A Different Venice

Venice is a story of something magical - waterways, canals, gondolas and Jordan without a voice for practically 24 hours.
I feel we got to see something very special in Venice as for a start we found ourselves in a torrential downpour at the end of a thuderstorm while around the canals. We were soaked through within minutes and really struggled to see the funny side of it all while shivering and cold to the core.

But being in this predicament allowed us to see something you never witness in a tourist-central Venice - ordinary 'real life'. It was great fun to see all the local dashing for cover long after the day-trippers had returned to the relative saftey of their hotel rooms.
We were declined such a pleasure as our hostel was the coldest, dampest prison cell of a hut ever, without functioning water. Its only saving grace was it's central location. Just 5 minutes inside it with a dodgily wired electric radiator for warmth was enough for us to reach for our soaked jackets and head out.
In doing so we found the most quintessential Venetian bar to warm up in - serving Birra Morretti and espresso, small sandwiches and pizzerettes from a serving hatch facing the outside world and within the confines of a bar which held 20 people standing. This place really made me smile as everyone knew the barman on first name basis and it was the type of place where pictures of the local Sunaday football team adorned the walls. In being so homely the place was as unique and as reto as a one-off-location in Camden and I'll be surprised if I can ever find it again as it was so well tucked away.

This highlights the magic of Venice, somewhere where their ordinary is to us, extraordinary. The second instance of this came a day later in the blazing sunshine of the Rialto. While passing time waiting for our train we found ourselves siesta-ing by a wall witnessing both the local shop deliveries, and more impressively, just how much the local bulders struggle against the waterways to get bulding materials to sites on the island. Despite having been in the Alps at the time of writing this is still my favourite video footage of the whole trip.

Venice did have some downs, namely the worst and most expensive meal in Italy (even though it wasn't in a tourist hotspot). We were served authentic 'fried potatoes' and 'green salad', aka chips and iceberg lettuce as accompaniments to our €25 per head meal.

Of course, there was also our self-contained damp prison-cell of a hostel (in a totally seperate building 2 streets away from the ornate reception where we paid our money) but this also had a great positive - 2 crazy German girls, Hannah and 'Chixy' Mirjam with which to build a comaraderie.
Prior to that night I'd never spent any great time with Germans and found them to be rather weird. But while the girls shared their 'Champagne', served in a plastic water bottle and tasting faintly of feet with us, we swapped Interrail stories and I realised just how much fun Germans are - even  if they are a little crazy. They definately have a great sense of humour and a raucous laugh.
We talked for hours despite all being exhausted and it was great fun to have a mad 5 minutes together taking photos with the flash on to make the dark, dank room light up with the flare of 'tourist paparrazzi'. 'Chixy' Mirjam (a reference to her looking like a chicken-carrying Gypsy) and Hannah will definately get a Facebook add.
I'm so glad to have met them. It's endearing to think their company and kindness kept us warm on a very cold night in Venice x