Spring Break

For the past week I've been on spring break from classes, and took the opportunity to travel to Venice and Greece, with a lot of stops along the way. You can see all my pictures from spring break here.

The adventures began last Friday at 6 A.M. with what was supposed to be a 14 hour set of train rides to Venice. Aix => Marseille => Nice => Ventimiglia => Milan => Venice. However, as I was on my way to Ventimiglia, and almost across the border into Italy, the train I was on stopped and everyone got out. After talking to some other Americans who were trying to get to Italy, I found out that the Italian train workers were on strike, and that we were in a small French town near the border on the Mediterranean called Menton ("The Pearl of France"). I was able to get my train tickets pushed to the next day, and tried to take this unexpected road block in stride. I set off walking and exploring the old town, trying to keep in mind that there are worse places to be stranded than the French Riviera. Despite the circumstances, I really liked Menton. It's right on the coast, with good beaches (I had a nice nap there), a gorgeous old city, and an interesting cemetery with a lot of Americans and British.

The next day I was finally able to make it to Venice, although I still didn't get in until that evening. After hearing a lot of good things about it, I decided to try Couchsurfing on my trip to Venice. I got in touch with a guy named Alfredo who lives in a town outside of Venice called Padova. He was waiting for me at the station, and we walked back to his apartment which was only a few minutes walk. When we got there, he made me some good rice for dinner, and I got to know him a bit. Alfredo has been using couchsurfing for over 2 years, and has hosted over 120 people! After dinner we drove into Padova, and he gave me a really good tour. I liked Padova, reminded me a bit of Aix. That combination of small-town feel with a history yet still a good nightlife. We saw the basilica, the cathedral, the Jewish ghetto, and the large central square which is apparently the second largest in Europe!

As I only had one day in Venice, the next day I made an early start and was on my way by 8:30. After the half hour train ride, I got dropped off right in the middle of Venice, and almost immediately got lost. I'd heard that Venice is one of the most confusing cities in the world, and I quickly discovered that even the posted signs aren't helpful; trying to get to the famous Rialto Bridge I ended up going in a big circle. Luckily, Alfredo had loaned me a very detailed guide book with a great map. Once I started using it I didn't have many problems, and was able to make it to the Rialto Bridge, and then to Plaza San Marco. Unfortunately, Saint Mark's Basilica wasn't open until the afternoon as it was Sunday, but it looked amazing from the outside! I was able to visit the famous Doge's Palace, which was extremely interesting. This Palace was basically the center of all administrative life in the Most Serene Republic of Venice, and housed the Doge, the Republic's leader. Unfortunately, they don't allow pictures to be taken inside, but I was able to take some. It took several hours to walk through the whole thing, and some of the highlights were the armory, the prisons, and the meeting chambers for the Grand Councils. In every room there were dozens of magnificent works of art, which seems to be a recurring theme in Venice!

After leaving the Doge's Palace I made my way to the old Jewish Ghetto. Before being captured by Napoleon, the Venetians kept all the Jews of the city on one small island, locked into the ghetto. They were restricted to being money-lenders, second-hand sellers, and doctors. The Jewish population of Venice is tiny now, and there are only 3 families who actually live on the island. The Judaica museum provides a guided tour in English, and I was able to see three synagogues in the ghetto. What struck me was how cramped for space they were. I'm used to seeing synagogues being whole buildings, but in the ghetto their synagogues were merely floors in the apartment buildings. The ghetto actually has some of the largest residential buildings in Venice, as the Jews were forced to expand vertically rather than horizontally. After seeing the rest of the museum, which houses many historical Jewish-Venetian documents, I walked around the ghetto, got lunch, and was given Shmurah Matzah by a local Chabbadnik!

My next stop was the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, which is a HUGE friary church. What's amazing about it is that from the outside it is very unassuming and plain; all brick walls, not many ornaments or statues. But inside it is phenomenal. Dozens of huge paintings and sculptures by some of the most famous Venetian artists. In the same square as Santa Maria was the San Rocco church which I was not incredibly impressed with, and an exhibit on Da Vinci's inventions. It was an interactive exhibit made from his sketches, which meant that you can touch and play with the devices; very cool! Some of the things he was drawing were so far ahead of his time: planes, submarines, scuba diving gear. After all of this walking around, I went to a nearby garden and people-watched for a little while. Having gained back some energy, I decided to try to do something that Venice is great for: getting lost! This is harder than you would think. As Venice is all little islands, if you can't get to a bridge to the next island you'll just end up walking around in circles. However, while in the midst of one of my circles I ran into (nearly literally) a friend from my program in France who I didn't even know was going to be in Venice!

