Venice: We Got Lost

I know that it has been awhile since I last wrote, but things have been pretty nonstop for a while and today is our relaxing day. I will write more about where we are in a later post but just so you know our anticipated schedule for the next few days here is a brief overview. We have been in the Tuscan area since Wednesday. We spent all day on Thursday and Friday in Florence and yesterday in the Chianti area. Tomorrow we will travel all day to get to Nice, France. We will stay there for two nights one full day and then make our way to Barcelona, Spain. But all that in the next post, let me write about how hopelessly lost we got in Venice. 

Day 12

Our night train was fine, as stated before in my earlier post it was a lot nicer then the night train from Berlin to Vienna. If K and I had had the car to ourselves for the entirety of the ride we could have scooted the seats down across from one another to make a bed type thing, but alas.

The seats were still better then before. Around midnight we we welcomed in two other night train travelers in Salzburg. Cooper and Carlo. We stayed up till about 3am just talking and laughing. Because there were only 4 of us in the compartment, Cooper and Carlo were able to lay out in the way that I described earlier but K and I being across from each other had to make due with the space that was left. It was alright, we had done it before we could do it again. 

Day 13

I woke up around 5 and was greeted to an astonishing view of mountains and Italian countrysides. This was a breathtaking sight and I managed to snap a few pictures along the way. 

K and I got into Venice fine, we went to the train ticket office first as always to figure out how we would get to Florence. We were given two options, we could get there in 2 hours and pay 10 euro or we could get there in 4 hours and make two transfers (we decided to pay for the direct high speed train). We then walked entirely across the city (to the Rialto bridge from the train station) 

and its confusing streets with our backpacks on in order to find a travelex ATM (we had almost no more cash left). 

We stumbled upon a a man playing music, while lost. 

We then walked all the way back across the city towards the bus station to buy our tickets to get to the campsite that we were staying at back on the mainland. We would have liked to stay in the city center but unfortunately everything was really pricey. We got to the campsite without too many problems and it only took us about 25-30min. We were able to get into our rooms right away at 11. 

K is just a tad tired. :) 

We got lunch from the market that they had which was alright but pretty pricey, but there was no other supermarket around the campsite. We were pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. 

K and I decided that we were going to use this day as a rest day, do laundry, finish my Vienna blog and just relax. Which we did. Later that day while we were sitting by the wifi spot we saw Carlo (from the grin walk in) we talked with him for a bit. Then the friends that he had met at the campsite earlier that day came by (Robert and Sam). We just talked, joked, and asked for advice from them for the rest of the night which was really nice. Robert was from the Washington state area which was nice to talk about that and maybe I'll have friends over there when I get back :) :) ! They gave us some awesome travel tips, too bad we couldn't explore a city with them, but they were off to Paris the next day. Afterwards, K and I exhausted from our day went to sleep, ready to explore Venice in the morning.

Day 14

Two weeks in! We got up a little late, but still got to the city early. We spent about 2 1/2 hours trying to find a grocery store ( apparently Venice has no grocery stores ). Either way when we did find one, it was 11:30ish and we decided to just continue with our original plan to have breakfast and so we did. Rob and Sam had told us about the grocery store and it having a free bathroom as long as we brought our own toilet paper, so we used that because as we found later throughout the day there we no places to go to the bathroom. I ended up having to pay for my first public bathroom :( .After eating we tried to find our way to San Marco Square, which we did eventually find but not without some navigating difficulties. 

I felt like Nancy Drew and I had hit a dead end ( B hope you get this ;)  )

Does this way work?

When we did find it, the square was jam packed with people. The lines to get into the different places were extremely long, so we opted to just take pictures. 

Rob and Sam had also told us about a gelato place that was supposed to be amazing so we tried our hand at finding it and eventually did. 

The gelato in K's eyes was pretty good. I didn't really have a benchmark for my gelato tasting, so it was hard for me to determine whether or not it was good or not.

 We walked around with our gelato for a bit and of course took pictures. 

We then began our search for a bookstore that had been mentioned in a Buzzfeed article. Liberia Acqua Alta

 ( http://www.buzzfeed.com/erinlarosa/bookstores-that-will-literally-change-your-life [number 5]). The bookstore was very cool and full of weird things, not quite as organized as the bookstore in Amsterdam had been but that was alright, I got my full share of pictures. 

