Day 92: Maastricht

Saturday, April 17, 2010: Maastricht, Netherlands

Maria and I woke up early Saturday morning for a quick breakfast at the hostel (actually just packing sandwiches to take with us on the train) and cup of coffee before heading up the hill to the bus stop across the road. We caught an early bus along with one of our roommates at the hostel who we had met the night before from Korea. She was headed to the train station as well for the next leg of her journey around Europe. We boarded the same train, but she decided to sit in first class, as that was where her ticket was for.

We were taking the trains back in the direction of Tilburg, but had made a plan to stop in Maastricht for the day to explore this city in the deep south of the Netherlands. I had heard that it was a nice place to go and visit, and it made sense to go now, as we were already down in that direction. Maria was excited too, as she would get to see yet another Dutch city!

We napped a bit on the train ride, which I think was just over an hour. We got off the train and breathed in the fresh, warm air of Maastricht! We went into the train station to check on the locker situation, as we were not about to carry our things around with us all day. It was a rather simple process, and we shared one small locker to stow our things for the day.

Exiting the train station, we found the big map and checked out where the VVV was. We headed in that direction, through an antique market and down the main road. We came to what we thought was the real VVV quickly and looked around for a few minutes. I decided to purchase a self-guided tour map of all the historical monuments and such in Maastricht. The guide offered two walking tours, one that was three hours and the other about an hour long. It had great information that told us all about the city and where to go to see things...and it was in English!!

We exited the VVV and decided to stop for lunch. We went next door to Subway and had a nice sandwich. Then we went to the McDonald's just down the road to get a stroopwafel Mcflurry! I had told Maria all about this delightful creation and she was anxious to try one for herself. We feasted on the Mcflurries as we headed down the road a bit further to the pedestrian bridge where we sat for a few minutes enjoying our Mcflurries. We were surprised when suddenly the boat started moving to accommodate a large boat that was going underneath. It really disturbed the cyclers!

We crossed the bridge and walked downhill into the main shopping area of Maastricht. We came to the second (and real) VVV and looked around for a bit. This was the starting point of our self-guided fortifications tour, so we went back outside and began.

I held the map/brochure and read aloud to Maria the information about all of the interesting things to see in Maastricht. The guide was great, as it gave us explicit directions as to where to turn and where to look. We walked alongside the water and saw some things, before turning to make a giant circle through the city.

We wandered through the streets, squares and parks, paying attention to the information in our guide and piecing it together with the sights. We walked along the old wall that used to enclose the city and even got to climb on top of it for a view from above. We saw some interesting sights as we walked along, including fighting ducks in the park, a Mystery Machine vehicle, and a quartet of older Dutch men singing together harmoniously. It was an eventful and really nice walk!

One of my favorite parts was when we got to go into a windmill that is used to make grain still. It is attached to a small bakery that sells delicious freshly-baked goods. It was quite something to see and we were excited to get to go through it! We also passed by Maastricht University, which was neat to see!

As we were close to finishing  our tour, we decided to sit for a bit and rest. We chose to go to the Chocolate Co., attaining our goal of going to all three! This one was quite cute as well, and we each ordered a cup of steamed milk and hotchocospoon. This time I had Latte Macchiatto...yummy!

Afterward, we wrapped up the fortifications tour on the Maastricht side. It had taken us nearly four hours! We had walked about 4 kilometers, according to the guide! But it was really nice, as the sun was shining and the weather was so great!

We walked back through town past all the shops and stopped in one, 'de Bijenkorf', a Dutch department store. I am researching this store (well the one located in Eindhoven) as part of my Organizational Development course at Tilburg. We are writing a lengthy paper on the change process that the company has recently implemented in the branches of this store in the Netherlands. It was nice to actually get  to go inside one and see what they sell! Its kind of similar to Dillards or Macy's for those of you reading this in the States :)


After our short shopping diversion, we headed across the bridge to Wyck, the former center of Maastricht. We decided to do the Wyck tour on the other side of the water. It was nice as well, and much shorter than the other tour (about 1 km in one and a half hours). We enjoyed the tour and taking pictures on the other side. Just before we left, we walked up on the large, new bridge in Maastricht that we had been eying all day from a distance. It gave a nice overview of the city.

We headed back to the train station where we retrieved our things and boarded the train to Weert (don't ask about the pronunciation ;). We were thrown off again be having to switch to a bus at Weert in order to get to Eindhoven, as there was construction on the line between the two stops. We arrived about 6PM back in Tilburg, glad to be home after another exhausting (but AWESOME!) trip.

