Thursday
i was pretty sad the entire time i was en route to rome. i was crying the whole bus ride from the corner of parnassos to centraal. I wasnt ready to leave Utrecht and all my friends there. The trip to Eindhoven and then to Rome was easy. i was nervous my bag was over 10 kilos… and it probably is, but no one weighed it so it wasnt a problem. once i arrived in rome i had to take an hour bus ride to get to the city center. the bus dropped me off right at treviso the main train station. first i had to book my train ticket for my trip from rome to venice. the line was really long and i probably waited 1 hour. once i bought my ticket and gave the old man my debit card we started talking about my last name and where my family is from and where i live yada yada.. he actaully started signing new york new york at one point. really cute and nice. the yellow hostel was just 3 or 4 blocks away so that was easy. as soon as i got to the hostel i just dropped my stuff off and headed to one of the restaurants that i had passed on the way. i was pretty hungary and some of the places looked really good. of course i got pasta. i dont know if i mentioned this in my last blog… but pretty much all i ate (and most of my roommates too) the past week was pasta. i had tons left over from when steph and rachel and ethan were here and i didnt want to waste food or money buying more food. so i ate pasta all the time. the pasta at the restaurant was really good. it was pretty late after dinner..maybe 11 oclock so i just headed back to the hostel and used the computer and headed to bed. i was a really good tourist while i was in rome and venice. i would wake up every morning at 8am and head out by 9 or 930. i was very impressed.
Friday
like i said, i woke up at 8, had breakfast at the hostel restaurant for 2 euros and headed out by 915. i didnt really have a plan, just that there was a walking tour of rome offered by my hostel at 2pm. so the plan was just to wander around rome and some of the ruins untill then. so i walked towads the ancient ruins. i was really lucky with weather on my trip. it was probably 90 degrees the whole time. and sunny. no rain. so i walked through pretty much the entire city center untill i got to the collesium. along the way i passed the roman forum and ceaser and ausustus forums. the line to get into the collesium was ridiculus and i remembered reading in my guide book that you could buy a combined ticket for the collesium and the palentine hill/roman forum so i ditched the collesium and headed towards the palentine hill. the line was way shorter. i treated myself to an audio guide for 4 euros because even though i took a roman history class sophomore year i thought that i didnt remember anything (at the time i had forgotten everything but it hsa since been refreshed) and headed up the hill. it was freaking hot out..and i didnt not plan ahead and had no sunscreen and i was wearing jeans. i did buy a huge water on my walk earlier tho for only 1 euro.the palentine hill was really impressive. i saw augustus house and livias house etc etc. and from up there you got an amazing view of the circus maximus and the roman forum. i ended up getting lost. even though i had a map. it was obviously hard to guide myself throught all the ruins because nothing actually looks like anything. .you just have to imagine what it used to be. by the time i found my way out of the palentine hill it was almost time for the tour that left from the circus maximus metro stop. The tour was really good. it was about 4 hours long. and the group was maybe 10 people only. the first thing i learned on the tour was that michael jackson had died. i was completely shocked. i didnt believe it. once on a train from prague to berlin two girls had told me that patrick swayze had died and i didnt know because i had been travelling. but that ended up being a rumor and hes still alive. but the fact that everyone was talking about how he died i knew it had to be true. i wonder if this will be one of those things like you always will remember where you were when he died.. like jfk and 9/11. so some highlights from the tour that i remember: jewish ghetto, pantheon, really good margherita pizza during the break, where mussolini gave his speeches, victor emannuel memorial, roman forum, collesium. it was a really good tour. probably one of my favorites since ive been here. except it was the first tour i actually paid for. i searched online and there are no free tours of rome. this one was 20 euros which is the cheapest i heard of. plus i got to meet people from my hostel so it was good i went because i made some friends. i was surprised about all the stuff i remembered about ancient rome. the tour also included a lot of recent roman history too which was really interesting because i really only know about ancient stuff. after the tour i headed over to the collesium because they supposedly closed the gate around 6ish. so i ran over there and got in. the ticket i bought earlier in the day was 12 euros and it included the roman forum/palentine hill/collesium. and you have 2 days to do everything in. so i walked inside the collesium for a while. i ran into 2 people from nj.. i found that out when i asked them to take a picture of me in the collesium with the arch of constintine in the background. it was still freaking hot outside even though the sun was setting. it was probably 7pm…which is weird because when i left holland it didnt set until 10 and it didnt get dark untll 11. weird. and i was getting pretty tired so i found a rock in the shade to lay on for a while. around 8pm it was still light out and i decided to head out for an early (for italian standards) because i didnt really want to be roaming around rome at night in the dark alone. the restaurant was soro margarheta and was reccomended by my guidebook. its a roman jewish restaurant that was all the way on the other side of town and there was no easy way to get there by public transport. i found the restaurant after a while of searching. it is litteraly a whole in the wall. and there is no sign for it. the only reason i realized it was the restaurant is because there were chairs outside and people were sitting.,..and they looked like they were waiting. no one in the restaurant spoke english…but it wasnt really a problem. i sat down…and saw that there were tons of critic praises for the restaurant…some in english. on the wall… so i just ordered the 2 things that were always mention. fried artichoke (which is typical roman jewish) and some peppery speghetti dish. everything was amazing. so good. and it wasnt even that expensive. and th restaurant was really packed. im glad i decided to trek across town and find this place to eat in. so by this point..around 10pm…i was exhausted.i left my hostel at 9 that morning and hadnt been back yet. so when igot to the hostel…after figuring out the metro system i just passed out right away. and i was really burnt. i had crazy red burn lines on my back and on my shoulders and from my over the shoulder purse on my chest.
