Madrid Day 2

Day 2 in Madrid was quite nice. I got up and ate the hostel breakfast (a croissant and a tiny cup of coffee... very unimpressive) and did some laundry. Oh yeah, and managed to spill my cup of coffee all over my back while walking up the stairs. It was especially tragic since everything else I had to wear was in the wash, so I had to sit in wet coffee stained clothes for an hour.

Once my laundry was finished and I had changed my clothes, I set off to explore Madrid. I decided to do another Rick Steves self guided tour, so I wandered from Puerta del Sol around the city. I stopped and grabbed a Napolitana pastry at this famous little pastry shop... it was kind of like bread with lots of cream in the middle, topped with copious amounts of powdered sugar. Messy and delicious. I then wandered up Calle San Cristobal, up to Plaza Mayor. This square was a kind of public theater area in the 17th century, and now is a pedestrian only area with lots of bars and such. I stopped at Casa Rúa, a tiny little bar that is famous for their bocadillos de calamares: calamari sandwiches. I stood at the bar and had a beer and a sandwich for 3,50€.

I then went and strolled through Mercado de San Miguel, a recently renovated covered market that now houses a gourmet food market. Too full to sample anything, I strolled around and took lots of photos, which are trapped on my camera until I get home. I kept walking until I got to the Royal Palace, but the line was much longer than I cared to stand in.

I decided to hit the Prado Museum next. I walked over there, and finally figured out where the entrance was. It was a nice museum, and I really enjoyed their Goya collection, especially his "dark period" works. By this time, I was pretty tired, and caught the metro back to the hostel.

I spent some time trying to upload my photos from my camera, very unsuccessfully. Then I met up with Erica and Astrid, the two girls I had met the night before. We ended up going out for Thai food (I know, I know) which was delicious. After dinner, we went and hung out at Sol, which turns into an arena for street performers at night. We watched a fire dancer for a while...

Then we watched some roller bladers do tricks. One of which included jumping over Astrid. (Photo quality not so great, but its the thought that counts.)

We then headed back to the hostel, where Erica and Astrid headed to bed. I wasn't quite tired yet, and it was early by Spanish standards (12ish) so I met a couple guys from New York and we went out for drinks. One of them took us to this great little hole in the wall bar, where we had amazing mojitos. We were the only ones there, so we chatted (as best we could) with the bartender, and he played us Spanish rock albums. Then, I took the group to this place that Erica had pointed out earlier, a 24 hour churro place. For those who don't know, churros are fried dough that you dip in a mug of melted chocolate. AKA heaven.

Delicious. We then headed back to the hostel, full of sugar, and went to bed.

Off to Spain

On September 14th (I'm showing how far behind I am) I got up bright and early to catch my flight to Madrid. I gave myself a ridiculously long amount of time to get to the airport, since we all know my tendency to get very, very lost. And this day was no exception. I caught the bus into town, and I was supposed to go to the train station to catch the shuttle that runs to the airport. At some point, for whatever reason, I became convinced that I had missed my stop. So I just got off the bus and started walking. Of course, this was much too early. It ended up taking me about 45 minutes to get to the train station, about twice as long as it should have. But I caught the shuttle, and made it to the airport with plenty of time. I actually ended up sitting at the gate for at least an hour.

My flight was with Ryanair. For those unfamiliar with Ryanair, they are a discount airline that flies throughout Europe (and maybe other places, I'm not sure). They are very, very cheap (my flight was 25€, including the fee for a checked bag). But I've heard that they can be pretty sketchy, I suppose because they're so cheap. I noticed two things that really struck me as funny. The first was how they had people board. Maybe its this way all over Europe, I don't know. But instead of having boarding sections, or at least an orderly line, everyone just sort of swarmed the gate. They would wave their boarding passes at the ticket agent, hoping to be picked next to board. It was very odd. The other thing I noticed, that I've never seen before, was how much stuff they tried to sell during the flight. Some of it was normal, like food and drinks, but they had random stuff too. About every 10 minutes thoughout the flight, they would come over the loudspeakers and announce something else in Spanish. I saw them come around at one point with smokeless cigarettes that people could smoke on the plane. I guess that's how they stay so cheap, squeezing every last dollar out of people during the flight.

