At 9:55 I decided to go check out. I had until 11 before I had to be out of my room, but I didn’t want to just sit here. I could walk over slowly and find the buses, then walk around the train station to look at the shops. Check out was easy. I had booked on Expedia so I had already paid, and I wasn’t stupid enough to touch the mini bar! I walked out of the door and looked at my watch.. 9:59. What was I going to do until 12-12:30? My flight wasn’t until 4 and check in at easyjet didn’t start until 2 and here I was an hour away from the airport at 10am. Gah. I found a bench in the station and started to… deconstruct the architecture. Yup Im a nerd. The train station was built by Mussolini and I gotta admit… that man had STYLE. SO I sat there with wandering thoughts, watched the Nivea ads play over and over on the screens and people watched.
At 10:45 I couldn’t take sitting there any more so I window shopped. That didn’t take very long, and by 11:30 I was looking at the train boards just to imagine where I would want to go if I could take a train anywhere. It was then that I noticed it…. The clock that read 12:30. What?? I looked at my watch. It was only 11:30. Then it hit me like a train… Italy and London (with the rest of Europe) changed their clocks today. It was an hour later than I thought it was. It all made sense… breakfast had been closed for 15 minutes when I went down at 10:15 (instead of 9:15) and I checked out a MINUTE before I had to (and they charged me). Ohhh. Then I felt like the biggest idiot in Italy. I stood there staring at the board with my jaw dropped and the “light bulb has just gone off” look on my face. At least I had had plenty of time!! After the shock wore off I was really happy that I had just killed an hour of endless waiting in about 30 seconds! I could go find the bus! It was parked right outside the door and I paid my 8 euro and hopped on, elated! An hour later I was standing inside the airport terminal looking for my check in zone. I sat down and watched the world go by for a bit. I am way too nice of a person and watched guys bag while he went for a smoke. (I know… someday Ill pay for that by being blown up or arrested.) He talked to me for a little bit and seemed really nice. He was from Africa so I couldn’t understand much (it was noisy and Im not good with accents when its noisy). He told me I need to visit where ever he lived and I politely nodded and excused myself.
I went to check and stood in line at the easyjet counter. I always feel like a part of a cattle herd when flying with easyjet. You are always standing in roped off areas for long periods of time with blank looks on your face. Very cattle like. Anyways I was reading signs out of boredom and I read the carry-on policy and for the second time today I felt like an idiot. On the way to Venice we flew British Airways. Since they are a legit airline, everyone can take a carry-on and a piece of personal luggage. Not on easyjet. You can only have on carry-on and no personal stuff. Grr… I spent 30 euro to check my carry on so I could carry-on my shoulder bag.
After that I found my gate, and waited. The flight was easy and nothing special. I got off the plane, walked out of the door of Luton airport and practically ran into the easybus bus. Awesome. I had an hour ride in Finchley Road and then took to the tube home. I unpacked, skyped the parents, got caught up on life and hit the sack early! Overall a good trip! One thing I did forget to mention in Milan… I almost died. Im not used to the whole driving on the other side of the road thing. England has corrupted me. I forgot the Italy is normal and in Venice that didn’t matter because there were boats and one crossed over the rivers with a bridge. Not really concerned about the traffic in that case. Milan, however, drive correctly and I almost died. I was such a tourist standing on the street corners until the little man turned green. I didn’t budge from the curb until it did. Im being corrupted!
P.S the picture is Varenna
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