Milan: Meeting Ostello Bello

This is going to sound silly, but I cried for a bit during the descent into Milan. I tend to just assume things will work out, but then I panic a bit when I'm actually in a situation. The first things I noticed when I entered the Milan Malpensa Airport were that first, everyone is extremely tan and second, I couldn't understand what anyone was saying. Apparently my year of studying Italian did not stick very well.

My flight landed in Milan at 9:30pm, which made the whole experience a bit more intimidating. I had no problem dragging my luggage around, but the thought of trying to navigate a foreign city by myself at night was a bit scary.

I first rearranged my belongings (never again will I pack so heavy), then found the office to order a ticket for the Malpensa Express to the center of Milan. Though I knew the words to ask for a ticket, I was afraid to botch the Italian, and luckily the girl at the ticket desk spoke English. I took the bus to the center of Milan, then took a taxi to my hostel (luckily I was able to communicate the location to the taxi driver). After winding through countless streets, we pulled into a small alley and I saw the familiar Ostello Bello sign that I had seen before online. I was struck by how many people were outside in the alley and packed inside. It was a bit embarrassing to try and drag my luggage inside the door with about twenty people watching. One of the guys who worked at the hostel helped me, thank goodness.

(picture this, but at night and full of people)

I didn't know before arriving, but it was actually the two year anniversary of the hostel opening, so there was a large celebration going on. I was handed a shot of limoncello basically the moment I stepped in the door. The first person I met was Federico, one of the guys who worked at Ostello Bello and he offered me my free welcome drink before I even filled out any paperwork. They let me store my luggage behind the counter while I had my drink and I went outside to meet people (scary for me). I just kind of joined a group of people standing outside - I met Francesco, his brother and Andrea (Andrew), all locals. There were also two girls from France and a girl (Nicla) and her  boyfriend Alessandro. I'm not always great at talking to people at first, but since I didn't really have a choice it forced me to be less shy. I talked to Francis the most - he had lived in Canada for ten years so he spoke English well, but he had been living in Milan for awhile. Francis's brother brought me back a bacon sandwich from McDonalds, because they had been arguing over whether it was better here or in the states. The sandwich was awful but I was grateful :)

I talked to Nicla for awhile after and she offered to show me around Milan, so we exchanged numbers. The group was speaking in some Italian and some English - I could understand bits of the Italian. I finally went up to my hostel room at around 1:00am, where there were seven people sleeping. I locked my stuff under my bed, and even though I was completely exhausted I didn't fall asleep until around 4am because there was so much on my mind. Such a wild first night!

(My bed is the one with all the stuff on it)