Euro Adventure 2005

Despite a decent nights sleep it was still a struggle to raise my body from the sheets this morning! When the mission was finally accomplished, time had ticked on and I was heading down to the station to catch pretty much the same train as yesterday.

In much more confident mood today I opted to just hit the street and take myself wherever my feet carried me, just trying to head in the general direction of Piazza San Marco a good few bends away as you look at a map of the island.

Venice I was discovering rather quickly, wasn’t the easiest place to navigate on foot. I mean, there’s a lot of water for starters (yes, I know you know that) and it’s not possible to just walk along the side of the Grand Canal. I managed to for a while but before long I was being forced away from the great water way and off into side streets and across small stretches of water. I was now officially becoming acquainted with Venice’s backstreets where signposting comes and goes on a whim it seems. I was for the first time in my two days here feeling the warmth of the place. Monuments, buildings, shops and cafes that you never knew existed kept cropping up all over the place. It was odd to feel that in a City famed for its water, it was in such hidden beauties away from the blue passageways that I was experiencing my enjoyment of the place the most.

Not having a guidebook with me or anyone that knew Venice well (or even a few people sharing a little knowledge) I was wandering without any real plan. I didn’t really know what I should be looking for or wanting to see, I was a just hitting and hoping and I think I came out of it quite well! I’d passed the stop for Rialto on my way back from St Marks yesterday and when signs started appearing for it (whatever “it” was), I just followed. When I emerged into streams of tourists I knew I must have hit one of the hot spots and took myself around the streets along Per Rialto and over the bridge (taking time for a snap or 2).

Getting lost can be fun! It CAN be fun; it can also be a royal pain in the backside! My attempts at locating Academia brought me both sets of feelings! I figured after finding Rialto that things wouldn’t be difficult for me but somewhere along the lines I must have veered in the wrong direction and found myself walking alongside another large water way. This however, was NOT the Grand Canal. This was bigger, this was…well, somewhere completely and utterly wrong. Like I said though, wrong can be good, mistakes can turn fortunate and as I walked I as admiring churches galore across the canal. There was no visible way to get across this rather wide stretch of water but the views from where I was walking were certainly worth getting lost for. It was only after about 30 minutes walk and hitting a dead end that I started appreciating the other side of the coin. The one that makes you curse and swear under your breath! The 30 minute walk to get here was obviously going to mean 30 minutes backtracking! Damn this stupid water!

My eventual arrival in Academia was enough of an achievement to warrant a drink at one of the bars. A chance to recoup, recover, enjoy the sun and have a little read for a while. The ability to just take time and soak up a place by simply relaxing and people watching is highly underrated. There are folk that think they always need to be active, moving from this to that, a few pics here, a few pics there and off to the next site. For me, this is one of the great things about travelling. I get more a feel for a place and its people simply by stopping and doing nothing. So, sat relaxing with my coke (I remembered how much my beer had cost me yesterday!) and out of nowhere pops a marching band, a bunch of people with flags and seem to carry out some kind of protest for the next 15 minutes or so before marching back and onto somewhere else. There’s no great story to go with it, I don’t know what any of it was about but it certainly put a smile on my face as I sat there witnessing it!

My intended final destination of St Marks was to elude me today in the end as I eventually wound up on the island opposite it admiring the impressive church. With no obvious way to get across easily and with time pushing into the evening I was left with getting a Vaporetto back to the train station and the train back to my hotel for the night.

Tea consisted of a delightful McDonalds. I was just so hungry I couldn’t wait. I think the only plus point was that I couldn’t be ripped off! After dumping my stuff back at the hotel, a drink seemed like a good idea and the local bar a good option.

A good option huh? Well, that depends what you like! In one way it was a good option in that I wouldn’t have this story had I not gone, on the other hand, watching someone have the crap beaten from them piece by piece isn’t an enjoyable experience! Just sitting there minding my own business, writing some notes down and just generally chilling of my evening and suddenly I hear raised voices across the road. Before I know it there are punches being exchanged between 2 guys. Out of nowhere one of them is joined by 4 others who have all ganged up together on just one guy. It was nasty to witness as they held the guy down kicking him in the face, and then stamping on hid head to finish the job off before leaping into a couple of cars and speeding off before the police and ambulance arrive.

The whole thing had the feel of an incident in a sleepy old town where the whole village is woken by the goings on. This time it was one of the guys (maybe the owner) from the bar I was at who manage d to break the thing up by going over with his dog. I wasn’t long in finishing up my drink and heading back to retire for the evening. Onwards and upwards to Germany tomorrow!!