Because why not have a gondolier boat full of books?

Book staircase that you can climb.

The view from one side

The view from another.

It was perfect that we had visited that day because I had finished the book that I got from the bookstore in Amsterdam. I tried to do a book exchange, but the bookstore had a small amount of English books and the ones that I did find were not small enough to travel with me (back to my kindle I guess). The owner did give me my book in exchange for a notebook that I will be needing very soon as my current notebook is getting quite full maybe a another two entries (but probably really only just one). 

After the bookstore we found a place in a piazza to sit down, rest, and eat our fruit as we had been on our feet all day. Not very many parks in this city to rest, so we made due. We looked at our guidebooks to see what else we could do and figured that we would try to find a post office as we needed to despartly send our postcards. We had the hardest time trying to find the post office (I don't think the one we were looking for even exists). We ended up just going into a convienance store that sold stamps and had a mailbox. All of the frustration from walking around in circles trying to find this elusive post office had us sitting at another piazza flipping through our guidebooks for a cheap but good eats for dinner. We found a place, but when we got there it was closed until 6:30pm and it was 5:45pm at this point.  We just wandered around wasting time and trying not to get lost. One of the places that we came upon was a Piazza that was filled with locals at the early evening. It was nice to just watch the children playing, adults lounging, and rambunctious dogs. When we felt the appropriate amount of time had passed we went to the restaurant. 

We sat down and ordered our own pizzas, and had an experience of cutting pizzas ( hard to do with the crust ). I thought that mine was decent but K liked his. 

We were going to try and stay in the city until dark, but we couldn't make it we were both so wiped from our day. We did get to see the sunset and made it back to the campground and 9:30pm and collapsed into bed.

Day 15

We got up earlier this day because K wanted to see San Marco Square without as many tourists. We aimed to get there early. While waiting for the bus we met another traveller, Jack, who is a flight attendant. We talked throughout the entire bus ride which was really cool. He invited us to have lunch with him and other people from the campsite. We booked it to the square and even had a nice Italian woman showing us the way (not really, we were secretly following her). 

We did get to the square, but there was still a lot of tourists and the lines to were still too long. We found a park (the only park, we could find that was open to the public!) we ate breakfast and then found a tourist office. We tented to see if we could get a gondola ride for cheaper. Unfortunately, we could not. We could pay 30 euro each to share a boat with strangers for 35mins or 80 euro for just the two of us for 35 mins. We decided flip a coin to help us decide what to do. Either just buy a boat bus ticket and see the canals that way or get pay the ridiculous price of the gondola ride. The coin landed on buying the bus ticket, which we did later in the day and we had a good time as well. 

Rialto bridge 

At the top.

We did manage to make it to the meeting point to connect with new people. We met Andrew and Sophia and we just wandered around with them for a while. We took pictures, we talked, and we even came upon a famous market. 

We stumbled into a place to get lunch and had some good conversations. They will be heading off to college in the fall, boy are they in for the time of their life.

K and I left them after lunch to find a tickets for the bus boats and then just traveled around for the rest of the day. 

We had an easier time finding the supermarket and getting dinner mixings.

 We also bought for breakfast as we would not have time to get that before leaving the campsite and getting to the train station the next day. We had wanted to eat our dinner on one of the islands, but I was not feeling good. So we headed back and had a campsite dinner. We planned our next couple of days. We had originally flipped a coin between Montpelier and Nice and Montpelier had won, but when we got to Florence the travel between the two would be too difficult. Either way we went to bed and the next day headed to the train station. 

Tomorrow we are traveling 9 hours to Nice and so I am hoping to write my Florence blog there. I am sorry for the delay in Venice, but hey I was enjoying the Tuscan countryside, can you blame me? :) until next time. 

