Venezzzzia part 1

Welcome back, it has been a while since Ive stopped by. I must apologize first for the lack of apostrophes that will surely irritate some grammar critics, I dont have time to worry about these annoying European keyboards, thus it wont look as nice, but Ill feel damn good not learning this keyboard. This update will also only include Venice as Im about to be done with Rome as well, but that would be way too long. Anyway, last I left you I was heading back on plane to Munich. I spent a quiet night when I returned to Germany one last time, though I did jump into one last Schnitzel and beer just for old times sake. I wandered around for a bit at night, but called it quits early and luckily had a relatively quiet room at the hostel.

The next morning I woke up and headed right to the train station to go to Venice. As soon as I got on I was pretty skeptical of the train as I entered a seating cubicle for the first time since Ive been in Europe. I was just hoping not to get stuck with some random non-English speaking smelly Euros, but it worked out as 2 college girls jumped in and just us three had the whole 7 hours together. Never once did any of us ask names, thats a weird concept to me, we talked a while, they slept for a while, I stared into the awesome views of Germany, Austria, and Italy, and we eventually made it 7 hours later. I considered asking for their name, but then I realized there was no point, I wasnt going to meet up with them in Venice so wasnt worth it. When I got off the train it was around 7 p.m, I was going to be crazy and try finding my hostel, but about 10 steps in there was no chance of that happening with my 30 pounds of luggage. I got on the Vaporetto (waterbus) and headed to San Toma. Luckily from there it was real easy to find the hostel and I checked right in. It was in a 400 year old building, and you could tell. Old school pull the chain toilet, semi-cramped room, and wireless internet access from the neighbor if you stand out on the balcony, but it turned out to be pretty good.

After checking in I headed out for an Italian meal, wasnt sure where I would end up, but I wanted pizza or pasta. I had no map since the hostel unfortunately didnt offer any so I wandered through the labryinth until I ended up at some place that looked pretty good and decently busy. It was close to the train station, but not close enough to be considered a crazy tourist place. I sat down and immediately ordered my pizza with spicy salami (essentially pepperoni) and a glass of red wine just cause I was in the mood and sick of beer. As I sat there one of the women next to me coughed and made a swine flu joke so I gave a sarcastic laugh, which prompted us to all talk throughout the whole meal. It was a mother and daughter from Vancouver, probably in their 60s and 40s, respectively. It was nice to have some company and talk through the meal. The pizza was fantastic and the wine wasnt bad for a random house wine. It was also my first real meal of the day, so that couldve made everything taste a little sweeter. I ate my meal pretty fast, per usual, but stuck around until the Canadians were done eating, semi in the hope theyd pay for my meal, but really just enjoying the conversation and being semi tipsy. Finally about an hour or so later we got up and headed our separate ways. One good thing was the placemat for the restaurant was a map, so I took my tomato stained placemat and went on my way. I again attempted to navigate the streets of Venice, this time at night, but after realizing I had no chance even with my tomatoed map without ever really looking at it I got on the night waterbus. It turned out to be a great decision as it took the long way to my stop and I got a full tour of the canals to take in the sinking beauty that is Venice.

I got back to my hostel around 10, pretty exhausted from a restless train ride. A lot of people were hanging out in the kitchen, but I wasnt in the mood. There was an Asian dude from UM who came up to the room at some point though and so I said Id come down for a bit. He was obsessed with grappo, so he wanted me to try some and that it was a good kind so you couldnt really taste the vodka. Either he has no taste buds or I shouldve gone with the dont trust anyone from UM mindset as that shit was pure vodka with a shitty grape aftertaste about 5 minutes later. Everyone luckily called it an early night there as they were emptying out in the morning, so we headed up to the room for sleep. I was excited for a possible decent night of rest even though it was slightly stuffy in the room. That lasted about 10 seconds until a massive pig emerged in my room, or some dude snoring and the fight to sleep was on. I blasted my ipod and eventually fell asleep, luckily the people left at like 5 a.m so I was able to get another couple hours in that morning.

I then went down for some breakfast and started my day. I went to St. Marks and checked out the area, I went in the church, even decided to check out the church art out of boredom and hung around that area for a while until deciding to move on to my next stop. I went through the streets of Venice until I ended up at the Guggenheim where I stayed for about an hour, it was nice, but not very big, which worked out well cause it was about the time I became starving. I grabbed some quick sandwiches from a bar, one with tuna and mozzarella and the other had mozzarella and eggplant (it was good, but I didnt actually realize I had gotten eggplant until I actually had it in my hand). It was a nice cheap meal. I was still hungry and knew I had been waiting way too long, but I finally got some gelato. I found a place away from everywhere and without the clear brandname gelato ads, so figured it was homemade. It was very good as I went with cherry and some sort of chocolate cookie gelato in a cone. I was satisfied I then figured Id find the old Jewish ghetto and realized Id have to let it find me because that is the real way to find things in Venice. I wandered up and down the streets and bam, the old gates of a Jewish ghetto and street signs indicating where I was entered my sight. I walked around checking out the small monuments and the kosher restaurants than went on the synaguoge tour. There was a guy with a Tigers hat so I thought Id strike up a conversation with him on the tour. He hadnt lived in Detroit since 1961 and was pretty conservadox so any conversation we had going did not last long. He did talk to me a few random times about other Jewish things to see in Italy, but sports were not in the picture. Him and his wife were also the question people, clearly agitating the tour guide with the same questions over and over, though it did make it more informative for everyone else. About 20 people were on the tour and the 3 synaguoges we were able to see all had some interesting looks and history, so it was worth going on. I then walked around some more doing what I do, ending up at the rialto and doing a walk through there admiring the overpriced gandolas, merchandise sellers, and crazy amounts of tourists. I then decided to get a dinner somewhere. I chose a random restaurant in an alley and made the semi mistake of going with the tourist menu. The food wasnt terrible, though the wine seemed slightly watered down and the piece of salmon I ordered, while tasty was quite tiny for my manly needs. I then did more of the walking thing finally finding out how to get back to my hostel and picking up some extra gelato on the way. I got it from the same place I did earlier in the day, not purposely, I didnt even realize it at first, but hey, was still good. Went lemon this time and some banana.

From there I finally headed back to the hostel. People were hangin out in the kitchen again, but it was semi late and I headed up to the room. Up there I met a few people that had just checked in since my whole room had emptied out from the night before. I talked with them for a little while, they were a bunch of Tennessee graduates and we all went to sleep. It was cool because I thought the snoring problem had disappeared, until it doubled on that night. As one kid snored, the other waited until silence to add in his loud snore. There was one point where I flicked the lights real quick, prompting silence, probably waking them and giving me just enough time to be lulled to sleep by the ipod, jackpot! I slept a little better in the end that night though than the previous night and that was good enough for me.

The next morning I headed down to grab some breakfast and joined all the Tennessee people as well as some extras who were eating. I talked with the whole crew of them and joined along with them and another straggler like myself lookin to hang out with everyone for the day...

With that I will cut this short and reconvene at another time as the internet claims I have 7 minutes left, but I hope this short, but sweet entry has you wanting more. For those who havent seen there are actually a couple random pictures up of me on facebook, not posted by myself, if you want to see how I look bearded. Recently I did add a sunburn to my repetoire so dont be surprised when I come back black with a beard after Rome, Florence, and Athens continue to burn me to shreds.

I shall hopefully return in Florence with the rest of Venice, hopefully a seperate entry for Rome, and probably Florence and Athens when I arrive home, as well as pictures, a final entry of my thoughts for the trip, and of course love for you all.

Now I go get some food because its fantastic out here...

BK