Disclaimer: I´m sat in a youth hostel feeling quite tipsy so I may not be typing very straight.
20050718
The alarm was set for 12:20am but it didn´t go off and we woke up about an hour late but we still got to the airport in plenty of time. At the airport there was a cool automated shuttle to get to the plane. We didn´t see much during the flight because it was very cloudy but I did catch a glimpse of the Alps. The touchdown was a bit bumpy but not as bad as Morocco!
When we´d collected our luggage and ready to leave I noticed that my dad´s Maglite was missing from my backpack (I haven´t told anyone this yet and I´ll have to buy him a replacement, grr).
We then got onto an air conditioned coach from Treviso to Venice for E4.50 and a bus boat along the Grand Canal to our hotel and left our luggage there. The hotel had a marble floor, a/c, TV, our own outdoor key, triple bedroom, bathroom and a nice view for E25 each!
We then went to buy a coke and ended up paying E16.00 for three glasses of coke and a waiter who insulted Wez (in a jokey way) and I tried to ask the waiter (in Italian) if that included the price of a room! At first we thought he was offended, but it turned out he couldn´t understand my terrible Italian and when he found out what I was actually trying to say he found it quite amusing.
Laura bought us all a gorgeous Italian ice cream and we sat next to the canal eating them. I kept feeling something in my hair and trying to brush it off and wez and laura were laughing at me saying there was nothing there. Then the next time I did it something fell in my lap which I thought was the tail of a very small snake with no head. When I touch it, it moved which made me jump. I asked Laura to look for the head and she said there was nothing there. Then she noticed there was actually a lizard on my hat with no tail!!! It had shed its tail out of self defence… I felt awful!!!
We then walked around Venice for a few hours and got thoroughly lost! The Lonely Planet guide was a godsend though and included a map. It was very very hot and very humid but that was helped by the water fountains with drinking water everywhere and the fresh fruit stalls. I tried to speak Italian to the woman on a fruit stall who was lovely, but again she couldn´t understand me.
We´ve booked a youth hostel for tomorrow night, itś bascically a Catholic-run building of University dorms.
The architecture in Venice is amazing, especially the stark contrast between huge ornate buildings and and derelict shops. Shops are built on the side of churches and there are lots and lots of bridges (to cross the canals). Who on earth sat in Italy one day looking at the sea and thought ¨Ï know, I´ll build a city over there!¨??
20050719
Got up this morning without a hangover due to only having consumed two medium sized beers because itś just too damned expensive in Venice to drink any more!
Had a spagbol last night – a proper spagbol, but there wasn´t enough of it. We had brekfast in the hotel and I discretely slipped a wrapped croissant into my bag. I praised the hotel owner on his amazing grasp of the English Language and we went off to a youth hostel (in Venice) to dump our luggage.
Next we jumped on a bus boar and went two stops before the end of route1 and had a pizza. Then we came back a couple of stops to visit St. Mark´s Cathedral and the surrounding area. We sat and ate ice cream because it was too hot to do anything else. The Cathedral was amazing, as was the inside of a nearby church. I wasn´t impressed by the fact that the building surrounding the Cathedral had been turned into a shopping centre though.
We made our way back on an extremely hot bus boat (Im sure it was hotter today than yesterday) and explored the shops a bit more with Laura. Then it was time for Laura to go! I went with Laura to the airport but our first attempt only got as far as the bus boat station where Laura realised she´d forgotten her backpack! As time was tight I RAN back to the hostel to fetch her bag and ran back in the extreme heat and humidity which probably wasn´t a good idea.
We made it to the coach (E8.00 return) to Treviso Airport and got to the airport in plenty of time. Laura cried an awful lot and I was very sad she couldnt come on the rest of the trip with me and wez.
I caught the coach back to Venice and an elderly man sat next to me but he didn´t speak any English. I spent a lot of time reading my European phrase book trying to muster up the courage to get him to help me learn some Italian but by the time I had the trip was over and he turned to me and said in beautiful English ¨Goodbye, I hope you enjoy your trip was over and he turned to me and said in beautiful English ¨Goodbye, I hope you enjoy your trip¨. I said thank you in Italian (the proper way) but he couldn´t even understand that! I said chiao and he understood and left.
I decided to try and find my way back to the hostel throught he windy streets and bridges of Venice without using boats and it was a lot further than I thought but I recognised enough to find my way!
Back at the hostel a woman at reception asked us to help her write a letter in English – she´d done very well already!
In the hostel we stopped in a room with two spanish guys, an American and some guy who slipped in when we were asleep!
P.S. I´ve written more but people are waiting for this computer so I´d better write up the rest later.
Ciao.