Thursday, February 11, 2010

Woke up at 5:19am. I cannot set my alarm for 5:20 or anytime around it ever. Always has to be 5:19, because it is my birthday! I jumped in the shower, while Allyson was still sleeping, because I am not showering while in Venice. No big deal really, because we will only be gone three days. We made sure we had everything and ran to the tube station to take the tube to Victoria Station. Finding the bus station at Victoria was really hard, and we had to run up and down different streets to find it. We finally got to the station with 5 minutes to go before our bus left, but could not find our bus. There were no boards telling you which bus was which, and we couldn’t find anybody who worked there. It was so stressful. We finally asked someone who was able to help us, but by the time we ran up to where our bus was supposed to be, we caught a glimpse of it turning the corner as it left. Luckily we had given ourselves some extra time in case anything like this happened, so we just had to wait for the next bus that came in 20 minutes. We got to Stansted airport with plenty of time, and found our way easily through the terminal. Our flight was not until 11:40am. We flew Ryanair. We packed carry-on luggage. I was so proud of us. We put all of our clothes in one backpack together. Our other carry-on bag was my camera backpack. Go us! Our flight was fine. We were able to sit next to each other, which was good because seating is first come first serve. Our flight was very brief and uneventful. We arrived at Venice Treviso Airport around 3:00pm (Italy is one hour later than London) and bought our bus tickets into the city. I was exhausted from lack of sleep, and got a few uncomfortable hours of sleep on the plane and bus.

We finally arrived in Venice! We had a little trouble trying to figure out which direction to head into the city, but the police were very helpful and helped us to locate the bridge we were searching for. We walked a while to find our hostel, finally reaching the door at 1978. We were not sure whether this was our hostel or not because the name had been worn off of the placard. We were standing outside the door, staring up at the building, when three guys approached us and asked us if we were looking for Ban Thai. We said yes, and they unlocked the door and led us down a very dark hallway. I was kind of worried by this point, because it was not a very good first impression of our hostel. They unlocked a door at the end of the hall for us and we entered our hostel. Well, it was such a relief to walk into a warm, bright, and inviting place, compared to the dark and cold hallway we left. The owner of the hostel was not there, but her brother was, so he showed us our room. Originally I had booked four beds, but tried to email and cancel two of those beds. I never heard back from them, so was worried that we would have to pay for all four. Thankfully it didn’t seem to matter who showed up, and we were only charged for ourselves. The hostel was great. It was rather small, and run by a Thai woman who didn’t speak very much English. Allyson and I had a room all to ourselves, with two beds and a desk. There was a communal bathroom and shower attached to the kitchen area. The only other guests at the hostel were the three Italian guys that had led us in. They were very nice, but we didn’t see them that often. We had to run to an ATM right away to get cash to pay for our hostel, and that was a minor adventure. The Cash Machine was in Italian, and we had no idea what we were doing, but somehow still managed to pull out €100. After we settled everything with our hostel, we set out into the city!

We headed out into the city to explore and find dinner. We were silly not to have gotten a map straight away, because we spent a large portion of the evening wandering around trying to find our way around. There were three signs that were often posted on corners that we relied on heavily; signs pointing to San Marco, Rialto, and Piazzale Roma (the location of the train and bus stations). We wandered around Venice for a while until we found Piazza San Marco. The Piazza was the center of Carnival. It was amazing! It was full of people. So many people were wearing masks and quite a few were in full costume! It was fantastic! In the center of the Piazza was a “garden” with a stage, flowers, lights, music, a giant lion made out of vegetables, and giant bugs. It was very cool. We wandered around the Piazza for a long time and took lots of pictures.

Carnival is like Halloween for adults, except much classier. Some people are dressed in the classic Venetian costumes, and Italian court styles of dress. Others are dressed in random costumes, like pirates, cartoon characters, star wars, sumo wrestlers, etc. Lots of old people are really into dressing up.

We finally left because we were so hungry, and walked around the many streets and canals looking for a restaurant. We finally settled on one and had our first meal in Italy! I ordered gnocchi and Allyson ordered spaghetti. It was not fantastic food, but I was so hungry it didn’t really matter.

The streets were pretty empty as we made our way back to our hostel. On our way back two Italian guys approached us and asked us if we wanted to go to their home for a drink. Very creepy, as they were both around 30 or so. Uh… no thank you! We had to wander lost for a while, then go to the Piazzale Roma, and then walk to our hostel. It took us quite a while to get back. We did manage to find one gelato store that was still open, so we froze our butts off as we walked back, but at least we were really happy!

Venice is fantastic! I love it so much more than my first trip here in 2006. It is pretty cold though, but not nearly as cold as London has been. Despite the cold, there are no clouds in the sky and the sun is always shining, which helps warm us up.