Tydzien Piętnaście / Week Fifteen - Cultural

Gathered in the main square for the finish line 

This week Anna and I went on our very last trip of our Erasmus semester. Although we had previously been making use of the excellent railway connections between Poland and many places throughout Europe, we decided to fly this time and spent a few days in Milan. On our first day we realised why it had been so hard to find a hotel to book as the city was full of fans for the cycling race that was taking place over the weekend – the San Remo race. This was an interesting part of Italian culture to be able to see, particularly as the city was full of very enthusiastic fans creating a great atmosphere.

Inside the cathedral

Milan is known for its shopping and I was very keen to delve into this experience. Unfortunately, however, I could not take part to the extent I would have liked to as my suitcases are undoubtedly going to be well overweight when it comes to packing in two weeks time. I therefore had to force myself to stick to window shopping in all the beautiful shops, including my all time favourite – Chanel!

One of the biggest tourist attractions in Milan is the huge cathedral - Duomo de Milano. Although clearly impressive from the front, it was only when I walked around it that I realised the scale of how huge it really is. As shorts are not permitted we had to go on the second day when we were dressed more appropriately, but it was definitely worth a visit to not only view the grandeur of the interior, but also the views of the whole of Milan from the top.

Beautiful Lake Como

The highlight of this trip was the day spent at Lake Como, under the advice of Anna’s placement teacher who used to live there. The day didn’t start out so successfully (having spent three hours in Milano Centrale train station looking for our train) but upon arriving in the beautiful town we knew it had been worth the effort to get there. Lake Como is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have been to and we spent the day happily exploring, sunbathing and of course keeping an eye out for George Clooney who has a house there!

Being away from Poznan for a while allowed Anna and me time to reflect on our feelings about the two weeks we have left and so we have created a list of everything we want to do before we leave Poznan. This includes visiting our favourite restaurants, renting bicycles to cycle about the city, going tubing and of course Michael’s all time favourite – karaoke! As well as reflecting on the activities we still want to try and squeeze in, we also reflected on the many opportunities we have had here to experience new things, particularly as we would not have been able to do any of these had we decided to stay at home this semester. We came to the conclusion that by not going on Erasmus we would have been passing up a great opportunity, especially in regards to travelling.

Lovely Milan

Relaxing in the sun at Lake Como