Buon viaggio!: Sono a Milano
This was my first ever solo traveling in Europe. This story may have been outdated but still worth to read :D Unfortunately, I lost the pictures on my old phone, so I'm only gonna attach some available pictures.
It was my second visit to Milan after the first touchdown at Malpensa airport on my arrival in Italy (read the story here). October 2015 was the last month of MILANO EXPO 2015. I already had planned to visit it since September but I doubted the cost I would spend on the visit.
I didn't want to miss any lectures, so I planned 3 days trip during weekend. I could spend one day at Expo and 2 days for strolling around Milan. I calculated the expense would be €29 for Expo ticket and around €60 for return ticket if I went by train. Not including the accommodation and food and other expense, well, that's too much. That's why I kept reconsidering the trip.
I told my Italian friend about my plan and he suggested me look for Expo ticket on Groupon because there might be cheaper ticket sold for only around €10 - €20. And he was right. I got a ticket for €20 so I could save €9. Yay! Also, in early October, Flixbus, a German low-cost bus travel, opened their new stop in Trento, and promoted Trento-Milan route for only €1! HAHAHA but I was late to get that promotion but still could get €9 for one-way. Much cheaper than the money I should have spent for train. For the accommodation, thanks to PPI network, I was allowed to stay with Kak Ica and Kak Anin, Indonesian students at Politecnico di Milano. So, I marked October 23 - 25 for this Milano trip!
DAY 1
I reached Lampugnano bus station at 1 p.m. after almost 3 hours in bus. I bought a 24-hours transport ticket for €8.25 as what I'd read on the internet. It was my first trip so I was really well prepared. I'd marked my map and even made a clear itinerary including time-spent, cost, and transportation to reach the excursion places. You'll know the difference when I've done writing my next travel stories :v
From Lampugnano I went to Kak Ica's flat near area called Certosa to drop my bag. After short chit-chat with Kak Ica and Kak Anin (and Kak Michelle), getting to know each other and telling my itinerary, I left for the first place I was going to visit. I told Kak Ica that I was going to visit the science museum, and she said that she currently had a work there and she lent me her ID card so I could use it to enter the museum for free. yeay!
Castello Sforzesco and Parco Sempione
Castello Sforzesco is an old castle located at the center of Milan. I didn't really know the history of the castle actually but I found it beautiful. The entry was free but there were some museums inside which probably costed some euros.
As I reached the front area, I stopped for a while and looked around. There were many foreign visitors. When I was about to take a picture, there was a black tall man approached me and talked to me. I watchfully answered him. I remember he was saying he's African muslim and blablabla. And he offered me a colorful bracelet. I refused it and said I didn't need that, I didn't have much money and blablabla. Then he convinced me that it was free and it was part of Milano Expo and blablabla. And I believed it just because the its color resembled Expo logo.
Then, at the end of the conversation, he asked for money for that bracelet saying that it was for donation blablabla. I was surprised actually but didn't have a choice but giving him some money. I gave him a coin of 50 cent. And he looked upset and asked for more. He said that I should give him notes, like 20, 50, 100, while showing notes of those amount. Then I got upset. I said he pushed me to take the bracelet while I didn't need that, and I had told him I didn't have much money from the beginning. I was actually a bit afraid he would hurt me or something but after a short argument he gave up and just asked me for another 50 cent. Then he left. Good!
With grumpy face, I walked closer to a fountain. There was an Asian girl sitting on the fountain side looking at me with a little smile. I asked her to take my picture with the fountain as background. After taking my picture, we started a little chit-chat and she asked me about the guy that approached me earlier. She was surprised when I said that I gave him only €1 because she was also targeted by another guy and she gave up on her €20 note. Later I knew from her that there were 3 guys approaching him, that's why she decided to just give up. Then, I was like....alhamduillah I was luckier.. Then we decided to explore the castle and the park together.
The Sempione Park was right behind the castle, or I can say that it was the backyard of the castle. We walked around that wide park, had a seat if tired, and took pictures at some spots. It was the time when I realized that traveling alone was not a bad idea because I could always meet someone to talk to and, maybe, explored the place together.
Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie
It is a church known as the place of Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" mural. You must reserve months before to see the mural, but not the church itself. However, I wasn't interested in seeing the inside. After breaking my fasting and taking some pictures, I headed to my next destination. Melody (that Chinese girl) and I separated because she wasn't interested in visiting a science museum.
Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci"
After my last visit to the science museum in Munich, I wanted to see how other science museums looked like. I had around 1.5 hours before the museum closed at 9 pm.
I was about to use Kak Ica's ID card before I hesitated what I was supposed to do with that ID. So, I asked the man in charge if I could enter the museum for free if I used the ID and told that a friend of mine told me so, but he got confused. Then, he asked the woman at the ticket office about it, and I thought I was not supposed to ask him. Then he came to me that I could enter but he had to take the ID card. Well, that's not mine so I wouldn't do that, so I told him that I would pay instead. I don't remember how much it was, maybe around 10. But then he left to discussed something again with the lady and came to me with the museum map and handed it to me and said "you could go from this way". I didn't understand but just followed his instruction.
The museum was quite huge. They said I needed approximately 3 hours to explore the entire museum. I could only stayed for less than 2 hours, but it was fine. My tour was quick but wonderful. Overall, the place was quite interesting. I remember I walked along a corridor showing some appliance models constructed based on Da Vinci's drawings. I had just known that he didn't only paint Monalisa :v There were also some old technology exhibitions, such as Enigma Machine or development of TVs, and the interactive ones using screens and blend of sounds to make an alive atmosphere.
The Navigli
I left the science museum before 9 pm and checked the transport to The Navigli on google maps. My next destination was a long canal inside the city of Milano. According to Tripadvisors, this place got a rare view you could see from a big city like Milan. I decided to go there in the evening because I wanted to see the evening view of that canal and the (not late) night life in Milan.
After taking subway and a long walk, I could finally reach the place. There was an MTV event for the next day so the place was quite crowded, or maybe it was always crowded like that. Along the sides, there were plenty of restaurants and cafes and people selling non-ori stuffs. Instead of having dinner at one of the restaurants, I grabbed a kebab and walked along the canal. Not much to do there except enjoying the view and your meal. But it was late, I was tired (and alone), and still had agenda for the next day. I took some pictures from a bridge and the side of the canal and was ready to leave.
It took me some times to understand how to get back to Kak Ica's place from The Navigli. The was supposed to be a direct tram but I didn't see one. According to my map, there was a tram stop near my location but I couldn't find it on the location showed by the map. After more than 10 minutes walk here and there, I decided to just use subway whose route was clearer for me although I had to change more than once.
DAY 2
I dedicated my second day entirely for EXPO. I decided to leave at 9 a.m but I just woke up at that time, and finally left at 10 a.m. It didn't take so long since the location was only one stop (around 10 minutes) by subway S5 from Kak Ica's place. When I arrived, lots of people were already there, queuing to enter the gate. No wonder, it was Saturday, and a week before the end of the event.
Visiting the EXPO alone was a terrible idea. There were more than 100 pavilions representing countries in the world and people had to queue to enter each of them. You won't believe me if I say the queue could take around 2-5 hours. Crazy right? It's even crazier when you have no one to talk with, not even a book to read. That's why it's impossible to visit all of them and I had to carefully decide which famous pavilions worth the struggle. Regardless, I am a fan of architectures and can easily rejoice by watching the amazing pavilion buildings from the outside.
I managed to visit more than 20 pavilions, mostly some having part that didn't require queue and not huge enough (but still interesting!). The core theme of the EXPO is "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life". Every pavilion has its own theme and offers unique experience: Brazil with its net walking, UK resembling a huge bee hive, Oman introducing Arabic (or Sultanate?) culture, or Indonesia showcasing its riches of cultures and spices.
