Venice
The Menace From Venice
Having spoken to a few experienced couch surfers, it usually it takes quite a while before you have your first bad experience. Well, not me. I am currently lying on a pull out mattress in a crazy mans kitchen. Tomorrow I get to migrate to the hallway.
It is my fault, really. I told Jean-Marc who I planned to stay with in Venice. He had heard of the guy and warned me against it. I thought, ahh, it can't be all that bad. And even when my host messaged me to ask if I would 'wrestle' (not against him, but another couch surfer) alarm bells should have rung. But the guy has about 400 positive references... Surely they aren't all liars?
So he picks me up from the station at 9pm, the conversation in the car was fine, he told me about his wrestling and why he does it and all about his couch surfing experience. After speaking to the guy for about 15 minutes I came to one conclusion; he has some very strong opinions. And some of those opinions are not entirely PC. Think along the sexist, racist lines.
We got back to his place, to find my accommodation for the evening would be the kitchen. The following night when a German couple were also coming to stay - I was going to be moved to the hallway. Right-o, a bed is a bed I guess. But I think the most disturbing part was when he decided to get changed... right in front of me. Thank god he stopped stripping when he got to his y-fronts.
Conversation that evening started off OK, but quickly became strained. He has such strong opinions, and just continues to talk I can hardly get a word in. And there is no point when I do, because he just dismisses my opinion anyway. One interesting thing we discussed was cities in Europe, and how he believed there were only a few worth visiting. Funnily enough, most of them are here in Italy. He also has some very strong opinions (negative stereotypes) about people from different countries around Europe. And told me about how people who don't want to wrestle are gay. Nice...
Later I took a look at the trains leaving for Genoa on Thursday. They were all €50, apart from one leaving at 11:30am, which was €20. I ran that past him and there was no way he was having that! As there would not be enough time to wrestle. I was made to feel that I had to stay until 2pm, and that I had to wrestle, otherwise he would have kicked me out then and there. He went through an whole hour long schpeel about contributing and sharing experiences with Couch Surfing, and what it is all about. He told me about all the people he has hosted, and that people recommend him from all over the world, that he is 'famous', and people love to stay with him. This guy may have hosted hundreds of people, but I don't think he embodies the spirit of Couch Surfing. It seems to me he just wants to watch people wrestle (did I mention he films it?). He tries to mask it with 'contributing and sharing experiences', but he is totally inflexible; you don't wrestle, you cannot stay. It makes no sense to me as Couch Surfing is not about wrestling. Why does he want to watch people wrestle so bad? A sexual thing? Let's hope not.
I was polite at first, but my tolerance was wearing thin. It got to the point where I was just sitting there, not smiling, not saying a word, just staring into space. And when he would say "you know?", I would nod my head and say "mmmm". That is all he needed to spur him on to continue talking absolute rubbish.
I finally had to cut him off and say I am really tired and I need to go to bed. So I did. And here I am. I am not toooo concerned, though. I basically have to fit in with his work schedule. When he is at home, I am at home (WRESTLING!). When he is out, I am out. Tomorrow he works in the afternoon, so tomorrow morning is going to be weird. I plan on spending a lot of time faffing about getting ready and being in the shower etc. Then we come back for 9pm. At which time I'm meant to get my wrestle on with some dude. Wednesday he is working early so we have to leave the house by 7am. I can come back for a two hour 'nap' from 2-4pm, then I have to leave again until 9:30pm at night because he has a dinner to go to. Then it is wrestle time again. Thursday morning is wrestle-mania 2011 until 2pm, when I am allowed to go and get my train. I cannot wait... I actually did think staying with this guy might be a little strange, but that it would make a good story to tell. In no way did I think he would be this crazy. But hey, I'll stick with it for the sake of your entertainment and my budget...
I continue this post on the train to La Spezia. Yes, I was meant to be heading to Genoa right now, but my host pulled out at the last minute so I had to change my plans. La Spezia is closer to Cinque Terre anyway.
It has been an interesting few days. I will start where I left off... Tuesday morning the German couple (Simon and Julia) arrived at about 9:30am. We all sat in the kitchen for a couple of hours that morning chatting. Well, I didn't really chat, our host just talked at Simon and Julia about his worldly opinions. The exact same thing I had already heard for hours the night before. Now this is just my point of view - but at first they seemed happy to participate in the conversation. After a short time the conversation became a bit strained. Simon was more determined to defend his opinion than I was, and our host really did not like that. He even told Simon directly that he makes him feel uncomfortable. I think what he really wanted was for people to accept and agree with everything that comes out of his mouth, and never challenge it. Afterward our host even came to me and had a bitch session about Simon. WTF dude?
Anyway, enough of that. Tuesday afternoon Julia, Simon and I ventured out into Venice for the first time. It was overcast, grey and some light rain, not amazing tourist weather. I realised on the bus into Venice that I had forgotten my camera! But I wasn't too worried because the weather was so shitty anyway.
