Venice

The Italian countryside, as seen from the train, is beautiful. I'd like to stop at one of these small towns to see what the more relaxed side of Italy feels like. One of these days, I want to use couchsurfing.com to stay with a local and have them show me around. I think that would be a great way to see how the locals live, and to experience the local culture. I wanted to try it in Venice, but was too lazy. So I'm staying at a cozy little hostel with a Malaysian, an Australian, and a Brazilian. I think I want to go to Borneo some day; sounds nice. The hostel's actually nice. Fridge and everything. We checked out the city, which is easily walkable. It's easy to get lost, but it's an island so you can't really get too far. Going in a straight line isn't really an option here. You have to zigzag through the city, finding all the correct bridges to cross the canals. Otherwise, you'll find yourself at a dead end looking at a canal you can't cross, and you have to backtrack. When I got into town, I took the water bus along the grand canal, checking out all the main sights along the way. There is an old historic building around each bend. But the most interesting thing to do in Venice is to just walk around the narrow streets getting lost, looking at shops and wondering how this city flourished so well in such circumstances. Transporting cargo seems to be an issue here. But it is very nice to know that you won't get run over by a car, or even a bicycle. Only pedestrians for miles. So, there's a shop across the canal from the hostel where an old guy sells wine by bulk. He has old recycled liter water bottles (hopefully washed), and you pay 2 Euro to fill one up with wine. It's not the greatest, but not the worst either. I can't help but wonder how sanitary it all is. The wine is in a big glass bottle. He blows on a little tube into the bottle to get the siphon started, and fills up the water bottle. Last night, we all filled our bottles up and headed out to Piazza San Marco. There were several bands playing old classical music. Then we hopped onto a vacant gondola moored at a dock to say we've been in one, 'cause they cost 70 euros.