Thursday,
5 May 2016
I
woke up early for morning prayers and stayed up. Even then, I found myself
caught up in work emails and had to rush for my breakfast. What else is new,
eh. I hurried to the train station to make the 07:36 train to La Spezia, well,
as fast as I could with my hurting feet and all. This time, I managed to get
the ticket and arrive at the platform in time. I was determined not to repeat
yesterday’s episode again.
There
was the usual slow train ticket-buying process at La Spezia again and of course
I missed the 08:55 train to Riomaggiore. I decided to visit Manarola first and
spent half an hour there before catching the train back to Riomaggiore. I spent
longer at Riomaggiore, walking up and down the village, exploring alleys and
even climbed up to the castle. It was a hazy day today compared to the bright
sunny day of the previous day.
I
left my heart in Riomaggiore and took the 11:25 train back to La Spezia. I was planning
to take the 12:15 Regionale train to Firenze and was determined not to let the
queue at La Spezia ticket office spoil my plans again hence why I arrived
early. There were about two dozen people ahead of me in the queue and I began
to time how long it’d take for me to be served. Surprisingly, it took only ten
minutes for me to be served – but then again, two people ahead of me waved me
through as they were waiting for their mates.
I
bought the ticket and shuffled to the platform. The train came and it was quite
full so I was glad to have gotten a seat. I read my book and even managed some
kip. I had to change at Pisa and had less than ten minutes to do so. Well, it
turned out I wasn’t the only one of course – I spotted a few familiar faces who
were also on the train from La Spezia-Pisa train on the Pisa-Firenze train. The
journey took an hour from Pisa and when I arrived at Firenze Santa Maria
Novella station, I headed for the ticket office to buy the return ticket to
Pisa. I was lucky as there was a separate (with hardly anyone) queue for
regional trains so that was done quickly and before long, I found myself in
sunny blustery Florence.
I
had visited Florence twice before so I wasn’t really going to do much
sightseeing. I waddled to Basilica di San Lorenzo then shuffled to Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. I went around it slowly before heading to Ponte Vecchio.
A bit of history: Ponte Vecchio is the oldest and most famous bridge spanning
Arno River and is the only Florentine bridge to survive WW II. It is lined on
both sides with shops, most of them jewellers and my, what gorgeous pieces they
had! Florence is a great leather heaven if you’re looking for leather products:
leather bags, jackets, shoes, belts and things made from leather like
bookmarks, key charms, card cases, key holders, bracelets etc etc. I didn’t
really stop to browse as I wanted to catch the 17:00 train back to Pisa.
I
headed off to Piazza degli Strozzi where Louis Vuitton is and then to Hermès (ahem) and after my purchases, walked to the station about ten
minutes away (my hurt-feet pace). I arrived at 16:45 and walked to the
platform.
Back at the B&B after performing prayers, I dithered
about going to Piazza dei Miracoli for the leaning Tower but my feet protested.
I did consider walking in my flip flops (good idea I didn’t leave home without
it!) but when I considered it would take 35 minutes to walk there, I decided
not to. I don’t mind walking but my feet were protesting big time. Instead, I stayed
in packing. I had dinner and hit the sack after 22:00.
Friday,
6 May 2016
I
woke up at 04:00 today and after performing prayers and freshening myself, I went
down with my bags and had breakfast. It was too early to have breakfast but I gotta
eat something otherwise I might faint from lack of sugar. I left at 05:20 and
walked to the station, as briskly as my hurting feet could take me. I had
checked the platform and knew I must head to platform 5 for the train to Milano
Centrale. There were a few others at the platform so I didn’t feel especially
concerned about my safety, plus the dawn was about to break anyway.
