Happy New Year everyone! This year has been amazing for both Dee and I. We’ve managed to suspend our jobs (Dee permanently!), got our apartment rented out, possessions all packed and hopped on an airplane to explore the word! We’ve seen and done some pretty frickin awesome things and written about most of it. So here it is, what we think our top 10 things we did this year traveling.

The DVS top 10 of 2009

We separated from our friends Steve and Karen for a few days. They went off to Switzerland to visit a family friend and we stayed one extra night in Rome to do our adventurous Macbook power adaptor shopping, and then figured ourselves the cheapest route to get to Barcelona. Our options were the following:

1. Take an overnight ferry – We pretty much crossed this option off right away… thinking we have Eurail passes that we paid good money for and should use them.
2. Take an overnight train to Zurich and then jump on a train to Barcelona – From our past experiences with overnight trains and paying the extra costs for the private sleeper cabins we decided to avoid this.
3. Take a train to Milan and then catch a connection train to Nice. Stay in Nice overnight and then catch a train the next day to Barcelona. With only having to pay reservation fees this is the route we picked. It sound the easiest for travel and providing a small amount of time in Nice with a good nights rest.

So, the next day we made our reservations, we picked the fastest connection in Milan so we could arrive in Nice with some time to actually explore it a bit. Arriving in Milan, I ask Scott how long do we have till we get on our next train? He tells me we have just under 2 hours. We noticed on the board there was a train leaving in 15 mins to Nice but since our stomachs were growling and we have all learned that hunger overrules all, we decided to get some lunch and hop into an Internet café to reserve a room on HRS.com in Nice. We were taught from my German relatives that this site gives cheaper rates and great specials for hotels then what you would be told by just showing up. To our surprise, they were right and hotels sometimes even proved to be cheaper on HRS.com then booking a hostel room!

We choose a hotel room in Nice that was right across the street from the train station to make things super easy for our early morning train to Barcelona the next day. Paid the deposit fee, grabbed ourselves a McDonald’s ice cream cone in celebration, and headed back slowly to the Milan train station to catch our train, taking pictures of the outside fountain on the way. We were actually quite impressed by the train station… and have heard that is pretty much the only impressive thing to see in Milan.

Licking our cones in satisfaction we look at the board to see what track our train is on, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Not one electronic line of information stated our train number let alone anything saying its destination was Nice. Scott pulls out our reservation ticket to double-check the time and with much swearing advises me he was always looking at the date on the ticket rather then the time!! Our train was actually the one we saw on the board when we first arrived here. Now we just wasted money on our reservation fee and are starting to worry if we can even get to Nice tonight for our hotel reservation with an already paid deposit.

Now our ice cream cones were not as satisfying.. so we pulled ourselves over onto a bench to collect our composure and finish off the cones. What are we going to do? I pulled out our Eurail timetable schedule and we flipped back and forth through the pages frantically. From what we could see there was no more options available to us. I feel like I kept my cool in this whole situation quite well, but Scott was dreading the worse. I think more because he did a mistake of reading the ticket incorrectly and that little mistake lead us to arguing on this little bench and loosing money all at the same time. It was getting quite hard to reason with him to the point we had to just not talk to each other for 5 minutes.

During those 5 minutes I thought to myself while looking at this tiny little schedule book that there is no way it lists ALL the trains in Europe. It must just list the most popular routes and leave the rest out. It would be impossible for something so small to have all the listings for such a VAST train network across 21 countries that accept the Eurail. Once the five minutes past and I could see the vein on Scott’s forehead decreased in size, I explained to him my thoughts and suggest we go stand in the long line and tell the lady we need to get to Nice tonight and see if there is anyway it can be done. Scott doubted the idea but after some more discussion I convinced him to get up and come with me.

Low and behold there was a way to get to Nice. It involved us connecting 3 or 4 times in small town France locations that we can’t even remember and landed us in Nice at 9 pm. Our reservation deposit was not a waste and we were ever so thankful to have a room just across the street from the station. Unfortunately we arrived exhausted and never saw Nice, since our train to Barcelona was at 6 am the next day.

