Italy Day 9: Ciao!

The La Brasserie de Milan at Marriot Hotel provided American breakfast the next morning.. a good spread of bacon.. sausages.. scrambled eggs.. baked beans.. smoked salmon.. salad with dressing (tomato-capsicum-cucumber-olive).. pancakes and waffles with maple syrup.. different kinds of yoghurt and juices (cranberry-grapefruit-mango-apple-orange).. a variety of cakes.. bread.. cheese.. cereal.. milk.. and endless cups of cappucino.. expresso.. and hot chocolate. We discovered rather late that Jared could actually travel for FREE on the Metro! Oh well..

It was a wonderful day with clear blue skies.. too bad we were leaving already.. *SIGH* We opted to take the Malpensa train to the airport instead of the taxi and paid €38.50 and NOT €90!!! We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare but unfortunately, our flight was delayed by 2 hours because of the air traffic controller strike in Barcelona. So, we checked in our rather heavy bags which were loaded with local pasta (only €0.32 for 500g).. dried figs..cookies.. and chocolates. SQ gave us food vouchers for lunch and we amused ourselves by snapping pictures and taking videos of the grounded aeroplanes against the beautiful backdrop of the snowy Alps.. when in Rome.. do what the Romans do.. (except we were in Milan).. ha ha!

After a sleepless night on the plane.. and movies like Step-Up 3D.. Despicable Me.. Sorcerer's Apprentice.. and Inception (which was really confusing and left more questions than answers i.e. if you 'die' in the 1st dream layer - you wake up.. if you 'die in the 2nd layer - you land up in the eternity of the 3rd layer.. but if you die in the 3rd layer - then WHERE do you land up? Cobb died with Mal and supposedly came back to reality. So what happened to him and Saito at the end?).. we finally landed safely in Singapore.. aahhhh.. HOME SWEET HOME! But were soon engulfed in post travel troubles.. Justin, with a red and swollen left eye.. and me, with a red and swollen left leg.. from the knee.. all the way down to the toes.. which left me wondering if it's DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis)??? So, it was 'Hello Mr. Antihistamine' for the next couple of days..