And
what do you know, the train was late. It finally arrived ten minutes later but
left swiftly and we were able to make up the time and even arrived at Milano
Centrale on schedule. I then walked to Central Hostel Milano at Viale Andrea
Doria. Accommodation in Milan is not cheap – I can’t for the life of remember
where I stayed on my first visit there some years ago – and I wanted a place
close to the station. I finally settled on the hostel although I don’t prefer
staying in a dormitory but I reckoned it was for a night only. There was a
Polish girl already waiting at the reception to check in. Reception hours are
10:00-18:00 only hence why I decided to just check in and leave my bags rather
than run the risk of arriving after 18:00 even though this meant limping from
the station to the hostel and then back again to the station. My initial plan
was to take the next train out to Mendrisio just across the border and come back later in the day and
only check-in then.
Check-in
took a while and the guy at the reception then brought us to the building right
across the street. I tried connecting to the hostel’s wifi to check the train
schedule but failed so I left after half an hour and shuffled back to the
station where I checked the bus stop for the bus to Malpensa the following
morning before buying return ticket to Mendrisio. I then sat down for the next
70 minutes for the train out. Well, I had my novel to occupy me.
There
were two trains joined together and the second half of the train would stop at
Chiasso while the first half would continue on – a kind girl explained this to
me as the ticket conductor didn’t speak English - so I changed to the other train
at Chiasso. The girl also helped to ensure I got on to the right carriage
before leaving, how kind!
At
Mendrisio, I crossed over and walked to FoxTown. I spent about a couple of
hours there but nothing caught my interest. I tried finding some footwear to
provide relief to my hurting feet – oh how I wished I had packed my FitFlops! –
but couldn’t find anything at all. I left and caught an earlier train than
planned back to Milano, this time making sure I got on the right carriage so
that I didn’t have to change again like I did on the earlier journey.
Back
in Milan, I trudged to Pizzeria Spontini at Via Gaspare Spontini as recommended by the hostel guy who
checked us in and bought a slice of pizza to go (it was a generous slice). I returned
to the hostel and had the pizza for early dinner. Oh. My. Word. It was
superb!!! It only had tomatoes, flour, mozzarella cheese, olive oil andanchovies. And that was all it needed.
Saturday, 7 May 2016
I
had an early night and woke up for no reason just after 3 and stayed awake. The
sounds of Milan waking up grew gradually. I got up for morning prayers and
finished packing. The Polish girl and I then walked to the station together and
to the bus stop for the bus to Malpensa.
The
trip took almost an hour and after checking in my bag, I went to the tax refund
area. Oh my, the queue was just too long and too painfully slow. i had to ask
some Chinese tourists ahead of me (most of them claiming tax refund were
Chinese tourists anyway apart from the few Middle Easterners) and asked if I could
cut in, showing my boarding pass and explaining I had to board in less than an
hour. Ask nicely and you shall get and one guy allowed me to cut in. I was
told, however, to go to the customs as they wanted to inspect all LV purchases
so I ran over there, waited for the custom check and ran back to the counter. Then
I ran to clear security, a quick visit to Hermès and
finally immigration. Then it was yet another dash to the gate. I arrived at the
gate panting and immediately boarded (I was among the last few).
We
took off on time and I managed to doze off. I felt strangely warm and was
perspiring throughout the flight. We landed at Abu Dhabi and had to be ferried
to the main terminal. I went to check the Hermès boutique then
went to perform prayers before heading to the food court where I would spend
the next four hours. Yeah, somehow it didn’t register with me that I had seven
hours’ layover at Abu Dhabi. Seven!
Sunday, 8 May 2016
We were ferried to the plane just after 01:20 and I
dozed off during take-off. I did manage to doze off every now and then but was
in no mood to watch any inflight movies. We landed at KLIA at 13:45 and as usual,
I went to perform prayers first before heading for the carousel. My bag
appeared shortly after and I was home at 15:45. I finished unpacking and
cleaning the kitchen and dining area (sweeping, wiping, mopping whathaveyou) by
16:45. I had a short rest before getting up again to pump iron. Yes, back to
life, back to reality...
And back to work the following morning.
Distance covered in the week I was away
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