What did we learn in this situation?

• Make sure you are reading your ticket correctly especially if you can’t read the language on it! Maybe even have your travel mate to look at the ticket as well.
• Always double check your train numbers and don’t just rely on checking for the destination on the board.
• The Eurail time schedule you are given does NOT list all the trains.
• Keep your cool if you mess up and miss a train, as there is most likely another option for you.
• Give Scott about 5 minutes if he gets really frustrated and upset before speaking to him with good solution making ideas.

I’ve been using computers since the early 90’s, and other than learning to type on a Mac II with B&W screen, I was always a Windows man. When my wife bought her first Apple computer while in school for Graphic Design 5 years ago, the seed was planted in our household. Upgrading from a desktop to a MacBook, she slowly started to convert me with the ease of use. After her second MacBook and showing family how easy it was to make photo albums, more of my family converted. And when I bought a MacBook Aluminum in January of 2009, I went all in. This MacBook is the single best computing machine I have ever used, and I am happy to be part of the Apple family. It’s so well designed, easy to use and just simply always works, much like all Apple products these days.

We love your Apple Store downtown Vancouver, and have been to the stylish store in New York. Conveniently located with the newest products, it’s such a great experience going into the stores to see what’s new. So when I lost my power adapter while traveling and found myself in Rome wanting to write on my blog, I didn’t hesitate to lookup the official Apple Store in the city.

Quickly going to Apple.com and doing a quick search, I was happy to see that there was an official store located in Rome. Called RomaEst, I didn’t recognize the address but luckily there was a Google map. Not knowing the location I plugged the information into Google and saw that I had to take a train and walk a short distance to the mall that it was at. I was so glad that you provided great directions that my wife Deidra and I went out right away to get the missing charger with our train stop in mind.

Taking the subway and then having to transfer to a train, we thought it was a bit odd but hopped on. As the train drove along through many stops, we anticipated the location shortly coming up and a little under an hour our location was called. Stepping off the train onto a platform, it almost felt like we were getting off a train in the old Wild West, with a road leading from the train station and a small store/bar at the station but nothing else around. I walked up to this store and asked them if they knew where the Apple Store was, sure that it must be close and conveniently located.

When the nice lady pointed at Apple Juice, I knew my little grasp of the Italian language wasn’t going to cut it. We’d have to figure it out ourselves, with nothing more than the memory of what the map looked like from your website. It didn’t look too far from what I remember, and we grabbed a couple quick espressos and a bottle of water. Walking out of the store past the five old Italians gambling on a game of poker, I felt confident we’d find the plug and be back downtown Rome in no time. Out on the road we came to a junction with a choice to go either left or right. Left led us into an area with signs of civilization and right led us to the entrance of a busy highway with no sidewalk. So, using our common sense we headed towards civilization with a spring in our step.

Unfortunately the spring in our step only lasted for half an hour due to the extreme heat, and finally came onto some streets with older looking homes and barking dogs. As we continued to walk through this area I couldn’t image an ultra-modern Apple store being located here. But on we went walking until it was obvious the store wouldn’t be this way – we were bound by the far curve of the highway and hills with forest and agriculture on them. We now had no other decision but to turn around and walk back the hour to the train station.

Oh Glorious Commercialized Civilization!

On our way back I decided to climb a hill that was adjacent to the road to get a better idea of where in Rome we even were. From the top of the hill I could see a giant glowing sign in the distance – down the hill I was on, across a farmers field, across what looked like a dirt-bike track, then the highway and finally, the largest building in the entire area, a supersized mall. With doubt in Deidra’s eyes I made the executive decision to cross this expanse so we could savor the sweet juicy power of Apple.

