Venice and Ljubljana

My last night and day in Venice turned out to be better than I expected! At first I wasn’t too keen on the hostel/campground I was staying at because I didn’t meet anyone. Well that changed almost right after I finished updating my blog last time. I met a bunch of Americans, an Australian guy, two Norwegians, and a couple of other random people. We all hung out at the hostel bar and talked about everything from politics to stereotypes to n’importe quoi. The Norwegian guys were hilarious and all over the place and ended up throwing each other in the pool. Overall it was an excellent night.

The next day in the city it was pretty hot and I had to carry my backpack around all day, from about noon until 9:30ish. That wasn’t pleasant, but I met up with Derek, an Australian I met in Rome. I saw more of the city that I hadn’t seen during the previous day, as well as the stuff I had already seen. I want into Basilica di San Marco because it was free. It was so massive! But unfortunately you’re not allowed to take photos inside. The floor was all wavy from centuries of tidal movements underneath it. It was definitely impressive.
Also, check out this beauty right here: That’s right, a diamond-encrusted skull. How ostentatiously badass is that?


Anyways, I got in Ljubljana in the middle of the night. When I woke up a little bit later I wandered all over the city. The castle is so cool, but unfortunately the tower was closed. It’s such a pretty city; small, but pretty. And there’s a Tivoli Park! (I lov it!) I mostly just wandered around and took pictures during the day, going from one side to the other. There are several different types of buildings, from Soviet-influenced bloc style housing, to art nouveau style, to just massive structures. And there are a lot of green spaces in the city, which is nice. The temperature here was a little bit colder than in Venice, but that was a relief.

I went into one museum, the Narodni Galeriji (National Gallery), because there was a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition going on! His work is so great, and I was happy to see that for the most part these photos were different from the ones in Florence. His photos are just incredible! And, speaking of photos, I met a Slovenian girl who took me to another photography exhibition that her friend had some photos in. It was free, which is always great, and there was free wine and snacks, which is even better! After that we made our way to Metelkova for a concert. Metelkova is an autonomous area in the city that was taken over by squatters in 1993. It used to be used by the Yugoslav National Army. Now it’s a really cool place for alternative culture and concerts, and there is even a hostel there. The concert was decent, nothing to special, but it was cool to go to a concert since I haven’t been to one in a little while. The bands played some heavy post-rock type music. And I was able to meet a bunch of Slovenians.

Today the weather hasn’t been too great, which is why I’m updating this blog in the middle of the day. I’m not sure what I’m going to end up doing, if anything. It seems like whenever I step out the rain just starts to come down more. I did manage to go back to Metelkova to take some photos of the graffiti and buildings and things. I like it there.

That’s all for now. I head to Budapest, Hungary early tomorrow morning. I have a stop over in Zagreb, Croatia as well, but it’s only an hour so I don’t think I’ll be able to see much if anything there. I’ll update again when I can!

Venezia

So Venice. What can I say? It’s true that walking down the pedestrian streets and along the canals is like stepping into a photograph. Every other street (if not every street), you want to stop and take a photo (Mom would be going nuts, she’d come home with thousands!). It is a beautiful city, but it is an expensive one. Well, eating and shopping and that kind of stuff are expensive. Apparently, the museums aren’t too bad, but they add up because there are a lot of them. And the lines are long. So today I didn’t go in any of them. I spent a good 4.5 – 5 hours wandering around the streets. The shuttle from the campground brought me to the main bus terminal, and from there I just picked a direction and started walking. This was just after 9am. It was a bit chilly, but if today is an indicator then I can say mornings in Venice are pleasant. So I set out by myself, some music playing on my headset, without looking at the map first. I came across a bunch of churches that I don’t know the names of, but unfortunately I didn’t go into a majority of them because you have to pay. Forget that, I’m not paying to go into churches. But the architecture was beautiful, and the few churches I did go in had some excellent paintings. The streets are narrow and some are serpentine, or you take random alleys between streets that you may not take in other cities. Since there are no cars, it’s safe to assume that even the tiniest of alleys is okay to walk down. I walked from one end to the other. And snaked about in between. I saw gondolas, parks, canals, bridges, churches, and other cool buildings. The Piazza San Marco is incredible (the photo above is of the Basilica there). I may try to go into the gallery there tomorrow. I also some the hilarious site of a young, well dressed Italian guy who couldn’t be much older than myself walking around smoking a pipe. What class. I did go into a free exhibition on Vivaldi and violins. That was pretty interesting.
It was also pretty hot today, so after almost 5 hours of walking I decided to come back to the hostel and sit by the pool. I didn’t go in at all, but I chilled out and read my book (currently reading Punk Fiction, a collection of punk-inspired short stories that Hannah lent me. I finished The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera the other day, that was an excellent read) and had a low key afternoon. I was going to go back into town in the evening, but the shuttle is infrequent, and while the buses aren’t expensive I don’t know if you can actually get the bus tickets on the bus or if you have to buy them ahead of time, and I didn’t have any on me. At any rate, I’m going to be in the city in the evening tomorrow before my night train to Ljubljana in Slovenia.

