Venedig… Venezia… Venice!

So we finally made our trip yesterday to Venice. We couldn’t have had a better day of weather. It was brisk, definitely a jacket was needed, however it was sunny and not a cloud in the sky. We left Garmisch at 5:00 and got to Venice at 10:30 a.m. While we were on the bus the driver was telling us that there is going to be a BIG celebration in Venice because of it being the first day of Carnival. The three of us (Chris, Nic, and Moss) thinking we lucked out on traveling on a low tourist day, were wrong. It was packed with people dressed in all sorts of costumes. The great thing about our start is that we rented a private boat into Venice so we didn’t have to deal with the water taxi stops and hoards of people. When we got there, we decided to go to Saint Marc’s Plaza and then branch out into the many little alley ways. This was BIG mistake number One: Although there were fun looking costumes and amazing arctecture to see in Saint Marc’s, it was getting crowded quickly. Then a huge “BANG” and music start playing (this was when we should have taken the hint) everyone rushed to the middle of SM square and were looking up with their cameras. So, thinking they (the locals) would know better we stopped, waited, and stared for what would happen next. All the while people kept pushing there way into the square. About 20 minutes later we saw was they were all waiting for… an angel descended from a church tower. It was interesting but not worth what HOT MESS we were just getting ourselves into. As soon as we realized that the angel descending was not worth our time we decided to leave the square. BIG PROBLEM… No one was budging. We were literally smashed to one another like a can of sardines. Pushing in either direction just resulted in nasty looks. I kid you not I was sandwiched between two Italian men, a Russian lady, a female dressed in a unicorn suite and Chris. Poor Chris, at one point he was literally surrounded by 5 or 6 short very old Italian ladies, it was like they were playing ring- around- the- rosy with him. Moss was getting pushed in all directions. I yelled over to him, “that you have got to push or you will never get out!” What seemed like hours of rubbing up against every nationality of the world and smelling every variation of bad breath and BO possible, we managed to escape SM square 1 hour and 25 min. later. Unfortunately in the escape we lost Moss, and decided that waiting any much longer to try and find him was worthless, there were just too many people. So, since I have been to Venice, I told Chris let’s get as far away from SM area as possible and then work our way back into SM by the end of the day it should be better. And so we did, we walked to the very outskirts of Venice, into the Castello area then head northwest (more north than west, because eventually we needed to get west and had to change our direction entirely to west to get to the Grand Canal). We had the most amazing time during our exploration! We attempted to use the map, but that only confused us. I was quickly reminded on when my brother and I visited Venice. We too decided to just get lost and walk in the direction that we know what right. Same worked for Chris and I! We stayed away from all the crowds and saw so many wonderful churches, old houses, alley ways, restaurants, etc. It was a great time and the pictures I will post will prove this. We eventually found a great old restaurant, it was full but only with locals. We stopped in and had two great pizza’s! Mmmmm, to think I will be back in Gresham in one week ordering Wallstreet Pizza instead of the true original stuff we are getting here is depressing. Anyhow eventually we made it over to the Grand Canal and got a picture of the famous bridge Ponte Di Rialto. It was bustling with the same people we were crowded with in SM square, but definitely more manageable as we were actually able to move. The next part was my personal favorite, all the window shopping of my favorite designers! Italy is so FUN! There was this other store couched in between all the designers and they were making custom shoes! It was awesome! They had some really cool designs.

Anyhow, after all this we went through some more alley ways and canals we managed to find Moss at the meeting place we figured out before we left. It was fun to hear his story and talk about what all we saw. Eventually we headed out on the boat and then got on our bus to head back home. We were supposed to go party at my mom’s high school friends restaurant for Fasching in Germany, but we were just too tired! We plan on stopping by tonight with my friend Tim who is visiting from Bochum. Today we plan on going to the Ski jumps and checking out the old Olympic stadium there. Later tonight if weather permits we also plan to go explore the Partnachklam (sp?) at night with torches. It’s basically a small cave like water way that has icicles handing and is very dark.. I have hiked through it in the summer, it’s fun!

Okay, so that is all I really have to say, I will be in touch with you soon again. Tonight is our last night in Garmisch, tomorrow we pack up and leave for Munich. Chris is going to have a hard time saying good-bye to Partenkirchen as this was definitely his favorite part of town.

Bye-bye until next time!

Love,
Nic


P.s. More pictures to come, I have to pick my really good friend Tim up at the Banhof (train station). I will have pictures from our trip to Venice as well as some from our trip to Neuschwanstein.