A Venetian Nightmare

I haven't blogged in forever and here is the reason why: Venice. I left Nice, FR July 7th with the hopes of making it all the way to Venice that day. I was then bombarded by a flurry of unairconditioned trains (4 in all) and as I sat there in a pool of my own sweat trying as hard as I could not move I made the executive decision to stay in Milan for the night seeing as how it was already 7pm and Venice was another 3 hours away. Not to mention the idea of showing up in the dark to a city where even the travel books say maps wont help was mildly terrifying.

The next morning I awoke and hopped on the first train to Venice, showered and ready. When I arrived at my hostel, it was less than desirable but some hostels are and that's all just part of the student travel experience I suppose. However, this place got worse and worse. There was a girl from Canada literally covered head to toe in bed bug bites and no one considered the fact that she might still be carrying them so we were all just going along our merry way in this godforsaken hostel until another guy showed up who was literally crawling with bugs head to toe. They took him outside and hosed him down with alcohol...then let him stay there but only after spraying all the rooms and everyone's belongings in them with something that had a smell resembling sour toe jam and fermenting fruit. The fact that there were only two showers for about 50 people ended up working to my advantage because I ended up skulking around so filthily the bed bugs didn't want anything to do with my stank ass and I woke up each morning surrounded but untouched by them.

The hostel's one claim to fame was the free dinner that they boasted about. Well, the very first night the "free dinner" if you can even call it that was overcooked pasta mixed with tuna and tomato sauce. I assumed it was just a newby in the kitchen until I was informed that they serve the same thing EVERY night and that would be my free slop for the next 4 nights. At that point I tried to get out of my reservation and they wouldn't let me so I sweated out the next 4 days (literally because Italians don't believe in AC) and then crossed over a million little bridges back to the train station and headed to Florence.