Ciao belli, benvenuto a Milano

Local time: Sunday 6 September 2:25pm

Hi all,

Landed in Milan late last night and screamed like a little girl with pigtails when I saw Laura.

Oh wait first up, here's the promised picture of my Japanese hotel room:Okay cool that's done now.

So here is why Malpensa is different from every other airport in the world:You see the metal thing that is touching everyone's kneees? That's the baggage collection conveyer belt. Yep so instead of standing a couple of metres away from the baggage thingy so that everyone can see it and easily collect their bags, if you are first to the baggage collection you go and stand right in front of it. Which means that if you are not in the front row (like me, because I didn't know the rules...) you have to:

a) find a tiny sliver between two people by which you can see about 3cm of the bags as they go by

b) be very quick to identify your bag - no mean feat if you have a plain black suitcase like mine

c) be even quicker the actually grab your bag off the conveyer belt, for fear of having to push everyone out of your way. Again difficult if, like me, your bag weighs 27kgs.

So be warned, anyone who might want to fly into Malpensa!!!

Everything was very easy to find, despite the lack of language. Bus into town cost 7.50 euros and stopped at Centrale Stazione, where Laura met me. Since then I have slept, and gone to the supermarket. A few more photos:My shopping. Essentials only!! The supermarket seemed really crazy, it seemed like there were two sections for everything. Two seperate places to get bread, milk, etc. Laura had to help me heaps (thanks babe)

I'll be cooking all my own meals while staying at the Laura/Karo (her flatmate) residense. So I bought mince and seperated it into easy, one-meal portions to freeze. Aren't you proud of me Mum?Eating what flet like my first 'official' Milano meal: a lunch of crusty bread and cheese.

Ciao!