It’s Just Poison…

I had to be out of my apartment and into a car to Newark International by 4pm to make sure everything is Kosher for my 7pm flight to Milan. I had planned to get up early to head over to the BME filming thing and totally pwn a new set of earings, but I guess staying up until 7am getting drunk and coding new stuff put a kibosh on that =)

I woke up at 3pm. Crap. I hadn’t even packed yet!

I rolled out of bed, packed my backpack and computer bag with everything that I would need for the week, called to have my laundy delivered (I had no clean pants otherwise =), and answered a few emails. I called for a car around 3:45, and at almost 4pm on the dot, I was out the door and on my way to the airport! So far, I don’t think I even forgot anything…time will tell!

While on the way to the airport, I checked into my flight via my iPhone, called my credit card company to allow my card to work in Italy, and saved a couple maps / directions to the hotel to my phone.

When I arrived at the airport, I printed up my boarding pass and then headed to security. It was a breeze. I didn’t even get “randomly” searched this time either! I was lucky enough to have my gate be the farthest possible one though. Joy!

Fortunately all the food was down there too, so I grabbed myself a pizza thing and headed to the gate to see if I could get my seat changed to bulk-head or exit row. The lady there was not too inclined to help. That’s when I wished I could have gone to the president’s club thing. Wait…I can! Woo Hoo! With my American Express card, one of the perks is access to all the major airline club houses =). I asked where the club house was, and the nice lady informed me that it was all the way back from where I came, just past security. Dangit.

I hiked my way all the way back with the hope of getting 2 free drink tickets and a lot comfier chairs to sit it while I wait for my flight to begin boarding. I had 45 minutes to kill, so I figured it was worth it.

When I got to the entrance, there was a long line just to get into the place. I was all hot and fidgety from all the walking and wearing too many layers (packing secret: whatever you wear, you don’t have to pack!). When I got up to the counter to check in, I showed the lady my card and she told me I was allowed in, but my pizza was not. WTF?! They didn’t even sell food in there. Not sure what kind of crap that was, but she said she’d hold it for me at the counter and return it on my way out.

Awesome. Cold pizza…just what I wanted. Oh well. After I walked in, it clicked, I didn’t get any drink tickets…fook! I figured I’d hit up the bar anyway. Glad I did. Turns out, that there, you get all your drinks free. Woo hoo! Nancy (the bartender) and I had a great conversation about tattoos and the massive amount of lame people she has to put up with all the time. Apparently, being special enough to be in the secret club area also allows you to be a dick to the bartender.

I munched on a couple bags of fritos and downed a couple Jack and Cokes. They then announced the boarding of my flight, so I gathered my things and headed for my gate. I grabbed my pizza on the way out, but only had a couple bites of it. Not too tasty.

I boarded the plane, shoved all my crap into the overhead, and then threw my hoodie over my face. Nap time!

I woke up about three and a half hours into the flight from hunger. I snuck my way past all the passed out people to the back of the plane and stole one of the MRE’s that they already served everyone else (apparently I slept right through dinner =). My food consisted of chicken, green beans, some yellow things (not sure if it was beans or pasta), a brownie, and a can of coke.

Now that I was up, I decided to spend the rest of the time learning a bit more about iPhone Application development. Man, this crap is hard, and not fun. Arg.

Plane lands. I sailed through customs. And once again, my phone is not working in Italy. Shite.

The only reason I was concerned about my phone was because I was to meet up with my friend Tim Kern at the hotel and I can only reach him via Txt message.
One problem at a time. First, I need to figure out how to get to Milan, and then to the hotel via train and subway. The last time I was out here, Rachel and I split a cab. It was almost 100 Euros each way. F’That! I’ll take the 11 Euro train =)

It wasn’t too difficult at all. The only thing that scared me was that there was a scheduled strike of the train system TODAY starting at 10am. It was 9:45am. AAAhhhhhgggg. I run.

The 9:58am train arrived and I jumped on board. Boo yah! No strike for me =)
The train ride was a nice jaunt through the countryside of outer-Milan and only took about 30 minutes to arrive at the city center. From there I jumped right onto the subway and rode that to the stop I had saved on my iPhone. When I exited, I checked out a map and the hotel looked like it was within walking distance, but with all my crap, I didn’t want to chance it. So, I took a taxi. It was about a five minute ride, and about six euros. Not too bad.

Now the fun part. I needed to find Tim. First stop, the front desk to see if I can finagle a room number out of them, or have them call up and hope by some luck that he’s in the room.

I’m not sure if it was a language barrier thing, or just plain lack of security over here, but I just gave the guy Tim’s name and he printed me up a key and pointed me to the elevators. Rock!

I’m glad as hell that happened too, because he wasn’t even there. Like, not even checked in yet.

I plopped down on the bed and booted up. Through AIM, you can send text messages to US mobile numbers. So, I sent Tim a message and he replied back. Connection has been made! We worked out the details, and having a few hours to kill, I headed out to kill some time by seeing the sights and walking around down-town Milano.