As we made our way across the fields, I wondered how much like the Wild West this area really was. We obviously weren’t anywhere near anything, and would a farmer shoot us out here for trespassing? Our questions were answered as we walked by a shantytown on the edge of the dirt-bike field, complete with burning garbage, stolen shopping carts and some scrap metal makeshift homes. Deciding to avoid this area we quickly made our way across the barbed wire covered ditch after being charged by a Ram protecting 8 other sheep. Never being so happy to set foot on the pavement of a highway before, we used our childhood Froger skills to cross the eight lanes to the urban miracle of a shopping mall. Looking back at our feat of an adventure through the Wild West we noticed the hill we climbed down was now filled with a giant herd of sheep. Wondering to ourselves while we entered the mall doors what would have happen if we were still on that hill as all those sheep arrived with the farmer and his dogs…

Getting our power adapter at your store was uneventful, and with our purchase we then ran into our next problem of this adventure. It seemed that this mall was so far out of town that to get a cab to the train station ended up costing us as much as the power adapter. Not that we were that far away from the train station – probably only 5km’s down the major highway with no sidewalk – but that they had to call the cab in from downtown Rome which took just under an hour. There were no other cabs around, and by this time we were just happy to be done with it all as it was now getting late. As the cab dropped us off at the train station, we were up for our next surprise.

Walking to the entrance there was a Police officer and four armed military personnel with him. It was around 9:00pm and there was a train going to Roma in half an hour. With an odd look and quick nod to the contingent of military at the entrance we sat down to wait for our train. Around us we were gated in with 10-foot high metal bars and the only entrance was where they stood. Looking over at the military and police sizing us up, we started to wonder what was going on. Luckily we didn’t have to wait long as the policeman walked over to us and struck up a conversation. We chatted about where we were from in Canada and he mentioned while he was in the army, positioned in the U.N., he had a commander from Ottawa and liked Canadians. A little bit more small talk and then the question came out;

“Just out of curiosity, what are you two doing here? You don’t look like you belong…”

I’m glad he asked because I was wondering why a platoon of soldiers was guarding a tiny train station, so telling him our story of the afternoons adventures gave me a perfect setting. While he was laughing at what happened, I asked him,

“Why are you and the army here?”

His face got serious and said, “For your protection. This is a very dangerous area.”

Just then a military van drove up and he excused himself, saying he’d be back in a few minutes and that he had to check in. Unfortunately a moment later our train came and I wasn’t able to continue the conversation and find out more about what was going on. Taking his words to heart we hopped on the train and were off back to Rome, feeling lucky and wondering to ourselves the many different ways our day could of ended up.

Steve, as I mentioned earlier, there are a of couple things that I’ve come to expect with Apple products and stores. These things are: Easy to use products, modern stylish stores and safety knowing that things just work. I don’t expect to need to pack for a field expedition to purchase a simple power adapter, or need an army platoon for personal security. To say that your Apple Store is in Rome is akin to saying Cupertino is in San Francisco. It may be in the bay area, but hardly in San Francisco city.

May I suggest you update your website with better directions and a warning of distance and danger? Or better yet use one of the thousands of buildings in the City of Rome and design something that better upholds the Apple style. I’m sure you can do a hell of a lot better than this.

Thank you for your time,

Scott

In Vancouver we really don’t have that many old historical things around. There’s Stanley Park that’s been around for xx years, maybe an old school house in Surrey that’s 150 years old. Maybe if you classify the Rocky Mountains as something old we have lots of it, but it wasn’t made by humans.

Walking through the city of Rome is like walking through a different age, or as our friend James put it, “tripping over history”. You can walk up any street and see a fountain that’s 1,000 years old, a temple that’s 3,00 years old, and a Colosseum that’s 2,000 years old, and many other random remains of the old civilization just lying about. It’s truly amazing exploring this city that was built by a civilization that were more civilized 2,000 years ago than the rest of the Europeans were even 500 years ago. But, after the fall of the Roman Empire around 500AD, the next 1,000 years was pretty brutal for them compared to the 1,000 before them.

