*Venice*
May 14: Trip to Venice
In December, whenever Mel said I should go to Ireland with her for this class, I had no idea I would actually be going to Ireland this summer. With that being said, once I did realize I was actually going, I had no expectation to go anywhere but Ireland. I wanted to check out London, Italy, Switzerland, and even France, but knew I would not be able to travel outside of the place we were staying. So what do you mean I was sitting in the Dublin airport at 2 in the morning waiting to get on my flight to Venice? This moment felt so unreal, and the whole day felt like a fever dream.
We landed at the Venice airport around 10:30 a.m. where we got a shuttle onto the island of Venice. Me and Mel started on our list of things we wanted to see. We first went to get food since we hadn’t eaten all day. I found a nice pizza shop before we left so we decided to find it. It was about a 30-minute walk from where the bus dropped us off. I did not expect the worker to tell me my pizza slice was worth 5 euro, but we’re in the middle of Venice, it must be good pizza. I was wondering why it took 10 minutes for my pizza to come out, when there were so many slices sitting right in front of her. When I had the box handed to me, we immediately went to find somewhere to sit. We did not waste a second to start eating. We were so excited to take a picture of our pizza, but I wish we got a picture of our reaction. We opened the box to not one, but 4 slices of pizza, and they were not small. We basically just ordered a whole pizza for ourselves for 5 euros. They were some of the best pizzas I ever had in my life, and I don’t think that will ever change. I wish I could describe it to you, but you would just have to try it yourself.
Once we finished eating, we headed off to location #1, a bookstore that supposedly has cats. We unfortunately were not aware that you had to go late at night. It was a grand surprise showing up to a line well out the door. I was excited to look around at the books and see the cats, but the workers wouldn’t allow for any standing around time. You had to be constantly moving forward and out the door. We saw one cat as we passed by the store later, but he ran away after a group of boys were annoying him. My surprise to Mel was going to the Venice Duck Store. She ended up getting a duck in a gondola and an Iron Man duck. She was so excited that I brought her there. We checked out some smaller gift shops, and we even saw a mask shop which was awesome. We stopped into a church that we had passed, and Mel got some chips at a convenience store.
We ended up finishing everything on our list except trying pasta and gelato that we couldn’t try until later in the day. We decide that we should check into our Bungalow early, sit down for a second, and leave our bag there so we weren’t at risk of pickpocketing. We ended up checking out the pool while there, even though we left our bathing suits in Dublin. We were very upset by that since we only brought them to go into the pool. It even had a slide and jacuzzi. The Bungalow was so amazing, and we decided we had to come back asap. Around 5 we decided to go back into Venice to get some dinner and dessert. We had bought day passes for all the public transportation, so we got to ride the water buses. This was exciting since we couldn’t afford a gondola ride. It was still the same view, just less privacy. The transportation was so crowded there to the point where we were fighting for seats.
We found a little pasta restaurant with a great view of the canal. We booked it in advance but ended up getting there early. We had no idea the expense we were getting ourselves into. They offered us water which we of course said yes to. Always say no to water! They brought us a whole bottle of boujee water that ended up costing us 6 euros. We also got charged just for being there! It was wild, but so worth it. The spaghetti I got was incredible. We were so full of bread and pasta that we decided to wait on gelato. The pina coladas we got were also amazing and cost us 10 euros. We headed back to the bungalow. There was a gelato place near us, so we stopped there. I got mint chocolate chip, and Mel got a Kinder gelato. Hers was really good. I almost stole it. It was less than 5 euros for both of us combined. We had to walk back to our bungalow since there wasn’t a bus running there at this time. It was definitely a strange walk back. We went through neighborhoods and even a graffitied tunnel. I am just glad we were walking while it was still light outside. We thought for sure we were going to fall dead asleep the second we got back. Sadly we had to face a bigger challenge.
We were lying in bed, getting ready for sleep when Mel discovered a GIANT mosquito on our wall. We both panicked and hid in the bathroom. We fought over who had to kill it, and of course it was me, even though I killed 2 bugs 10 minutes prior to this. We debated going to the office and asking a worker for help. I had to have a garbage can near me since I was gagging so much on the verge of throwing up. Mel threw about 5 packets of soap at it while I hid outside with the door open and a towel on my face. It didn’t budge once. I eventually trapped it by putting our trash can on it and scraping it across the ceiling. I froze when I got to the door asking Mel to finish the job. She was too short to reach and too scared to do anything. I decided to just throw the entire trash can out the door, screamed, and ran into the bathroom. Mel slammed the door and we waited. We picked up the trash and decided it was time for bed. We did indeed sleep good that night.
Thank you, Honors Program, for giving me some money to study abroad, giving me the opportunity to go to Italy.
