Day 2-3: Second day in Milan, Italy + arrival in Cologne, Germany

After the generous and humungous Christmas dinner that we had on December 24, everybody slept in and crawled downstairs only at about 11am. So did the four hungry cats who immediately received their treat for the morning.

After a long and rushless brunch I set off to walk around Milan again - this time the rain thankfully decided to stop for a while, so it was nice enough without having to talk out the umbrella. As expected (and yet it keeps baffling me each and every time), all stores and most of restaurants and cafes were closed and at first it seemed the city has died out, because nobody was around Santa Maria delle Grazie or Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio at all. It was myself, two Chinese tourists and an older lady of unidentified European nationality.

All of the action was predictably centered around Duomo and neighboring areas, and by action I mean people slowly walking by and gazing at others which certainly had its charm as well. I also went inside Palazzo Marino for a free short exhibition and must say it has a fascinating interior. The same might be true for the building of La Scala, but from the outside it looked like any other building you would just pass by without giving it a second glance. That's exactly what I did on the first day and only later realized what it was. It's pretty bland looking, much less interesting than the Opera theater in Lviv, Ukraine, for instance.

But still Milan was another opportunity to get to know Italy a bit better and I did just that, mostly thanks to the hospitality of my CouchSurfing host. I should at one point write an ode to CS.

In the evening it was time to leave for the airport and I did just that, Milan Express is definitely a nice way to travel to Malpensa (even if a bit overpriced). My flight to Cologne, Germany was on time and it could easily be the only flight on time in a week or so, because all Germanwings, Airberlin, etc. flights were delayed at least briefly, it seemed. That was a pleasant surprise, and I could not yet again contain my excitement as the plane turned to the take-off strip. Also, it was the third flight in 3 days and all three times I was seated conveniently (KRR-SVO- aisle seat with an empty middle seat, SVO-MXP - entire last row to myself, MXP-CGN - exit row aisle seat), knocking on wood and hoping that Deutsche Bahn will deliver as well.

Cologne-Bonn airport is just a 15-minute S-Bahn ride away from downtown Cologne and a contrasting 2.4 Euro compared to Milan's 11 Euro. Having arrived, I landed in the welcoming arms of another great CS host who graciously hosts in his 30-th floor apartment from where you can see the Dom and basically the entire city. He is a cameraman, so we had nice chats on the subject, he showed me a couple of clips of his and his friends' work as well as some filming locations in Cologne itself.

Next day was Sunday when, by the lovely tradition, all stores were closed yet again :) but the two of us had a long walk around town. The Dom looks pretty great (especially from the Hohenzollernbrücke), is similar to Stephansdom in Vienna and St. Vitus Church in Prague. I had my first taste of Kölsch and although I'm clearly not a fan of beer (except for kriek, of course), it wasn't that bad, especially in a typical German setting on a winter day.

In between shuffling through snowy streets, we stopped by the Ludwigsmuseum and I once again made sure I love contemporary art, so that's where I'll be heading on Tuesday.

The weather was perfect, about zero degrees throughout the day, neither cold nor hot, post-Christmas atmosphere and thus a great day in general. Topped with a viewing of The Inglorious Basterds in German it was just plain fantastic.

Day 0-1: Leaving Russia is a challenge + arrival in Milan, Italy

Well, I gladly set off on my journey!

I was pretty worried about checking in my baggage all the way through Milan, so I decided to check it in only through Moscow to claim it there and check it in once again. But as luck would have it, Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport lost my baggage in the actual airport and it took them 1.5 hours to find it, because apparently it was traveling around all over the place.

I had a chance to see most of Terminal D though and already have some critique: too much glass and that wouldn't bother me unless sockets weren't only available in a couple of corners around the place (where you literally have to sit on the floor), so if your laptop battery is old or dead, you'll have to surf standing up or and sitting down on ice cold floor. MTS offers free Wi-Fi.

When the second flight started, I felt that common and all-encompassing joy that can only mean one thing: I'm on the road again! Note to self: Italian flight attendants smell divine.

Milan greeted me with rain and it rained through out December 24, too. It was a bit late (about 11.30pm) when I arrived into the city itself, darkish, raining and I couldn't figure out how to read the map, so I stumbled into some bar where by coincidence met my Couchsurfing hosts! That was both weird and funny. And fun.

I dedicated most of Dec 24 to walking around the center (passing Duomo at least 5 times), did some rich people watching, was amazed at how unappealing La Scala is and then went off home to help make and then gobble on the Christmas dinner. In attendance were two Italian gals, one Italian guy, one Egyptian guy, 4 cats and yours truly... A house party in several languages with a few courses, Russian music and Italian hospitality. Great night!

Merry Christmas to all!