All Metro Trains looked something like this in Rome

One of the top things I wanted to do when we were in Rome had to be the Roman Colosseum. We set out on the highly graffiti covered metro and stop at the Colosseum station. Low and behold the first thing you see as you walk out the station entrance…. The colossal Colosseum! We crossed the street and our group of 6 was immediately stopped by a guy selling a tour, usually we “just say no” and ignore these type of guys but this one time we actually listened and decided to take an English guided tour. However, this tour turned up Milhouse in our favor for a couple reasons; we managed to skip a 2-hour line and learned some valuable information as there is really no information plaques inside.

The Colosseum is much larger than I expected and was the largest in the Empire with the ability to sit 50,000 people. The richer and more royal Romans obviously sat near the ground, but they didn’t forget about everyone else as each level was set for a certain class, from the richest to the most poor. It was free to get in, and they gave out enough free bread and water for everyone to eat during the event, because of this almost everyone in the city would attend an event. Also, since summer can be super hot in Italy the Romans installed a retractable awning to cover spectators from the sun and rain. For many people it was their only way to see animals from far away lands, as there weren’t any Zoo’s you could take the kids to and since Gladiators were so valued, it was usually only fighting to first blood, rarely to the death. (except those Christians, but it was really the lions faults!) All together they think 500,000 humans and over a million animals had taken their last breaths inside these walls.

The people looks like ants in comparison!

As I said the Colosseum is huge, but less than half of it is still up. And looking around we couldn’t help notice some beautiful white blocks and stone lying amongst all the brown stone. This is when our guide pointed out an interesting fact; almost all of the old “pagan” monuments are now nothing like they used to be. The Colosseum was actually covered in white limestone during its glory days, and not the brown stone we all envision it as today.
It seems that with the fall of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church became the new power in the region. And they needed to build their own monuments and churches, but hard rock and marble were so far away. To solve this problem easily they ended up “recycling” all of the old Roman Empire monuments for their beautiful stone, tile, silver and gold. Many were pillaged to never been seen again or left in a sad shell of their former glory. I suppose at one point the Pope thought that they may want to preserve some history, and ordered parts of the Colosseum to be restored. This was a costly affair and more to win favor and charity, and over the many years they have rebuilt small patches. It’s really too bad all the beautiful Roman Empire buildings were recycled, but it does make sense as we tear down so much in the West to rebuild that we really don’t have anything old at all!

Some random old ruins… or is it more then that?

While walking through the city I saw yet another block of some old building ruins and crossed the street to see more. I’m glad I did as I wandered into a place simply called “Cat Sanctuary”. There were maybe 50 cats sitting amongst some old ruins of what used to be a theatrical stage. Down the stairs was a small office with a volunteer team tending for all the stray cats. Once a stray cat is approved healthy by a vet the volunteers then work to have them adopted. They don’t pay rent as the city just allows them to be there, and as everyone knows that this area “belongs to the cats”.

They say this huge building used to be covered in intricate colorful tile work until it was “recycled” by the church after the fall of the Roman Empire

We also went to the exact hill that the city of Roma was founded, Palatine Hill, since a free walking tour of the area was included in our Colosseum tour. We saw so many more pieces of history and again heard some great information from the guide. One of the best stories we heard and he claims that many Romans believe is the following:

The god Mars came into her the chamber and made the virgin Rhea Silvia pregnant with the twins Romulus and Remus. An angry uncle found out and packed them into a little boat and sent them up river. Then a She-Wolf found them and looked after them, suckling them with her She-Wolf milk until a shepherd came along to raise them. When the god Mars found them again and told the grown twins their origins, they decided to returned and kick their uncles ass and establish a new city. After completing the ass kicking they decide to figure out who shall be King by climbing to separate hills and whoever gets a signs from the Gods first shall be King and build the start to the empire on that very hill. To make a long silly story short, Romulus convinced Remus he saw the sign first and so began the Roman Empire.

Found on the side of a Garbage can

This story is pretty much symbolized all over the city. You can find images of the She-Wolf with little human babies “suckling” underneath it all over Rome. If this story doesn’t convince you enough to come see the crazy awesomeness of Rome then maybe this will convince you…

Pay attention to the middle of this photo

You can buy all your Pope needs in one place! Look at that collapsible important looking cane thing (sorry we have no idea what the actual word for it is) in a travel size case! Wonder if any of these wonderful items would get a normal person like us first class upgrades?

