Venice, Munich, and We're Tired

Not much has happened so we figured we would wait and make one sweet post rather than posting multiple times about nothing. Or we kept putting the whole posting thing off and kept waiting for the next day.

Moe: Day 14- First day in Venice, kind of. We ended up in a town just outside of Venice called Mestre, we arrived fairly late. Very small town, closest to the suburbs that we have seen. We ate at a local pizza place, not much to see. We went back to the hostel and watched a movie and called it a night.

Day 15- We decided to spend the whole day in Venezia. The train ride was not very long at all. Our plan when we got there was to find some fairly cool souvenirs, maybe find an artist, if possible (sooo difficult (sarcasm hidden in that parenthesis)), and find some nice places to eat. As soon as we left the train station, we walked maybe 25 meters to our left and there was the first artist we saw. We continued to explore the town and it was beautiful. You can see why there are so many artists just in the area because there are many things worth capturing on a canvas. I mean, the city view of Firenze still won, but this came awfully close. The canals, the gondola tours going on (40 euros a person! No thank you), the alleys even looked interesting! Everything was beautiful. And on a hot day the breeze sweeping in from the sea, city on water, surrounded by more water, felt amazing. We ate some great food, saw some great things, and I ended up buying two paintings from the guy at the entrance. Pat bought one from this other artist (there were probably about 10 that we saw) and it was fairly nice. Our apartment back home will be quite sophisticated for two college students. Called it a day, figured out how to get Netflix to work here in Italy, watched Transformers 3, remembered how obnoxious my laugh was. That movie was funny.

Day 16- I believe this was our travel day to Munich. We left around 10 30 to make it to Verona. From Verona we were going to hop on a train at 1pm to Munich but the machine wasn't working so we had to wait in the line. We ended up missing the 1pm and had to wait till 3pm. The frustrating part about it, apparently we didn't have to wait in the line at all and we just had to go on the train and show them our pass. Wasted 2 hours at a McDonalds. We finally made it to Munich, met some of our fellow dorm mates (kind of easy to do when you stay in a 40 person dorm). Biggest dorm we stayed in. Although the hostel was real close to the train station, we had to take a taxi because we had paintings and it was pouring rain. First rainfall of the trip and it was a doozy.

Day 17- 40 person dorm, kind of hard to fall asleep in. We had to check out, and check back in but we had to wait till 3pm. So we decided to try to ship our souvenirs home. I was hoping to spend maybe a total of 30 euros for everything. We went to the post office, no box big enough. We went to the hostels, no box big enough. We went to several places throughout the area, no box big enough. Went back to the post office, they suggested wrapping the paintings (couldn't tell us the first time around, huh....) so then everything finally fit. Two packages...72 euros....okay. We went back to the hostel after lunch to check back in and I was going to take a nap since we were moving to the 8 person dorm. 8 people, 3 snorers. How we managed to avoid loud snoring this whole trip, I don't know. Even in the 40 person. But 8 people, 6 since Pat and I don't snore, and 3 of them. Perfectly positioned in the room to make it seem like a choir of snoring people. Like there was surround sound speakers all over playing a snoring soundtrack. I exaggerate, but I couldn't take a nap. Plus the room was a billion degrees. Oh yeah, Munich was cold compared to Italy. Real cold. We bumped into a Bachelor party later on in the evening...Bachelor party won as I drank myself to sleep. I told myself when I left the US that I would not get to a point of incoherency ever on this trip. I'm afraid to report that I became incoherent during this bachelor party. Thank you Pat for guiding us home.

Day 18- Checked out again. Today we were going back to the 40 person room. Moe's head hurt. We took a walking tour today. It was pretty cool, and also really cold. Met some guys from our hostel and after the tour we went exploring with them for a bit. River surfing! We saw surfers surfing in the Isar River! That was really cool. We grabbed a late lunch with the guys before my eyes shut for a nap. I think I napped. I'm gonna assume I napped. We got ready and went to check out the night life with the guys we met earlier, Kenny and Kory, and some girls that were staying at the hostel. We went to the famous beer hall, Hofbräuhaus. They serve you a litre of beer! Ate some pork knuckle and downed two litres of beer. I also decided to borrow the mug without the intentions of returning it. Two countries down, five or six to go! We checked out some of the clubs before calling it a night.

