Italy!
First off, GERMAN trains are exactly on time. SPANISH trains are exactly on time. ITALIAN trains are
never, I repeat,
NEVER on time. Here was the only time we missed a train.
We took an early train to Arth-Goldau (Switzerland) in order to have plenty of time to transfer to the train to Milano Central, but the Italian train decided to just stop in the middle of nowhere and chill for 30 minutes while Bryan and I looked sadly at his watch as we missed the departure of our next train.
Clearly the Italians were used to this, because when we finally arrived in Milano a full 40 minutes late, the guy at the info desk told me that it was "no problem! just hop on the next train!" like this sort of stuff happened everyday. Which... it probably mostly-likely (DEFINITELY) did.
Bryan likes to talk about his drinking problem. No, he still hasn't touched a single drop of (drinkable) alcohol. We're talking about water here. So he gets to experience the adventures of many different toilets that I don't usually encounter.
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| Here, Bryan proudly informed me, he peed into the toilet a.k.a. through the hole and directly onto the train tracks while the train was moving. Really, Italy? This would never stand in Switzerland. |
Finally, we arrived! Right outside the train station, we see this beautiful view.
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| That's me! In Venice! 5 steps out of the train station. |
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| Okok, I just like pictures of us. |
We took the waterbus home to our island, Lido, then we took another waterbus back to the main islands for dinner. It's like a free water tour!)
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| Rialto bridge! Remember it ;) |
We had dinner at a family-owned restaurant called Marco Polo, which we HIGHLY RECOMMEND to anybody visiting Venice in the future IF, and only if, you have about 2 hours' time to actually find the restaurant. I forgot to mention - it's impossible not to get lost in Venice. Even with a map. ESPECIALLY with a map.
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| Even when he's spewing out black tentacles, Bryan's still adorable. |
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POLIZIA! Venetians definitely lead a different lifestyle than we do. When we die from car crashes, it's because our brains are splattered on a pole on the highway. When Venetians die from a car crash... oh wait, they don't. No, they don't drown either. Venetians all swim too well.
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We went to see Piazza San Marco just because it was famous. What we
didn't expect was that it was going to be super fun! Okay, let's cut to the exciting part: Here is the ONLY blurry picture Bryan took of the whole pigeon business. If you stare at it long enough, you'll see a fat, happy pigeon plopped right on top of my head.
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| That grey blob on my head is a hungry pigeon!!! |
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| Who need bird cages when you've got arms and chips? |
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| Especially gorilla arms? |
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| Awwwww |
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| Okok, I think there's enough pigeons |
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*INSERT 200000 pictures of gelato stands EVERYWHERE*
Sadly (or gladly) every time I saw a gelato stand (about 200000x), I was too much in a hurry to actually GET gelato that I didn't take any pictures of them the 20 times we got gelato in Venice :(
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Venice is cool. You can actually see the shoreline IN the city! These tall buildings curving all the way around are right on the edge of the water:
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| COOL shoreline! |
Sometimes I think that I get the most enjoyment out of posting things on my blog that Bryan DOESN'T. And for a good reason, too.
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| What's going on here? |
Okok, back to COOL Venice!
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| Gondola time! |
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| Dodododo. This part of Venice tourists don't usually see. |
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| Does this bridge look familiar to you? ;) |
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| Venice has pretty buildings |
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| Looking ahead from the waterbus! |
This part's pretty amusing. So I look on the horizon and see this:
me: Bryan, LOOK!!
Bryan: What?
me: LOOOOOK!
Bryan: ?
me: ...
Bryan: WHOAAAAAAAA...
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| We waved to them, and they waved back!!! |
Venice is cool. Whatever cars you have for doing things, they've got boats!
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| Construction boat, anyone? |
Sadly our time in Venice was up, and it was back to the tardy trains we go!
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Rome. Roma. HEART OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
Ehhhh... it was alright.
There were a FEW good things here. I'll label them.
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| Good thing #1: These things. What are they? Ummmm fried potato-corn yumminess! |
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YUMYUM
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So actually, we went to another whole country during our stay here! Vatican city, anybody?
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| Cool stuff, cool stuff. We're not religious though. |
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| Ehh, we can still appreciate cool plazas. Oops, piazzas! |
Okay, so MOST of Rome smells and looks like a dirty old urban town. Not that appealing. Once in a while, though, there's a few old-enough things laying around that makes you look twice.
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| ruins! |
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| more ruins! |
The next few pictures were actually VERY hard to obtain. From ground-level, it was pretty impossible to actually get a full picture of the Colosseum due to all the urban junk. So Bryan and I climbed and walked for 2 hours before we finally reached THIS view:
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| Hello there, dear Colosseum! |
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| Finally ready to be taken a picture of? (funky grammar) |
Good thing #2: Pillars
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| What is Bryan doing? No, the pillars are still taller! |
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| That's a pretty tall pillar |
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| Okok, I think they get the point. |
Rome has TALLLLL pillars.
INSIDE the Colosseum! (I never promised chronology)
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| from ground-level |
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| contemplating from the higher level |
Then Bryan wanted to go to the Pantheon just to see what it would look like if those lazy Scots had actually finished constructing their thing.
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| Pantheon! |
And then our homesick stomachs decided to venture into the largest McDonalds that we'd ever seen. It looked ordinary from the outside, but we followed corridors, hallways, stairs, and dungeons into a McDonald's the size of a public high school.
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| Mmm, tastes like home. |
What did NOT taste like home, or anything at ALL pleasant, was our last meal in Rome.
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| Meat that just tasted like lemon-y sourness and unchewable-ness. (But yes, that is a nice 20 points.) |
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| "Pizza" that Bryan proceeded to just fold up instead of eat. |
Note: This was the only meal that we didn't research beforehand before plunging in. This was the only meal in all our mealiness even in the U.S. that we literally just got up and did not even try to eat. Note: This was an AWFUL meal.
On that note, we're off to a better, prettier, AND tastier city, YAY!
