From Milano to Geneve

As soon as I arrived in Milano I really wanted to get out. My first encounter with the Italian rough and non-hospitable ways was at Milano Centrale. The immigration officers all seemed very stupid to me. They had to go checked with their higher officers to ensure Malaysians don't need a visa and the warm Italian image I was totally erased by stupid and what to me seemed like a snooty Italian treatment of non-Europeans.

Also Milan was rather drabby and most of the folks are stodgy and chubby. My vision of a sophisticated and chic Milan was totally erased! Most of the telephone kiosks are not working, everything looked dirty and sooty and grey. Finally, I found a working one and made my call to TDC. There was also this interesting character trying to help me out.. but he seemed like one of the vagrant roaming Milano Centrale. He always sought me out whenever I came by Milano Centrale it seemed. He seemed to be a permanent feature there.

The e-mail I sent from Villavolid in Spain didn't go thru to my sister's fren in Milano and when I called TDC, she was on leave. Since I didn't know when I will be arriving at any one city, it was difficult to plan my arrival and making arrangements with folks ahead of time. En. Nasir another of my sister's fren and the Director of TDC in Milan luckily was in the office, while Rosa and Maria the nice Italian staff were very nice to direct me to their office at the posh Duomo and later on En Nasir brought me home. From En. Nasir's house, I contacted Ibrahim and his family, an acquaitance currently posted at United Nation in Geneve and at the spur of the moment, decided to go to Geneve on same day to utilize my travel days with the Eurail ticket. Being smarter and a bit more experienced in using my Eurail options by now, I decided to complete my 24-hour option by taking the train to Geneve thru the beautiful mountain regions. Instead of paying extra for the expensive Cisalpino train to Geneve, by using my 24-hour option, I only had to pay for the 1st class reservation fee, which is not so bad. So that was very very smart of me! I even managed to do all my laundry in Milan before I left for Geneve! and only brought my day pack and the lighest clothing I have to do Geneve, which off course was not very smart as the whole mountain region is the tallest in Europe and so bloody cold!

On the train, one of the huge quite ugly Swiss lady seemed to look me up and down rather snobishly.. I don't quite understand what she has to be snooty about when she was wearing ugly mountain outfit and looking rather huge, grungy and hairy to me :) while I on the other hand is wearing my classic burberry pants (mainly caused it was the lightest and my jeans was being dried in Milan). On the high speed Cisalpino train, twice Swiss border polices requested to look at our passports and the second time they brought huge Alsatian mountain dogs to sniff the passengers out. The border polices were nice and polite and there were no mishaps except for the snooty looking Swiss woman. Luckily when I arrived, some of the Swiss ladies at the very very very cold train station looked rather delicate and pretty or I will be stucked with this image of tall ugly huge mountain lady for Switzerland!

When I arrived at the train station, Ibrahim and his son was waiting for me at Geneve Central entrance. They drove me to their apt and dinner was Malaysian dishes with rice. It was a soothing feeling for someone who was sick dosing herself all the way from Lisboa to Milano and Geneve in 2 straight days. I had a very warm bed with the sejadah and qiblat all laid out for me and a very secure feeling that nite.