saturday
my hostel offered another tour for vatican city. originally i didnt think i was going to go to the vatican…because i didnt realize it was IN rome.. but it is in rome just has some walls around it. so i had to go because i was already all the way in rome…why not? right? so before the tour..since it left at 11 i wandered around some more. i found the triton fountain and a cool intersection that has 4 different fountains in it. And the tour left from the front of a church (i cant remember what the name was and i dont have my map handy) so i walked around inside the air conditioning for a while. This tour was 4 or 5 hours and cost 20 euros. i really liked this tour. this probably sounds ridiculous but before this tour i hardly knew who st peter and st paul were…and pretty much nothing about jc’s life and death blah blah.. so everything was really new and interesting. a lot of it sounded crazy… but still interesting. so some highlights: angels bridge, st peters square, vatican museum with the greek sculputre that michaelangelo used as muses for the creator and adam, sistine chapel…which was seriously amazing. how the hell did he paint that leaning back for 3 years.. .crazy. it was so amazing. i snuck a couple photos…. more stuff: where pope john paul ii is buryed, and st peters basillica. im really happy i went to the vatican. i dont really care about most of the stuff, but its really interesting and there are tons of people that wish they could go see this stuff and never have..so ha. i did. after the tour i went to eat lunch at a panini place my tour guide reccommended and then right next door was a gelato place that my guidebook suggested. so good. yummy. also on this tour i met more people from my hostel. one girl..summer from Florida convinced me to go on my hostels pub crawl that night. after my lunch i needed to rush back to the city center to go to the roman forum because my ticket would expire in a few hours. so i hopped on a metro and checke out the roman forum. all really interesting stuff and there was also some kind of special exhibit there. walking through the roman forum took me a while because every couple of minutes i would find somewhere in the shade to sit in and i would sit there for a while. after walking around the roman forum i found the same rock i layed on next to the collesium and layed there again. it was around 730at this point and then i realized that the pub crawl left around 8 oclock so i booked it back to my hostel to get changed. the pub crawl actually left at 830 so i had more time then i thought. this crawl was also a night time tour..so for the first hour the guide (the same one from my rome tour) took us to barbarini square..or is in bernini? (i was earlier in the day…it has the triton fountain there), the trevi fountain, and the spanish steps. all those things were really awesome places to see at night and im happy i went on the pub crawl because i probably would have just went during the day and not experienced them in the dark. on the pub crawl i recognized a bunch of people from both of the tours i went on..so it was really fun. i met a bunch of people. mostly americans and canadians. so after the tour we headed to 3 or 4 bars..and i was getting pretty tired because i had had a really long day so around 230ish me and a few girls i made friends with headed home.
