Saturday was our final day in Italy L In the
morning, I decided that I wanted to go shopping at the Leather Market. I have
not been shopping and buying souvenirs in Belgium, Scotland, Wales, or England,
so I decided to treat myself (and get a little holiday shopping in). To start
the day, I went to a café to get coffee. I accidentally got milk but was able to
correct it and got my coffee. Like dinner the night before, it was essentially
a shot of really strong coffee. They also gave me a whole packet of sugar and a
little spoon so I figured I was supposed to add the sugar, mix it, and drink
it. The first half was not good, but the second half was like hot coffee syrup
so it was better. Caffeinated and ready to go, I set off towards the market.
I had previously wandered through the market on Tuesday, so I had an idea of what
I wanted. I compared prices and found a purse that I really liked and bargained
it down to about half of the original offer. It is a light tan medium-small
leather purse and I love it! I continued shopping and bought a few gifts
(cannot reveal on the blog…sorry), and bought a scarf I really wanted. And then
I saw it, the perfect bag that I had been looking for. Big enough to hold a
notebook, two compartments, zippers, adjustable straps, buckles, brown leather,
you get the idea, my dream bag. I talked to the guy who worked there and was
not going to pay the original price, but then he offered a student discount. It
was still too expensive and I almost walked away but then he gave me a lower
offer, I pondered for a while, he gave a lower offer, more thinking, then he
showed me how a lighter would not burn it, it will not get scratched, etc. It
was still too expensive but he made a final offer and I decided to buy it. It
is amazing and perfect and probably my one splurge in Europe but I am so
excited to use this purse. Okay, end of my shopping obsession. So, I left the
market quite happy with what I had found and went back to the hostel. On my
way, I ran into another group of Grinnellians! It was ridiculous!
When I got to the hostel I had to figure out how to put everything
I bought into the one pouch in my backpack. Ryanair has very small luggage
restrictions so I tried as best I could to put everything in. My bag was not
under the size restriction, but I was hoping they would not check my bag size.
On the way to Italy they had not checked, but I know people who flew Ryanair
and their luggage was checked. As Eleanor and I walked to the train station, we
planned ways I could make my bag smaller. I could wear my skirt over my jeans,
put a sweater over my shirt, wear my towel on my head or wrap it around my body
under my jacket, etc. The ideas became more and more ridiculous but we just
hoped they wouldn't check. At the train station, we all got sandwiches and then
had an hour and forty minute train to Milan. It was fast, going 300 km/h
(186mph) and we got to the train station on time. Then, we walked to the bus
station and took an hour bus ride to Bergamo airport. We got to queue to get
our visas checked, queue to go through security, queue to get passports
checked, and queue to get on a bus that took us to the plane. Essentially, it
is a horribly inefficient and obnoxious process. Then we queued to get on the
plane and finally got to sit down, only to be told to move by the flight
attendant (who had been watching us for 5 minutes) so we got a seat without a window.
We had been sitting down for just enough time to get situated so it was really
annoying to move. Our plane took off half an hour late and we had a rather
bumpy flight (you would not have liked it, mom). There were also loads of kids
so it was a loud flight L Luckily, I had Sweeny Todd loaded on my
tablet so Eleanor and I watched that. Once we landed at London-Stansted we got
to queue to get off the plane, walk to immigration, queue to go through
immigration, go through immigration, walk to the bus, queue to get on the bus,
wait for the bus to leave, hour bus ride to London- Liverpool Street, and then
10 minute tube ride to Farringdon station and a 10 minute walk home. Needless
to say, it was sooo much traveling and we were so glad to be home.