"Where's the Doosh bank?"
Day 15
Today is our free day to do whatever we want. Wow, I did not miss the smell of Venice. We had an early breakfast and caught the train back into Venice so we could have the whole day there to look around in the day time. I’m glad we got to go there in both day and night time, it’s very different during the day! It was a lot quieter today, I think there were a few sore Italian heads this morning as it wasn’t that busy when we arrived.
Instead of walking to Piazza de San Marco again, we were able to catch a ferry to the square. It took us about 20 minutes as we didn’t go through all the canals, we were taken on a quick tour around the outside of Venice. There wasn’t much to see but the boat ride was fun-the Italians are just as crazy drivers in their boats as they are in their cars. There is no system on the rivers like there is in Perth! It’s just first in best dressed, get outta my way, type of thing. Maybe that’s their system? In any case it was cool, we made it to the Square in one piece and saw some very pretty buildings on the outside of Venice. They even have their own industrial area, which was surprising considering it’s not that big of a place.
Once we arrived at the Square, we walked to a Venetian glass blowing place. I was too afraid to go in-I could just see myself tripping over and breaking everything on a shelf. One tumbler glass I saw cost over 50€! We got a demonstration of how glass is heated up and transformed into shapes, it was pretty amazing. The glass blower who was our demonstrator was very talented-and very quick! They have to do everything quickly before the glass cools down and hardens. We then got to see all the different types of Venetian glass and where shown how to tell the difference between the real stuff and the fake Venetian glass (you have to look for the accredited symbol and the fakes usually have the colours painted on, unlike the real glass which already has the colours inside the glass itself).
Once that demonstration was over, we got to go to the only Venetian Lace school left in Venice. It was a very sweet place, the ladies who make the lace are very very talented and the things they make are very beautiful. We got to see the different types of lace and different designs they make-some of them take up to 8 months to complete. They learn about 1 stitch a year or something crazy like that. So much patience is required.
We walked back to the square after the demonstrations and then we had until 2pm to do whatever we liked. We were meeting Ryan at 2pm, so most of headed straight into St Mark’s Basilica first to have a look. Another pretty church, they’re all starting to look the same, but it’s still nice to go inside each one and see all the artwork in them. An interesting thing about this church is that the floor is all wavy-this was because of when Venice was sinking. It is no longer sinking, by the way. They have put measures in place to stop the city from sinking-Ryan was telling us that they have covered up all the wells so people can’t draw water up from them anymore; apparently that was one of the main causes of Venice sinking.
We wandered around for a bit then, just taking everything in seeing as it all looked so different in the day time. We wandered past all the “haute couture” shops-can you believe Venice has Prada, Gucci, Versace and all those types of stores? I was amazed, I wasn’t expecting to see them there. Although I shouldn’t be surprised, the Italians are very well dressed. They put me in my jeans and a scabby t-shirt to shame, that’s for sure. Most of us needed money so we found an ATM (the Doosh bank, as Marcarla was asking for... really it ws the Deutcshe Bank, funny funny). We basically just did a lot of window shopping and looking around the city itself, before finding a side road that served the best pizza ever. Huge slices for only 2€, which was very cool. I wasn’t in the mood for pizza but in the end there ended up being nothing else around so it was either that or nothing. We also got gelato again, I tried the chocolate and tirimisu this time. Anything but pink and white icecream!
We met up with everyone at 2pm because we were going to do another one of our optional extras, a gondola ride! I was very excited to do this, I have wanted to do this for ages-I don’t remember doing it the last time we were in Venice, I don’t think we did. We walked to where our tour was booked for and got into our pre-arranged groups; I was in a gondola with Amy, Nicole, Kayla, Claire and Courtney. We got the first gondola and it was very tricky getting in! Everyone felt like they were going to tip the boat-I’m very surprised I didn’t fall off the jetty getting in or tip myself overboard. An accomplishment in itself :P I’ve been such a klutz this tour... not a word Lorinda! :P haha.
The gondola ride was awesome. We were on it for about an hour just cruising through the back canals and taking in the sites. Our gonodola driver (or whatever you call them) was very nice, he told us all about the history of some of the places in Venice and even took us past Mozart’s house where he used to live. Another thing was that Venice flooded about a month or two ago and now the water level is so low, we were only about about 2 metres of water in the canals. You could see on the sides of the buildings where the water got to. And phew, it stunk in some of those canals.
Once the gondola ride was over (I didn’t want it to end!), myself and the girls from above, plus Marcarla, Claire, Courtney and Anna, ended up going to the markets near Piazza de Rialto. There was such amazing stuff there, I found some beautiful souvenirs and saw lots of Ventian glass... I don’t think a lot of it was the real stuff though.
When we met up with everyone again, we were taken to a Venetian restaurant for our optional extra dinner. Very good value for what we paid! We were given about 5 or 6 different types of pasta, copious amounts of bread and wine to consume that night. Oh the carbs. I am going on a diet again once this trip is over... there is no such thing as a one course dinner here in Europe. The pasta was beautiful, I tried about 3 of them. The wine was mostly white wine, which I don’t drink, but Ryan gave us all a Limoncello shot and that went down very easily :P Dessert was lemon gelato... umm, not my favourite. It was another good night, everyone was in a good mood and were well on their way to being more than a little silly.
The train ride home was very funny, we had a carriage to ourselves-I think we scared away any non-Contiki person with our loudness and stupid conversations. Oh yeah, I also fell down. Surprise surprise. There were two steps which leads to nearly on to the tracks, and I misjudged a step when Amy and I were taking stupid pictures. It didn’t hurt at the time but yeah, I paid for it the next day. I am kind of surprised I haven’t landed myself in hospital yet. What is it about being overseas that makes you more of a klutz than you usually are?
x
Today is our free day to do whatever we want. Wow, I did not miss the smell of Venice. We had an early breakfast and caught the train back into Venice so we could have the whole day there to look around in the day time. I’m glad we got to go there in both day and night time, it’s very different during the day! It was a lot quieter today, I think there were a few sore Italian heads this morning as it wasn’t that busy when we arrived.
