Christina Ross was an All-American Softball pitcher for San Diego State and 2008 Hall of Champions Amateur Star of the Year. She is currently playing professionally in Amsterdam and is writing about her experiences on sdhoc.com.
Can anyone tell me how Italians are not fat? With the past few days being filled with pasta, pizza and gelato, I would guess I have put on at least 10lbs!!! I mean we tried really hard to eat healthy, but it was just not in the cards for us… I’m really looking forward to a home cooked meal in the not-to-distant future! The Italians and Austrians are not that big on chicken; it’s all bruciato and schnitzel!!
After leaving from Amsterdam at 11am last Sunday, taking a train to the airport in Düsseldorf, Germany, we finally arrived in Venice around 10pm. Once my friend Cambria (who is also playing in Holland for the summer, but on a different team) and I arrived, we were able to meet up with my Mom and Casey. It was very convenient that my Mom was able to trade her trip for Venice so we had a nice hotel to sleep in our first night. Due to some rules about how many people you‘re allowed in your room, we quickly busted out our camouflage to sneak into the hotel and the four of us girls had a fun little sleepover.
The following day we took the shuttle with the flight crew back to the airport to pick up Justine, who was flying in from Paris!! From there we finally headed to the island… I never realized Venice is an island with boats being the main way of transportation in and out of the canals until we started planning this portion of our trip. I didn’t see one car on the entire island. With that being said, there isn’t that much to see! Our time in Venice was a little long. I would recommend 2-3 days at the most.
On Tuesday, we took the boats over to the islands of Murano and Burano. Murano is where they make the world famous Murano Glass, and we were able to go into the factory for a glass blowing demonstration. It ONLY takes about 15-20 years of apprenticeship to become a glass blower in Murano!!! While we were there, they were busy making a chandelier. I really want one of these chandeliers for later in life when I hopefully have my own home; with the currency exchange and shipping it would probably cost about the same as an Escalade! After our demonstration we had to go into the glass shop, where we all spent something on some souvenirs. Go figure, I bought myself a really neat looking glass ring!!!
After Murano, we got back on the boat and headed to Burano. Burano is just another cute little island where all the houses are painted different colors (we’re talking hot pinks, yellows, oranges, blues, etc.)…
Once back on the island of Venice, we went shopping for our wannabe designer purses!! This always reminds me of downtown LA, where you can haggle on the streets for a better price and we did!!! The guys selling the purses would always ask for some crazy amount ranging from €80 to €120 and we were able to talk them down to about €20. If you showed any interest in their purses at all they would follow you and become quite rude if you didn’t end up making a purchase!!!
When traveling, I’ve come to expect the unexpected. While shopping along the streets in Venice, we ran into my friend Adam from high school!!! It wasn’t completely random because thanks to facebook we had talked and both knew we would be there around the same time. He tried calling me earlier in the day, but I guess the calls weren’t going through and who would have thought we would have spotted each other in the middle of the streets. He and his friend Matt joined us girls for dinner the next few nights.
The weather in Venice was really hit or miss with rain in the forecast. One would think that being an island there would be lots of beaches, but that was not the case. The only beach was on the island of Lido, so on Thursday we got back on the boat an headed to the sand. The water was clear and the beaches were filled with lounge chairs, umbrellas and little huts that reminded me of the changing rooms you see in movies from the 50s.
Despite having a good time in Venice, Rome still gets my number one vote on favorite city so far.
Justine flew back home early Friday morning and Casey, Cambria and I continued on to Vienna, but not without a few speed bumps along the way… From Venice we had to take a double-decker bus to Villach, which is a border city in Austria because that was where our rail passes started. We safely made it to the train station, asked the man in the ticket office about our train and if we needed a reservation or to get our ticket stamped… He said, “No, they will stamp it on the train,” so we proceed to board our train.
After about an hour into our train ride to Vienna, we think we are smooth sailing… The conductor comes around to check our tickets, he informs us they are wrong and needed to be stamped back in Villach! He tells us we either need to buy tickets or get off at the next stop to get our passes stamped. We decided we’ll get off because to buy a ticket when we already had our passed would be silly.
Go figure the stop we get off at to get our passes stamped is a ghost town with no ticket office, and the two people we found don’t speak any English… At this point in time, we are thinking we are in big trouble, and don‘t worry as we are sitting there planning our next move we hear thunder, followed by lighting and then a steady down pour of rain!!! We come to the conclusion to get back on the next train and we’ll play dumb if the same thing happens… As the conductor comes around, the three of us are trying to think positive thoughts, which end up working because this conductor says our passes were fine and lets us continue on our merry way.
Eleven hours later we arrived in Vienna!!!! We bought our metro passes and headed to our hostel. I have yet to see the movie Hostel, but from what I’ve heard, I was a little apprehensive about this whole situation. Keep your fingers crossed, but so far so good… Our hostel is about a block away from the metro and H&M is around the corner!!!
With the three of us not knowing that much about Vienna, we decided to hit up the recommended sights to see from Casey’s “Let’s Go Europe” book… We went to the Hofburg Palace (medieval castle), Hoher Market, Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral which from the outside reminded me of the Sangrada de Familia in Barcelona), and the Prater (a giant Ferris wheel). I was a little disappointed when we walked over the Hoher Market, which was once an execution site and home to the Roman encampment, Vindobona. Supposedly Roman ruins lie beneath the streets, but I left with the feeling of “that was it!”
This weekend there is a huge music festival going on in another part of the city. We heard it was the largest free music festival in Europe with about 14 stages… We planned to check it out later this evening, but the rain has seemed to follow us, so we’re still contemplating our options.
Tomorrow we are heading off to Cesky Krumlov (supposedly parts of Hostel were filmed here) on the way to Prague. The three of us are very excited because we heard and read that they have a nearby river where you rent inner tubes and just float down to the bottom; I guess like the lazy river at Raging Waters!!!
We got our train passes stamped just so we don’t end up in the middle of no where again! Casey says hi, and until next time… Guten Abend (that‘s the extent of my German)!!!
Posted on June 28, 2009 by Christian Deleon
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