That said, Venice is unlike any other city i've ever been to. Not least because it appears flooded, but because of the unrivaled charm and elegance it possesses. Despite its relative sameyness, you feel compelled to take pictures of absolutely anything it throws at you. Upon studying the day's snapshots later on it's as though you're flicking through a notebook and watching the stills come to life. It is inundated with tourists, without whom the city would be a ghost town, and getting lost is inescapable. Getting lost is the best way to see a city though right? Who knows. It's not like I had any choice in the matter. I was lost the moment I stepped off the Vaporetto. Fortunately, I stumbled across numerous beguiling backstreets and picturesque plazas, that I surely wouldn't have encountered if I hadn't been lost. I didn't meet a soul for almost the entire time I was there. I was simply content to wander the streets and when my feet got tired, perch by one of the many cafes and let time pass me by as I gazed thoughtfully at the stripey t-shirt donning gondoliers steering their clientele around the watery maze.
I saw a kid kick a chair from a restaurant into the river on the second day. His dad ordered him to go in and get it before it sank into the murky water but just as he was halfway in the waiter skidded over and plucked him to safety. I observed quietly from the neighbouring bridge and tried in vein to conceal my amusement as the waiter attempted to fish out the chair with a long wooden pole and the kid sat crying, head in arms, completely devastated. The chair was gone.
Call me cantankerous but Venice is annoyingly couply and romantic. If you're single and traveling alone, it does get a tad tiresome to turn every corner to find yet another couple inspecting each others' tonsils. I suppose it's to be expected in a city renowned for honeymoons and marriage proposals really. I met a Columbian girl on my final ride on the Vaporetto who I briefly considered proposing to. She did express an interest in moving to England permenantly so i'd be doing her a favour. I reserved my thoughts on this occasion though. Can't go proposing to people all willy-nilly. It's the behaviour of an oddball.
To be honest, I hadn't expected much from Trieste, my next stop before I crossed the Slovenian border. And I very much doubt I would have been so entertained, if it wasn't for David, my first friend made on the trip. I'd met him online, through couchsurfing.org, which I'd just signed up to to help me out with the cost of the trip. I knew it was popular but had no idea how huge it evidently is. There were about 150 users in Trieste alone, and after pinging off about a dozen 'couch requests' I had two replies within an hour. One of them was from David, who had recently been traveling and detailed in his acceptance that he was itching to host someone as he hadn't done so before, and wanted to provide a surfer with an equally as satisfactory experience to his own.
It couldn't have gone better; he looked after my backpack during the day so I could explore the city comfortably, he cooked me dinner, gave me my own room for the night and got me pissed on campari cocktails! And he barely spoke a word of English. There happened to be a couchsurfing social event on in town that we headed down to later on. Everybody was just so chilled and friendly, and after a few more strong ones we moved on to some Balkan style disco at the harbour where I duly attempted one of those Russian dances where you crouch down and cross your arms whilst hopping about. I lasted just about long enough to rouse a small crowd who seemed to be enjoying my moronic frolicking quite a bit until I got a little too carried away and accidentally booted a girl in the shin. Everybody stopped clapping after that. I bought her a drink to say sorry, but then realised that I had no money left for myself. I found David slumped in a chair, drooling on himself, and sensibly decided that it was time to go home. Despite the unsavory end to the evening, I was in awe of this brand new couchsurfing world that I had just stepped into. Italy, done.
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