"It's gotta be your bull" - Tommy BoyAfter so many weekends of working during the past few months, a couple of the guys from work and I decided to go somewhere, anywhere, for St. Patty's Day weekend. One of the guys, Brendan, has a brother (John) who lives in Milan, Italy with his girlfriend (Melissa). So where better to go on St. Patty's Day than Italy?? They are kinda Irish, right?
We left straight from work on St. Patty's Day, were the last hour or so of work were spent having Irish Coffees (coffee and whiskey), Calypsos (coffee, Kahlua and whipped cream) and Bailey's. We have about 8 Irish people in our office, so they supplied the goods.
We drove to Hahn, Germany, as this was where our flight was taking off from. Hahn is only around 40 minutes from Luxembourg and is a hub for Ryan Air, one of the European discount airlines (if you remember my blog from Rome, Ryan Air is the airline that I swore off due to the rough clientelle and unorganized nature of the operation). Our flights to Milan were 45 euros each, round trip. That's about $55 and made it very much worth the extra time driving. We arrived right on time to Hahn and, to my surprise, boarded the plane without a hitch.
We drove to Hahn, Germany, as this was where our flight was taking off from. Hahn is only around 40 minutes from Luxembourg and is a hub for Ryan Air, one of the European discount airlines (if you remember my blog from Rome, Ryan Air is the airline that I swore off due to the rough clientelle and unorganized nature of the operation). Our flights to Milan were 45 euros each, round trip. That's about $55 and made it very much worth the extra time driving. We arrived right on time to Hahn and, to my surprise, boarded the plane without a hitch.
At least I thought. Once we got on the plane and sat down, one of the stewerdesses gets on the intercom and says "Is there a Matthew Thomas Marcum on the plane?" Brendan turns to me with this shocked "What did you do??" look on his face, and Robert (the other guy from work who went) says "It's because he's American!" At least they thought it was funny...
I raise my hand and stand up, and the lady walks down the aisle and hands me my passport! I guess it had fallen out of my coat pocket when I handed my ticket to the person at the gate. Could you imagine if no one found that? I would not have been able to get back to Luxembourg and might be writing to you from Italy right now! But, luckily they found it and gave it back to me. Whew.
So the flight was great. We even landed about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Brendan's brother, John, picked us up at the airport, and off we were. It took us about 40 minutes to get to John and Melissa's apartment, we dropped off our stuff and then hopped in a cab to the nearest Irish pub to get caught up on all the Patty's festivities we were missin' out on from our travels during the day.
We got to the bar and got a few wierd looks because 1) we were all still wearing our suits from work, and 2) Robert lights up a cigarette in the bar, not noticing the 'No Smoking' signs on every wall in the place! After we got situated, though, it turned out to be a really good time. So good, in fact, that we didn't roll back to the apartment until around 5am!!
Funny story from the bar: At one point during the night Brendan and I were having a hard time getting the bartender's attention to get a beer. All of a sudden, this girl walks up the bar and just starts making out with the bartender. If anyone was going to be able to swing a drink for us, it would be this chick. So I walk up and stand next to her, still trying to get the bartender's attention. She looks up at me and says (thick Italian accent) "Happy-a Saint-a Patrick's Dayeee."
We got to the bar and got a few wierd looks because 1) we were all still wearing our suits from work, and 2) Robert lights up a cigarette in the bar, not noticing the 'No Smoking' signs on every wall in the place! After we got situated, though, it turned out to be a really good time. So good, in fact, that we didn't roll back to the apartment until around 5am!!
Funny story from the bar: At one point during the night Brendan and I were having a hard time getting the bartender's attention to get a beer. All of a sudden, this girl walks up the bar and just starts making out with the bartender. If anyone was going to be able to swing a drink for us, it would be this chick. So I walk up and stand next to her, still trying to get the bartender's attention. She looks up at me and says (thick Italian accent) "Happy-a Saint-a Patrick's Dayeee."
I said, "How did you know I spoke English?"
"Because-a your-a faaaace-a."
No joke. So I said something to the effect of "you speak English pretty well." And she goes "I did-a not-a learn-a English from-a schooooool. I learned it-a from-a emmmm-teeeee-veeeee (Mtv)."
Brendan and I about spit our beers (which she did end up getting for us) right in her face, we were laughing so hard!
The next day we woke up and Brendan, Robert and I went to downtown Milan. We walked around, saw the 'Il Duomo' (main cathedral there) and went up onto the roof (amazing view of the entire city), saw the Leonardo DaVinci statue, ate some lunch and had some gelato, and then had some wine at an outdoor restaurant right in the middle of the main square. The weather was nice and we had fun just enjoying the atmosphere. People in Milan all dress like they are on a runway, so it makes for some great people watching!
The next day we woke up and Brendan, Robert and I went to downtown Milan. We walked around, saw the 'Il Duomo' (main cathedral there) and went up onto the roof (amazing view of the entire city), saw the Leonardo DaVinci statue, ate some lunch and had some gelato, and then had some wine at an outdoor restaurant right in the middle of the main square. The weather was nice and we had fun just enjoying the atmosphere. People in Milan all dress like they are on a runway, so it makes for some great people watching!
