Romey Rome (still don't get the reference)

...before you say anything, I fully understand that this is more than two weeks late, that I fail at blogging on time, that we all got extremely lazy (I blame heat exhaustion) after visiting Rome, and that most of us have been back in the states for a good week and a half.

But you know what, Mei is still in Europe! So this totally counts as a 'Europe for the Lulzies' post. It's legit.

And besides, you know you all want to know what went down in Rome...

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So at this point, we're totally done with all that train/ferry nonsense, and we're back to just flying place to place. The downside of this? Getting from the airport to the actual city. Apparently, Rome airport is full of unofficial drivers/scammers hoping to get a little extra cash out of unwary tourists. At least, that's what we read, what we were told, so we were perfectly wary. An overenthusiastic but shady lady kept following us, to get us to take their shuttle service to the main city. We avoided her, and found a cheaper bus outside, but of course, the cheaper bus made us wait a good 45 minutes. Shady lady's deal didn't sound so bad, after all, but, too late.

A couple hours later, we arrive in the Termini train station, in Rome. Once again, we're completely lost.
BUT.... I use my fantastic sense of direction and navigational skills to take us straight to our hostel. (Don't take all the credit, Jake.) This hostel was run by the sweetest lady, and also happened to be right above a very delicious Italian restaurant. Win. Only downside... no air-conditioning. In Rome. Ugh.

Sweet hostel lady made us breakfast the next morning...she set out these tables, put out everything we could've liked, and had tea for us too. All while listening to 'My Heart Will Go On' for at least four or five times, in a row.

The next morning, half of us are out of cash, so we head out early to an ATM in order to pay for our hostel. On the way (a mere two minute walk) we pass a beautiful basilica, a parade of tourist nuns, and excellent shopping stands run by Indians (who else?). Marianne promptly decides that we all need to get in on the European fashion, and buy ourselves each a pair of parachute pants:

...no thanks.

Despite the heat, we decide to cover our knees and shoulders, and head out to the Vatican. Jake and his amazing sense of direction take us to the metro going the wrong direction--towards the colloseum, rather than away. Of course, once we get out of the station to change directions, we're immediately distracted by the giant ancient wonder just across the street from us. Commence jumping picture.

As we try to leave, a very charming and very cute New Yorker asks to be our tour guide, a fantastic deal involving explanations of the colloseum AND the Roman forum AND the Palatino Hill, and the wonderful opportunity to skip lines altogether. Except, we dressed for the Vatican, which wouldn't be open the next day (Sunday). So, we had to say no to the cute New Yorker. =(

First stop: Jake's highly recommended church. I don't remember the name, but it looked pretty cool from the outside. (Keep in mind we haven't seen THE church, St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, yet). We cooled down inside the church, and went down to the crypt (which was disappointingly empty, but at least very cold/chilly).

Next stop...Fontana di Trevi! This beautiful Baroque fountain is constantly surrounded by tourists. There are cops, hidden among the crowds, making sure no poor soul dying of heat exhaustion dares to stick a little toe in the fountain, risking some ridiculously high fine. According to Wikipedia (yes, I didn't actually confirm this fact until now, two weeks later), throwing a coin into the fountain ensures a return to Rome. Throwing two coins promises a new romance, and throwing three ensures either marriage or divorce. I tossed one in, but I can't remember if I tossed in a second... =/

(PS: you'll be glad to know those 3000 euros that get tossed in daily by tourists actually go towards subsidizing a market for the needy. So, we're actually all very charitable.)

Lunch time. We finally found a place that satisfies everyone--kebabs/pizzas for Jake, curry/rice for the Asians (and Andrea), and chicken as an option for Neha. =D

Vatican City. It's a million degrees outside. First thing to do: eat gelato! (again!)

St. Peter's Basilica... we're all congratulating ourselves on remembering to cover our knees and shoulders, because all around us tourists are getting turned around (after waiting in line in the heat) for inappropriate clothing. This is where we realized how clever the souvenir sellers are... we saw so many women (and a few poor guys) awkwardly draping cheap scarves around their knees and shoulders, trying to be decent enough to get into the church. One women nearly had a whole outfit of those scarves, which makes you wonder what on earth she was wearing outside the church.. o_O

So, this is basically the most beautiful church. It has to be, considering how much money--in gold, in gemstones, even in ancient, now-extinct marble "donated" from other buildings around Rome--has gone into its construction.

