Our Romantic Gondola for two please
It is the bridge prisoners crossed right before being executed.
Day in Ferrara.
In Bologna now.
outside our bedroom door.
Off to Florence next.
At Piazzale Michelangelo
NOW off to Vienna Austria.
Me, on my eleven hour overnight train from Florence to Vienna.
Quick story: So my last day in Vienna I decided I wanted to go to the Schonbrunn Palace, I get off the tram at the stop that is designated for the palace. It was raining when I got outside so I started to run towards the building. I get inside, relieved I by the 8.50 euro ticket and walk up the stairs and take my first real look around....I was in the Locomotive Museum. Great! Couldn't just leave after spending that much on a ticket so I spent the next two hours walking aroung taking pictures of old cars for my Dad. Hope you are proud Dad, it was all for you!
I ran out of time from being in the Locomotive museum
Graz Austria.
Back to Venice, getting ready to leave.
Quick Story: We like to fly Ryanair as it is cheap, the downfall is that you only get one peice of carry on luggage and any other bag, even if it is just a purse, you have to check which costs forty pounds (sixty dollars...no thank you!) so in order to fit everything in our bags after spending two weeks on the road we have to wear everything we own. This is us trying out our scheme in the hostel just to make sure we can make everything fit. I wore three pairs of leggings under my jeans, which would not go above my thighs, a tank top, three shirts, a sweater, my scarf, my head band as another scarf, two hats, and my coat. not to mention my pockets were stuffed full of the contents of my purse so that i could hide it under my coat too. Kristi I believe has even more on. Luckily after packing we realized more fit in our bags then we had planned so we did not look this ridiculous getting on the plane.
This is me however getting on the plane with my paintings shoved up my sweater so that they would not bend in my bag. my coat on top just made me look buff but you couldn't tell there was anything in there.
A New Year requires some new destinations, so January first I was off to Italy. I flew into Venice and spent two nights there. Venice is magical, once you get passed the smell and the garbage, although it is definitely a place to travel with a partner because it just isnt the same taking a gondola under the bridge of kisses with your Canadian counter part. Kristi and I had fun though weaving our way through the maze of tiny alleys and dead ends. Our prized possession though was the discovery of Italian desserts, which we indulged in at least ten times a day. We has Cannolies, Lobster Tails, Tiramisu, oh my! From there we were off to Bologna but made a quick stop along the way in Ferrara to explore the tiny town. In its small quarters the town houses the most amazing old castle, moat and all. Somehow we ended up going in the back door or a museum and finding our way to the top of the castles tower to get the best view of the town, only to come back down and be yelled at in Italian for not having a ticket so we got out of there. That night we stayed in a bed and breakfast in Bologna, our fanciest residence by far. Bologna has a couple of towers of its own, which we paid to climb this time, although they should be paying us to make the trek up the 500 stairs. My last stop in Italy was Florence, the most interesting of all. We has planned on couch surfing with a guy name Klo, however we was out of town and said that we were still welcome and that his cousin and brother whom he lives with would be there to host us. The cousin, Eddy, was the only one who spoke english, making it interesting to communicate with the brother, Erry. Although the brother, Erry, suffered from little man syndrome (a syndrome we conjured up to explain why he was so bossy, since he was the size of a polly pocket and needed to come across strong and mighty) we had the best time bowling and cruising around the Tuscan Country with them. Also in Florence Kristi's Art History class was there to study some of the Florence sights which I decided to tag along to two out of four days. We went to Santa Maria Novella, and Santa Croce, as well as a museum over the course of the days. It was a very educational experience which allowed me to look deeper into the architecture and history of Florence making it even more beautiful. I left Kristi the night of January 7th on a train destined for Vienna, Austria. While meeting some very nice and interesting people over the course of an eleven hour train ride I exhaustively made it to my hostel in central Wien (Vienna since they use w's instead of v's). I spent two days taking pictures of myself by awkwardly contorting my arm or even more awkwardly setting the camera up on timer to run into the photo. All fun times though and I really enjoyed having time on my own. My final stop was Graz, Austria where a friend of mine is now living for three months doing her co-op at the University. Ironically when I went to Sweden earlier last year to visit my friend Amy I met Sophie who was also there from Uvic on exchange. We hit it off and kept in touch so it was so nice being able to go visit her! Graz is a beautiful little town, not a whole lot to do but I kept myself busy until Sophie got off work. Approaching the end of my trip I was exhausted so it was the perfect time to be with a friend in an apartment where we could catch up on movie watching and some much needed sleep. My last day in Graz it began to snow, a perfect fairwell to a perfect trip. I headed back to Venice to meet up with Kristi once again and we said goodbye to our travels with one last sweet treat, our favorite... cannolies!