The flight was uneventful, and once I had collected my backpack, I did my usual mental preparation to do battle with a new public transit system. The place I've been have all had quite good transit systems, but it usually takes a while to get the hang of it. Not so in Madrid. They have a wonderful, top of the line Metro system that runs all over the city. It was very easy to figure out where I needed to go and which trains to take to get there. I was very impressed.

Now for the eventful part of my trip... As you may have seen in my Twitter feed, my wallet was stollen. Here's how it happened. While on my second train (of three that I took to get to the hostel), it got very crowded, very quickly. So, I decided to be polite and take off my backpack to make more room. With my backpack off, I had to keep one hand on the pack, and the other was holding my purse and the pole to keep my balance. At the time I knew it was a bad situation to be in, but there wasn't much I could do about it. Besides, my purse was zippered, so I figured I'd feel someone unzipping it. I was wrong. I looked away, and when I looked back a couple minutes later my purse was open. When I got off at my stop, I checked and sure enough, my wallet was gone. I wasn't too upset, as it only had about 15€ in it. All my cards were in my money belt, thankfully. I was almost just impressed by how smooth they were. So, I carried on and got to my hostel in one piece.

The new hostel was very nice. It was called Cat's Hostel, and was in some sort of 18th century palace. The common room had a skylight made of beautiful stained glass. I could also already tell that this was a party hostel. It was big, everyone was young and social, and there was a bar in the lobby. I assumed this meant that I wouldn't meet anyone interesting, just the usual vapid "I came to Europe to drink myself stupid" types. But about 20 minutes after arriving, I had met two really cool girls. I couldn't get my door to open, and enlisted their help.

The three of us went out for tapas that night, and it was quite nice, because one of the girls (Erica) had previously lived in Madrid for a year. So she took us to a nice place. This place was a sort of self serve tapas place. Everything is in glass cases, and you pick out the items you want. The waiters know what you took based upon the number of toothpicks you have leftover. Pretty cool huh?

Travel Day/ Bologna

The next day, I arose, got packed, and checked out of the hostel. Before I went to the train station, I decided to set out on a hunt for some coral jewelry. Apparently, red coral is a local product in Italy, since it grows in the Mediterranean. I had seen it all over the place in Venice, and decided that I would really look good with a coral necklace. So, I set off toward Saint Mark's in search of jewelry. On the way, I found a fabulous little pastry shop and got breakfast. Oh my word, it was delicious. I had this almond turnover sort of thing that was warm out of the oven, and it was mind blowing. (Mom, it tasted just like those almond ball cookies we make at Christmas, except it was kind of gooey in the center. Mmmm.) I finally found a shop that had nice, quality jewelry, and the shopkeeper helped me pick out the perfect necklace. And earrings. (Oops.)

I returned to the hostel to pick up my bag, then hit the train station. The train to Bologna left 10 minutes after I arrived, so my timing was perfect. This train wasn't quite as nice as the other trains, perhaps because it was a regional train instead of long distance. But the ticket was only 8€, so what do I care?

When I arrived in Bologna it was starting to rain. I tried to figure out the bus directions the hostel had given, but I couldn't figure it out. Not wanting a repeat of the Siena incident, I grabbed a taxi and rode out to the hostel. I'm glad I did, because it was a little ways outside the city center, and I doubt I would have known which stop to get off the bus at. This hostel was another of the official youth hostel association hostels, and was similarly institutional to the last one. At least this time people were speaking English.

I dropped my stuff off, then decided to spend the rest of the afternoon seeing Bologna. I only had the one evening, since I was catching a flight to Spain the next morning. So, I headed out in the rain, and caught the bus into the city. The city seems pretty cool, from what I saw. It has the oldest university in the world, so its very much a college town. There were lots of students on the streets. I got off the bus much earlier than I should have to get to the historical part of town, so I spent a good hour or two wandering around in the rain. By the time I got to the historical center, it was about 6pm, and I didn't much feel like touring any monuments. So, I just looked around a bit, and saw the Fountain of Neptune. Apparently, Neptune is the symbol of Bologna.

I decided to get a nice meal, as I've heard that Bologna is the food capital of Italy. I checked my guidebook, and found a place that was right up the street and had held the title of 'best restaurant in Bologna'. I think it was called Diana's. Of course, it was closed Mondays. So, I just wandered around until I found a place that looked nice, and then killed time until they actually opened for dinner.