We hung out and chilled that evening with my friend Daniel. We went to his place and made milkshakes with Ben and Jerry's icecream! Yummm :)

Maria was supposed to leave the following Monday to head back to the UK. However, due to the volcanic ash, she was unable to do so. She ended up booking a bus back to the UK, and stayed in Tilburg with me through Tuesday. On Sunday, we went with Mateja and Daniel to some of the museums in Tilburg, including the Textile Museum and the Natuur Museum. We enjoyed both (although the textile museum was a bit of a disappointment). We had a lot of fun at the Natuur museum interacting with the exhibits there and behaving like little children....as usual! We went for ice cream afterward in the center with Daniel and Mateja at Intermezzo....yum! 

Monday morning, Maria and I headed to City Centre to try out Mugs and Muffins, a new muffin, coffee and cupcake place in town. We each ordered a muffin (I had cinnamon sugar and Maria had white chocolate raspberry...stop drooling!!!) and enjoyed realzxing in the warm Tilburg weather.

In the afternoon, the girls and I all went down to city centre to the cinema to see the Disney movie, "How to Train a Dragon". We all thought it was cute, even though Maria ended up sleeping through a bit of it! On Tuesday, I had class, so Maria bummed around in my room most of the day and we met up with Daniel for a quick lunch. We said our goodbyes and she headed out via train later in the afternoon while I was back in class.

All in all, it was a really nice visit with a really nice friend! We enjoyed spending time together and getting to know one another better. Maria lives in the Atlanta area, so she will be able to get together with me some this summer as well!

Day 90-91: Luxembourg

After our big Easter trip, I had just over 24-hours to rest up in Tilburg before my next big exciting adventure! My friend, Maria Le from Agnes Scott, was coming over from the UK where she was studying for the semester to visit for about a week! She arrived in Eindhoven early Tuesday morning and we met up at the Tilburg West station right after I was through with classes around 5:30PM on Tuesday evening. It was great to see another familiar face and to catch up with my friend!

We went to mentor dinner that night, but decided not to hit up the LG, as we were both exhausted from our travels. We spent Wednesday looking around Tilburg, picking up my residence permit in 's-Hertogenbosch, and baking quesadillas for the crew for dinner before heading out on Thursday for our big adventure together....Luxembourg and Maastricht!

Thursday, April 15, 2010: Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

We woke up early thirty on Thursday morning to head to Tilburg West for our first train on our trek to Luxembourg. I had researched the journey route beforehand, and we were supposed to take four trains in total to get to Luxembourg City. It should take us just under five hours to get there. Well, as you know, things do not always go according to plan....

We hopped on the train and made it down to Liege, Belgium with no problems. We were prepared to hop on our next train to take us to Luxembourg, and ended up having to wait an extra 15 minutes or so for it to come, which we thought was quite odd. We boarded the train and the ticket checker came by pretty quickly. He looked at our tickets and said something in French. I whipped out my, "Parlez vous anglais?", to which he promptly responded "No". Darn, what now? He pointed to the guy sitting in the seat across from us and motioned that we should follow him. Okay, that's reassuring, right?!?

So the train stopped a few minutes later and we were all told to get off and hop on a bus to get to the next stop, Rivage, on the way to Luxembourg. This wasn't part of our initial plan.... We followed the boy over to where the buses were and I went and asked the driver if it was the bus to Luxembourg City. He did not speak English, but I gathered that the bus was not going all the way to Luxembourg City. We stepped off the bus to let others on and began discussing what to do. A woman overheard us speaking, and graciously explained everything to us in English. Apparently this bus was going to Aiwaillye where we would need to hop on another train to get to Luxembourg Gouvy to eventually get to Luxembourg City. We thanked her for her kindness and hopped on board the bus.

A bit later we arrived in Aiwaillye where we got on the train to Luxembourg Gouvy right away. When we arrived in Gouvy, we went inside the tiny train station to look up train times to Luxembourg City. No trains for over an hour! We did not want to wait inside the train station for that long, so we decided to take a walk around outside and explore Gouvy a bit, backpacks and all! We went next door to the tourist information point and got a feel for what Gouvy was all about...nature. We figured out where the heck we were on the map (still in Belgium) and bought a postcard (typical).

Then we walked down the street a bit from the train station past some shoppes and houses. We reached a windy hilly road and decided to sit for a bit on the wooden fence alongside the road. We chilled there for a bit until it was about time to go back to catch our train. Finally, we boarded the last train on our voyage to Luxembourg. We arrived in Luxembourg City around 5:00PM, about eight hours after we had left in the morning! Much longer than anticipated! In total, we had taken six different trains and one bus to get to Luxembourg....what a whirlwind of public transportation!

We arrived at the train station and took a bus to the street that the hostel was on. We were a bit turned around initially upon our arrival to the hostel, but figured out where it was rather quickly. We had to go down a hill (with a nice ramp) to get to Luxembourg City Hostel, where we stayed during our time in the city. We checked in and set down our things in the room before heading out to explore!

