Milano. European. City.

My visa would soon expire and I wanted to take another trip to Europe before it runs out. I planned with a friend to go to Greece but the vacation got longer and the people lesser. I planned to go to Budapest with another friend but the plans were never finalised and finally ditched. And then I came to know both of them are meeting up in Milan. On a whim and a fancy, I decided to go to Milan. It doesn't beat the whim of going to Prague. But the purpose beats it. I went to Milan simply to go because I have been planning for a while and not going anywhere and to catch up with friends I haven't met in a while. Prague is a beautiful touristy place. Milan is not supposed to be. I come back to work on Wednesday and everyone at office thinks I went to Milan on work. Really!

So I went to Milan to catch up with friends and see how Italy looks like in general when it's not decked up for the tourist or the pilgrim or the lovers. Simply the way people live. That's what you get in Milan.

A little of what you expect in London.
You see tourists and scammers alike at the Duomo (and I guess even at Last Supper but we never went there). You see gardens that have and have not people and victory arcs everywhere you can walk to.

You see the office crowd in the metro busy with their lives, reading newspapers, etc. You see the rich fashion on the beautiful windows of high end stores. You see the occasional awe of it's fans at San Siro stadium.

You see the discomfort of a new big city at the station and the daily ritualistic traffic of people as well. You see the traffic rules are not as crazy as people tell you but you are likely to get killed if you don't care. You see that the beautiful canal area of Navigli neither has a canal nor is it beautiful. You see the language enchant you into just wanting to hear the sound of it whether you understand it or not. You see a big European city mingled with history, riches and the urban mechanical days.
A little of what you expect in London.

So that's for the last of my European travel this year. I haven't really used my Schengen much, have  I?

But may be the travel bug is actually wearing off. Though I am happy I went to Milan. I woke up on the day of my flight to Milan and I was not really excited about. I was more annoyed that I needed get out of home. The lack of enthu could be because of the cold too! And of course when I woke up the day I needed to catch my flight back to London, I just did not want to leave!
[The airlines granted me the wish of hanging around more. I was stuck in the airport for 2.5 hours. I roamed around the airport and found one of my friends and spent sometime.]