It's a Big Blue Watery Road....

We arrived in Venice and it took forever to crawl through the canal in our huge ferry. We were SO happy to finally get off. We found a free shuttle bus to the center of the town so we waited for that. WAY too many people crammed on to that thing with back packs and luggage. It dropped us off at the Piazza de la Roma, and we wandered across a bridge and into Venice. We had our packs on and were tired and hungry from the ferry. We wandered around and got to a square and bought some fruit to eat. I was pretty cranky because we had no where to sleep and were trying to walk all over Venice finding a place. We also needed to go to the train station to see about trains to Zurich. We bailed on walking and went to find out how to get tickets for the boat bus. We made our way to an info station (incidentally back where we started this process) and got some transit pass that included discounts because we were under whatever age it was. We thought we were at the train station but really it was a parking garage (no cars in Venice). The woman told us how to get to the train station and that there was an internet place near by. We walked over a big bridge and to the train station and had to stand in a long line for the ticket window. We talked to a couple who looked at our time table book. I sat with the bags while Jane waited and I read about Venice in Rick Steves (We almost had forgotten about him!) When it was our turn, the man behind the counter said he had no information about train times. WHAT. We walked away so annoyed and confused. We asked the couple, who was at another window, if the man had train times, and clearly he did. They all do. We have been doing this for 9 weeks, don't try to pull a fast one on us! So we waited behind them and got tickets for Sunday morning (there were no night trains). We emailed Marco the update and set about finding 2 nights of accommodations. We first went to Brek, a cafeteria style eatery in Rick Steves. We had lasagna and it was good. Then we went down the street and found the internet place but it was like 8 euro an hour and we figured we should just get to the hostel asap. We went to the boat bus stop by the station and took the number 2 boat to the island of Giudecca, where the HI Youth hostel was. We visualized them having space for us and it worked! We were so relieved! We checked in and did the paper work and went to our room. It was big and industrial with terrible sagging mattresses, but we knew that going in and we honestly didn't care anymore. We rested for a while and tried to nap, but the girls next door came back and were being SO loud and it was only a partial wall so eventually we gave up on sleep and got up.

We decided to do the Grand Canal Boat tour in the Rick Steves book, so we changed and went to the stop outside our hostel and took the number two back to the train station and then took the number one toward St. Mark's square. On the number two boat, we stood up front and I was enjoying the breeze and the city. The driver was next to me in his booth and eventually asked where we were from and something I couldn't decipher. It turns out he was asking if I was a model. How nice! I told him no no. When we told him we were from Boston, he said, oh! you are famous for meat! We were so confused, until he clarified that he meant MIT. HA. He got off a stop before us and we got a new driver, who was less friendly. Waiting for the number 1 bus,  We met a nice English guy looking for a place to stay, but I wasn't as friendly as I would have been because I was reading the tour. We saw lots of palaces and cassas. Everything is really Byzantine and eastern looking, and quite grand. It was really cool. It was kind of hard to see because we were inside the boat, but it was still neat to see the city. We got off at St. Mark's square and oriented ourselves (it took a minute) with the map in the book. Its really big and crowded and has TONS of pigeons. People were feeding them by hand and getting them to sit on their heads and arms. GROSS. NO THANKS. We saw the "new offices" (17th century) and the "new offices" (16th century), which enclose the square with the Correr museum on the end. There was some kind of orchestra or concert going on there. We also saw the Campanile, the bell tower that we could climb later. The clock tower was cool and had the Astrological symbols around it (I gasped and ran over saying "A mommy clock") and two black dudes on top that whack the bell every hour. It also has one of the first digital clocks, with roman numerals for the hour and regular numbers for the minutes (in increments of 5) that flip down. It was cool. The big features are the basilica and the Doge's Palace, which is huge and very mosque-like. Most things were closed, but we wandered behind the basilica to find the bridge of sighs and ended up doing a loop because its covered with construction or something. We found a piece you can see though, from the other side near the water. We saw some street musicians almost get arrested, which was exciting. They have strict rules in Venice. We couldn't figure out what the problem was. We circled back to the square and saw the clock ding. Only one of the men moves, and not that much. We couldn't understand how it knocked some poor guy off during the renaissance. We needed to eat, or at least to pee, so we did another loop behind the basilica looking for this juice bar sandwich joint. We passed the gondola guys again. No gondola rides for us, my friends, its like 100 euros! The boats are big and sleek and black with velvet or brocade seats. Its a little much. We wandered around and checked out some back roads looking for a bathroom and a place to eat. We went from the square to the Rialto, the Venitian Ponte Vechhio, along the Mercerie, a major shopping street. We ended up finding a place to eat near the fish market. I had carbonara (surprising) and Jane had canneloni. We were pretty tired, so we caught the night bus back home. We were really happy we paid and figured out the pass for the boats and beeped it on the fancy machine when we got on, because this three Chinese kids got stopped by the ticket people and were in BIG trouble and it looked very scary. There was talk of calling the police and stuff. We were confused and happy we had our cards. We showered when we got back and read a little. We could even charge our phones in the hall and run the cord into our room.