Check out the rest of our pictures from tripping over history in Rome at our Flickr album by clicking here or on one of the thumbnails below:

Our past tropical beach experiences have been great. Our first destination together was Puetro Vallarta, Mexico. It was a 1-week all-inclusive deal and defiantly gave us our travel bug. In that one-week we had such a fantastic time and learned we traveled extremely well with other. Both of us love to just sit back and relax and do nothing except jump in the ocean to cool down. But, we do also like to take part in a few activities. Basically making plans to relax for 2 days then go for an adventure and repeat.

So came our honeymoon… visiting St. Lucia and Jamaica. St. Lucia is still one of our most favorite places in the world. We stayed in our own mountainside villa with our own private pool and the amazing beaches were just 10 mins away. In Negril, Jamaica we stayed at a massive all-inclusive resort and pampered ourselves, as any honeymooners should!

Our most favorite place on this planet in St. Lucia

As much as a great time we had, we often thought to ourselves how amazing it be to do the same sort of trips with friends. So we signed ourselves up for a 1-week all-inclusive deal at a mega resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic with our friends Karen and Steve. As stated before in a previous post, we had an amazing week with them. However the entire time we all agreed there was something missing… Good music and more friends! So you can just imagine how excited we were to be attending Sun & Bass together on our European adventure and meeting up with even more of our friends there, James and Christy!

Sun & Bass is marketed as a drum & bass lover’s paradise. For 1 week around 1,000 junglists from across the world fly to the little tropical island of Sardinia, Italy and attend daily parties catered them throughout the town of San Teodoro. It’s quite a experience to walk through a town where barely any of the locals speak English but all you need to do is shout out “WOO, SUN & BASS!!!!” and you will make instant friends with anyone wearing a wrist band within your vicinity.

The beach!!

Previous Sun & Bass events had DJs set up during the day on the beach, which was the main tidbit of information that drew us all in to set our entire European plans around this 1 week party. It sounded like our beach times in the Caribbean but with our taste in music and friends. However, sadly, once we arrived we were informed all beach events are canceled and will be moved to different locations. The beach bar they used previous years had a new owner who was not at all interested in allowing these beach parties to be there. I still shake my head at this guy… I can’t even imagine the amount of alcohol and food sales he missed out on by not allowing some DJ’s to set up their gear at his bar.

None the less, our week there was off the charts. We rented ourselves a great little condo to share, drank way too much cheap wine, made some great meals, sunbathed on the beach, laughed our asses off, and danced to some great music in the most classy venues we think any junglist will ever see.

Steve dancing with Jenna G

Our entire groups week highlight would be at Bal Harbor to see Jenna G live. Jenna G is a female MC and lyricalist who has made some amazing music and collaborated with many internationally known DJs like Roni Size. We all didn’t even know she had a live set at Sun and Bass until we got there and saw the finalized line up! What a treat! Getting to check another “I want to see” music artist off our list without even expecting it. Her performance was the most intimate music experience I’ve encountered. We situated ourselves on a small island in the middle of a swimming pool and this was our best decision for the entire week. As Jenna G quite often came and sang and dance on this island right beside us and sometimes even WITH us! It was one of those celebrity OMG I can’t believe I’m experiencing this kind of moments.

Our 8 euro VERY VERY VERY Strong Long Island Ice Teas

Would we go to Sun & Bass again? Yes I think we would, but not during a backpacking adventure. Seeing everyone at the parties wearing different outfits while you are staring at the inside of your backpack wondering how you can dress up your few very casual items. I would go next time with a suitcase and lots of fun outfits. We would also plan to spend WAY more money there as drinks are 8 euros each and water is 6 euros each!! OUCH!!! At least they poured the drinks VERY strong. Because of this strong pour it made buying beers a rip off since they can’t pour that stronger for you. Also, I would bring our spring floats to use at the pool in Bal Harbour! So, maybe one day we will attend it again, but I don’t forsee it in any near future… Attending Burning Man in 2011 shall be our next new festival adventure.