Venice is amazing. Beautiful. Like nothing else I have ever seen. Think of your normal European city, but replace the roads with water. There are no cars, no motorbikes, no bicycles, just boats. There are footpaths everywhere, but they form a maze, and getting from A to B can be very difficult. You run into canals, dead ends, or paths that turn and head in the wrong direction. I good map or GPS is a must.
We made our way to St Marco Square, the main square in Venice, which contains the Doge Palace and St Mark's Basilica, both spectacular buildings. While Gondolas are all over the city, the waterways surrounding St Marco Square are especially full of gondoliers vying for your business. Although Venice is so famous for its gondolas, I was not overly concerned if I took a ride on one or not. And after finding out it was going to cost about €70, I quickly decided it was not for me. I'm not sure why, but I had this romantic idea of the gondola - a smiling friendly gondolier, singing in Italian as you gently cruise through the canals. The reality is a little different - the gondolier are ruthless, angry people who are after one thing - your money.
We spend the rest of the afternoon just wandering around the city, alongside the canals, before returning home for the evening. After being home for about 10 minutes it was tiiime to ruuumbleeeeee! Our host gave us the basic idea before letting us go for it. He wanted to see where we were at before he gave us any instruction. Just a quick aside - usually the surfers are matched up on weight and height to give an even match. Simon had about a foot and a half, and 15kg on me. Not exactly a fair fight. Anyway, we were hopeless. Scrambling around. I was laughing, having fun with it, which annoyed our host no end. I was not taking it seriously. Which is strange because he kept telling us earlier that it was just for fun... So he gave us a couple of hints and let us go at it again. Somehow during this second bout Simon's elbow connected with my forehead, immediately coming up in a HUGE lump and purple bruise. Apparently nothing like this had ever happened before! What pissed me off was that our host actually said that it happened because I wasn't taking it seriously. What the f? So that was the end of that. I said I wouldn't be doing any more wrestling.
So I was pretty happy, I could now take the earlier (cheaper) train to Genoa. I jumped on the net that evening to book the train, but found an email from my host - their plans had changed. They were no longer going to be in Genoa over those days. Leaving me high and dry. So I decided to go to La Spezia instead, which is actually closer to Cinque Terre. I put a message up in the La Spezia group on Couch Surfing asking if anyone could host me at the last minute.
Wednesday was a 6am start, as our host had work early. Problem - it was p*ssing down. But we just had to deal with it. So we made our way in to Venice again. The first few hours of the day were spent wandering around trying to find a hostel for Simon and Julia for Thursday and Friday night, but no luck. I remember my camera, so was trying to capture some photos, but the rain was making things very difficult. Later we made our way to the Doge palace in St Marco Square. The Doge was basically the mayor of Venice, a pretty important guy. The palace was extremely lavish, full of intricate carvings and huge paintings. It actually contains the largest canvas painting in the world! Unfortunately photos were not allowed inside, but I managed a couple of sneeky ones.
That afternoon we visited the Museo Correr. It was quite cool, full of old Italian artefacts, maps and paintings. Again, no photos. I was only able to stay about 30 minutes, as I had to be back at home by 2:30pm. Simon and Julia decided to stay in town. I made my way back, had a much needed two hour nap, then went back into the city. At 6:30pm that night I met up with a couple of other Couch Surfers in Venice - one NZ guy (Daniel) and an Italian (Marco) that was living just outside Venice. Marco was nice enough to give us a tour of Venice - giving us a bit of history and plenty of interesting stories. He took us for a spritz, which is a typical Venetian drink, and showed us the university district. Even though the rain had started to ease, it was still a pain to try and take photos, so I only got a few, below.
Venice is actually slowly sinking, and after heavy rain it often floods at high tide. The later it got, the higher the canals became, until the water finally came up and over the banks. It was quite a crazy thing to literally watch the city slowly going under water. Marco told us that when the tide reached its highest point that evening, some places in the city would be covered by 30cm of water! The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful. Daniel is actually heading down Italy also, so we exchanged details and made some plans to hook up in a few days time.
This morning I woke to beautiful sunshine. The day that I would be spending most of my time on the train... figures. I checked my mail and nothing had come through on my Couch Surfing request in La Spezia, so I looked to book a hostel. I thought that as it was not a huge tourist destination and it was only a Thursday it would not be a problem. I was wrong. The few hostels in La Spezia were all booked up. So I spent the next 30 minutes desperately trying to find something. I finally found one outside of La Spezia, which is a bit of a mission to get to, but it is better than spending the night at the railway station.
So I plan to check out Cinque Terre tomorrow - which my friend Phillipa insisted I visit. And from there Pisa and Florence. The journey continues...