The Wetlands...
It was a long night as I battled the creatures of the night. About 2 hours or so into my slumber I began itching and was wondering (based on the look of this place) if there were creatures in my bed. There were creatures, but not in my bed. They were buzzing about my head. I left the window open to get a cool breeze in the room. Otherwise it would've been stifling with no airflow. When I started to notice the itching is also when I started to notice the buzzing. Right by my ear. OOOOH! I hate that. I thought they were flies in my tired state and dismissed it just getting annoyed. I tried to go back to sleep. An hour later I noticed another one buzz right by my ear and I could hear them in the air amongst the silence around me. I flicked on the light and noticed there were a good group of mosquitoes right by my head on the wall. Yikes! I was being feasted upon. I immediately got up and closed the window. I grabbed my hand towel and began swatting. The battle begun. I killed off a good portion of them only SEEING one lingering and always on the ceiling. I hear her buzzing about in the air. I believe with mosquitoes it is the female who goes out and gets the food. I turn the light off again and try to sleep. Some time goes by and buzz, right by my ear. 
OOOOH! These damn creatures! I get up and swat again immediately killing the one on the wall next to me. I still hear another one buzzing about so I search. I find her and she's lingering near the ceiling. I try a few times to get her, but fail. So I turn out the light and wait a bit. She's brave and hungry and she comes close to my ear again. I wait a few more minutes, slowly get out of bed, flick on the light, find her, and swat. She's gone. Ahhh. Silence. No more buzzing. Unfortunately I have some bites on my hands and neck as a casualty of battle. I guess with all the rivers and wet areas this is a haven for them. I forgot about that minor detail since it's a humid climate as well as a wet one. This is why Ft. Lauderdale is called the "Venice of Florida." It has the same canals and the same problem with the mosquito.
I finally got some rest and woke up to the bells of the churches surrounding me as well as the bells on my alarm clock. It didn't look like it was going to start off well with the cloud cover and occasional spat of rain, but as I sit here typing it turned out to be gorgeous. Again. Yay for me.
This morning I stored my bags at the hostel. They allowed it. I went up to the rail station just to figure out what I wanted to do today and to get out of the annoying sprinkle. I saw the water taxis and remembered the travel book saying something about €6 water canal rides. I bought a ticket and rode around on the water getting a different perspective of the island for about 2 hours. It was great. I was under cover AND I got to get around the city and see new things without walking or getting wet. As I was getting onto the taxi I noticed the logo was a fish. I looked at the map of Venice with the whole island in view and noticed it DID look like a fish. Who'd have thunk. It may be common knowledge, but I never knew. The train station is right where the brain would be and where I picked up the canal boat was where the eye would be. The belly is San Marco Piazza and the tail end is down by the park I went yesterday. The canal ride took me out of the Grande Canal into the open water along the belly and around the tail to the topside of the island. The views were stunning. The boat then took a trip away from the island to another island called Murano. I should've done this yesterday and got off on Murano. It looked cute, but I can see only exploring it for about an hour or so. The boat road through its "Long Canal" giving some splendid views. I was just relaxing on the outside back of the boat breathing in the salty air and watching the scenery go by. This I will be doing a lot of tonight into tomorrow morning on my way to Prague on the train. I got off at the same stop 2 hours later and the weather is now perfecto. I did notice one sad thing as I was floating around the outer perimeter of Venice. It was the trash build up. I don't know if people put it there or if it just washes up that way from the canals and currents. Yesterday I saw a man throw a cigarette butt into the canal and I thought "how gross." People just have no mind of the beauty around them and what they are doing to it by now properly disposing of trash.
That's why the cities and governments pay for trash removal and disposal. It's to keep cities clean and comfortable. When we take it upon ourselves as human beings to just disregard this wonderful service and dispose of trash on the streets, in fields, sides of roads, in canals, or whatever it's just gross and disgusting behavior. We should treasure the beauty we have around us and remember we aren't the only animals on the planet. It seems as though sometimes we feel that since we are so high on the food chain that we have complete reign of everything. Then someone gets attacked by a shark, killed by a stingray, or eaten by a polar bear and we're put into check (but only for a moment). We should realize that sometimes nature fights back when we take advantage of her beauty. Hence the greenhouse effect. Another sad thing I noticed was the water level. As you look around the city you realize how ancient it is and even though it's remarkable being built on water for the time period the city started, there were a few faults in the process. One was the city being built on such unstable and changing ground. A lot of the buildings lean (especially some of the towers) and some of them are even partially underwater and crooked. 
The city is sinking and at high tide here, which seems to be around 2:00PM from what I've seen, the water levels come right up and over onto the walkways. Wow. I couldn't believe it. I also heard that in the winter San Marco Piazza and a lot of the walkways in Venice flood for the entire season. I also heard this season is getting to be a longer period of time with the rising water levels over all combined with the sinking city. I consider myself very fortunate to see this city while it's still ABOVE ground. One day this could be the next Atlantis.
I wanted to check out this café that my travel book said would have free wifi. They do advertise it as such, but alas my broken antennae must not get the signal. Drats!! I will definitely be getting a new Mac when I get back on American soil again. Smaller and stronger. Right now I have to deal with what I have, which works well otherwise, but it is dying. Today I'm just going to finish up with a little browsing. I think I've seen of Venice what I wanted to see. My train leaves at 8:45pm, so I have some time. I'm at the café now relaxing a bit and then I'll be off to browse the shops a little. Tonight is my first train ride overnight. I can't wait to see what it will be like. I hope I can sleep. I hope I can get accommodation in Prague. My friend says you can just walk up to the hotel reservations kiosk when you get there and book one really cheap.