Somehow, in our awe, we get split up...Jake and Neha go up to the cupola (which was apparently breathtaking), and the rest of us head to the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel.

We just manage to get inside the museum before the doors close. Naturally, we want to see the Sistine Chapel first... which is apparently what every single person in the museum wants to do. So, after following a few signs, we eventually join something like a herd of tourists mixed with tour groups. For the next hour or more, we have to move at the snail-pace of picture-happy tourists, in halls that sometimes don't have air conditioning, surrounded by increasingly sweaty bodies. Somewhere in this complete fire hazard, we realize we're passing truly beautiful paintings, gilded walls and ceilings, intricate galleries of artwork...basically, things that turned out to be more beautiful than the Sistine Chapel itself. When we finally made it (after an attempt to find a bathroom turned out to be a convenient short cut), we're in a very dark room, full of people craning their necks to look at The Creation of Adam. It would've been serene, since we were in a chapel, if the security guards didn't keep yelling "no pictures!" or "silence!!" every couple minutes.

I did manage to take a blurry picture of the Sistine Chapel. Just to, you know, be rebellious.

Neha and Jake unfortunately didn't get into the museum on time, so since it was getting late, we decided to head back to the hostel for dinner. We ate at a snack bar, just for their cheap pitcher of sangria. Then, we hit the convenience store next to our hostel for some wine and beer (and contemplated buying penis-shaped pasta--"NOT SEXY"). Back at the hostel, we tried our own version of karaoke, which mostly involved a lot of "Lonely Island" and "Michael Buble". Eventually, we gave up, and decided that Neha should watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1... except she fell asleep.

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I just realized I covered one day in that giant essay of a post. I'm feeling much lazier now, so, here's the rest of the trip:

SUNDAY

- Girls head to flea market, across the river.

- Roman buses often decide to randomly change their bus stop locations, without notifying anyone.

- Why are there so many Indians at these markets? ...because they are natural at haggling back.

- It's unbelievably hot outside. We give up halfway around the market, and head back. Mei purchased a cute white dress (that, we later discover, is see-through)

- Meet Jake at colloseum bus stop for lunch.

- We are never eating at snack bars again.

- Hit another convenience store: our group will never lack for gummies, Fanta, Kinder Bueno (yes, we're a healthy bunch)

- Find another tour group to join. Discover our Colloseum tour guide is an old Italian guy who prefers telling jokes over telling history. Definitely miss the cute, charming New Yorker.

- We walk like Romans, heads held up high, straight into the Colloseum, looking disdainfully at the plebians waiting in line to get in. (As told by the tour guide)

- Commence jumping pictures, including solo shots! (Marianne, upload these! =D)

- Our tour guide actually tried to convince us that the Colloseum was the venue of many good things. In fact, he tried to make us think like the Romans, and feel arrogant when watching these fights, or perfectly righteous when petty criminals were sent to the arena to basically be killed. Mostly, we were just a little mortified.

- Second tier of the colloseum has a good view, and is a museum of sorts. I take this chance to massage my feet and take a little nap. Rome is exhausting.

- Our tour guide for the Palatino Hill turns out to be an old British guy, who was probably once a commentator for BBC. His words were so exact, so precise, spoken so slowly you could literally hear that they were italicized. So, naturally, we learned a lot more, he was excellent.

- Apparently lots and lots of marble from Palatino Hill (which includes Remus's and Romulus's huts, Augustus's home, and essentially the origins of Rome) was "donated" to the Vatican City.

- The Roman Forum was closing for the evening, so we missed out on that. =(

- Dinner near the hostel again: This restaurant was run by Indians. We actually had bunny (according to the menu). The waiter thoroughly enjoyed serving us, and even gave me and Neha a high-five on the way out. Andrea tried getting a high-five, but was rejected for being white.

- Jake took us on his own version of a walking tour of Rome, at night! Fontana di Trevi was crowded as ever, but we saw lots of other piazzas.

- The Piazza near the Pantheon was amazing. We enjoyed watching a little string duet play amazing pieces.

