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The Olympics were so fucking COOL! Pardon my french, but there are no other words to describe it. It was the best weekend ever. I am so uber glad that I got to go and see them.
Friday afternoon- 2 pm. Got on the train to Milan. Arrived at 8:30. The ride there was long, but the views in Switzerland were pretty cool when it was still light outside. So yea, that was long. Got there and met up with Breanna's sister who is studying in Milan. She took us out to dinner- to a Mexican place of all things. It was kind of expensive (really expensive compared to Mexican in the US, but here it's a rarity and plus food is a little more pricey in Italy anyway). Had seafood enchilada. It was pretty good, but I don't think quite worth what I paid. But Breanna was craving Mexican, so I went along. We met up with someone her sister knew in Milan, who happened to know people in my program. So we ran into people from here that were not expecting to see us.
Went to the sister's dorm, where we watched a couple episodes of House (decent show I suppose), then went to bed. If you can call it bed.I slept on the floor. Not comfortable.
Woke up at like 7:30 the next morning and headed to find my hotel so that I could pay for my room and see if I could check in. I had gotten directions the night before, but I still got lost. Every place I had to change modes of transportation, the signs were vague and not easy to find. I got a donut at one train station for breakfast. Made it to the hotel, where the credit card machine was broken, so I had to go run to a bank to withdraw 100 euro in cash to pay. I left the hotel at like 10:20. Not wanting to brave the subway again, I decided to walk, since it didn’t look all that far on a map. I looked at a map someplace by the hotel, saw my route and took off. Well, apparently I was disoriented because I started walking south instead of north. And the thing in Italy- all the people you need to speak English don’t. The hotel guy, train station attendants, the help staff at the station in Torino. So luckily on my walking way, I found another subway stop (the 1 stop further south of the one by my hotel :P) and was able to get on there.
I got to Milan Central station at about 11:20 or so. I was frustrated because I had wanted to get on to an 11 o clock train and was afraid that I wouldn’t make it to Torino until after 2. Turns out that the train that was supposed to leave at 11:10 was delayed 20 minutes, so I was able to get onto that train. They have automated ticket machines at Italian stations, so that was very convenient (gotta hand it to Italy there). Got into Torino at about 1 (it was an express train), waited in line for like half an hour to check my backpack at luggage check. Around 1:30 I met Brian and Emily outside the station and we went to lunch. Ate at a pizzeria (it’s Italy- where else was I going to eat?). I ordered a 4 cheese pizza- it was pretty big and pretty rich. The cheese was runny, so much so that if you tilted the plate, the cheese would run like water down the pizza. It was really good though. I can’t believe I actually managed to eat it all.
2-2:30-ish. We decide to walk around Torino and check out the Olympic areas. Ended up first in a big square where NBC’s makeshift studio was located. I had brought some pins thinking I could trade with someone that day. I saw one guy with a bunch of pins on his hat and went up to talk to him. American guy, who was apparently part of some religious org in Mississippi. Got a short Jesus talk, which was short thankfully because I started telling him part of the story, but hey, I got a pin off of him. Took some pictures there and headed northward. There we saw the medals pavillion, and took more picture there. I’d seen it on tv, it looks pretty cool, though I’m sure it’s better when they’re actually giving out medals. Headed back south to see if we could find a store that sold team USA stuff. Russia had a store, so we figuerd other teams would too, but no such luck.
So then the 3 of us decided that we wanted to see the Olympic flame. It didn’t look too far on the map, but uh…the map was bad. Most of streets on the olympic maps weren’t labeled. It took us like 45 minutes to walk down to the stadium, and we kept turning down random roads. I don’t think we were too lost though. Took pictures there too. Couldn’t get too close to the stadium, sadly. There was a ticket booth there since there was hockey stadium right next to the ceremony stadium, so I went to see if I could get my curling ticket (I’d ordered it online and needed to pick it up). Apparently you had to get it at your specific event, so I had to wait til the next day. Headed back to the train station, where Emily and Brian hopped a train to Milan. I wanted to head to the main Olympic store to get some souveniers, plus I’d heard through the two of them (who’d bought hockey tickets earlier) that there were tickets left for speed skating. Speed skating took place at 5, and curling started at 2. I figured since I was in Torino til 7:20, that instead of just wandering Torino again for a couple hours that I’d go see a second event. So basically on a whim I bought speed skating tickets.
On the river next to the store, there appeared to be a big party going on. They had these fountains going and were projecting lights onto them. There was also a band of some kind, but I didn’t have time to check it out.
After leaving the store, I headed back to the train station to head back to Milan. 2 hour train ride back, got into Milan at about 11. Met someone on the train from Mexico, who was tudying abroad in Sweden currently. He actually flew in from Sweden, which is quite a ways from Italy. And Mexico doesn’t even compete in the winter games.
Got to the hotel at around 11:30-midnight. Got the key, changed, and went to bed. Again got 6 hours of sleep.
