Category: Venice

Yesterday I arrived in Venice to begin my post-program travels.

The trip was only supposed to last around five hours, but thanks to the wonderfully on-time Italian railway workers it took six and a half hours. Apparently there had been a railway workers strike the night before and the delay had something to do with that. Nothing like setting at the Austrian-Italian border for an hour.

It was neat because I ran into a girl from the program when I went to change trains at Bruck an der Mur. She was taking the same train I was except she was getting off one station earlier to catch a train to Florance. We ended up riding in the same compartment, which made the long journey much more enjoyable.

My hotel is nice. My only complaint is that I had to lug my luggage up stairs to my room on the fourth floor. Other than that, it’s a really nice place. It is literally around the corner from the train station, and a bunch of restaurants.

My room is literally a closet because it is a one-person private room without a bathroom. And I thought my dorm room freshman year would be the smallest room that I would ever sleep in!

Despite arriving an hour later than I thought I would, I was able to see a large portion of the city yesterday afternoon. I took a 6 Euro water bus from the train station to Saint Mark’s square. It was definitely a good investment because it was more like a boat cruise than a bus trip.

After walking around a bit yesterday, I came back to the hotel and tried to take a nap. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on my alarm clock for 8 p.m. so I did not get a chance to go take night scape photos. I ended up waking up at 2 a.m.

Today I got up at 8 a.m. and set off for a walk through the city. I bought a book yesterday with tour routes, but after seeing how expensive everything is here, I decided that I would not spend the day in museums. Instead, I decided to just wonder around the city a bit and try to get lost.

I did get lost, but not on purpose. After walking around most of the morning in 90-degree heat, I decided to head back to the hotel to get something to eat and possibly take a nap. I soon realized that Venice is perhaps the hardest city in the world to walk through. The book I bought yesterday came with a map, but it was not much help since the streets bend and twist all over the place.

Luckily, I eventually found a series of signs pointing back towards the train station, and I followed them back to my hotel.

Venice is really beautiful, but I will not be heartbroken when I leave tomorrow. I don’t know any Italian so it has been a very interesting time to say the least. I regret not taking an Italian class at Indiana University last semester. It definitely would have helped.

That said, it is a really neat and historical city, and I still can’t believe that I am actually here.