- Andrea and I decided we will one day bring our clarinet and flute and busk in Europe.

 MONDAY

- Jake continues his walking tour of Rome, having decided to walk from the hostel to Vatican City.

- The rest of us are lazier, and take the metro up to Piazza del Popolo, the Spanish Steps, and eventually Piazza Navona. Everything was wonderfully Roman and old and pretty.

- Lunch: we find this amazing, well-hidden restaurant that has many awards and clearly doesn't expect tourists often. Win.

- Neha splits off to visit the Sistine Chapel with Jake, since they missed out on it before.

- Andrea and I have more gelato. Honestly, it's too hot to do anything else.

- We wander around, trying to find a good park or some cool/shady place that would be good for reading or taking a nap. We take a tram across the river, and proceed to get completely lost in the other side of Rome. We manage to find the one park that isn't free because it's a botanical garden. Eventually, we end up at the top of a hill, near some academy, that has a fantastic view of Rome but not much else.

- A bus rescues us, and takes us back to the tram.

- Andrea and I hit up a church near Navona, which has Carvaggio's works. He's known for his use of  chiaroscuro, or strong light/dark contrasts. Unfortunately, to properly see this, you need to put in a euro so that the hall that has the paintings is actually lit up. Very clever.

- At Navona, to kill time, Marianne draws a part of Bernini's statue, and it looks absolutely awesome.

- Mei draws a section of Piazza de Navona, which looks pretty cool too.

- Andrea and I draw up a strange mix of Piazza de Navona, the Mediterranean, and a very dark and dreary sunset. Let's just call it abstract.

- Marianne and Mei proceed to buy $100s worth of paintings. (Well not that much, but quite a lot.)

- We meet up with my cousin Rachna!! =D

- Apparently the tram we took early completely disappeared, so after much wandering around, we settled for a restaurant near Campo del Fiori. And yes, we finally had tiramisu! Except, it was this unnaturally warm blob of a tiramisu.

- We hit the hostel to drop of paintings, purses, and freshen up some. Andrea is smart, and decides to have an early night (since she's flying back to US the next morning).

- The rest of us aren't so smart...

- There's only one bar that was definitely open and easily accessible, and it was unnaturally American, complete with beer pong.

- We will never let Neha buy drinks again. =P

- ...maybe it wasn't such a good idea to go out the night before our early flight to Dublin.

- Enter another bar, which has pennants for many US colleges. OU and UT are right next to each other, although UT is covered up by some other giant banner. Jerks.

- ...what happened the rest of the night in Rome, will just stay in Rome. =]

The next morning...

Andrea left us, to head to a different airport for her international flight. (And then there were five...)

Honestly, it was a miracle we made it on time to the airport. Let's just say we owe a lot to the sweet hostel lady and her husband.

Soon enough... we were in Dublin.

ATHENSSSSSS

Captain's log, supplemental. Stardate 2011

I'm the only one motivated to write blogs around here. Seriously guys. I'm sure people are tired of reading me.

Hokay so. Athens, well, let's see the most recent post is Venice so I'll start from there. We had a lazy day in Venice, Andrea wasn't feeling well, we did some laundry, went to the market, etc. I watched Top Gear... We got to our It left the station at something like 6pm. The first train ride was fine. Uneventful in fact. I lost my camera. I watched the train that held it leave the station, so I asked around and decided to deal with it when the station was actually open. The second train was a bit trickier. First a quiet young man said he had the 6th seat in our cabin (one we tried to get for Neha since she booked later), so we politely asked him to switch seats with her, and he obliged. Then another young man came and said he had the 6th seat in our cabin (on we tried to get for Neha since she booked later), so we got of the train to find a conductor, found the 1st young man, helped him find his seat, asked the second young man to take that seat (he didn't have good english so he ended up offering to take it) and then we settled in for our 7(?) hour train ride.

It was horrible. The worst expirience of the trip. We're spending 7 sleeping hours on the coldest train known to man. Everyone had a jacket on, and most of the girls had a towel. I don't think anyone of us slept for or than an hour consecutively. We were not well rested and I was miserable.

