VVP- Part 1

Venice:

After one of the best dinner’s I’ve eaten in my apartment (mutton and potatoes) I grabbed my backpack and headed out the door to the bus station. My bus left Perrache (Lyon) at 11:59PM. Sleeping on a bus is not an easy thing to do, but luckily I had two seats to myself and I made the best of it. I figure that riding a bus across Europe is one of those things that I’m able to do at age 23 and won’t be able to do at age 43—my body won’t take it then and (with any luck) I’ll have the money to travel a little more in style.

At 7AM we arrived in Milan and I had to get off of one bus and onto another. Then the new bus had to wait. And wait. And wait some more for a bus that was coming from Amsterdam that apparently got held up by border control as they crossed Switzerland. Finally that bus arrived, the few people we were waiting for transferred and around 8:20 or so we were on the road again.

Awake as I was I figured I’d use my bus time wisely and I read my psychology (I’m taking an online class- in case you didn’t know) and when I sick of that I knit. I napped a little, but not too much. And 13 and a half hours after leaving Lyon I made it to my destination: Venice!

I had been told two things about Venice- A. go to St. Mark’s Square and B. get lost on its winding streets. I planned to do both. What I didn’t realize what just how quickly that second half would happen. In my excitement I missed a key planning step—I knew the name and address of my hostel, but not where it was or how to get there. Oops. So off I went looking for a map- it’s a bus station, there should be a map right? Wrong. No map. Ok… let’s try talking to the natives. I found a group of people and asked if they knew the address- they debated in Italian among themselves and then told me to get on the number 1 bus and get off at such and such a stop. Ugh… ok. So I went looking for the number one and didn’t see it. I decided to try asking again. I went up to the ticket office this time and this guy spoke English, which was a much better way to communicate than Italian in my point of view. He told me to cross the bridge and walk for 10 minutes in a straight line. Ugh… ok. So I crossed the bridge—I figured at least this way I could keep asking for directions.

And that’s what I did, I asked another person on the other side of the bridge- she too spoke English- cross three bridges and then you’ll come to a place or square and that’s where my address said I should be. After the second bridge I asked again- this guy said I had LONG WAY to walk and I’d be better off staying in the hostel right next to his bar. “No thank you, I already made my reservation” and I continued on. I did, indeed, cross 3 bridges and I soon came to something I would refer to more as a triangle than a square but sure enough, I recognized the bridge and the door from the picture on the hostel’s website. Woohoo!!! I made it!

Except… there’s no sign. Shouldn’t there be a sign? Is this the Venice Fish Hostel? Am I ringing some strange person’s door bell? Shoot. Nerves set in. I ring the door bell anyway and I wait. Just as I’m ready to walk away I hear someone coming to the door. “Hi Lizzy” this guy says to me as he opens the door. “Ugh… hello. Is this the Venice Fish?” Sure enough, I was in the right place, and apparently the last one to check in for the day. Takes away the creepiness when you figure out how he knew my name, doesn’t it?

So I dumped my stuff and met Davido (who we lovingly refer to as Estebon) more officially, he’s living here and running the hostel for now. He’s a Mexican that left home to travel Europe about 7 months ago and just sort of fell into doing this for a couple months. I also met Matt, another American from Michigan, who had just arrived only a few minutes before me. Matt and I were both traveling alone so we paired up and headed out with our cameras to see what we could see.

Our first stop was for gelato- a necessity and a tasty treat to say the least. Then we headed off and just wandered, taking pictures and chatting. We weren’t going anywhere in particular and though I would have been lost for hours had I been alone Matt had a stellar sense of direction and got us back to the hostel just fine. We met an Australian girl who would be staying at the hostel just for one night. The three of us left once again (you can’t sit inside for too long with this sprawling city at your feet) and went to grab a cappuccino. We sat there people watching and chatting as it rained lightly outside- we went for round two and this time I had a red wine. After that we headed back towards the hostel again to find out what the plan was for dinner—our hostel offers free dinner every night. (BONUS!!) We discovered that dinner would be at 9pm and that if we wanted to drink (as we were chatting about) we needed to go grab it before 8 when the store would close and anywhere else selling liquor would raise their prices. So we went down the street to Billa- a super small version of walmart. We went and grabbed wine and cheese and olives- France has certainly gotten to me. :)

We went back to the hostel and stood around the kitchen drinking wine, eating cheese and olives, watching Estebon cook up a mix of who knows what that we called “Alakazam”- literally, cut up hot dog, ground beef, and tomato craziness that somehow ended up spicy. Yup… free dinner.

Then we settled around the table for a good old American college style drinking game: circle of death. And then got ourselves ready and headed out on the town. Our Mexican host took us to a marvelous little local place filled with Venetians. I tried ordering a typical Italian drink (so I was told) called a spritzer but I did not find it enjoyable so I passed it along to Erin (another American from California- went to school in Indiana- just finished study abroad in London) and went back to get a Baileys. So much better.

The night continued as nights like this often do and we headed off to a club and I was on the dance floor soon enough!!

I woke up around 7am this morning without meaning to and decided that I might as well just get going with the day. I showered and sat out in the living room doing more psych homework- see what a good student I am. Eventually my hostel-mates started moving- we all ate breakfast and then I headed out with Erin and Matt to wander a little. We stopped and grabbed cappuccino again, delicious, and then Erin went to meet up with some friends of hers and Matt and I headed off to grab lunch. We grabbed sandwiches and found a dock on the side of the canal to sit on- absolutely lovely! Then we continued on in the direction of St. Mark’s Square. We joined about 9 million other people packed in the place and decided it wasn’t our time to be there. Matt didn’t really have much desire to hang around and I knew I’d have more time to go back. (I’ve decided to go back in the early morning when there’s less people.) So we continued walking in what we thought was the right direction only to get completely lost, thoroughly enjoying “authentic Venice” as Matt referred to it—basically, the little canals and bridges and glorious beauty that is this city. We figured out we were heading in the complete wrong direction so we grabbed gelato and turned back toward the right way.

We got back near the hostel and split up. Matt went to go get train tickets and I headed off to do a little shopping. :) After a while my feet were sore from all the walking and I was tired so I found a little café on a side street just along one of the canals. It was hot so instead of another coffee I went for a cold coke. Around 5:00 I decided it was time to get back to the hostel and call home- wish my Daddy a happy birthday!!

I’ve pretty much just been chillin’ at the hostel- loving the AMAZING view I have here- people watching and whatnot. I grabbed another bottle of wine with some cheese and bread for the evening. Yum.

Currently all the Americans are hanging out and we’ll be eating dinner here shortly. Tomorrow will be really nice- going to St. Mark’s alone and taking my time to explore all its glory!! I have one last day to enjoy Venice and then tomorrow evening I take off for Vienna!! More wonderful times to share soon!!!

:) I’ll upload pictures soon—they’re AMAZING. LOVE YOU ALL!!!