Day 19- We did not think that we would have to check out since we were staying in the same room, just changing beds, but we had to check out again. So frustrating. We used today as a relaxing day. Maybe this was the day I napped for a while. I forgot what we did today, but it just hit me. Today was the day of failures. We had 4 goals. 1) Buy a new power converter 2) Buy a new book 3) Figure out our train schedule for tomorrow and 4) Food. Stores close on Sundays. First two were impossible without breaking and entering. It wouldn't have been theft because we would have left the money on the counter. We met some girls from Minnesota and got dinner with the girls and Kory and Kenny. 35mm Restaurant in Munich was really good. We finished the night with some rounds of Euchre and went to bed.

Day 20- Travel day! So excited... We bought a converter and some books. We got on our train, made it to somewhere, where we had trouble getting onto the next train. No fear, because 80 trains go to the same place almost every hour. We waited about an hour and got on a train heading to Brussels. I kind of damaged one of train doors, decided to leave the train with a memory of me I suppose. Made it to Brussels and it was even colder.

Day 21- We wandered for a little bit. Brussels is pretty much our relaxation destination. Not planning to do much here. If anyone has suggestions of things that we MUST see, let us know. As far as I know, if we do miss something in Brussels, I don't think I will be that bothered. I'll be able to sleep peacefully at night. We have one more night here before we head off to Amsterdam, where we will meet Dylan! For now, I'm going to go back to reading and contemplate whether or not I should buy some pants tomorrow.
Tip for potential backpackers: Pack pants.

Pat:
Hello everyone it has been a while. Our trip is still moving pretty smoothly and we are still having new experiences and meeting new people! We went to Venice, and it was very beautiful but I'm glad we only spent one day in the city. Moe and I bought another painting which we are excited about. The artist I bought it from was very entertaining and we ate at a Gino's pizza in the city which I believe is better than the one at home.

After Venice we have completed our tour of Italy but we head to Munich Germany. We spent four nights in Munich the first night we met some cool people from Australia Amber and Jackie but, we didn't feel like doing much so we just went to bed. The second night we met some cool mates from England. They were staying in the same hostel and I first met Nick at the bar in the hostel ironically named "Jaegers" hostel. His brother is getting married soon, so Moe and I hung out with them during there Bachelor party it was a great time! We went to another pub then a club! Great group of guys. The third night we met some guys Kenny and Kory from Canada and we went out with them and Amber from Australia and some others from Ireland and Korea. We went to the famous beer hall and then to a club. That day we went on a walking tour and saw most of the city with Kory and Kenny. It was very good done by a student currently at the university who is originally from Philly. She was very good. After the tour Kenny, Kory, Moe, and I went and checked out the surfers who surf in the river all year long! It was fascinating we watched for probaly 45 min. We talked with Kory and Kenny and they are going to be in Berlin the same time we will. So we are going to meet up there as well, real nice guys. The next day we figured out which train we were taking to get to Brussels and we went to buy a power converter and some books. To our suprise it was Sunday and the stores were closed. We met some girls from Minnesota Sarah and Shellbey which they already knew Kenny and Kory so we all went out to dinner. The next morning before our train left we had to go to the stores and get the converter and books that we couldn't get the day before.

Then we were off to Brussels a long day of travel on Monday didn't get to our hostel till 10pm got settled then went to bed. Our second day at Brussels was uneventful and a day of rest. We are staying in Brussels a little longer than I think we should have. On the other hand we are very excited to be going to Amsterdam in two days and meeting up with Dylan!!

That is all for now. We will either attempt to post after Brussels or after Amsterdam. We miss you all!
Tsusch!