Venice

Day 1 - Day one was basically a full day of travel, I didn't realise it but I had booked my train for 3 pm from Ventimiglia so I had to wait for 3 hours after my train from Nice to Ventimiglia. After that a long train trip through Milan and ending in Venice was followed by about 45 minutes on the water bus here in Venice to my hostel. I arrived here at 12 am and was feeling very tired so I quickly went to sleep. My advice, do your research on how long things will take, I would have just stayed a night in Milan had I realised it would take so long! 

The water bus was also filled with bugs which I found weird, I guess that happens when it's the only thing around with lights though! 

Day 2 - 

I spent most of my day simply strolling around Venice, it's not a terrible place to do that so I enjoyed myself. Eventually I found a pizza for 6 euro so I devoured that before getting a Traghetto ride. The traghetto is basically a poor man's gondola that takes you across the grand canal, costs 2 euros, is shared with a big bunch of people and takes about 3 or 4 minutes. That was an experience even if it didn't last long. There was no way I would pay 80 euro for a gondola ride though, this was enough novelty for me! 

I also stumbled upon the most chilled out cat I've ever seen, it was funny I was standing near it because there was wifi there and saw about 10 people take pictures with it in 10 minutes time. Here is a picture of it. 

Later in the evening I met Rachel from America at my hostel and we ended up hanging out since we were both traveling alone. The good thing about other solo travelers are even if you probably don't have that much in common it's easy to become friends when you have been traveling alone for so long and have the similar experiences. 

Day 3 - I hung out with Rachel and going to check out San Marco's square and a whole bunch of churches around Venice. San Marco was pretty beautiful, even if most of the space was filled with either other tourists or pigeons. They actually had signs up around Venice saying do not feed the pigeons because they cause health problems and damage to the monuments, that did not seem to deter the pigeon fanciers amongst the crowd though as I saw plenty of people feeding them. I ate a lot of gelato on this day too, that was especially nice even if I didn't stray from my usual favourites in frozen yoghurt and strawberry. What they say about Italian gelato is true, it is just incredible! 

After seeing the sights of the city we eventually made our way back to the hostel for a fairly uneventful evening as we both made plans for the next legs of our journeys. What will be the final leg for me! 

It is hard for me to fathom that I only have 5 days left in Europe and under a week until I get home. In honesty as much as I have loved Europe I am about ready to come home and resume my normal life. This in fact was the final leg of my trip that I will spend in hostels which is a relief, I can't wait to get to Rosenheim to stay with Martina, it has been too long since I have been in an actual house! 

Song for the moment: Golden Slumbers - The Beatles