So they begin...my spring break blogs.
So we left for Venice on April 11 (HB Erin). We flew into Bologna and then took a train to Venice because it was cheaper so we got to see another Italian city which was cool. We only got to stay in Bologna for a couple of hours so naturally my first order of business was to find gelato. I set a goal to eat gelato every single day of spring break. Judge me, I dare you. I enjoyed my favorite combination of gelato (strawberry and chocolate...can't beat it) and realized I am never going to consume gelato of this caliber ever again. It was a very sobering experience. Then we got on our train and headed to Venice. The train ride was kind of awkward because the seats were set up like tables of 4 and we had assigned seats so you had to sit facing some random person the whole way. My random man just so happened to keep his legs extended all the way to my seat resulting in me sitting with my legs tucked up on my seat the whole time. He also kept staring at me. Every time I would nod off and wake up he was looking at me. It was weird. Other than that, the train was fine. One of the guys traveling with us, Cody, lost his passport and jacket at the Bologna train station so our trip was starting off on a high note. When we exited the train station, this was the view immediately awaiting us:
That's the Grand Canal, so basically the main road of the city. I didn't realize that there wouldn't be any roads in Venice...maybe that was dumb of me but it was so cool to see the water buses and taxis instead of normal cars. Definitely nothing like I have ever seen before. Since we were a group of 7, we decided it would be easier to rent apartments instead of hostels for the week. That means you have to contact the person renting out the apartment to meet you there. Which means you need wifi. Which we don't have all the time. We walked around Venice carrying our massive bags for awhile before we were able to reach the apartment but it was fine because we got to see the small canals and such. The main problem with this is that there are bridges crossing the canals and there are stairs going up to the bridge and then stairs going down. This was challenging while I was carrying my ~30 lb backpack (which will now be known as "the body bag" from here on out because it looks like I'm carrying a dead person) but at least we made it.
That night we went out to our first Italian meal which was unfortunately quite disappointing. Our first plate was some penne which was pretty decent and a lot of us ordered chicken as our second plate. When they brought the chicken out it was literally a chicken patty. It was awkward. Like...we needed ketchup to eat it. Italy, yo. Luckily, the food on the rest of the trip was just dandy. After dinner we just hung out in the apartment and sang happy birthday to Bo because he officially turned 21 at midnight so yay! Happy birthday! Then we went to sleep.
On Saturday we got kind of a late start because we were pretty tired. Once we finally got up, we started walking around the city. Venice isn't too big and there aren't many main attractions so all of the fun is in walking around and discovering the different little alleys and canals of the city. The stairs were much easier without the body bag. We found St. Mark's Square where there was a graduation going on so that was interesting. Makes me kind of jealous that I go to school in boring old Champaign rather than one of the coolest cities in the world. There was a really pretty church in the square but unfortunately the line was too long for us to go in. There was a cool harbor type thing right by the square and it was pretty fun just to hang out there for a bit:
Unfortunately the weather was not exactly in our favor but it was still pretty to look at. There was kind of a boardwalk area which was fun to shop around in. After that we found a place to get some coffee because we were all pretty exhausted. We are always exhausting. We were debating a lot about gondola rides because there are so expensive and we didn't know if it would be worth it so in the meantime we walked back the the apartment and regrouped. I got some neat pics on the way back:
Seriously such a cool city. We decided to do the gondola ride and haggle the price down a little bit so it would be somewhat more reasonable. Turns out, it's allowed to drink vino (wine, you Americans) so obviously we needed to get a bottle. Also, contrary to popular belief, the gondolers (it's my made up word for the people driving the gondola) don't sing to you. Oh well. The ride turned out to be worth every penny and definitely a once in a life time experience. Of course I got about a million pics during the ride:
Then there were some drinking wine on a gondola selfies and I'm not sorry:
Casual, I know. Sometimes I think I'm cool so bear with me here.
It started raining just as we pulled in so it was pretty good timing. So glad I went on the ride and I wish I could post every picture from the ride in the blog but that would be obnoxious so stay tuned Facebook friends because I'll hopefully post these relatively soon.
That night we went out to a dinner and hoped that it would be a lot better than Friday's dinner. We got lucky because it was much more impressive. So. Much. Pasta. Obviously I followed that pasta dinner with gelato because how could I not. I was not ready to give up on my goal of getting gelato everyday. The gelato was delicious, very well worth it. After that we headed home and just hung out because there wasn't much to do at night in Venice. We still found ways to have fun.
On Sunday we had to check out of our apartment early. That meant from the time we checked out until the time our train came, I had to carry around the body bag. I was not a happy camper on Sunday. We got some really good sandwiches so that eased the blow. I was also not happy to discover that there actually are roads in Venice near the train station. Lame. Oh well, it was time to move on to the next city.
Overall, I loved Venice mostly because it was so different from any city I have ever been in. It was not what I expected it to be...it was so much better. I'm also glad I got to see the city before it sinks because I hear that is going to happen soon...so everyone go visit there now! Also, just so you know, anyone who says Paris is the most romantic city in the world is just wrong. It is for sure Venice. I've been to both and I can attest to this. I highly recommend going there.
Also, on an unrelated note, I've been thinking of some gift ideas for Mercedes as a thank you (she also mentioned she's getting us gifts so shit now I have to) so here's what I got so far:
1. Taking every framed picture in her living room and replacing them with pictures of me doing the exact same pose as the original subject of the picture.
2. Killing Gato. Then getting her taxidermized. Then giving her back to Mercedes so she can keep her FOREVER.
Let me know what you think.
Next stop: Firenze (Florence). Stay tuned.
Angela
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