The morning of my flight to Milan I learned that it is a mistake to run in Madrid at 6:00 a.m. (picture people coming home from the clubs drunk and hollering "guapa" at me). Oh viva España...

A quick shower and a long metro ride later, I was boarding an EasyJet flight to Milan. Taking my seat, I realized I was privileged to sit next to a 20-something who was the definition of Euro-trash or Euro-fab, I'll let you decide. This tío had the typical tight jeans (still falling off his tiny waist) and trendy t-shirt... BUT, the best part was his hair. He was rocking a mullet, but not just any mullet, a DRED mullet. Yep, it was great.

I touched down in Milan expecting to meet up with Ben and his friend, because my travel companions were on a later flight. Well, I made the mistake of turning off my cell phone on the flight, forgetting that I needed the PIN code to turn it back on. I don't have the PIN code memorized. So, I took a bus to the Central Station in Milan and walked to my hostel to check in.

Phoneless and friendless, I decided to wander around Milan on my own and perhaps find an internet cafe and get the phone company to turn my phone on. I walked 25 minutes to the Duomo, the heart of Milan. After exploring every side street near the Duomo, I realized I hadn't eaten anything since the coffee I had on the plane. So, "when in Rome/Milan" I said, "Self, buy some gelato." So I did. It was probably the size of my head.

Tired, I meandered back to my hostel and read some more of my book, San Manuel Bueno, el martír. With ten pages left, I crashed on my bed.

I woke up to the sound of Stephen and Alex trudging up the stairs to our room. Finally! Friends. Within 10 minutes, we were on our way to have our first Italian meal. We found a charming pizza place, where I accidentally ordered a pizza with ham on it. (C'mon, I know spanish, not italian) Stephen was kind enough to trade me his four cheese one.

After dinner, we realized Milan has either 1. no nightlife or 2. we were in the wrong place. We found one bar, where we had some wine and sat on these giant beds outside in the street. We happened to make some Italian friends, one knew English because he studied in Australia.

We left after a few glasses and went back to our hostel to rest up for our train to Cinque Terre the next morning!