I wanted to do this in Prague as opposed to booking online since I know nothing about Prague at all. It would suck to book something like I had in Rome not knowing anything about the city. At least in Rome I had been there before and knew what to do other than the misfortunate thing about getting to and from the hostel from Ciampino.
OOOOH! These damn creatures! I get up and swat again immediately killing the one on the wall next to me. I still hear another one buzzing about so I search. I find her and she's lingering near the ceiling. I try a few times to get her, but fail. So I turn out the light and wait a bit. She's brave and hungry and she comes close to my ear again. I wait a few more minutes, slowly get out of bed, flick on the light, find her, and swat. She's gone. Ahhh. Silence. No more buzzing. Unfortunately I have some bites on my hands and neck as a casualty of battle. I guess with all the rivers and wet areas this is a haven for them. I forgot about that minor detail since it's a humid climate as well as a wet one. This is why Ft. Lauderdale is called the "Venice of Florida." It has the same canals and the same problem with the mosquito.
I finally got some rest and woke up to the bells of the churches surrounding me as well as the bells on my alarm clock. It didn't look like it was going to start off well with the cloud cover and occasional spat of rain, but as I sit here typing it turned out to be gorgeous. Again. Yay for me. This morning I stored my bags at the hostel. They allowed it. I went up to the rail station just to figure out what I wanted to do today and to get out of the annoying sprinkle. I saw the water taxis and remembered the travel book saying something about €6 water canal rides. I bought a ticket and rode around on the water getting a different perspective of the island for about 2 hours. It was great. I was under cover AND I got to get around the city and see new things without walking or getting wet. As I was getting onto the taxi I noticed the logo was a fish. I looked at the map of Venice with the whole island in view and noticed it DID look like a fish. Who'd have thunk. It may be common knowledge, but I never knew. The train station is right where the brain would be and where I picked up the canal boat was where the eye would be. The belly is San Marco Piazza and the tail end is down by the park I went yesterday. The canal ride took me out of the Grande Canal into the open water along the belly and around the tail to the topside of the island. The views were stunning. The boat then took a trip away from the island to another island called Murano. I should've done this yesterday and got off on Murano. It looked cute, but I can see only exploring it for about an hour or so. The boat road through its "Long Canal" giving some splendid views. I was just relaxing on the outside back of the boat breathing in the salty air and watching the scenery go by. This I will be doing a lot of tonight into tomorrow morning on my way to Prague on the train. I got off at the same stop 2 hours later and the weather is now perfecto. I did notice one sad thing as I was floating around the outer perimeter of Venice. It was the trash build up. I don't know if people put it there or if it just washes up that way from the canals and currents. Yesterday I saw a man throw a cigarette butt into the canal and I thought "how gross." People just have no mind of the beauty around them and what they are doing to it by now properly disposing of trash.
That's why the cities and governments pay for trash removal and disposal. It's to keep cities clean and comfortable. When we take it upon ourselves as human beings to just disregard this wonderful service and dispose of trash on the streets, in fields, sides of roads, in canals, or whatever it's just gross and disgusting behavior. We should treasure the beauty we have around us and remember we aren't the only animals on the planet. It seems as though sometimes we feel that since we are so high on the food chain that we have complete reign of everything. Then someone gets attacked by a shark, killed by a stingray, or eaten by a polar bear and we're put into check (but only for a moment). We should realize that sometimes nature fights back when we take advantage of her beauty. Hence the greenhouse effect. Another sad thing I noticed was the water level. As you look around the city you realize how ancient it is and even though it's remarkable being built on water for the time period the city started, there were a few faults in the process. One was the city being built on such unstable and changing ground. A lot of the buildings lean (especially some of the towers) and some of them are even partially underwater and crooked. 
The city is sinking and at high tide here, which seems to be around 2:00PM from what I've seen, the water levels come right up and over onto the walkways. Wow. I couldn't believe it. I also heard that in the winter San Marco Piazza and a lot of the walkways in Venice flood for the entire season. I also heard this season is getting to be a longer period of time with the rising water levels over all combined with the sinking city. I consider myself very fortunate to see this city while it's still ABOVE ground. One day this could be the next Atlantis. I wanted to check out this café that my travel book said would have free wifi. They do advertise it as such, but alas my broken antennae must not get the signal. Drats!! I will definitely be getting a new Mac when I get back on American soil again. Smaller and stronger. Right now I have to deal with what I have, which works well otherwise, but it is dying. Today I'm just going to finish up with a little browsing. I think I've seen of Venice what I wanted to see. My train leaves at 8:45pm, so I have some time. I'm at the café now relaxing a bit and then I'll be off to browse the shops a little. Tonight is my first train ride overnight. I can't wait to see what it will be like. I hope I can sleep. I hope I can get accommodation in Prague. My friend says you can just walk up to the hotel reservations kiosk when you get there and book one really cheap.
I wanted to do this in Prague as opposed to booking online since I know nothing about Prague at all. It would suck to book something like I had in Rome not knowing anything about the city. At least in Rome I had been there before and knew what to do other than the misfortunate thing about getting to and from the hostel from Ciampino.
posted by Chris | 9:55 AM
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