Paris au printemps: Ah, Venice

Buenoserra!
After a smooth Ryan Air flight, I arrived in Venice this afternoon! The relative ease of the first half of my journey (almost) balanced out the second part. After the bus from Venice Trevisio airport, I asked the tourist center if they knew where my hostel was. It turns out that "Santa Croce" is a neighborhood, and not a street name like they gave me on the hostel conformation. So I wandered around Venice with my luggage for about two hours trying to find the damn hostel. One kind Venetian man saw me (clearly I looked lost, I had my map out and was trying to find a street or canal sign) and said a bunch of stuff in Italian. Luckily I heard a word that sounded like "perdre" which is French for lost, so I said SI! I used my phrasebook and a combination of French and English and he kept asking other Venetians passing by if they knew my hostel. Sadly none of them did, but someone directed me to a hotel where I got directions. So grazie to you my first Venetian friend. The hostel was not well marked at all, and I had gone super far out of my way. It turned out to be only a few minutes from where the bus dropped me off. At least I saw a lot of Venice! It was a major pain in the bum going over all those stone bridges with my bag. But at least I got my workout in! I felt kind of beat up like Indiana Jones in this clip, but I couldn't help but think, "Ah, Venice" as I wandered the streets.

I keep trying to speak French to people here in Venice and it is not working out so great. By the end of the trip, I'm sure I'll be better at Italian!! My Sweetbriar friend met up with me (she also had a hell of a time finding the hostel, Venice is super confusing) and we are going to some art museums tomorrow and St. Mark's square. Hopefully I'll have time to go to the sites where they filmed Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade too!

Here are a few quick pics of my day:

My hostel is to the left of that red building. The door is in a corner, and there is no sign. The business student in me wants them to advertise/market better.