I am suddenly awakened, I think it's an hour or so
later, when an Italian couple gets on the train and begins to tell me in
Italian that my friend is in their seats. I look at the old lady across from me
and she gives me a smile and I can see that they have been talking to her. I
can also see a slight glint in her eye that very kindly says, “I told you so”.
I look over at Mike and like me the sweater pillow is now over his head to keep
the daylight out. “Mike! Psst!!! Mike!” He peaks through his sweater and I can
see his blood shot eyes. “Hey you’re in their seats, come back to this one over
here.” He gives me a look that says he could really care less, and turns his
body towards the window and goes straight back to sleep. For a split second I
think how rude, but then I realize how tired I am and I do the same thing to
the Italian couple expecting me to do something about it. I can hear them
exchange words in Italian. Finally they give up and on sits next to Mike and
the other next to me. Just as I feel the man take his seat next to mine, I pull
the jacket over my head and fall fast asleep for the remainder of the trip.
“Hey Gema, we’ve arrived.” Mike gently shakes my
shoulder. I open my eyes to a brightly lit train. Many of the passengers are
making their way off the train. I didn’t even feel us stop. The little old lady
gives me a sweet look and then walks down to get the isle to exit the train. I
get up, I’m dizzy and my head is foggy, still in a dreamy state of mind. Mike
hands me my bag. The clock is ticking and we still need to navigate our way by
foot to the American Embassy to get Mike his passport. The Embassy opens at 9am
and closes at 12:00pm, therefore it is imperative that we get there as fast as
we can. Mikes plane leaves at 8am the following day, there is no room for
mistakes here as it is 8:30am. We hurry off the train with Mike leading the
way. Mike looked up the directions the night before and we are walking at a
fast pace trying to determine where to start.
Something you should know about traveling is to
bring a compass. Every time I get off a train, directions in my guide book
always start with “Head north east until you reach (fill in blank) Street.”
Traveling to so many locations means I have no idea which direction is which.
Mike manages to figure it out and we pick up the
pace. Apparently we have a ten-minute walk, which is great! We should find it
in plenty of time. Now filled with hope, Mike and I begin to jabber on about
the city and how different it is from the rest of Italy. Milan is the fashion
capital of the country. It is where all the modeling takes place and is filled
with shopping, large business buildings, and people hurrying around in their
Italian suits. The best way to describe it, is that it is the New York of
Italy. We stop at a corner looking at Mike’s directions and map. Our
destination can’t be too much further, however we are stuck at a fork in the
road. “Lets just ask” I say and the next friendly looking face that walks by I
ask if he knows where the American Embassy is. The handsome Italian is dressed
very smart, and trendy. He had a smile as he was walking, dressed in a blue
blazer and nice jeans and a beautiful leather satchel to carry his things. He
says he doesn’t know in decent but still broken English then digs into his
satchel to look it up on his phone. He starts opening his phone and blushes, he
puts back the phone and digs again. He then pulls out a second phone and begins
to Google search it. Mike and I kind of chuckle at this as it is obvious the
man is embarrassed for having two phones. Just then we look up. How could we
miss it! It gently waives in the air, it’s the American Flag. Being so far from
home and I had taken for granted how beautiful our flag is. Mike points it out
and we start chuckling again. That must be it! We look back at the man and try
to point it out, but he is too busy trying to help to notice. Neither Mike or I
want to make his help feel unwelcome so we allow him to continue on. He tells
us that we are really close and looks up and down the street and begins to walk
about 5 steps forward. He looks up from the GPS on his phone and lets out an embarrassed
laugh. Here it is. It was right in front of us the whole time. We give him our
biggest thanks and I grab Mike with and excited jump! We are here! It’s just
about to be 9:00am now. We walk straight to the front and are stopped by the
guards at the front. They tell us that we have to wait. Apparently the workers
in the A.E. are taking a coffee break! WHAT! Ugggh so Italian – the day just
started and they are off for a break. There is a really nice coffee shop right
next to the AE so we decide go in and have cup too. We choose a small corner by
a window to put our things down and I walk up to order. Mike says he’s not
hungry but I know it’s a total lie. I’m starving and we have been splitting
meals since our stuff had been stolen. I try and give him the bigger share of
the food but he always insisted it was split even and would leave me the fair
share. I walked up to the counter and ordered two coffees and two buttery
breakfast rolls. When I come back with the food we sit down and quietly eat.
When every crumb is gobbled up we both start complaining about the Italian
culture of taking breaks and closing early. Don’t they know people need their
passports! It’s been about 15 minutes and he decides to go back to see if its
open. Luckily the shop has Wi-Fi and I tell him I will watch our stuff.
Knowing how the Italians are about people just
sitting at their tables I decide to sip my coffee really slow. This is a classy
place and I was worried about being kicked out for looking like traveling bums.