sunday
sunday morning was the only morning in rome and venice that i woke up at 9am. check out was by 10 am so that gave me plenty of time to pack up and shower. it was probably 1030 by the time i was all checked out and finished breakfast and left the hostel. first on my schedule for my last day in rome was a market that one of my tour guide suggested. it was another freaking hot day and of course there was no easy way to get there. i had to take a metro and a bus. the bus was packed. so you had to squeeze your way on and then continuously get pushed back everytime more people got on. i had no clue when my stop was so after a while i just got off the bus because i couldnt stand the heat. i found some benches in the shade and realized that i was only one stop away..but i didnt know which direction. so i just waited for the bus and gotback on for one more stop. the flea market was huge! giant. i wasnt feeling that well and didnt really want to waste money so i just walked pretty much straight through it.. i had no clue when it ended and it kept on going and going and going, so after a while i just turned around and headed out the same way i got in. probably a good idea because the market was off my map so i had no idea how to navigate myself back to the center without the bus and metro. got on a metro and headed towards the spanish steps. i wanted to see what they looked like during the day. still very crowded. tons of tourists. so i hung out on the steps for a while. after the steps i walked to the trevi fountain. i wanted to throw a coin in and take some good pictures, because the night before it was to crowded to do either. it was still crowded but now i was on my own time and could do what i wanted. hung out by the fountain for a while. then i had some time to kill before i wanted to go back to the hostel to pick up my bags before my train so i just roamed around the city heading towards to collesium in the distance without my map. i rewalked by some stuff that i had seen on my walking tour. when i got to the victor emmauel the second memorial i just hung around and sat for a while. then i headed to the collesium to sit for a while and then i hopped on a metro to get to my hostel. got my bag and headed towards the train station. the train was easy. really comfortable seats (unlike my moms trip from rome to venice 40 years ago). i set my alarm for 4 hours later and i slept most of the way there. i got to venice around 11pm. it was dark out and at first i was really nervous about getting to my hostel. everyone had told me its impossible to find your way around venice, and i was doing it alone and at night. i had directions from the hostel website and i had figured out where the hostel was on my guidebooks little map of venice so i was pretty confident just a little nervous. i probably waited for a vaporetto (water bus) for around 40 minutes. there were a bunch of people there so it wasnt a problem. got off a few stops later…amazed at how pretty venice is at night, and a few minutes later i was at my hostel. the hostel i was staying at… the venice museum.. is in a 400 year old building. really old and pretty and unneccisarily fancy for a youth hostel….it was suggested by sam my camp friend from england. i went to bed as soon as i checked in and woke up early the next day around 8am
monday
the hostel had free breakfast from 9-10 so i stuck around from that. i met some of the other people staying in the hostel and some of them reccommended things for me to do. after i headed out.. around 930..i hopped on a vaporetto and headed towards the main tourist spot of st. marks square. reallypretty old gothic square with st marks church. hung out in the square for a while. it was filled with tourists and i kinded wanted to get rid of all them and all the venders. but first on my list was to buy a purse that steph gonias had bought from a street vendor that i realy liked. its a big blue and white striped beach bag style purse with venizia italia and an anchor on the front. its really cute and the one i found was only 6euros. after i bought the bag i started wandering around venice. i heard that you were supposed to get yourself lost and just try to find your way back without a map…so thats what i did. i just wandered the streets going into different stores a such..and after a while i just found a canal and followed a few gondolas back up to the grand canal. it wasnt too difficult but i can see why people always say they get lost in venice. i mean what can you expect from a city made up of over 200 islands. then i hopped on a vaporetto for a kind of make shift sightseeing cruise. i was pretty much all the way south on the grand canal and i hopped on a bus and i got a seat in the front in the open air and i went all the way up the grand canal to the main bus station. my main goal was to have a boat toar of the city and i also needed to buy my bus ticket to the venice treviso airport. the boat ride was so nice. i was probably on it.. in my awesome seat for 40 minutes to an hour. so nice. it was such a good idea. once i got to the bus station i found the bus company and bought my ticket for 4 euros. awesome. for my trip to the airport the next day. after i saw i vaporetto sign that said to murano. so i waited for a while and got on the boat for the trip to murano island. that ride was probably also 40 minutes. omg. this city is amazing. so pretty and you need to ride on boats to get everywhere. i seriiously was so happy in venice it was amazing. i had such nice hot weather and everything was so gorgeous. so once i got to murano i walked into the first glass factory show thingy… after i found out that they are all over the island. they basically just show you for 5 minutes how the blow and mold the glass on the island. it was really cool but kinda lame. and then the rest of my time on murano was walking in and out of stores looking