When we first arrived we walked through the train station to see our first view of the canals. It was great. The water is an icy green color. We wandered with a big group for a bit in search of San Marcos Square. The group stopped for a coffee and I bought a panini. I was in Italy and I was going to eat as much as humanly possible. The group somehow split off and I ended up with Alex, Drew, Justyna (from Poland) and John (South Carolina). Our group was so funny. Most of the entertainment was provided by the constant commentary coming from Drew and John. They somehow concluded that Europe was just like Disneyworld. Drew thought the whole city was full of freaks/creepos/crazies/homeless/street urchins, etc. but then he runs around with cameras in their faces yelling crazy crazy crazy crazy. Who is the true crazy one...? We then found a hoodie with the I <3>
We continued to make our way to San Marcos Square. Our main navigation tool was called follow the cluster of tourists. Due to the holiday weekend, the streets were ridiculously crowded. Not to mention some of their streets are about 5 feet wide. Ran in to a group of guys from UI that live in our residence in Vienna, small world. We finally make is to San Marcos and make our first, but definitely not only gelato purchase of the day (one lemon scoop one strawberry scoop). We now ran into club dave and ben and a few others who quickly got lost.
On our way out of the square, which was sort of a giant tourist trap but offered cool views of the water and more people in costume, John bartered with a gypsy and bought a "gypsy ball" which Ben broke before we even got to the next block.
We now wandered in search of a pizza (pizaz as we like to call it) restaurant for an authentic Italian lunch. Most of the places were really pricey and the first reasonable menu we found would not let us all sit if we were not going to all be eating. We left. We returned again 15 minutes later to ask if we could have pizzas to go. Shot down! And the third time we tried to go I got lectured by the owner for some certain words I may have uttered the last time I left. Ooooppsss
Near this little restaurant the 6 of us ran into another group from WU, half of them from Texas and South Carolina, and a few others. We sat in a little courtyard and made our own wodka redbulls. We sat and we passed the bottle and for some reason this was one of my favorite parts of the day. Anyone can see the buildings, anyone can ride to gondolas, but this little courtyard and the people there was an experience and that is why I enjoyed it so much. We left half of them behind (including my jacket and scarf) and continued our search for lunch. By this 3 of us were from SC, two from Texas, and on Poland. Lunch was good but we had to pay and extra 1.5 euro to sit and eat our food. Taking it to go was not an option so basically there is just a 1.50 premium in every head that walks through the door.
Our little group, which still had the charm and wit of the original, went on a wine search. This lead us through many streets, large and small and by many shops filled with masks. We found little market with 8 euro bottles of Prosecco, but the place arcoss the street had sparkling wine for 2 euro. Done and done. We then found a really inexpensive place to get gelato. They also had cheap crepes. Decision making time. We decided crepes, and then bought gelato (one scoop chocolate one scoop spiced cherry) after we finished our crepes. Alex and I were now deemed "the fat kids" but we wouldn't have done it any other way.
We took our bottle of wine and went to look for a park. We ended up at a dead end street. Their streets dead end into canals. We sat here with our feet hanging over the edge and watched as the sun set. It was nothing short of amazing. Since it was getting dark we decided to head back to find the train station and then to find a place to eat close to it so we would not be late for the train. We ran into the original part of our group and the sent us over two bridges and to the right. I am still not sure where they ate, but we ended up at a restaurant where the average age was about 60. We apparently took our sweet time ordering, as the waiter let us know he took six separate orders since he had first visited our table. It was one of those "calm your shit" moments, but we ordered and almost an hour later got our food. We had 15 minutes to eat and had to almost run back to the train station.
We made it on time, got back on our train, back to the discowagon, back again to our cabins. 6am rolls around and we were back in Vienna. It almost didn't feel real. From 8pm friday to 6am sunday we had traversed the country, spent time in a foreign land and were somehow right back where we had started.
This has definitely been the most detailed post so far. Incase you want the shorter version, the day is summed up here (but if you got this far I assume that you read the rest :) )
The beds in the cabin looked more like prison cells and did not come with pillows. We arrived in Venice at 9 am and hit the streets (the paved ones). We spent hours trying to find San Marco Square with our ever evolving group. We ended up sitting in a courtyard with half of Texas and S Carolina and then I get lectured by an Italian restaurant owner. We ate pizza. We ate pasta. We ate gelato. Twice. Crepes in between. We bought two euro bottles of sparkling wine and drank them on the edge of the water as the sun set over the city. We sang the whole time. Papa l'Americano. We spoke more Spanish and German than ever before and managed to squeeze a few Gratzis in every once in awhile. The sky was blue and the sun was warm. We saw outrageous outfits. Some of them were ornate and beautiful. Some were dressed as "crazies/crazos" freaks, street urchins, homeless, but mainly just festive. It was an outrageous experience and one of my favorite days I have spent in Europe.
Other memorable quotes
"North is in the eye of the beholder" -Alex
"These steps are mossy, slippery and will get my ass green, none of those I want right now" -Ryan
"Calm your shit"- Drew
"Don't break my gypsy ball"-John
"You're the fat kids"- Ryan
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