After travelling for over a week now I have yet again found interesting differences in Europe.  Above all, the mindframe of Europe being relaxed is true and it has been proven in various places!

Everything Closes at 7:30PM (sometimes 9:00PM if we are lucky)

In Nice, Milan, and Venice so far every retail store closes at 7:30PM.  It seems kind of ridiculous because what the heck are tourists supopsed to do?  When we were in Milan, we went shopping until the shops closed and then slowly realized that restaurants were going to close too!  By the time we finished dinner which was around 8:45PM, they were already shutting all the doors and sweeping the floors ready for close.  Now in Venice, the same story seems to repeat itself… in fact even the bars are not open, can you believe it?  Maybe it is because you can drink on the street and be merry without being constrained in the indoors!

They really love H&M and Zara

This may be a crazy assumption but (atleast in Milan) they love these two stores!  It is nothing like how it is in Toronto even though H&M is in every mall and Zara appears in high-end stores, they are much larger, have a much better selection, and within one street on Milan there were three H&M stores selling different merchandise and three Zaras, one for women, men and kids.  Nonetheless, it is pretty amazing because were are girls and we love shopping!  On the note of shopping, we stumbled upon an interesting store that was similar to Hollister.  It was quite the battle between whether to shop or not yet but we could not resist!  Lets just say we did some damage.

Random Update

Venice is beautiful!  The streets are narrow and the water (the Grand Canal) is simply breathtaking.  It hasnt been difficult so far to navigate but we are off to Piazza San Marco today and the other tourist things!

Ciao!