The meal I had there was wonderful. I had a first course of spaghetti Bolognese, which was delicious. And then I had something called Bolognese Cutlet, which I think was a veal cutlet in a sort of white wine cream sauce.



And then for dessert I had a pistachio tarte.



I also chatted up a couple sitting next to me when I heard them mention a desire to visit Charleston. Towards the end of my meal, they sent me a glass of champagne. It was quite a nice evening.

After my meal, it was late and I was a little buzzed, so I decided I would take another cab instead of trying to figure out the bus again. This was a good decision. When back at the hostel, I spent some time trying to get my boarding pass for the next day's flight printed. Apparently, if you print it at the airport, Ryanair charges you 40€ (which is close to DOUBLE what I paid for the ticket itself.) I ended up having my mom fax it to me at the hostel. Very odd.

Relaxing

My third day in Venice was spent in a lovely fashion. I got up and spent the morning trying to find a jewelry shop that I had purchased a souvenir from the day before. I decided the recipient would like some earrings to match the necklace I had already purchased. Of course, I never found the shop again. Venice is much too twisted and confusing, and having neglected to take note of where the shop was, it was lost to me. I settled for picking out something similar in another glass shop, then decided to just wander.

I spent the rest of the morning and all afternoon just wandering the streets of Venice, shooting photos and taking it in. The city is really amazing, especially when you get away from the crush of the tourist scene. Because there is no automobile traffic in the city, it is wonderfully quiet when you are alone. I took a seat near a small canal that led to open water, and sat for hours reading my book. It was so calm and relaxing.

I eventually wandered back to the hostel, getting lost along the way (of course). I had another pasta dinner with the folks at the hostel, and then we went out for drinks after dinner. We had a nice quiet evening. I met a girl who loved Joss Whedon as much as I do, so we had a great discussion about pop culture, and tried to convince this German guy why Dead Like Me was a great show. It amazes me how ubiquitous American television and pop culture is. At one bar, I was talking to an Australian guy, and somehow the Second Amendment came up in conversation, and we both quoted the same joke from Family Guy about the right to bear arms (as in the animal). He said its his favorite show. So funny.

Venice Day 2

My second day in Venice was good. I got up and grabbed a pastry from a cafe around the corner from the hostel, then I was off. I made my way to the Rialto first, since it is pretty close to where our hostel was. The bridge itself was cool I guess. It was mostly just covered in tourists. I then did a bit of shopping for souvenirs between the Rialto and Saint Mark's Square. Almost everything was glass shops, most of it fairly similar.

I was able to find some good gifts, and then realized I was quite hungry. I got lunch nearby, but it was overpriced and touristy. The lasagna was fine, but the calamari (a local specialty) was terrible. And it came with fries. Boo.

Feeling refreshed after lunch, I made my way in to Saint Mark's Square. It was very impressive and the church was beautiful, but once again, packed with tourist. I used a trick I got from my guidebook to jump the line to get in to the basilica: if you check a bag at the nearby bag check, you get to skip the line. I have no idea why, especially since it's free to check items, but it worked. I skipped an hour line and strolled right in. I'm glad I skipped the line, if I had waited an hour to get in I would have been angry. It was an impressive church, especially because the whole ceiling is covered in golden mosaics, but it really just didn't do it for me. That was my least favorite church that I've seen.

Having checked the basilica off my list, I walked around the square and looked at the sights. They have an amazing clock tower, and the view out to the lagoon was beautiful.

Next I went to the Correr museum. To get in to the Doge's palace, you buy a ticket that covers all the museums as well. If you go to the museum first, instead of the palace, you don't have to wait in line at the palace gates. So I bought my ticket, then toured Correr, which is a Venetian history and art museum. It was interesting, but I mostly liked it because it was quiet and cool. And had a bathroom.

I then toured the palace. It was very impressive, as most palaces are. I got some great photos of the golden hall before I realized you weren't supposed to take photos. My bad. I walked across the bridge of sighs, which is the bridge that prisoners were led across on the way to the dungeons, to be tortured, or executed. The story is that they would take one last look at the beauty of Venice and sigh. I also saw the dungeons. Eh... The tower of London was cooler.

I then made my way back to the hostel, without getting too lost, and had dinner with everyone. I also enjoyed a nice bottle of wine. Then I went to bed, very tired after such a long day.

