Who needs a Map?

Spent the last few days in Venice (well sort of). Venice is beautiful. Despite a cold front that came through right as I arrived, I have really enjoyed my short time here. Things didn't go quite as I had thought it would though.

First, I got to Venice a couple days ago around dinner time. Again, just like in every other city I've been to, I got lost trying to find my hostel. Venice doesn't have road signs, just "areas", which is extremely confusing. But, I finally found it! This is when my chaotic trip began. My hostel, which I had booked over a week ago, had no room because they overbooked themselves. Great. What was I suppose to do? This past weekend in Venice was packed. There was some big boat race on Sunday, so every last spare room in the entire city was booked. Luckily, since I had a reservation (along with the 15 other people who also had reservations but they had no room for) they made room at one of their sister hostels across town for everyone. Good. And, since it was across town, they took us all by boat to get there. Free ride down the Grand Canal!!!! When we all got to the other hostel, they were not prepared for us. They, too, were actually booked. So, they went out (I don't know where) and bought a bunch of cheap metal bunk beds and began putting them together. It was a mess. Once everything was done, and I had a bed, the staff made us all dinner and brought in many bottles of wine. It was so much fun, despite everything prior. There were about 25 girls crammed into one room with one bathroom. And the guys side was the same. I couldn't believe there were only two bathrooms for about 50 people, no joke!!!! In all this chaos, I met some really cool people, two of which I traveled with the next day.

Christine (a fellow Boilermaker) and her friend Hellen, were spending the weekend in Venice, too. They both have been studying in Austria since February. They were in the same situation I was in, so we instantly bonded. They said they were going to Trieste, a small town on the coast, which was about a 2 hour train ride from Venice, the next day. They asked if I'd be interested in going for the day, so I figured it'd be fun. I've never even heard of Trieste.

It was a wonderful city! It was very Mediterranean looking being right up against the coast on a big hill filled with green trees! Just along the coast, about a 15 minute bus ride from the center of town, was a castle. We went and saw it! The gardens around the castle were amazing! So immaculate!! The castle was really pretty, as well. It was built right on the edge of a cliff up against the water! Simply beautiful!! It had wonderful views of Trieste! I was just in awe! Once we got back into Trieste from the castle, we took an old Tram up the hills that overlooked the city. It was a really cool ride in this antique Tram!! So amazing! After that, we hopped on the train back to Venice.

Once we arrived back in Venice, it was already about 9pm. This is when we realized a few unfortunate things. First, none of us had an official map of Venice. Great. Next, since we were now at a new hostel, none of us had directions to the hostel. We knew the general area it was in, but that was it. Again, that is just great. But, I had my Europe guide book, which had a small map of Venice, so off we went.

After a lot of guessing and wrong turns, we were completely lost. We had been wandering the sidewalks and canals for about 2 hours and got absolutely no where. Finally, we stopped and asked directions (why we didn't do it sooner, I don't know). We were in the complete opposite direction from our hostel. So, we decided to just head back to the train station and take the ferry. In the end, after nearly three hours of walking around Venice trying to find our hostel, we made it to the ferry and made it back. We had missed dinner with the staff and were completely exhausted! I just went straight to bed. But, all in all, it was just a wonderful time, and I was able to see MANY parts of Venice I probably wouldn't have on my own!!

Now, I'm getting ready to take a train to Florence! Hopefully they will have better signs than Venice!!!