Venice and Ljubljana

[Jake]

Due to the excessive amounts of American students at uni here, the USAC program dominates the timetables and we all get a 'spring break', which is a rather pathetic week off.

Most people planned big holidays, but I can't really afford that at the moment so I recruited Batsi (a total mincer who's also from Brighton, although I didn't know him much before coming here) for a short trip. We got back today, so have the rest of the week to chill out in Turin before getting back to 'work'.

So we had 2 nights in Venice and two nights in Ljubljana (Slovenia), before coming back to Turin. Lots of time was spent on putrid regional trains (slow, skanky, but half the price <3).

When you get off the train in Venice you're right on the Grand Canal. First photo I took, of a canal coming off from it.

Grand Canal:

Waterbus stop:

And some smaller canals, which were my favourite parts of the city, because you could just wander around on your own and get lost.

A lot of the properties have back doors going out onto boats etc...

MINCE

Typical Gondola. 40 Euros EACH for an hour? No thanks...

Pretty buildings:

St Marks Square, which is the main square in Venice. They had a lot of maintinence work going on (ALWAYS happens to me...) so not as much was happening as normal, but we just wanted to go up the bell tower really, and it was a nice day for it (this was the second day):

The rest of the square from the top of the tower:

Anty people!

You can't really see any Canals from the tower, as the buildings obstruct them. However, the views over the city and coast are fab!

Close up of some Gondalazzz

It was FREEZING up the tower because of the wind, so excuse my rather flushed face.

Harbour

We them went back down to ground level, slight photo repetition but I didn't have the heart to delete them.

Parking spaces <3

Nice cafe...

...but for how long?

duh duh duhhhhhh

I'm a seagul, but, I'm an Italian seagul, so I'm rude.

We then went to get the Water bus but it was a rip off so we didn't BOTHER. It's pretty cool, looks like a metro map but it's just BOATS.

So we went to chill in the room for a bit before going back out in the evening. The bathroom was so small you could literally shower, **** and shave at the same time.

Venice is suprisingly unphotogenic at night, so I only got a few.

Gondala parking lot thing.

Spot the spooky face?

Typical canal/bridge scene

The most annoying (but interesting) things about Venice is the amount of dead ends. This path looked like a shortcut...

But put it this way, I'm glad I was paying attention when I got to the end.

I think I like Venice, although it's a very cliche place. You can't deny that it isn't pretty, and quite unique, but I probably wouldn't go back any time soon. It's one of those places you annoyingly have to go to though!

 

[Nic]

Did you see any dead children and/or midgets dressed in red macs running around?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYICwstBwnM[/youtube]

 

[Ben]

How are you gonna tell your grandkids you've been to VENICE?

 

[peep]

Venice looks so nice. I've heard about the rip-off prices of transport there and I find it kinda annoying because if I was to go I'd love to go round on a boat.

Odd how it isn't as photogenic at night. Look forward to the rest of your report.

 

[Jake]

^^^ Lol, nope, shouldn't I be looking out for dead girls in Portugal? ooohhhh.....

^^ <3.

^ I think a day pass on the Water busses was like... £16, which is a rip off, but it allows you to go to other islands and stuff too. If it's important for you, and you dedicate a whole day to boating around, it COULD be worth the money. Or if you were flying in, as the waterbus bus goes all the way to the Airport (so you could buy the day pass on the day you arrive, then do everything then, as you'd have to pay for a single anyway which is £6.50). But, as we arrived by train and only had one full day, we couldn't dedicate a whole day for it and decided not to fork out. I'd say one day whoring the waterbus, then another day just mincing around the city would have been ideal.

 

[WelcomeToOblivion]

^She's not in Portugal. She's in every other country in Europe, some parts of Asia, maybe Africa, and also America.

Nice report though =] I liked the picture of the seagull. He looks badass.

 

[Ollie]

Some nice pictures. Venice is somewhere I've wanted to go for a while which is why I'm annoyed a certain bumface who posted above me gets to go in a few months.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Nice! Venice is one of the cities I want to go to one day that I'm not doing this summer on my Euro-trip, so bring on the Ljubljana pics because, I'm actually going there and have no idea what it looks like really .

It looks like a nice place, Venice, but that cafe, omg it's just gonna like topple one day!

 

[furie]

Good to see the Italians are still ruining Venice... WTF is that huge Diesel Ad doing in St. Mark's square?

I went in the height of summer, and the place stank of rotten sewers, though the huge barges full of waste and refuse on the way out the island of stink didn't really help.

It's a gorgeous place and utterly fascinating but sadly ruined by a poor attitude towards it.

Report was excellent Jake, brought back some superb memories though

 

[Lofty]

Great report Jake. I'd love to go to venice one day. I know this question is a bit random but, from people I know who have been, they've all said that it stinks of stagnant water. Is it true?!

Also, did you get a chance to see Poveglia Island? The Island that had a TB Hospital/Asylum built on it's grounds? They don't do trips there, but apparently, you can get people to take you over if they have a boat. It's meant to be REALLy scary!

