European Adventrue - Day 9

Its amazing what a good nights rest can do for you, and a shower, and lots of breakfast. We were planning to meet up with Ms. Cook at an appointed time at the train station. At that time Jeff, the 'Pick-her-up-er' was still sampling the morning pastries, yoghurt's, and juices. I offered to go in his stead, to give him more 'alone time' with his pastries, but he would have none of that. They both came back (after a while), we left our bags at the hotel, checked out, then took a 'bus-boat' over to St. Marco's Square. It was kid of cool, except for all the smelly Europeans. We were in line for the Dodges Palace, a fast moving line in my opinion, but R.S. said we could get tickets to something else and then could skip the ticket line,. I partially didn't want to have to hear about 'rick', but also didn't want to have to figure out what he was trying to do for 'our' vacation. So we saw the palace. It was pretty cool, we had to rush toward the end due to time constraints of our train departure.

It was just a large palace of the 'Dodge' (or governor). The first floor rooms we went in made me mad that we actually paid money for, but as we went upstairs it got better. Super large rooms, Ornate carvings, Glass chandeliers, and Proper palace-like ceilings.

I don't think the others realized the time crunch we were dealing with at this point. It was about noon and only 2 other trains left the city that we could be on; 1:30 and 4:30. I was really pulling for the earlier time, but the term 'hurry up' didn't compute with this group (after all, they hadn't been here before.) Then we went to see St. Marks Cathedral. It was right next door to the last palace. And of course, being around noon, every tourist in the city was out in force and they didn't understand why the lines were so long. Jeff resorted back to the Rick-bible for random suggestions, but I would have none of it. It was only OK for a Cathedral. I had seen plenty of them before, and they are almost the same to me now. The floor was really warped cause the city is sinking too.

Then we went to check out some art dealers down on the boardwalk. That ended up being a huge chore. We accidentally passed by 3 battalions of pigeons. Oh, you haven't forgotten about Jeff thinking that pigeons are 'exotic' and 'worthwhile' creatures have you? Cause Catherine apparently feels the same way. Before I knew what was happening they purchased bird-feed and those filthy animals were swarming them; eating out of their hands, off their heads and arms. Absolutely disgusting! One of the two 'Filth-lovers' thought it would be funny to throw a handful of bird seed at my feet, to spread their love of filth into my personal bubble. But I had a stronger counter attack! I quickly stomped the seed grains into the ground, pulverizing it into non-eatable dust, and if birds got to close I would kick them away. Word must travel fast in the pigeon community cause the rest of the day I had a good 'bird-free' bubble around me.

Another filth-ridden experience; Jeff wanted at least a dozen pictures of him being a bird lover. The next series of pictures was him running through a mob of birds and having them fly up around him or something. However he imagined it, it didn't work. NO matter how giddy he was, he ended up scurrying about 10 feet, indeed into a group of pigeons, but they were so used to people they all just hopped aside, except for 5-6 of them that flew off. It wasn't a threatening move on his part, just confusing. He just stomped his feet rapidly for those 10 feet. I rolled my eyes at least 3 times.

Now we were running on Ryan's stomach's time, so we had to stop at the nearest street cafe for food. Its funny cause the louder any of our stomach's would talk, the quicker we would find a place to eat. So we found a place not to far from San Marco's Square. Most of the street cafe's were cute little places located on fatter parts of the sidewalks, big plaza areas, or down alley's. By this time I had a craving for pasta, I-talian pasta to be precise. I ordered the first Spaghetti dish I saw on the menu. It would still be a creative dish cause the menu said it was with 'cuttlefish' (squid). OK fine, I'm OK with creative food dishes when the reliable word of spaghetti is in the title... right? Well, after I had ordered it Catherine asked the Snobby waiter what it was like, what kid of dish it was. The Snobby waiter started pulling a French like attitude and acted if we had never heard of spaghetti before. "It is spaghetti with 'Black Sauce' on it". What on earth is 'Black sauce?! Well, I shortly found out. This black sauce must have been the ink solution from the octopus/squid. The best way to describe it was oily chalk sauce. Kind of dry like. And yes it turned my whole mouth black. But I didn't feel bad about the black stains I left on the napkins. (after wiping my mouth a few times in order to remain presentable, you know- to the ladies, the napkin looked like I had tried to wipe down the underside of a car engine.) It took us a real long time to make our way back to the train station, about the same time as last night except this time stores were open.

Stores were open alright cause 'Little Bo Peep' was in wander mode as well as 'Gotta get something for Mom mode'. With the number of times I had to stop, start, wait, tap toes, roll eyes, etc, it was almost painful. It took him a while, but he finally he got something.

Between our hotel and the station, just yesterday there was a couple of artist stands, selling art. When I first saw it I simply told myself that I would stop by later, or tomorrow if I couldn't find anything better. Well, it was tomorrow and they weren't there. My loss I guess. I'll have to Not hesitate next time I see something I want to buy.

Blaming the misery of yesterday, I was feeling a scratchy throat and sniffily nose, and it was really pissing me off. What a time to get sick! Thats right, I'll blame it on Venice. Although I was drinking lots of water, I didn't really have hunger. The whole time in Venice Ryan kept asking me if I knew where the house from 'the Italian Job' was. Honestly after the 4th or 5th time I started making fun of him. I thought that show took place in Italy. anyway I could only vaguely picture the house they destroy in 'Casino Royal'

The train we took out of town was actually later that we(I) wanted. I was considering travel time, but I don't think 'Simon and Theodor' were. We had to transfer just outside Venice, and in Florence. We finally got to Pisa after 10 pm local time. Luckily for my stomach, Ryan's stomach was talking charge at that minute, so we luckily found a McDonald's and a sandwich shop open at the station. So yes, I broke down in Italy and ate at McDonald's. But man was it good. As Ryan was flirting with the chick of McD's. I got him to ask her about hotels. She pointed us in a direction, so Ryan winked goodbye, and we set off. We started asking at all hotels that we say. All Full! OH boy. This could get interesting. After circling the close block to the station, we finally found a place at the last one we tried And it happened to be a 4 star hotel. Ahhh, I guess we deserved it though. The shower was really awkward, and I didn't feel like using the shower curtain, so there was a huge puddle on the floor for most of the night.