At this point Mike and I haven’t showered in a few days and I feel dirty. I go
to the restroom and brush my hair and touch up my makeup to look a little less
bum like. I then head to the counter and
order a few small cookies to go with my coffee. Mike comes back just once to
barrow a bit of cash to take a picture for his passport. This is the last I see
him for a every long time. I grazed as slowly on the cookies as possible. The
waiters and other workers in the café are eyeing me. They either think we are
bums and want me to leave, or they know something is wrong. I cant hide the
nervousness on my face and I try to play on the computer to keep my mind busy.
I am so determined to get Mike home! If this fails I will feel awful...more
than awful! I am so nervous that I am sick to my stomach. For some reason I
feel like there was a reason for us to have met, and that reason was for me to
make sure he gets home safely! I slowly sip my drink and eat. When I begin to
feel like I am getting too many stairs from the café employees I would get up
and order another coffee to keep from being kicked out. It is almost 1:00pm and
I haven’t heard a thing from Mike.
Just then I get a facebook message from him
explaining that it looks like things are working out its just going to take a
while as he is trying to get ahold of his family. I feel a little better but
still the knots never leave my stomach. Finally about 2:15 Mike walks into the
café. “I got the passport” he says with a big smile. I look at him repeating
what he says and give him a huge hug. “Your going home! We did it” We do a
celebratory dance that attracts more glances from the café employees. You must
be starving lets grab lunch! I order us a quick meal to split. We gobble up the
last few bites and just then a café emolyee comes by and asks us to leave
telling us that we were talking up tables and they were losing business. To be
fair the place was starting to fill up so we grabbed our things and happily
walked out of the café. We didn’t care, our mission was accomplished and now it
was time to relax and explore the city.
Mike and I go back to the train station and check in
our bags. Time to explore the town and get me a new camera. I decided that
since I stil had a month left to travel, and since this was a once in a
lifetime adventure, a camera would be worth buying. Mike had already been to
the town so he gave me the grand tour showing me all of the tourist
attractions. The city is small but magnificent. The shopping here is also
amazing. We found an electronics store where I bought a camera similar to the
one I had. Both happy like children, decided to get an ice cream gelato. The
scoops were large tasted delicious! We made jokes on a curb and enjoyed every
bite. We made plans to stay in the airport that night to save money on
accommodation. Later we made our way to a small park to kill time. There was an
elderly group playing some time of game where the roll balls into a some type
of lined thing on the ground. We could really see or under stand them so we
decided to speak for them as if we were reading their subtitles. We turned a
sweet old lady into the head of a retired Mafia gang. The entire story line and
conversation we made up for them was hilarious.
Another old women walks by with a little cane and
gives a us a look and smiles. “That smile means that you’re on my bench. For
that your going to die” I say to Mike in my best Godfather accent. We both
laugh out loud. “Come on its getting late and we need dinner!” says Mike.
We grab some food and toast over a coke for our last
meal together and then head for the airport. Once in the airport we find two
empty benches that face each other. Perfect! We put down our things and pull
out our sleeping bags. We both drift quickly asleep. It had been a really long
day.
I woke up a bit stiff thinking this is what it must
be like to be a true hobo - sleeping on benches and traveling the world. My
flight was at 6:45am to Spain and I had just enough time to check in. I head
down with Mike and get in line. Mike waits near by and waits for our final
goodbye. At the counter the lady tells me its too late- the gates are closed. I
have missed my flight and there is nothing they can do. WHAT!!! I slept in the
airport and still missed my flight! How is that possible! Not only that I have
to buy another ticket. I run to Mike, about to cry, and tell him the news. We
speak to an agent and I have to pay 70 euros for a flight to Spain. I am so
frustrated and upset. “You should go. I think this will be really good for you.
You can stay with my friends there to save money. It will be ok.” There is
something about way he says it that calms me down. You know what you’re right.
I purchase the ticket and am taking the next flight to Barcelona. Mike takes
all of my extra clothes and souvenirs. He is heading to LA to see his
girlfriend and promises to drop off my things at my Aunts house. We head over
to his terminal and its almost time to say our final goodbyes. We sit and chat
watching the sun come up. With my new camera I take a picture. We both look
haggard and tired but I love this picture. I lost photos of 4 different cities
with our bag being stolen in Cinque Terra. This picture represents two
strangers, meeting in a foreign country and have an epic time adventuring. When
things turn to distress, we banded together and turned our distress into more
epic adventuring. Mike is an amazing person and I have no doubt that we will
remain friends for a long time. I look forward to meeting his girlfriend too
and am excited that this will not be the last goodbye as it usually is when you
meet people through travels.
Mike and I above at the airport as the sun is coming up.
The only picture to survive our epic Cinque Terra & Milan adventure.
PS. It is now just over a month later from when this
adventure took place. Mike was able to drop off my souvenirs and pay me back.
We also plan on connecting sometime soon here in California. Probably sometime
over winter when he is on break from school. Cheers!