So then we're in Brindisi. I end up being directed to a cop about my camera. He makes a bunch of phone calls and ends up with nothing. I filed a lost/stolen item report, but I don't think anything will come of it. So in Brindisi we walk around the city for a while. We end up in a small square where a few us laid down to nap. We moved into a cafe after a while and charged some electronics while we had gelato. Then we moved to a pizzeria where we had lunch. Then we moved back to the square while we waited for a shuttle to take us to the port. We waited a long time because apparently Brindisi observes siesta hour(s). We played heart while we waited. I won.

Suddenly. Rain. It was rather heavy at times. We got off the shuttle at the ferry (we were looking for a large boat and we found it), but we were told we needed to be at the ticket office which was a solid 400 yards away... in the rain. So we made it there, got our tickets, and started to walk back, but the nice shuttle driver saw us and gave us a lift back to the ferry. We boarded and got settled in for our 18 hour ferry ride. We all ended up in the airplane style seats even though we only paid for two seats. I did a lot of sleeping. I watched a movie at some point. I didn't go outside for a view until the last 45 minutes of our trip, but I still got some fantastic views. We landed finally having spent two nights on the road... in Patras.

So after a bit of questioning (and staring blankly at Greek signs) we started our trek to the bus station that would get us to Athens. We got there got our tickets, and apparently Marianne wanted something salty in her mouth. The bus ride was nice. Neha and I listened to music on my iPod to pass the time (2.5 hours of hectic Greek high way driving). So finally in Athens. We get off one bus, then get onto another. We end up in Omonia (pronounced a lot like pneumonia) and the girls, who recently have become worse with directions and maps than the 3 stooges, led me around the square for 10 minutes before I arrested the map from them and got us to our hostel.

The hostel was nice. Private room, private shower, friendly staff. I think it's my favorite so far. They also had air conditioning! It's more common in Greece, and the food is generally cheaper too! The first day there we tried to go to museum. 'It closes at 8pm'. LIES!!!! D:< Wandering around led to dinner at a decent restaurant (with cheap beer) and we retired for the night. I was deathly tired from our travelling so I crashed. The girls tried to go out, but they like me too much and couldn't stand to be without me so they came back 20-30 minutes after they left with cake for me and I awoke (12 hours later) to a note that read, 'Dear garbage disposal, finish the cake.' I did.

The next day we were up early and off to the Akropoli! This was one of my most anticipated destinations of the trip, and I'd studied the Parthenon and the surrounding architecture quite a bit. Unfortunately, it was blazing outside, and the place was packed full of tourists. If you look at my albums on facebook you'll get a good idea of what it was like to be there. We spent as much time as we could there considering the heat, and then we were off. We had lunch at a place called 'Smile' who had the most brilliant advertising ever: Put a map of the area at the Metro exit, and plaster your restaurant's name all over it in addition to explicit instructions on how to get there. After lunch we went to the Acropolis museum. The architecture was fascinating to me. I spent more time matching up the portportions of the museum and the acropolis than looking at the actual artifacts. The glass floors showing ancient houses below the building were quite cool, too. Later we ended up at some shops and Starbucks... 'cause where else are you going to go when you're in Europe, and we got dinner to go so we could watch Harry Potter in our hostel before crashing for the night.

Then today we did some laundry (thanks Marianne ^_^)went out for lunch, hit up some shops, starbucks again, and then we made our way back to the hostel and the airport. The flight was uneventful and landed us in Romey Rome. (does anyone know this reference? I can't remember where I heard/read/saw it)

Geneva ... A summary

Shivani fails at blogging.........

Jk, she just doesn't have time to write the Geneva post and someone *cough, jake* *cough* wanted this post written. Ok, so here are some of the highlights of our Geneva trip.