Onward to Venice

I got up pretty early the next morning, packed my things, and high-tailed it out of there as soon as possible. I caught the bus back to Florence (again, I´m not sure why I did just do a day trip, since I had to come back to Florence anyway) and then hopped the train to Venice. This time, everything went wonderfully smooth. I just hopped on the train, settled in, and read my Venice guidebook.

Arriving in Venice was sort of like a fairytale. You step off the train, walk out of the station, and you´re met with this incredible city on the water. What´s that? I have to take a boat to get to my hostel? Oh, okay.

I took the vaporetto, which is a water bus, to the hostel. Following their directions, I found the place just fine. (Although that was probably the last time I found anything "just fine" in Venice. More on that later.) Walking into the hostel was shocking. The place was called "The Museum," and with good reason. The hostel was in a palace that was built by the Morosini family more than 400 years ago. I am kicking myself for not taking more photos of the place, but here´s a shot of the ceiling in my room.



Incredible, right? So, upon arrival I realized I didn´t have enough cash to pay for my room, so I asked the guy at the desk where the nearest ATM was. The first thing he asked was, "Do you have a map?" And with good reason. He pulled out a map to loan me, and for the first time I realized how confusing the city is. There are probably a thousand tiny little streets that turn and curve and often the street names are different than they are printed on the map. It is basically a labyrinth, designed to get you as lost as possible. And I was up for the challenge.

I went out and found the ATM ok following the directions Sam had given me. Then I decided to just wander around for a while. And yes, I got lost. But its actually not as bad as it sounds. As long as you know a landmark that is near your destination, there are signs all over the city, both official and graffiti, that point you towards various locations. Typically, once I was at the Rialto, I could find my way back to the hostel. With a map.

The hostel provided a free pasta dinner, that night, which I gladly participated in. There was also banana cake. After dinner, a group of people from the hostel set out to the Rialto in search of alcohol. We found it. It was a fun, and ultimately pretty laid back evening involving several bottles of cheap red wine. (And there may have been some shots that you set on fire in your mouth.) It took us about four times as long to get home as it did to get there. Alcohol and labryinths do not mix.

Siena

The next day, I decided to do an afternoon and evening in Siena. In retrospect, maybe the side trip might not have been the disaster it turned out to be if I had just done a day trip there instead of spending the night. Who knows. What I do know is that it did not go well.

The trip started out well. I got a little lost, but eventually found the bus station (as a side note, I am starting to think I should rename this blog Lost in Europe. I get lost every day it seems, to varying degrees.) I easily bought my bus ticket, and hopped on, and the ride in was smooth and full of beautiful scenery.

After being dropped in Siena, disaster struck. I got very, very lost. I spent at least 2 hours wandering the hilly town of Siena with my heavy backpack on in the midday heat. I was exhausted. I couldn't find anyone who spoke English to ask for directions. I couldn't find a taxi, nor did I know or could I figure out which bus I needed to get to my hostel, which was pretty far outside the city center. I was also hungry. I quickly got frustrated and upset. I may have even cried. At one point I asked a man working a newsstand where to find a taxi, and he told me in very basic Italian that I had to call one. He gave me the phone number and told me the street name, which I didn't understand. I quickly abandoned that plan when I couldn't figure out how to use the pay phone.

I just kept wandering until I finally found a taxi. He dropped me at the hostel, and I thought that was the end of my misery. But upon checking in to the hostel, I realized I was mistaken. The place looked like a prison. Everything looked hard and cold, and was painted shades of brown. The man at the front desk spoke little English, and barely looked up from his game of solitaire to speak to me. He was the most unfriendly person I had yet encountered on my trip, and to experience such after being already so discouraged just broke me.

After dropping my things in my room (which, thankfully, was a single) I went back downstairs, bought an hour's worth of Internet time (first place where you had to pay for web access) and cried while emailing my parents.

I eventually calmed down, got some food, and slept. I stayed at the hostel the rest of the time
I was in Siena, reading my book in my room and hiding. Many people say that Siena is their favorite place in Italy, and it seems beautiful. But it just did not work out for me.

(on a side note, this hostel I stayed at was part of the International Youth Hostel Association. I have since stayed at another IYH that was almost as bad ad this one. If any of you ever go stay in hostels, avoid these places like the plague. They are soulless and unfriendly places, and the "non-official" hostels I've stayed at so far have been a thousand times better than these. Just an FYI.)