I didn't end up taking a gondola ride during my stay in Venice because they were priced outrageously! Maybe if you had a big group to split the cost several ways it would have been fine, otherwise I think it was like around 100 Euro for an hour! Once I made it to the piazza San Marco I went inside the duomo and snapped a few pics. I also climbed to the top to get a view from higher up.
The inside of the cathedral was almost purely done in murals which was an amazing night to see. It was pretty Gothic looking on the inside.
And here is a view looking out from the top of the church.
On the left is the Doge Palace, but we'll get to that later on. After I browsed around the church, got food, and walked around for a bit, it was getting close to 6:00 which is when I was told to be back at the hostel for dinner and such. I somehow found my way back to the hostel without getting completely lost and that had to be some sort of a miracle. When I got back to my room, some of my roommates were in. There was Tim and Casey who were to American guys travelling around together. They had been working in Manchester as Rugby coaches for school aged kids. They were done with their contract and travelling around for a little while before heading back to the states. There was also Bryce who was from Virgina but had gone to school in Miami. He was 21 and was travelling around Europe for 6 months before he headed off to med school in the fall. When we met he was only about 2 weeks into his trip. We sat around and talked for a long while about where everyone was headed to next and where they had already been. Tim and Casey had just been to Greece and were telling me and Bryce where to check out when we get there. I always like input from others that have already travelled so I don't waste my time on stuff that's no good. It was getting to be dinner time so I asked Lapo, the manager, where I could grab some food and he told me to just eat at the hostel with the others. At first I was a bit confused but found out that each night one of the staff members, David from Mexico, cooks dinner and everyone just splits the cost! That night David whipped up some gnocchi which is a pasta made from potatoes, and it was in a tomato cream sauce. I only paid a whopping 2.50 euro that night for dinner and it was awesome! After the grub we chilled out awhile and let the food settle, chatted with some more people from all over the World. Finally 9:45 arrived and it was time to start the pub crawl! It was only 5 Euro and you get free shots on every bridge you cross! From the stories I had heard from the previous nights crawl I was a bit scared! The mixture for our shots was cheap vodka and orange juice. You put a little cup that is attached to a string, around your neck and wear it like a necklace. On our way to the first bar we probably crossed about 3 bridges, yikes! The wine at the first place was super cheap and only 1.50 for a glass of red. After a couple drinks we head out to our next place and it starts raining. I bought an umbrella off a street guy for 5 euro since my first one I brought from the states broke back in Bordeaux. The next few places start getting a bit hazy but here are some fun pics!
The above is the first AND last picture you'll ever see with that ol' umbrella! Somehow I didn't make it back to the hostel with it! As Jamie Foxx would say..."blame it on the al al al alcohol!"
These are a couple of my cutie roommates. Bryce is on the left and Casey is on the right. And as you can see, those things around our necks are the shot glass cups we drank out of...classy! Here are a few pics at the second bar we made it too.
The guy above with the beard is actually the one who lead the pub crawl. Don't really remember his name but I know he's from Australia! As the night went on, so did the drinks. The important thing is that I woke up the next morning safely in my hostel! I I finally crawled out of bed the next day around noon. Most of the roommates were checking out that day. Bryce was headed off to Milan and Casey and Tim were headed to Florence for a couple days. I said my goodbye's to them and made sure we became friends on facebook. My second day in Venice I had planned on going up the giant bell tower, because if you haven't noticed I love anything with heights! I also figured I would check out the doge palace cause that was supposed to be cool.
The bell tower was fun and cost around 8 euro. Right when I go to the very top the bells actually started ringing and it was super loud. Also it was freezing at the top! Walking around Venice was always a bit chilly but I guess when I got up so high the temperature really dropped. It was also hurricane force winds up there! I stayed for about 20 minutes to get the full 360 view and snap a few pics but then I got the heck up outta there!
After waiting in line for around 15 minutes just to get down the tower (isn't it usually a line to get up?), I headed over across the piazza to the Doge Palace. Thankfully I still have my student card from college and I was able to get in for about half the price so I think it ended up being around 6 Euro. I'm not sure if I was just a bit more hungover than I thought or if the Doge Palace bored me to death, but either way I wasn't a huge fan of the palace. I didn't even take many pics but here are the ones I did take. Basically the tour consisted of seeing the Doge different apartments and then also where they kept prisoners back in the day. You seen one palace, ya seen 'em all!
In the pic above you could actually slip anonymous letters in the mouth part and "tattle" on people who had been committing crimes!
Once the Doge deal was done (see what I did there?) I headed back to the hostel to take it easy. That evil vodka and orange juice mixture from the night before was hurting me! I did stop to take a few pics along the Grande Canal and also happened upon the shop that made the masks for the weird and freaky movie "Eyes Wide Shut" with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
When travelling alone, you get stuck doing a lot of "one-armed" photos!
During my few days in Venice I did notice that there were a ton of shops that sold mask similar to the ones above. I wasn't really sure why they were so popular but apparently there is an old tradition and story behind the masks. I wish I could relay the story to you, but quite frankly I don't really remember and I'm too lazy to look it up now! Once back at the hostel I was greeted by a whole slew of new roommates. All girls this time which I was a bit disappointed, but only because my experience from the Milan hostel. Either way they were nice girls, all from the states but were studying in the UK. They were on their spring break so they were off travelling. I went into the common room and chatted with some peeps and took it easy until it was getting to be around dinner time. I decided I wanted to do the dinner at the hostel again since it was so cheap AND tasty, and good way to socialize. This time I actually went to the grocery store with David along with about 4 other people. I'm not really sure why David wanted us to come along because I think we ended up being in the way more so than helping. Plus we didn't get that much stuff so it wasn't like he needed us to help him carry it back. I suppose he just wanted some company. For dinner that night we had bow tie pasta with grilled onions, mushrooms, and eggplant (or aubergine over here) in a tomato based sauce. Scrumdiddlyumptious! I even helped a little and cut up the basil! After dinner everyone started preparing for the pub crawl again but this time I decided to hold off. I had a fairly early train the next day to Florence and I just wanted to chill that evening. Aside from the manager Lapo asking me to write some crazy e-mails for him, everything was all good! I don't even know where to start about those e-mails but they were just a little odd! He had me write to some Canadian girl that had already booked a room and tell her he was cancelling her reservation because she asked too many questions! He told her not to recommend his place to any of her friends and that she was a miserable person! Haha, how crazy is that?! I'm not sure why he wanted me to do it, maybe because my English is better, but finally after telling him I didn't want to and him insisting that I did, I just got it over with so I could be done with the whole situation! Bed time was shortly after until I got awoken at about 3:00am to the new batch of roommates coming in from the pub crawl! They were all pretty smashed and trying to get ready for bed. One girl's backpack fell over and emptied everything on the floor and even broke some type of teacup on the cement floor! I flipped the light on so they could see, plus I didn't want anyone cutting themselves. After they got situated everything was all good except one of the chicks was a bit of a snorer. I just popped my ipod on and tried to drift off!
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