- We actually did very little in Geneva. To sum it up, we: slept, cooked dinner, slept, saw nico, slept, went to the lake, slept, partied, slept.
- When we arrived at the train station, Nico was already there to welcome us with hugs and kisses. So properly European. He then proceed on giving us a purse full of Swiss franks and ushered us ourside to go explore the city while he went back to work. He took a long lunch break just to welcome us to Geneva. The sweet man.
- Went to paquis beach, which was technically not a beach cuz instead of sand, it has rocks. Switzs have a weird definition of what a beach is. We had delicious smoked salmon there for lunch ( except for Neha cuz she doesnt eat seafood. Weird girl. She's missing out on life)
- Then, the whole getting to nico's place fiasco occurred. Nico had an important presentation to make that day to the CEO of PrivatAir. To his and our dismay, it was delayed. A lot. We didn't know where he lives so we basically spent the most part of the our late afternoon, late evening waiting for Nico to finish his presentation. Played phone tag for a bit. Waited outside of his workplace for a bit . No biggy. It was fine. He aced his presentation.
- when we finally got to his place, we had barbecue for dinner. Mei did an awesome job grilling. Andrea and Shivani made mean salads and baked veggies. Dinner was great.
- oh, yea, btw, Nico lives in France and works in Geneva. Blows my mind.
- Also, Nico is THE MAN for letting us stay in his awesomely modern apartment ( honestly, it's a techie den. He has an irobot that sweeps
his floor when he's away. He had a Dyson air multiplier... His apartment is basically a mini Apple store...). it's safe to say that we all liked his place.
-Jake wants to be Nico when he grows up. If he ever.
- 2nd day in Geneva: we tried to explore the old part of Geneva. We were eh, not really successful cuz we had no destination in mind. We ended up playing like children on a playground. Then we had nothing better to do so we went back to the 'beach'. Jake and Neha went there first. The rest of the group went on a boat tour on the lake before joining Jake and Neha in the beach.
- boat tour was fun and relaxing. Saw the house of the guy who invented colgate, among other things.
- chilled at the beach.
- I almost drown in the beach. Had a cram on my leg while swimming to a nearby barge... Gah, scared me shitless.
- We had cheese fondue for dinner that night.
- 3rd day was rest day. Shivani, Andrea and I opted to stay home while the rest of the group went up some hill to see the alps. But they didn't see the Alps. So, they went ahead and had classy beer. (this is what happened according to Jake ). I was sick and had to miss out on this fun trip.
-4th day: CERN day!!
- we went to CERN to try and see the particle accelerator. But that didn't work out since you had to book a tour a month or two beforehand. We did see 2 exhibitions and learned about antimatter and the universe.
- We got ticketed for riding the tram without paying. We= everyone else but me cuz I was lucky and found a ticket somebody left in the ticket machine.... Haha
- Cool fact: Nico's apt was built on top of the particle accelerator.
- We brought a little bit of our 'TXB ballroom craziness' to Geneva. Truth or dare anyone?
- We cooked dinner almost every night. Deliciousness ensued.
- We partied at nico's place almost every night.
- everyone kissed everyone....It was a big orgie, weeeehhhhhhh !!!!!!! Just kidding. No, not kidding. No, really, just kiddin
- SHOUT OUT TO NICO ----- Thank you sooo much for letting us stay in your apartment!! It was great catching up with you. I can't beleive that it's been 3 years since I've seen you! See you again in 3 years! Stay in touch!!!
- I'm sleepy.



Peace out.

Verdict on tap water

Amsterdam tap water: 0k
Madrid tap water: eh.
Barcelona tap water: GROSS
Geneva tap water: water for the gods
Venice tap water: eh.

introduction to the Geneva post shivani will write...

Ok, Geneva.

First thing that comes to my mind is: blue. The water in Geneva is soo clear and soo blue, it's simply breathtaking. It feels as if you soul is cleansed just by looking at the water. The weather was also beautiful. It was a nice balance of cool breeze and hot sun. It makes you want to jump into the water every time...Except for me. Since I almost drown in the Lake...

Oh, Geneva.

Girl's day out in Venezia

Day 2 in Venezia.

Jake woke me up to get the pin code for my phone that he was borrowing for the day. He needed it because he was going to meet his girlfriend, michelle to spend the day in Venice. Which meant, today was girl's day out!

