Day 9

We've been running across Italy and haven't had the time to update in awhile. Will try to do a quick recap of the past few days!

So we had our couchette adventure from Zagreb to Venice. It was interesting. Once we had figured out what car we were in, we were literally shoved into this tiny compartment with 3 other sleeping bodies already there. They were Asian and small so at least they didn't take up too much room, hehe. They were occupying the upper bunks so Monica and I got the 2 lower bunks. Each bunk was the length of one body (Lisa size!), the width of 1 1/4 Lisa bodies, and if we stacked 2 1/4 Lisa's on top of one another, that was about the area of the space above us. In other words, very cramped! We struggled to find a comfortable sleeping position but once we accomplished that, we promptly fell asleep (without changing clothes and brushing our teeth!!! G-r-o-s-s). SLeep was actually better than the sleep at the Munich airport (for me anyway). The only issue was when we crossed the borders. The crossing guards would pull open the door, turn on the light, and pretty much shout, °PASSPORTS!°. Not a nice way to ease out of a deep sleep, that's for sure. WHen I woke up at 7am, I found the stamps of SLovenia, Dubova, and Italy in my passport. Cool!

Groggy as we were, we were still excited to see the much-touted Venice. Hyped as it is, it does manage to enstill some sense of awe when you first see the Grand Canal and all the houses and buildings along it. We were in Venice around 8am so we had a good few hours to enjoy it SANS tourists. We wandered about and then happened upon the chaos that is St. Mark's Square. The square itself was beautiful.. resplendent even? It was definitely more than we had expected it to be. We got thru the Doge's Palace (what an interesting system of government they had!) well but trying to see the Basilica and campanile was a test of endurance! I did not pass, but at least Monica managed to leave the square with a smile.

In all, we spent about 1.5 days in Venice. Would have liked to explore it a bit more (since our first day was pretty much a write-off!) but NOT in August. Do not go there in August! MAYHEM!