Well, I’ve got two weeks left on the Gem and I can’t believe how fast time has flown! 6 weeks has felt like no time at all, but I also feel like I have a new ship family here and hopefully I will be able to work with some of them in the future. I’ve got 3 more days in Venice to enjoy it and Heather and I went out around 10:30 this morning to walk around, window shop and of course, eat. It was already blazing hot at that time in the morning, so I knew it would be a pretty uncomfortable day! There aren’t many places to just sit and hang out in Venice, besides cafés, so I’m often on the go for several hours at a time.
My first stop was the Ferrovia – the huge train station in Venice that is right next to the cruise ship port. I thought I should just go in and ask the ticket agent if I can buy my train tickets for my trip to Milan and Paris. There was actually a travel agent window inside and I decided they would be my best bet. Heather found fountain sodas (!) for us while we waited in the humid station. (There are no fountain sodas anywhere on the ship or in the ports we’ve been to, so it was quite a find!) The agent at the window ended up being my best friend in the whole world because I just told her the exact trains I wanted and she made the reservations and printed out my tickets for the same price as what I found online, plus a 5 Euro booking fee, which I was MORE than happy to pay! I actually wanted to buy her lunch or something because she just made everything soooooo easy! So the only thing I have left to do is book my hotel in Milan….oooh fun times! I
We shopped a little bit on the northern side of the city on the Strada Nuova and we hit this great store called Tezenis – which pretty much has like underwear and casual clothes for girls and boys – and I got some new tank tops that I’ve been needing since it’s started to get really hot in the ports. We also spotted some cannolis in a a patisserie window and we both realized we hadn’t had a cannoli in Italy, which is just unacceptable! We made a pact to get one after lunch…hopefully one with chocolate chips in it. Mmmm…
On our walk through the busy pathways towards San Marco, we spotted this interesting looking store with barrels of wine lined up on shelves with spouts out of them. Upon a closer look through the window, it looked like a wine gas station, with prices by the litre listed on a chalk board. I saw a litre of Prosecco listed for 1,90 Euros (like $2.50?) and we ran in to check it out. Turns out they provide 1.5 litre water bottles and just fill you up with whatever you want, so we each got one and took pictures at this treasure we found!
We walked through San Marco and found a snack bar to sit at in a little piazza, order a salad and pizzas and drink our water bottles of sparkling wine. It was a goooood afternoon… We made it back to the ship with about 20 minutes to spare - what a record! BUT, we neglected to get cannolis, so I’ve definitely GOT to do that next week!
After doing some laundry for the show, grabbing some dinner and getting through two “Welcome Aboard” shows, I was totally wiped as usual. I got to watch the series finale of “Ugly Betty” though (which is really the first full episode I’ve ever seen) and it was really great! Mambo Italiano was also (surprisingly) on the crew movie station today so I caught pieces of that and remembered what a great gay indie film that was! Totally a must see if you haven’t…
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