European Getaway - Day 11 - Rome to Venice

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Day 11 - Rome to Venice

I wake up and pack my bags again, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to pack my bag. At breakfast we are treated to sausage...amazing.

Today we have a different coach driver as due to EU working time directives, Phil has to have a rest, therefore he has gone ahead to Venice and we have a new driver, Paulie, for today’s trip. We stop for the customary picnic lunch which looks like leftovers from yesterday’s dinner. Today’s mini stop is in the town of Verona, famous for being the setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. As romance is in the air Jess decides for fun that we will write mystery love letters for a random person on the trip. This is quite fun. I draw Brunette Mel, who I hanged around with in Rome. The rules were that you had to mention love 3 times and compare the person to someone famous. My letter to Mel is very poor and I wish I’d used to word’s to Annie’s song by John Denver (one of my favourite songs....known to Sheffielders as the tune to Greasy Chip Butty) and adjusted them to be about Mel. Mel seemed pretty pleased though, maybe it's just me trying to be a perfectionist.

As the letters are read out some are really lovely, some are a bit saucy and one was fairly rude. The letter about me was lovely, and mentioned how I make girls laugh, would look sexy in a man scarf, how good my dance moves are and compared my hot British accent to Jude Law....I’m pretty chuffed, I hope a girl wrote it.

I find out that my letter was written by Lauren (with Justin.....there are two Lauren’s on our trip, both came with boyfriends, Justin and Simon, therefore quite often the easiest way to distinguish between them was to refer to their boyfriend) who is one of my accountant colleagues on the bus. The best letter was the one written about Brendan, which basically uncovered his relationship with Mel, and certainly embarrassed him and certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons.

We reach Verona and head to Juliet’s balcony and the statue of Juliet. As is customary you have to rub Juliet’s breast to wish yourself luck, which I do. We then do a bit of shopping and I get some cash out of the ATM.

We then jump on the bus for the rest of the trip to Venice. We arrive at a campsite which is part of the same group of sites as the places we have stopped in Rome and Florence. We are warned that due to all the water in Venice, the temperature and the tropical surroundings, the place is heaving with Mosquito’s. I’m slightly concerned as I come from a country that doesn’t have them.

The huts are similar to the other places we have stopped and I’m rooming with Trent again. We head to the cook tent for dinner, which I cannot recall but assume was delicious. Tonight we have a toga party, therefore we are all supplied with a bed sheet to create our togas. Now I’m not too keen on the idea of a toga party, and don’t really want to get semi-naked given the number of mosquitos around. Therefore I opt to put a toga over jeans and my England shirt. It looks pretty lame, but I’m participating and that’s all that matters. I don't think Englishmen and toga's were ever designed to go together, possibly due to the inclement weather.

We arrive at the party and all the girls look amazing in their togas, especially one special lady (she who must not be named....not because she’s like Voldemort, but because I don’t want to embarrass her). I have a few drinks but the beer is probably the most expensive on the tour so far.

The music is fairly good tonight and I have a good dance, it’s nice to see that most people have made the effort to come out tonight. My favourite moments of the night are when they played ‘Take on Me’by A-Ha, which I think only me and Gerard (or Kiwi as I refer to him, and he calls me Pom) know, so we sing all the words. My other highlight is when they play ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana and everyone jumping up and down to it, especially my Accountant friend Justin, we certainly are disproving the stereotypical boring accountant.

Later in the night I am told that Trent has passed out on the campsite and some people need to borrow my key to take him home. Apparently he was downing cocktails really quickly which caused him to pass out, he’s had a couple of the €12 drinks which contain like 4 shots. When I get back to my room he has clearly thrown up a few times as I can smell it.

I also find out that a few of our girls have had stuff stolen from their handbags, this is the first incidence of this on our trip and although only relatively small amounts of cash and the camp cards have been stolen, it puts a bit of a downer on the night.

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