Why it is okay to change your travel plans

Here’s the story. For my Christmas/New Year trip this year I had a plan in my mind: I would go to Italy, then spend 5 full days in Switzerland and then go to Germany for a week. Now, I’ve never been to Switzerland and I’d obviously heard some very nice things about it, so the idea of going to this fascinating country was very tempting.

I applied for a visa, was given one and then let the topic rest a bit, as it was a bit too early to decide what and where I wanted to do (early October, 3 months in advance) – the important thing was plane tickets and I’d already purchased them at a good price.

I had several locations I wanted to visit in Switzerland: Geneva, Lausanne, Montreux/Vevey, Lucerne, Interlaken, Bern, Zurich, maybe Basel. Initially, I wanted to cram all of that into 5 days. Which was quite unreasonable as I later realized - I did not want to visit all those cities just to cross them out on my list and several hours/half a day is just not enough for me to fully enjoy the experience of visiting a new town.

So I talked to several friends who’d been there and started playing around with locations that I wanted to visit (keep in mind I don’t ski). Geneva and Lausanne? Lausanne and Lucerne? Geneva and Lucerne? Lausanne and Interlaken? Geneva and Zurich? I was looking at affordable hostels here and there, but in the end nothing felt right. Nothing at all. I spent at least two weeks stressing out about my itinerary and then for some reason I thought of Cologne and some other German cities and then, within a day, I booked all flights/trains for my prolonged stay in Germany. It took me only two hours to come up with a updated travel plan (Cologne, Munich and a day trip to Brussels) and I’m very satisfied with it. You know why? Because it feels right! And I want to be there asap. With Switzerland, I was lost and felt discontented and there was quite a risk of me not being happy about my trip in general. And that's so not what I want to remember about the great trip that I was supposed to have.

So what conclusions I can make for myself (and hopefully others) based on this example?

• it’s okay to change your travel plans
• if a destination doesn’t feel right at the moment, then switch over to something else because… why risk being unhappy with a trip?
• try booking hotels and hostels via booking sites that foresee cancellation free of charge (booking.com, hrs.com) in order to avoid losing money in case you change your mind or there’s an emergency
• at the same time, if you for instance booked a hostel via hostelworld.com (and they normally charge you 10%, it most definitely is non-refundable) and now hesitate about going to your selected destination, it’s best to lose the 10% (which is normally not much.. 3-5 euro, but of course that depends on your choice of accommodation) than end up hating your trip, right? It’s important to be wary about money, but at the same time there’s no need to be overtly fanatic about it

In other words, travel and be happy!

Next trip: Thailand or Germany?

The moment I quit my job, I started thinking about my next trip. You know the usual data mining, flights, hotels, things to discover, the whole nine. I had already had another trip planned that I was happy about, but who can be satisfied with one trip if you can have several?

The thing is, I really want to go to Thailand. I want to see Bangkok and then, as it was eventually decided, Krabi and Phi Phi Island. Initially, I also wanted to go to Hongkong (or maybe Kuala Lumpur, or Phnom Pehn), but decided against it because I realized one country would probably do for my first official visit to Asia.

I found reasonably priced tickets, thought things through, came up with an approximate itinerary, booked accommodation in Krabi Town and then we found out my mother has some health issues she needs to take care of. Maybe she's going to have a surgery in December. And maybe not. My sister and grandmother are both willing to take care of her... but do I want to find myself 10 flight hours from home and know my mother just had a surgery and worry sick about her without being able to attend to her? Not really. So even though it's not yet clear how things will progress from here, I've decided to stay home simply because family comes first.

The funny thing of course is that those tickets are still available online, I mean it's just 5-6 days before I would be setting off and these cheap tickets are still out there, on emirates.com! Very, very tempting!

Instead, my new Plan is: I have tickets to Milan on Dec 23 and from Berlin on Jan 7, which was how I originally planned to spend the holidays. But now that I quit my job, there's nothing stopping me from stay longer in Europe and finding good use for my one-year multiple entrance visa to the Schengen zone. So I'm in talks with the airline to rebook my flight back from Berlin to Mar 3, 2011 and basically my trip would look like this:

Dec 23-25: Milan, Italy

evening flight to Cologne, Germany

Dec 26-28: Cologne, Germany (with a day trip to Brussels, Belgium)

night train to Munich, Germany

Dec 29-30: Munich, Germany

day train to Karlsruhe, Germany

Dec 30-Jan 3: Karlsruhe, Germany (with a possible day trip to Strasbourg, France)

night train to Berlin

Jan 3-Mar 3: rent an apartment/room in WG in Berlin, Germany (undertaking trips to Stockholm, Copenhagen and ..?)

Right now, I'm very very happy with this itinerary. So maybe Thailand is not going to work out this time, but instead I'll spend some quality time in Europe, attend the Berlinale and enjoy the spirit of Berlin for a while.

Life is good. Travel when you can!