Date: July 22, 2024
Location: Venice
Blogger: Cordelia Portales ‘28
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Venice Day 1
We all woke up to get ready for another travel day. We got breakfast, finished packing, and wore comfortable clothes for the train. We were all ready at the train station waiting patiently for our train to arrive when we got some horrible news. Turns out, the twenty minutes we spent wearing our backpacks was all in vain: our train was late. Not just a few minutes late, but over forty minutes late. We spent that time not wearing our backpacks, lounging around the train station talking, and protecting our luggage.
Forty minutes later, our train finally arrived. We boarded the train, allowing people time to stow their likely much heavier luggage (due to shopping sprees because we’re in Italy and do you really expect us not to) up on top. The train ride lasted a few hours, we think. Some of us just slept through the entire ride. We made our way to the boat after nearly dropping our heavy luggage and rode the boat to the hotel.
We were all starving by this point. Our train was late, making lunch time late, and no one wanted to deal with a bunch of cranky teenagers, so we checked in as soon as possible and made our way to lunch.
There is a lot to do in Venice (gondolas, shopping, beaches), so, after lunch, we all split up to do our own things.
A group of us went to the beach at one of the hottest times of the day. While it was hot, when else are we going to have a chance to go to a beach in Italy? Many immediately put their stuff down to immediately go into the water. Whoever says that the ocean is always cold has never swam in the Mediterranean Sea. The water was the absolute perfect temperature: not too cold, not too hot, but just right.
Then, unexpectedly, in the middle of the water. I feel a piece of seaweed and a sting. I just got stung by a jellyfish, which immediately reminded me why I don’t normally go into the ocean. It was still worth it, though.