Much love,

Taylor 

Vienna How I Love You

Day 10

In my post before, I described my train ride to Vienna. After we got off the train the morning got a lot easier. Our hostel was only about 4 blocks away from the train station, which was nice after a difficult night train. We got there and the staff was really nice and we were able to lock up our stuff and use the bathroom to freshen up before heading out for the day. Afterwards we found the Austrian version of Aldi, got breakfast, and then we ate it at a neighborhood park. By the way the weather was absolutely beautiful compared to Berlin (you could say we were in heaven) :)

We then walked to the train station and took a train to Michaelerplatz which is almost the city center (a famous city square). 

This is for you mom!  ;) (there were a lot of them)

This is also the place where we could see the Vienna imperial palace. I really wanted to see the Imperial Apartments and K accepted. We paid for the Imperial apartment museum but accidently saw the Sisi museum as well (went more in depth into the life of Empress Elisabeth). Half way through the Sisi Musuem I began to tag along with a talking English guided tour and followed them until almost all the way through the Imperial Apartments until they went too fast for me. In doing this I lost K for most of the museum and we needed to find each other at the end, which was unusual because we are used to just being able to just text each other where we are. This would be the first of many similar incidents. 

Courtyard of the Imperial palace.

When we were finished with the museum we decided to walk a ways and came upon the museum quarter, but we weren't prepared to do any more museums. We did sit on the grass and eat lunch while planning the different things that we wanted to do in Vienna.

 Around 1 we decided to go back to the hostel to see if our room was ready, and it was!! We showered rested and then headed back out into the city. 

Our room.

Outside our room

We went to Stadtpark. We walked around and took pictures, just taking in the incredible architecture. We then sat down on a bench and decided where we would go to eat and how to get there. 

How much I love Vienna. 

We chose to go to Amerlingbeisl, which would be our first sit down restaurant of the entire trip. 

This restaurant featured authentic Austian food in a very cozy outdoor courtyard.

 We thoroughly enjoyed our meal.

 When we were finished we were going to head back to the hostel, but we stumbled upon a rose garden during the beautiful golden evening light and decided to take pictures and just people watch. This included a man swimming in a fountain (needing to be taken out by the police), new engagement photos, and baby ducks. 

Again how much I love Vienna

Then after our really successful long day we headed back to the hostel, where I planned my visit to the Vienna Spanish riding school for the next day. 

Day 11

Originally, K and I planned that we would each go our own ways in the morning, but I was afraid I would get lost and so K was gracious enough to come with me to find the box office (which proved to be difficult). I then had an hour before I was allowed to go into the early morning exercise and we went in search of breakfast. We ate it and then I rushed off to my morning of horses, while K went to experience the Sigmund Freud museum. I absolutely loved every second of the early morning exercise and I was lucky enough to get a 1st floor seat after an hour of sitting upstairs, which was nice because of the better view. 

First view, from up high. Wasn't supposed to take these pictures (whoops).

Second view, but standing. 

Final view sitting. 

After I was finished, I had planned to meet K in Michaelerplatz, but we had some miscommunication and had some trouble finding each other but did so in the end. I was not without things to do though. I asked a couple if they wanted me to take their picture together and we got to talking (fellow Americans--they were from Cincinnati, Ohio). They had gotten married 6 weeks ago and were on their honeymoon. We talked about the Imperial Apartments and my suggestions (get the audio tour as the plaques had not been enough information). Where they were staying, where they would be traveling to and from, college and degree and where I was going afterwards (Americorps in Leavenworth Washington [the husband actually knew where it was]). They apparently have a niece in Americorps working in Washington (too bad I didn't get contact info). Either way after I saw them off, K showed up not long after and we got lunch. We had a picnic in the rose garden, it was nice to discuss our different things and day. We peopled watched and talked in the park until I had to go to my guided tour of the Spanish Riding School at 4pm. 

I am so glad that I splurged on the guided tour because it was really interesting and informative as well as getting the chance to get up close and personal with the behind the scenes stuff and seeing the horses (we weren't allowed to take pictures or touch the horses, but still seeing them and just being in their presence was more then enough). 

Different saddles, bits, etc for each horse

Empty arena in the floor seats! 

