Europe, Eurdown, Eurall Over the Place!: Venice, Italy

On Friday, April 13th, the group began our 7 hour bus ride from Vienna to Venice. Seven hours on a bus may sound horrible, but honestly, it was a beautiful ride through the Alps and it was nice to have the time to rest.

One of the beautiful little towns on our drive.

By the time we finally made it to Venice, it was cold and raining. It took us quite awhile to get to the hostel. First our bus had to drop us off at the train station, then we took the train onto the island. Then we had to get on a water taxi, and we finally made it to the right area. We then had to walk several blocks in order to get to our hostel. It was pretty cold outside, and our hostel was built in the 16th Century (which was amazing, but definitely not warm). Lisa, Abby and I were roommates. We walked to the town square and I had a sinus infection by this point, so my eyes were just streaming with tears and I felt pretty crappy. After arriving in the center, we had free time. Tim, Lisa, Abby, and I had supper in an Italian restaurant a few blocks away from the main center.

Abby, Lisa and I after supper in Venice.

A typical street in Venice.

After supper, we were walking home, and as we crossed Academia Bridge, some guys yelled, "'Mericans!!". Well, that was of course one of our favorite phrases, and we loved spotting Americans ourselves, so we stopped and talked to them. They were a group that had been studying in Italy, and had just had their finals earlier that day. They were celebrating their last night in Italy and invited us to go with them to their favorite bar, Madigan's. Of course, we couldn't turn that down, so we joined them.... Well, to make a long story short, one of the guys from the other group stayed behind with us when we ran into everyone else in our group, and when we tried to catch back up and get to Madigan's, we got lost. Well, it's really not so bad to be lost in beautiful Venice. So, we made the best of it and bought some bottles of wine to help us explore. Miraculously we ended up at the bar. When we got to Madigan's, the rest of their American group was there, and we were all excited to meet. There was even a guy from Lincoln there! We played Beer Pong and Tippy Cup, and made some great fuzzy memories.

The next morning, outside of Madigan's Pub.

The next day, my class explored Venice together. We toured some of the government buildings and the main church. After lunch, when we had the afternoon free, I went home and went to bed since I was still sick. The next day (Sunday) was the beginning of our Spring Break! Since Abby, Evan and I didn't have a flight until later in the day, we went to an art museum Sunday morning with a few other people that were still hanging around.