Day 2 and pictures will come later, when I finish typing all of it.
Friday afternoon- 2 pm. Got on the train to Milan. Arrived at 8:30. The ride there was long, but the views in Switzerland were pretty cool when it was still light outside. So yea, that was long. Got there and met up with Breanna's sister who is studying in Milan. She took us out to dinner- to a Mexican place of all things. It was kind of expensive (really expensive compared to Mexican in the US, but here it's a rarity and plus food is a little more pricey in Italy anyway). Had seafood enchilada. It was pretty good, but I don't think quite worth what I paid. But Breanna was craving Mexican, so I went along. We met up with someone her sister knew in Milan, who happened to know people in my program. So we ran into people from here that were not expecting to see us.
Went to the sister's dorm, where we watched a couple episodes of House (decent show I suppose), then went to bed. If you can call it bed.I slept on the floor. Not comfortable.
Woke up at like 7:30 the next morning and headed to find my hotel so that I could pay for my room and see if I could check in. I had gotten directions the night before, but I still got lost. Every place I had to change modes of transportation, the signs were vague and not easy to find. I got a donut at one train station for breakfast. Made it to the hotel, where the credit card machine was broken, so I had to go run to a bank to withdraw 100 euro in cash to pay. I left the hotel at like 10:20. Not wanting to brave the subway again, I decided to walk, since it didn’t look all that far on a map. I looked at a map someplace by the hotel, saw my route and took off. Well, apparently I was disoriented because I started walking south instead of north. And the thing in Italy- all the people you need to speak English don’t. The hotel guy, train station attendants, the help staff at the station in Torino. So luckily on my walking way, I found another subway stop (the 1 stop further south of the one by my hotel :P) and was able to get on there.
I got to Milan Central station at about 11:20 or so. I was frustrated because I had wanted to get on to an 11 o clock train and was afraid that I wouldn’t make it to Torino until after 2. Turns out that the train that was supposed to leave at 11:10 was delayed 20 minutes, so I was able to get onto that train. They have automated ticket machines at Italian stations, so that was very convenient (gotta hand it to Italy there). Got into Torino at about 1 (it was an express train), waited in line for like half an hour to check my backpack at luggage check. Around 1:30 I met Brian and Emily outside the station and we went to lunch. Ate at a pizzeria (it’s Italy- where else was I going to eat?). I ordered a 4 cheese pizza- it was pretty big and pretty rich. The cheese was runny, so much so that if you tilted the plate, the cheese would run like water down the pizza. It was really good though. I can’t believe I actually managed to eat it all.
2-2:30-ish. We decide to walk around Torino and check out the Olympic areas. Ended up first in a big square where NBC’s makeshift studio was located. I had brought some pins thinking I could trade with someone that day. I saw one guy with a bunch of pins on his hat and went up to talk to him. American guy, who was apparently part of some religious org in Mississippi. Got a short Jesus talk, which was short thankfully because I started telling him part of the story, but hey, I got a pin off of him. Took some pictures there and headed northward. There we saw the medals pavillion, and took more picture there. I’d seen it on tv, it looks pretty cool, though I’m sure it’s better when they’re actually giving out medals. Headed back south to see if we could find a store that sold team USA stuff. Russia had a store, so we figuerd other teams would too, but no such luck.
So then the 3 of us decided that we wanted to see the Olympic flame. It didn’t look too far on the map, but uh…the map was bad. Most of streets on the olympic maps weren’t labeled. It took us like 45 minutes to walk down to the stadium, and we kept turning down random roads. I don’t think we were too lost though. Took pictures there too. Couldn’t get too close to the stadium, sadly. There was a ticket booth there since there was hockey stadium right next to the ceremony stadium, so I went to see if I could get my curling ticket (I’d ordered it online and needed to pick it up). Apparently you had to get it at your specific event, so I had to wait til the next day. Headed back to the train station, where Emily and Brian hopped a train to Milan. I wanted to head to the main Olympic store to get some souveniers, plus I’d heard through the two of them (who’d bought hockey tickets earlier) that there were tickets left for speed skating. Speed skating took place at 5, and curling started at 2. I figured since I was in Torino til 7:20, that instead of just wandering Torino again for a couple hours that I’d go see a second event. So basically on a whim I bought speed skating tickets.
On the river next to the store, there appeared to be a big party going on. They had these fountains going and were projecting lights onto them. There was also a band of some kind, but I didn’t have time to check it out.
After leaving the store, I headed back to the train station to head back to Milan. 2 hour train ride back, got into Milan at about 11. Met someone on the train from Mexico, who was tudying abroad in Sweden currently. He actually flew in from Sweden, which is quite a ways from Italy. And Mexico doesn’t even compete in the winter games.
Got to the hotel at around 11:30-midnight. Got the key, changed, and went to bed. Again got 6 hours of sleep.
Day 2 and pictures will come later, when I finish typing all of it.
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