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Published: November 13th 2005
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so, i spent most of friday and half of saturday in venice, and i enjoyed myself quite thoroughly.
this trip was optional, meaning the school was associated with it, and dr. quinn and emilio went (emilio gave the tour, though), but keri laura and i decided to pass on the whole walking around looking at churches and madonnas with child thing, b/c we've seen a lot of that already. and emilio is always stressed out and in a hurry, and it rubs off on us. i think emilio was a little bit disappointed in us, but it was an OPTIONAL trip, we just happened to go at the same time, and i know we had more fun doing our own thing.
our own thing being shopping. so yeah i definitely spent a lot more than i expected to, but i do not regret it! venice is FILLED with breakable stuff, meaning glass jewelry, beads, figurines, masks, dolls, all sorts of really pretty, fragile stuff. i would hate to take a small child to venice. but it was fun to be there as an adult (of sorts).
so this is what went down friday. i woke up at 530
and went to termini in a taxi with a few of my roommates b/c we weren't sure if the buses would be running at 6 in the morning. at 655 we left on the train, and around noon we got to venice. there was a lot of totally unnecessary confusion during the process of checkign into our rooms, b/c emilio is pretty much fueled by unnecessary confusion, but we got a room, put our stuff down, and then announced to emilio that we would not be accompanying the group. instead, we asked the really nice, really great-at-speaking-english receptionist at our hotel if should could tell us how to get to san marco's square (one of the most important sites in venice). she gave us some maps, marked directions, and then even suggested we walk there and then take a boat down the grand canal back, which turned out to be an excellent idea.
after this we ate lunch on the steps of some church. there were a lot of pigeons around, and wow, were they ever forward. as soon as they realized we had food about 40 of them swooped down on us and huddled around our feet. one
particularly obnoxious pigeon kept flying up by my face to try and steal bites of my tuna fish sandwhich. i was very angry at that pigeon. after lunch we headed off in the direction of san marco's square. it would have taken us about 30 minutes to walk there if we were just walking there, but we kept getting sidetracked by all the beautiful things in all the shop windows. seriously, there are shops upon shops upon shops, and they all sell practically the same thing, but we were still always mesmerized. so, the thirty minute walk ended up talking about 3 hours. i got some good presents for the few family members who i still needed to buy for. robert, you realy missed out by not giving me money for me to send you something from italy. rome pretty much sucks for souveneirs, but venice is a treasury.
we got to san marco's square eventually, and we hung out with the pigeons. there were hundreds, and they were even friendly than the ones that hung out with us at lunch. i had a loaf of bread in my purse, and laura and i went to town feeding them.
i had somewhere between 5-10 on me at one point in time. i really hope i dont have the bird flu now. then we walked past the square, and saw the sun setting on that one building that i dont' know the name of (b/c i didn't hang out with emilio) but its always on postcards and posters of venice. it was nice. it was pretty cold by this point in time (rome is so much warmer), and laura didn't have her coat with her so we decided to take the boat back to our hotel. while waiting for the boat (which is like a bus in venice, b/c they don't have cars or scooters, just boats, even for ambulances and the police) keri said "wouldn't it be funny if we met up with everybody else right now?". and sure enough we did.
after a very cold, but very beautiful ride back to the hotel, we went out for a cheap dinner. i paid three euros for a decent sized pizza that turned out to be pretty good, but i got ripped off and had to pay 2.50 for a 20 oz. bottle of sprite. bleh. but i made
out better than keri and laura, who got some really crappy wraps and just didn't drink anything. by this time it was 7 at night, very dark and cold, and there was nothing to do. since i had been awake since forever, i was all ready to go back to the hotel and go to sleep, but that idea got vetoed. so we walked around, in the dark, cold night, and looked at masks.
next morning we got complimentary breakfast at the bar next to the hotel, which meant hot chocolate and a creme filled crossant for me. yum yum. oh, i've been meaning to talk about the hot chocolate here. its really thick and really hot and really chocolately and oh boy do i ever love it! i've also switched from gelato to pastries (well, sort of. i still get gelato, just not as often as i use to), and i've been absolutely amazed by these cookies things from my favorite pasticceria. i'll put up a picture of one.
yeah so thats about it. a few days here and then i'm heading out to vienna. i'm a little worried about vienna, b/c the trip back is going
to be very arduous (i'll be by myself, i have to make some transfers, i'll have to get to the train station by myself at 6 in the morning...), so let's hope all that ends up going well.
oh and devon, i read your xanga. don't worry, you'll have to come to my apartment all the tiem once i get back!
kelly--thanks for chase's email. i wrote him. he has yet to respond.
lj, cole, and michelle---man i am sooooo pumped to see you guys. everyone else who does not show up is definitely losing points with me (ha, JK!)
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JD
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sarah, looks like your having a blast. I love the picture of you and the birds. Try to stay clean and away from the birds. JD