James' Euro Trip 2010 - Part 3

The Weather

Cold. Cold. Cold. I was woefully underprepared for how cold my trip was going to be.

My typical uniform for an average daily temperatures of 3C (38F) looked like this.

• I wore a hoodie no thicker than the average sweat shirt. Wind cut through it like it wasn't there. This is  sufficient in California.  It's a joke in a European winter.

• I bought a beanie in Milan. It was the only piece of clothing I bought to stay warm.

• I had gloves from Banana Republic. They didn't help much, but thanks to a nice placebo effect.

• I typically wore a tank top, an undershirt, and a long sleeve thermal  (that makes 4 layers including the hoodie.)

• Jeans, underwear, socks, and some Puma sneakers.

I spent a lot of my time wandering around looking for a big warm coat. I had a major problem though. I couldn't justify buying a coat for just 2 weeks, especially when everything was so expensive. Any coat that looked like it could do the trip was at least $200. That's money well spent when you live in the cold, but not when you live in sunny Los Angeles.

When I got off the plane in Milan, I was hit hard by freezing snow and rain. My breath shortended a bit as I freaked out a little. Some people experience culture shock when they travel. I had weather shock that never went away during my trip. It wasn't until my 7th day in Europe in which I saw the sun. It broke free for 5 minutes right before the kickoff of a soccer game.

I was so excited I took a picture. Of course the temperature was 27F so I was still freezing, but in my imagination, that brief ray of light lit me on fire.  Somehow I still managed to down a few cold beers during this game.

Munich experienced two feet of snow during my 4 days there. This is from my hotel window.

The worst cold of my entire trip was outside of the Allianz Arena in Munich. Thanks to my absurd ability to be punctual, I showed up to the stadium 3 hours before kickoff. Part of this was part soccer fandom. I had this fantasy of getting to the stadium, exploring the area, and fully enjoying the game day experience. Unfortunately, the gates didn't open until 2 hours before kickoff. I stood outside in the freezing, windy, confines of the arena. Not surprisingly, many other fans were there early, but they were casual about the cold. They were laughing, joking, smoking, and chilling out. I pulled my hoodie tight so that only my eyes were visible. I shivered until we were let inside. I went straight to the stadium restaurnant, and took 2 hours to munch some beef, just to get warm.

Outside of Restaurant Arena, I went to my seat and froze during the 90 minutes it takes for a soccer game to be played. I mostly sat on my hands to keep them from falling off.

The snowy, windy, Allianz Arena. Three hours before kickoff.

Lausanne was the first place where I experienced sustained sunlight. On my first day there, I had sunshine from noon, until sundown at 17:03. The wind coming off Lake Geneva was horribly cold, but in between gusts, I actually felt warm outside. I was also thankful there was no snow or ice, as Lausanne was a hill town and my sneakers wern't made for ice.

Lausanne, land of the sun.

Around the time I got to Genova, my weather shock was diminishing. Part of this was because I knew I would soon be in the relatively warm Genova. Unfortunately, Genova experienced it's worst cold in 30 years. While my arrival was marked with sunshine, days 2 and 4 were so cold that I didn't leave the bed and breakfast for more than an hour. One perk from this was that my host, Anna, made me some delicious  authentic Italian meals.