Venice
Venice Day 1. I manage to wake up when my alarm goes off, dazed I get off to the shower, go through the morning hygiene ritual, and am at the train station on time, ready for Venice. I've only got the day here, and providing I can reserve a ticket the same day, will be taking an overnight train to Vienna.
The train ride is pretty uneventful, my chair faces another one across from me, and my long legs fall asleep and get cramped as I politely keep to my imaginary foot and leg zone. Suddenly the water appears, and I can see we are now in Venice. After spending about 45minutes in line, I'm able to successfuly secure my overnight ticket to Vienna, so this stop is strictly a one day affair. I drop my bags off at the station, and am greeted by the awesome watery scenery that is Venice.
Its like a movie-set, this place is so surreal. It apparently consits of 117 islands, and does not permit cars (how could it, the streets are purely narrow alleyways and waterways). There are bridges everywhere and its comical to watch fairly young newlyweds with baby strollers in tow, navigate the two hundred or so bridges that are splattered all over this city. The city itself is bigger than I expected, and the views are amazing. Its utterly crawling with tourists, and I'm surprised any locals still stick it out. Later as I walk through a park, I happen to stumble upon a fenced in 'locals-only' area. I was just trying to find a way out of the park, but they shake their head and say no. So that's how they cope!
There's definitely no grid system here, and you can't help but getting lost at least six times when finding your final destination. In my case, this was en-route to the Piazza San Marco, which defintely does look like the pigeon-filled ice cream cake that my guidebook described. Its awesome, but the pigeons are flapping and flying everywhere. Some tourists are actually paying 1 euro to put some birdseed in their hands and have these disease bags perch and eat from their arms and shoulders. Sheesh!
It is while standing in San Marco, that I overhear an American on a cellphone, mutter to her better half that there was a terrorist attack in London. Instantly pangs of fear begin to creep and crawl over my skin and I seek out the nearest payphone to try and get in touch with Jas. I can't get through, and am deeply concerned so I call my mom, and explain what I'd overheard. Its 8am in Canada and she hadn't yet heard the news. Fortunately after playing about 6 person phone tag, she's able to eventually relay the good news that all are safe and sound. In the intervening 3 or so hours, I more or less functioned on auto-pilot, snapping pictures and exploring the sights, with my mind locked into other more important things and places. It was a really tough struggle, and gave the trip a new perspective. During those 3 hours I felt completely helpless.
I get laundry done (it costs an arm, and half a leg here), and of course the dry cycle doesn't really dry my stuff, so I stuff it back in my backpack wet, and board my second overnight train on this trip this time bound for Vienna. I opted for the cheaper 2nd class couchette, and they cram 6 of us into a space the size of a prison cell (its about 6x6x8 feet in total). There's 2 german girls, and 3 spanish girls in my compartment, but none of them make any effort to mingle, or cross the language barrier, so I just write for a bit, brush up on basic german, and try to get to bed early.
The train ride is pretty uneventful, my chair faces another one across from me, and my long legs fall asleep and get cramped as I politely keep to my imaginary foot and leg zone. Suddenly the water appears, and I can see we are now in Venice. After spending about 45minutes in line, I'm able to successfuly secure my overnight ticket to Vienna, so this stop is strictly a one day affair. I drop my bags off at the station, and am greeted by the awesome watery scenery that is Venice.
Its like a movie-set, this place is so surreal. It apparently consits of 117 islands, and does not permit cars (how could it, the streets are purely narrow alleyways and waterways). There are bridges everywhere and its comical to watch fairly young newlyweds with baby strollers in tow, navigate the two hundred or so bridges that are splattered all over this city. The city itself is bigger than I expected, and the views are amazing. Its utterly crawling with tourists, and I'm surprised any locals still stick it out. Later as I walk through a park, I happen to stumble upon a fenced in 'locals-only' area. I was just trying to find a way out of the park, but they shake their head and say no. So that's how they cope!
There's definitely no grid system here, and you can't help but getting lost at least six times when finding your final destination. In my case, this was en-route to the Piazza San Marco, which defintely does look like the pigeon-filled ice cream cake that my guidebook described. Its awesome, but the pigeons are flapping and flying everywhere. Some tourists are actually paying 1 euro to put some birdseed in their hands and have these disease bags perch and eat from their arms and shoulders. Sheesh!
It is while standing in San Marco, that I overhear an American on a cellphone, mutter to her better half that there was a terrorist attack in London. Instantly pangs of fear begin to creep and crawl over my skin and I seek out the nearest payphone to try and get in touch with Jas. I can't get through, and am deeply concerned so I call my mom, and explain what I'd overheard. Its 8am in Canada and she hadn't yet heard the news. Fortunately after playing about 6 person phone tag, she's able to eventually relay the good news that all are safe and sound. In the intervening 3 or so hours, I more or less functioned on auto-pilot, snapping pictures and exploring the sights, with my mind locked into other more important things and places. It was a really tough struggle, and gave the trip a new perspective. During those 3 hours I felt completely helpless.
I get laundry done (it costs an arm, and half a leg here), and of course the dry cycle doesn't really dry my stuff, so I stuff it back in my backpack wet, and board my second overnight train on this trip this time bound for Vienna. I opted for the cheaper 2nd class couchette, and they cram 6 of us into a space the size of a prison cell (its about 6x6x8 feet in total). There's 2 german girls, and 3 spanish girls in my compartment, but none of them make any effort to mingle, or cross the language barrier, so I just write for a bit, brush up on basic german, and try to get to bed early.
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