Tuesday July 11, 2007
Day 2 – Innsbruck & travel to Venice
By Chelsea Fogarty
Northern Lights 16-1

When we woke up in our hotel rooms with a view of the Alps right out the window, we said goodbye to our bidet and our little beds and went sightseeing in Innsbruck, Austria.  For breakfast we had croissants, meat, cheese, Erdnussbutter (which was like peanut buttery chocolate), fruit & juice that tasted a little different than normal.  Then we got on the bus and headed to Innsbruck.  When we arrived in Innsbruck Curt gave us our scavenger hunt clues and the Amazing Race began.
           
We needed to find a golden roof, a street car, a church with two towers, the river, and the pizzeria we had to eat lunch at.  It wasn’t too difficult, except for when you mistake a moped for a street car.  My favorite thing to see was the church because the inside was really amazing and the architecture was awesome.  It had lots of statues and paintings all over.  The buildings were really cool to see too and the streets were super narrow.  Luckily, everyone found the pizzeria and we had lunch there.  I had what I thought was pepperoni pizza, but it was really spicy, so I needed a Fanta to cool me down.

After lunch we headed to Swarovsky crystals and a lot of girls got jewelry.  I got a necklace, but a lot of girls got crystal bracelets too, and Bob: you’re wife really liked the store.  Before we left my mom and I had to use the Water Closet to go to the bathroom and we each needed to pay fifty cents. 

Our bus ride to Venice was about five hours but the scenery was beautiful.  We went through the lowest pass through the Alps and there were lots of waterfalls, snow-covered mountains, and castles.  We stopped to take a picture at a gas station and I got some gelato, for winning the scavenger hung, but I didn’t like it very much.

When we arrived in Venice we got to our hotel and had to give them our passports because it was an Italian law.  Our hotel was very nice and very Italian; I really liked the shutters to see outside in our bedroom window.  Then we walked to a restaurant and had pizza and pasta and water.  The pizza was a lot the same, but the crust was really thin. The pasta had a little different taste but it was great. 

Then we walked to the bus station and waited for our bus which was late.  Then we stamped our tickets and rode to Venice.  When we got to the island, Cory taught us how to read the signs and warned us about pick pocketers.  We didn’t have many problems with that until one group lost their map, which caused some trouble later in the night. The main streets were all water and there were many gondolas, boats, and cruise ships.  The water wasn’t very clean though, it was full of toxic waste. 

The buildings were mostly brick, and they were really cool.  Along the narrow roads there were lots of shops and carts to buy souvenirs.  Then we had our second scavenger hunt and needed to find a gondola, Rialto bridge, the bridge of Sighs, and San Marco square.  My team won again with coach Olson leading the way so we received free gelato from Curt again which I liked a lot better this time.  Then SOME of us had a 40 minute walk back to the bus stop…..

Four of our teammates, Steph, Greta, Maddie, and Kelsey, had their own adventure, in which they got to see Venice from a whole different view.  They got lost on the island, missed the bus, and ended up frantically running around for about an hour and a half.  Maddie decided they were going to recreate their experience in the movie “A Run to Remember…A Nightmare in Venice”.  Venice was a very beautiful place, and so were the Italians.