None of us wanted to repeat the running to the train incident, so we alloted plenty of time to get to the train station, grab breakfast, find our platform, and board/find seats. It may have been a little unnecessary since our platform wasn't announced until about 10 minutes before our scheduled 9:30 departure and our seats were assigned, but nonetheless it limited the stress. The train was really nice, which it should be for the 42 euro we paid for a 2 hour ride. We all slept and listened to our ipods and enjoyed the ride. When we pulled into the Venice station, I loved it already. We had to cross this bridge that reminded me of the Tampa Bay Causeway with water surrounding us everywhere. We exited the train station and found ourselves facing the Grand Canal. Beautiful. Now to find our hostel.
The directions they gave us to go where a little vague... things like "walk straight to you get a square, continue straight and to the left, cross a bridge, turn right" etc. When we arrived at 2205, there were no signs indicating that this was indeed the "Venice Fish" but we rang the bell. No answer. Ah repeat of Paris. Ring again, a scrappy looking italian man popped his head out the window. Deja vu. He opened the door, and we stepped in another cellar looking room. Shady. He lead us upstairs and we exchanged the typical "oh geez, what did we get ourselves into" looks. He said our room wasn't ready yet, so we put our luggage in an open room, and got out of there as soon as possible. We promised to return to check in in a little while. We all looked at each other and laughed as we walked outside. The beady eyed italian man with the rat tail was not quite the host we were excited to have. Whatever, move on, enjoy the Venice day. We got pizza and sandwiches and sat by the canal and ate them. Good pizza... more crust than the other pizza I had had. After we finished our lunch, we wandered down the street, stopping to look at the shops and Venetian glass & Carnivale masks.
We crossed the Grand Canal and sought out how to get to the airport the next day. We had a 10 am flight so we wouldn't have much time for figuring things out in the morning. After 3 different stands and shops, and being scared by this nun talking to me in Italian, we finally found the tourist information office who explained what bus to take to get to Venice Treviso Airport the next morning. With that out of the way, we set out for our only other mission: a gondola ride. We were sure to ask the tourist office the standard rate for a gondola ride so we knew what to expect and not to get ripped off. 80 euro per boat. Worked out to be about 26 euro per person for a 40 minute ride, but as soon as we boarded our gondola, none of us regretted it.
Our gondola ride was 40 minutes of pure bliss. I could have stayed in that boat forever, just gently rowing along the canals peacefully. The gondoliers were really nice and the captain said he is a fifth generation gondolier. I told him that it was an awesome job, and he agreed. Just cruising on the canals in the sunshine everyday. If accounting doesn't work out, I'm moving to Venice, buying some stripes and becoming a gondola driver. It was such a serene ride. They picked us flowers.
I asked him if he could sing to us in Italian, but he said he had a terrible voice and wanted us to sing for him. I nominated Claire to sing for him, and she belted out "On My Own" while we paddled through the Venetian Canals. We weaved under the many bridges. There are no cars in Venice, just boats. Boat buses, boat taxis, boat mailmen, boat ambulances, boat police vehicles. My kind of town. The sun was warm, the wind was blowing enough to keep us comfortable, and I didn't want the ride to end. But like all good things, it came to an end.
We bid them farewell, and paid our money, and headed to find a cool snack. Gelato and slushes, perfect. We sat by the canal enjoying them. Then continued to wander and found another place to sit by the canal. Unfortunately, a garbage barge occupied the same space as us for a bit. Smelled like Berlin.
We wandered some more and then decided we should go back to the Venice Fish and check in so that we could continue to wander, find dinner, and enjoy the Venetian evening without worry. In hindsight, we should've probably just stayed away as long as possible. When we got back, we found the little Italian rat taking a nap on the couch in the common room. He didn't get up when we walked in, so we just stood there awkwardly. He finally arose and rambled on about people leaving our room, etc. We were confused but we followed him, picked up our bags, and followed him to our room. He opened a padlocked door (super super shady) and led us into our dusty closet of a room. He brought us our linens (which we had to pay for) and we looked at each other in digust. Stacy's bed had some kind of stain on the mattress, I was missing a pillow or blanket, but we quickly made our bed and left as soon as possible.
