Final Europe trip, Post 1: Bruges, and Venice by night

I can't believe it's September and I'm about to start telling you what we did in the middle of July! Anyway, it was a trip full of enough awesome experiences and hilarious mishaps that I can't NOT write about it. So here goes...

On Friday 18th July, Ben and I each worked the last day of our English jobs, moved out of the flat we'd called home for the past year, and headed across to Europe with Delle. We took the EuroTunnel, which was a very exciting experience for Delle (and us, although we'd done it before) - sitting in our car, inside a huge train that is travelling under the ocean floor of the English Channel!

After popping up in France, we drove to Bruges in Belgium, where our night's accommodation would be at the same place where Ben and I stayed on the first night of our Christmas Europe trip - the Art Hostel. After a bit of mucking around trying to get some Euros out of an ATM vestibule that was closed for the night (if you add up all the things we fit into this one day, you will realise it was quite late by this time!), we sent Ben off on a drive to find a more agreeable machine while Delle and I set off down the street, bearing all three peoples' luggage, to find our accommodation.

It was actually a different building to last time, further down the street, but managed by the same people. After some effort I managed to unlock the front door. We then had to ascend a few flights of a treacherous and narrow staircase whilst loaded up with large suitcases; however, you'll be pleased to hear that Delle made it to the top with a pillow being the only item to plummet screaming to the bottom. Then, at the top of the stairs, before we even reached our cosy attic dorm, the first and only fellow resident we met at this hostel was a guy from... Ipswich, Australia. I kid you not.

The next day, Saturday, we grabbed some yummy breakfast from a bakery and set off on the 4 hour drive to Frankfurt Hahn Airport in Germany, where we would leave our car and fly with RyanAir to Italy for 5 days of sightseeing. We ended up being in a enormous rush at the end of the trip, due to an unfortunate misunderstanding about how much time we could afford for lunch, but suffice to say we did make it.

We flew into Treviso Airport in Italy, which is RyanAir's "Venice" airport but in typical RyanAir style is actually at least an hour from Venice. With all our luggage and no Italian, getting from Treviso to our campsite at Fusina was our next significant challenge. We managed to catch a coach that took us to Mestre, half an hour away, where we were told we could then catch a local bus to Fusina. This was a fabulous theory, but what ended up happening was that each local bus we tried to get on would send us back to the other side of the road, dragging all our luggage, to wait for the next bus travelling in the opposite direction.

Eventually we got sick of never being allowed on a bus, and split a taxi to take us the rest of the way. :) Our campsite, called Camping Fusina, was across the water from the island of Venice, and is the same place that the eight of us stayed on our 2006 Europe trip - definitely recommended as the place to stay if you go to Venice. We had two 2-bed cabins between the three of us - even with their 3-bed cabins unavailable, paying for the extra bed was still cheaper than any other accommodation I could find - and we already knew the facilities, atmosphere and location were great. Check out the pics below (last one is of our breakfast the next two days)!



That evening we headed across to Venice. It's magical at night, coming in by ferry and seeing the round golden lanterns glowing along the water's edge. We quickly got into the gelati - yum yum YUM!!! - and wandered the streets looking at the amazing old buildings, watching the gondolas glide silently along the canals, and gazing at lit window displays of elaborate Venetian masks and other local specialties. Here are some photos taken that night...



It also turned out that Venice was celebrating their Festival of the Redeemer that night, so at the end of the evening we were treated to a spectacular fireworks display, which we watched from the big open bridge (Ponte dell'Accademia) over the Grand Canal. The crowds were unbelievable. Check out this fireworks video - YouTube makes it much blurrier than the original, but hopefully you can see the ones that spread outwards in golden spirals after they explode - awesome!

The next day we went back and enjoyed Venice in daylight, but I'll save that for the next entry. :) Goodnight!