Stressful day

We haven't had internet for a while, so didn't have a place to stay in Milan. But we needed to get there to fly out to Greece. I don't like the idea of arriving in a city without a place to stay, because I imagine that might involve sleeping at the airport, or worse, on the street. I had no idea where in Milan the hotels were. So, yesterday morning involved frantic searching for an internet cafe and booking a room before almost missing the train to Milan. Apparently there was a fashion show recently, and it was Friday, so it was a little difficult to find a place to stay. The hotel wasn't bad, but was a distance from the city center. When we arrived, everything seemed to be relaxed again, but we decided to go out. It was already late in the day, but I shouldn't pass up an opportunity to see the sights in another city, right? So we went out and saw the gothic duomo.















And Galleria Vittoria Emanuele II. The most prominent thing in there is unfortunately McDonalds.












There are mosaics on the floor of all the signs of the zodiac. It's a tradition to stomp and grind your foot into the testicles of the bull here. There's now a crater several inches deep from so many tourists doing it.




















This mosaic on the floor seems to depict Rome. SPQR is the city motto. It can be seen all over Rome. Not sure why it's here in Milan though. It means Senatus Populusque Romanus. "The senate and people of Rome." The picture is of Romulus and Remus suckling on the she-wolf that raised them. This is an iconic symbol seen all over Italy. Legend has it that Rome was created by Romulus (its namesake). The town of Siena, where I was some 5 days ago, was, according to legend, created by Sienus, the son of Remus.














At the piazza down the block from the duomo, we saw and heard some kind of party, so we checked it out. There was a parade of floats going down the street, and ravers dancing behind them. It's May Day here. A kiosk sold these sweet pastries called frittelle. They're a little like funnel cakes, and really good.
Then, we decided to go to the castle in town, so we took the metro there. As ascended to ground level, we once again heard the thumping bass of the floats. Apparently, this was the destination of the parade, and the floats were arriving. They circled the castle, and tons of people swarmed around, at the float of their choice. We sampled the music of most.







































After we had enough, we decided to get back to the hotel and not stay out late. We had an early flight the next day to Athens, and I was tired and sleep deprived. The gate to the metro was closed, though. A paper sign, saying "chiuso". Hmm, this could be a problem. Maybe they just closed this station because of the party. So, we walked to the next station, right outside the train station. Closed, too. And a ton of people milling about, wondering what's going on. It turns out, they close all public transit except for one bus line on this holiday after 9pm. Every bus stop had a large group of people sitting there, looking angry. They'd probably been there for a while, and would be walking home. At the train station, there was a line of people at the taxi stand about 100 people strong. This is probably what Paris is like when the workers go on strike. Families with kids, just in from a train, were desperately trying to get taxis and avoid the ravers. We went up the street a distance, and intercepted a taxi before it could get down to them. We didn't want to spend 15 euro on that, but it's better than sleeping on the street. It was a relief to get back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, to Athens!