Turbulence over the Italian Alps

The Ryanair flight was interesting-it's strictly no-frills.  What do you really expect though, when your ticket only costs 5 Euros??  The seats were more cramped than American planes, they had advertisements in the cabin and we had to walk out on the jetway where you could enter the plane from either the front or the back.  Maybe that last reason is why they call themselves the "on-time airline". 

I got an extra hour of sleep to add onto my two prior hours of sleep.  The flight only took 75 minutes-less time than it takes for me to fly home from Baylor.  Crazy.

Anyway, the last 15 minutes or so, we hit some pretty bad turbulence.  The kind where you wonder if you're going to die on a 5 Euro flight over the Italian Alps.  Thankfully, it turned out okay, but I know it wasn't just me who had their life flashing before their eyes. 

Since Ryanair is so cheap, they only fly into small random cities semi-close to the big boys.  Think Arizona City if you're going to Phoenix or Hillsboro if you're going to Dallas.  Instead of actually flying to Milan, we flew to Bergamo and then took an hour bus ride.  I also slept on this ride.  That comes to a grand total of four hours of sleep.  Honestly, I'm surprised I'm still functioning. 

In Milan, we walked to the Duomo which is one of the largest Gothic churches in the world.  Apparently if you climbed to the top, you can see the Alps, but it wasn't open today.  There was a Rite of Eucharist going on while we were there.  It was quite melodical to listen to the mass in Italian. 

On our walk to the Duomo, we were tortured by Milan's high fashion district: Prada, Gucci, Armani, Dior, Louis Vuitton, etc.  The Prada display particularly caught my eye with their solid green and purple handbags (the IT colors of the season here in Europe) that had massive color coordinating jewels sewn on them. 

We also passed the Teatro alla scala which made Milan into the opera capital of the world.  After registering for next semester's classes (talk about a snap back to reality), we jumped on a train to Rome.  Tonight and the next few nights we actually get to sleep in a BED!  It's funny how traveling makes you appreciate the small stuff.  This whole sleeping upright thing is killing my neck and shoulders. 

Big day tomorrow in Rome-hopefully we can make it to all the sights!