Venice : Day 9 : 23 Oct 2008

We checked out of Barcelona, and headed for Venice using Vueling airlines. This was our 4th flight in 9 days. We went to the same airport, El Prat and checked in at Terminal C. Terminal C was for the low-cost carrier and Vueling dominated the terminal. Many may have not heard of them, as they were a Barcelona-based airlines. But the bright yellow logo surely stood out, and grabbed the attention as much as AirAsia's red colour.



One interesting fact about Vueling was that all their planes were pasted with a slogan, and in some cases the name of its millionth passenger. Our plane's slogan was "Vueling Together", pasted near the nose cone. Too bad, we weren't selected. If not, it would be a super proud moment to be the first Malaysian to have his name on a foreign airplane. The flight was on time, but only 50% filled. The seats had colourful traffic light colors head rest, and they were made of leather.



The journey took around 2 hrs, and we landed at Venice Marco Polo airport. This was the good thing in choosing Vueling. At least their planes landed near to the city centre, though at the mainland. Marco Polo airport is the main terminal for Venice, the other being Treviso airport which was located far into the mainland. It was quiet on the day we arrived, and we had no problem getting the bus tickets. But we do have problem finding a free map of Venice. There wasn't any, and they expected tourists to have it beforehand or fork out E2.50 to buy one from their info counter.

We took the ATVO bus (blue colour), cost E6/pax and arrived at Venice main bus terminal in 1 hr. Then, our treasure hunt began. We enjoyed the scenery but not the journey. Since it was getting late, and the sky wasn't so bright already, we were very anxious in locating our hostel. This was more so due to the lack of a map and language ability. There were so many walking path and back lanes, that the map may soon became redundant. You had to depend on your luck and memory power to remember the routes you took earlier on. Anyhow, we managed to find the place before it got very dark.

Our hostel, Gondoliere's Room was located around 20 min walking distance from the bus station. Price per night is E60, and can fit 2 pax. The price was reasonable, knowing that it wasn't going to be cheap in Venice especially on the island. It was located near Campo Friari. It was a room in someone's home, renovated with lots of gondolier's photos and souvenirs. FYI, gondolier is a person who row gondolas. We found out that the owner was the one who took all those photos and made them into a calender. He claimed that the price for a gondola ride was E70/boat, but the market price was somewhere E80~100/boat. Anyway, we weren't impressed by the price.



There was a Chinese restaurant below it but we didn't try. Instead, we had our first and only Italian dinner at a restaurant. But it turned out to be only 3/10 for the overall. OK for the cheesey penne but NG for the anchovies pizza. We were even charged for the "free" biscuits. Knowing about this, we took/tapau-ed the remaining biscuits pack.



It was dark and lonely when night comes. Though it looked and felt scary walking on those alleys, it was actually very safe as the people tended to care only for themselves and don't look suspicious or stared nastily at us.