Thursday, 29 May 2008

Venice (day 6.7) 7th.8th May 2008

Before we could reach Venice, we had to wait for the night train as usual. It was a long wait! We reached Campo Di Marte train station at around 23:15 a.m and our train was at 01:47. So basically, we waited 2.5 hours! As usual, all the weird people in the train stations. Chatting was our way of killing time I guess.... But it was nice. I had a lot of insights from that talk. I discovered new ways of bettering myself. :)

We were really fortunate because on the train, we met this group of REALLY NICE Italians traveling in a group of 4. The husband guarded the door for us the whole night. He got a stool and sat outside the cabin while his wife was snoring away inside the cabin. He was very helpful. Though he couldn't speak English well, he tried to make conversations with us. The thing about traveling on trains is you have to be really careful not to miss your stop. Otherwise, SCREWED is the word that you gotta pull out from your dictionary once again. Haha... I told him where we were heading to, Venezia apparently and 2 stops before Venezia, he actually woke me up and told me we are reaching. Of course I'd the train timings and I'd set my alarm but his reminder beats my alarm clock isn't it? Then when we finally arrived at Venezia, he helped us with the luggage etc. I really appreciate his help. There wasn't any way I could thank him except telling you guys about him.

As the city comes alive!


Arriving at 5:40 a.m in Venice was definitely not a wise choice. The city is still fast asleep and though we found the hostel in 20 minutes, the reception was closed. I'd to ring the bell 3 times before the lady was willing to come down and store our bags... Tired to walk, we just spend 2 hours waiting outside the reception. This time, we slept. hahaha... Check-in could only be done at 8 a.m! WTH?

Venice is beautiful in the sense it's surrounded by water and buildings are really those typical ancient ones. Other than that, there isn't much to do. Yeah you have to go for the Gondola of course but it's freaking 100EUR for 50 minutes! Guys, it's definitely a great tool to propose to your girl. :)

There isn't any form of metro or bus to travel within the city. You either use the water bus or your legs! haha.. Of course we opted for legs. Why? The water bus is expensive, crowded, stinky but you get to see the city on the river. I wanted to get to Murano Island on the 2nd day but Yvonne didn't want to go on it and I didn't feel great leaving her behind so I opted out. Instead, we took an afternoon train to Milan.

We practically spent 6 hours walking one round the city.

Your legs get tired but you see every single inch of the island.
You cross at least 30 bridges along the way.
See at least 50 Gondolas.
Pass by almost 100 venetian art shops.
Glance at a minimum of 30 gelato parlours.
Smell the fragrance of Italian pasta and pizzas at least 30 times.
Admire the graffiti done by the locals.
Blah blah blah....

That's the advantage of walking. :)

Venice streets.
Tons of Venetian art.
HUGE PIZZA!

The million bridges that you will see...
I like this shoe! Even the rubbish bin has some design added to it?

Not to miss out, the most important place in Venezia! San Marco Piazza....
Have you ever seen the square in shows about the "pigeons square" in Italy?
Yes, it's Venice!!!
Never in my life have I ever seen so many pigeons at one instance.
See the pictures and videos and you will understand...

I wanted to go through the secret passageway in the Palace
But guess what?
It's fully booked! Unbelievable.
The next available timing is on the following Monday!
It's a pity... :(
Of course we didn't pay to go up the bell tower etc.
We are kind of sick of all these touristic thing already...
Plus after talking to so many of my friends who have been travelling around
We came up with a conclusion.
You don't have to pay and go into all those tourist attractions as an indication that you've been to that place.
Sometimes just walking around, sitting by the cafe, talking to the locals feel even better....
Of course you cannot miss out the highlights like colosseum etc but all those bell towers?
Skip them. :)
The no.of pigeons is equivalent to the number of tourists that you see.
Column of victory
A church. I don't remember the name though.



I like this clock tower!


Check? PROPOSAL SUCCESSFUL! Like I am some superstar with my fans behind.. wahahaha..
At around 5, we headed back hoping to get proper sleep!
Yeah, so I dozed off from 5-7!
Took another short walk at 7 because I want to catch the city going to sleep...
But the sky is still quite bright!
Anyway, the Venetians sleep early.
The city becomes dead by 8?
Yeah except for the bars and nightclubs of course.

Oops, highlight of the trip.
Yet another hunk I met.
We were bunking with these 3 other Americans in the hostel.
Yvonne couldn't find her mobile phone and my mobile phone is unable to call out because I don't have enough credits.
So I tried to borrow the cell phone of this hunk.
He thought I was asking him for his number and he took out the left-over portion of his SIM Card
I was so stunned and I immediately LOL and started explaining things..
At this juncture, a female friend of his inside the room stared really hard at me with the "What are you trying to do?" face.
As if I was flirting with his boy.
Oh come on, I need to BORROW the CELLPHONE not get his NUMBER!!
Anyway, his phone was flat so I turned to this other ABC for help.
God! He's damn stingy!
He was like,"Oh each time I dial a number, it eats away 1.50 EUR of my credits."
Come on, we can pay you back.
Don't be such a miser.
Anyway, after tossing and turning the bed countless times, we found the phone.
I didn't have much chances to talk to him.
All I know is he's from New Jersey and that he's on exchange in BARCELONA!!

Too bad he's heading back to NJ in 2 days' time otherwise I could have seek accommodation from him!!
Anyway, that's about it on my Venice trip.
We just walked around most of the time taking pictures! :)

The University area..






A different kind of mcdonalds burger. It's called Mctoast. Very nice!
This boy is so cute. I wanted to ask him to move a bit so that I could take a picture and he thought I wanted to take a picture. So he just walked nearer to me and I couldn't care less. I took with him. His parents looked at me in DISBELIEF! hahaa.. Omma, he's XMM in disguise. Watch his Cap?

2008_The year to remember!
As the city prepares to go to sleep....

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