On the bus but was welcomed to an excellent BBQ breakfast at St Yohans (Austria) to drop off / pick up people. Arrived in Venice late afternoon to sweltering heat after coming from such a cool climate in Austria/Germany. The scenary was simply breathtaking coming into Italy. Vineyards everywhere, castles in the middle of no where. Simply beautiful.
Anywho ... arrived at our first campsite to find our cabin was so so cute. After sharing a room with 25 in Munich it felt simply luxurious to have our own space and our own bathroom!!! Had dinner at the campsite since we got a special deal on our first night and had a delicious pizza (the first of many to come!). Elaine and Sam had brought a couple of bottles of wine from the shop before it closed and so we moved to the Beer Garden and found ourselves a possie. Others from the bus joined us later and soon enough it was happy hour (Imagine that being yelled out in an Italian accent) where we purchased more wine. Our guide had warned us about dancing on the table tops ... we thought he must of been over rating the place but sure enough we found ourselves doing such as that as the garden turned into a full on disco (yes I'm using the word disco as thats what they call it). Unfortuantely it was the 4th of July and so all the bloody Ameicans were in full force. Singing, generally being pains in the arse. But the Australians soon rebuted with their songs (and Sam and I found our selves joining in as were were slightly outnumbered) and then soon after four Kiwi Boys did the Haka ... we were stoked to discover more Kiwis as we had hardly met any.
Day Two
Me, Sam (who had a bit of a sore head!) and Elaine caught the shuttle into town and it was time to explore Venice!!!! No the canals did not stink which it seems that people always state ... they were beautiful and I so wanted to take a photo at every corner that we turned. We got lost in the narrow streets as one does. Did the touristee sites and got caught in a down pour but it cleared up straight after that!. Experienced my first Italian Gelati (the first of many) and later that evening we met up with Claudia, Emily and Bronwen (girls off the bus) and went on a Gondala ride. After a lot of wheeling and dealing (from Claude and Em who could speak Italian) we were pleasantly surprised to find that we had a very very VERY sexy godali named 'Alexandro' ..... oh lord. Well we giggled like school girls the entire ride and we had permanat smiles like you wouldn't beleive .... Oh man I could really ramble on here so must stop. The six of us went out for dinner and then scrambled through the city to catch the last bus back to the campsite and then had a few quiets in the beer garden.
Day Three
Sam, Elaine and I caught the boats out to the various islands where Venitian Glass and Lace is made. Absolutely beautiful and I managed to get a whole boat of locals chanting New Zealand/Kiwi (thing they were on a stag do thing). Many purchases were made here including a mask, some glass and the token dolie. Went back to the campsite to meet up some others on the bus who had arrived that afternoon to have a few drinks and say farewell :-(
