About town: Venice

April 12^th, 2010-04-12

Ciao,

Heather and I explored Venice some more and also took a couple of trips to neighbouring islands: Lido (where we found a beach and collected shells!) and Murano (where they make the famous Venitian glass). Water bus was the only way to get there… and water bus we took.

Also, I was able to meet up with Karl again- this time in Venice! It was great- we all went out for Indian food (soooooo expensive…) and when I told the waiter (who I think was also the owner) that I am vegan, he knew exactly what I was talking about and modified the vegetarian platter to make it vegan =)

Now I am sitting in a ferry on the way to Greece. Heather was supposed to be on this ferry too but… well, freak story, there was a landslide which seems to have destroyed some pretty major route from Rome to Bari (where the ferry to Patras, Greece sails from) and she has had to stay in Rome to figure out how to meet me in Greece.  Too bad, though, because the ferry trip together would’ve been nice! But I have actually met a lot of other nice people on the ferry, and also met twins from New Zealand, Shelly and Zoey on the bus today, and we toured Bari together- really fun.

Yesterday I met a very interesting man, who lives in a castle near Venice, in the McDonalds at the train station in Mestre (near Venice, where I had to take my train from).  He let me use his computer to get internet access and hung out and talked with me forever. Very, very interesting. He also gave me chocolate (not vegan… but I will find a home for it).  For those who are interested:

A vegan-food update: Not too much to report- just had a delicious pizza with my host and his friends in Treviso after walking back from the train station alone at night to his house because he was not there to pick me up because I apparently kept texting the wrong number and he had forgotten my number at his place. So I finally figured out how it was supposed to work and… it all worked out.  What else… Oh, I was so happy- yesterday I made myself an organic baby-greens and cherry tomato salad, which I had with raw foccacia bread made by Sun Flax – I ate it in McDonalds. It was my last pack of the raw bread that they make and I was very sad to see it go… I guess I will have to wait to get more from the Bellingham Community Co-Op in August… And then today I had calzone with the twins from New Zealand. Nothing much exciting on that front… except there may well be a market in Patras tomorrow =) (or at least in Athens the next day).

CouchSurfing update: My original host sort of accidentally “double-booked” me and two other CSers, so I moved next-door to his neighbour’s house- worked out great! I got lots of internet access (not on my computer… but ah well) and a couch all to myself =) The next place I will be staying is in Athens with a girl named Karinia. Sounds good!

I also finally, finally started working on a more definite schedule for my travels. It is kind of difficult to plan, because things are still not finalized in Brasov for volunteering, but I contacted yet another organization today. I really hope something works out. At least I have a bit more of a clue now. I’m also feeling way, way better about traveling. Except not so great right now because the ship is really noisy and there’s this guy sleeping in a row of chairs behind me who keeps hacking and smells like cigarettes. Sounds great, no?

–          gemmer

April 12^th, 2010-04-12

Ciao,

Heather and I explored Venice some more and also took a couple of trips to neighbouring islands: Lido (where we found a beach and collected shells!) and Murano (where they make the famous Venitian glass). Water bus was the only way to get there… and water bus we took.

Also, I was able to meet up with Karl again- this time in Venice! It was great- we all went out for Indian food (soooooo expensive…) and when I told the waiter (who I think was also the owner) that I am vegan, he knew exactly what I was talking about and modified the vegetarian platter to make it vegan =)

Now I am sitting in a ferry on the way to Greece. Heather was supposed to be on this ferry too but… well, freak story, there was a landslide which seems to have destroyed some pretty major route from Rome to Bari (where the ferry to Patras, Greece sails from) and she has had to stay in Rome to figure out how to meet me in Greece.  Too bad, though, because the ferry trip together would’ve been nice! But I have actually met a lot of other nice people on the ferry, and also met twins from New Zealand, Shelly and Zoey on the bus today, and we toured Bari together- really fun.

Yesterday I met a very interesting man, who lives in a castle near Venice, in the McDonalds at the train station in Mestre (near Venice, where I had to take my train from).  He let me use his computer to get internet access and hung out and talked with me forever. Very, very interesting. He also gave me chocolate (not vegan… but I will find a home for it).  For those who are interested:

A vegan-food update: Not too much to report- just had a delicious pizza with my host and his friends in Treviso after walking back from the train station alone at night to his house because he was not there to pick me up because I apparently kept texting the wrong number and he had forgotten my number at his place. So I finally figured out how it was supposed to work and… it all worked out.  What else… Oh, I was so happy- yesterday I made myself an organic baby-greens and cherry tomato salad, which I had with raw foccacia bread made by Love Force (http://www.loveforce.net/) – I ate it in McDonalds. It was my last pack of the raw bread that they make and I was very sad to see it go… I guess I will have to wait to get more from the Bellingham’s Community Food Co-Op (http://www.communityfood.coop/)  in August… And then today I had calzone with the twins from New Zealand. Nothing much exciting on that front… except there may well be a market in Patras tomorrow =) (or at least in Athens the next day).

CouchSurfing update: My original host sort of accidentally “double-booked” me and two other CSers, so I moved next-door to his neighbour’s house- worked out great! I got lots of internet access (not on my computer… but ah well) and a couch all to myself =) The next place I will be staying is in Athens with a girl named Karinia. Sounds good!

I also finally, finally started working on a more definite schedule for my travels. It is kind of difficult to plan, because things are still not finalized in Brasov for volunteering, but I contacted yet another organization today. I really hope something works out. At least I have a bit more of a clue now. I’m also feeling way, way better about traveling. Except not so great right now because the ship is really noisy and there’s this guy sleeping in a row of chairs behind me who keeps hacking and smells like cigarettes. Sounds great, no?

–  gemmer

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