Having a few hours to kill before I needed to be back at Alfredo's, I realized that it would be a shame to visit Venice and not get onto a boat. The gondola rides are extremely expensive, so I hopped on a vaporetto, which is a canal bus, for 6 euros. The line that I was on went all the way around Venice, out past the island of the dead, and out to Murano, known for it's glass-making. All in all it was an hour and a half ride, with one of the most amazing sunsets I've seen. Definitely worth the time and money. The next day I had a very early flight out of Venice.

I was up pretty early, as I had to catch the first bus from Padova to the airport in Treviso, about an hour ride. My final destination was Greece, where I was meeting up with friends, but to get cheap airfare I flew Ryanair to Bari, Italy, and had a day there. I got in to Bari, and did not have the best of days. It was sunny and hot, and after a little while of carrying my bag it began to get very heavy. I saw the city's cathedral and basilica, neither of which I was very impressed with after having been to Venice. Although they were both rather large, the quality and quantity of art was lacking compared to the Venetian landmarks.

I eventually decided that I had had enough of walking around, and tried to get to the hostel I had booked. This turned out to be a disaster. The information included on the reservation sheet was completely useless in finding the hostel. I tried calling them multiple times, but each time was hung up on by someone who spoke no English. I went to the tourism office to try to get help, but they never opened up. After waiting there for 2 hours, I went back to the airport and spent the night there. It really wasn't a bad airport to spend the night in! They had a good food court, cheap and fast wifi, and a whole floor that was exclusively for people spending the night, complete with lounge chairs. I settled in for what wasn't the worst night ever. At 1 A.M., I woke myself up and had a Skype Passover seder with my family/family friends. They set up a laptop on the table, and I was able to see, hear, and talk with them which was very cool. I had scoured the food court for supplies earlier and had been able to get a bottle of wine, spicy mustard (to replace horseradish), lettuce, and salt water. Add that to the matzah I already had, and I was all set to participate. It was an amazing testament to the wonders of technology that we were able to do that, and made me feel a lot better. Definitely made my day.

Early that morning I flew in to Kos, one of the islands in Greece. It was rainy and gross all day, and I mostly stayed inside a restaurant while I waited for the 1 P.M. ferry to Rhodes where I was meeting my friends. After a 4-hour ferry ride, followed by an hour bus ride, I finally arrived in Lindos, a town on the south of Rhodes, the 2nd largest island in Greece. 8 of us from my program had rented a villa on the island which, as it was pre-tourist season, was very cheap. It had lots of beds, a big kitchen, big living room, and a pool. The next morning we walked into town and rode donkeys up to the acropolis. This wasn't THE acropolis of Rhodes, but is actually more impressive to see, in better condition, and more significant from an archaeological point of view. The view from the top was magnificent, and the ruins were very overwhelming.

After walking back into town, we spent a few hours exploring Lindos. Lindos is a very cute town right on the water, and is almost a resort town. In the summer it's apparently packed, but we went at just the right time; we essentially had the town to ourselves. It's a very popular British destination, so everyone speaks English, and there are a lot of British expatriates living there. We ended up making friends with two British bartenders, and spent a lot of time with them over the next two days. We met a lot of interesting people that night at the bar, and had a very international crew: Greeks, Danes, Americans, and Brits. The next morning Chris and I slept in late, while the others in our group left for Bari. After a late start we went in to town to meet some of our new friends. That afternoon it poured, but this didn't stop us from meeting the Brits for dinner. They took us to what they declared the best restaurant in Lindos, and I don't doubt it. The food was incredible. My favorite was the appetizers we got, which were a combination of garlic bread and bruschetta, with feta cheese on top. Amazing.

The next morning we were up extremely early (again) to fly into Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia. Again, our final destination was Marseille, but Ryanair doesn't fly direct so we had a day in Cagliari. Unfortunately, it rained all day so we didn't get to see much of the city. By the evening it had let up, so we left the B&B we were staying at to go get some dinner (pizza!). Getting off the bus at a random stop, and going into a random pizza place, we ran into 4 of our friends from France. The odds of that happening are mindblowing, as Cagliari is a pretty big city. We went back to their hostel, which had it's own bar area, and met lots of new friends. Again, it was a very international group: Canadians, French, Spanish, Americans. We ended up going to another bar and staying out way to late, which made going to the airport the next day pretty rough, but I've had 2 days since then to bounce back, and I feel refreshed and ready for classes tomorrow! Only one more major trip left, and then it's back to the States. Next week I'll be meeting my grandmother in Berlin for the weekend. Until then!