I've always thought that traveling for work is one of the great luxuries afforded to certain people. I can appreciate that too much travel can become tedious, but for me it would be something I would still try to cherish as much as possible. So far in my career, the traveling I had done for work had been limited to trips to regional Australia and the occasional trip to other Australian capital cities. Nothing too exciting.
With all of this in mind, I felt a level of excitement I had never experienced when I found out I had the opportunity to go to Milan for work! The idea of being able to go overseas for a work trip was crazy enough, but to go to Milan was something else entirely. My colleagues seemed less excited about the prospect, complaining more about the need to fly overnight to Milan. Still, no one refused to go as it was still a trip to Europe. We all gathered one evening for the flight. I had booked and checked in quite late and so I found myself far from my colleagues and stuck in a middle seat. In fact, we were all separated on the flight which was probably intentional as no one wanted to speak to one another. The flight was an uneventful affair and we soon found ourselves all waiting for one another at the arrival gate. Once we got to immigration, we were split up between those who were EU citizens and the rest of us. The "rest of us" were stuck in a long winding queue as the EU people went through quickly. It made little sense to me until I reached the front of the line and experienced first hand a series of immigration officers who clearly didn't care one ounce about their jobs. They worked at a glacial pace and didn't even look up at me when I handed over my passport. If there was any location that you would want to sneak into Europe, it seemed like Milan was the perfect spot.
Milan's airport is quite far away from Milan itself. The taxi trip over to the city cost over €100 and I almost managed to accidentally redirect us off to Lake Como with a mistimed query to a driver who didn't quite understand my question. Thankfully we were able to get to our location safely. Driving through Milan, the city felt like what you would think of when you think of a European city, but a very cosmopolitan and lively one. There was plenty of green, old classically designed buildings and cafes with people sitting outside enjoying life.
The hotel we had been put up in. Now that was something else altogether. It was beautiful and luxurious beyond anything I had ever seen or experienced. The size of my room blew me away, as it was probably about as big as my tiny apartment in Hong Kong. The firm had rented out the entire hotel, so being some of the early arrivals, we had the pick of some of the nicer rooms which were offer. It was without a doubt, the best accommodation I had ever had the good fortune of experiencing.
With all of us checked in, we went off in different directions to explore the city more. Coming in from Hong Kong, we had arrived a day earlier than the rest of our colleagues, so we had a bit more time to look around before all the work started. A group of us went out to look around at the different sights of Milan. There were a lot of modern areas. Far more modern than I had expected.
I shouldn't have been so surprised by this. Milan was at the end of the day, the financial and commercial centre of the whole of Italy, so it made complete sense that this would also be the modern heart of the country.
A few of us went to catch up with the friend of a colleague who was working in Milan temporarily. She took us to a local restaurant with the working lunch crowd. I looked through the menu and ordered the "Milanese cutlets". What arrived in front of me were a bunch of chicken nugget like morsels of breadcrumbed meat. The waiter then dropped a bottle of soy sauce in front of me. I couldn't help but laugh at this bizarre addition given to me.
The work would start soon enough, but so far the trip had already been a learning experience.
With all of this in mind, I felt a level of excitement I had never experienced when I found out I had the opportunity to go to Milan for work! The idea of being able to go overseas for a work trip was crazy enough, but to go to Milan was something else entirely. My colleagues seemed less excited about the prospect, complaining more about the need to fly overnight to Milan. Still, no one refused to go as it was still a trip to Europe. We all gathered one evening for the flight. I had booked and checked in quite late and so I found myself far from my colleagues and stuck in a middle seat. In fact, we were all separated on the flight which was probably intentional as no one wanted to speak to one another. The flight was an uneventful affair and we soon found ourselves all waiting for one another at the arrival gate. Once we got to immigration, we were split up between those who were EU citizens and the rest of us. The "rest of us" were stuck in a long winding queue as the EU people went through quickly. It made little sense to me until I reached the front of the line and experienced first hand a series of immigration officers who clearly didn't care one ounce about their jobs. They worked at a glacial pace and didn't even look up at me when I handed over my passport. If there was any location that you would want to sneak into Europe, it seemed like Milan was the perfect spot.
Milan's airport is quite far away from Milan itself. The taxi trip over to the city cost over €100 and I almost managed to accidentally redirect us off to Lake Como with a mistimed query to a driver who didn't quite understand my question. Thankfully we were able to get to our location safely. Driving through Milan, the city felt like what you would think of when you think of a European city, but a very cosmopolitan and lively one. There was plenty of green, old classically designed buildings and cafes with people sitting outside enjoying life.
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