We began walking towards the city and happened upon the National Museum of History and Art, which Maria had read that there was free admission on Thursday evenings. So we took advantage of this opportunity to see the museum, which ended up being really interesting! It was massive! It went from floor -5 to floor +5! We explored each level, although most of the information was in French, so we could not read much about it. One of the walls of the museum was made of the earthen rock that characterizes the hills of Luxembourg, so it was really cool to see that in the museum. We were a bit creeped out by the single security guard that seemed to be following us around the entire museum like we were going to steal something.... But is was a really enjoyable museum!

After our museum quest, we headed into the city and came upon the Grand Ducale Palace, home of the Grand Duke during the majority of the year. Luxembourg is the only Grand Duchy in the world, so it was really neat to see the outside of the palace, even though we would not be allowed to go inside during our stay, as the family was residing there at the present time. We turned around and noticed that the Chocolate Company was behind us! We had made it our mission to find the chocolate co. in both Luxembourg and Maastricht, so we were pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be so easy. We noted the location and made plans to return the following day.

Speaking of chocolate, we began to notice that our tummies were rumbling, so we began to look for some cheap eats. Luxembourg is a pretty well-to-do city, and it seemed that every restaurant we came upon was super expensive. So we decided to settle for kebabs- cheap, tasty and filling! I enjoyed a chicken cordon bleu sandwich from the kebab place with fries (and the infamous mayonnaise sauce!).

After supper, we continued walking and came to the main square. We made notes for all the things that we wanted to do the following day, as everything was closed this late in the evening already. On our way back, we came to the ruins and explored a bit. We decided that we definitely wanted to do those in the morning.

Tired from a long day on the trains, we headed back to the hostel. In the lobby we asked the woman at the desk about opening times the following day and decided to relax and watch 'Germany's Next Top Model' in the lobby for a bit. It was interesting as it was all in German, but we understood what was going on, as we had both seen the Tyra Banks version in the States before. After it was over, we headed upstairs to our 6-bed female dorm to get some rest for the night.

Friday, April 16, 2010: Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

We woke early the next morning, got ready, and went to breakfast at the hostel. We had a typical hostel breakfast of bread, cheese, meat and various spreads. We were also happy to have some coffee to wake us up! While at breakfast, we overheard a boy speaking to some girls that he would have to stay longer than anticipated as his flight had been canceled due to a volcanic eruption...hmm, that's odd! We shrugged it off and headed out for the day.

First we walked alongside the scenic roadside and admired the gorgeous view we had from up above of the rolling hillside of Luxembourg...what a beautiful country! We walked all along the road for nearly an hour exploring the hills and catching some great views! We were killing time before the Casemates opened for the day, so we finished our walk and headed back towards town to see the Saint Michael's Church. It was quite nice! Afterward, we stopped into the European Union information center on the corner, as Maria wanted to look at the information available there. She studies History and International Relations at Agnes Scott, and focuses on the EU, so this was of utmost interest to her. I was also curious and picked up a brochure in the center about what the EU does for women....yes, I attend a women's college, thank you!

It was just about time for the Casemates to open so we headed that way. We arrived, bought our tickets and headed inside. We were amazed by how old and historical it all was. We had a blast navigating our way through and getting lost inside the narrow passageways in the Casemates. I was shocked at the extremely low ceilings at some points and noted that the Dutch would have a difficult time in there. We climbed up and down winding spiral stairs and in and out of small passageways. It was a really fun  and adventuresome thing to do, and I loved it! At one point, we managed to accidentally exit the Casemates, so we had to go back to the entrance and re-enter. No biggie. We found our way back and got to see the rest. I think we spent nearly two hours exploring before we headed out.

We went back to the hostel to drop off my jacket, as it was pretty warm outside! Then we explored the hospice gardens next door to our hostel, before heading to the Chocolate Co. for a quick mug of hot coco to relax from our wandering so far. I had a Blackberry Yogurt Chocospoon (so healthy!). We enjoyed sipping our coco outside on the Chocolate Co. front patio and watching a particular tourist attempt to get a picture of the guard on duty at the Palace directly across the way. The guard kept walking in his stance while the tourist waited patiently for him to stop at his post so that he could take a nice picture. Finally, the guard stopped at his post and the tourist raised his camera to snap a quick photo, but before he could press the button, the guard began walking again. Obviously frustrated, the tourist resigned to his seat at the restaurant next door with his wife. At this point, Maria and I were laughing quite hard, as we found the whole situation quite humorous! We finished our drinks and headed out.

Our next stop was the Museum of the History of the City of Luxembourg. I was eager to go to this museum to learn a bit more about the city and country of Luxembourg, as it is such a small, unique and fascinating place. This museum was also quite large and did a great job of relaying the history of the city from past to present. We learned all about the city, and were really impressed with the museum!

