Today was a whirlwind of a day.

I woke up at 6 am because our train was

at 7:30 and I wanted to be ready. Unfortunately, there was a huge
confusion with the hotel about whether or not I paid and I ended up
having to spend 199 euros for the hotel room, even though I had stayed
two nights and they never asked. It was very very strange and caused me
a lot of anxiety. At this point, my bank account is taking a good hot from
little things like transportation and food. Things are sometimes farther
than they appear and so you need to pay for a taxi, or things stop
working, like the trains, which I will get to later.

To get to Venice was pretty easy, but unfortunately our hotel was pretty far
outside Venice and the taxi to get to the hotel from Venice mestre was 50
euro, which is ridiculous. That was a pain, and then we had to run to
catch the train. We literally stopped at our hotel for ve minutes and then
ran to catch the train. We caught it though, and soon we were in Venice.
Unfortunately, two of our members took a later train and we had no way
to really get in contact with them and the next train was two hours later. I
was sad because I wanted to spend the day with them, but I couldn't.

Once we nally got there it was around 11:10 am and I had two
reservations, one for a tour, one for Doge's palace. I missed both, which
means I wasted money, and that was just another big anxiety on my chest
after spending so much in the morning. However, Venice was spectacular.
Better than I could have imagined, and even more crowded. At some
points people were just smushed into each other. Me and a group of ve
other girls basically rambled around the streets of Venice, slowly making
our way towards st. Marcos square, looking at shops along the way. It
was pretty damn cool. We did get there eventually and it was the dj
gwu of the century. Unfortunately, the basilica was under construction so
you could only see half of it, which took away from its beauty. I do
understand the necessity of reconstruction, though, so I'm glad they're
preserving it. It's pretty much the thing though in Italy right now,
reconstruction, I mean. The trevi fountain is closed, many rooms of the
u"zi are closed, and the basilica was half under construction. I'm glad
I've seen it before, I was very lucky to see all these things in their prime.

Venice is the most expensive city by far, but I managed it pretty well. I
actually must admit after they messed up my water bus fare and didn't
give me a 24 hr ticket, I just used the water bus for free. I wasn't paying
20 euros for 5 hours.

So we stayed there for about four hours, and then decided to go back to
our hotel to change and clean up and then go back to the city at night,
but there were a few step backs. Today was just one of those days where
you literally have no control of the things happening around you. I will
explain in bullet form.

They gave me the wrong ticket after I asked three times 1.
The train going into Venice was late, so I missed my rst tour 2.
The weather got progressively worse, quickly turning into a massive 3.
thunderstorm
The train station decided to go on strike from 9pm this night to 9 pm 4.
tomorrow
We never could nd our other group members 5.
The impending rainstorm caused an inux of people coming for shelter 6.
at the hotel restaurant, which we were dining at.

The restaurant, however, is much more complicated. Needless to say
because of the whether, we couldn't go back to the city this night, which
was sad, so we decided to dine at the restaurant at the hotel.we ended
up waiting 3 hours for food, asking for the manager 3 times, having the
waitress snap at us, and two girls not even getting an order of food after
waiting for three hours. It was terrible and I don't want to write it down
because I don't want to remember it really. There was also a slight conict
with me and another woman dining there, because she decided that it
was a good idea to talk down to our table. I handled it very well, didn't
yell at her, or freak out, but man was I calling her names in my head.


July 13th

Today was also a whirlwind. Luckily all of the fast trains were guaranteed
to work, so we knew we could get back to rome, but none of the local
trains worked, so we had to take a taxi into Venice, which cost 80 euro for
us 8 girls. Not too bad, but stil a good amount. Once we were in, 5 of us
went to the Doges palace, and it was amazing. The rooms were fantastic
and colored with frescoes and beautiful scenes of victory, death, and of
course Christ. I was so happy I got To see it.

Because the trains were cancelled, the earliest a taxi could send us in
was 10:30, and then the water bus took 45 minutes, so be got to doges
palace and in around 11:45. This is basically all I did in Venice today,
because my train was at 3:15, and by the time I was done it was 2 and it
took 45 minutes to get back by water bus. I'm still pretty happy though,
because I got my pin for Venice and a few other things.

The rst day in Venice was a whirlwind of good bad, worse, then good
again. I learned that I should never ever try to do Venice in 2 days ever
again, nor should I stay in a hotel 30 minutes away. The city was beautiful,
crowded, and colorful. I can't say much about the food because I
honestly didn't eat much in the city, which is okay. The palace was
stunning. The city was sinking. Italy is beautiful. I am now on no train
back to Roma, and tonight I am gonna watch the game with friends and
celebrate! It's gonna be great. Ciao ciao for now.