Jordan: So there are two ways our little headline can be taken. One: getting lost in the mysticism and beauty of Venice is difficult not to surrender to. Two: Venice is stupid.
We got lost in Venice both ways. Happy to say though, aside from a few mild tantrums by Venice's narrow, windy and dead-ended streets, we hardly ever didn't know where we were going. Venice is actually small enough that if you pick a couple landmarks, whether you can see them or not, like the Grand Canal, Piazza di San Marco and a street or campo you know well. You don't really get lost. Even the few times we were surrounded by shockingly new scenery, you just keep walking in whatever direction you think you need to go and eventually you'll come across some friendly, familiar territory. But Venice is still stupid. I don't want to offend anybody, but Venice is like a typical blonde girl, blonde girls, don't get too excited, but this stereotype is the best example I know to demonstrate my point, it's beautiful and stupid. I said it.
Some islands, like many of those we wanted to get on, are only accessible by a single bridge. When we were going to our hostel the first time, on the map it showed a bridge. When we got to said bridge, we found it led to a private, walled and very very locked property. The bridge was there only for the people needing to get on the other side of the unpassable gate. We technically needed to get on the other side of the gate too, but we couldn't. We had to backtrack and go around. I could throw a stone over the wall and hit our hostel, but we had to walk for another 10 minutes to get to the other bridge that would lead us safe and dry to our hostel. The hostel was crap, nothing but a bed. That's it, no breakfast, no clean shower, no indoor common area, not even a friendly guy named Mike at reception.
Venice is something else though. It is quiet, there is no such thing as a car or a moped in the classic, canal-laden Venice that we toured. Instead everyone has a boat, often times parked outside their house/apartment. I would love to rent a boat for the day and cruise around the canals. The other vessel roaming the canals is the gondola. Some say you only live once. Others say you only go to Venice once. People even go to such lengths as to say you only ride a gondola once. I don't know. We didn't do it. Maybe rich people only ride a gondola once. I am a recently laid off patron of the print journalism world. I don't ride gondolas. Though captaining my own gondola would probably rake in a little more scratch.
Piazza di San Marco. If you don't think of canals when you hear of Venice, you think of this place. The Basilica sits on one side, the coolest clock/clock tower, yes I know we're now in Switzerland but even the Swiss got nothing on this clock. It's twenty-hours, it displays the zodiac signs and a couple of bronze Moors sit atop it, waiting to ring the shit out of that bell every hour. The piazza also houses the Campanile. Kennedy proved how much of a Toronto/CN Tower snob she is when we were in the elevator on the way up. "It's only 60 metres? This is so not worth my time." Whatever Kennedy, we could still make out details on the ground and got some amazing views of the Venice rooftops. Venice has some awesome rooftops. Way better than Clinton even.
Then we thought we'd go into the Basilica di San Marco. These guys insulted Kennedy horribly by refusing to let her in because she was dressed in a way that offended God to an insane degree. We went back to the hostel, in the morbid heat, and got her a sweater just to go inside. It wasn't worth it. The place is dark, you're confined to a quick path between the discriminating velvet rope, and then you're whisked out, or you pay to go see some stuff in the back. At St. Peter's you went wherever the hell you wanted and you left when you were good and ready. St. Peter would totally waste St. Mark if those two guys ever squared off.
That's about all for Venice, I mean I could go on and on about the streets and atmosphere but that's meant for tourist guides, or my million-dollar novel based on my travels, not our travel blog. We really just spent the day in Venice, which turned out to be my birthday, May 21, thank you very much. You can do Venice in a day. You can do Venice in seven days, but just being there and walking the streets is what Venice is all about.
Also some other stuff happened, before and after our flight from Athens to Rome. Don't worry everything in the air went as planned. No room to put much here, just know we have a story to tell you all when we get home about meeting the coolest Americans we've met so far, a train not starting, us getting so fed up we almost leave the train and a mad rush to the movie theatre to watch Tom Hanks fight Catholicism to the death in Angels and Demons. I know I'm a total tease but it's a good story. We can't share all our good stories with you before we get back.
I'll let Kennedy tell you all about Luzern. Switzerland rocks!
