey to Todd’s place.

Todd doesn’t actually live in Geneve, he lives in Morge, so it took until almost 8:00 to get there. Immediately, we all collapsed on the mattresses that Todd set out and fell asleep. Todd really is one of the most gracious hosts with whom I’ve stayed. He thought of so much and took care of everything. Gemma says it’s because he’s from a proper Connecticut family, but was raised partly in Texas, so heknows exactly what to do and does it with politeness and sincerety.

Once we finally opened our eyes again at 11:00, we all took showers and had a chance to look around. Todd pays almost 600 francs (~$500) a month to live right on Lake Geneva and have a view of the French Alps across the water. It’s really quite amazing.

While I was taking my shower, Todd and Gemma went out to a grocery store to buy food for lunch and dinner. For lunch, we made sandwiches with Challah bread, Brie cheese, and tomatoes. Since it’s Switzerland, we topped it off with three types of chocolate. We thought about eating inside, but because the apartment is so close to the water adn it was so nice out, we decided to picnic on the dock instead.

After lunch, we went to Lausanne, which is a fairly large town between Morge and Geneva. In Lausanne, we went into another gothic church on a hill and up the bell tower. Once again, we were lucky enough to hear the bells ring inside. The scariest part of the tower was not the height or the stairs, however. In this tower, you could actually walk in between the multi-ton bells, so I decided to do that at 4:23 (I didn’t want to take the chance that they’d start swinging and knock me over). Right as I was standing in the very center, where surely I’d be hurt if they went off, I heard a loud ring. I froze until I realized that someone had just hit one of them and they weren’t really going to ring. Nevertheless, I immediately walked out on rather shaky legs.

Next, we wanted more pastries and chocolate, so we found a cafe with both. I bought a ham sandwich on croissant, an apple tart, and the best Chocolate Chaud (French for Hot Chocolate) ever made. It was warm and frothey and made with very dark chocolate. They provided a sugar packet to mix in, but I liked it so much that I only added a little sugar at the end to try it. I think if I had it again, I wouldn’t add the sugar. Nancy remarked that Burdick’s in Harvard Square makes similar hot chocolate… I’m going to need to go next winter.

Finally, because everyone had an early flight or train to catch, we went back to the apartment around 7 to make dinner and go to bed.

For dinner, we had tortillini, salad, and the wine that Gemma and I brought. Even home-cooked meals in Europe seem fresher and more wholesome. I don’t know what it is, other than maybe the better tortillini. Also, the wine was fantastic. I don’t think I could ever find a wine in Boston that good for $10, much less $4 (3 Euro). I think I’ll try looking it up when I get back to see how much it costs in the US.

This entry was posted on June 26, 2007 at 10:45 am and is filed under travel.