Lausanne to Milan

July 5, 2011

Finally a good night’s sleep – Waking up at 10 makes me a happy camper.  I had reorganized all my luggage and done some laundry, so I was ready to go for the next leg of the trip:  Milan, baby.  Did some dishes, made some sandwiches, said goodbye to Rachel and Noemi, checked the internet and went out on our Lausanne extravaganza to find some souvenirs.  I had this really interesting doughnut pastry thing – sweetbread with crème on top in the middle with a little sugar.  Good stuff.  I got a mug for my coffee or hot chocolate at home, a legit Swiss Army Knife, some lozenges, and then saw some absinthe.  To get or not to get….hm.  I got the sample size for later.  Apparently it is from Switzerland, so I have to try it at some point.  It was a beautiful, warm day – perfect for our last day.  We repacked all our stuff and headed down the hill on the metra system to the train station where we got our tickets to Milan – for 2.5 hours later. 

Black crust and strange men.

What is a trip to a town without at least one church photo?

Absinthe.  the full size.  not the one I got

 

Everything here is about presentation

So we were train station bums outside of a café, people watched, drank coffee, and discussed how cool the Swiss currency was.  Seriously.  The colors on the paper are so bright and exciting.  Why can’t we have that kind of excitement in the United States?  Oh yeah, that’s right, because we are so busy stressing over everything else that we don’t have time to think about having fun money.  We don’t like to look at it, we just like to see what it can get us.  Maybe it promotes spending because it is so boring compared to the things we can get with it.  Whatever. 

where olympic officials meet

Train station cafe bums

We made it on the train, kind of bummed that we never got down to “Ouchy”… the stop for the beautiful lake that Lausanne sits on.  Its ok because we really enjoyed the views of the mountain range, the “pre-alps” and the Alps in the distance that we were traveling to in order to get to Milano.  As I sit here on the train, may I say how much I enjoy train travel?  It is really safe, the seats are wayyyy more comfortable than airplane seats, you don’t have to pay attention to traffic, it is fast, you get to travel in remote places, constantly fascinated by the passing scenery.  AND it is really good for the environment!  Really, why is it more expensive to travel by train in the United States?  Sure, it takes a little longer, but it is so much more pleasant! (except when you are traveling under the Alps in a tunnel – like right now – when your ears are popping like they do in airplanes)  And you can get things done, because they have plugs for computers here, right under the seats, compatible for Swiss or Italian plugs.  Can you tell I’m a huge fan of trains? 

<3

in the middle of the mountains

shot I somehow got as we were speeding through this tunnel with arches

and to the left, folks, we have a random lake!

The Milan train station is HUGE.  We were happy to get there, and had to take the subway to the vicinity of our hostel.  When we got there, we went directly to our room, complete with three twin beds, 3 soap bars, a sink, bidet, tv, window shades that don’t open, and of course, mosquitos that attack Susan.  We chilled as I finished catching up on my journals, watching random tv shows in Italian – Wipeout, the Cosby show, and some music videos.  Really not bad for about 20 euro per person!

Milan Train Station