Venice (Italy)

30th june - 7th july

Day 1: So we arrived at about half five ready to sleep, travelings tiering. we instantly learnt that rumors are true the italians really do take there time doing everything, including checking in new arrivals..... Yawn. so an hour passed and we finally got our key to our tent, the first thing you notice when you enter the tent is that is more closely resembles a sauna then a tent! It was easily twice as hot inside than out!


After exploring our room and sweating about a litre of water we had a quick look around the camp before heading straight for the pool.... Talk about refreshing! After having the cold'est shower we've ever had we desided to join a group of Busabout'ers to finish off our day. We laughed the night away with Aussies, kiwis and some rather hands on Romainians, (If you look closely to the photo's you will know what I mean, Wink Wink). The night ended with the romainians nearly being escourted off the premisis by the security, singing songs in french with mustapher (The Italian security guard) and saying good bye to all but one (Erin who had arrived the same day) of the busabout'ers who were leaving the next day. We then retreated to our sauna for some much needed sleep.

Day 2: We desided that seeing as we have seven nights in Venice we would chill out for the first day by the pool and re-charge our batteries. The pool was lovely and big, cold and clean what more could you ask for.... We swam and chilled for the best part of the day with our Aussie friend Erin untill we were a little bit burnt but very very very relaxed!

As you know Venice is in Italy so we were very much looking forward to the final of the Euro being spain vs italy.... We desided that we would support Italy being that we were in Italy and they had kicked us out two games earlier, (who better to be knocked out of the Euro by then the now potential winners) Should be an amazing experiance especially if they were to win!


What can we say about the football..... We definatly chose to watch the final in the wrong country! The atmosphere was a bit depressing to say the least, being that Italy didn't just get beaten... they got there arse kicked 4-0! So much for our momentums from Venice (We were going to get Italy home shirts with Venice and the number 12 printed on them).

Day 3: After a disapointing second evening due to the atmosphere seeing as Italy lost the football, We decided It was time we made our way into the city of Venice.

We took the shuttle bus from the campsite into venice, as we didnt know where to catch the local bus from yet, this was only about twenty to thirty minutes so not too far.

Right away we were amazed by the beauty of Venice.... what a spectacular place this was indeed. We quckly gave up with the map and just got lost, wandering up and down the small winding streets for hours, as time seemed to just slip by faster and faster.

We got to see some amazing things, from beautiful buildings and rickety little bridges, to a huge stone bridge called the rialto bridge on which the designer didnt think would work and a city of vehicles that float. We got to see just about every type of boat possible, there we're DHL delivery boats, ambulance boats to even boats that did the job of a JCB with massive numatic arms to pick up the rubble. It was quite amazing to watch people getting on and off boats like busses and imagening people calling one of the taxi boats to take them to work or a place to eat.

After spending hours in venice we decided to head back via the local bus instead of the shuttle. This seamed like it would be easy, just jump on the number six and ride it all the way to the local town, which was just a fifteen minute walk back to camp. It didnt go quite as smoothly as we thought.... we got on the number six and waited for it to go, it didnt go! It wasnt long before one of the bus drivers came in shouting in italian and everyone got off!?!? We obviously didnt understand what he was shouting about so we joined everyone else and got off. After getting off we descovered they had decided to change the bus from a number 6 to a number 7, Helpfull. So we had no choice but to wait for another number 6 bus to arrive. Shortly after a 6/ bus turned up, we thought this might just have been an error with the sign on the bus so we got on and sat down, we thought it best to ask and make sure it was the right bus, so we asked the driver.... who replied NO and pointed at the bus in front just as it pulled away Argh. They had desided to change the number 7 origanally in front of the old number six into a six..... (Why they could'nt keep the six as a six and the seven as a seven I don't know! Stupid) this didnt just catch us out there were alot of unhappy people at this point. The mini circus now over we finally made it on the right bus, huff.

We met some american girls on route (Alice, Lauren and Maggie) who were trying to find the same camp that we were staying at, so we offered our services and said we would show them the way back. This also sounded easy but it's us so we found a way to make it.... interesting. As we attempted to exit the bus at our stop the driver thought he would shut the doors and drive off (We think he was bored and did it on purpose), we had now managed to lose Maggie, as she was the only one that made it off the bus before he drove away. We rode the bus to the next stop which luckily was not too far away were we jumped off as quick a possible so the doors didn't close on us again! We found Maggie a little later attempting to ask a local for directions to the next bus stop only to be told the directions to the bus stop she had just came from.

We finally made it back to camp after our bus ordeal hungry and worn out, we decided to take it easy and get some food and go chill in our tent for the night.

OH.... the tent was no longer a suna as we managed to get hold of a fan from reception, the only one they have so that was a Bit of luck... for once.


Day 4: Not a great deal happend during the day we sat in the shade most of the day had a mid afternoon sleep, just had a day of rest.

In the evening we sat with a pizza and joined the american girls we had met the night before to eat. We chatted mainly about the differences in the two versions of english and the americans were suprised just how different mine and cobi's accents were, even though we were both from the UK. We were joined shortly later by an american guy who was a little strange but none the less friendly. we spent ages talking and laughing. The girls called it a night fairly early as they needed to pack due to them leaving early the next day, which left us and the american guy. After chatting for a good long time cobi left the table to go to the reception in search of a WiFi code. In the short time she was gone the american and I were joined by two aussie girls, that were on a different table trying to guess where we were from. Needless to say they got it a little wrong and shortly changed there mind when they came over to the table (they thought I was Irish and the american spanish) I dont remember either of there names but one quickly took an interest in Liam, even after asking whose stuff (A handbag and a white net fan) was next to Liam and Liam replying "my partners", this didn't seem to stop her flirting that was untill Cobi came back..... She completely stopped talking at this point and got up and walked off! Tramp! We stayed a little longer before hitting the hay.

Day 5: Seeing as we had only seen one side of venice we desided to go and explore the otherside. This time we decided to get the shuttle bus there and back seeing as it didnt go great on the busses last time.

Once again we walked for hours this time we really got lost... we kept walking and finding dead end after dead end. It was a very hot day so we had lots of breaks which were lovely, just sat next to one of the river roads I guess on what you would call our kerbs watching the boats go by. We found a nice little shaded park which we sat in for a while before it was just about that time again to head back to the camp for the evening. After a long day in Venice we had a quite night in the tent before catching some zzzzzzz.

Day 6: We both felt that two days in venice were enough and we had seen all that we had wanted. With this in mind we came to the conclusion that we would spend the day chilling again beside the pool.

Sadly our no drinking failed later in the day, when we got talking to four hertfordshire girls, Emma, krysha (who Cobi was adiment she wanted me), Hanna and Jenny. This was a long night of drinks and laughs, we played the ring of fire and some other games, it didn't take long for others to see just how much fun we were having singing and laughing and before long we were joined by two slovakian guys, an american called JD and a holland couple one of which was a model in Ibiza. we where there for hours and got very tipsy before stumbeling home... well back to our tents.

Day 7: We bumped into the girls who felt just the same as us (a little worse for wear) the next morning. We spent the day chilling and recovering ready for the trip to Rome the next day!

Venice round up: Lovely place, a little crazy to think its made on mud banks. Met some awesome people and made some friends. Got violated by some hungarians (Cobi) and chatted up by a couple of girls (Liam) all in all a good time in Venice.

Now to do it all again in Rome!