We got lost in Venice both ways. Happy to say though, aside from a few mild tantrums by Venice's narrow, windy and dead-ended streets, we hardly ever didn't know where we were going. Venice is actually small enough that if you pick a couple landmarks, whether you can see them or not, like the Grand Canal, Piazza di San Marco and a street or campo you know well. You don't really get lost. Even the few times we were surrounded by shockingly new scenery, you just keep walking in whatever direction you think you need to go and eventually you'll come across some friendly, familiar territory. But Venice is still stupid. I don't want to offend anybody, but Venice is like a typical blonde girl, blonde girls, don't get too excited, but this stereotype is the best example I know to demonstrate my point, it's beautiful and stupid. I said it.
Some islands, like many of those we wanted to get on, are only accessible by a single bridge. When we were going to our hostel the first time, on the map it showed a bridge. When we got to said bridge, we found it led to a private, walled and very very locked property. The bridge was there only for the people needing to get on the other side of the unpassable gate. We technically needed to get on the other side of the gate too, but we couldn't. We had to backtrack and go around. I could throw a stone over the wall and hit our hostel, but we had to walk for another 10 minutes to get to the other bridge that would lead us safe and dry to our hostel. The hostel was crap, nothing but a bed. That's it, no breakfast, no clean shower, no indoor common area, not even a friendly guy named Mike at reception.
Venice is something else though. It is quiet, there is no such thing as a car or a moped in the classic, canal-laden Venice that we toured. Instead everyone has a boat, often times parked outside their house/apartment. I would love to rent a boat for the day and cruise around the canals. The other vessel roaming the canals is the gondola. Some say you only live once. Others say you only go to Venice once. People even go to such lengths as to say you only ride a gondola once. I don't know. We didn't do it. Maybe rich people only ride a gondola once. I am a recently laid off patron of the print journalism world. I don't ride gondolas. Though captaining my own gondola would probably rake in a little more scratch.
Piazza di San Marco. If you don't think of canals when you hear of Venice, you think of this place. The Basilica sits on one side, the coolest clock/clock tower, yes I know we're now in Switzerland but even the Swiss got nothing on this clock. It's twenty-hours, it displays the zodiac signs and a couple of bronze Moors sit atop it, waiting to ring the shit out of that bell every hour. The piazza also houses the Campanile. Kennedy proved how much of a Toronto/CN Tower snob she is when we were in the elevator on the way up. "It's only 60 metres? This is so not worth my time." Whatever Kennedy, we could still make out details on the ground and got some amazing views of the Venice rooftops. Venice has some awesome rooftops. Way better than Clinton even.
Then we thought we'd go into the Basilica di San Marco. These guys insulted Kennedy horribly by refusing to let her in because she was dressed in a way that offended God to an insane degree. We went back to the hostel, in the morbid heat, and got her a sweater just to go inside. It wasn't worth it. The place is dark, you're confined to a quick path between the discriminating velvet rope, and then you're whisked out, or you pay to go see some stuff in the back. At St. Peter's you went wherever the hell you wanted and you left when you were good and ready. St. Peter would totally waste St. Mark if those two guys ever squared off.
That's about all for Venice, I mean I could go on and on about the streets and atmosphere but that's meant for tourist guides, or my million-dollar novel based on my travels, not our travel blog. We really just spent the day in Venice, which turned out to be my birthday, May 21, thank you very much. You can do Venice in a day. You can do Venice in seven days, but just being there and walking the streets is what Venice is all about.
Also some other stuff happened, before and after our flight from Athens to Rome. Don't worry everything in the air went as planned. No room to put much here, just know we have a story to tell you all when we get home about meeting the coolest Americans we've met so far, a train not starting, us getting so fed up we almost leave the train and a mad rush to the movie theatre to watch Tom Hanks fight Catholicism to the death in Angels and Demons. I know I'm a total tease but it's a good story. We can't share all our good stories with you before we get back.
I'll let Kennedy tell you all about Luzern. Switzerland rocks!
So..... other than a major disagreement about how to write to the blog, how are you two actually getting along anyway? Your Mom and I were curious (read worried?) about how that was going to work over the long haul.
ReplyDeleteNot gonna lie, we have our moments. Usually when we're lost somewhere. But for the most part we get along just fine, no worries.
ReplyDeleteP.S. We added more photos, to the last four posts. Check em out.