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Published: August 9th 2006
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Gondola Ride
notice the grumpy gondolier. Hmm, so about last night... I might have a little too much fun. I woke up this morning around 4:00 am feeling like crap. I forgot to mention that last night, we decorated the room with crepe paper for Charlotte birthday. I really had to use the restroom, but I couldn't get out of bed, because the crepe paper would have been torn. By 4:30, I just went for it.
We woke up around 6:00 am, and hopefully Char liked the decorations. It was kinda hard to tell. We started getting ready for breakfast at 7:00. Breakfast lasted a little longer than usual, because Brek probably had a later night than the rest of the lot.
Anyways, today we ar going to drive over to Italy! Our first stop of the day was at the rest stop. I bought a chicken sandwich for €5. After we stopped, we finally did the name intros for everyone on the bus (a little late there, Brek). I think by now, I have everybody down.
I was feeling pretty sick most of the day, so I don’t remember too much of what was going on. We finally made it into Venice around
San Marco birds
watch your head. 1:00, and Brek walked us to a ferry that takes us into Venice. I had heard a lot of nasty things about Venice before I got there, so I kinda had low expectations. Venice was nice… not as dirty as I thought it would be, but it didn’t seem so special either. It is completely infested with tourists, though.
Brek walked us to the center, and we watched a glassblower do his thing. Then we had an Italian guy show us all this fancy class crystal stuff, and the guy just plain gave me a glass dolphin for free! I guess it pays to be from Miami.
Next order of business was to find an ATM, since I had about €10 on me at the time. I took out €250, and hopefully, that will be enough to last me a while. After we grabbed some cash, we ran into Kenny and grabbed a 3 course lunch with him. I had a spaghetti allegro (?) ¼ chicken and French fries, and a gelato for about €20. It was pretty good; moreover it was nicely relaxing while outside on the café. While I was sitting on the café patio, the
whole “I’m in Venice” idea just hit me like a brick. I can’t believe I am actually here. So amazing.
Then we went to the San Marco Cathedral. It was pretty much entirely covered in gold. It was impressive, but they moved us through there pretty quickly. There were also some places where you had to pay to see, so we avoided those parts of the cathedral. After that, we just kind of explored a little bit, but not too far from the plaza. Didn’t see too much, besides the narrow streets and shops.
We met Brek ar 4:45 for the Gondola ride. The ride was nice, scenic, but somewhat…deflated? We didn’t have a group really, so we joined the three Japanese girls. Somehow, we ended up with the grumpiest of gondoliers. He pretty much just smoked his cigarettes and rowed us along. Eva even asked him, in Italian, if he could sing for Charlotte on her birthday, and he still refused. What an ass.
After that was over, we walked back to San Marco square where Eva went up the tower, and Charlotte and I hung around the plaza. We got a gelatos, (mine was with
the Straciacello (sp?), Chocolate, and Hazelnut), and a water bottle, totaling around €10. So delicious.
I also bought my mom some venetian lace (€15). You know, its not as fancy as I thought it would be. I think my mamita can do better.
Aftwards, the 3 of us went looking for the Realto bridge. I think we might have been trying to get lost on purpose. Supposedly, that’s the thing to do in Venice. We eventually did find it without too much effort. So much for that.
Meanwhile, I still have not been feeling any better. My vertigo started to kick in, and I was feeling dizzy and nauseated. We met Brek again to take us to the ferry, drove down to the hotel, which is pretty nice, and then I very quickly passed out. I felt really bad, since it was Char’s b-day, and everyone was going to meet at the bar, and I missed it. Booo.
Total for the day: €53.00
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