A week or so before I left, I got an e-mail from an old hashing friend of mine about her relocation to Italy with her husband; so I sent over a note saying I was going to be there shortly. We communicated a bit back and forth and finally decided to meet up in Venice. Pic, Medicinal HJ, and her husband took the train down to Venice to meet up with me in the morning. After finally finding each other, we wandered to the Jewish grotto area for a little shopping so MHJ could get some supplies. Afterward, we proceeded to get hopelessly lost through all the dead-ends, lack of visible landmarks, and streets terminating at a canal. It really doesn't take too long for that gentle laugh, the one that screams embarrassment with a touch of anxiety, to turn from "hey, look at us Americans, we're lost in Venice, this is funny..." to "holy crap, weren't we just here 10 minutes ago, I swear we've seen that bridge at least twice before". And it was fun. I think Venice should be shut down once a year to turn it into a massive urban paintball field. What a nightmare it would be to have to navigate this area constantly. with the occasional aid of the GPS (whenever it could lock onto the satellite signals) we finally made our way to the waterfront and St. Marks square where we had lunch at the
Hard Rock Cafe nearby. I don't know why I'm so enthralled with such things, but the bathroom here had the first
Dyson Airblade hand dryer that I had ever seen. I almost washed my hands twice just to get to play with it. At about $1300, I doubt I'll be getting one for my bathroom soon, but it was neat to see it in action. I had seen it mentioned on a couple of tech sites a long while back and even if it was loud, it worked quite well and didn't require heating the air or wasting paper towels. Strange how such things continue to amuse me, but I'm guess I do miss the strange monkey at times. After dinner we wandered more (still the best way to see the city) hitting a few beer stops or pastry stand along the way. We even stopped by a Hell's Kitchen wine bar, ov Gordon Ramsay fame, but it was unfortunately closed for the afternoon.
After they took off, I got a day pass for the
vaporetto so I could see more of the Grand Canal. I took a ride over the bay to church on San Giorgio Maggiore. I arrived a little too late to be able to take the tour to the top of the church dome in order to get a sweeping view of Venice, but there was enough time to sit for a while and reflect prior to the building's closing. I walked along the marina for a little bit to get a couple of panoramic shots from just above the water. Unfortunately it was pretty overcast much of the day, so the pics are kind of bleak as a result. After leaving the church, I took a ride for a while to relax and enjoy the sunset while heading back to the hostel. After getting cleaned up I chatted with the hostel mates for a while before we decided to get out and have a few drinks before heading back in after an hour or so. While an interesting place to visit, I don't think I'd want to live in a place like this when having to deal with constantly flooded streets, throngs of tourists (with the season barely having started it was already quite crowded), and small spaces. It was definitely beautiful though in a Renaissance kind of way.
A week or so before I left, I got an e-mail from an old hashing friend of mine about her relocation to Italy with her husband; so I sent over a note saying I was going to be there shortly. We communicated a bit back and forth and finally decided to meet up in Venice. Pic, Medicinal HJ, and her husband took the train down to Venice to meet up with me in the morning. After finally finding each other, we wandered to the Jewish grotto area for a little shopping so MHJ could get some supplies. Afterward, we proceeded to get hopelessly lost through all the dead-ends, lack of visible landmarks, and streets terminating at a canal. It really doesn't take too long for that gentle laugh, the one that screams embarrassment with a touch of anxiety, to turn from "hey, look at us Americans, we're lost in Venice, this is funny..." to "holy crap, weren't we just here 10 minutes ago, I swear we've seen that bridge at least twice before". And it was fun. I think Venice should be shut down once a year to turn it into a massive urban paintball field. What a nightmare it would be to have to navigate this area constantly. with the occasional aid of the GPS (whenever it could lock onto the satellite signals) we finally made our way to the waterfront and St. Marks square where we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe nearby. I don't know why I'm so enthralled with such things, but the bathroom here had the first Dyson Airblade hand dryer that I had ever seen. I almost washed my hands twice just to get to play with it. At about $1300, I doubt I'll be getting one for my bathroom soon, but it was neat to see it in action. I had seen it mentioned on a couple of tech sites a long while back and even if it was loud, it worked quite well and didn't require heating the air or wasting paper towels. Strange how such things continue to amuse me, but I'm guess I do miss the strange monkey at times. After dinner we wandered more (still the best way to see the city) hitting a few beer stops or pastry stand along the way. We even stopped by a Hell's Kitchen wine bar, ov Gordon Ramsay fame, but it was unfortunately closed for the afternoon.
After they took off, I got a day pass for the vaporetto so I could see more of the Grand Canal. I took a ride over the bay to church on San Giorgio Maggiore. I arrived a little too late to be able to take the tour to the top of the church dome in order to get a sweeping view of Venice, but there was enough time to sit for a while and reflect prior to the building's closing. I walked along the marina for a little bit to get a couple of panoramic shots from just above the water. Unfortunately it was pretty overcast much of the day, so the pics are kind of bleak as a result. After leaving the church, I took a ride for a while to relax and enjoy the sunset while heading back to the hostel. After getting cleaned up I chatted with the hostel mates for a while before we decided to get out and have a few drinks before heading back in after an hour or so. While an interesting place to visit, I don't think I'd want to live in a place like this when having to deal with constantly flooded streets, throngs of tourists (with the season barely having started it was already quite crowded), and small spaces. It was definitely beautiful though in a Renaissance kind of way.
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