Where to start? Well, it had been over seven months since I’d visited our manufacturing facility and distribution center in Debrecen, Hungary and I needed to visit the sales branch office in Italy to complete my super trifecta of the four largest European branches (UK, France, Germany and Italy being the final one). My counterpart in Hungary was able to finangle sending Eszter, one of the two Corporate Trade Compliance people there, to the Italian branch as well to learn the ropes of a sales branch visit, particularly for Europe. I was self-taught and didn’t want to make her go through that and plus in the long run I should be delegating those visits as well. I would say I’m the old salt passing on my infinite wisdom except that a) I’m only 32 and b) there’s not that much wisdom to pass down.
Speaking of age, I’m now old enough to realize that I’m not going to be able to do things forever. For example, I won’t always be able to carry a heavy backpack as my carry-on. At some point I’ll need to have a roller carry-on instead. Oh the mortality! And I won’t be able to wander around at will in random foreign cities for hours on end. Instead of finding my way around on foot I’ll have to start taking taxis! Hard beds will feel even worse on my back. The key though is whether I’ll still get to have my fairly carefree, ‘hey I’m going to try to learn X language and fit in’ attitude. I sometimes worry I’m going to be too high up the career ladder to keep my current travel attitude of staying in middle-brow hotels instead of the high end, of walking as much as possible, of eating cheap food (although I DID NOT eat any gyros on this trip) and trying really hard to learn at least how to pronounce words properly (it seems most visitors don’t try much, even the long-term visitors...and that’s their prerogative). I’m also getting to the age where my friends abroad are more likely to have families of their own and thus may be less likely to do things in the evening or on the weekend like out-of-town trips or soccer practice. Whatever. I WILL NOT LET OLD AGE STOP ME!!!!!
That also reminds me, I’m tired of seeing everyone else’s wife, kid and dog on the streets. I want to see my own. I’m coming Jennifer, Graham and Maisy!!! Though of course I can’t complain about it really since I’m not on, say, a one year deployment to Afghanistan or something.
So anyway, I was off to Italia! For the second time, Jennifer would be packing up our brood and heading on up I-35 to Dallas to spend the fifteen days (Saturday -> Saturday) with the grandparents. So really they’re the ones who come out like bandits from my foreign travel, eh. Thanks B and L!!!! You’re both szuper!! Plus with Jennifer being a stay-at-home mom I can call her in early evenings instead of waiting until 11 at night (Hungary and Italy are seven hours ahead). And through the magic of Skype, not only can I talk to her for free but I can videoconference! We’ve certainly come a long way from the days of my maternal grandfather spending six straight weeks on the road selling watches and having hardly any communication. Thanks Skype people!
Jennifer thought she had a commitment in Austin on the Saturday I was going to fly out (though it fell through) so I flew out of Austin that morning while she packed everybody up and drove to Dallas later in the day. My itinerary was Austin – Dallas (AUS-DFW) on American, then DFW to Philadelphia and then to Frankfurt on US Airways, finishing up with a jaunt over the Alps on Lufthansa to Milan. I was quite excited to be flying over the Alps but not excited to be flying through Frankfurt, the site of my saga of missed flights while trying to get back from a not-good business trip (for those who don’t remember, my flight from Budapest made me miss the first flight, I was on standby for a second flight to DFW but couldn’t get on and finally, just to get the heck out of Europe, flew to Boston and spent the night there...and oh yeah, I almost cried when I didn’t make the second DFW flight). American has a direct flight from DFW to Frankfurt but I was going to save the company $300 by flying through Philly via US Airways. It almost turned out to be a bad decision because our flight from DFW was quite late and I had a very short layover scheduled in Philly. Best part is that US Airways NEVER ANNOUNCED MY PLANE WAS LATE OR WHEN IT WAS GOING TO ARRIVE!!!!! Why does this peeve me so much? If I had known that it was going to be so late, I could maybe have made other arrangements to get to Milan with American, US Airways, Lufthansa or perhaps other Star Alliance partners. Instead, realizing about twenty minutes before the flight was supposed to leave that we hadn’t started boarding, I walked over to the window and saw there wasn’t even a plane at the gate. Great. I walked over to the desk and explained the situation. The lady told me the plane would arrive soon and I didn’t need to worry. I think her quote was “You’re only going from Terminal A to Terminal B. You’ll make it.” I had to press her for alternatives. Turned out if I missed the flight in Philly I’d be stuck there overnight. If I took a different flight out of Dallas, such as a direct to Frankfurt, I’d be stuck there too. Great. I decided to take my chances with the DFW-Philadelphia flight. The flight left maybe forty minutes late but I was able to make the Frankfurt flight in Philly, as the not-that-helpful US Airways lady had predicted.
The flight from Philadelphia to Frankfurt was uneventful though I was sad not to have an opportunity to grab a Philly cheesesteak in the airport. I intend to rectify that situation today though (unless I can somehow scam an earlier flight to Big D). The flight was only seven hours so I didn’t pop an Ambien. It worked out as I was only briefly super tired for maybe a half hour during the flight, then got my second wind. The flight from Frankfurt to Milan went right over the Alps which are simply magnificent. I so want to visit them at ground level.