After our museum visit, we began our search for a yummy lunch. We headed back to the area where we had eaten dinner the evening before....cheap food area. We split a nice warm panini and then headed next door to the crepe and gelato place for a crepe. We ordered a monstrous, delicious crepe filled with bananas, liquor, cinnamon, cream and garnished with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

Next we decided to do what we girls do best on any trip- shop! We went to our typical favorite shops: H&M, Zara and all. I don't think either of us bought anything, but we enjoyed looking around and window shopping.

Next we ventured over to another area of the city to visit a large cathedral that was quite impressive. We then headed next door to the public library where we used a computer to check what was going on in the world. We began looking into the volcanic eruption airport-closing incident and realized it was quite serious. We made mental note that we would need to be thinking about this for Maria's intended flight back to London on Monday.

We left the library fairly exhausted and decided to make our way back to the hostel to rest up and refresh a bit. I took a short 30-minute nap before we headed back downstairs to the lobby. We asked the girl at the desk if she could recommend any good places to us for dinner and she gave us the name of an American food place called 'Maybe Not Bob's'. We decided to try it out, as we could get a coupon at the Tourist Office nearby for buy one get one free on a beverage of choice. We picked up  the coupon and headed to the restaurant.

We enjoyed a nice "American" dinner. I had a plate of yummy nachos and Maria had a burger. To celebrate our last night in Luxembourg, we each bought each other a drink (and got one free!). We shared strawberry margheritas during dinner and sipped a white russian after we had finished.

We made our way back to the hostel after our yummy dinner and got ready for bed. We packed as well, as we would be leaving the next morning for Maastricht.

I really enjoyed Luxembourg and thought it was a very beautiful place. I think the word is 'unassuming'. It is not where everyone wants to go, but it is a really nice place to visit and definitely worthwhile! I would have loved to have had more time to explore more of this minuscule country and get to see some more besides just the city. Next time I'm in Europe!

Day 85-87: Florence and Pisa

Saturday, April 10, 2010- Florence, Italy

We consumed our last breakfast at the hotel before checking out and leaving to catch the bus back to Mestre Train Station. We took the train from Mestre to Firenze (Florence), a longer journey, but very nice!

First things first when arriving in a new place: check into the hostel! We walked down the long street to the hostel from the train station, following our directions, and arrived at Plus Florence around noon. This was a pretty fancy hostel- it had a workout room, saunas and day excursions you could participate it! We checked in and paid, but our rooms were not yet ready. So we stored our luggage in the luggage closet and bought an internet card for half an hour. We got updated on the comp with the rest of the world before heading out to explore Florence.

We were pretty hungry, so we searched for a cheap spot for lunch. We decided to eat at this small cafe that served yummy omelettes. I ordered a ham and cheese omelette and we studied the Florence map to see what we wanted to do that afternoon. We decided to first go back by this market that we had walked by on the way to the hostel. We finished our lunch and headed to the market.

Bali had mentioned beforehand that she wanted to get some Italian leather while in Florence, so we were on the lookout for that. We didn't have to look very long or hard, as half the stalls at the market were selling Italian leather goods. One of the first stands we came to we stopped at to take a good look at the leather. The man there asked where we were from and Bali said she was Indian. They promptly began speaking Hindi to each other while I looked at the merchandise. We were both eying the leather wallets, and Bali asked the guy how much they were in Hindi. She bargained a bit with him and we ended up getting two wallets, one each, for 35 euros! To prove they were real leather, the man pulled out his lighter and lit it against one of the wallets. I think my jaw dropped! I really wasn't expecting that, but it was really cool :)

We continued walking through the market and looking at things. We passed a reasonably-priced gelato place and decided that it was time for a snack. Another two scoops of gelato! This time, I got Peanut Butter and Cookies. While the cookies were not anything to write home about (however, apparently worthy of mentioning in the blog :), the Peanut Butter was one of our favorite flavors that we tried...delish!

We ambled back to the hostel to see if the room was ready since we were still closeby and were able to take our things upstairs to our 6-bed coed dorm. As of yet, we did not have any roommates....yay! We refreshed and prepared to head back out.

We began our tour of the city with our map from Plus in hand. We walked to the Dome, the Basilica, Cathedral of Saint Maria, Giotto's Bell Tower and the Baptistry. All were totally fabulous structures and we marveled at their height and beauty. And took pictures. We explored the innards of the city for a bit and made our way through the streets, stopping to take a look in some shops, buy postcards, and watch street art.