On my tour I met a girl from Canada and we hit it off, it was really nice to have someone to talk to before the tour, during the tour etc, I wish that we could have done more together, but alas. K and I found each other more easily this time. While I was in my guided tour K went to the Vienna opera house and took pictures, and tried to get inside (apparently it was difficult to find access). Apparently the guided tour was difficult to find as well. He then went to the film museum, but it was just playing movies and whatnot. The theater museum was right next to the film, but it was also confusing to maneuver as well. We sat down and decided what we should do, but a lot of the things that we wanted to do were about to close. We opted to go back to the hostel and look at things for Florence. 

Day 12 

This was the day of our night train, but we would not be leaving until 9pm. We had a full day a head of us. We decided to do some gardens. The first that we went to was Belvedere, which was the Winter Residence for Imperial family.

The gardens were absolutely stunning and so large! We just walked around and took pictures.

My new house. 

Come visit me and stay in my guest house. ;)

I was wearing my chacos and so I was getting a lot of gravel stuck under my feet which was the only unfortunate fact about this trip. We opted not to go to the museums because we thought that it would take too much time from our day and we had other places that we wanted to go. Honestly, it would have needed an entire day if not more to give it justice. 

When we left Belvedere, we got some picnic stuff and then headed to Schnbrunn, the Summer Residence of the Imperial family. As soon as we walked in we knew that this garden was going to be different, the walk up to the main building was a stretch. On our way to the side garden to find a place to sit, we saw a wedding party taking pictures and we stopped to gaze at them (alright alright, mostly me ;)  ). I thought it was so cool that they were taking pictures at palace (the bride really did look like a princess in a huge poofy dress, and the flower girl [ I assume ] was wearing a huge poofy dress too, that wuld make alla little girls feel like princesses). Anyways, off of the bridal tirade, we found a private garden to sit and eat at. We sat on a bench that overlooked a pond or fountain at began to eat. And then it began to rain and we thought it would pass, but it was getting worse and worse. We opted to run and find shelter underneath a tiny pavilion (we were not the only ones). We finished our meal under there and by that time the rain had slowed. We continued on and as we rounded the corner of the side of the house we had been on ( now at the back side of the house--building ) we saw a huge land spread before us. 

I don't have a good picture from where we stand on my phone, but I have one from a different direction that will hopefully give it justice. 

We walked around and took pictures (as per usual :)  ). There was this huge fountain that we gazed at for a time and then realized that people were taking pictures underneath it and we decided to see what that was all about. 

We walked up and took pictures . Directly behind the fountain was a huge hill that you could climb to see the views and a building (which I thought was the guest house, but it was kind of a monument type thing [no rooms, just airy]). 

We climbed up the hill, which was a nice little hike that we were not expecting, but was really cool and very rewarding! 

I got a chance to break in my chacos even more and see them in a terrain setting, which was nice. Unfortunately between getting gravel stuck under my feel and the hike, I got more blisters :( . There was an option to pay to go to the top of the building, but we were satisfied with the view that we had gotten from our hike, wouldn't you agree it was still pretty cool!

We finished the garden and hill (we didn't even see half of the entire garden [too large]. Once again we did not go into the musuem, because it would be closing in a couple of hours and we did not think that was enough time to give it justice. Also, I wanted to see the Spanish Riding School Horses from the courtyard that their stable surrounds. They have the option to stick their heads out of their stalls and into the courtyard. I had not been able to do it the day before because all day the courtyard was being prepared for a party that was going to happen on later that night. We went back to Michealplatz and found the courtyard, but it was still being taken down from the party. Though, I was able to get closer to it then I had the day before, and so I used my camera to zoom in the horses. Those cutie pies ;) . As we came back there was a rally occurring and so a lot of police were surrounding Michaelerplatz which was slightly concerning, just by the sheer amount of police people around and the amout of sirens and screaming cars driving through. We found some post cards and decided to go back to the hostel, I couldn't bare my shoes another moment. :( . Back at the hostel we cleaned up for the train ride, I downloaded the Vienna pictures (sooo many), wrote postcards, and waiting until 8ish to head over to the train station. 

We got dinner at the train station and got on our train and headed towards our final destination--Venice. I will tell you about the train ride in a different post, because this one is already so long. I will say a lot better then the one from Berlin to Vienna. Anyways, we made it to Venice and today are planning on getting lost in the canals! :) Until next time. 

Much Love,

Taylor