(aug 7/8) bums in the station

Today was our last day in Venice. We had to check out of camping at 10am and take our last bus into the city. I had paid for an Internet code at the campsite and was allowed to stay and use it, which caused some conflict when I had no support to research out next accommodation and had to go I to town to pay the same amount again at an Internet cafe despite having already found all the same information while searching from the wifi at camp. Oh well.

We locked our big packs at the train station and spent our last say wandering the streets, shopping. Our train left at 9, but we really only had to kill time from 2pm onwards after booking a hostel in Rijeka (a couple hours outside of Zagreb). Part if this time was spent eating if course.

Our train had a transfer between midnight and 6am in Austria. When we arrived we saw another schedule for a train to Zagreb at 4am instead f 6 so we decided we were going to see about getting on that one when the time came.
At first we tried sleeping on the metal benches inside the station. They had armrests in between, so you couldnt lay out on it, and even with a travel pillow it wasn't doable. So an hour later I pulled out my sleep sheet, already dirty from camping anyways, and slid down to the floor, trying to sleep between my big pack and leaning against the bench. Still no luck. After being disturbed by a few people on and out of the bathroom, I noticed that more backpacker had joined our ranks on the train station floor, but they were obviously new experienced than us. Many had thin foam roll-outs because they were campers, nearly all had sleeping bags, and all had put their sack up against the wall, used it as a pillow, and were fully stretched out on the floor. Well, they looked comfy enough cause they were all sound asleep. I tried to find my own little nook like this, and managed to get 20-30 mins of sleep before baye woke me at 330 to go check about the train.

Waiting at the station, We met two 19 year old Aussie girls who were going he opposite direction of us, having finished a sailing tour in Croatia and off to Italy for the rest of their 6 MONTH trip. One of the girls' dad owns an environmental education company in Sydney, so I swapped emails in case I want to apply in the next year :)
After their train left, we weren't allowed on the 4am train to Zagreb bc it was a reserved sleeper train, so we waited outside on the bench for another 2 hours for our actual train. For the first time in a month, we were freezing. I had put on a sweater, my windbreaker, and wrapped m legs in my sleep sheet and I was still so cold. So with sleep count at 30 minutes, we slept on the 6am train until about 10am in Zagreb, and transferred again to Rijeka.

We chose Rijeka because there were a few cities on the northern coast we wanted to see, but could likely do in day trips from Rijeka instead of changing beds wert night, and Rijeka still has a decent amount of connections to other cities. Rijeka I a port town, so moat if the views in this city are of monstrous ships carrying freight... But the mountains trees abs water we saw out the train window on the way to reijeka were breathtaking.

In a total of 13 hours, we'd been through 4 countries and had or passports stamped twice: Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia. Only on Europe :)

We dis go out for dinner when we got checked in, a place recommended by the front desk girl. I got what the waiter recommended and it was to die for, but meant for at least 2 people to ear I think! It was pork rolled and stuffed with ham and cheese, with really cool sauces and potato wedges Mmm!!

Glass and lace (aug 6)

I woke up crazy early because there was a lot of construction/machinery noise about 6am. I showered at 630, allowing me to avoid a shower lone for the first time! And then ate dry cheerios at 7am cause the little market didn't open til 8 for me to buy milk. I killed 3 hours writing post cards and catching ip on journal entries, and by the time baye got up at 1030 I was anxious to go into town.
I started getting worried about my toe, where my blister had been getting progressively painful and there was now purple and red blotch all around it. I put pen around the outside to make sure it wasn't spreading, and set out to the pharmacy. Here they only have pharmacies or hospitals, no doctors offices, so locals ask pharmacists first. When we finally found the "Farmacia" it was quite challenging to describe my concerns that it's infected/how should I treat it, because my Italian vocabulary consists of hello, thank you and youre welcome, and the pharmacist spoke no English either. Luckily there was a nice woman behind me in line who was able to help translate that I just needed to keep cleaning it (not infected).

Put a dent in my wallet today at the post office... In fact, today has broken the bank all at once, because up until now I've been pretty good at saving.

I bought a 12hour pass for the vaporetto/bus system today, and went to 3 different islands.... Lots of boating. I finally got to so some wandering/exploring on my own, and it was a very successful day!

I first took the vaporetto to lido again, but quickly changes my mind; I got too much sun yesterday and didn't want to be on the beach again So I went and hopped in another vaporetto back, which took me the other direction from Venice to get to the island "Murano". The entire island makes glass, and I got to watch people blowing/making glass vases! It was beautiful work! Store after store sold glass jewelry, dishes/bowls and artwork. I don't know how they compete with each other. I got a couple souvenirs but I thought I'd try in Venice again for certain earrings and a necklace I oft have time to find

After a long time in murano (I had to go in every store to compare prices, of course, and still never make up my mind) then I took another long vaporettoto Burano, skipping an island in between (which I supposedly all cemeteries anyways)

Burano was SO COOL. I wish I got more time there bc I only walked around for about 30 minutes b all the houses. Are so brightly colored, it makes for fantastic photos. The island is knob for making lace, and similar to murano, there were a lot of little shops selling very similar items, with patterns that I might call crochet, but they had dresses, fans, scarves, belts, you name it, in Italian silk and hand made lace. I caved and bought a pair of decorative scarves.

So I've already blown €110 in a day, but it wasn't over. I still needed dinner and planned on an evening show.
It took me forever o find my way back through th square of San marco to where the theatre de San gallo is, but a nice Venusian helped and I made it in time.

