School Holidays: Italy! (Part III)

I woke up next morning by he sound of my parents' voices waking me up to perform Fajr prayer. It was peaceful and quiet at that time of the morning. All four of us were awake, so we opened the balcony door for the first time, wearing jackets, socks, and shoes to keep warm, playing in the cold breeze. Yusuf kept pointing to the cranes since he wasn't awake to see it the day before. He was stubborn and didn't want to wear his winter coat. We took some pictures outside, too.

My mother was inside making breakfast. I can't remember everything that we ate, but what I do remember is eating Nasi Lemak ala Milan, homemade. It was very delicious. Oh yes! I remembered that we ate coconut Lempeng before that. Mmm! Then we got ready to go, packing some things to bring with us, and took an underground train to Duomo.

My mother said that Duomo is like a park, but when we arrived, it was more than that. It's actually a huge old cathedral in the middle of a big open square, showered with tourists, citizens, and birds. Mostly pigeons. Next to it is a, I would say, shopping building, with shops and restaurants inside. At the other side of the building was the other side of the square. In the middle were statues of people I don't know. There were so many people; shopping, taking pictures, selling monopods, feeding pigeons, etc, etc. Next to the square are streets lined with shops and stores.

We strolled about in the square, taking photos and extending our hands to attract pigeons. We also went through the building and went to the other side of it. We sat on a bench to eat the croissants we took from the residence early that morning. We tore some bits of it and tossed it to feed the pigeons. It was fun watching some kids chasing the birds. Then we explored the shops but didn't buy anything. Conclusion: absolutely everything, from torn jeans to missewn sweaters, are fashion.

After taking more pictures and buying a monopod, we took a bus took the underground train, or Metro, to a station after Lodi, which is Brenta. My mother said the place has lots of Halal Muslim restaurants. And she was right. We actually stopped there to grab something to eat for lunch, with meat. We entered a Turkish restaurant called Döner Kebap. The menu looked very appetizing. We ordered a Pizza Kebap, some kind of Biryani chicken rice and Patatine Fritte, or what we call French fries. I loved the Pizza Kebap, but we didn't finish the Biryani chicken rice, so we requested for takeaway. Then my mother led us across the street to go grocery shopping at a very namely grocery store, Carrefour. We located and bought things that we need back in the residence and ingredients for meals.

After that we walked to a bus stop and took a bus back to Zambala, where we performed Zuhr and 'Asr prayer. The bus didn't really stop exactly in front of the residence, so, bearing the weight of our things we bought, we walked around the corner, a few blocks away. My parents actually planned to go to San Siro, but we didn't in the end because we all collapsed. Well I did anyway. I don't know what the others did, but Dad said he's too tired to go. We woke up for Maghrib and Isya' prayer, but I went back to sleep.

(To be continued...)