 

[Jake]

^ Nope, I haven't heard of it to be honest. I didn't do any research before, so arrived with a very poor knowledge of what was there!

Regarding the huge advert, they were doing some renovation work in the square so HOPEFULLY it's just covering the scaffolding and will be taken down when they're finished (you can see more on the right).

We did notice the odd whiff of sewage/stagnant water, but not as much as I expected. Although it must be a lot worse in the summer when everything is cooking, haha. It was nowhere near as bad as say, Barcelona.

Thanks for the comments! I'll get Ljubljana up today at some point, it's just that with my crappy internet I've got to compress them all first, then upload them pretty much seperately or the silly thing just DIES.

 

[Jake]

Ljubljana!

The only way to get from Venice to Ljubljana directly (apart from one crappy train per day which arrives at 2am) is with a company called 'DRD', based in Slovenia, who operate a rather dodgy minibus between the two cities.

After 3 hours or so we were in Slovenia, and naturally went to find the Hostel. I'm through with dorm rooms, so always book private rooms now.

We got moved to a double because of a cock-up, but this worked out in our favour because the room was in a brand new building. I still asked for a discount though .

Lolz. It looks like a bum.

There were only a couple of daylight left, we were tired AND it decided to rain, so we were only out for a bit.

The hostel was right next to the dragon bridge (the dragon is a symbol of Ljubljana!)...

(we decided to do the Castle the following day)

Buildings...

There was a random outdoor exhibit leading up to this building, which I think was a museum or something.

In the city center there was a bizzare screening of an anti-capitalist documentary. We watched it for a bit, and it was quite interesting, but strange how people were just there in the RAIN watching it, lol.

The next day we pretty much headed straight for the Castle as it wasn't raining, although by the time we got up there it had started agian <//3.

There's a phunky Funicular going up to the top (well, Ian would disagree, but that's what they call it ).

POV <3

It seems like along with the 'funicular', the whole attraction had been modernised. They'd moved a lot of rock to put in the pathways and shiz.

The courtyard:

There is only one side you can view from, looking over the city center...

Fab weird building <3

Choppa

Ugh

There was some arty stuff too, but the anti-Israel photo gallery was the only free one. Wonky photo:

After refusing to pay £8 for another art gallery we went back to the Funicular thing, getting some more photos of its fabness on the way <3

It's such a cred <3

This sign made me laugh because it was so specific. No ice cream? No sausage dogs? I'm sure a generic picture for food (It's a burger and fries, USUALLY) or a normal dog would have been sufficient...

Back in town. I suppose this is art too?

Town photos. For some reason the main street reminded me of a UK high street. It just didn't seem so continental. It might be because although it's the capital, it's the same size as Coventry or Leicester. Or perhaps I'm desensitised after being in Italy for so long?

I stumbled across a horse meat fast food place in a guide book, so did some research. Apparently it's a chain, with 3 outlets in the city, so I google-mapped the closest one and off we went.

Batsi was grossed out, so I branded him a hypocrite and ordered myself the normal Horse Burger. It normally comes with loads of salad and sauces, but I toned it down in order to actually taste the horse. Sometimes those kind of places go crazy with sauce too, which just ruins everything...

It was OK. Had a slightly weird smell, but tasted fine. I've had horse sausages before (in France, when I was like 8) but can barely remember it.

After that we had to find Batsi a normal burger, and I had to take a photo of THIS <3

... before finding this, an old tram train converted into a cafe, pretty cool.

Stuff built through deluded, fictional hope:

Looking up towards the castle, with the city flag flying (the dragon got SPITED by the crease <//3):

After a couple of hours on Wifi in the room (the hotel in Venice had the AUDACITY to charge 2 euros for 15mins, so we were having withdrawal symptoms still), it was time for some night time mincing.

I think the council must have ordered too many green lights (every bridge had them on...):

Typical European love padlocks...

Town again

My fab German friend had recommended a restaurant, so we treated ourselves. I had game goulash (Bambi <3) and Batsi had Trout.

When you could have nice, juicy meat, why would you want to stick your lips round a load of fish?

We had to be up at 6 for the journey back to Turin, so returned to the room, Via the dragon bridge:

All in all, Ljubljana is cool, but there isn't really much to do. You can't really blame it though, Slovenia is tiny and has only been independant for 10 years! Two nights is plenty, and it's perfect as an add-on to another trip in the area. Any smokers who go to Venice should consider it for the cheap cigs. <3.

Thanks for reading .

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Hm, it looks like a nice city, but like you said, not much to do. I researched stuff to do there a while back and pretty much just came across like, three bridges. I think I'm only there for a day anyway though, so not too fussed.

Loved the reports

 

[furie]

Brilliant. Horse and Bambi in one trip, excellent

Tramvaj!!!! LOL!

 

[Lofty]

I love tasting different kinds of meat like that - No jokes...

When I was in Liverpool with Maddie just before Christmas, we had Kangaroo Burgers <3

It looks like a nice city. Also green lighting everywhere. Sounds like my heaven <3

 

[Ben]

I love tasting different kinds of meat

Snarrrffff.

I want a horse burger <//3