Before we left, Stacy asked the question on all of our minds....are you going to pad lock the door while we are in there? He looked us like we were crazy and accusing him of something, and said no. Relief.
Once we made it outside, we did the typical look to one another and just laugh. What else could we do. We continued down the street in search of the famous Rialto Bridge. Without a map we had to rely on signs and my sense of direction. But we eventually found it.
We enjoyed the scenery and then found a little cafe to have some water & coffee at. We decided to walk a little more before dinner. We sat along the canal on the docks enjoying the sun for a bit than headed to San Marco Square. Another beautiful square, another beautiful church.
So many canals, so many gondolas. I think the funniest moment was when we were walking behind a group of teenagers who were shouting to the people in the gondolas (who were asian). At first the girl said "bonjourno" then "bonjour" then "Konichiwa".
We found a little restaurant near the Rialto for dinner. I had pizza, and it was just okay. The dinner was not that good, and the breeze from the canal was kind of chilly. We were in no hurry to get back to our hostel. We wandered as slowly as we could, but Venice seems to shut down early, so we headed back to the Venice Fish. At one point, we considered going back to the hostel, getting our stuff and just sleeping in the airport. It would work if the airport was like O'Hare, but we figured there would be like 5 gates so not really conducive to spending the night. After trying to figure out a possible solution, we gave up, gave in, and returned to the Venice Fish.
We were happy to find our room unpadlocked, but not so happy when we got into our room and it was pitch black. We searched for light switch, none, we looked for a lamp, none, we looked for a ceiling light, none. We looked at each other, NO LIGHTS, what is this place, this padlocked cave we are paying 30 euro to sleep in? Claire was doing her nervous laugh, so she sought out the rat tail hostel worker to be like "ummm where is our light". I sat next to Curry, head in my hands, laughing. Just when you think things can't get anymore ridiculous, in comes the hostel worker, I glance up, only to be faced with a Michaelangelo's David apron.
I had always wondered WHO buys these ridiculous aprons, but now I know. I put my head back down in my hands to silence my laughter. He shows us our "lamp" and plugs it in for us. The lamp: a broomstick with two lightbulbs duct taped onto it. I was not at all tired so I went outside to the main common area full of people who seemed much happier to be staying at the Venice Fish. We sat on the balcony which was pretty nice, I mean the scenery was. We made friends with a Canadian named Matt who had been traveling for 7 months. He was pretty nice, but everyone else seemed a little odd. The hostel worker offered us sangria... and I decided to stick with the "never take candy from strangers" mantra on this one. I decided to give in and try to get to sleep. But we had to pay first. We had kind of hoped to sneak out without paying, since this place was just a joke. I literally slept in my jeans and sweater and used my jacket as a pillow. Claire got me a blanket but it was questionable so I just used it to cover my legs. It was not a good nights sleep all around. The bunk bed had no ladder to the top, and it was a little reeky deeky, and everytime I moved it rattled the pane of glass it was next to. Then in the middle of the night, this incredibly annoying dog wouldn't stop barking. Then people were yelling, music was bumping. I woke up at like 5 am, ready to get out. We made plans to leave the hostel at 6 am, even though we didn't have to be to our bus until 7:30.
None of us had slept well. Claire had woken to the annoying dog. Stacy had woken up to one of the girls in our hostel standing above her trying to shut the door. We were glad to get out. We bid a good riddance to the Venice Fish and sought out some breakfast and a little cafe by the Grand Canal. We had plenty of time to get to our bus, so sat at the cafe for a bit and we strolled along the Canal to the bus terminal.
Treviso Airport was about an hour away by bus, and we got there no problem. Claire had to check her bag due to all the things that she had acquired on the trip, and we made it through check in, security, and passport control without issue. Then just the wait for the boarding, which in these tiny little airports is always so crowded. We got on the plane and headed back to Dublin.
A rocky landing, through passport control, and on to the Aircoach. Traffic was worse than normal so it took us a bit to get home. Back to UCD for our last two weeks.
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