But what about the 18th?
Yes, I know I skipped the 18th. All I did was travel – and once I got to my AirBNB in Milan, I just wanted to watch youtube videos, catch up on the latest releases from Dropout, and eat snacks. So I did! This was my view:
Ok, now for the 19th:
Breakfast was a little expensive (16 euro) but included the coffee and orange juice as part of it, and was tasty.
I had a few hours between when I woke up and when my plane left for Malaysia (but first, Istanbul for a 1-hour layover). So I left the AirBNB with my luggage and went out to explore.
Public transit is getting easier and easier to navigate (it turns out most of it works about the same, and Google Maps is really quite good at telling you how to get to the right place as long as you pay attention to signs). I’ve now started defaulting to it instead of trying to download a ride-sharing app when I first get somewhere like I did for Barcelona and Boston. Since Lyon though, I’ve taken public transit!
A lot of Milan is very 80’s stark, flat, mostly boring architecture (brutalist), but there are ancient buildings and beautiful architecture scattered among the newer stuff.
After a quick bus trip and some walking, I arrived at the Basilica de Santa Maria delle Grazie – an ancient catholic church, which has Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous last supper painting inside. I did not realize until stepping in that it is also still a practicing catholic church, and there was a service going on in a side room (the one that I think had the painting in it – so I didn’t get to see it). There were tourists like myself roaming around quietly in the large stone halls, but also priests (I passed on writing in something that looked like a confessional). Feeling a little odd taking photos, I looked around and then left.
Outside the basilica were the remnants of an ancient wall and set of marble pillars, which I took a few photos of.
I did love the streets of the older part of Milan. Primarily narrow cobblestone and with a lot of of old buildings, there were a lot of tourists and locals alike roaming the streets.
I also saw another Fiat 500 Topolino! After reading a bit more about them, I learned that they’re a Fiat-branded version of the Citroen Ami. With 47 miles of electric range and a top speed of 28MPH, they don’t technically count as cars – which means they can be driven without a license (or with an easier to get license in some places), and can go and fit places proper cars can’t.
After the basilica, I decided to head to the central park in Milan, Parco Sempione, which also has the “Castello Sforzesco” (a proper castle!)
As I got closer to the castle, the streets became thicker and thicker with tourists, and I realized that Milan does have tourism – just not so much where my AirBNB was.
After exploring the garden behind the castle a bit more, I headed back to my AirBNB to grab my luggage, and took public transit to the closest international airport (which took an hour – MXP is actually not in Milan!).
My flight to Malaysia was in two parts – first, a 3 hour flight to Istanbul, Turkey, where I had a 1.5 hour layover. The first plane I took served dinner and had screens built into the back of each seat, with a bunch of movies included.
The remote for the screen popped out and had not only a keyboard, but a gamepad on it – unfortunately, none of the built-in games really took advantage of it.
Dinner looks not so appetizing in this photo, but it was good, and a pleasant surprise on a flight this short.
As we flew into Turkey, we flew over a city harbor with a bunch of ships floating in it. This is a terrible photo, but it gives you an idea of the beautiful sight I saw!
The second plane (from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur) took about 10 hours – this one also had a screen, and they served both dinner and breakfast.
I managed (with the help of ocean sounds in my headphones, a sleep mask, and a melatonin) to get some sleep on the plane in between meals.
All for this post!
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