The train ride into Venice was amazingly beautiful. All of the sudden there was tons of water and islands and it was a whole new atmosphere. As many of you know Venice is sinking and so there are literally no cars anywhere but rather everyone walks or goes by boat. We got off the train and took a water taxi to our hostel, which was an interesting experience. The scenery was so awesome and I had just watched the movie the Tourist with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp which is filmed there so it was kind of fun to see everything in real life.
Just as you would have expected, gondolas everywhere!
You can already see clearly where the city is sinking... Maybe once its gone they will turn it into an underwater attraction...
In Venice there is a Jewish ghetto (their words not mine) with an interesting back-story. Our hostel owner told is that because the Jews were so good at business no one wanted them around but the people of Venice decided it was smarter to have them around so they basically built this neighborhood that was all Jewish people and allowed them to stay in Venice to drum up business. This worked out great for the Jews and the Venetians until World War II… the only downfall being that they were all in one area making it easier for the Nazis. Since then Jews (mostly from Brooklyn according to our hostel owner) have repopulated the area and kept their businesses going.
Anyways we made a friend at our hostel named Garret who took us around the city a little and we ate some fabulous snacks along the way. That night for dinner we ate at the hostel with everyone else because it was cheaper than the seafood you will find around Venice. It was cool to see where everyone was from and we all decided to go out together afterwards as well. I made really good friends with this girl Kat from Australia.
Everyone at Dinner!
Kat and I with our crazy hostel owner in the background, it was a really fun group!
The next day Kat, Garrent, Andrew, and I explored a bit more and Kat and I decided to catch the earlier train to Florence which was a good 20 Euro cheaper so we parted ways with the boys and left. Hostels are an interesting culture because its younger people traveling all over and you run into people that you had met earlier in a different city or you end up traveling around with people who you just met.
Kat and I made it to Florence and I went to her hostel with her to drop off our stuff and get a hold of Hannah. We stopped for some Tirimisu on the way...
Once Hannah and I were reunited I said goodbye to Kat, but first we exchanged names and numbers because she is going to be in the U.S. in a few months, and who knows when I will make an appearance in Australia… it could be anytime with the way I’ve been going these days.
And then I was off to explore Florence...
Love,
B
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete