It continued to rain so I spent the majority of the next morning in the hotel room trying to recover from the bug I had picked up....plus we had a TV & it got MTV so I was in heaven! It's quite lucky we were in Innsbruck cos there isn't much to do there & the weather was crap so I didn't feel so bad about bludging!! I did manage to drag my arse out of bed in the afternoon & we caught the fenicula then the cable car up into the Austrian Alps. That was amazing! The whole trip took about 20 minutes & we arrived at Seegrube Station, at nearly 2,000 metres altitude.
The sun was actually shining & the view was spectacular....all the way across Innsbruck to the ski mountains & Olympic Mountains on the other side of the town. (That's right, Innsbuck actually hosted the Winter Olympics twice in a row....once when it was their turn then again when it was Denver's turn & they decided they didn't wanna anymore...as you do!!). Being up on the mountain was really cool, we did a mini hike - cos that was about all I could manage without coughing my lungs up - & I also managed to make friends with the local mountain cattle. They were beautiful, complete with rusty old bells hanging from leather straps around their necks. It probably goes without saying that I want one of them now too.
We sat outside at picnic tables & I had a delicious hot chocolate with heaps of whipped cream & we watched the mad mountain bike riders hurtle down the hill below us. Those guys were completely bonkers. They were so fast down the mountain that by the time I had finished my hot chocolate they were getting off the cable car back at the top & getting ready for round 2. Back at the bottom of the mountain we wandered around a little food market selling ready to eat food like crepes & corn on the cob & found this strange little fish'n'chips place that cooked the food upstairs then put it on a slide which sent it to the counter below, ready for you to eat.
It quickly started to rain again though so we beat a hasty retreat back to the safety of the room (& MTV!!) where we retired for the night. Very boring! That's about it for Innsbruck though....except one last thing, our hostel was non-smoking.....apart from in the bar downstairs which, as it turns out, is frequented by many locals.....who ALL smoked! In the morning we came down for breakfast & a quick check over the shoulder revealed about 10 locals in the bar in the room next door, eating their brekkie, with a thick cloud of smoke hovering above their blissfully unaware heads!! Yuck!
So from Innsbruck we drove across the spectacular Dolomites Mountain Range.....& across the border into Italy. We stopped at a roadside eatery just over the border & I had my first Italian pizza....well, kinda!! Andrew & I have a pact that unless we get a photo of the "first time" eating any food, it doesn't really count......so in actual fact there were quite a few "first" pizzas! Our first night in Italy was in Venice.....unfortunately the bad weather was following us. We were camping but luckily in this case it just meant a caravan type arrangement but the mozzies were freakin monsters. We got eaten alive. We also had our first experience with the infamous "Rude Italian". Now before all my Italian friends get their voodoo dolls out on me, let me explain! We arrived at the campsite & were introduced to their card system.....5 Euros deposit on a little microchipped card & then load the card up with cash & use it around the campsite to buy food & the like. Sounds easy right?? Well, not so easy as it turns out. The cards (we were told) are designed to make our lives easier....eliminating the need to carry cash, eliminating the need for the various shops/restaurants etc to carry cash = safer for everyone! Not quite.....you see you still had to carry cash around to top up your card, everytime they rang something up at the register the cash drawer would burst open spewing forth wads of cash (don't ask me why) & when you were a bit short, you needed to top up your card with a minimum of 5 Euros....not convenient at all really! Plus the number of people who lost their card within 10 minutes of receiving it (we are talking backpackers) & thus losing their 5 Euro deposit was astonishing. Anyway, that doesn't explain the rudeness. The people at reception were just generally unhelpful.....ie. they would roll their eyes at you when you dared to ask how to get to the bus station...you know how it is.
Then we discovered the rudest man alive working in the Pizzaria on site. At one point 2 mates had bought food from the restaurant...one had bought a pizza in a take away box & the other was having a plate of food from the buffet. The guy with the pizza wasn't allowed to eat in the restaurant so his mate came outside to the tables & chairs out there so that they both didn't have to eat alone. Well, the rude man had other ideas.....he came running out of the restaurant behind them shouting at the top of his lungs...."You can't eat out here, that plate is hot (???)"...then he snatched the plate out from under the poor guys nose whilst he was mid chew & ran off with it. The guy got up & pursued him saying " Hey, that's my dinner, I paid for that"....& that was the last we saw of him & his buffet. It all reminded me of the soup nazi from Seinfeld......"NO buffet for you...you come back...2 year".
Anyway, next morning we ventured into town...not before having the bus drive off in us when we were literally 2 steps from its door....& it continued to rain! I was pretty gobsmacked by my first impressions of Venice. Even under grey drizzle, the city really blew me away. The cobblestone alleyways leading off in all directions - yeah, probably the same as many other European cities but the canals just added a whole other dimension. What a romantic way to live...& how romantic to be rowed around on a gondola by a stripey Italian man who also sings....until I saw the price. Around $200 for between 20 & 30 minutes. Whoooaaa nelly.....I can live without romance!
As we wound our way towards St Mark's square the rain fell harder. (Note to Bec...it turned out to be easier than I thought to get a photo of the square almost empty cos no one went out there...they didn't want to get wet!!) Unfortunately as taken by Venice as I was, I was very undewhelmed by the jewel in the crown that was St Mark's square. It didn't help that half the cathedral was cloaked in scaffolding (as is the way in Europe in Summer!!) but it just didn't speak to me the way other squares in other cities had. Anyway, we moved on to the main canal which is behind the square & then down along the waterfront. After a few hours trying to avoid getting saturated we headed back to the campsite...damn you rain!
Next morning dawned & it brought with it a completely new kind of day.....beautiful, bright sun & clear, blue skies & what a different face Venice presents in fine weather. I fell in love all over again. It was funny in Venice because when the rain came out all the street vendors touted umbrellas with the inspired catch cry "umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, umbrella" over & over until it sounded like one word. Now that it wasn't raining though, they weren't gonna sit at home & cry...no, they brought out all their hats & shouted "hats, hats, hats....", you get the idea. Now, today's mission was shopping...for secret presents for a certain BFF!! Andrew & I headed off into town with a new friend, Christine from NZ....also a shopoholic! Andrew's mission was to get us to all shops we had seen yesterday & then out again without destroying the credit card & our mission was the exact opposite. So we shopped, ate gelati, took about a million photos & generally had a really lovely day. All shopping goals were achieved, credit card remained intact (just) & we made it back in time to enjoy the last couple of hours of sun by the pool. SATISFACTION!!
Venice was fantastic. Just the right mix - great shopping, delicious food & a quirky personality........but most of all I loved it for being completely, drop dead gorgeous.
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