Well today was goodbye Florence and hello to Venice.... but it definitely wasn't
my favorite day by far.

Leaving the Academy was hard because it had been such an excellent place to
stay. We had an 11:30am train to Venice so we checked out right at
11am and headed to the train station.

I also downloaded some new games on my iPad today for the train ride. Which is
kinda bad because there is so many other productive things I should be doing
like getting ahead for my study abroad and catching up on blogs... but I
couldn't resist.

Anyways, the train was only a little more than an hour. Meredith and I had to
make reservations and we next to a business man and a nun. Yeah crazy.

We made it to Venice right around 1pm and went straight to our hostel. RIght
away the city is absolutely breathtaking ... it truly is like the rivers and the
roads and boats are cars. Our hostel was only about 2 blocks away from the
train station... We were told that we couldn't check in until about 2 or 3pm, so
we had to store our luggage in a room and then come back to check in.

Which was fine because Meredith and I were eager to see the city because it was
so unique from everything we have seen so far. We just wandered through the
streets and over the bridges. There were millions of gondolas but they are so
expensive! So we will just admire them :)

After walking around for a few hours we decided to head back to our hostel to
check in. And boy this is where the day went bad....

First off it is about 90 degrees outside with 100 percent humidity ... and there
is no air conditioning. So we lug our bags upstairs, and tell the man we want
to check in. In one word he was, gross. We had changed the reservation a few
days ago, because we added Budapest to the itinerary. We received a reply
saying no problem and that our reservations were changed with no problems.

Well that wasn't the case when we got there. He started going off about how they
didn't accept people for just one night and that he needed us to send another
e-mail canceling our whole reservation in order for us to stay there. And then
he started going off how he didn't know where he was going to put us because we
didn't have a reservation... Even though we completely did. I showed him our
confirmations and Meredith showed him the e-mail she sent with the changes. The
entire time he was talking italian to these other guys who worked there and just
seemed like they were saying nasty things. I wish I would have just left and
paid for a hotel for the night...

But we didn't... Eventually he was like "I only have one room open, so you will
have to share a bed" Which it was a queen size bed, so it wasn't a huge deal.
Anyways, we agreed and they took us to another building like 3 minutes away
where we would be staying. The room was bare but totally dirty. The mattress
had stains all over it. And although we didn't pay for sheets (which were
extra) ... the guy that took us to the hostel didn't know that so he gave them
to us anyways... (we are still waiting for the e-mail saying that we owe them
3Euro for the sheets we used to cover the mattress)...

Right away we through all the pillows off the bed and just used the sheets to
cover it... we would definitely still be sleeping in our sleep sacks.

The bathroom was also gross with bugs and water everywhere... this was honestly
a negative four star hostel.

And it wasn't just the dirt, but the way we were treated by the staff...
Anyways, Meredith and I were in a rush to get out. So we decided to head out
and not come back until we just wanted to sleep.


So we decided to head to St. Marcs Basilica where there are battling orchestras
at night. It was about a 40 minute walk but we got there at the perfect time.
It was light enough to get pictures, but then we sat down by the water and
watched the sunset.

There was a ton of vendors pushing tourists to buy roses. Then all of a sudden
a guy came up to me and was like "for you" and handed me a rose. Thinking it
was an annoying vendor a like pushed it away, but then I realized it was an
American guy really giving it to me. So I said thank-you and he like ran
away... haha, but he didn't run away he sat like a few tables behind us, with
his friend. They were probably both in there early 20s but were the definitely
the nerd/nervous around girls type. I think giving me the rose may have been a
dare.

Meredith and I wouldn't turn around to say anything to them, so eventually they
left, but again ran by the table and said "enjoy your rose" ... haha it was so
awkward.

Hungry we walked down the board walk searching for food... Which there was NONE!
So we decided to listen to some of the orchestras. They were really good, and
played the titanic song :) People were even dancing, but Meredith wouldn't
dance with me :(

Carrying the rose, I kept joking and saying "thanks for the rose babe!" making
people think Meredith gave it to me.. haha it was so funny because she would
respond with some vulgar words telling me to shut up.

Then it hit me .... We had to go back to that hostel :( :( :(

Oh how I was dreading it.... and I needed to shower. Meredith and I felt so
unsafe that we sat in the bathroom with each other. Bottom line never stay at
the Absolut Hostel in Venice.

Tomorrow we are waking up early and checking out! We are planning on going to
see Murano and Burno, the two closest islands to see the blown glass art, lace,
and colorful buildings :)
-brooke.