Next we walked across the city to the Arno River where we watched the sun set. It was really gorgeous, just as in Venice! Hearing our tummies rumble, we looked again to our hostel world guide to lead us to some place yummy for supper. We spotted a place nearby and attempted to find it with no luck!

So, we settled for a place just outside the Plaza della Signoria. We found a small restaurant called Trattoria de Benvenuto. It was kind of fancy, but the menu posted outside seemed reasonable and the pasta dishes looked tasty. We decided to treat ourselves to this nice meal, as we had been eating pizzas and kebabs a lot in the last few days on our trip. We settled into the seats at the table given to us. We each ordered a plate of the tomato and cheese risotto. It was well worth the wait and the money....so tasty!! We devoured our yummy supper and headed out.

Since we were across town and the sky was quickly darkening, we decided to go ahead and make our way back to the hostel. It was surprisingly easy to find our way back. We prepared for bed, still enjoying the room to ourselves. As we went to bed, two guys came into the room to stay as well. So much for a place of our own! By the morning, the whole room had filled up. Oh well, at least no one snored!

Sunday, April 11, 2010- Pisa and Florence, Italy

Today was a monumental day...literally! We had planned to take a short half-day trip to Pisa, Italy, home of the leaning tower on this morning. We woke up to the first day of gloomy skies and rain on the whole trip! Oh well, guess you can't have your way everyday :)

We got ready and headed out early for the train station. Since there wasn't free breakfast at our hostel, we stopped by McDonald's and got pan au chocolate and coffee. Yum! Then we crossed the street to the train station and boarded the train for Pisa!

We reached Pisa,which was even colder and wetter than Florence. We had been told that it was a short walk to the leaning tower from the Pisa train station, so we decided to walk instead of taking public transportation. We began to walk (without a map) and began to get colder and wetter....my umbrella was of little use do to the wind and blowing rain. We walked for what felt like ages before finally seeing a clearing. And there in front of us stood the Leaning Tower, in all it glory (okay, in the gloomy rain).

I wanted a nice picture with the tower, rain or shine, so Bali and I attempted to take pictures of each other without having our umbrellas fly away. We succeeded, more or less successfully and hurried into the nearby souvenir shoppe to warm up. I bought a nice factual postcard about the leaning tower and we warmed our bodies before crossing the street to check bus times, as we had resolved to take the bus back to the station instead of walking. This turned out the be an awesome decision, as we were much warmer on the way back!

We waited awhile at the train station for the next train to Firenze (Florence) and I warmed my hands over a cup of coffee left on a table in the train station cafe area. The train ride back was interesting. It was not a long journey (thankfully) as we sat across the aisle from this loud woman who was talking the entire time in this annoying accent. Bali and I were chuckling to ourselves about her the whole trip and were surprised that when we were about to get off, the man in the seat next to the woman leaned over to me and asked, "Do you know where you are going?". The woman promptly looked at him and said, "I think she speaks English". Then the man across from them said, "Aren't we going to Florence?". This conversation was too much for Bali and I who could not stop giggling about it as we got off the train!

Back in Florence, we had to walk back to the hostel in the cold with wet shoes. We stopped inside a small restaurant and grabbed a pasta dish each to-go. It was remarkable how much cheaper it was to take the pasta out than to eat in the restaurant. Our pasta cost 8,80 euro to eat in and only 4,00 euro to take out! We took it back with us and went up to our room. We sat on the bed and warmed up while feasting on our yummy and cheap pasta! We were soooo exhausted from being out in the cold all morning and from how much we had been doing all along on the trip so far, so we decided to take time out and nap. We ended up sleeping off and on for about 3 hours, in which we had new roommates come in and replace the old ones that had left from the night before.

Around four, we decided that we should get up and get out. We looked outside and saw that it was now sunny....motivation to get up and go! We went back out and walked through the town some more. This time we walked the opposite direction than we had taken the previous times to explore and see a bit more. We stopped for a quick cappuccino to-go to wake us up. Then we circled around and came back to the market we had been at the day before. We walked back through and Bali bought some authentic leather gloves and we went together and bought an Italian leather cat-shaped key-chain for Mateja for her kindness in hosting us in Slovenia. We then decided to head back towards this shop that we had seen the night before that sold really cute shoes. On the way there, we passed some great shopping and another Gelato place that we had read about in our hostel world guide, Festival of Gelato. We stopped for a couple of scoops. I had cheesecake and kinder this time. Yummy!

We found the shoe shop and Bali ended up buying a pair of flats. They did not have the shoes I wanted in my size (which is a recurring problem here in Europe), so I did not purchase any. We left and decided to walk to the Piazza Michelangelo and to cross the bridge over the Arno that we had walked by the evening before. This bridge is covered in shops, such as jewelers and other craftsmanship shoppes. We marveled at it and how touristy it was.