We got up and going really early (by our standards), and first tried to hit the Minoan Lines to see if we could get deck tickets on the ferry to Patras for free with our Eurail tickets. We were contemplating this option because it would take us to our destination 5 hours earlier than the ferry tickets we had now. It was quite an ordeal getting to the Minoan Lines ticketing office. We took the water bus to the Tronchetta stop, and there we asked for directions. We were told to go toward the people mover. So we walked toward the bridge and there were signs along the way telling us that we were going in the right direction for the people mover. We reach the bridge, and the people mover turns out to be a tram that we had to pay 5 euros for. We refused to pay the 5 euros and walked the bridge to the other side and then to the MInoan Lines ticketing office. Once there, we talked to the lady behind the counter about getting tickets on deck with our Eurail pass. She told us it would cost 42 euros. It was technically free, but it cost 42 euros in fuel surchage, port taxes, peak season surcharge and so on and so forth. We argued with her, showing her the page in our Eurail guide where it said FREE, and she pulled up another piece of document showing us that it wasn't FREE. We tried to counter her evidence with another line in our Eurail guide and in true European fashion, she basically just said, NO.

We then headed out to visit the two islands surrounding Venice that were major tourist destinations: Murano and Burano. We took the water bus back to the Ferrovia station and waited for what must have been an hour before the direct water bus to Murano arrived. Meanwhile, we were in awe of the beauty of Venezia. Bridges, the canal, gondolas, italian men against a backdrop of awe-inspiring architecture (mostly churches and museums). We posed for photos using Marianne's camera and then started to get bored and hungry. Naturally, we start braiding each other's hair. Or rather, I start to braid Neha and Andrea's hair. And to fill the rest of the time we ate candy that Marianne had brought.

The water bus ride to Murano took about an hour. Once we were at the stop we were shepperded by an italian guy to a place where we could apparently watch a glass blowing demonstration. We were brought to what seemed like the back of an empty warehouse. Were we about to get robbed? Alas, an Indian-looking young man came out and told us that we had to pay 3 euros to watch the show. We were, again, obedient. We paid 3 euros and went into the warehouse and waited for the demonstration. Except for Neha, of course. There aren't many things in the world that Neha would pay 3 euros for. The young man put the end of a metal shaft into a burning furnace (at about 2000 celcius), and then blew into the shaft from the other end. (I know how this sounds but I cannot put it another way). A sort of maleable glass bubble formed and he twisted and manipulated the shaft so as to fashion the bubble into some sort of vase. We were impressed. Then an old italian man who looked as if he had just gotten out of bed, came out and took over with the glass blowing. IT was apparent that the young man was his apprentice. This old italian man did not even care to look at/address the audience, he just walked in there and started to blow glass like he was just doing his job. He made a horse! We were ultra impressed. Andrea now wanted a glass horse. The apprentice took over one last time and fashioned a three-bubble glass structure, which he broke violently on the ground to signal the end of the show.

We then proceeded to the glass shops. I slowly realize there are nothing but glass shops and restaurants in Murano. Of course, Murano is, after all, famous for its glass. After shopping for a while, we decided to eat at this semi-fancy italian place. We ordered baked sea bass, dory fish, and spaghetti alla carbonara to share. The sea bass was tender and delicious. The carbonara was good. The dory fish did not appear to be fish at all. We cut it open and realized it was pretty much medium rare. It took us a couple of bites to finally realize that it was steak, not dory fish. (Deductive reasoning is our strong suit I promise). If it looks like steak, and tastes like steak, it IS steak. It wasn't bad so we didn't send it back to the kitchen.

We then continued with our shopping. Marianne found a couple of souvenirs and bought a venetian mask for one of our friends back home. We took a couple of jumping photos in front of a giant glass structure. They turned out great on shivani/marianne's camera. We then hurriedly left for Burano, which was about another half hour away.

Burano is an island known for it's lace. By the time we got there, most of the shops were about to close already. We did some fast-paced impulse shopping. Andrea, neha and I bought a scarf each for ourselves, and I bought one for my mother too. We finally met up with Marianne and Shivani (we got split up earlier during the impulse shopping). We were trying to find our way to the water bus stand, but we somehow got lost, futher and further into the residential areas. But we didnt' mind, because the houses were quaint and they were all strikingly different, bright colors. Bright red flowers were found at the bottom of every other wooden window of those houses. Some houses were by a stream. Those houses were connected to its neighbors by an arched bridge. Boats, as brightly colored as the houses, were parked on each side of the stream. Photo ops presented itself at every corner, every alleyway, every turn. We procedeed to take emo-hipster looking portraits of ourselves in front of the houses. However, the sun was going down and we couldn't adjust the exposure on our cameras to make the photos work. Shivani's camera battery died and Marianne's camera memory was full. At this point we started missing Jake's camera.

