Well, my alarm went off at 9 but we didn't get up until 10 and were ready by 11 to go to the city. Once again Italians proved that they can neither count nor give directions. Example (from experience during this trip) of the Italian counting system: 4 2 3 1 9 6 7 8 10 How crazy is that? Needless to say, ze were severarly confused and changed buses several times. As you can imagine, we didn't make very good time. We got to Venice at one o'clock. Yesterday (Venice day One. Wednesday, I think), it only took us 20 minutes because we took the "expensive" 2 Euro Hotel shuttle 5we bought the 22 Euro bus/boat pass that day once we got to the city). Big Difference!!!!!
Once we were there, we were starving! We found a cheqp place to eat called Quanto Basta (how much is enough) that had slices of pizza and fries. And pizza with fries on it. (did you feel your arteries clog when you read that?) I bought Pizza Magharita AKA cheese as well as a side of French Fries (papas fritas in spanish and Italian). Surprisingly, for me anyway, it was delicious together. If you fold the huge BIGGER-THAN-YOUR-HEAD but rediculously thin slice in hqlf and put your Papas Fritas inside you have a Pizza Frita sandzhich. (i made that up so donùt go to italy and try to order that.). Quanto Basta also had interesting Gelati flavors. I got two scoops of deliciousness in a cup AKA 1 scoop Nutella qnd 1 scoop Ciccolate canella (chocolate cinnamon). YUMMY!!!!!! When I get home, I will be adding cinnamon to my chocolate icecream. I'll probably be buying Nutella more often, too.
After we ate we took a boat to Murano to see the glass. If you look at a map of Venice this will probably make more sence. We were supposed to take boat number 42 and go around the outside of the top of the island to get to Murano in half an hour. We didn't. We took number 41 and went through the island on the Grand Canal 5the big backwards S) and then around the bottm and right side of the island to get to Murano. It took tzice as long. So noz itùs 15h00 on our last day in Venice--in Italy-- and ze haven't even started exploring or shopping! The first thing we did (or tried to do) was to see thm actually make the glass. One studio had closed and the other was too expensive. Expensive is a relative term, but think of the bus versus the shuttle. Also, it was our last day so ze were all low on cash and we decided eating and buying gifts for people was more important. I'm sad I missed out on that though. I wanted to pay, but I had the most money left of the five of us and we couldnùt split up because we have a history of that going severly poorly. Moving right along: gifts were much less expensive than I thought they were going to be. I bought gifts for the same price as the demonstration (or less or only 1 euro more) sevral times. I wont tell you what all I got because you might read your gift and that would be uncool. Put it this way: 8 gifts for under 50 euro is an awesome price! I did buy a Murano glass fountain dipping pen (no ink included) for 3 Euro. Also, I love that there was no tax!
We didn't stay long; by 17h00 we were ready to leave. As beautiful and interesting as Murano and the glorious glass are, all the shops were basically the same. On the way back to the boat we were stopped by a Brazilian news person (at least he said he was Brazilian) who filmed two of the girls with me and I, asking what we thought of Murano. Very cool. I said that the glass was beautiful and amawing and that I bought a bunch of gifts for my family. At the dock, there was a little street booth of Murano glass so I picked up a necklace for my host mom for 4ish euro. Its gold and pretty. Im going to give it to her tonight at dinner as a Thank You for Being My Host Mom gift because all I've given her is a candle, which is insufficient for a thank you to someone who's basically your mom for three and a half months even though you start out as strangers, etc.