We made our way through the other side of Florence, across the Arno, to the Piazza Michelangelo, which is this park area on a hill that you can climb up and see the city from. At the top of the hill, we sat on the steps and watched the sunset. A peaceful end to a tiring day!

Afterward, we descended the hill and headed to the bridge again to cross back. We were looking for somewhere cheap to eat, and found a small kebab place on the other side of the Arno. We stopped here and enjoyed a massive kebab dinner. It was warm and yummy! Next door just so happened to be a gelato place, so we inevitably stopped in and got a final gelato for the trip. This time, I had After Eight and dark chocolate. Wow, really yummy!

We made our way back to the hostel, where we packed and got things ready for our early morning. We would be heading back to Pisa via train to catch our flight from Pisa Airport to Eindhoven.

Monday, April 12, 2010- Back to Tilburg

While we were sad to leave (and unhappy to get up so early!), we were ready to get back to the Netherlands and to Tilburg! We woke up super early- 5AM! After last-minute packing, we headed downstairs to check out and walk to the train station.  We arrived 40 minutes early to the train station, as we had left in ample time as to not miss our train/flight.

We both fell asleep on board the train to Pisa airport. I had gotten our ticket out at the start of the journey for when we got checked. Well, as we were asleep when the conductor came by to check tickets, we were surprised that when we woke up, the ticket had been punched! How nice was the conductor to not wake us up for that!

We arrived at the Pisa airport in plenty of time to check in, have a quick breakfast and go through security. We waited a bit before boarding the Ryanair flight back to Eindhoven. The flight was short, and we both caught a few more zzz's on the way back.

We landed in Eindhoven, thankful to just have one bus and a short train ride right home to Tilburg West.  I think we were both super-happy to finally reach Verbs!

Wow! This was a lot of blogging for this trip! But it was a super nice journey, with super nice friends! I saw and did A LOT! I will never forget this amazing trip through Europe and the memories that we made while traveling. It was truly a remarkable trip. I am thankful for the safety that God provided us on the trip, as there were so many things that could have gone wrong. But everything worked out perfectly!

Oh, and when I got back to Tilburg, I was still speaking in my broken Italian. I went grocery shopping that afternoon to stock up and I said "Grazie" to the cashier at Albert Heijn instead of "Danjewel". :)

Day 83-84: Italia Part I

Thursday, April 8, 2010- Venice, Italy

We woke up Thursday morning only to remember we were in ITALY! I've always dreamed of Italy and was so curious as to how it would be. Needless to say, I was super excited to get to the island of Venice and see what all the hype was about!

We got ready quickly and headed downstairs for breakfast at the hotel. We were entertained by the tough Italian bread and happy for our very own pot of coffee and steamed milk! We ate and headed out to the Tabacan to get our tickets for the bus to get to Venice. Unfortunately, the Tabacan decided to open a little late that day, making us miss our bus to Venice!!! Since buses only left from the nearby stop to the island once an hour, we had to wait awhile to catch the next bus. We bummed around the few little shoppes nearby and bought a map of Venice as well as a bottle of sunscreen. Then we walked over to the Villa nearby our hotel that Bali had seen on the internet. It did not open until 10AM, so we could not go in, but we peered in through the gate before heading back to the hotel. In the hotel, I lathered on sunscreen and we studied the map to see where we should go first once we got to Venice. We headed out shortly thereafter to catch the bus....and made it this time!

It was a rather short bus ride to the island- about 20 minutes. We got off the bus and went to the big bus station across the road to get some information at the Tourist information office. We got a few peices of literature and some tips before heading out to explore Venice, Italy!

It was a GORGEOUS day! Sunny, with a few cottony clouds in the sky. We walked across the big bridge over onto the island and began to explore. Feeling claustrophobia kicking in on the main streets by the Grand Canal, we turned into a back street and walked in the quiet corridor through the city and explored the innards a bit. We had read before coming that one of the best things to do in Venice is just get lost in all the windy, narrow streets, and this we did! It was difficult to keep up with where we were on the map, as there are so many tiny streets that curve this way and wind that way. We did our best to figure out where we were, but enjoyed pioneering new paths and stumbling upon things.

The direction we had chosen to explore first took us through the Carneggio district and the Ghetto. We walked through a small garden in between some buildings and came to an area with the Madonna Church and some nice bridges (there are soooo many bridges in Venice!!!). We stopped for a snack, rest and to take some pictures. Now we were back on a major stretch and we walked along Strada Nuovo (a major shopping street) and happened upon the only McDonald's on the island of Venice. We were thankful for this, and headed inside to use the Wifi on Bali's phone and the free restrooms. We chilled with cappuccinos for a few minutes and checked the internet before heading out to brave the streets of Venice again.

