Was in Venice (Venezia) for 4 days last week. Really enjoyed myself cos the place was really beautiful and it was nice for a relaxing week but the place is quite sad at the same time. From the beautiful and old buildings, you can feel that once upon a time, this city was really magnificent and grand. And now, all that is left to it is pretty much an empty shell. The city is filled with tourists and you heard much more German, English, French and sometimes even Chinese than you hear Italian. The stores are filled with sovenirs meant for tourists and seem to have very little for the locals. In fact, the locals don't even stay in Venezia. Most of them stay in the little islands/areas around it instead.
In my 4 days there, i did not get to feel what the locals were like. Whether they were friendly, unfriendly, hospitable or maybe even hostile. I didn't get to experience what my friends meant by "typical Italian men" either, other than the incident with the reception guy at the hostel i stayed at. Lol~ His face was like 5 cm away from mine when he was asking me what book i was reading. It was erms... oh well, a bit scary. It was kinda sad. One of the American girls staying in the same room as i was also mentioned that something was missing in the city. It was like short of a soul.
Anyway, it's time for photos again. Let's see what you guys think of Venezia.
My first glimpse of Venezia from the train from Mestre. This was taken on the causeway just before we reached Santa Lucia, the main train station in Venezia.
This is what it looks like in their bus stops. There are 2 personnel on each waterbus, one is in charge of steering the boat and the second is in charge of using the ropes to tie the boat to these bus stations when the boat needs to dock.
The more romantic ways of getting around Venezia.
The first one is a gondola, you travel like really really slow but it's very romantic and as with most of the other stuff, very geared towards earning tourists' money. It's mega ex, €100/hr and if you wanna be more romantic, you can add in a singer for another €100/hr. But oh well, these people rowing the gondolas really work damn hard so i suppose €100 is not too much to ask for. The second is a water taxi. It's also very expensive but you gets you around Venezia quickly and is not as costly as a gondola.
Told ya guys Venezia's beautiful yea? These 3 photos are my favourites amongst 137. Yeah, i took tonnes of photos and behaved absolutely like how Europeans think Asians are like. Too bad, I was Japanese for a day k? Like how Charmaine would say, Yishan was trigger happy that day. =)
Piazza San Marco, the tallest structure in the city and from up the Piazza, you get to see most parts of the city. I however, chose not to go up. It costs €6 just to get up there and it had a freaking long queue even though this is not supposed to be the tourist peak season yet. The Basilica of San Marco is hidden behind these buildings. I got a photo of it but it didn't turn out so good. Anyway, i queued like 20 mins to get into the Basilica and the tour of it was only 5 -10 mins. (-_-)""
Rialto, one of their market places whereby it actually is possible to hear nothing but Italian for a while (according to my guidebook). Too bad, i heard English and German whilst i was there.
For me, this was interesting. Not sure how other Singaporeans will feel but hey, even in a tropical country like Sg, we don't eat our coconuts like that! And you guys in Europe do not get more South than we do.
On the 2nd day, we went to Campo de Gheto Novo and as it's name suggests, it is a Ghetto. This is the first ever known Ghetto in history. It started in 1516 when all the Jews were asked to move to this island and were locked up in here from midnight till 7am. We also visited a Jewish museum but the museum only managed to piss me off. It had 3 rooms to it and had absolutely no details about how Jews lived in that Ghetto. It only showed us some of the clothes, prayer scriptholders and Hannukah candle holders. -bleahs-
Yvonne, my Dutch friend whom i was touring with.
The sun was out all the time in Venezia and it was impossible to get around without sunglasses. And with that, comes my newest obsession - getting a photo of my reflection on someone's sunglasses.
I told ya i was trigger happy those 4 days. =P
Anyway, do i look like i put on weight? Guys, i need your opinions. I don't trust what my mummy says. She's always saying i've gotten fatter anyway. -bleahs-
And lastly, some presents i bought for you guys.
My 3 dearest aunts, please choose. I only have 1 watch but i have 3 aunts here. Who wants it?
Earrings for Wen, Jo and Susu. You girls will just have to wait in suspense to see how the earrings are like. =P
Lastly, a necklace for 猪八戒. Nice right? And i tell you hor... you better start speaking nicely to me when i call back to Singapore. Otherwise, i'm gonna kop this necklace. I'm damn tempted to do that already.
Alrightey, now i go work on my papers. Yishan still does work in Vienna okay? She's slack but not totally not working. Bis bald!
For starters, my darling Jill suffered 9 hours on a train from Saint Gallen and went around with me to wherever i wanted to.
And she also brought along tonnes of chocolates and a bottle of white wine to fatten me up nicely. (as if i'm not already fat enough)
Jill's sianz face when we had to queue for half an hour to get tickets to Schloss Schönbrunn. She hasn't had a time when she didn't need to queue whilst travelling. Lol~
Tokyo Sushi Set!!! Looks cool ya? Yvonne was however kinda grossed out with the eel, octopus and squid that was on my plate. Lol~ I had fun making her eat half a slice of raw salmon from my plate.
And since it was my birthday, i had every right to make Yvonne eat sushi like a Jap. All in one mouth. Wahahahha...
And after dinner, we went for a drink and they surprised me with a nice set of jewellery. Nice yea? Simple yet bling enough. Just the right kinda thing for me.
Her birthday present for me was really cute. She bought me some orchids. Wonder where she found it from. Lol~ Now i'm hoping that i will be able to bring it up nicely and that it won't die like how my yellow flowers did.
