Don't Let The Bed Bugs Bite

After four (miserably long) hours of Italian class on Friday, we headed straight to the train station for Venice. Our train left around 7pm, stopped in Milan, and arrived in Venice around 11pm. Except for the lack of wifi and insanely expensive magazines, our first train experience across Northern Italy was a huge success!

 

Kaitlyn, Taylor & Kathleen

We got off the train, walked through the station, stepped outside, and were STUNNED. Like, awestruck, breath-taken-away, this-is-not-real-life, type of stunned. A huge canal was 30 feet in front of us, stretching both directions, lined with gorgeous arching bridges, cobblestone paths, and twinkling lights. Plus there were gondolas everywhere. Perfection. We whipped out our cameras and literally could not believe such a gorgeous sight was so close to something as mediocre as a train station.

 

 So happy to finally be in Venice

After taking too many pictures, we set off to find a way to our hostel. The taxi line was super long and being exhausted by traveling and weighed down by our backpacks, we set out to find a bus that would get us close enough. We asked a few bus drivers which bus would be best, and most seemed to agree on bus 6. We finally boarded a bus 6, glad to be going somewhere. Ashley, Arianna and I were close to the front and lucky to find seats. We started talking about how we didn't know where the heck we were going, and were trying to scope out everyone on the bus to see if anyone spoke English. We spotted a young Italian guy a row behind us who looked like a good possibility, and began talking to each other (from across the isle) about if we should ask him where to go. Given that we were talking about him right in front of him, we decided he did not in fact know English because he had zero reaction to what we were saying (his face was super serious.) Ashley finally asked, "parle inglese?" and he broke a smile and said yes. So he had hear our entire conversation. He ended up giving us very specific directions that were no less than 10 steps, including going through an underground tunnel. Before we could even confirm his instructions, we had arrived at our stop (which he had told us) and left with a swift "grazie!"

We all jumped off the bus and didn't see a soul in sight. It was well after midnight, but we luckily found a pub just as it was getting eerie. The instructions the Italian guy had given us were totally wrong, but it was a sweet intention! (Unless his intention was for us to end up in a tunnel where his robber friends were waiting.) Fortunately, an Italian woman leaving the pub was sweet enough to call a cab for us, but only could get a hold of one to come. Since there were six of us, we were praying we could all squeeze in. Luckily, a huge van-taxi came! Pure luck. We arrived at our hostel, walked through the gate, and saw the reception desk was closed and locked up. Our hearts sank.

Luckily, within a few minutes, a security guard on a bike road past us and saw our desperation. He unlocked the reception desk door, took our passports for security, and handed us keys. Given that we were spending 9€/night at this place, our expectations were very, very low. The security guard rode his bike in front of us to lead lead the way. We walked past cute little motor-home type rooms and were excited - they didn't seem that bad at all! But then.. the security guard rounded a corner and rode down road lined with tents. Yes, tents. He led us to the VERY end of the row of tents, pointed to the last two ones, and rode off. We all just could not believe the ridiculousness of our entire night and could not stop laughing. We opened the tent "door" with the key and found three small beds.

Except for the fact that we were freezing all night, terrified of bed bugs, had to walk awhile to the communal showers, and knowing how easy it would be for anyone to break into our tent, it wasn't bad at all. 

 

Arianna & Ashley in our super classy tent.

"Travel is glamorous only in retrospect." - Paul Theroux