I took the subway back to where I came from (it was dead center of the city), and began my journey there. Around the first corner was a huge castle! I have no idea what the name of it was, but it was really awesome. Had a moat, draw-bridges, and everything. When you’re really close to it, and just look up, you can’t see any people or any other buildings. You can almost feel the battles that took place there hundreds of years ago. It was like an instant teleportation back in time. Amazing stuff.

After having enough of being harassed to buy trinkets, junk toys, knock-off handbags, and rainbow bracelets (yeah… almost had to knock a dude out over those… he kept trying to tie it on me while I’m walking away from him) I left the castle and headed into some alley to get myself lost. And I did. It’s so easy to get lost here. None of the roads make any sense, and the names are way to similar. I’m really curious how people give directions here. It’s worse than chinatown.

A little more wandering around, and I came upon the Duomo. This is one of the most amazing pieces of architecture that I have ever scene. When I popped out of the alley and I saw it, I literally lost my breath and stumbled backwards a little. I don’t think I’ve ever had that strong of a feeling towards a building. I’m going back to it tomorrow (weather permitting) to climb it (you can go on the roof of it) and take some nice photos.

From there I meandered through more of the back alleys and grabbed a slice of pizza (delicious =) and a coke (not tasty).

By this point, my body was telling me that it was done with the walking and it was time to head back to the hotel. I spent the next 30-45 minutes trying to find the closest subway. My map was pretty much useless at this point. I stumbled upon the metro and took it back to the stop for the hotel. On my walk back, I picked up some provisions (ie. Alcohol). It’s just so cheap here. I mean, 5 euros for a bottle of vodka! Ridiculous!

I got back to the hotel, dropped everything off and finally got an email back from ATT telling me that my phone should work now. I bounced it, and sure enough, I had a signal. Yay! I texted Tim and he was on his way to the hotel.
I headed down to the lobby to chill and see if anyone I knew was checking in. Sure enough, Elenora was there and really surprised to see me. I guess I forgot to tell her that I was coming out =). Right behind her was Tim.

Now… dinner time!

I decided to go on an adventure and roam around the surrounding area in search of food. Unfortunately after about an hour or so, the only thing I could find (besides little cafe’s) was McDonalds. I really did not want to come all the way to Italy just to eat McDonalds, but alas, I had no other options.

I’m kinda glad that I was forced to get it. The burgers tasted waaay different, and they had curly fries! That made it worth it right there. =)

As I was walking back into the hotel, I ran into my friend Dan Marshall and his wife. We did our hello’s and then I bolted up to my room to eat. I was freaking hungry!
Food scarfed, time to go down to the lounge bar and begin the ritual of the meet-n-greet.

The night began with Dan and his wife, then our friend Ethan Morgan stumbled in. Apparently he met up with some friends when he got in the city and had been drinking since =).

Next to join our table of awesome was Robert Hernandez from Spain. With a couple more beers and Jack-n-Cokes, we were well on our way! Ethan turned me on to a new drink called Monte Negro. Has a really nice clovey / woody taste to it.
The next guy that joined in the ensuing craziness was Jeremiah Barba and his girlfriend (both from California). I haven’t seen him in almost a year and a half. Good times catching up.

Just with things were getting out of hand, Liorcifer and his wife showed up to crash the party =). Apparently, the guys running the convention were having a party and Lior wanted to head out to it and was looking for others to join him. Ethan and I volunteered for the adventure. And what an adventure it was!

It was supposed to be a 20 minute drive, and Lior was driving. Four of us crammed into a tiny European car, and Lior was driving! I was convinced that we were all going to get killed in a head-on collision of sorts, but as you can tell….we survived =).

Eleanora (Lior’s wife who is from Milan), the GPS (in Italian), and me with Google maps were all trying to direct Lior on where to go. After about 10 minutes, I gave up. I had no clue what I was talking about, and I was way too drunk to be giving any type of advice! At one point, Lior made a sharp turn that cause Ethan to spill his drink all over the back seat. From that point on, Ethan was quite. Almost as if he was too embarrassed to talk… hhahah!

Once we were all convinced that we were lost / not going to find this place, and we were almost out of gas, I made Lior pull the car over so I could commit my first act of vagrancy in this city…public urination, sometimes there’s no option. Hahaha!
After the minor break, we recalculated our route and tried to head over to a different area of town. That was such a bad idea. We wound up in some abandoned industrial neighborhood that Eleanora labeled as, “The worst neighborhood in Milano, and we need to get out of here now before someone tries to steal our car.”
Yay!

Now, it’s 2 in the morning (8am NYC time), and Ethan is passed out cold in the back seat, even with all of us screaming and laughing at each other. This adventure was over. We filled up on gas (well…at first Lior tried to put Diesel in the car… oops!) then we headed back to the hotel.

I stumbled up to my room and said “Peace out!” to my first day in Milano =)

.: Adam