Above are pics of St. Mark's Basilica and me getting my blood pressure taken by Dr. Kiss and the boys. Read on.
One at a time ! I’m going to get behind on these but oh well. We're on our way to Egypt as I type this ! In the mean time, here’s a blog about our trip to Venice !
Venice
This has been my favorite stop on this trip so far, hands down. It was our first overnight and I think that had a lot to do with it. It’s so fun to have a night in a city instead of having to rush around and get back to the boat by 5:30. Venice is also (in my 7th grade mind) what I thought every European city would be like. No cars or scooters. Only foot traffic, gondolas, water buses and taxis. Super quiet at night too. Brendan and I treated ourselves and rented a hotel room for the night right off of St. Mark’s square. We’ll get to this very special episode of Mr. Bean later, but first… the city. We took a water bus in and the ride was great. It’s finally starting to cool off for fall in these cities so the weather was perfect. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and wandered for most of the day. Just looking in shops and munching on stuff. St.Mark’s square is just as insane with pigeons as you see in the movies and people are CRAZY. They literally hold bird seed on their arms, head, throw their toddlers in there with seed (no joke. we saw it.) or use any crevice possible so these birds can feast. It’s terrifying and gross. I think Brendan put it best when he said “It’s not like they’re puppies!” This led to a heated debate between Brendan and myself where we discussed the “Jackass” version of what St. Mark’s might be. Brendan said it would be a guy wearing a Speedo dipped in honey and covered in birdseed. I went a step further and said they would dip their entire naked junk in honey and bird seed and let the birds feast away. I think the thought of this disturbed my sweet Brendy more than anything.
Venice offers a bunch of concerts throughout the evening. String quartets and the like. We decided to take in an “Opera’s greatest hits” concert off the square at 7:30. This was definitely the right thing to do. It was a quartet of musicians and two opera singers in a little church turned concert hall. The performance was great. After the show we wondered if the singers actually liked performing these heavy opera hitters for people. Or if it was like us performing Dr. Know It All for Japanese tourists. When the concert finished, we walked to an amazing little area of Venice where Brian had seen a jazz club advertised. This area was incredible. A ton of outdoor cafes, people just sitting and having a ball. As is Murphy’s Law with Brian, the club was closed. So we found a great café to sit, eat our 50th meal of the day, drink mojitos and watch people. This is where we were accosted by a Venetian bachelor party. We had heard and sort of seen a group of about 8-10 guys strolling around with a guitar singing various songs while we were at this café. You could always tell their proximity to you because suddenly you would hear the “Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa’s” from U2’s “With or Without You”. We ignored them the first time they came by because we thought they might be surly Venetians looking for change while they sang. When they finally approached our table we realized they were a bachelor party. The groom-to-be was wearing a doctor coat and holding a blood pressure cuff. He insisted in taking my blood pressure and then threatened/informed me he was going to kiss me. Brendan prepared himself for a olde tyme Venetian dual, but was off the hook then guy just grabbed my face and gave me four hard kisses on the cheek. We then got semi-invited to the wedding and they left us with a rousing “With or Without You”. Good luck Dr. Kiss !
After the café Brian and Cody went back to the ship while Brendan and I navigated the streets of Venice alone, trying to get back to the hotel. We only got lost once which was great considering what a maze Venice is and retired to our hotel. And by retired I mean got uncomfortable. While the locale of this hotel was great, everything else was just ok. The bed was so bumpy (ie: is that a spring in my back?) and it was about 6 comic inches too short for our legs. So after a pretty rough nights sleep I entered the decent sized shower where the shower head was located directly in the middle of the wall. The shower curtain was about also horizontally challenged by about a foot. After spraying water all over I exited laughing maniacally. Mr. Bean has arrived ! We have another overnight in Venice in two weeks or so and I can’t wait.
Venice
This has been my favorite stop on this trip so far, hands down. It was our first overnight and I think that had a lot to do with it. It’s so fun to have a night in a city instead of having to rush around and get back to the boat by 5:30. Venice is also (in my 7th grade mind) what I thought every European city would be like. No cars or scooters. Only foot traffic, gondolas, water buses and taxis. Super quiet at night too. Brendan and I treated ourselves and rented a hotel room for the night right off of St. Mark’s square. We’ll get to this very special episode of Mr. Bean later, but first… the city. We took a water bus in and the ride was great. It’s finally starting to cool off for fall in these cities so the weather was perfect. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and wandered for most of the day. Just looking in shops and munching on stuff. St.Mark’s square is just as insane with pigeons as you see in the movies and people are CRAZY. They literally hold bird seed on their arms, head, throw their toddlers in there with seed (no joke. we saw it.) or use any crevice possible so these birds can feast. It’s terrifying and gross. I think Brendan put it best when he said “It’s not like they’re puppies!” This led to a heated debate between Brendan and myself where we discussed the “Jackass” version of what St. Mark’s might be. Brendan said it would be a guy wearing a Speedo dipped in honey and covered in birdseed. I went a step further and said they would dip their entire naked junk in honey and bird seed and let the birds feast away. I think the thought of this disturbed my sweet Brendy more than anything.
Venice offers a bunch of concerts throughout the evening. String quartets and the like. We decided to take in an “Opera’s greatest hits” concert off the square at 7:30. This was definitely the right thing to do. It was a quartet of musicians and two opera singers in a little church turned concert hall. The performance was great. After the show we wondered if the singers actually liked performing these heavy opera hitters for people. Or if it was like us performing Dr. Know It All for Japanese tourists. When the concert finished, we walked to an amazing little area of Venice where Brian had seen a jazz club advertised. This area was incredible. A ton of outdoor cafes, people just sitting and having a ball. As is Murphy’s Law with Brian, the club was closed. So we found a great café to sit, eat our 50th meal of the day, drink mojitos and watch people. This is where we were accosted by a Venetian bachelor party. We had heard and sort of seen a group of about 8-10 guys strolling around with a guitar singing various songs while we were at this café. You could always tell their proximity to you because suddenly you would hear the “Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa’s” from U2’s “With or Without You”. We ignored them the first time they came by because we thought they might be surly Venetians looking for change while they sang. When they finally approached our table we realized they were a bachelor party. The groom-to-be was wearing a doctor coat and holding a blood pressure cuff. He insisted in taking my blood pressure and then threatened/informed me he was going to kiss me. Brendan prepared himself for a olde tyme Venetian dual, but was off the hook then guy just grabbed my face and gave me four hard kisses on the cheek. We then got semi-invited to the wedding and they left us with a rousing “With or Without You”. Good luck Dr. Kiss !
After the café Brian and Cody went back to the ship while Brendan and I navigated the streets of Venice alone, trying to get back to the hotel. We only got lost once which was great considering what a maze Venice is and retired to our hotel. And by retired I mean got uncomfortable. While the locale of this hotel was great, everything else was just ok. The bed was so bumpy (ie: is that a spring in my back?) and it was about 6 comic inches too short for our legs. So after a pretty rough nights sleep I entered the decent sized shower where the shower head was located directly in the middle of the wall. The shower curtain was about also horizontally challenged by about a foot. After spraying water all over I exited laughing maniacally. Mr. Bean has arrived ! We have another overnight in Venice in two weeks or so and I can’t wait.
1 comment:
Dr. Kiss? He's infamous in Venice. My friend got accousted by him too. What a scam. It'd be different if he really kissed you. Next thing you'll tell me he tried to get you in a head-dress and on a camel.
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