Funny story from lunch: We're sitting there eating and talking about how we want to see some real Italian mafia during our stay in Milan. In walks this dude. Cream colored suit, matching hat, shiny white shoes, expensive looking shades, jacket hanging off his shoulders, decent looking, well-dressed bird on his arm, Gucci bag in his hand. To us, he might as well have been Don Corleone. He sits down next to us, and we're all geeked up. Then he asks the waiter if he speaks English. Our balloons deflate. We thought he was a contender....nope, just a pretender.
In the midde of the city centre, there's a huge open air mall area. At one point during our walk through that, we came upon this mosaic in the ground of a bull. According to Brendan, if you spin your heel on this bull's nads, it will bring you good luck. The picture above is me "spinning." It must be a well known fact that you're supposed to do this, because the ground has worn down into a fairly substantial hole in the ground from all the people who have done it.
After awhile, we decided to do some shopping (Prada, Gucci, Armani, etc.), then stopped at a place and had some more desert (canoli....ridiculously good), and then met at a pub to watch the Ireland / England rugby game. It was a good game, and John and Melissa met back up with us during it.
After the game (and a few pints of Beamish - a Guiness-like Irish beer), we went to a restaurant/loungey bar in downown Milan for drinks and dinner. This place was unreal, kinda. You walk in and the outside looks like you are in a bad neighborhood. The waiting area at the front of the place was less than impressive. You walk through a narrow hallway and pass by the kitchen, watching all the chefs doing their thing. That part was kind of cool. Then at the end of the hallway, you finally get to the dining room/lounge. This thing was like an outdoor, open air square filled with tables and lights and just looked amazing. At the far end was this soft neon lit bar that was just screaming "hip, smooth, Italian lounge." We were semi-dressed up and it definitely made us feel pretty cool as we sat and drank our drinks, ate dinner, told stories and jokes and pretty much just had a great time. After dinner, we were kicking around the idea of going out to a club, but decided not to, since we had a late night on Friday.
headed back home.
Sunday morning we woke up, went back downtown and did a little more sightseeing. Then we headed to the San Siro (very famous soccer stadium) for a match between Inter Milan and Lazio (from Rome). The stadium was enormous (it holds around 90,000 people). It was pretty cool, but the other guys got a lot more out of it, since they grew up as soccer fans and knew all of the players, etc. They couldn't believe that this was the first ever soccer match I had ever attended.
After the match, we went back to the apartment, watched a little "Old School," and then went to dinner at a nice place around the corner from John and Melissa's apartment. On the walk home, we got some more gelato. The stuff is amazing.....
The next morning, we woke up at 4am and put our suits back on. John drove us back to the airport, and we checked in for our 6.30am flight back to Hahn. Again to our surprise, the plane left right on time (this time we were about 20 minutes early!), we landed and drove straight to work. We were back in the grind by 9.15 Monday morning.
After awhile, we decided to do some shopping (Prada, Gucci, Armani, etc.), then stopped at a place and had some more desert (canoli....ridiculously good), and then met at a pub to watch the Ireland / England rugby game. It was a good game, and John and Melissa met back up with us during it.
After the game (and a few pints of Beamish - a Guiness-like Irish beer), we went to a restaurant/loungey bar in downown Milan for drinks and dinner. This place was unreal, kinda. You walk in and the outside looks like you are in a bad neighborhood. The waiting area at the front of the place was less than impressive. You walk through a narrow hallway and pass by the kitchen, watching all the chefs doing their thing. That part was kind of cool. Then at the end of the hallway, you finally get to the dining room/lounge. This thing was like an outdoor, open air square filled with tables and lights and just looked amazing. At the far end was this soft neon lit bar that was just screaming "hip, smooth, Italian lounge." We were semi-dressed up and it definitely made us feel pretty cool as we sat and drank our drinks, ate dinner, told stories and jokes and pretty much just had a great time. After dinner, we were kicking around the idea of going out to a club, but decided not to, since we had a late night on Friday.
headed back home.
Sunday morning we woke up, went back downtown and did a little more sightseeing. Then we headed to the San Siro (very famous soccer stadium) for a match between Inter Milan and Lazio (from Rome). The stadium was enormous (it holds around 90,000 people). It was pretty cool, but the other guys got a lot more out of it, since they grew up as soccer fans and knew all of the players, etc. They couldn't believe that this was the first ever soccer match I had ever attended.
After the match, we went back to the apartment, watched a little "Old School," and then went to dinner at a nice place around the corner from John and Melissa's apartment. On the walk home, we got some more gelato. The stuff is amazing.....
The next morning, we woke up at 4am and put our suits back on. John drove us back to the airport, and we checked in for our 6.30am flight back to Hahn. Again to our surprise, the plane left right on time (this time we were about 20 minutes early!), we landed and drove straight to work. We were back in the grind by 9.15 Monday morning.
So, it was a great weekend. If anyone wants to see some more of the pics, just email me and I will send off the link.
This week, Josh arrives on Wednesday and we are off to the French Alps for a ski weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'm imagining that we'll be re-enacting some "Dumb and Dumber" scenes at various points throughout the weekend, but we'll see. Can't wait to blog about it....
