Ah, Venice.

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Dammit, I just wrote a whole bunch and accidentally pressed a wrong button and it all disappeared, so I will instead recap:
Was raining like crazy in Rome, got up early to miss crowds, forgot it was Sunday at the Vatican, so crowds still present. Saw the square, lots of statues, very cool. Went into Saint Peter's, most amazingly amazing place ever. Bought umbrella, got soaked anyhow from ensuing argument with Sarah. Went to Vatican Museum. Saw sarcophogi and other such things. Sistine Chapel gorgeous, very calming, except for obnoxious security guard standing underneath the big bold SILENCE PLEASE sign screaming "NO CAMERAS!!!!!!!! *clap clap clap* HEY!!! NO CAMERAS!!!!". Rained too much, dress got wet and almost fell down, went back to cabin.
That's about how far I got. If you need more detail, go see Sarah's journal.
Okay, so now I feel like I'm back on track. After beautiful Rome we took a train to Napoli, the home of the Mafia. I must say, Napoli is the craziest city I have been to. The people are insane, I swear I saw about 867 potential car crashes involving crazed Vespa drivers and the ambience of the city was so busy that I felt like I couldn't relax. It was fun though, in a crazy sort of way. After finding our hostel which was on the top of a hill (*gasping for air*), we went to a section of the city which is an older neighbourhood called Spaccanapoli where there are lots of shops and other things, it was very neat. We then went back to our hostel and had a fretful sleep. See, the hostel was on a hill directly behind the train station, so every hour or so you would hear the Metro making this sound which was basically the sound of nails on a chalkboard but as loud as a jet engine. That was a bit rough. However, earplugs are my new best friend.
The next morning we went downstairs for our free breakfast and saw.... well... the strangest.. um.. guy I guess it was that I ever saw. I had to look like 8 times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. I will explain in more detail when I get home, but basically he had boobs and a beard. So breakfast was unique. We took the train to Pompei and spent the whole day wandering around and taking myriads of photographs. It was an amazing place, a complete city which was preserved. There was still even paintings on the walls that are 2000 years old and you could walk into all their houses and there was an old stadium, a gymnasium, baths, fountains, and even a brothel, which was humerous as there were a bunch of rooms with beds in them and on the walls outside there were, erm... well basically pornographic pictures which were put there for inspiration. We had a blast, but were so tired when we got back we passed right out (after supper, of course).
We had to get up very early to catch an insanely long train, 8 hours from Napoli to Venezia. We figured out how to get the seats to fold out into beds, so we napped for a bit, and chatted, and starved to death, oh and an Italian guy hit on me and wouldn't go away until he realised I was "married" (hooray for the cheap imitation wedding ring from Claire's!). We finally got into Venice last night and relaxed in our cabin after finally eating some tortellini... On a side note, I could eat Italian pasta until I died, it is so good. After that, Sarah spotted that there was kareoke going on later, so we endeavoured to go watch it. What a gong show that was. There is this thing called the Contiki Tour which is basically when a bunch of 20-somethings all get on a bus together and try to get as hammered as humanly possible. Anyhow, that made for a good time. 5 drunk Aussies singing (AND dancing) to YMCA is not an image that will escape my memory that fast, I don't think. We sat with some fellow Canadians and a couple of Swiss guys and had a drink, then off to bed.
However, bed did not mean sleep last night. The cabins are separated into two seperate rooms with their own doors, so me and Sarah were in one room and some guy was in the other room. Anyhow, we basically had an X-rated night, as the guy brought some drunk girl home with him and proceeded to, er..., make the trailer rock. Moaning and rocking. All night. Earplugs and pillows over the head were no relief either, as you could still feel the trailer going back and forth. I was very pissed off by 5:00 in the morning, and if they do it again tonight, I will be forced to hose them down. Or hit them with a bat. Anything for a proper sleep. Grrr... bloody savages.
Anyhow, this morning I was forced to sleep in, we had lunch and took a boat to Venice, which is such a great place. I love it here. We just wandered around the shops and perused for the day. Tomorrow we will tackle Saint Mark's, hopefully with more sleep than today.
Cheers and Ciao from Venezia!
Jackie
 

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Comments

[Claire]

wow!
Hey girls, I'm so jealous! I've been daydreaming about backpacking through Europe for a while now. I found www.travelblog.org and came across ya'll's site. I've read your posts from the beginning. What sort of backpacks are ya'll using? What guidebooks. Keep having a blast! ~Claire