Instead of walking to Piazza de San Marco again, we were able to catch a ferry to the square. It took us about 20 minutes as we didn’t go through all the canals, we were taken on a quick tour around the outside of Venice. There wasn’t much to see but the boat ride was fun-the Italians are just as crazy drivers in their boats as they are in their cars. There is no system on the rivers like there is in Perth! It’s just first in best dressed, get outta my way, type of thing. Maybe that’s their system? In any case it was cool, we made it to the Square in one piece and saw some very pretty buildings on the outside of Venice. They even have their own industrial area, which was surprising considering it’s not that big of a place.
Once we arrived at the Square, we walked to a Venetian glass blowing place. I was too afraid to go in-I could just see myself tripping over and breaking everything on a shelf. One tumbler glass I saw cost over 50€! We got a demonstration of how glass is heated up and transformed into shapes, it was pretty amazing. The glass blower who was our demonstrator was very talented-and very quick! They have to do everything quickly before the glass cools down and hardens. We then got to see all the different types of Venetian glass and where shown how to tell the difference between the real stuff and the fake Venetian glass (you have to look for the accredited symbol and the fakes usually have the colours painted on, unlike the real glass which already has the colours inside the glass itself).
Once that demonstration was over, we got to go to the only Venetian Lace school left in Venice. It was a very sweet place, the ladies who make the lace are very very talented and the things they make are very beautiful. We got to see the different types of lace and different designs they make-some of them take up to 8 months to complete. They learn about 1 stitch a year or something crazy like that. So much patience is required.
We walked back to the square after the demonstrations and then we had until 2pm to do whatever we liked. We were meeting Ryan at 2pm, so most of headed straight into St Mark’s Basilica first to have a look. Another pretty church, they’re all starting to look the same, but it’s still nice to go inside each one and see all the artwork in them. An interesting thing about this church is that the floor is all wavy-this was because of when Venice was sinking. It is no longer sinking, by the way. They have put measures in place to stop the city from sinking-Ryan was telling us that they have covered up all the wells so people can’t draw water up from them anymore; apparently that was one of the main causes of Venice sinking.
We wandered around for a bit then, just taking everything in seeing as it all looked so different in the day time. We wandered past all the “haute couture” shops-can you believe Venice has Prada, Gucci, Versace and all those types of stores? I was amazed, I wasn’t expecting to see them there. Although I shouldn’t be surprised, the Italians are very well dressed. They put me in my jeans and a scabby t-shirt to shame, that’s for sure. Most of us needed money so we found an ATM (the Doosh bank, as Marcarla was asking for... really it ws the Deutcshe Bank, funny funny). We basically just did a lot of window shopping and looking around the city itself, before finding a side road that served the best pizza ever. Huge slices for only 2€, which was very cool. I wasn’t in the mood for pizza but in the end there ended up being nothing else around so it was either that or nothing. We also got gelato again, I tried the chocolate and tirimisu this time. Anything but pink and white icecream!
We met up with everyone at 2pm because we were going to do another one of our optional extras, a gondola ride! I was very excited to do this, I have wanted to do this for ages-I don’t remember doing it the last time we were in Venice, I don’t think we did. We walked to where our tour was booked for and got into our pre-arranged groups; I was in a gondola with Amy, Nicole, Kayla, Claire and Courtney. We got the first gondola and it was very tricky getting in! Everyone felt like they were going to tip the boat-I’m very surprised I didn’t fall off the jetty getting in or tip myself overboard. An accomplishment in itself :P I’ve been such a klutz this tour... not a word Lorinda! :P haha.
The gondola ride was awesome. We were on it for about an hour just cruising through the back canals and taking in the sites. Our gonodola driver (or whatever you call them) was very nice, he told us all about the history of some of the places in Venice and even took us past Mozart’s house where he used to live. Another thing was that Venice flooded about a month or two ago and now the water level is so low, we were only about about 2 metres of water in the canals. You could see on the sides of the buildings where the water got to. And phew, it stunk in some of those canals.
Once the gondola ride was over (I didn’t want it to end!), myself and the girls from above, plus Marcarla, Claire, Courtney and Anna, ended up going to the markets near Piazza de Rialto. There was such amazing stuff there, I found some beautiful souvenirs and saw lots of Ventian glass... I don’t think a lot of it was the real stuff though.
When we met up with everyone again, we were taken to a Venetian restaurant for our optional extra dinner. Very good value for what we paid! We were given about 5 or 6 different types of pasta, copious amounts of bread and wine to consume that night. Oh the carbs. I am going on a diet again once this trip is over... there is no such thing as a one course dinner here in Europe. The pasta was beautiful, I tried about 3 of them. The wine was mostly white wine, which I don’t drink, but Ryan gave us all a Limoncello shot and that went down very easily :P Dessert was lemon gelato... umm, not my favourite. It was another good night, everyone was in a good mood and were well on their way to being more than a little silly.
The train ride home was very funny, we had a carriage to ourselves-I think we scared away any non-Contiki person with our loudness and stupid conversations. Oh yeah, I also fell down. Surprise surprise. There were two steps which leads to nearly on to the tracks, and I misjudged a step when Amy and I were taking stupid pictures. It didn’t hurt at the time but yeah, I paid for it the next day. I am kind of surprised I haven’t landed myself in hospital yet. What is it about being overseas that makes you more of a klutz than you usually are?
x