An Italian Adventure...Venice!

So, last week was EBS (European Business School) reading week and 3/5 of my classes were canceled. I took this time off to travel to Italy to visit baby Elise! :)

Elise lives in Florence, but my plane landed in Venice. So our ONLY option was to spend the night in a hostel in Venice and spend the entire night/next day traipsing around the wonderful city of Venice! YAY! :)

The first night we both arrived in Venice we were so excited! I met her at the Mestre train station and we walked to find our hostel. It was about 9:30 pm at this point and we were both dead tired from our long day. However, we decided to take the last train into Venice (San Lucia station) to see the Canal at night. What a wonderful idea!

After a few mishaps at the train station and an extensive conversation with the Greek desk attendant at the hostel (he tried to keep our passports and proceeded to draw us a detailed map of where to go in Venice the next day as well as invite us to breakfast at his house?? whaaat?), we were finally on a train to Venice!

Did I mention my credit card got stuck in the train ticket machine? Yes friends, this was only the beginning...

20 short minutes later, Elise and I arrived at the San Lucia station. We didn't realize that once you get off the train and walk into the station you are literally staring right at the Grand Canal! It took us by surprise, it was incredible!

We both literally let out a yelp and scampered like mad women out of the station to the edge of the canal. Such a beautiful sight! Especially at night! I will remember that moment forever!

We then decided to walk around on the bridges and through a few little side streets, since we didn't have much time before the buses stopped running back in to Mestre.

Luckily, we purchased our return bus ticket right when we arrived in Venice.

There was a little catch, however.

Upon purchasing our ticket, we were informed that there was a public transportation strike on all buses back to...guess where?

That's right-Mestre! hahaha...The woman who sold us our tickets said the bus would be there in about 45 minutes so we decided to take our chances and wait.

We walked around a little more, waited around with the locals and ate a couple of sandwiches.

We were a little confused because the locals seemed to have no idea when, or if, the bus to Mestre was coming. They all just stood there, waiting at the bus stop, drinking beer and eating potato chips like it was no big deal. Hahaha...one of the many reasons I love/miss Italy!

Finally, around 11:30 Elise and I began asking questions.

We hopped on every bus that stopped at that bus stop and politely asked the driver if he or she was going to Mestre.

Good thing we did because after about the fourth bus we finally found a driver going in our direction!

We hopped on the bus, not quite sure if the driver understood us correctly, and crowded in with the other approx 800 people needing a ride to Mestre as well.

After riding for a solid 10-15 minutes Elise and I felt confident we knew where we were so we excitedly hurried off the bus once we started to recognize our surroundings.

Turns out the bus windows were foggier than I thought, and we ended up in an unfamiliar part of Mestre, with about ten people up and walking along the street and a total of two apartment lights turned on.

Apparently, Mestre shuts down at 10:00 pm.

(Now, I know this blog is long, but keep reading because it's getting GOOD! :)

At this point, poor Elise was worried that any awkward move or hand signal I made would be mistaken for a gang sign, so we were frantically searching for the first place with a public restroom and nice lobby so we could call a cab.

Then, like the north star lighting up the Mestre sky, we spotted the glowing blue neon lights of a CLASSY Bingo establishment across the street.

We scampered in, like two misplaced Americans, trying not to cause a scene and looking quite confused.

On our way downstairs, we noticed the FINE blue glitter carpets and the tasteful fake marble statues placed carefully along the landing. Luckily, the sound of the slot machines was enough to cover our laughter.

We reached the restrooms, and the bar, which was in a neon-lit room with a floor that looked like it was about to light up at any second. It was ghetto-fabulous, in a word. :)

The local drug dealers and "ladies of the night" were there, ordering their regular drinks at the bar and waiting around for something exciting to happen. I have a feeling we were the highlight of their evening.

We asked the bartender for the number to call a cab, which we did immediately once we got upstairs.

Too bad the entire cab operating system was in Italian.

Luckily, we randomly made friends with the Bingo bouncer, who was from Africa but spoke about 5 different languages, one of them was (ta-da!) Italian!

Did I mention he was an English translator, and spoke all 5 of those languages fluently? Yes, my friends, I speak the truth...not even sure how to respond to that one...

Finally, we got a cab and made our way back to the hostel. Elise skyped her sister and we fell asleep almost immediately.

Was a wonderful start to an exciting adventure! Stay tuned for more postings...they'll be up soon!!

Cheers! :)