Entry # 24, Europe Journal

Hotel, Florence 8:30 PM 5 August, 2011
Yes, I know, I didn't write yesterday. Honestly, the only things I remember are that I thought Florence was a lot like New York (old buildings, very moving energy, lots of graffiti, lots of museums, drivers who will run you over if you're still in the road when they get to the intersection), that there were so many paintings of Jesus and Madonna in the Uffizi that they all started to look the same (same with all the sculptures we say), that I liked our hotel, and that the hostess at the restaurant we went to liked my Bernese trousers (the multi-colored patchwork ones that are really, REALLY nice for Italy weather). And that a random guy in the Uffizi gave me his map to write on instead of taking notes on my hand of people to look up (Ariadne and someone else). *I had forgotten my notebook*. And I got a book of DaVinci's notebooks. I'm jumping around and reading bits and pieces of it, since most of it is... well, typed-up notes that DaVinci did.
Anyway, notes of today:
- woke up
- changed
- ate
- continued getting ready
- made us all late to L'Accademia
- I didn't have my watch with me for most of the changing time
- Also, NOBODY TOLD ME we had to be there at nine fifteen. HAD I KNOWN, I would have RUSHED MORE.
- L'Accademia = really cool (museum)
- saw Michelangelo's "David"
- three times my height AT LEAST
- since he is HUGE and I am a TEENAGER and he is a CLASSICAL STATUE, "David" caused me to inquire into the accuracy of the proportions of David's anatomy
- I'M SORRY I'VE NEVER SEEN ONE.
- Afterwards, I saw even MORE paintings of Madonna and Jesus
- if there are any such paintings in Rome, I shall begin to boycott Italian Museums.
- I LOVE Jesus and I LOVE Mary, but I really do NOT like seeing fair too many paintings of them in the space of half an hour
- after museum, we went to lunch at the hotel
- went to market
- saw cool stuff
- didn't buy anything
- didn't really want to
- went to gardens south of river
- very boring
- passed by Athena/ Minerva
- no plaque saying it was her
- giveaway - the owl on her shield (that's her symbol)
- went to dinner
- ate pizza
- had good food
- returned to the hotel
- began journaling
- wrote some letters
- did some reading
- took a shower
- went to bed
- not exactly in that order
- whatever
- space-killing now
- goodnight
- will (maybe) write tomorrow

Entry # 23, Europe Journal

11:37 PM Wed, 3 August, 2011 Venice hotel
I shall try to make this short because I want to read before bed.
- woke up 7:30 ish?
- breakfast by 8:00 ish
- cool bread
- Nutella!!
- bowl of fruit
- accidentally put a LOT of SALT in coffee/ milk
- ew
- went to cool former palace/ art museum (Doge's Palace)
- palace art = museum
- super cool
- after a while, people started looking the same
- saw Allison from the Chalet (Boston group) + her family
- super awesome
- lost a contact lens
- was really annoying and kind of gave me a headache
- saw the dungeons
- felt like I was on "Cities of the Underworld" (it was a show on the History Channel a while ago. I'm not sure if it's still on, but it was about underground cities and the stories behind them).
- several centuries of graffiti still on the walls
- I was the only one fully interested in seeing the dungeons fully through
- Allison was a bit PO'd - not enough art in dungeons?
- deemed the dungeons very inappropriate and worthy of being closed off to the public
- I felt like a death-obsessed lunatic for being more interested in the dungeons, armory, and combat paintings than in sculptures/ paintings of God/ gods and paintings of Jesus (no offense to the Gods/ Jesus)
- they were numerous, so they began to run together
- after palace, we went to the line for San Marco
- really old and really awesome
- for 2 Euros, we looped around the front altar area, with more cool paintings and art and THE TOMB OF SAN MARCO!!! a;dkfj;awl ekjf!!!!!!!!!!
- for those of you unfamiliar with Christianity, San Marco (Saint Mark) was one of the authors of the Bible. He was one of the four Gospels, meaning he was one of the people who documented the life of Jesus.
- Saw his TOMB!!!
- went back to hotel
- chilled for about an hour
- went shopping
- saw lots of stores
- my favorite = yarn store
- got 2 self-patterning acrylic skeins
- in dollars, they were around 2.25
- the same weight yarn/ size skein at Michael's = around 2.50 - 3.00
- 2 cool bamboo skeins
- pretty sure Michael's doesn't stock 100% bamboo (or anything 100% non-synthetic)
- SCORE!
- went to dinner at same place as yesterday
- went to opera - "Barber of Seville"
- four performers + line less maid
- rather than stage hands budging sets in between scenes, the audience + four-person pit budge their butts to another room in place
- really good
- funny
- well performed
- goodnight

Entry # 22, Europe Journal

10:09 PM Hotel, Venice Tuesday, 2 August 2011
I shall do a brief summary of yesterday/ today. Hopefully it will meet page count.

yesterday:
(picking up where I left off)
- lunch
- woodcarver
- bought earrings + cow + pins + cross
- returned
- early dinner
- closing
- Swiss National day
- dancing
- bagpipes (surprise before dinner; they came up and played at the Chalet)
- we were in parade
- sang Chalet song
- returned
- finished packing
- had to sit on suitcase to zip it up properly
- then the month happened...
- all the stuff to deal with it = in the most inconvenient place possible
- dealt with it anyway

TODAY:
- woke up at six AM
- found last-minute stuff
- finished last-minute packing
- departure
- caught bus
- Allison = pessimistic about our likelihood of catching the train
- had three minutes between the bus stopping and the train leaving
- her fears proved false
- actually wound up with five minutes
- got train
- we had reserved seats
- turned out we boarded the wrong car
- had to move
- hard to navigate with suitcase and backpack on
- made it to car
- at first stop, got off, sprinted to end, got back on
- made it before train left again
- barely
- Allison declared it to be the worst train ride ever
- I pointed out that it wasn't because the car hadn't exploded yet
- read most of the way
- made it to Venice
- travelled by boat a lot
- discovered that the canals are similar to the streets at home
- there are SUV-type boats and sedan-type boats
- occasionally a limo/ gondola
- occasional vintage/ sports-vehicle/ convertible
- lots of traffic
- very hectic
- some trash that people are too lazy to put into cans, so they pitch it out during travel time
- lots of cool architecture
- mask stores EVERYWHERE
- hotel = awesome
- went to the top of the bell tower
- view = WHOA!
- you could see all of Venice
- ate dinner
- super good
- I had ravioli
- walked around
- looked at all the super-cool masks
- lots of masks with bits painted like sheet music
- lots of long-nosed ones
- some cool Phantom of the Opera masks/ sort-of-Phantom masks
- for example, half the face + the other eye would be covered
- returned
- wrote journal
- read more
- bed