Thursday = Explore/Flat Hunt

While we were having breakfast and cleaning up - I took the trash out to the recyling bin on the terrace. There I saw a large market just up the road. On we thought - 'we better take a look' on with our gym shoes and walking gear we hit the market.

There we saw MEAT and CHEESE - umm they are just really expensive here so we havn't brought either. I am a meat eater to the core and am feeling a little deprived!! There were lots of cool funky wee stores that sell everything from vegies to toilet paper and tea strainers. We figured out that it was quite a bit cheaper to buy fresh fruit and vegies here that at the supermarket so we spent 7E and got three bags full of fruit - like strawberries, plums, oranges etc - oh so good. (But it still doesn't make up for the lack of meat!!! - Dad I really want some STEAK, and Gaynor I really can't become a vegaterian!!)

After our sweet purchases we heading out for a large walk around the city (hence the gym shoes/ we need excerise routine!!) I was a great way to explore as you get to find all the little knooks and crannies of the city - we came across some churches and old monutems and large runins randomling in the city! We discovered a fabric store and we thought that spotlight needed to take some tips from them as eveything was so nicly laid out, and prices were easy to see.

We organised all the flats that we have to visit in the evening and labeled everything on the map - so we wouldn't get lost. Off we went on the tram - to what we didn't know was china town in Milan. Funny I think that I kept on expecting toget fish thrown at my feet as I walked past shop - note this didn't happen. But the guy that we went to see had a very lovely appartment - Small - I mean small. It was expensive 370E (and thats per a person even thought you share a room) a month but it was clean and has a nice terrece.

Second flat - crazy old Italian lady how pretty much lived in an antique store, which had dark mood lighting. These were her rules. Cook and clean up after yourself - reasonable. Eat only in your room - unreasonable. No visitors - unreasonable. Pay three months in advance - weird, cos thats like 1500E which is over 3000NZD!! So we left that place in a bit of a giggle and hoped that that others would provide less strict living conditions.

We had to wait another hour to see the next flat and really hungry we stopped by a small bar that had this table sitting in the middle of a seating area covered in food - we were instanly taken in - so the deal is, it's happy hour so you buy a drink and you eat. So eat we did - really the first kind of meat that I had had in a while and it was ham (um..not my favourite by far) was ok-ish I guess. and lots of other stuff like Cheese, olives and sandwhiches etc - we were so hungry that I think we both ate too fast and felt sick as we stumbled out 45mins later. lol don't think that we will do that again.

Third flat - In a few words - gowanna's, metro, eccentric but large appartment. This guy is quite funny really - he asked Anna and I out for a drink just after we called him up and asked to view his place and continues to text us - funny really. The flat was really nice, a little older but it was huge in comparrison to the other two places that we had looked at.
(When I say big - it had a kitchen that could fit two or three people and a bathroom that could also fit two people!!) The room was nice it has a view and it is large enough that Anna and I could share it. Which makes the rent a little cheaper when you half the rent 570E down to 285E each. He also has alive Gowanna's in his bedroom - weird but Anna seemed to take to them - Me well a little freaked out. At least they only eat salad and flies!!!

On to the fourth flat - which we hoped would be a goer. We got there after reading the street name wrong, but we were still on time. From the outside it was a very old, it was a 'I think that I might just fall down if a gust of wind came through' type of building. But we thought we better give it a try. In we go and up four flights of stairs - which then equals to eight sections of stairs that were fairly steep. We get to the top and enter a every clean, modern and again small flat. The way that this worked was that one of the girls was looking for someone to share her room with - which was the living room. The flat consisted of one bedroom - a bathroom the size of a small toilet and a kicken that was large in Milan styles - as it could fit a table in it. The girl that we met was from Hungry and she was really cool - the rent is 300E plus 20E for gas and power. This flat is looking like the best so far - so that means that at least one of us might be sorted before we get kicked out of here on Sunday!!

Over all we actually found it quite easy to move around - the sub's and the trams are direct and easy to understand once you know what you are doing. Plus most of apartments that we went to look at were only around 10mins from the MM.

We were pretty tried so off to bed a 10pm and I fell asleep to our room mates exciting stories of jails and other funny adventures again.