Our big group of friends enjoying the Sun & Bass!

Should you buy a Eurail pass? It’s not always as easy as flashing the pass…

When we first started planning this trip two years ago, we thought long and hard as to how to travel within Europe. We knew of companies such as Easyjet and Ryanair who have $1 flights between multiple destinations, but you usually have to know where your going and have a route and time frames planned out. And paying for rail each time seemed pretty expensive, but so did the eurail pass. The thought ran through my head many times “Should I buy a Eurail pass?”

After lots of research we thought the Eurail pass would work the best for us. We didn’t have a set itinary, wanted as much flexibility as possible and were sold on being able to see anywhere in Europe at the drop of a hat. There was only a “small” reservation fee on “the most popular” routes so we paid the €2000 ($3000 CDN) total for the two of us and were ready to start using our money’s worth!

I’ve never paid so much money for something to cause such a pain in the ass. The plan was easy: to go from Venice to Budapest on an overnight sleeper train leaving Friday night and arriving on Saturday morning.  On Wednesday we went in to the train station to reserve our seat on the train, but once we showed our Eurail tickets were told that the connection was down and to come back tomorrow. The next day we were told the same thing.

More than a bit frustrated, we went down to an internet cafe to see if we could book online. We found a Eurail fare for €65 pp, but didn’t think that was correct as the full fare was only €130 pp. We didn’t book the tickets because we wanted to talk to the train office the next morning to verify these prices, as it shouldn’t be so much.

We got to the train station at 9am the next morning to make sure we would get the tickets. After queuing in line, I finally got up to the front window only be told the connection was down again. It was quite frustrating walking over to another ticket window, waiting in line, being told the same thing, walking to customer service, being told to just try and get on the train and finally walking back to another ticket window. It seems that there were no more Eurail passes available to be let on the train is what the real problem was.

Sometimes it pays to be nice to the people that are causing you the most frustration. Even though this entire system was BS, we managed to keep our cool and joke around with the lady at the counter a bit. It ended up paying off as after 5 minutes of searching she found us a ticket out of there that night. There was an overnight train leaving at 7.10pm to Vienna, and in the morning we could transfer to Budapest and be there by lunch. We had two options with our First Class Eurail pass: pay €30 pp to sleep in an open car with 4 other people or €60 pp for a private sleeper. At this point I just wanted some peace and air conditioning and agreed to the outrageous price.

Dee and I hopped on our train only to find our sleeper cabin door locked. It’s a good thing we didn’t block the passage with our bags, and I finally managed to grab the attendant and burst into our little private space. It was about the size of a small bathroom, with two bunks that could pull down, sink, small closet, table and an excellent view of the train yard. Never-less it would be our home for the next 12 hours, and jacking up the knob for the AC we cracked open a bottle of red wine to enjoy the trip as we slowly started moving.

30 minutes later we were both drenched in sweat, having opened up the window, door and hall windows for some sort of circulation. Looking around the passageway I saw a mixture of travelers in varying states of undress and hoped I looked better than they did. The thermostat on the wall was somewhere around 40 degrees and the sounds of the train riding on the rails was thundering through all the open windows. I swayed with the moving train and heat waves down the hall until finally finding the attendant. After spending what seemed an eternity trying to speak englitalian, I finally figured he was saying the AC was broken. By that time a crowd formed behind me and nobody was very happy at having to ride another 9 hours with this heat. I pushed my way back to the compartment to break the bad news to Dee and left the mob to yell at the attendant.

So we did what we could and watched some movies as loud as possible to drown out the open window, and went to bed in stifling heat with earplugs that couldn’t block all the noise. Good thing we paid €2000 total for the Eurail tickets and €135 total for the seat reservations!

So far I’m not very impressed with the savings with our Eurail tickets.

