Well, the program is all over now, finals finished two days ago, and now Nick, Erin, Adam, and I are in Venice. I can't believe classes finished and I cant believe I will probably never see the center again, or be with all those people at once again. Kind of sad, but I have been really excited to move on. And Veniza is awesome. I cant believe this city exists without cars. But to fill you in on this last week I'll start on tuesday with the Deuche's Museum.
This was sort of the Pacific Science Center and museum of Flight combined plus a history of just about every type of technology you can think of. We went through floor after floor and exhibit after exhibit of telecommunications, musical instruments, PLANES, PARACHUTES, rockets, microbiology, computers, microelectronics, optics, water technology, anything and everything you can think of. My favorite was by far the astronautical exhibit and the aviation exhibit. They both had loads of old vehicles and cool simulations and models. There was one really cool exhibit about the evolution of rocketry in the space race. You got to see a scaled version of every rocket built starting with the Russian V2 explosive rocket, all the way through the Saturn V American Rocket and finally the Space Shuttle. It was amazing to see the size growing from each model. Then when you got to the end there was a real V2 Rocket coming out of the ground! The tip was about 6 feet tall, and you could look down 40-60 feet down a long shaft to the base of the enormous thing. Keep in mind that was the FIRST one in line of the scaled models. So that gave me a good perspective on how big everything was.
After going through the museum most of us wanted to get back to the center quickly so we could study more for finals the following day. That night I spent quite a bit of time on both history and stats. I have to say we were all pretty worried about the tests because the finals had come up on us really quick and all of a sudden it seemed like we were responsible for knowing a lot more than we did. But go figure, both tests were easy. I have to admit, these classes were wayyyy easier than they would have been during the regular school year at UP.
Once those were over, I went for a hot run (wed was the first sunny day in two weeks in Salzburg) up a local mountain and back down the other side and back. I had a little time to get ready when I got back before the group was off to our group dinner at a german place outside in their beer garden. The food was on the program and it was delicious!! I am a fan of most german food but my favorites for this trip have been the dumplings, escalopes of pork, schnitzel, goulash (thats actually hungarian but they serve it everywhere in bavaria), and of course the Doner Kapab. Gonna miss those foods, and the big portions. Actually, everyone says europeans eat less, but I don't believe that at all. The portions here are easily as much as as any American restaurant (except black bear diner). Wed night we all went out and had a good last group bar night at a few bars, and of course O'Mally's. When we got back I hit the sack and woke up at 1pm!!! Yeah, I know. But I have gotten up at 7am or earlier the entire trip, so I deserved it. But we spent about 2 hours as a group cleaning the whole center. We all had to clean and prepare our rooms for check out after that. Thursday night (last night) we all got dinner paid for us again, which was great. This time wasn't as fancy but it was still a blast to eat with everyone. That night I stayed in with Nick, Erin, Rachel, Avery, and Shane while everyone else went out again. We had sangria, listened to dane cook, played some guitar, and just enjoyed company on our last night. Erin, Nick, Adam, and I had 1:30am night train to Venice this morning, so we just stayed up until the train. It was sad to say goodbye. Kind of weird actually. Even saying goodbye to Whitney on skype felt like some sort of sad goodbye even though I am getting closer to her!
Getting on the train was a disaster. First of all, the place was deserted, and I mean conductors and all. We couldn't find a single train staff to help us figure out which train was ours. It turns out two trains going two different places were right in a line, so we saw a sign for the train going to Zurich and another sign on what looked like to be the same train going to Venezia. Hmmmm we finally deduced on our own that it was two separate trains. But then the real disaster came. All night trains require reservations so people can sleep in the compartments (which smell like nasty BO btw). We found our car, with our reservation marked outside the compartment door, AND IT WAS FULL OF PEOPLE! They were all sleeping and wondered mourned for a long time trying to find a train staff to help us make sure we were on the wrong train or wrong car, but finally Erin just marched in and woke these people up to tell them they were in our beds lol. They were a bunch of bro's from california or something. They were on the wrong car and they were pissed. Keep in mind this is like 2am by now lol. Anyway we finally got into our sleeping compartment and I felt like a prisoner or something. I had about a foot of clearance from my head to the celling and about 1 foot less length than I was long. Yikes. The place was hot and smelled like sweaty guy. I don't know that I got a solid hour of sleep. The ticket guy came in to check tickets at 5:30. We pulled into Venice at 8:50. The the real fun started.
We all had our backpacks and a large heavy rolling suitcase, Erin had two of those. We had a map and could point out where our hostel was on it. We spent 2 hours and 45 minutes hauling our crap across this tiny allyed city constantly going up and down steel stairs to go over little bridges. It was about 80 degrees. I was trying really hard to appreciate the situation. We finally got to the main canal where we knew we had to take a ferry across to an island to get to our hostel. We stopped there and ate a small breakfast and enjoyed the morning stillness and water view. We found the ferry station and bought "bus" passes for 36 hours, 23 euros. Expensive, but it turns out these bus boats are very useful and much better than walking through confusing tiny allies. There isn't any main drag here so you never really know where you are. But we managed to get out the door on our first mission to explore the city by 11:30 or so. We spent the day walking around the one big square, through all the little shops and gelato stands. This city is great. We even took a Gondola ride! You know? The little black boats with an italian guy in a stripped shirt and cool hat that rows us around the little canals. It was worth 15 euros (even though I didn't want to at first). But there has been one thing about this place that has made things especially tough. Its already been 45 days since I saw her, and there are couples everywhere kissing and going on boat rides. It def a city to go with your special someone, even more so than Paris from what I remember form last time. But I relayed missed her today, especially tonight. I've got it bad I know. But I got lots of cool things for my family and whit today! So I am excited to show them those. This evening we ate dinner at a VERY italian place and were there for almost 3 hours. It was great. I had some fantastic pizza. Nick had some pasta and then an hour after finishing he ordered another plate of the same pasta! We killed a few bottle of wine in the mean time and just talked about everything. I've really liked that about this trip. Everyone loves to just slow down and talk. That european trend has caught on with us.
After dinner we wondered around the water front of the main canal and sat on the steps of the gondolas and just watched boats go in and out. It was pleasant, but sitting right next to me was this young couple who were just holding each other, and I couldn't help but wimper and feel jealous because I wanted my woman:( Its getting easier to miss people after this long, especially because I have lost my home base and feel less at a home. But maybe being with Nick's family friend will change that. Ireland will just be the final touch. And I think I will leave knowing I experienced just about as much as I can handle.
After dinner and sitting around we got on the boat bus back to our island (which is really cool to have our hostel on because it over looks all of venice across the strait right out the window). Erin got off at our stop, but Nick, Adam, and I took the bus for an entire lap around the city! We were going to get our money's worth. It took about an hour 15 before we got back to our stop again. It was a great realizing way to see the city, and at sunset it was gorgeous.
I am in bed now, in this 16 bed dorm style room. Once again, cheap hostels haha. No wifi though:( so I cant post this until France, if even then. I am not sure if the family has wifi. But I am looking forward to tomorrow, another full day in Venice. We are going to another island called Lido for a famous beach. The entire perimeter of the island is public beach! So that should be cool to just relax at. I think that has been the best part since finals were over. We can really just relax without any time constraints to worry about.
Until next time!
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