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Published: November 5th 2008
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OBAMA WON YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok. Just had to get that out of my system, but I am so happy! I took a little nap last night then headed over to the students' apartment that has a working tv at 4 am to watch the results come in. Everyone was already there and pumped. So even in this far off country, a few U.S. kids managed to do a little victory dance (and lots of yelling) in honor of this momentous occasion.
In other news, I just got back from my fall break which lasted from Oct. 23 to Nov. 2. It was amazing.
Claire (my travel buddy) and I left on Thursday evening at 5. We took an overnight train to Venice which arrived around 8 am the next day. We spent Friday wandering around Venice. I must say, Venice is the first city I have been to that is exactly how I imagined it. There are no cars in the city. You either walk or you take a boat bus or boat taxi. There are canals threaded throughout the entire city with bridges and more bridges and small streets that become so narrow at times that you can't
walk side by side with another person. And the food. We woke up rather hungary, so one of our first stops was for a cappaccino and a real italian tomato and mozzarella panini. mmm...mmm...good.
We continued to roam the city until about 4 when we went back to the train station and caught a train to Padova, a city about 30 minutes outside of Venice. Claire had some family friends there that said we could stay the night with them. It turned out that the family ended up going out of town except for the son, Luigi, but he was kind enough to pick us up and act as host. We rested for a bit, and then later that night borrowed some bicycles to explore and find some more good eats. It was a pretty city with lots of squares and what is apparently one of the oldest universities in the world. We found a good little pizzeria to grab a slice and also tried a spritzer, a local drink that apparently originated there - very tasty as well. We cycled around for a bit more, found a river to hang out by, and then went home.
The
next day we took our time getting up and getting ready. We caught a train back to venice around 1. Upon arriving, we went to a small park to hang out for a bit with our bags and then we were off to catch our ferry. Now this was no ordinary ferry about. It turned out that it had 2 restaurants, a club, a store, a few different lounges, among other nice amenities. I suppose 24 hours on a boat does require some extra entertainment for some people. We left at 5 pm and got into Corfu the next day around 9:30 pm. It wasn't too bad though. We met 3 other American students that are studying in Barcelona that were also on fall break. We played lots of cards.
Upon arriving in Corfu, Tom picked us up. For those who don't know, the whole reason I decided to go to Corfu was because we have two family friends that live there now, Tom and Jessica, who were kind enough to let us stay with them for a few days. We drove to their house and settled in. My oh my. What a beautiful place! the island and their
house! It was paradise. We spent the next few days touring the island, going to the beach, relaxing in their hottub and pool, exploring downtown, and other odds and ends. It was wonderful. The first 2 days were sunny and warm, though it clouded up a bit after that. I was still able to were skirts and short sleeves, so I was happy. On the boat, we had met a local named Fonda. We somehow mentioned his name to Tom, who immediately exclaimed, "I know Fonda!" Apparently a group of guys gets together every Wednesday night to play pool. We tried going with Tom to see if we could surprise him, but he didn't show up. It is definitely a guy's night though. As soon as we walked in, it was as though the music stopped. There were all guys and they just kind of turned and looked at us with confusion in their faces. We played a few games off pool and then let the guys be in peace again. Tom and Jessica were wonderful to us. I definitely hope to return again someday! They really do live in paradise.
We left early on Friday morning (happy halloween).
The other 3 students that we had been with before on the boat took the same boat back as well. It was a nice reunion and sharing of stories. We even tried to come up with some costumes that night, or at least draw on our faces, to get in the halloween spirit. We even found the one little girl on the boat that was dressed up. We immediately went and bought candy and then had her come and do a little trick or treating. The family was british and really cool. We ended up talking to the dad for a long time. A very quiet and unique halloween i would say.
We got back into Venice around 9:30 am. We dropped off our bags at the station and then the 5 of us set off. Very soon, we discovered that is must have rained a lot in Venice while we were gone because some of the streets were actually flooded. The first flooded ones we encountered had risen planks over them so as to avoid the water. We eventually made our way to the most famous square in the city to find it absolutely completely flooded. It was
crazy! As we continued on, we eventually started encountering the streets that were flooded but had no planks. Needless to say, we spent much of the day wandering around Venice barefoot wading through the streets. Eventually our friends said goodbye and we went on a search for the Peggy Guggenheim musuem, as was recommended to us by Jessica. My oh my. That is one place that does NOT want to be found. After much time and effort, we finally made it. I liked it a lot. I hadn't been to an art museum in a very long time and found that it could actually hold my interest quite well. I absolutely fell in love with one of the paintings there, so I may eventually need to search out a print of it.
We spent the rest of the day killing time doing whatever you do to pass the time in Venice. There are definnitely worst things to be put through. Our train finally left at 9:30 pm and we spent the night trying to sleep with border control and ticket collectors bursting in on us every so often because heaven forbid we fall into too deep of a sleep.
Photo 7
the big cruise ships are taller than Venice itself We got back into Budapest at 11 am and thus ended our little adventure. What a great time it was though.
So now here I am. I have no more concrete travel plans in my future as of yet. Two months left. We'll see what happens. I know I am not going anywhere this weekend, but our Hungarian teacher is taking us out dancing on Saturday night. We'll see how that goes...
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