We got on the right boqt this time (huzzah! x 3) and got off at the stop near the spectacular gelati. We walked around for a couple hours. We bought about three pounds of chocolate to share among us (they also got some wine, but I donùt like it; so I zonùt be having any° for the Halloween party we had on the train ride back to France on Saturday. We also found a Euro store (you knoz, a dollar store, but in euros) and bought orange balloons so we could decorate our train compartment for the ride back to France on Halloween. We also found mugs there; the Institute is short on cups for microwaving tea or hot chocolate. I found a mug with people in pretty civil war ish dresses in black and white that looked like a painting and bought that one. We ate dinner at a Ristorante Pizzaria for our Farewell to Venice (and Italy all together). I had Gnocchi con gargonzola. It wasn't as good as the Gnocchi I had in Florence. Still good, but my expectations were high; so I was disappointed. However, we returned to Quanto Basta for the amazing Made-of-Awesome deliciousness of gelati. I got the same flavors as before. Miam, Miam!
At 21h30 we wlked back to the bus station. Déjà vu of the morning. We didn't know where to go ; even with the directions we had with us. We qsked the woman at the desk and she told us to wait at sign C1 and pointed. We walked in the direction she pointed looking for C1. Nope, not there. C3, 4, and 5 but no C1. About Face! And so we started walking back to the counter. I saw the sign on the side of the building. So we went there to wait. And waited for 20 minutes. We got on the first bus that came and prmptly asked the bus driver. A good thing, too because it was the wrong bus. So we got off and went back to the woman to ask her again. Once again she pointed straight( out from her counter and said C1. Pause. C4! C4! Big difference. One sounds nothing like four. We turned around and Whadduyaknow! A Bus! So ze ran over and hopped on, double checked with the driver, and got to our seats. HUZZAH! Well, I was chit-chatting with Laura when across the aisle Kristen and Chelsea started giggling profusly that they wer very red and holding the directions in front of their faces. I couldnùt understand what they said zhen we asked what was so funny. Finally, Laura understood and she turned and said to me "that man is doing something weird." huh? So of couse I turned and looked. Great! Just what I needed to end this last day in Venice with a Bang: Masterbation Man. No, that is not some weird band title or a funy impromptu skit. I'm completly serious. Laura and I successfully engaged ouselves in a very absorbing conversation detailing the gifts we had bought that day and who they were for, and what we still needed to get, etc; to distract ourselves. Jenny, Kristen, and Chelsea, on the otherhand, couldnùt stop laughing with embaressed disbelief/ disgust/ whatever. And they wouldnùt listen to me telling them to ignore him, etc.We realized that the couple behind us were French (and thus we could communicate) an Jenny leaned over to get their attention, hoping that Masterbation Man would get caught and forced to leave. Well, when she pointed him out to them, he was gone. So of course we then had to explain what he'd been doing. But at least we got to meet and chat with a nice French couple, so that was good.
After they got off, Kristen and I went up to the bus driver to make sure we handing missed our stop. I had the map out and half unfolded and Kristen had the directions. We must have looked very lost and confused because a man who just got on the bus (a ticket checker we found out later) took pity on us and asked something in Italian. We stared Deer-in-the-Headlights in a I-can't-Speak-Any-Language sort of way. He came over and looked at the directions which were in English ecept for the the names of the stops. Oriago Hotel Vittore is wherree we were to get off. He pointed at it and then at himself; speaking in Italian. We thanked Helpful Man and went back to our seats, watching him at every stop to see at which one he would get off. (The stops were not well marked at all!) Meanwhile two ticket checkers with him (dressed the same as Helpful Man) checked our bus/boat passes to make sure they hadnùt expired and we had paid and zere supposed to be there. Helpful Man was also a ticket checker, he was dressed the same as the other two and he and they continually spoke to each other, though theyd entered at different doors (probably so no one zould sneak out one door zhile all entered together in another=. Helpful Man zqs very good at dealing zith dumb lost Non-Italian turists. He let us knoz, with gestures, when our stop had come. He didnt get off himself, but he made sure we did. Goddess bless all people like him! We followed our directions without mishap back to the Hotel without mishap in the cold dark. We reserved a shuttle for the next day; no zqy were we going to chance the bus when we had a train to catch! I took a nice hot shozer; ate a bar of lindor chocolate; and at 24h22 went to bed. Sleep is good.
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