Venice

finally we left Naples and thank god for that, at one stage i didn't think i was going to make it out alive, and we caught an overnight train to Venice. we arrived about 8:30am, having only had a few winks of sleep. we couldn't check into our hostel until 2:00pm so we just dropped our bags off and wandered the city. we were both really tired which i think ended up being a good thing because i was beyond sleep so i walked all day.

I think compared to Naples anything could've been beautiful but Venice actually was very pretty, probably the prettiest place i've visited so far. the canals look quite clean, well, cleaner than i thought they would be, i still wouldn't go for a swim in them, they sometimes left off a bit of a smell. speaking of the water i was surprised to see how high the water rises. some mornings it would be right up to the brim, sometimes even flooding the streets. but then in the afternoon it would drop down quite a bit with the tide. Piazza San Marco was a good example of this, a fair amount of it was flooded when i was there, and they had planks of wood to get from one side to the other. which has to make you think, what is Venice going to do about global warming?

speaking of Piazza San Marco, St Mark's Basilica is there, which is quite nice i suppose. at this point i'm really over seeing churches, but this one was interesting, it looked like it had mosaics on the ceiling. it would've taken so long to create so i appreciated the blood, sweat and tears that would've gone into making it. a famous part of the square is St Marks Campanile which is more or less a big tower that was originally built in 1500s. over the years its been burnt, damaged by earthquakes and it eventually collapsed in 1902 when it developed a huge crack, amazingly no one was killed, the only loss was the caretakers cat, but it was rebuilt and the replica still stands today.

the streets of Venice are fantastic, really small and windy, there's no point in having a map, you might as well throw it to the wind, so many times there we would walk and somehow make our way back to the hostel and never know how we did it, i swear there was a portal down one of the streets that sends you in the right direction.
obviously with all the canals there are quite a number of bridges around, the Rialto Bridge is meant to be one of the better ones, but to me it was just a bridge. seeing the gondolas go down the canals is quite special, something i liked most with having no cars there meant no horns, i think if i heard another beep i was going to go mad! italians love the horn! i didn't go on a gondola ride because they were too expensive, but i caught a ferry which was still expensive, but a lot cheaper. it was actually a really good way to see Venice some of the buildings are really beautiful, its kind of amazing that they are still standing. someone said to me going to Venice is a little bit like going back in time, and to an extent they were right.

something that Venice is known for is its Venician Glass some of it is really quite beautiful, great colours and some of the things that create out of it is nothing short of amazing. the Guidecca island is supposidly where all the factories are but i didnt bother going over there because i wasnt that into it. something else ive noticed here in Venice is there masks, they are sold everywhere and just like the glass, quite amazing, some of them quite elabrate and others plain freaky. they are mainly used for the Carnival of Venice supposidly the Maskmakers have a special position in society and have with their own laws. crazy! but the thing that puzzles me the most is Venician blinds, i didnt see one set the whole time i was here.

i checked out Peggy Guggenheim's house. Peggy Guggenheim was an american art collector who mainly lived in Paris but had a house here. she was a huge supporter of modern abstract art and some of the work in her personal collection rivals that of some countries. with Man Rays, Pollocks (i think she may have had an affair with Jackson Pollock but dont quote me on that), heaps of Picassos, Max Ernst (whom she was married to for a while) and Kandinsky just to name a couple. something that annoyed me was there was a piece of work by Yoko Ono, and i say piece very loosly, all she did was plant and olive tree. i swear Yoko Ono is such a joke i cant believe she hasnt been found out yet, i bet she didnt even water the plant to make it grow! not to mention she broke up the Beatles, need i say more?

our hostel was not bad and reasonably priced for Venice, it was in a cute little square, but it didn't have a kitchen which made it a little bit hard because generally thats how ive been saving money. actually it was really hard to find a hostel in Venice that had a kitchen. anyway, we met a nice guy from Brazil who was staying in our dorm. i kind of felt a bit sorry for him, because he had just moved over here on exchange to study, but by the sounds of it, he hadn't done much research. he didn't know anyone, he didn't have a phone, no where to live, the University here didn't offer his course, he didn't speak much of the language and when i spoke to him about money exchange rates he told me 1EURO is something like 4 Brazilian dollars (i didnt catch the currency they use over there). poor guy, he was really nice and understandably a bit scared i think too. so we invited him to have pizza with us one night, i hope it works out for him.

something i enjoyed while i was here was every morning i would go to the cute little coffee shop just underneath the hostel and get a coffee, i really liked going there the owners were really friendly, the price was pretty good and there coffees were easily the best i've ever had. anyway, i used to just sit there and people watch but my favourite thing to do was watch these two little birds that would come in everyday and sneak in the door to get the crumbs off the floor. everyday they would try and figure out ways of getting the crumbs without getting caught by the owner, who would chase them out. sometimes they would get away with being in there for ages. hiding behind chairs then sticking there little heads out to see if the guy had gone. i always wanted them to stay inside, so i would never tell the owner or i would cover for them by ordering another coffee.
one morning while i was there, there was an old italian man sitting having a drink, he had some photos he had taken and would show everyone and anyone that walked passed. come to think of it he might had had a bit of dementia. he showed me and i must of taken my beanie off and he began to show me how to style my hair, i laughed and tried to do it the way he showed me but he saw saying i had it all wrong, he gestured as if to say may i show you, i figured why not he's pretty harmless so i ran with it. he brushed my fringe forward and gave me a Elvis looking style with a curl at the front. he was so pleased with himself he was pointing it out to everyone. i thought it was hilarious and laughed my headed off.

i stayed in Venice for about 3 days which was probably a day too long, Venice is really nice but really quite boring to be honest, you can pretty much do all the sights in a day, and oh my god this place is expensive, everything costs an arm and a leg! for instance we had a pretty basic lunch one day and it cost me 10EURO! and the food wasn't even that good, actually you have to watch out because there are a lot of places that microwave pasta meals and serve them, how dodgy is that! and the price of internet was outrageous, thats why the blogs so late, sorry about that.

i have to say, overall i've been pretty disappointed with Italy. i thought, before getting here, it would be the gem of the trip, but it hasn't worked out that way at all. but i'm glad i went, at least now i know. Venice wasn't just the end of my time in Italy it was also the end of my time traveling with Ash. she had to fly back to Dublin to continue working at her job. i really enjoyed telling here fake history and would wait and see if she would figure out if i was lying. she figured out pretty early on that half the stuff that was coming out of my mouth was rubbish and i was doing it for a laugh because i was bored. it was nice to travel with someone for a bit, even though at times it was difficult, but i'm looking forward to traveling on my own again too. now i'm off to Ljubljana.