My most favorite pavilion was Germany. It took me more than 2 hours to get into the building. But the exhaustion paid off as I entered the exhibition. They used "Fields of Ideas" as pavilion's theme and the exhibition were more likely to show topics related to nutrition and food production. It started by showing the visitors a video of contributions of German food producers (i.e. farmers) to produce and distribute food. Then we were allowed to freely explore the 2 stories exhibition. Before the end of the exhibition, there was a (optional) short music performance in a room as you can watch in this video
While queuing, we were given a flipped cupboard sized around 20x20 cm. The color of the inner side was white and there was a grey coin-sized circle on each edge. I thought it was kind of souvenir. But it was actually a media for interactive experience using projection technology and augmented reality. On some parts of the exhibition we were required to put our own cupboard on the provided place and it could show us things like videos or information about the displays replacing the boring information paper. If it showed more than one video we could select the video we wanted to see just by tilting the board. Interesting!
And another interesting part of the exhibition, there was a video showing how food production could be a way to welcome refugees. The idea was to build communication and relationship over food production activities in the kitchen. As one of European nation known to welcome most refugees, I truly admire Germany.
DAY 3
City Center
I put the iconic landmark in Milan, Milano Duomo, on my last day along with other nearby places. It is known as one of the most beautiful Gothic Cathedrals in Europe. I agree. I took some pictures in front of it with groups of pigeons flying and landing and being fed by the tourists (except me). By the way, there were also a lot of men offering the bracelet like the previous day, so I had to beware.
Not spending much time in the cathedral square, I entered the wealthiest place I had ever been, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It is a luxurious shopping center located right next to the cathedral. The architecture is amazing, with a huge glass dome in the center surrounded by fresco (a kind of wall painting). I say it is luxurious because of I could find some fashion brands that display thousands euros stuffs in their window store. I was shocked thinking of how people want to spend my entire monthly allowance for a single blouse.
Then I walked to Pinacoteca di Brera for around 10 minutes. I came without even knowing what place was because my main purpose was just to visit and see. So, it was actually an art museum. I don't remember how much the entrance fee was but I decided not to enter considering: firstly, I had no intention about going in; secondly, I didn't want to spend my money; lastly, it would take my time while I had to visit another place and catch the return bus in time. So, I only strolled around the open terrace and the garden and decided to go back to the cathedral square through different route. Along my way, I could see the non-touristic side of Milan. It was just like a normal big city, like Munich or Jakarta or maybe Medan (hahaha such a comparison :v).
I decided to relax a bit in the other side of the Galleria, right on the opposite of Teatro alla Scala, a famous opera house in Milan. It had passed midday and I had only one place to visit. After buying some souvenirs, I took metro to my last destination.
Stadio San Siro
I'm not Milanista, but it was not a bad idea to see how AC Milan's fans reacted on a match. Yes, there was AC Milan vs Sassuolo match. No, I didn't watch the match. I was just a stadium visitor.
From the train to the stadium, I was surrounded by people in red and black jersey. Some also wore attributes, like FC cap or scarf. As I walked around the stadium, I could see some food trucks, people selling merchandise of AC Milan (and a bit of Intermilan), groups of friends or family with little kids (so cute) walking to the entrance gates, and 2 or 3 people looked like tourists taking pictures with selfie stick. It was boring if I only walked without creating memory. So, I asked a Milanista family to take a picture with me. Another 'talking to stranger' badge was achieved :))
After satisfied enough with my visit, I grabbed a vegetarian sandwich from one of the food truck (it was only with eggplant, tomato, and cheese) and left the stadium. It's time to go home.
EPILOGUE
I fell asleep in the bus directing to Trento, awoke around 6 p.m., and found the sky was already dark. I was afraid I had missed my Trento and went to unknown place. I remembered correctly the day before, at EXPO, I still did my Ashr prayer nearly before 6 p.m. Later, I figured out that Daylight Saving Time ended that day and the clock went back to normal. New insight for a tropical girl who never heard such a thing :))
Uni, I knew that your haggling skill would come in handy 😂
ReplyDeletekinda proud of it :D
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