The play, called 'Venizia' had corny Acting, and despite it not really being what I expected, it was pretty cool because j learned a lot about the history of Venice. Some parts went by too quickly for me to catch/remember their facts, but there are a few that stand out to me.
Apparently the Venusian masks with the long hooked noses used to be worn by doctors in the plague, where they would stuff the nose with herbs to protect themselves while they identified bodies/illnesses.
I need to look ip again the lion of San Marco (with wings), because they told us the significance but I forget it... however, apparently I can remember thy there are 2636 lion statues around Venice... So I should probably find out why he lion is so important.

The play went through a timeline of tradition and custom that arose through historical events, touching on famous people who lived here or died here or just liked it here, including Vivaldi and Casanova.

I didnt have time after the show to grab dinner before I met Nate for the bus home, or so I thought. I toon another vaporetto through the grand canal, which is even more spectacular at night, with lights shining on the buildings, street lights glowing in the background, and passing live music At various points along the way.
I waited for half an hour for bate to meet me at the station, even though oft there half an hour late myself, and our bus left 5 minutes before he got there, so we had to wait ANOTHER half hour before we could get a way home. So I was upset because I was starving and tires and could've grabbed food after all. I feel like she owes me for the amount of waiting I've done today; I have now waited 4 hours this morning to go j to town, then one hour at the bus stop, plus wasted time wandering in the morning in Venice (though this part was my fault for not having the guts to tell her I wanted to buzz off)

Tomorrows another day, with more $€$€ to spend!

Let's go to the beach let's go catch a wave (aug 5)

We changes it up from the city scene and went out to the island of Lido. Lido is almost entirely beaches, so i soaked up the sub while handwriting my journal entries and reading for Croatia.

I had pizza and a drink at the beach-side bar, and while I read alone at the table (baye went biking instead) a guy asked if he could have the seat across from me (I was taking up a 4 person table in the patio) He worked for costa cruise lines ad an engineer, and I asked him to tell me about the crash and also about the rumours of being taken over by pirates. It was hard to understand with language barriers/thick accents but still interesting.
He invited me to play "beach ball", a common beach sport in Europe I'd seen a few times on he beach in Barcelona, too. Ira basically ping pong in the air (with no net or anything) but with bigger pAddles and a heavier rubbery ball that looks like a squash ball but bouncier. Another thing European beaches have a lot of: topless women and men in speedos, both regardless if age or body type.

That night, as planned, Baye and I set out for a supermarket, picked up a bottle of cheap red wine (~€4) and each got things to picnic on. We had trouble locating a grocery store and stopped to ask waiters who were standing on the street waiting for customers. One offered to walk is because it was close. At first we were very thankful for his niceness, but by the end I'd the night we were joking about things we wouldve rather done (such as pee our pants) to get him off our backs. He just didn't stop talking!! He wanted to teach us more Italian words, and have us teach him English, which would've been cool if it weren't so annoying. He kept listing countries, asking if we'd heard if them, and was always shocked when we had. And if we kept silent during conversation, implying we werent interested in the topic, he would just keep rambling until we replied.

Our Romantic picnic on the side of the canal near the brick wall garden was spoiled, cause he followed us there. I still had a nice cheap dinner of fresh bread, salami, and sweet cherry tomatoes, but would've been better watching the night boats pass in silence (with the exception of the music from the neighbouring restaurant of course).

We finally got home to wait for a shower and do laundry (which we've been forced to do every day in this stinkin heat), and slept to the sounds of crickets :)

Birfday (aug 3/4)

Was mostly a travel day. We left Rome at 10am and arrived in venice around 2:0pm

Hostels in Venice were both fully booked and stupidly expensive... And in really glad they were or we wouldn't havethought to try a campground.

We're staying at camping Rialto, with tents and bedding provided, a shower and toilet building and even laundry facilities. It's been fantastic.

After checking in and laughing at how small our tent is, we headed back into Venice ( a 10 minute bus ride ) and walked around. We passed San Marco square and basilica (but didnt go in) and the Rialto bridge; the two main tourist sites. We also took billions of photos in billions of tiny bridges over the small canals, which will likely all then out identical though I bought each was photo-worthy.

So basically we saw all of Venice on foot the first day, but just to make sure, we did it again on door on august 4th, too, but this in we added a little shopping. By this point, the clothes that we've packed fir practicality are sickening us because the city is so beautiful so we wouldn't mind looking half decent when we take photos in it... And we currently look like sweaty bums (mostly because we are sweaty bums). I've been looking for a particular dress, and still haven't been able to find it, but I did buy one nice black shirt.
That night we found a pizzeria/snack bar on the water that wasn't expensive. I ordered pork and fries, and bays for adventurous with ink-soaked spaghetti. It actually was black. She said it was good though.

Backtracking, earlier on the 4th we walked to baye's old apartment in a square to write our postcards. It was so hot I passed out/fell asleep on the bench and barely got any written (now aug 12 I still have some Venice cards to mail!). I had to get gelato to cure me from the heat :)

When we get back to he campsite it's always a challenge to charge electronics cause you either have to charge in the bathroom while you shower, or sit on the patio of the market/restaurant/bar and wait for one of the 4 plugs to become free. At least with the latter you can have a beer and watch the olympics. We ended up having to do both methods of charging to keep our phones and cameras juiced. Especially when you wait 30 minutes for a shower anyways.