The water bus ride back to the mainland was a sleepy one. Once we reached the mainland, we decided to grab dinner at a pizzeria, where we had a fun time trying to read the menu in Italian. We looked up certain words on Marianne's iPod touch to decipher the ingredients listed in the menu. We ended up getting the Australian (which turned out to be ham and pineapple), the Venezian (asparagus and egg), and the vegetarian (which was the most delicious of them all). I was rather impressed with the pizza, but the girls decided that american pizza was much better.

We then preceded to stroll along the alleys toward the opposite end of the island, where the water buses are. We somehow managed to hit a major tourist shopping spot. Souvenir shops presented themselves everywhere on that street. As we were walking, an Italian man pointed to a small alleyway that branched out from that main street and yelled "Riato!" at us. We yelled back, "what is Riato?", to which he replied in an italian accent "Parr-ty!". Neha and I started to follow the random stranger, but the rest of the group decided not to. So we decided not to. We either missed an amazing party with italian men and free drinks, or missed getting robbed in a strange alleyway. We will never know.

We stopped at some amazing Venetian mask shops and tried some masks on. Mostly, we just window shopped. Then, on the street, we see an italian guy in nothing but his underwear and a trenchcoat (classic creep I know) walk by us. His possie of guy friends were laughing openly at him. One of the guys came up to us and asked if we spoke english. He then told us that his friend was about to get married tomorrow, and then he became less and less comprehensible. He then took out this large band-aid looking thing and pulled down on the sticky strap. The girls said EWWWWWW and walked off. I did not know what this meant at first. But I was later told that the man had wanted us to wax his friend's chest. In retrospect that didn't sound that bad at all. Neha then went on to say how we had missed out on two opportunities today to do something fun. The next time a man offers an opportunity for us to wax his chest, we will surely say yes.

We came closer and closer to the Ferrovia stop when we found a wine/liquor store that was giving out free samples of its fruity cream liquor. Most of it was quite disgusting, but hey, we never turn down free alcohol. We went into the shop and picked out a couple bottles of white wine. The salesman was very thoughtful, he opened the bottles for us and gave us plastic cups to go. We finally got the the Ferrovia station and boarded the water bus.

Dreading the 40 minute ride ahead, we took the seats outside, at the end of the boat, and Neha decides that we should start drinking. Immediately. This was possible because the bottles were opened for us. So we all got poured a cup and we started drinking discreetly, because we did not know if this was illegal or not. We had about two cups when we finally reached our hostel. We sat ourselves outside the hostel by the water and started pouring ourselves wine again when Jake conveniently appears to join the group. We shared some wine with him and told each other about our days. There was only enough alcohol among the six of us for us to be almost tipsy, so we ended the night pretty early.

All in all, a good day out in Venezia.

Three days in Venice scrambled our brains ...

Just got back from the laundrymat. Everything around me is still swaying even though I am on solid ground. I like the concept of waterbuses but I don't think I'll ever get use to it.

One thing you need to know about Venice is that Venice is ridiculously unreal.

Venice has CGI water...honestly. Water cannot look that good. On top of that, every where you look is an instant photo op. Everytime you round a corner, you see a canal with bridges and boats zooming past each other with a gorgeous backdrop of Venician churches and buildings. Venice is just that good. It's ridiculous.

Yesteday, I sat outside the hostel by the water to read a book. Picture this...picture yourself gazing at the island of Venice, the sky a mystery of colors. Red, pink, purple, orange, yellow and brown all mixed together to give the picture perfect landscape. The sun melting into the horizon. A gondola passing by right when the sun kisses the water. The marble churches glistening in the horizon...it was spectacular. Just ridiculous.

Another thing about Venice is that it has scrambled our brains a bit...for instance...

As Shivani stepped outside the hostel, she went "wow... so watery"

Then, later, as we were waiting for the vaporetto #2 to arrive, Shivani went: "I like the breeze. It's so breezy." Then we proceeded to eat candy, braid each others' hair and sing 'I want candy." We are such children.

