Ok well first off, let me apologize to everyone back home who has been waiting for my next blog. It is very busy out here I think today is the first day off from everything that I have had in over a week. I am definitely enjoying it. But, I am back again and I think I will give you a few more pics than last time.
Let me think let me think. I'm not sure where I left off, but let me just start with our trip to Sienna and San Gimignano. Both places were beautiful of course and I find it interesting how each city is so distinct. I think it can be like that in California, but for the most part all the communities blend together. Out here a different city can have a different smell, the sun even feels different. I'm not exactly sure how else to explain it, but just trust me when I say it and that it was gorgeous scenery...
Those were all from Sienna it is a beautiful city, but with a lot a lot of hills. Its a rough walk and I'd die of shock if I saw any obese people living there. Once our tour was over we had a lunch break. A few of us wandered over to a small cafe type restaurant that the tour guide told us about and let me tell you it was amazing! We bought a bottle of red table wine to split and I had gnocchi with a creamy spinach sauce that was to die forrrrrrr. By the way just a little side note, I did end up running into Ben and Nicole's friend Jonathon in Sienna. We hadn't planned anything but he just so happened to walk by our tour group while we were looking at the cathedral. I didn't get to have lunch or dinner with him or anything but it was very cool running into him...
After that we met up with the group, refilled our water bottles in the fountain and headed for San Gimignano. I believe it is a very low populated town but the views are outstanding. And, it just so happens that they have a gellato shop that won the "best ice cream in the world" prize two years in a row...
Then we just kind of wandered around. I bought a couple gifts for some of you back home. Oooooh could it have been for you? I don't know. Yes. No. Maybe... anywhooooo I will say the one thing that really stuck out to me was we walked into this small courtyard full of grape vines and it actually looked like a fort. I climbed up to the top of a small set of stairs and suddenly I was on top of the whole community. It was breath taking. I took some pictures up there and while I was standing there talking to a couple of friends I heard music playing and it was going on before I just suppose I hadn't noticed it. So, I walk back down the stairs and there is a man in the middle of the courtyard, under a tree, playing a harp. I stood and listened to him play for a bit and it was so soothing...
Alright well I think I should move on to Venice because I feel like there is far too much to talk about there. Let me just say first off I have told some people that the trip that Odaliz, Val, and I took to Venezia was like a Harold and Kumar adventure minus Neil Patrick Harris. If Odaliz or Valerie is reading this they are probably thinking "oi Jaclyn you have said this a million times", but in my defense let me just say I haven't told the people who read the blog so I get to say it one more time haha...
So, Saturday morning I woke up a little late and a tinyyyyyy bit hung over from the night before. The whole group went out to dinner and a bar after the night before. Anyway, for all of you...I know mom you are making one of those faces of disappointment lol but hey I'm in Italy alright! Haha... So we are running late to the train station because of me and we get there right on time, but couldn't figure out which train it was and when we finally figured it out the door closed on us and it left. They don't mess around you miss it you miss it oh well... Sooooooo we decided to go and grab a bite to eat while we waited for the next train. It was only an hour wait so it wasn't so bad.
Well, that was just the beginning of the fun haha. We get to Venice and decide that we have to take a boat taxi or something to our hostel. By the way our hostel was actually a campsite. It was a private tent with three beds. Kind of a mix between a cabin and tent which you will see a lil bit further down the page... So we go and try to grab a taxi when the driver informs us that we actually are staying just outside of Venice in a town called Metzre I believe? Something like that. So he tells us 20 different things we can do and doesn't really help us at all so Val takes out her iPod and turns on her GPS. We decide that the bus is the best idea. We find the bus station and we try to figure out which one we need when we realize that we have to buy a ticket. We spend probably at least 30 minutes standing in line for the tickets and we finally get onto the bus...
Then we get off at the right stop according to the GPS again and I actually had recorded a little video for this part too, but I made a mistake and said something on camera that I wasn't supposed to say. It's nothing baddddddddd just one of those confidential kind of things lol. So anyways we can't seem to figure out which street to turn down. Finally Odaliz says that we should ask a couple of kids our age sitting on a bench where we need to go. At this point I am in dire need of a cigarette so me and Odaliz step off to the side while Valerie talks to them. Well you just have to watch and see what it is she tells us to do lol...
Can you believe that!? Yeah what the heck I think she was probably thinking stupid Americans do anything we tell them. Oh if I saw her again Id give her a piece of my mind let me just say lol... so, then we get off the highway and walk to a hotel on the corner and meet the sweetest old man that unfortunately is on one of the other girls cameras so I can't show you until we all swap pics. But he tells us exactly how to get there and we had to walk down this little street that was actually spray painted on the ground and arrow and "camp jolly". So we walk down the road and into a tunnel with very interesting graffiti...
So I'm not sure why my text is underlined right now, but I can't seem to fix it so guess what, we're just gona roll with it and I hope you don't mind lol. So we get through the tunnel and find the wonderful "Camp Jolly"... It was noticeable as soon as we walked in that it was very cute and very clean and I'm thinkin we definitely scored on this for 18 Euro each! So we get to our tent...
We settle in the tent and decide to go in and eat at camp jolly's restaurant. I had my speculations because it was at a campsite but I'll tell you it was very very tasty. They exceeded my expectations for sure. While we were talking to the waiter he asked us what we would be doing that night. We told him that we were talking about going to see Venice at night, but he tells us that they are having a toga party! Toga party!?!? Are you joking?! How could we miss out on that. Who can say that they've gone to a toga party at a campsite in Venice haha. We did!
Unfortunately I don't have a picture of me in my toga. Darn haha. No, but really I hadn't put mine on yet because I was waiting for the pro at tying togas miss Odalizzzzz. It was truely astounding how she just whipped it together...(is it just me or is the underlining really starting to get annoying?) So and the other picture is Odaliz helping our neighbor with her toga. They were really cool I believe their names were Steve and Nicole. He was from Australia and she was from Canada. It was kind of a cute story he worked at a hostel that she stayed at innnn...umm dang i forgot where it was but they just clicked. Kinda cute I thought...
Anywho moving right along here, we had a blast at the toga party and woke up the next morning to see Venice. We took the bus out there, stopped at a cafe for brunch and then did a little shopping and sight seeing then rode on a gondola...
Aha! No more underlines! Ok so after that we went to the art exhibit Beinale...I think that is how you spell it, but I'm not sure. It was the coolest thing ever! There were a couple of pieces that I really fell in love with. It was the coolest experience and it's amazing because these artists were from all over the world and it is fascinating to me how they (we) are all united by the art. Creativity comes from all over. I don't really understand how else to explain it, other than it being incredibly impacting.
Well other than all of us having to carry our heavy bags all over Venice after check out, it was so much fun. Definitely interesting and no question memorable! Well guys that is all that I have for now. I hope you enjoyed all of this and I'll try to post more sooner than I did this time. Ciao all! Love you!
p.s... for some reason yet again I'm having problems posting my videos so I'm going to try and post a bunch of videos right now, in the order you are supposed to watch them...ciao!
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