European Getaway - Day 12 - Venice

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Day 12 - Venice.

There are a few sore heads this morning at breakfast after last night’s party. We catch a shuttle bus from our campsite to the main bus station in Venice. We then walk through the pavements and bridgees for 15-20 mins before we arrive at St Mark’s square. The famous square is fairly impressive, with the large tower on the basilica. We are told that this is the lowest point in Venice and is liable to flood given that the whole city is built on stilts and it is thought that one day the whole city will become submerged.There are also two huge platforms/pillars. We are told that they were used for public executions and that it is bad luck to walk between them, fortunately we didn’t. We head back to the square for our lace presentation. Again we get a brief presentation followed by a longer sales pitch. Some of our group bought a few bits but I imagine it wasn’t as popular as the perfume or leather.

Next up is our gondola ride, which I am looking forward to. We group up into sixes, I jump in with my friends from Rome, Annaliese, Mel, Mel, Brendan and Lucy. The journey is a set route through the small canals then out into the busy grand canal, then back through the small canals back to where we started. Whilst we are travelling our gondolier tries to tell us a bit about the history of Venice, which is good given his English isn’t too good. I take loads of photos, the views from the grand canal were great, especially towards the Rialto Bridge. As we finish our journey we meet up with Gerard, Trent and the guys from Sydney (Paul, Ryan and John). We head to a restaurant which has a buffet style service. I play it safe again and go for a pizza. Everyone orders way too much food, and loads is left, it’s a bit pricey as well.

Afterwards I hang around with Annaliese, Lucy and Brunette Mel. We do a bit of shopping , the girls are interested in the Venetian masks, I buy my sister some ear-rings and get myself a Hard Rock Cafe shirt, to add to my grand collection (I currently only have a Barcelona one back home).

We then decide we’ve had enough and take the option to public transport it back to our campsite, rather than wait a few hours for the shuttle bus. We successfully direct ourselves back to the Piazza Roma, where the bus terminus is. We get on the correct bus to Marco Polo airport, then we need to catch another bus to our camp. However as we approach the correct bus number, we realise it’s the wrong direction and as we step back, the correct bus is just leaving. We have to wait half an hour for the next bus, however it doesn’t arrive. Mel then decides she needs the toilet and wouldn’t you believe it, our bus turns up, and we miss it. We decide to catch a taxi instead which costs €15, and then it was just a 2 minute journey, we were robbed. I am a bit annoyed although there was nothing we could do about it.

When we arrive back Trent is in my room trying to rest after his hard night. A few of our group have made the trip back early. We head down to the pool where the girls try to soak up some sun, and I sit in the shade, reading my Kindle. We have a nice chat with some Aussie girls not on our tour who have just been to Oktoberfest in Munich, it sounds amazing.

We have dinner in the cook tent tonight, which I think was chicken in a slightly spicy sauce, I manage to grab one not to saucy and it’s quite nice. I also think we may have had gnocchi this evening, which is small dumpling sort of things. I try them just so I can tell Karen I tried them (Karen is my department secretary at work, who has challenged me to try new food). After dinner we are given our trip shirts and hoodies, I have a grey hoodie and a green shirt. The design we agreed on was a globe surrounded by ’35 Ausssies, 6 Kiwis, 4 Mexicans, 1 Malaysian, 1 Pom, an Irishman behind the wheel and an emu leading the way’ with the dates of our trip all within a circle made up of all the countries we will have visited on our trip. Pretty much everyone buys one and we all wear them straight away. After dinner I pop to the bar where a few of us have a couple of beers. Everyone is taking it easy after the toga madness the night before. It’s been quite cool to relax a bit this afternoon and evening, after the busy rushing for most of the trip.

Overall I was glad we visited Venice, however would not go there again, don't get me wrong, it's a pretty city, and the gondola's are pretty cool, but personally it didn't have the history or the beauty of many of the other places we have been.

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