I will be posting more thoughts about the Eurail tickets as we go along as they were one of our largest expenditures before we left! Just look under the Eurail category on the right hand side!

We left our hotel and went out exploring that morning, taking a long canal cruise and stopping by St Mark Square while quickly refusing to pay 15€ for a beer. We walked through the alleys and after wandering a bit, we saw an add for the “Danger Museum”. Thinking it has to be something cool with that name, we embarked down the alleys twisting and turning following the arrows. When we finally walked up to the front door we walked in to an awesome free exhibition by artists Vladimir Dubossarsky and Alexander Vinogradov from Russia.

It was a refreshing look away from old paintings of Saints in Churches, or nobles of the 15th and 16th entries. We laughed at the Giraffes being awkward while mating in the first painting, the cherubs getting drunk on the wine in the next, Nostradamus holding airplanes and Obama as Napoleon fighting off the monsters.

Each piece had a camera embedded to what I only assume take video/pictures of people viewing for some later art installment?

Concept:

As an institution, the art museum accumulates a large amount of powerful energy from various dynamic and creative spirits, which it then shares with the audience. Vladimir Dubossarsky and Alexander Vinogradov reveal the secret life of an imaginary museum hidden from the viewer’s eye. Renaissance, avant-garde and mass-media images are synthesized in the monumental paintings created for this project. The texture of large canvases and the smell of oil are still regarded as essential attributes of the Old Masters, which refer to the heritage of Raphael, Tintoretto, Durer, Veronese, da Vinci, Titian, Rembrandt and many other great masters.

The audience, however, should be prepared for something unexpected. While they are looking at the paintings, the paintings are observing them. Thus, the viewer becomes a part of the installation. The museum is not a safe place for the audience anymore. We are constantly being watched, even in the quiet and cool exhibition halls. The relationship between art and the audience becomes a crucial part of the project, no less important than the paintings themselves. This dynamic interaction provides food for the artists’ further projects and research.

If your in Venice before Nov 22, it’s a quick cheap way to see some great artwork.

How can you not go to the city of romance for your anniversary when your so close to it? Even though we were going to Italy later in the summer with our friends for a music festival. We were never going to go to Venice with them so it was a great chance to experience some romance in Italy. We hopped onto the internet and found ourselves a great hotel called Hotel Al Sole that was offering a recession special: stay 2 nights get 1 night free. Complete with a gorgeous view of your typical Venice canal, we couldn’t pass this up for our anniversary.

And we’re glad we went to Venice, as this was one of our best anniversaries to date. We made sure to experience it all whether it was walking hand in hand and getting lost in the walkways, drinking wine on the side of a canal while chatting about the finer points of life. We watched all the gondolas go by, ate dinners outside on the café sidewalks to enjoy the ambiance of Venice at night, got roses from the vendors who accost you to buy their old flowers, took a stroll through St Marks Square and stopped to feed the pigeons, and to top it all off an evening gondola ride to really seal the deal. It was pretty much like we were in a movie.

If you are traveling to Venice alone, try and stay near the Campo Santa Margherita and you will be sure to find fellow backpackers and travelers at night. It’s a busy Italian courtyard surrounded by cafe, bars and a public market dating back to the 1400′s. With no cars, lots of locals and no one trying to sell you something, it’s a breath of fresh air! We spent a great night there buying bottles of wine and drinking them in the square while meeting some great new friends.

One thing that we couldn’t pass up was the traditional gondola ride. After seeing it in so many movies and books, it’s almost a crime not to take it. But be prepared as it’s not done on the cheap, and daytime rates are set with tariffs that will run you 80 euros and night time rides will be 100. While you can negotiate a bit with them, they won’t drop more than 10 or 20. One of the more expensive moving rides we’ve taken to date but seeing Venice from night on the water is magical. It’s truly a beautiful city. As for the singing… we didn’t do that. The ride is just as great without it and the extra 50 euros sits better in our pockets than theirs!

Check out our Venice photos on flickr by clicking on this link!

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