Highlight: WStanding in St. Marco’s Square with pigeons landing on our arms and head.
Lowlight: The unexpected extra cost of staying at the campground. We thought we’d be tenting, but ended up in a little trailer. Then it cost an extra 10 E to get to the mainland by ferry.
Fun Fact: Venice is built on an archipelago of 118 islands formed by about 150 canals in a shallow lagoon. (From Wikipedia).
Money spent: €54
Ben Frustration Index(BFI): 0
Pairs of clean underwear left: 12
Book Page: 303

We woke up at 6 am this morning to catch an early train to Venezia (Venice). I considered calling Mom because it was still Mother’s Day in Canada and I couldn’t get a hold of her the day before. But it was 11 PM in Winnipeg and I thought my Mother’s Day gift would be letting her sleep.

We managed to get some sleep on the train – it was deserted and we had a compartment to ourselves. I slept for an hour and Ben (in the most uncomfortable looking position – see pictures) slept for maybe 2. I spent most of the ride reading and took a few breaks to whoop Ben in gin and crib.

Now, you have to understand Venice is an island that is connected to the mainland with a big bridge that carries cars and trains. It’s really expensive to stay on the island, so we checked into a campground on the mainland. We thought we’d be staying in tents but instead we ended up in trailers. The price was still cheap, so we were happy. The campground seemed really peaceful and we have a private 2 bed trailer. You can hear crickets chirping. The only downside is it’s a pain in the butt to get to the island. We took a ferry, but it cost us 10 E.

We spent the afternoon in Venice walking around and getting lost. With all the windy little streets it’s not hard to get disoriented. They have lots of signs pointing tourists in the right direction, but they don’t help much.

Venice is pretty cool. There are canals everywhere. The big ones have water busses running down them. The small ones have gondoliers and citizens in boats moving stuff around. Since there are no cars in the city, people use boats to move groceries, building supplies, etc. Some of the small canals did stink like sewage, but it wasn’t too bad.

The Venetian glass souvenirs are very reasonably priced. I debated getting some as souvenirs, but I’m worried it won’t survive the rest of the trip in my bag.