Both the train ride to Venice and the train ride back to Brig sucked. Not because they were uncomfortable or because they were long, because neither was the case, but because BOTH times I was sitting by a PDA infested couple. FOR 5 HOURS. Just what I need to remind me that I'm newly single. Great.
When we got to Venice we went on a hunt for our hostel. Which took us a good 20 minutes because the directions were terrible. When we got there we rang the doorbell and no one answered. We banged on the door, still nothing. We went to a different hotel to see if they could call, no answer. We spent about 20 more minutes trying to figure out how to get into our hostel, until we decided to just forget about that hostel and find somewhere else to stay. Which luckily we did after two other hotels were booked. We found one with a room with two twin beds and no bathroom. Oh well, at least we had a place to stay!
After the hostel debacle we decide to head out and explore Venice! The weather was perfect by the way, and the scent of the salty water made us feel like we were back in Seattle. Our first stop was gelato! I got pistachio and cherry, yum! Then we continued our walk across a large bridge where a lot of peddlers stand and try to sell sunglasses, purses, and toys. There were many a times that we would pass them during our trip and they would say "Hey, wanna be my homie?" Haha, really? No thanks. But I did end up buying a pair of fake Ray-Ban sunglasses for 8 Euros! Maddie is really good at bargaining and brought them down from 25 Euros. I was impressed. We also bought some scarves and then ended up taking a gondola ride! Which was totally worth it.
After the gondola ride we did a little bit more exploring around the city before deciding that it was time for dinner. We stopped a little restaurant and order so delicious Italian food. I had gnocchi pomodora, baked chicken, and a salad. Maddie had spaghetti pomodora and a caprese salad. Mmmm, just what we needed! We also found out that it was the start of Carnevale (a celebration similar to Mardi Gras), so lots of people were walking around dressed up in costumes and masks, and a lot of tourists joined in the fun and bought masks too! So naturally Maddie and I decided we should get masks as well! Here are some of the many, many costumes we saw:
After dinner, Maddie and I did some more exploring and shopping, and grabbed ourselves a drink. We got hot sangria from a little outside bar, it was delicious and perfect for being outside on a chilly evening. We then went back to our hostel to grab our masks and trying to find a bar, club, or pub to go to. On our adventure, we found this group of people that looked about our age, and they were speaking English. So we went up to them and Maddie said, "English?!" And they were all really happy to meet us and talk with us, so for the rest of the night we were hanging out with them and getting lost in Venice together.
We were attempting to find a club that one of the guys was told he should go to, but we never made it there. We took them to the place where we got hot sangria so they could get drinks, and two of them bought masks from a little stand because we asked them why they didn't have any. The majority of the group was guys, actually they were all guys except for one girl. They are all US Air Force and just got stationed an hour outside of Venice.
At one point an older man selling roses tried to get a couple of the guys to buy me some roses. The man handed me the roses and looked at the guys to try to get them to pay him. I was holding the roses awkwardly, like "What am I supposed to do with these?" He kept looking at the guys like, "Please buy these for the pretty girl." Then one of the guys, Gio, said to the man, "It's our honeymoom man. This is my new wife. I just bought her a $6,000 ring that she's not even wearing, I can't afford roses." Hahahahaha that was just too funny to me. I looked at Maddie and she mouthed "Too soon." I shook my head and said "Yes, way too soon." Long story short, I gave the man back the roses, and apparently was a "wifey" for the night.
One of the guys Dylan decided Maddie was going to be his "wifey" for the night too, and Blaise sort of ended up the fifth wheel and kept saying over and over and over, "I want a wifey!" Quote of the night for sure. All in all it was a really great time. We had a lot of laughs and met a ton of interesting people. Maddie and I turned in around 1am because we had a whole day ahead of us and we were exhausted. The guys we met couldn't leave until 7am so they ended up staying out the rest of the night! Crazy.
After an eventful night and a long sleep, Maddie and I woke up and got ready for another day of Venice! We checked out of our hostel around 10:30am, and luckily were able to leave our bags in the lobby while we explored the city more. We started the day with Nutella crepes for breakfast. I could do that everyday. So delicious. Then we started our journey to find St. Mark's Square. That was such a fun adventure because you could tell a lot of people were heading in the same direction, and we had to go through all of these tiny streets and past lots of fun shops. And there were signs on buildings pointing you in the direction you were supposed to be going.
The trip was definitely a success. Maddie and I both has such a fantastic time! Many memories were made and new friendships were formed. I'm very happy that we got to travel here. It was a much needed escape after a week from hell for me.
As always, many more pictures are on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=328379&id=672975663&l=3cab66af5d
-Love-
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