The next day we were woken up by the girls next to us being so loud for hours in the morning. I got really mad. We finally went down and had breakfast at the hostel (included, to make up for the beds, I'm sure) and met a girl named Kristie. She was from Arkansas and we chatted for a long time about travel and our plans for Venice.  She is studying Italian for a month in Florence and came to Venice for the weekend alone because none of her friends wanted to go. She had a lot of the same plans we did, and we said goodbye hoping we'd meet up later. We went to be floating bus stop and found the right direction and waited. I saw Kristie and old her to come that way. We took the boat to the Rialto stop, to see the fish market. There were all types of fish and squid and all sorts of weird things. It was huge and cool to see. Next to the fish market is the fruit and vegetable market. We got some fruit to augment our breakfast and the said "now what?" I had to pee (its always me!) and so we found a public WC which cost 1.50! Outrageous. After Jane and I did that, we all went over toward the bridge and the shops. We were looking for gifts for certain people and Kristie was a great help. We wandered back through the shops we had seen when they were closed the night before and did some shopping. We eventually made our way to St. Mark's Square which was hot and busy! The lie to go into the church was insanely long, and I knew there was a short cut. We went around the corner to the free bag check and checked one of Jane's bags and got a tag and got to skip the entire line. The inside of the church was just as spectacular as the outside. Its entirely done in gold mosaics and was really awesome. We paid the 2 euro to see the Golden Altarpiece, which was interesting. Its this big square panel that they hide from you so you have to pay to see it. Its covered in precious stones, and it has biblical depictions on it. Its very lavish, but I thought it was weird. The glamour didn't seem to make sense in he piece. It was made to show off all sorts of loot from Constantinople during the crusades. Interesting, but odd.

We left the church and got in line for the bell tower. I went and returned our bag ticket (you only have an hour) while the girls waited in the line. We ate our fruit and paid a whopping 8 euro to go up in the elevator for a view. It was 300 feet high and was one of the best views of Venice. We took lots of pictures. It was a little disappointing because you couldn't really see any canals except the big one. The buildings are so close together and the canals so little that they were eclipsed by the buildings. It was still nice though. We headed back down in search of lunch. We decided to try the juice bar salad place we had considered yesterday. The girls got big salads and I got a weeny canneloni. It was good. We left and did some more shopping, and then Krisite wanted to go to Lido to the beach and we needed to do more shopping and didn't want to hold her up. We said goodbye and thought we'd catch each other at the hostel later. We continued to wander and shop in the sticky heat until we got to cranky and had to eat again. We knew there were a lot of snacks near the train station, so we went there on the boat bus. We went back to Brek and got some chocolate cake thing, but it wasn't enough. We decided to go get a spinach and cheese calzone from the gelato place we had gone to yesterday. It was ok. We sat and people watched near the train station for a while to gather our strength. You are supposed to get lost in Venice, so we tried to wander some back streets and get off the beaten track. We never got really lost though. Jane did a handstand on a bridge somewhere and when I couldn't take it anymore we stopped at a little bar to use the bathroom. We got a lemon soda which the nice bartender man put some orange stuff and some booze into. It was lovely! We sat there and talked a bit with the men who worked there. They were very nice and the bar seemed like a really cute local place. It was right on the water near a bus stop, so people popped in for a little beer while they waited. We sat there for a while, despite the fact that I dumped my sticky drink all over my bag and the floor, and enjoyed the scene. We were going to try to wander some more, but we ended up bailing because we were so close to our hostel. We took the ferry bus home.

I was feeling disorganized and messy and unsure how we would fit all our stuff in our bags and was preparing for our flight. While Jane showered, I dumped EVERYTHING out of my bag and tried to organize it. She worked on her stuff too, and I took a break and showered (It was SO hot and sticky in Venice). We worked on this project for a while, dividing up gifts and stuff and throwing out papers and maps we accumulate like crazy. Eventually it was late and we needed to eat. We got dressed and walked down a ways on our island, hoping to find a restaurant Kristie had gone to and befriended the waiter and was talking about going back. We looked at a couple places and we thought we found the one, but didn't see her and worried that it was getting late, so we headed back for the cheap close option right next to our hotel. Jane got a pizza and I got, you guessed it, carbonara. We felt like we were getting eaten alive by bugs and were happy to get out of there and back to the hostel. I crashed pretty hard but Jane was up killing bugs and stressing over how many were on us. Apparently in the night some girls came in with someone who worked there and he shined lights on people and they trooped in and out like Gestapo. I gasped and woke up, but I don't remember. Only Jane knows the details there.

We got up early and pulled our bags into the hall as to not wake up the people in our room (unlike our bed neighbors). We noticed a lot of bug bites on us. We were right on schedule, even early, for our plan for breakfast. We had our breakfast and then worked on the blog for a few minutes because I had bought some internet time and hadn't used it all. We headed to the boat bus stop after checking out and leaving our Athens book from our hostel there at the front desk for Kristie, who is going to Greece. We took the number 42 boat bus, which was exciting and new. It had an enclosed bow and stood inside with my face out the window looking at everything. We were SO excited to be going back to Zurich! And we really loved Venice. I can't figure out why people hate on it so much. Its beautiful and different and interesting and it doesn't smell. Its on stilts! Its so cool! We looked around near the train station for a snack for the ride, and didn't have much luck. We were trying to use up our Euros too, so we had to be careful not to overspend because we had very few left. We gave up on the street near the train station and went to the place inside it and got some fruit. We found our train and car and seats with out problems and were off to Zurich! Almost home!