First stop on EuroTour 2011 was Venice. We actually flew into Milan and then took a 2 1/2 hour train to Milan, so I guess I can say I’ve been there too now, although we really only looked around outside the train station. There was a crazy amount of traffic and although I thought we’d left plenty of time, we missed our train. We tried to switch our tickets to a later time but apparently had missed the cut-off to do that by about 15 minutes—luckily, a cute old man took pity on us (on the verge of tears) and stamped it anyway. Then there was all kinds of delays because of a burn on the track (?) and we didn’t get going until late, and didn’t get to our hotel until around 12:30. We actually stayed in Mestre on the the mainland, where it was cheaper, but it was very simple to take a 30 minute bus ride into Venice.
We pretty much walked the whole city of Venice. We spent over 7 hours walking, just wandering around, heading in a general directions towards what we wanted to see but exploring down side-streets, stumbling into courtyards, residential areas, canals. Venice is so beautiful but I can’t imagine living there; it would be so difficult! I also loved the time I spent there, but I don’t think I could have stayed for more than a day—we literally saw the whole city in a day, and everything we passed was shopping; there wouldn’t be enough to fill your time with.
Gondolas were very expensive, so we didn’t ride one, but it made me sad to think I’ll have been in Venice twice and not been on the water. Fortunately, we read about tragettos, which are sort of like gondola ferries—old gondolas that transport a bunch of people at once for 50 cents. We found one and were so excited, bouncing around happily as we loaded. We were the most excited ones on the boat, until, mid-canal, we realized that the destination was the other side of the canal, directly across! We laughed and felt a little foolish, but it was so funny. And hey, at least now we can say we’ve been on the water in Venice!
Later in the day we sat by some steps leading down into the water for a little bit. The sun came out a little, and it was peaceful and beautiful. We spent a good 20 minutes waving at all the boats that went by, and the good-natured drivers waved back or jokingly asked us to swim out to their boats. One guy even blew a kiss, which Kelli snatched out of the air and put in her pocket…
It was just Kelli and me all two weeks. Everyone told us beforehand that we would be so sick of each other by the end of it, and I was afraid we would be too, but it was luckily and surprisingly not the case. Occasionally one or the other got a little grumpy, but we got along the whole time, I think because we are both so similar, and also because neither one of us needs to be constantly chattering; we could be together but in a comfortable silence. We were very cheap the whole time and tried to spend as little money as possible, which had it’s pros and cons. Sometimes we would walk around for a really long time looking for the cheapest food, and by the time we found it we’d be starving. And then, of course, it would either be really crappy or tiny portions an d we would have been better off just eating at one of the first places we found. Or sometimes Kelli wouldn’t want to pay the entrance fees and we’d miss out; it broke my heart not to go inside the Sagrada Familia. It worked out well sometimes too—on our beach days or hobo nights we would go to grocery stores and get ingredients for sandwiches and make them really cheap, or we’d get sodas and waters there for 48 cents instead of 2 euro.
Ryanair always seems to fly to weird, out of the way airports, and we left Venice by means of Treviso. It was a good hour and a half away from our hotel, but it turned out great because we left early so we could explore the town of Treviso. It was so beautiful, and we spent a nice two hours walking around the river, looking at the architecture. It was just nice to get another flavor of Italy.
Since it’s really difficult normally to insert pictures, I’m going to try and do something new with the volumes of spring break pictures I’ve amassed: I’ve opened a Flickr account and will make albums there and post the links with the appropriate blog post. If anyone knows of a better site, let me know! I’m still new to the Flickr, thing, but I think I have it figured out. I’ll post the specific link at the end, but in general you can go to www.flickr.com/photos/rachelgoesgreek/sets/ to see all the albums I’ve created on the account—simply click the one with the corresponding blog title. You can see pictures, explanatory captions on some of them; I think it even pinpoints the general location of where the photo was taken.
Whew, this is exhausting! I’m going to try and churn out these posts as fast as I can, but be patient—I’ve got a lot of material to go through. Around 2000 pictures to sort through, plus all my memories, so I can bring you guys all the best stories! Hope you enjoyed my first SB post, keep an eye out for more!
Photos of Venice: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelgoesgreek/sets/72157626485907149/
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