Venice

After a wonderful couple days in Rome, Jannah made her way north to Venice, Italy. We boarded a water-bus that docked right outside our hostel, it was such a cool way to travel.

We were really hungry when we arrived, but all the stores were closed, however, we discovered this little pizza joint a couple doors down advertising "The Best Pizza in Venice." To say I was excited would be quite the understatement. Hannah and I walked into the restaurant with giant smiles on our faces that quickly turned upside down when we weren't even achknowledge after standing there for a couple minutes...literally. We gave our order to this doll of a lady who didn't even look at us while we ordered. We sat their patiently as our pizza baked which seemed like forever (maybe it was due to all that extra love that went into preparing it!) To top it all off, we ate that pizza, and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't the "best." Liars.

The next day, we went out to explore the city. We headed to St. Marco's Square which was surrounded by historical churches, an old palace, and many restaurants. Within the square were hundreds of pigeons that are completely unafraid of people. At first, this provided us with joyous entertainment. We would kneel down and place some potato chips at our feet just to watch the little birdies eat it all up. However, somewhere along the way, Hannah and I thought it was a good idea to start strategically placing crumbs on eachother without eachother's knowledge. Definitely funny when I did it to Hannah, I didn't think it was funny when it happened to me though.

The city is famous for its glass blowing, so there were numerous little boutiques filled with beatiful jewelry, statues, and other items complete made from colored glass. I'm pretty sure Hannah and I went into almost every one....twice.
That evening, we headed to the grocery store and purchased many snacks to last us for our trip. We covered pretty much every food group: gummy bears, cupcakes, sandwiches, gelato, and pizza flavored chips (not a fan). We were pretty tired from walking around all day, so we decided to have a stay-in night and just played some cards and listened to music. About an hour into our festivities, a lady walks into our room and lays in the bed next to our bunks carrying only a half full bottle of Fanta and a pouch with a Marijuana leaf on it. YAY, New Roommate!!!

Later that night, while everyone was asleep, I wake up to the most terrifying noise I have ever heard. I'm afraid of the dark as it is, so I was scared to open my eyes. However, upon closer listening I realized this sound was coming from the bunk directly beside me. It was that loony lady snoring. It sounded like the mix between a garbage disposal and an exorcism. I kicked Hannah's bed to see if she was hearing the sounds I did, and she was. Jannah assessed the situation and agreed to give her a few minute grace period, becuase there was no way in hell that that type of snoring could last too long. WRONG! I therefore decided there was only one thing to do and I gave that lady the loudest "shush" I had ever given. It was no use, it was like throwing a pebble into a river hoping it would slow it down. Luckily I found a cure for the noise, I had a water bottle by my bed that whenever I crinkled it, she would stop her snoring. That bottle became Jannah's lifeline.

Anyway, out this lady was bat s**t crazy. We would walk into our room and find her conversing with inanimate objects. She would be looking at a map, then look over at us and then break into hysterical laughter, and then to top it off, her snoring continued along with talking in her sleep. She would be snoring, and then out of nowhere "Ohh Nancy! hahaha" I didn't sleep that night. We were so happy when she left the next morning!

The next day, Hannah and I went out again into the city in search of some yummy Italian food! We stopped into this restaurant that had a pretty good crowd and looked really nice on the inside. We placed our orders, Ravioli and Spaghetti! We were psyched! When our food came out, we were in shock. It looked almost like they had opened a can of Spaghetti and poured it on my plate. We ate our 11 euro Spaghettios and left determined to redeem our unfortunate dinner choice.

While walking around Venice around dinner, we stumbled across this other restaurant that looked great! Luckily, it was! We both had lasagna, and it was amazing! Jannah was thrilled that we had finally found legitimate Italian cuisine. After the restaurant, we went touring the city again. Throughout the streets, there are purse vendors who sell bags at cheap rates. As we passed this particular display, I saw one that I thought was really cute! The man who owned the purses took notice of this and approached me.

Crazy Purse Man: You like this purse?
Me: I do, but I'm sorry I can't afford one. Thanks though!
Crazy Purse Man: Oh no, nice lady I make good price for you...35 euro.
Me: Oh no, really. I can't. Sorry.
[By this point, he is walking alongside us carrying the bag]
Crazy Purse Man: 20 euro for such a pretty lady?
[I was thinking about it....]
Me: No, I'm really sorry. No Thank you.
[He takes out a lighter, and holds it up to the purse and holds the flame next to the purse...]
Me: What the hell are you doing?! Why would I care if a purse was flame resistant??
Crazy Purse Man: 15 Euro for the nice lady [he puts it in a plastic sack and pushes it at me]
Me: No, you don't understand I don't want it!

I look up and the guy is gone! I hadn't even paid for the bag! As I'm frantically searching the crowded street, a policeman approaches me and just stares down at me and my bag. I started studdering, not knowing what to say! He took the bag out of my hand and walked away. A few minutes later, out of nowhere, the Crazy Purse Man approaches me and informs me that I not a nice or pretty lady afterall and that I lost a purse for him. Apparently they are selling purses illegally. I spent the rest of the day avoiding the purse vending posse

Earlier in the week, we had been informed about the volcanic eruption in Iceland that was effecting air travel. We were convinced that it would all be cleared out by the time it was ready for us to leave because there was no way that 6 days later that flights would still be down. Welp, wrong again. It still had the majority of European flights grounded. By this point in time Jannah was a bit concerned. We left for Milan that day hoping for this tiny hiccup in our travel plans would get sorted out.

On to Milan!

cheers!

Janie