It’s been quite a weekend and I’m very excited to get to this blog. I’ll be writing a blog for each day I was gone, but this post (for Friday) will cover Thursday night, as it was much more eventfully than originally planned. Some parts will be less detailed than other because I’m very far behind on this writing and it's just too time consuming.
My Thursday’s post ended with us going to the vineyard. Let me tell you: if I ever move to Italy, I am living in the vicinity of that vineyard. The view was gorgeous. It was in the middle of luscious greenery, surrounded by mountains. One of the houses on the property looked like the Burrow from Harry Potter.
Please note: many aspects of this weekend will somehow be related to Harry Potter. It is completely by accident. I didn’t know how realistic the series was until now.
Back to the story: little did we know, this trip to the vineyard included a dinner, which made our entire group (of eight) frantic because time was short and we had a catch our night train to Venice.
We made it to our station with little time to lose, but at least we made it. The platform (unfortunately not 9 ¾) was filled with creepers. There’s really no better way to put it. We eventually filed into the train and sat in our Hogwarts Express cabins. These cabins were anything but magical. We were split into six and two, with me being in the group of six (if you want to hear more creeper stories about the other cabin, you’ll have to talk to someone else).
We finally got settled in, pulled the curtains and tried to get some rest on our seven-hour ride to Venice. Fail. We tried about 50 different seating arrangements before giving up. Laura was the only person who got an almost decent night’s sleep, with the rest of us napping for maybe a total of two hours. The most comfortable position I could find was using my neighbor’s knees for a pillow, if that’s any indication of how comfy we were.
Some passengers didn’t have assigned seat for this train, so they stood out in the hallway--for the entire train ride. There were some pull-down seats on the wall to sit on, so the creepers happily popped a squat right outside of our cabin and proceeded to look forward, right into our cabin. We happily closed the curtains, hoping to never see these people again.
Our cabin awoke to this woman ripping the door to our cabin open, staring at us, and then yelling at us in Italian at 4 in the morning. I wish I could be more detailed in this awakening, but my glasses were off and I was busy fearing for my life. Why she was yelling was beyond me. All I know is that I wish to never be wakened in that manner ever again. Although a midnight train going anywhere might have been the best option for members of Journey, it was not the best option for us.
Our train pulled into the station at 5:30 a.m., so we just ventured around Venice for a few hours until anything opened up. The main streets are all waterways, so it was a nice break from Rome by not worrying about getting run over by a Vespa. It was neat to see how the markets set up in the morning, and we also were able to see Piazza San Marco without it flooded by tourists. It was just amazing. Kristie had been to Venice before, so she served as the tour guide, telling us interesting tidbits and getting us to our locations. We saw the Doges Palace, which had room after room of glorious paintings and war paraphernalia, and then just walked the streets taking picture after picture of buildings.
As usual, Jane and I got lost, and then found. I have decided that getting lost is the greatest thing that could happen to someone in Italy. If you never venture past the touristy locations, you never see what life is really like in the city. You also stumble past some pretty cool piazzas along the way.
We eventually needed to make our way to the hotel, which was located in a suburb (if Venice has suburbs) called Malcontenta. Let’s just say the name of the city was appropriate for it. Since Venice doesn’t have too many streets with cars, we had to find the one and only piazza with busses. We hopped in the correct bus number and rode for a while until we asked a passenger if our stop was soon. He told us to get off a.s.a.p., so we did. The bus we were one has 2 routes—one through Malcontenta and one past it. Naturally, we were on the wrong bus. We played tourists for a half hour, bumming it on the side of the road until our real bus drove past.
We finally made it to our hotel, which was super quaint (in a good way). It was off the main road, but very close to the bus stop. After walking for 12 straight hours (carrying our lives on our backs and receiving very little sleep from the night before) we crashed for an hour before heading back into Venice. We grabbed a bite to eat and walked next to the channels. It was just so calming and peaceful and perfect. After a very hectic day, it was just what we needed.
The night was not young before we hopped back on the bus and turned in for the night.
Sidenote: Jane stashed some M&Ms in her purse for a late night snacking. I have never tasted a more delicious sugar coated candy. Best M&Ms I’ve ever had, bar none.
We all fell asleep within a matter of minutes after going to bed, knowing that our backpacking weekend was far from being over.
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