We were walking through one area when we noticed several gondolas coming through the area. We stopped to listen to the speel that the gondoleers were giving to the tourists in the boat, and came to realize that we were at a very important place. The guides were pointing out that Marco Polo's house was just up the top of the building we were standing beside. We were awed, but also amused by the tourists (especially this Chinese bunch) that suddenly whipped out their cameras and started clicking the moment they heard mention of Marco Polo. We watched several boats pass through and chuckled at them before carrying on our own way.

Another comical sight we saw along the way called for a picture. We were walking and saw a man in a boat calling up to a man in the window of one of the buildings above. Next thing we knew, a trash bag was being hurled out the window down to the man in the boat. We began giggling and snapped a picture of this comical event. Guess this is how trash is taken to the dumpster in Venice!

Next we planned to make our way to the Rialto Bridge, the most famous bridge in Venice and the largest of the three that cross the Grand Canal. Along the way, we got super lost in the back streets and had to back-track a bit to find our way. We didn't mind this though, as we saw a lot and visited numerous shoppes. As you may know, Venice is famous for its hand- painted and crafted Venetian masks. Bali was planning on purchasing a mask while in the city, so we visited many of the shoppes that sold the masks to look for a suitable one for her at a reasonable price.

Another renowned specialty in Venice (and the whole of Italy) is, you guessed it, GELATO! We saw many of these shoppes along the way as well and checked the price of a scoop at each to see which had the best deal. We settled for paying 2 euro for two scoops...our first GELATO! I got a scoop of Nutella and a scoop of Tiramisu....SO GOOD! We chilled and enjoyed our ice cream on the steps of a small bridge before continuing on our way to the Rialto Bridge.

Finally, we reached the Rialto Bridge! We knew we were closeby when we began to notice the swarms of tourists. It was crazy around there....so many people! I needed to use the bathroom at this point, so we found a public WC (water closet) that cost 1,50 euro to use. NO! I refused to pay that much, figuring that we would stop someplace soon that would be a bit more reasonable. So we began to cross the bridge, which was like a beehive swarming with tourists! We were not impressed with the current conditions of the bridge, as shoppes have been built all across it and it has been so defamed for tourism. We were a bit disappointed, but walked across and took pictures nonetheless.

Across the bridge, we began to search for a place where we could sit, have a drink and use the toilet. We walked alongside the Grand Canal, passed numerous over-priced cafes and men trying to sell us gondola rides for "a great deal". We came to this mirrored wall and took the opportunity to take a photo of the two of us with the canal in the background. Bali and I got to laughing pretty hard, and suddenly heard her name being called.

We turned around to find our mutual friend, Katie Carey (Connecticut), laying out behind us on the side of the canal. Pleasantly surprised, we walked over and sat down beside here. She and several others from Tilburg were in Venice as well. We had texted them earlier about meeting up, but just so happened to run into them....small island! We sat with her until Bari (Canada), Ryan (Canada) and Jordan (Florida) returned with gelato cones and wine. We relaxed with them for over an hour, enjoying the canal, sharing about our journies and sipping on wine. It was really nice. Then we headed to their hostel that was nearby (about 5 minutes walking!) to use their toilet....that's one way to get a free trip to the WC!

We enjoyed seeing their hostel and even met the hilarious hostel manager, Alex. He invited us to a popcorn party that evening at the hostel and entertained us for a bit by drawing a picture of Ryan's face on a glass lantern outside on the hostel patio. We chilled there for a bit, before saying good-bye to our friends and parting ways again.

Bali and I were getting quite hungry (and tired of looking at Venetian masks in the shoppe windows) so we decided to look for a place for supper. We checked our hostel world guide and found a pizza place, Arco, nearby that sounded good. We got a bit lost along the way (surprise, surprise in Venice!) but finally made it there. We ordered a Quatro Staggio Pizza, which worked well for Bali and I, as it had four separate quarters each with one ingredient: artichokes, olives, mushrooms and ham. Bali does not eat ham or beef, so I had the meat! We watched our pizza being freshly made and began drooling at the sight of our first pizza in Italy.

We took our pizza over to a nearby canal and sat down beside the water to feast on our Italian pizza. We were enjoying the warm yumminess and watching the sky turn all shades as the sun set, when we heard some man calling us from behind. We turned around to see Alex, the manager from the hostel behind us! We were surprised (and again noted how small Venice is!) and began to speak to him and ask him how to get some places. He drew a map on our pizza box and wrote each of our names in calligraphy before heading out. Such a small world!

After letting our dinner settle, we got up to explore a bit more before it got too dark. We wandered a bit more before heading to San Magherita, a square suggested by our hostel world guide as a college-student hang out in the evenings and a good place for a drink. We looked around a bit in the square before getting a drink at a cafe. We sat outside and sipped the punch for awhile before getting up to head back to the bus station. We took a late bus back to the mainland and walked back to our hotel from the bus stop nearby. It had been a nice day in Venice, and we were looking forward to exploring the island a bit more the following day!

