eurotrippin': venezia!

so. venice...

maybe it was a combination of a lot of other reasons but....i didn't find myself falling in love with venice like i thought i would.
i mean, gorgeous buildings, beautiful canals, bustling atmosphere...what's not to love? i wish i knew.
mama told me that venice and vienna are her favourite european cities but there's just something about this place that i don't quite like.

but anyway.

driving from the french riviera, we made a stop in verona for lunch and to be able to say we've been to a non cliche city in italy :D
my photos taken in verona are quite meh so umm, please google image piazza bara, verona arena and juliet's balcony :D

prior to arrival, a rooming list gets passed around usually from the front of the bus to the back and because of this, the people in front usually get to call dibs on rooms/roommates.
rooms are usually a quad share and venice was unluckily, one of the hostels that accommodate 3 people in one room.
when the rooming list got to where juls and i were seated, there were no more rooms that we can both bunk in together so we had to split up.

we were already at the stage where we went our separate ways with different people which is perfectly fine (we both knew it was bound to happen at some point) but when it comes to sleeping arrangements, i still want to be in the same room with her.
sharing a room with people you barely knew then (it was like day 11 out of 37) meant awkward small talks, sharing a bathroom and running around semi naked with them in the way :X
with juls and i, we have it all worked out - she showers in the morning, i go really late at night; we sync our gadgetry charging times, i can go all: "man i needa pangsai" or "ju i feel really horny" and she would just roll her eyes at me.

but since we had no choice, we just sulked for a bit and moved on.
to console ourselves, it was only 2 nights!

we got to the hostel (which is a contiki campsite) and realised that there were 4 other bus load of people.
in total, there were 5 contiki groups in one place.

the only problem is that the dining 'hall' (made of tents/marquees with no ventilation whatsoever) is SO FUCKING SMALL that people were really up against each others' shoulders when seated for any meals.
as if that weren't horrible enough, it was the peak of summer in july and man i tell ya, summer in italy is unlike any other. somehow hot doesn't even quite describe the discomfort that we felt.
it was just unbearable to be inside the dining hall so everyone usually gets food and sit on the grass outside.

the first night we were there, we had a beach party at the hostel bar so everyone on our tour got matching tops, only to realise that other tour groups had done the same thing -___-"
we thought we were so smart some more wtf.

i braced myself for a massive night because EVERYONE kept going on and on and on AND ONNNN about this epic drink called 'amnesia' which is supposedly quite potent.
i, and my remaining four brain cells can concur. THAT DRINK IS LETHAL. it lives up to its' name.



with a drink called amnesia AND considering that they're hardcore partygoers, they just had to la.





stage area where we got drenched, site of sculling and wet t shirt competitions.





our driver, nuno, sculling a jug of amnesia. i had about 4 glasses X___x

some party shots before i got trashed:



timmy | B | bec F | juls.



B | canadians claire and julie.



bec F | bec C | B | lisa | juls // timmy and joel at the back.



B | steph K.



B | steph K | britt.




B | diego from mexico!





see, we got DRENCHED.
all the red drinks u see are amnesias.



claire | B | jonny | juls.



britt | B | juls.



ohai!

on top of all the drinking/dancing/sculling, there were also some competitions organised among the 5 different tours.




that's ryan representing our tour (european adventurer) in the sumo competition. he and ariana buried everybody else 6 ft under.

then we got buried in the tug of war hhahahaha.
win some, lose some.

i drank way too much la and barely remember what happened.
i apparently made out with 5 different guys (none from our tour thank god) and...was given coke even though i ordered whiskey in it because i obviously had wayyy too many drinks.

i also ended up with freaking hip bruises that night.
it was all purple/blue/black on both sides of my pelvic bone and i showed it to lisa and diluz:

they thought some guy iron gripped me.
i think it was from leaning over the bar.

hehe.

anyway, stumbled into lisa and angy's room at like 5am or something stupid like that.
i woke up in the morning and went back to my room which is just next door.

i saw monique and hollie who got equally as shitfaced as i did, groggily mumbled a good morning and asked them if they were going for the walking tour.
they said they were too hungover to do anything but i soldiered on anyway.

i had the worst hangover ever.
the headache, dizziness and dehydration, i can deal with but combined with the crazy heat and boat ride there, i was in no mood to layan anyone -__-"
the walking tour was goddamn boring and i just wanted to stop by at all the gelato shops that we kept passing by *wails*

venice is undeniable a beautiful city.
extremely narrow cobblestone alleys lined with super tall brick buildings, it's almost like a giant maze and because you can't see what's in the next street, there's always the element of surprise.
getting lost in venice is the best way to discover the hidden gems but it's so easy to find our way back, we never actually got truly lost...if you know what i mean wtf.
just look up and look for the yellow signs that point you back to piazza san marco, the main square in the city.

shopping isn't really amazing there.
mostly a lot of novelty tshirts and venetian glasses/masks...

hung out with bec F, jac and juls :)



having our first authentic italian meal :)
THE FOOD IN ITALY IS AMAZING. so cheap some more omg la.




overlooking the grand canal.
see the blue audio thing that hangs around ju's neck; that was how our walking tour works.
the tour guide would speak into a mic and we just follow her like little lambs.
i took mine off because her voice DIRECTLY in my ear when i'm hungover makes my headache 10 times worse.




when in venice...
we be drinking champagne.

we spent a good 8 hours in town and i was just ready to die after.
8 hours was wayyyyy too much time for a city like venice because you don't really have an idea where you're going and somehow we kept stumbling back into the same streets.
we went to a park and saw people from our tour taking a nap under the tree hahaha.
see! too much time!

after a looooooooooong day, we all went back to our hostel and it was free and easy.
can't remember what i did earlier in the night but come night time, a few of us went to watch the olympics opening ceremony at the bar.
diluz and i went for a couple of drinks and made friends with a few other guys from another tour.

next up, my favourite italian city!