My "day" in Venice

          There are so many wonderful and not so wonderful stories to tell I don’t quite know where to start…How about a story about a suitcase, nun, pigeon, and lobster?

          We left Slovenia on a train headed for Venice.  We would have to take two different trains, switching at the capital of Slovenia.  Or first train was a middle of the road compartment train.  The six of us had a compartment with six seats that held us and our luggage and for the most part it was comfortable.  When we switched trains at the capital we left our lovely compartment train and got onto a very crowded club car in which the air conditioning didn’t work and half our luggage wouldn’t fit in the overhead compartments.  It is with the luggage that my “day” in Venice began.

          As we boarded the train each of us had to pick up our suitcases and some how get them to fit into the small space over our seats. As I lifted my suitcase up over my head I felt PAIN in my right hand.  I looked up to see that one of the feet had come off of my suitcase and a large screw was protruding out of the bottom.  I then looked at my hand to see lots of blood and an inch long jagged cut.  I wrapped it up and “enjoyed” the rest of the over crowded, hot ride to Venice.

          The hotel we were staying at was actually not a hotel at all; it was in fact a convent that the nuns ran an elementary school in.  To make a little money on the side the nuns rented out rooms above the school (and within the convent).  It was a little awkward leaving our rooms and having to walk through the nuns dining room, or through the elementary school’s hallway, or (my favorite) past Mother Superior’s office.  It was while we were leaving the convent that first afternoon, by way of the school hallway, that we had our first encounter with a nun.  Laura, Annie and I were walking out together.  Anne and I made it out to the court yard but when we got there we noticed that Laura was not with us.  A few minutes later she joined us with a flushed face.  It seems that a nun had turned around and spotted Laura in her spaghetti strapped shirt.  The nun reached up and grabbed Laura’s shoulder in a two finger vice grip and began to shake her shoulder while scolding her in Italian.  Apparently we were all supposed to have our shoulders covered.

          We spent the afternoon shopping and learning the streets of Venice (which could take a lifetime to be confidant in).  While walking across an open courtyard PLOP!  Out of the blue I was covered, and I mean covered in pigeon poop.  My sweater, shirt, purse and skirt were absolutely drenched.  They looked like an over done work of modern art.  I was horrified I didn’t care that the courtyard was full of hundreds of people I wanted to jump out of my clothes.  But common sense won and I did my best to get my clothes clean (it took over 20 minutes and I still smelled).  Due to the labyrinth of “streets”, going back to the hotel by myself to change was not an option.  So I spent the rest of the day with a bloody hand and pigeon poop on my clothes.

          By seven o’clock we were all hungry, and found a place on the canal to eat.  By this point in the trip I was beginning to run low on cash, and what I had left I wanted to spend on souvenirs.  My plan of action was to order the cheapest thing on the menu and have gelato later.  I scanned the menu “$15, $15, $20, $25, $8!”  I found the cheapest thing on the menu which turned out to be lobster for 8 euro.  I ordered.  Two minutes before our food arrived my dad leaned over and asked me what I had ordered.  I told him “lobster”.  My father looked concerned so I explained to him that it was only 100klg of lobster for 8 euro.  At this point the whole table was listening and they began to explain to me that what it meant was for every 100klg that my WHOLE lobster weighed it would cost me 8 euro.  This meant that my diner could end up costing me $80-$100.  By now I was near tears.  I didn’t have $100 left to spend on lobster.  The food came and sure enough I got a whole lobster (that was chewy and over cooked).  It only ended up costing me 60 dollars. Sigh…..

          So that was the end of my “day” in Venice.