Friday, April 9, 2010- Venice, Italy

We began our day again with breakfast at the hotel and the bus ride to the island. We wanted to go back to the hostel that our friends were staying at first to see if Alex was there, as he painted Venetian masks on the side and he promised Bali a good deal for one. We managed to find the hostel and went upstairs, but it was crazy busy with people checking out for the day, so we decided to leave and come back later.

We made our way to the San Marco square, probably the most famous area of Venice. It was truly beautiful, with magnificent buildings and a great view of the coast, but also extremely touristy! We had already planned to take the ACTV boats that day around to some of the islands surrounding Venice. Our first stop was Murano, so we boarded to boat and set sail to this famous sub-isle of Venice.

It took just under an hour to get there by boat (or perhaps water taxi is a better term), but it was worth the ride! We disembarked the ship and headed towards the center of the island. Murano is famous for the Murano glass that is hand-blown on the island into all kinds of shapes and pieces. We had already seen a boatload of Murano glass the preceding day on the island of Venice in all the shops, and had taken note of prices and which pieces we might be interested in. I  had decided that I wanted to buy a small gondola man made out of the Murano glass while on the island, so we found a shop that had reasonable prices where I bought just that.

After we had had enough of the shoppes and wandering for a bit, we decided to grab a bite of lunch. We were content with a small cafeteria pizza place that we found where we ordered another freshly-made pizza to split. We took the pizza back outside and went to the edge of the island to eat and enjoy the sunshine.

After a bit more wandering, we boarded the boat again to the second island on our agenda for the day- Burano. This is the island that is famous for its hand-crafted lace, a nice reprieve from all the glass and masks that we had been forced to look at for the last day. When we first arrived in Burano, we were thoroughly exhausted from  the sunshine and all our walking, and decided to rest for a bit in the park by the shore. We nibbled on our apples that we had purchased earlier and then took a brief nap on the steps. I had to use the bathroom again, so I went to find one and left Bali to relax a bit longer. I stopped along my way back to get a gelato. This time I had straciatella and tiramisu. I also purchased a nice postcard to remember Burano.

I went and retrieved Bali, and we began walking through the streets of Burano. We walked through some quiet neighborhood streets, outside of the touristy district, and took note of all the marvelous colors that coated the walls of the buildings on the isle. Each house had its own flair with a distinct, bright paint color. I decided that this was my favorite part of Venice, as it was so bright and cheery and adorable! We walked through and visited some of the lace shops, stopping to buy a piece of Burano lace to send to my mom for Mother's Day.

We continued wandering through the backstreets of Burano, exploring the whole petite island. We saw some humorous sights here as well, including a house that had a clothesline strung out the windows with stuffed animals hanging from it to dry. We laughed and took loads of pictures before realizing that we had made a giant circle and were back near the place to board the boat. We got back on the boat for the hour-long ride back to Venice. We snacked and slept on the boat, as the water slapped up against the sides.

Back on the main island of Venice, we got off at a random stop on the side of the island near Carneggio where we had been the morning before. We had not explored this area though however, and took the opportunity to look around a bit. We soon realized that we were in more of a local area of Venice, rather than  another giant tourist trap. We found a nice place, La Perla, where we could get a pizza to take out for dinner. We noted it in our minds and walked around a bit more.

Suddenly, Bali said, "Sarah, look!". I looked up at the shop sign above us. It was a small wine store. We had read in our hostel world guide that there were shops on Venice that would fill up an empty plastic water bottle with whichever kind of wine for super cheap. We had been looking for such a shop the whole day before, but had not found one. So we were super happy to have stumbled upon one so randomly! I went inside and had my empty half-liter Slovenian water bottle filled with a sweet white wine from the region in Italy for less than 2 euro. It was delicious! One of the best wines I have had!

We walked around a bit more, exploring this area and sipping on my wine before heading back to the pizza place for dinner. We picked up a nice hot pizza and took it to the edge of the island where we had a decent view of the sunset. We enjoyed our yummy dinner (and third pizza in two days!) before deciding that we wanted to find a nice place nearby that  we could get tiramisu for dessert. We found said cafe nearby and ordered one tiramisu to split. Oh my word, Italian tiramisu is legit. So delicious! We ate it (rather quickly) and headed back to the boat dock to take the boat around the island.

At this point, it was dark, so we had a nice view of Venice at nighttime. We relaxed and enjoyed the view before getting off at the stop near the bus station. We walked around the park near the bus station for a bit before boarding the bus back to the hotel.

Another nice day in Venice!