Venezia!

So before Heidi left I was lucky enough to have a couple of days off. Because Venice is only a few hours away by train we decided to head down for a night and check it out. I had been to Venice before in 2004, but this was Heidi's first time. Yet even for me the beautiful architecture and canals of old Venice were amazing. We had booked a room at a bed and breakfast about a 10 minute walk from St. Marcos Square. We had a great rate through Hostelworld.com, and the room was absolutely gorgeous. It was an emerald green with fancy crown molding and old world furniture and wallpaper. Outside our window we had a view of the main canal and could watch the Venice traffic. Unfortunately winter is not the ideal time to visit Venice. When I went back in 2004 we had warm sunny weather and spent time at the beach on the Lido. This time was a completely different story. When we arrived it was lightly snowing (not that annoying) but it slowly progressed to a heavy cold rain (very annoying). This forced to plan our sightseeing around the next time we could jump into a cafe and grab a coffee or beer to warm up. However there is something really special about Venice in the cold. First, it isn't nearly as crowded as it is during the summer months. This means that walking around in the cool little shops and cafes has a much more intamate feel. Also during the winter the water in Venice is a cloudy light aqua blue. This is from all of the calcium in the water that comes down from the mountains. The combination of the lack of people, the icy weather, the ghostly pale blue water, and the narrow maze of streets and canals makes Venice in the winter a completely new experience.

While we were there we were able to have dinner with Taylor and Lauren from our team in Klagenfurt. We found a nice little nook to eat some pizza and drink some wine. The food is very expensive in Venice and spending 20 Euros on a panini and beer is pretty easy. Nevertheless we had a great meal with our friends and then afterwards a hot chocolate. Because of the weather decided to head back to the room almost right after dinner. On the way back we stopped in a confectionary and bought some pastry treats and a bottle of wine. That night we just spent in the room enjoying some terribly unhealthy goodies and some wine while watching the BBC.

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed back to St. Marcos square to do some more shopping and picture taking. We had a great lunch at a nice sit-down place around 12 and then decided to start heading back to the train station. We still had a few hours before our train left but the weather had begun to take its toll on us so we decided to walk to the train station, instead of taking the canal boat. This turned out to be much more difficult than we had first thought and we took several wrong turns. Yet after about an hour we made our way back to the train station with enough time to grab a coffee.

Because of Heidi's ticket she had to leave on 3rd of February, and although I was terribly bummed to see her leave, our adventure in Venice was a good way to go out. February has been a pretty busy month because I was completing the finishing touches on my UCI law application. I also have to upload pictures from my training camp at Faak am See, but I am still trying to find the connection cord for my computer.

One last harrah in Venezia!!!

Better late than never Prague post

After our adventures in Salzburg we took the long train ride to Prague. There was a real change in scenery as we made our way into the Czech Republic. The snow top mountains disappeared and we passed through several small towns with train stations that looked like they had been there since they were first built. We had to connect with three trains during our travel which was a bit of a hassel but an adventure. Each train we got on was a little bit older and a little bit dirtier. On one of our connection stops we had some time to kill so we decided to try and find a place to eat. We weren't successful because we were in what looked like a ghost town with dirt roads and only a few shops and houses. It was kind of a weird feeling knowing that we were in a random town somewhere between Salzburg and Prague. We made it to Prague late on the 29th and had a bit of a difficult time finding our hostel, but once we did we realized that it was two minutes from the train station. Pretty funny. Our hostel was nice. It looked just like one of Adam's dorms in college. On our first full day we did a lot of site seeing. We went to the Charles Bride, checked out the Astronomical clock (very cool), and went to Old Town which you get to by crossing the Charles River. There was a huge Christmas mart set up in New Town with a beautiful Christmas tree that you can see in the pictures we posted. We made it up to the Palace which was very pretty but very cold. I posted some pictures of the view from the palace overlooking Prague. On New Years Eve day we scoped out several places we could eat dinner but most places were very expensive and had a set meal price. We decided to eat at a small place by our hostel and then go to Chapeau Rouge which is a really cool bar that Katie recommended to us. At midnight we ran(literally) from the bar to the Charles Bridge to watch the fireworks. It was absolute madness. There were masses of people pushing and shoving and you would look over to the person next to you and they would be shooting off huge fireworks. I think Adam loved it but I was overwhelmed. I'm used to lighting Sparklers and watching fireworks from a distance so we ended up leaving early because it was so crazy. Needless to say it was quite an adventure and I will never forget our New Year's Eve in Prague. For Adam's Birthday we went out to a nice dinner. Adam had a steak kebab for his Birthday meal. On our way to dinner there were herds of people walking towards the Charles River for another firework show that Adam and I didn't even know about until we walked outside that night. Talk about perfect timing and a great way to celebrate Adam on his special day. Our train ride back home was very easy with only one stop in Vienna. We had a great time on our travels and we are hoping to make it to Italy and France before I return home.

Heidi

Prague Photos