at all the really cool glass stuff. i bought sheila a glass mezzuzah and myself a yellow watch. im pretty upset because my watch was 25 euros and really really cute and its already kind of coming apart. hopefully when im home my mom can take me somewhere to fix the watchband. nothing is wrong with the face or the glass.. just the band. i was getting pretty hungry so i found a sea food restaurant that wasnt really expensive. i got pasta and clam sauce and fried calimari… yum. really good seafood. after i roamed around for a while and then got back on a bus to head back to the city. one of the girls in my hostel mentioned some international art festival in venice thats a pretty big deal that was taking place so that was my next plan. the art festival was called beneille.. something like that,. when people pronounced it it sounded just like BNL. the art was really werid. all of it was super contemporary and really weird. like there was one room full of plastic bags blown up really big..with a video of the guy blowing them up. and there was a room with tons of broken mirrors. basically i think each country involved..there were tons.. has a few artists and then they all get as much space they want.. there were exhibits all around the city. the coolest thing i saw was this one room thats really dark. all you see are different small little colored lights throughout the room. so i took a picutre with my flash and it was all different kinds of electronic stuff..like a fridge and a computer and a tv and stuff… really cool. after that i headed back out and walked along the grand canal for a while. i found some benches looking outward so i just sat. i was sitting next to these two people.. and they just offered me some of their cheese and crackers.. they were really nice. they were from oregon i think and were just traveling. we talked for a while and then they left. while i was sitting a few cruise ships drove by. so cool. i was visiting a city that people on cruises come too! so cool. every floor of the boat was lined with people looking into venice and st marks square and stuff. so cool. one of the cruise ships was being tugged by a tug boat. also really cool. at this point it was around 7pm and my hostel offers a free dinner so i hopped on a vaporetto and headed back to eat. i must have gotten lucky that i got that front open air seat before.. because this time the boat was packed and i needed to stand inside. so i got back to the hostel and started talking to a few people before dinner was served. the hostel was pretty small. i think there were only 3 bedrooms…so maybe something like 20 people were staying there. and for the dinner there were probably 15 people. dinner was speghetti with some really good sauce. i talked to the people sitting around me. some were from california, canada, and australia and germany. after dinner we all hung around the table for a while and 2 of them mentioned they heard about an outdoor concert to i invited myself to go with them. the whole group of us that went was like 6 people. all really cool people around my age. we got on a water bus and then walked for a while but then eventaully got to the concert. it was in this big park in st pietro square all the way on the south side of venice. the people i nthe band looked like they were in their 50s and some of them were wearing leather pants.. but it was really fun. they were playing pretty much all old 80s and 90s american music so all of us new it and could sing along. after the concert ended we hung around for a while and then headed back. didnt get back too late.
tuesday
my last day in venice. woke up early again, packed, showered, ate breakfast and was out of the hostel around 10 am. all i wanted to do for my last few hours in venice was go to the beach on lido island. so thats what i did. i hopped on a vaporetto and the last stop was lido. asked someone how to get to the beach and then got there 10 mminutes later. it was so pretty. and i didnt have to pay. some people mentioned that it was really hard to find a free beach on lido…but i just went onto the first beach i found… when i was walking onto the beach i saw this really cool pavilion that had really cool beds with cushions and really cool beach chairs..and it went pretty near to the water. so i jumped the rope that surrounded the pavallion and just found a chair to lay on. im pretty sure i wasnt allowed to be there…but if someone asked me to leave i would just get up and go.. so i layed at this awesome pavillion for a few hours. it was so nice out. i was basically sleeping on a full sized bed on the ocean. so nice. the beach was really nice and it wasnt too crowded. i saw a few naked people and some naked babies but not as much as i expected. after laing down for a while i went up to the water and went up to my knees. that day i wasnt wearing a bathing suit because i was aboutto get on the plane and didnt want to deal with a wet bathing suit.. kinda sucks. but not a big deal. i knew i would be swimming in budapest. hung out with my feet in the water for a while and then headed back to the boat to get my luggage at the hostel. did that and then hopped on my last vaporetto to go to the bus stop. i seriously love this city. i really really need to go back some day. im not really sad that i only had one and a half days there.. because i was by myself and going back with friends or family or whatever and spending some time there would be really cool. but by yourself ther isnt that much to do. it was a really really good relaxing 2 days there. it was like a vacation from my sightseeing vacation….eventually got to the bus station..its the last stop, found my bus and headed to treviso airport… which was like an hour away. easy easy. checked into my wizz air flight..that cost zero euros…with taxes this flight came out to 17 euros awesome. and then off to budapest to see trent and mor….
