Around The World In 180 Days

Tales of fantasy, fun and woe for Nikki and Nathan as they explore multiple countries in only half a year.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Day 91...Venice. Yeah. - 25th September




Raining when we got up, had our inclusive breakky (aaah they had cereal!). Nate had an Italian espresso (short black, very strong). I did too, but I cheated by adding milk and sugar. We packed up and drove straight to Venica, bypassing Verona.

The rain stopped just before we got there, thank goodness. We had planned to park somewhere in the next town and bus or train it into Venice. However we were following the signs toward Venice and just ended up at the bridge anyway! A TIC was there, and the lady gave us some info: Parking in Venice was 20 euro. Venice was booked out. We would have to play 20 euro for a ferry including car plus 20 euro for carparking plus 120 for accommodation that wasn’t in Venice, but somewhere nearby. Then to get to Venice we would have to pay 10 euro per person for the ferry. Hmmm.

We thanked her and went back to the car and called from the Lonely Planet book instead. The one recommended was booked out, but she referred us to another number and we got a private room with shared bathroom for 55 euro. And it was IN Venice! A steal. So we gazumped the crappy TIC lady and drove to the island of Venice via a long long bridge. We parked at the carpark on the other side (no cars in Venice) and then had to leg it via windy streets and enchanting bridges to get to our hotel which was near Ponte Gugliio, in the northwest part of the city. (I think Cannaregio?) It was a cute little room, with a view of a gutter and it had its own sink. It wasn’t too far to walk from our carpark either thank god. We dropped our bags then went to explore!

Venice is so enchanting. It really is a floating city. Meandering streets along narrow canals, old-school buildings, little boats zooming around. Lots of American tourists and cheap venitian masks as souvenirs as well, but don’t worry about all that my pretties. I thought the water would be kinda brown but it was a pretty blue-green, and you couldn’t see the bottom. To ride one of the famous gondolas (or any gondola for that matter) is 60 euro for an hour. I would have felt like a tool in one anyway. We did the better option: spent 10 euro on a 24 hour ticket for the vaporetto (canal boat taxi) and did the Grand Canal from the top to nearly the bottom. The Grand Canal is the main ‘street’ of Venice and waves like a big reverse ‘s’ for 3.5km through the city. We sat at the back which was opened up and went crazy with the cameras. We saw an incredible parade of buildings, including ones from the 12th-18th centuries. Boats zipped around, gondolas weaved among ancient buildings and bridges. We could peer down the alleys of the other ‘streets’ that looked windy and mysterious. Disembarking near Ponte dell ‘Accademia (ponte means bridge to you) which is one of the only 3 bridges that crosses the Grand Canal, we then headed into the area of Dorsoduro.

Dorsoduro is the least touristy area (no Americans and no cheap Venetian masks – yay) and we wandered for ages among the bridges, little streets and meandered in and out of shops. We also saw a boat for the local grocer, he was piled high with fruit and veges in this tiny canal boat. By pure chance, we happened upon a Venetian mask producer who had done the masks for Stanley Kubricks movie ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. I got all enchanted and wanted to buy one. The one Nate and I selected as our favorite ended up being 250 euro! Ouch! So we decided against that and kept walking. Eventually we came upon upon a square where there were some bars spilling out into it, kids were playing soccer (and weren’t bad either) and locals stood around chatting while tourists gawked. We plonked ourselves at an outside table and had olives and the local drink – some king of orange spritzer and tastes like poo. As it got dark, we drank and relaxed then went next door to an Italian restaurant. Pizza (Nate) and pasta (me). Did I tell you Nathans having either pizza or pasta the whole time in Italy? Well, its his challenge anyway. Got into a nice conversation with a young English couple who were traveling through Italy. We shared some travel stories as they worked for an airline. I was bagging LA out, when some Americans next to us overheard and struck up a friendly convo as well, so all three tables got chatting. The English couple ended up being completely English and headed off for bed, likewise the Americans as they were old. Haha.

So we left them and started having drinks in the various bars in the square, as the drinks were pretty cheap. It was filled with young people too – but as is our problem throughout Europ – you can’t strike up convos as you overhear someone speaking French or Italian or gobbledygook. We were just about to call it a night because of that, when I overheard a girl singing “give me a home among the gum trees”. Good Lord! In Venice no less. I hit her up, and it turned out she was a Canadian who had been working in Oz for 6 months. (And the Gold Coast of all places! Right aobut the time when the bikies cut sick in Royal Pines). We ended up hanging out with her (Stacey), her sister Robin and another Aussie pair who had met the Canadians on the train – Kate and Louise. Then somehow we ended up meeting a whole bunch of guys who were there for a nanophysics lecture in the morning (we corrupted them haha). Some were called Samuel and Tobin who I hung a bit with (and did the most stupid drunk thing – ‘nanophysics – that’s to do with blood right?’ Man I smacked my head the next day! Being drunk fries your brain!) But we got along famously and had a good time.

Sometime later in the night we ended up merging with a visiting cruise ship – Texas Pete and a guy called Free among them. It ended up being one of those nights. Lots of young people drinking, laughing and making a right mess of themselves. You get the picture. It resulted in a huge drunken group staggering around the back streets of Venice trying to find some nightclub. I think it was a myth. No success. We’d been wandering for ages and all the guys had peed in the canal and I was really hurting! We were in the local section of Venice so there were no bars, shops, anything. Just small canals, streets and rickety houses. Eventually, Nate said “here pee around this corner” and I thought he had gone there before. So I left everyone and ducked around the corner. I didn’t want to pee on concrete so I was peeing rather drunkenly into the canal, and just about finished when I heard “blah blah blah!” in Italian from a megaphone. A spotlight spun around and landed straight on me~ The cops!!! Ach! It turned out I was peeing into the Grand Canal! Peeing on (or in) the main street is not cool, so I hiked up my jeans and fled the scene, with the spotlight in hot pursuit. I lost them in the back streets of Venice and was most displeased with that turn of events!

After a fun night of drinking and socializing and wandering, we eventually called it a night around 4.30-5am. We had no idea how to get home, as we were at the other end of the Grand Canal and the public taxi system was shut down. The crowd dispersed and Nate and I pondered on what to do. We meandered a bit and I got lucky and found a thicket of bushes as I needed to pee again. I was ducked down when I heard a boat motor. I thought “oh shit the cops, just my luck again! What kind of person will they think I am? A beagle or something?” .
‘Is it the cops?’ I shrieked from the bushes at Nate. He said ‘no its just a taxi’ but I thought he meant ‘its our taxi’. So I popped like a rocket out of the bushes and came barreling drunk onto the boat. Nate saw me rushing past and thought I knew what I was doing. By pure luck the public taxi had started up again for the day and it happened to be the one that stopped at our place. So we got home somehow and finished up around 5/6am.

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