Milano

As our trip to Venice was only a day trip, we were forced to leave in the afternoon. Must say I was quite tired though, after swimming in the masses for 8 hours. We hopped on a Italian regional train and started making our way twoards Milano (2 hours from Brig...near the border to Switzerland). Just like Venice, our train was also overcrowded so we had to stand. After 4 hours of teenagers puking out the window, people having sex in the bathroom, skin heads threatening people with jojo's, crazy beggars pretending they were talking on the phone while they were screaming for Jesus......we arrived in Milano...Italian trains are lots of fun?!? Well, to mention another thing we were 40 minutes too late for our connecting train to Brig, and it was the last one. The thought of sleeping in the station was not too inviting, so we made our way outside. Milano is not exactly the most inviting city at night, as the outside of the station is propped with various loonies and drug addicts. As we're students we started looking for a cheaper hotel and actually found one. 2**, €70 a night for the both of us. Well it was quite ok, except for the motor-oil smell in the bathroom and the 100C shower temp (picture of the Hotel at the bottom). The next day we decided we would take a look at the Milan since we were already there. The church below is apparently one of the largest in the world and is placed in the city center. We also took a look at the famous fashion district...if I had my Visa Platinum with me, I would have gone wild....maybe some other day!

Kimmy

Venice

I thought that it was time to get off my ass and see something else than the inside of my dorm room. After some heavy persuading, I was dragged off by by my travel companion Shelly (One in the funky picture below). It was carnival weekend, so we were really excited as we set forth. We left friday night on the night train to Bologne. After drinking away the thought of sitting on a train for 5 hours, we were on our way. I must say I slept quite well, but Shelly reported otherwise. Apparently one of the other 4 in our wagon had kept the blankets vibrating throughout the night (probably why I was knocked out). We arrived safe and sound though, without any lasting damage.

I've been to Venice once before, but the sight of the city still knocked me over. This is a trip I would reccomend everybody to take. It's a city unlike any other. One thing though, going during carneval can be quite a hassle. At the more popular places in town, we constantly had to fight our way through the masses. Other than that....wow! Enjoy the pictures below!