Venice

Right
Walk 20 metres
Left
20 metres more
Up and over a bridge
More lefts and rights before finally
Stuck on one side of the grand canal with no where to turn and no way to get across.

This pretty much sums up my time in Venice. It may just be the world's easiest city to get lost in. When the numerical addresses do not have a pattern, the concrete sidewalks are often only shoulder width wide and the main 'street' is shaped like an S it's quite easy to lose your sense of direction. I headed out with just that intention though as I stuffed away the city map and just meandered my way along the sidewalks, canals and bridges - by the end of my two days here I sure was glad I had brought along a good pair of runners!

In my opinion the best part of Venice just may be the pigeons - with all due respect to the Grand Canal which is very impressive in its own right. The main piazza of Venice is jokingly said to be the only place in Italy where birds outnumber tourists. The good part about all of this though is when you get to feed the birds as after putting some food in each hand you will be flocked by about 4 or 5 birds per arm pecking at you hand. It's great to people watch as depending upon their initial reaction you may see anything from ear to ear smiles or a scene out of some attack of the birds horror movie. Feeding the pigeons does not come without some drawbacks either as my hostel roommate had an unexpected suprise left in his hair afterwards. Sorry in advance for all the bird pictures - I got a little carried away at this point!

Oh and as far as I can tell Venice is not a real town. The only industry is tourism and you will find three kinds of people in Venice. Those producing goods for the tourists, those selling these goods to the tourists, and the tourists themselves. Oh and the gypsies. It's also kind of sad to see but Venice itself is sinking - there seemed to be alot of abandoned first floors on my walks around the city. Also during the summer time when water levels are at their highest the main square floods along with all the famous buildings in the area.

My days in Venice were pretty low-key to be honest. While I had a good group of people in my hostel there was a couple of things that put a damper on events. Firstly, a lot of the locals do not actually live in the lagoon instead they head to the mainland portion of Venice after work. The other was that the hostel I was staying at had a strictly enforced curfew. Venice is notorious for having lacking accomodation options though so hopefully my I won't run into this problem in other cities.

Cheers,

Jon

Feeding the birds

Feeding the birds with San Marco basilica in background - the important church that floods every summer

Some bird overly fond of the camera

Gondola in the Grand Canal

Side canal with gondola boats

'Po-Po' Venetian style

Passing of the birds

Attack of the birds

My roommate who got shat on - I call this one shitting of the bird