And in the blink of an eye, we are out of Guardamar del Segura… goodbye Spain, hello Italy! I’m currently in Venice, Italy right now! The journey was long, the airlines were mean, but we made it to Venice… and it couldn’t feel anymore like a dream than it already does. As soon as Melissa and I woke up this morning, we started packing and getting everything together before our shuttle arrived at 12 noon to take us to the airport. It was another bittersweet day today, especially when we woke up to near silence in the Pension; almost everyone had already left to their new destinations. It felt a lot like the end of freshman year at Berkeley in the dorms… haha but enough about the “sad” part. All of us had such a wonderful experience in Guardamar this summer and I know I will never forget it.
As noon neared, Melissa and I brought our luggage downstairs and I occasionally poked my head outside the door of the Pension looking for a large van. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for, but I guess I didn’t need to, because the shuttle driver parked his van and walked over to me and asked if I was the one that scheduled a shuttle to the airport. Thank goodness he did that. Anyway, within five minutes or so the rest of us came downstairs (Edgar, Lu, Sherry, and Jinah) and we packed up the van before heading out. Haha we had so much luggage between the six of us… it took some strategic work to make all of our stuff fit, but we did it.
I’m so glad that we took a shuttle to the airport because we ran into a bunch of difficulties and delays between checking into our flight and boarding our plane. Ryanair, the airline that we chose to fly with today, caused us so much stress and were completely unreasonable with charging us with fees for our luggage… to make a long story short, we ended up running to the gate and vowing to never fly with Ryanair again haha.
Anywho, within a few hours we arrived here in Venice, Italy with a combination of a hungry and sparkle in our eyes. We hadn’t really eaten all day so we were all so hungry but –I don’t know about them— I was so wide-eyed and like a kid in a candy store once we got here… I think my “homies” were making fun of me for filming us walking through the airport once we arrived here haha. Anyway, we had to find our way through and out of the airport so we just asked for directions and were guided to take a bus and then a boat to get to our hostel. Yes, you head right – a BOAT! The most amazing thing about Venice is the fact that water takes the place of streets, boats take the place of cars, and boat stops take the place of bus stops. It’s just so amazing. One of my first impressions of Venice is that it is extremely classy and it’s actually not as crowded as I thought it would be. After asking around, we finally found which bus we were supposed to take (the 52) and we took our boat to our hostel where we waited for one of the owners of the hostel to direct us to where we’ll be staying for the next two nights. Dude, our hostel is so legit! It’s located right on one of the river streets and is absolutely huge and wonderful. It’s like we’re living in an actual Venetian home… and it’s all to ourselves! Man oh man.
We spent the rest of the evening walking through Venice… exploring the streets and experiencing the “night life.” We passed by so many amazing little shops that I can’t wait to walk into tomorrow. We ended up eating some delicious Margarita Pizzas at a local food place and dined so wonderfully. And our meal was topped off with an amazing scoop of Gelato icecream…. Mmmm!!! It. was. bomb. After we ate, we started exploring more and more…. Until we started feeling raindrops fall onto us. Can you believe that? As soon as we got to the Grand Canal, it started pouring like crazy! Madrid, Part 2 for sure, dude! The funniest thing was that as SOON as it started raining, crowds of venders came out of no where carrying a bag of umbrellas and asking if we wanted to buy one. We didn’t think it was worth 5 euros, so we stood under a landmark for a bit hoping for the rain to stop so we could walk back.
Alas… it continued to rain. HARD. So we decided we had no choice but to run back home in the rain. I tried my best to cover my bag but other than that, I let myself get SOAKED. I mean, there was nothing I could do haha. By the time we got back to the hostel, we were all drenched… we look at each other, shrugged, and walked up the stairs to our hostel. You gotta do what you gotta do.
Water seems to be a reoccurring theme this summer, now isn’t it? Haha.
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