Day 25: Arrival Venice

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After docking in Trieste, we drive to Verona, home to Juliet's balcony. LAter we make our way to our accomodation for the evening.

Ate so much for breakfast on the ferry this morning - corn flakes, peaches, a croissant with cherry jam, a bolied egg, tea cake, ornage juice and tea - it's no wonder I'm putting on so much weight. Arrived at the port at about 9.30, which is 8.30 Italian time.
Drove to Lake Garder (Lago di Garda) for lunch, which is a possible new Contiki stop. As the ferry now docks in Venice, and we can't check into the campsite until 6pm, they have to find stuff to do in the day as well as going to Verona, so it was our job to check it out. The town was really cool to wander around in, and the castle looked cool from the outside, I wish we had time to go in. Had pizza for lunch and then gelati - pineapple, chocolate and mixed berry.
Drove for half and hour to Verona, the setting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. We saw Juliet's balcony, and the boys groped Juliet's breast for luck in love or something. Spent the afternoon wandering around the shops on the high street, which were very expensive. Sat in the parl for a while killing time until we had to meet, while the boys loaded up on Coronas.
Got to the campsite around 6.30ish. It's pretty wicked - there's phones, an atm, a cyber bus, laundry facilities, supermarket, restaurant, and of course the mighty fusina bar, the best bar on the circuit. The guys can do 'beat the barman', where they have to beat the barman at a torpedo of smirnoff ice, and the girls can 'show for a shot'. This all leads to some pretty dodgy pics, which end up on www.fusinabar.com - yes I'm on there, with Dave and Julia.
Had spaghetti bolganaise, penne pesto, salad and garlic bread for dinner, similar to our optional dinner in Florence.
Headed to the fusina bar at about 10 for atttitude adjusters - a pint glass filled with light rum, dark rum, vodka and gin, topped up with a bacardi breezer. They're pretty lethal, most girls only drink one, and guys three. The record is 13 for a guy and 10 for a girl, but they went straight to hospital afterwards to have their stomaches pumped. They're pretty cheap too for what they are, only 8 euro. I had a grapefruit one, it didn't taste as bad as i though it would, considereing it's pretty much straight spirits, just tasted like lolly water. You could sort of feel the alcohol as you drank it, and after you finished it it really hit you like crazy. Felt random standing around chatting afterwards without holding anything, so decided to have a beer with Emily. The actual bar was really small, so we all sat around talking outside for the most of it, trying not to get eaten alive by the millions of mossies (Venice is built on the water). The bar closed at 1 for some strabge reason, and we thought it's be fun to have a bus party. So Marty, Jess, Nicole, Briohny, Keith, Emily and I sat on the bus in the dark drinking pink champagne, taking turns sitting in the drivers seat. I'm not sure how long we were in there, but I don't think I got to bed until after 4.

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