Otherwise, Venice is okay. My overall impression is that it’s very pretty, but I don’t think I could spend more time here than I already am. My campground/hostel is nice, but it’s tough to meet people. I met a nice Australian guy tonight and we talked for a bit, but otherwise I haven’t met anyone. But yeah, that’s all I have to say for right now. I’ll update again in Ljubljana!

Firenze

I arrived in Firenze (Florence) in the afternoon on the 30th of May. Keith, a friend of mine from Middlebury, met me at the station and walking between the station and his apartment near the center of the city I already knew it would be a city I would like. To start, it was way less crowded than Roma. The weather was nice on my arrival, which is always a plus. Keith’s apartment was great, and he played my tour guide for the brief time I was there, so thank you Keith for everything!

That first afternoon we wondered around a bit. Keith took me up to a spot with an astounding view of the city. All I could think was “WOW! This place is so pretty!” Afterwards checking out the view, we walked back down the hill and after some bagels at an excellent little place we crossed the Arno on Ponte Vecchio and started going meandering the city. Sculptures, or replicas of famous structures, dotted the cityscape. The architecture was beautiful. The Duomo was one of the first massive structures that I saw. I never ended up going into it or up it because of lines, but the outside was impressive, as was the outside, and in particular the doors, of the battistero. But this afternoon had something special in store. It’s impossible to go to Florence and not have Michelangelo’s David be on your list of things to see. We made our way to the Galleria dell’Accademia. After standing in line (for the shortest amount of time of any of the lines I waited on in Florence) we made our way in, but we didn’t head straight for David. I’m glad we didn’t. There was an incredible exhibition that only opened a couple days before my arrival showcasing the photography of Robert Mapplethorpe. His work was so unbelievably incredible, I recommend checking it out. There’s no way I could put into words how awesome it was. Then the David. I’ve seen pictures, and heard about it from people who have seen it, but nothing compares to seeing it up close and personal. All the detail, the way the marble looks like it’s skin covering bones, muscle, veins…I’m still reeling from it as I think about it now. The rest of the museum was also great, but it’s hard to get excited about religious art and other sculptures when the Accademia has work by Michelangelo. Just incredible. We also saw a street performing mime that was pretty hilarious. He would just mess with or intimidate people as they went by. He sent an Asian tour group running, played Patty-Cake with some random girl, and was just hilarious overall. I’ll see if I can upload one of the short videos I took of him.

The following day we were ambitious and went to two museums. It was raining for most of the day, so that seemed like the best idea. (Yes, two. But I was in Florence and where’s better place to see amazing art?) We first tried to get into the Uffizi, but the line was so long that we made reservations for later that afternoon and made our way next door to the Signoria. Both were incredible, but by the end of a long day of museum visiting it’s tough to keep your interest peeked. At the Signoria there was another incredible map room (woo!) and plenty of gold all around. Keith was telling me that because the paintings on the ceiling of the main entrance room were so heavy they had to have a special mechanism to keep it from falling. It was tough to take in everything, but both museums were totally worth the visits. I saw all the famous works in both, with the Uffizi boasting Botticelli’s Birth of Venus as well as works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael (woo, ninja turtles!), among others. Unfortunately a lot of work was not on display because they were being restored, but it was still a memorable and amazing visit. It also means that I don’t have many photos of Florence because I spent a lot of time in the museums.

Today I got into Venezia (Venice) to much nicer weather (it was raining when I left Florence this afternoon), and I briefly saw a miniscule amount of the city while looking for my bus. I ended up on the wrong one, but managed to navigate my way to the campsite/hostel without any real problems (and without a map, go me!). AND, despite having reserved a 3 bed room without a bathroom, I was given a 3 bed with one and I think I have it to myself. Cool.
It was well after 6 pm by the time I got here, so I think I’m just going to chill out for this evening, take care of some stuff I need to get done, and then get up early and explore the city tomorrow during the day and night. Being in this campground makes me feel like I’m on one of the family trips with the camper (aww, look at that, I think of my family sometimes ;-) ). So that’s all for now. I’ll updated again when I can! (Maybe tomorrow, depending on how much of this pay wifi I use up tonight.)