I didn’t survive entirely unscathed this morning from last nights over indulgencies but a little lay in and I wasn’t feeling too bad! Venice proper was the call of the day! A chance to explore the famed floating City and, after all, THIS was what I was here for! Eager to experience the wonders that may lie in front of me I set about getting into town.

Train or bus? Bus or train? Although the bus route had been explained to me yesterday by the owner of the hotel, I opted for what I saw as the “safe option” of the train. I mean, I knew where the station was, I knew that Santa Lucia was only 10 minutes or so away and, well, I had been getting trains everywhere so far so I should be experienced enough to get the short distance in without any problems. Right?

Mistake numero uno. It seemed simple enough (I should have already learnt from my experiences so far that “looking” and “being” are two entirely different concepts. So I shuffle along the underpass to select a platform. See the board say “Venezia S.L”, see the train was only 15 minutes away and think” Job done”.

Job, definitely NOT done. About 3 minutes before the train is due in, the board changes, farewell Venezia S.L, and hello somewhere completely different. Now, maybe I somehow fell asleep or time stopped but I had witnessed no train to Venice come in or leave and I as feeling somewhat perplexed. A confused little soul now, I wandered back down to the underpass to see if I could locate another train into Santa Lucia. Seeing that about half of the platforms had it listed I opted for the next available one (a few minutes time) and this time a few minutes down the line, I was on a train to famous canal laden City.

Arriving into Santa Lucia station and just generally following the masses out, I figured life should get a little simpler. Yep, bingo! You got it! Mistake number 2 of the young day! I had been told that the Vaporetto #1 would take me down to Piazza San Marco (why not start with arguably the most famous square in Venice) and that seemed pretty straight forward. It didn’t take me long to locate the entrance for said water bus and just as it came in I overheard someone saying that this was heading to Piazzale Roma, which a quick check on the map indicated that I was indeed about to get on the bus in the opposite direction to St Marks. To confuse matters further, the stop for St Marks (Piazza San Marco) isn’t called either of those names. Instead you should get off at Vallaresso and my lack of knowledge nearly cost me getting off at the correct stop!

Hoping I had indeed got off at the correct stop, I was pleasantly surprised, not to mention relieved that as I stepped around the corner, Piazza San Marco stood before me! Stress abated and a new found eagerness to explore, I just had a wonder around the square but felt somewhat lost without my guidebook. Coming across a museum I decided on a whim to just go with it. The Doges Palace or “Palazzo Ducale” is “a combination of Byzantine, Gothic and renaissance architecture”, Grande certainly yet not so much spectacular as bizarre. The mix of grandeur, a maze of rooms without direction (meaning I wound back in the same rooms on several occasions) and the labyrinthine prison cells made for an interesting if claustrophobic experience. I did wonder if I’d ever find my way back out!! 3 hours later I was back in the warm sun and settling down to some lunch!

Ah yes, Lunch. Better chalk this one up as mistake number three. I figured I had got this one right, restaurant off the main drag, check the prices first, order something small. So my Omelette came with the small beer I had ordered. I think it was small all round! I dint exactly get a feasting from the omelette so I made the most of the bread that came with it. I figured I had done pretty well so was, how can I put this nicely, “shocked” when the bill arrived! €9 for the omelette (That was fine, I knew that), €7 (yes, that’s seven) for the beer (!!!), €3 for the water (hold on, I was just brought this!) and €2 for the bread (ditto the water), oh and don’t forget the compulsory €3 service charge. Making for a grand total of €25 for just an Omelette and a beer. The conclusion? I’d been well and truly shafted!

Grumbling as I walked away with directions to the internet cafe I swore that was my only eat out meal in Venice and I would feed myself by alternate means for the rest of my time here. After a walk up and down the street I was again pointed in the right direction to what can loosely be described as an “internet cafe”. In reality it was a shop with a couple of PCs charging the earth to use a connection slower than Victoria Beckham’s mind! It did just about survive me booking my hostels for Munich (I couldn’t get in my first choice and it was a little more expensive than I thought) and for Prague.

Heading back to Mestre was almost as much fun as getting here this morning with no indication anywhere as to which stations any train called at. I wound up waiting to get directions from the help desk who pointed me in the direction of platform 14. The rest was plain sailing and I was back at my hotel before I knew it. Catching up with my washing kept me amused most of the evening along with the TV coverage of Hurricane Rita. An early night and damn, those mosquitoes bite!