Night out in Milan
I was in Milan for a few days during my YOALIN trip, and during the second night, I was coming back after visiting the Milan Duomo. It was around 11 PM, and my phone was at about 5% battery when I started my journey back to my hostel. It was supposed to be a 40 minute way back, so I was quite sure that my phone will die before I reach, so I opened the metro route back to my hostel, to try to memorise the stops and where I’m supposed to changed the metro lines.
And while my first metro change was successful, I got off a bit earlier from the second metro, because I got confused with the names I had remembered. I was supposed to get off at Lambrate, but instead got off at Loreto, just because I thought I’m supposed to get off at a stop starting from L. From here I was supposed to walk about 1 km back to the hostel, and after getting out of the metro station, unaware that I’m at the wrong stop, I started walking in a direction just because I thought it looked familiar ( pretty confident of me to trust my instincts in a city where I had only been for one day).
I kept on walking for about 20 minutes, but then reached in an area which surely I had never seen before, so I realised I have reached somewhere wrong. There weren’t many people around, as it was about 11:45 PM now, so I started walking back the same route I came, and In a while I reached back to the metro station. Here I found two guys and asked them if they could help me find the way back. So they searched the way on the phone, and told me to take the metro again, and get off at the Lambrate station. And came my realisation that I was wrong about it from the very beginning. Then I thanked the guys and went back to the station to take the metro, and then got off at Lambrate.
From here again, it was a walk of about 1 km, and for some reason I was still feeling quite confident, as I was 11 days into my trip, and was confident that I can figure out the route by myself, which was quite stupid of me.
So I again started walking in a direction without thinking much, because I was “feeling” that I’m on the correct path, and again a 30 minute walk resulted in nothing.
I saw a tram station close by, and remembered that the 19 number line goes near my hostel, and the next tram was in 10 minutes, so I waited there and took the tram. After about 30-40 minutes in the tram, I was feeling something was off, as my station should have come by now, and also the surroundings were completely different than what I had seen in my hostel area.
That’s when I realised that a tram with the same number goes in two opposite directions, and I probably have taken the opposite direction of the tram number 19. At this point it started getting a little frustrating. It was past 1 AM in the night now, I had left 2 hours ago to reach my hostel, and I was still nowhere. My legs were tired from walking around all day, and I started getting hungry again as well.
So I got off at the next tram station, and thought of taking the tram which can again take me back from where I started. But since it was so late in the night, the tram service had stopped. So I again started walking in the direction where I thought the tram came from, but I knew I was quite a lot far away from my hostel at this point.
I kept walking for a while, and then I saw a man who I tried asking for help, but he thought I was asking for money so he walked away from me. Again I’m looking for someone who can show me the way, but so late at night there was hardly anyone on the street. Luckily after a while I found a man, and he was kind enough to search for the directions on the phone, and we saw the hostel is now 7 km from where we were standing. This was quite a lot to walk at 1 AM in the night, so I asked him if he can check for any buses there, and he showed me the direction for the bus stop and told me to take the 93 numbered bus from there. I was a bit relieved at this, and started walking towards the bus stop, when I was about to reach, I saw the bus already standing there, so afraid that this could be the last bus, I immediately ran and got into the bus. The bus took off, again 30-40 minutes in the bus, and it didn’t feel like I was getting in a familiar neighbourhood.
I still stayed on it for 10 more minutes, thinking to get off at a stop where I see a metro station, as I was more familiar with the metro lines then the bus lines. When I climbed down the steps of the metro, I saw the station shutter was closed, I guess it was so late in the night so there were no more metros running. Feeling more and more defeated, I came back to the bus stop, and saw there were no more buses running as well, the last bus leaving 30 minutes ago.
Having no option, I started walking back in the direction the bus came from. On the way there was a car standing with a man sitting in the car, I tried asking him for some help, but he refused to open the car window, he probably thought I was asking for some money.
Then I started walking again, after walking about 20 minutes, I reached a bus stop, and thought of checking if there are any buses, and luckily there was a bus in about 10 minutes which would take me to Milano Centrale, I was happy to see this, as I was more familiar with the routes and area around Milano Centrale, and this would be good to find a way back.
After taking the wrong buses and trams so many times, I first asked the bus driver, Milano Centrale?, to which he said yes, and only then I took the bus. After about 45 minutes I finally reached Milano Centrale, and there on the bus stop there was a man standing, I immediately asked him if he could help me find the way, and he kindly helped me.
So I found the bus which would take me nearby my hostel, and in about 20 minutes I reached close by my hostel, from where it was only a 5 minute walk and luckily this time I was very much familiar with the area, and could find my way to the hostel.
By the time I reached my hostel, it was about 4 AM in the morning, what was supposed to be a 40 minute journey to the hostel, took me 5 hours :))
I hope this serves as a good lesson for me and for everyone who gets to know this story that always carry a power bank even if you are in the city, and always confirm twice before you take any trains/buses/trams in a new city 😉
I was very tired and drained by the time I reached the hostel, and didn’t think it was funny at all, but looking back at it now the whole thing was pretty silly and funny, hahahaha.
~ Karan Arora
Picture 1: Fortress Hohensalzburg from a nearby mountain in Salzburg, Austria
Picture 2: Grenoble, France
Picture 3: Lake Geneva, Lausanne, Switzerland