Got into Milan needing to exchange my dollars for euros and find the Malpensa Express train (Malpensa is the name of the airport which I think in Spanish means ‘bad thought’). I got a bunch of Italian words from my mom and practiced some of them with an environmental engineer from Florence on the flight from Philadelphia including the following:
non parlo Italiano – I don’t speak Italian
si – yes
non (sounds like no) – no
buon giorno – good morning
buon pomeriggio – good afternoon
buona sera – good evening
buona note – good night
prego – you’re welcome
grazie – thank you
per favore – please
I was really looking forward to seeing how similar Italian and Spanish really are, having heard about the similiarities all these years. The answer is that they are but not quite enough for me to pretend to speak Italian. The good news though is that all the vowels sound the same though there are slight differences in some consonant pronunciation. It’s a cool-sounding language though.
Anyway, I took a train (the Malpensa Express) from the airport to Cadorna Station in Milan, then caught a cab to the hotel. I got a kick out of my cab driver, who spoke decent enough English, found out I spoke Spanish and asked me if I was from Spain. Ha! I’d never been mistaken for a Spaniard before. Usually I try to make people think I’m German or something by refusing to speak English though on this trip I’ve actually softened my stance on that a bit, preferring to converse in English if the alternative is not conversing at all.
The hotel was a converted Holiday Inn (the phones still said Holiday Inn on them) and was within a five minute walk of the NI office. I can’t say this enough: I love walking to work. I wish I could do it everyday. Of course, if I had to do it everyday maybe I’d get tired of it but I love doing it on trips. Despite the fact that the temperature hovered in the 30s and 40s the entire time I was there.
I threw down my stuff in the hotel, took a two hour nap until 1:00 and by 1:30 was out the door with a map of the city center in hand. I figured I had maybe a couple of miles to walk before getting there and actually I was so far out of the city center the area my hotel was wasn’t on the tourist map. I love walking challenges though and reveled in the fact I still got to the city center with no problems and was confident of finding my way back.
The part of Milan I started in didn’t feel that special but the city center was quite nice. It didn’t feel decrepit like parts of Budapest but it didn’t feel all nice and homey like Paris or Munich. You’ll see the photos. I knew I was close to the city center when the streets turned to cobblestones in places and I started seeing old churches. I found a war memorial for Italy’s war dead in World Wars I and II. Actually, it was more than a memorial, it was a round building built like a mauseleoum with three underground floors with the names of I suppose all of Milan’s war dead written on the walls. I was the only person there and it was really kind of awe-inspiring and thought-provoking. I know in the first war Italy was on the Allies side but in the second one they were the instigator; they even invaded Ethiopia! How do you reconcile that especially when such a huge percentage of your country’s population died?
A bit further on I ran into a bunch of people carrying signs and marching down the street. Oh boy, a political protest! Sadly, it was only a bunch of people marking Rare Diseases Day. I was definitely disappointed though I suppose rare diseases deserve attention to by blocking the streets.
I can’t say too much about the places I saw in Milan; I’ll have to let the photos speak for me and not least because I’m now typing this on a plane coming back from a conference in Phoenix, Arizona, three weeks after I was in Milan. Obviously my memory isn’t quite as clear.
Anyway, I saw a bunch of churches, an old castle, some statues, a part of the medieval city wall, a monumental church with a huge open square in front of it, another large war memorial and an old sports stadium. In the sports stadium, I had another one of those random moments that make me love wandering around when I got to watch a penalty shootout in a soccer game played by a bunch of guys in their 30s and 40s. It went down to the seventh guy I think and I just got to stand there at the field level and watch. I love that type of stuff.
Oh, and somewhere along the way I saw a bunch, like maybe fifteen, of old men playing bocce. There’s a game I need to learn since I already know how to play shuffleboard.
And yeah, it was really cold outside but I was bundled up very well and actually enjoyed it. If it weren’t for snow, ice and mush, I’d probably enjoy living someplace where it got much colder but maybe that’s what everybody says.
After wandering around for maybe four hours, I started back for the hotel. It was also getting dark and I was in no mood to be out super late. I had two goals: find a grocery store to stock up on groceries and find a decent place to eat (no gyros!). There was a 24 hour supermarket just down the road from the hotel so I knew I was covered there (24 hours in Europe is shown apparently as ‘0-24’) but it being Sunday finding anyplace that was open was a bit tougher. I made it even more difficult for myself by trying to find, you guessed it, a pizza joint. Well, I finally found one that was open but, true to form on my European jaunts, it was also a gyro joint, ha! I stood firm and ordered a pizza which consisted of 75% thin crust, 15% cheese, 10% a topping I don’t remember, maybe salami and 0.01% sauce. That bothered me but I’d heard that’s how Italian pizza is. Still tasted decent and to top it off I got to watch the end of the Carling Cup final (English Premiership soccer) where Birmingham upset Arsenal.
I met up with Eszter the next morning and we spent a productive two days at the branch office, getting work done and eating good Italian food. Everybody loves Italian food anyway but it seemed to taste especially good in Milan. We even got to wander around the downtown area at night on the Tuesday.
Wednesday morning came and it was time to head for Budapest via Malev Hungarian Airlines, one of my favorite airlines ever for the sole reason that they pass out hot rolls on their flights in a big bowl.
The flight was quite nice not only because of the hot rolls but because we got to fly over the Alps again, this time heading northeast over Slovenia, that little country that had the gall to tie the US 2-2 in the last World Cup (the game where the refs disallowed the perfectly legal goal that would have put us up 3-2). I forgive you Slovenia because your mountains look so beautiful from the air, all covered in snow and everything.
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