We have flown on Ryanair as it was the cheapest flights from Madrid to Dublin, Dublin to London, and then London to Milan. But why the flights are so cheap is because they fly either really early or really late. So when we got to the check-in area, all the other airline check-ins were completely empty but Ryanair's was jam-packed! There were lines out to the door and they were barely moving. We stood in line for about 45 minutes and then I started getting worried because we still had to get through security! Luckily, a woman yelled out over the crowd that if there was anybody in line for our flight and a couple others to come to a free lane and we could be checked in. We fought through the crowd of people and when we finally got to the front of the line, the woman asked us if we had any bags to check. We didn't as we only have our backpacks, so the woman says to us, "Oh you don't need to be here, you can go ahead to security." So we just waited for 45 minutes for nothing?!!! We walked to security completely annoyed and it took another 15 minutes to get through security. So at this time, it is about 15 minutes until the gate closes so we run for five minutes to the gate. We stand in line and when we get to the front, the man at the gate tells us that we can't get on the plane because our boarding passes aren't stamped! He told us that we had to go all the way out to the front desk and do the whole process again!!! When we heard this it almost so unbelievable that we almost felt like there would be no way to make the flight. The woman at the desk told us to go straight to security!!!
So Sarah and I started full on running back to the front and right before exiting the security area, I saw a security guy with another man who had the same problem as we did. So he let us sneak out the back, go right to the front of the line to get stamped and then let us go to the front of the line of security to make our flight. We finally made it to the gate as the second to last people on. The whole experience was so stupid and on top of it being super early, we were now really sweaty from all the running.
The flight to Milan was really quick and when you land, you walk right down to the runway. It was a very pretty sight!!!
We were stamped through customs and took a shuttle into the city. Milano-Bergamo airport is about 30 minutes outside the city. The shuttle took us right to the main train station. That was perfect for us as we needed to plan the night-train to Paris. Just when we thought our day was going to get better, we waited for an hour and finally was asked to come to a counter. All we wanted to do was activate our Eurail passes and reserve a seat for the night train that night. Simple enough, right? I had done my research and knew the night train left from Milan Central. The man at the desk told us that our passes would not work and that we needed to go to a different train station to reserve a seat to Paris. We took the subway to the other train station only to be told the same thing and to go back!!! Basically, every train has a certain amount of seats reserved for Eurail pass holders and once those full up, everyone had to pay the whole fare. So we bit the bullet and paid for the train because we needed to get to Paris for our timeshare. After that whole debacle, we were even more annoyed and wanted to just relax for a bit. We walked toward a strip of shops and stopped at a little café that served Gelato!!! Definitely worth the stop. After wasting about an hour at the café because it had free wifi, we made our way down to the one thing that I really wanted to see in Milan. In the center of town, there is the 5th biggest cathedral in the world!!
As you can see, it is quite the building. The icicle-looking things on top of the building was something we haven't seen from the other cathedrals we have seen as well as the size of this one. And the entire roof has those points! We went inside only to be more amazed. Westminster Abbey and The Cathedral at Santiago both had different rooms and the inside felt smaller. The Milan Cathedral is like an airplane hanger. Down the sides are huge columns, but that is really the only thing in the whole nave besides the altar and organs. 
The only bad thing about Milan is that it is not ideal for backpackers on a budget. It is a very fancy city, full of designer shops. Because we both were super tired from the traveling, we decided to just go hangout at the train station. Not the ideal way for Sarah to spend her 21st birthday but she understood our circumstances. We had authentic Italian pizza for dinner which was very delicious! The pizza was so plain but still delicious. 
Time rolled on and we eventually got on our sleeper train to Paris. We shared a compartment with four other people and slept through the night to wake up in Paris!!! 
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