Day Eighteen - You Say Ciao, And I Say Ciao

Ciao ciao, I don't know why you say ciao and I say ciao. For some reason in Italian, ciao means both hello and goodbye. How do I know that I'm not walking up to someone and saying "goodbye, which way is the metro"? I'll let them off with it for now, but if it annoys me again there will be consequences.

I got up early and made my way to the station to get my next journey underway, and said cheerio to Venice.

Venice - Milan
Unfortunately this train did not have wee booths, I was gutted. I just had to sit in a normal train for once. A wee old man came up to me and started blethering in Italian, I had no idea what he was saying but it appeared as if he was asking to sit next to me. Fire in mate. The journey wasn't too long, only 2 and a half hours, so the boy muttering a lot of pish next to me didn't annoy me too much. Before I knew it I was in Milan.

I left the station, which was massive, and headed for the subway. After a 10 minute journey I got off at my stop, and tried to find the hostel. The directions weren't very helpful, they told me to go to a museum up the road and ask them. So I did. Turns out the hostel is in the middle of the grounds of the museum. I found it ok from here and checked in. It turns out the museum and grounds used to be a psychiatric hospital. Uh oh. I can see the plot for a Stephen King novel unfolding in front of me, ending in me being murdered by some escaped lunatic. Never mind at least it's cheap.

The staff were all friendly enough, the hostel is run by people from disadvantaged backgrounds and all the profit apparently goes to help their charity. The rooms were clean, and the beds looked very comfy. Notice I said "looked" comfy. I sat down on the bed and it caved in, I ended up in a heap with a mattress, bed struts and sheets all over me. The American boy taking a nap in the bed opposite absolutely shat himself! I informed the bloke at reception and he told me to take one of the other beds, so I did just that, thankfully this one didn't buckle under me.

I decided to go for a wander, and headed for the train station as this is usually where the city centre is. After walking about for ages I came to the conclusion that this was not the city centre, so jumped back to the hostel rather than waste any more time walking about deserted streets.

I found a supermarket and got some food for the night, and retired to the hostel to chill and read my guidebook, something I probably should have done before I wasted a load of time walking about the completely wrong place. Turns out the city centre is a bit further down, near the famous Duomo. I planned out some things I need to see whilst here, and retired for the evening, gingerly lying down on the bed before passing out. Big day tomorrow!