Denouement Diaries - Week 41

Essentially the ramblings of two adults that probably require adult supervision.

As usual, follow along at:

• @expeditiondenouement
• @lukereynoldsorg
• @casey_palmz

Anyway, let's get into it:

16/11/23 - Day 281: Levanto

• Woke up and cooked up some eggs.
• Then slowly wandered down and had some coffees at at a cafe that was open.
• Before heading to the train station to go and visit Monterosso.
• Only a stop away.
• Cold and overcast.
• Wandered along the front of Monterosso.
• Only takes 5 minutes.
• Then stopped for some lunch.
• Then walked up to the point where there is an old fortress with a WWII pillbox attached.
• More coffees and a train back to Levanto.
• With that, we had been to all five of the Cinqueterre towns!
• Anyway Levanto was not sunny and nice, and I think we had made the right decision to bug out for Milan tomorrow.

17/11/23 - Day 282: Levanto —> Milan

• Packed up.
• Over to the train station.
• Couple of hours to Milan.
• Then an Uber from the station to our hotel.
• A real hotel thankfully. We haven’t stayed in enough places with an actual reception….we are poor…
• Then went for a walk around our suburb.
• Milan has a lot of graffiti…
• Found somewhere to get some food.
• The pizza was average. What is happening, Italy!?!?
• Then a chill evening as it was getting cold so back to the hotel.
• Watched some ‘Saul’.

18/11/23 - Day 283: Milan

• Had breakfast at the hotel.
• Train a couple of stops into the Centro.
• Then jumped on a tram to go the couple of stops to Casey’s next pole studio.
• Weren’t able to buy tickets on the tram so jumped off to avoid fines…
• And walked the rest of the short way.
• Grabbed some coffees before Casey’s class.
• I wandered around while Casey trained.
• Then we walked up in towards the Duomo.
• The place is packed.
• I think a lot of Italians are here for the weekend…to shop? It looks like summer crowds…
• Went and had a look at the Duomo.
• Wandered the old streets.
• Saw some idiots protesting whatever the latest issue is.
• Had a coffee and some god awful pastries.
• Then eventually got sick of the crowds.
• Back to the hotel.
• Got some food delivered.
• Was…cold. Casey disputed it for a refund haha!

19/11/23 - Day 284: Milan

• Breakky at the hotel again.
• Then train and walk to Casey’s pole studio.
• I had a coffee while I waited.
• Then walked in towards the centro.
• Stopped for some pizza at a little ‘by the slice’ place. Was by the far the best pizza we have had.
• Then went and visited the Castello Sforzesco which is really quite amazing. Massive.
• Italians are a bit weird - they are all crazy well dressed. But not even in a ‘oh they just have style’ kind of way. They have full faces of makeup and curled hair. Is this a thing? Do Italians just want to be seen?
• Back to the hotel.
• Finished off our Euro tour by getting some maccas…
• I finished watching ‘The Killer’ on Netflix. Weird.
• Then watched more ‘Saul’.

20-21/11/23 - Day 285-286: Milan —> Singapore

• Breakfast at the hotel
• Slow day.
• Casey had organised a Lyra class in Milan Centro but it was cancelled for not enough attendees.
• So after hotel breakfast we sort of slowly checked out.
• Weren’t too keen on wandering the city again for the sake of it. Cold and miserable looking day.
• Then officially checked out and went and had a coffee in the suburb.
• Eventually we wandered back to the hotel.
• Got an Uber to a nearby train station.
• And sorted the tickets to the Malpensa airport.
• About a half hour train ride.
• Which had us at the airport veeeeery early.
• Early enough that the automated gate to start the security process wouldn’t open for us.
• That really only changed where we had lunch - either inside or outside the security area.
• So we went to the food court and had some reasonable Italian food.
• Sat around for a while.
• Then had some more coffees.
• Lots of vegging phone time.
• Jobs and admin stuff, and just doom scrolling.
• Then eventually through security.
• And more waiting around in the terminal.
• Went and sheltered at Starbucks for a bit.
• Eventually out to our gate.
• And boarded a short 45 min flight to Zurich.
• Short turnaround in Zurich which was good.
• We sent the Swiss Familia some messages while we were in the terminal.
• We will have to come back and see Dési and Julian again.
• Casey actually had a few Swiss Franc coins in her bag Left over from our earlier Switzerland time.
• So we had some Swiss choccies waiting for the plane to board.
• Now I can tell you that Swiss Air first class is very nice.
• Because we could see the bastards sipping champagne as we filed in to cattle class.
• We were seated next to an obese British woman.
• Casey was in the middle so she got the brunt of that.
• Slept a little bit.
• Fairly ordinary flight of about 11 hours.
• Which is weird because you are served a late dinner from Zurich then a breakfast a short while before landing in the evening in Singapore…
• Straight off and out through security.
• Pretty easy at Changi.
• Then a Grab from the terminal to our accomodation.
• It’s a nice drive.
• My first time in Singapore, Casey’s second or third I think.
• It’s lovely and clean, famously so.
• Checked in to a neat small little budget ibis hotel.
• Quick showers to wash off plane stink.
• Then went and wandered the streets of Clarke Quay to find somewhere for ‘dinner’.
• Had some Banh Mi and spring rolls which were really nice.
• Then a walk along the river.
• Casey had somehow organised some pole studio hire on the corner of our street, so did that.
• Before back to the hotel.

22/11/23 - Day 287: Singapore

• Which became a difficult sleep.
• I was awake by about 0200.
• Then by about 0600 I just got dressed and went for a walk around the suburb.
• At least it is nice and warm here.
• It was nice, saw the sun coming up, Marina Bay Sands in the distance all lit up, people waking up and going to work.
• Found a coffee shop and read the news.
• Then eventually back to the room to wake up Casey.
• We had breakfast in the cafe attached to the hotel which wasn’t great.
• Then a coffee at the cafe I had found on my walk.
• Before doing a bit of a walking day.
• From Clarke Quay over to Marina Bay Sands.
• Via the harbour and massive convention centre shops with a canal running through it.
• We had some iced coffees in the lobby of the hotel while I bought the sky deck tickets.
• Then went up, dodged the influencer families taking vlogs.
• Nice look out - feels like you can see the whole island.
• And the gardens and harbour are very impressive.
• Also seems like it would be a bougie place to watch the F1.
• Couldn’t swim though - have to be a guest.
• Down and across the bridge out of the hotel to the gardens.
• Wandered through the Chinese and Indian gardens to the cloud forest and flower dome.
• Got tickets.
• Went in to the Avatar-themed cloud forest.
• Very impressive.
• Nice and cool.
• And massive.
• Up the top through the caves.
• Very fun.
• Then into the flower dome.
• Which was much less dramatic but very impressive.
• Plants from all over the world growing in a cool climate-controlled dome.
• Then back out of the gardens.
• To the train station.
• Which you can tap in to with a debit card.
• In to China town for some lunch.
• Nothing fancy just a shop inside a shopping centre but was really good.
• Then train and walk back to our hotel.
• Went to the roof pool for a while to sit and read.
• Had a few coffees in the afternoon.
• And Casey did some more pole training in the night.
• We had a quick walk around afterwards, contemplating dinner.
• Were both kind of full from the food of the day.
• Ended up getting some dumplings delivered.
• After which we were very full…

Stay tuned...