...Then later in the evening, after dinner. some guys asked us to celebrate a bachelor party with them by waxing the poor bachelor's chest...awesome. Unfortunately, we were not women enough to say yes...There was also a random incident where 2 guys asked us to go with them to a shady alley to a party...


And then, when Mei woke up this morning, she found her towel, one of her sandals and one of my flipflops in a shower stall... 8 wine bottles + 6 ppl = the Hangover, in Venice... Enough said.

Venice was fun.

...ridiculous...

Venizia

When we arrived in the train station, we fumbled about for a bit looking into tickets for the bus boats, known here as vaperetto, and ended up at a vodaphone booth buying prepaid sim cards that we could use around italy. Meanwhile I'm keeping my eyes peeled for my Uncle John who I haven't seen for a few years, but, as I found out later, his train left the station before ours arrived so we missed that connection.

As we're standing at the vodaphone booth a familiar face says, 'Jake?' I thought this person may have been somehow related to my finding my uncle, but the freaky ginger (inside joke) quickly introduced herself as Lauren who was part of the same study abroad program as my girlfriend Michelle. Lauren led me outside to where there were sitting and Michelle and I had a bit of a reunion and creeper Livio(also inside joke) documented the occasion.

That group was waiting for their professor and were headed for a museum, so we had a few minutes to hang around, but then they were off leaving the 5 of us (Neha was stuck on a later train with a true creeper who made a move on her 30 minutes into the ride) to buy our vaperetto passes and find our hostel. It was a beautiful ride around venice to the largest of the islands to the south. If you walk outside the front door of our hostel you are greeted with a beautiful expanse of water and a view of the buildings in San Marco square while ferries, vaperetto and even some cruise ships float by. After we checked in we stepped back outside where a rather affordable restaurant awaited us. I FINALLY got a cheeseburger, but I also ordered a Piadini roll which is quite tasty. Marianne had some sea food stuff which made her sick... again. After dinner we... um.... slept. Too much. I woke up around the time Neha was supposed to arrive at the Ferrovia (train station) and I woke up the girls and only Mei and Andrea were willing to go with me. So we hopped on the next vaperetto and headed back to the train station. We got Neha uneventfully and brought her back to the hostel.

The next day we split up. I took a phone and headed out early (well, it felt early) to meet the UT Italy group who had a busy day of museums planned. It was a wonderful day and it was really great getting to spend some time with Michelle. And in Venice! The romantic in me was going nuts. Anywho, it was really fun hanging out with the group. I heard a lot of inside jokes, and I heard A LOT of italian speech, but I'm really grateful for my inclusion in the group. They started the day at la Gallerie dell'Academia which has mostly historical Venetian art including lots of paintings used in churches. We then walked to San Marco square where we saw the bridge of sighs, the Basilica and the Doge's palace (but we didn't go in because we're all total cheap college kids) and the took a vaperetto back towards our starting point to go to the Peggy Guggenheim museum. This was my favorite. And the best museum so far in my opinion. It was small, but it kept the group busy for about and hour and a half. Then the group wandered around for a bit, and we ended up a really great restaurant where I had tortellini, a porkchop and some sort of dessert that resembled ice cream cake in consistency, but tasted waaay better. I walked the group back to the train station and had a quick goodbye with Michelle, then I headed back to the hostel to find the girls drinking wine by the water's edge. Classy. One of the girls will have to tell you about their day in more detail. From what I gathered they went to some islands, did a bunch of shopping (not sad that I missed that), and took some hipster pics.

The following day I took the girls around where I had been. Our first stop was San Marco square, but since it was a Sunday, the church was closed 'til 2, but it was nice to wander around the area for a bit. We then walked to the Guggenheim (I spared them the boredom of la Accademia :P) and Marianne, Shivani and Mei went in while Neha, Andrea and I wandered around and eventually ended up just sitting on some church steps for a while with a great view of the Grand Canal. We then went back to the basilica and had a look around there. The rest of the day was pretty chill: we went back to the hostel, 4 of us went out for dinner (Marianne and Andrea were sleepy heads) and with a couple of bottles of wine in hand we made it back to the hostel where we got classy again in front of our hostel. Inevitably, the group of 5 girls attracted some guys, who added to our wine consumption, but there's nothing eventful to report, except that Mei is a total fun killer and went to bed really early. Now. This ferry business...