Switzerland, Pt. 2/Venice

Quick note: the post we lost in Paris due to computer issues has been recovered and posted as "Paris, Pt. 2". It contains the rest of our Paris experience in much greater detail and stylish writing, so please, check that out.

We spent our last day in Lausanne cleaning up the house and doing a little bit of last-minute laundry before we went into town for the afternoon. After a bit of nifty train-riding, we headed for the beach.

We got there and realized that not too many people actually swim in the lake because they built a giant pool right next to it (I don't follow the logic either, but whatever). We ponied up the dough to get into the complex and bought a little ball to throw around before we stretched out on the grass.

Stephen was a little sunburned (in the sense that he looked like he was wearing a red shirt), so he stayed in the shade while Jonah and I explored the pool a bit. After watching Jonah throw a double flip off the diving board and attempting and completing the age-old jump-off-the-board-like-an-80-year-old-man myself, we tossed the ball around for awhile before we were informed that the ball was too hard to be thrown in the pool and that we might hurt somebody. Abashed, we took our ball back to the field and played catch some more.

After some sun, we headed back to the house and made a delicious pasta dinner and talked on the patio for an hour or so before watching Gladiator on the projector. Nothing like a little killing in the Coliseum to usher in Italy.

Falling asleep that night was almost impossible to the absolutely unbearable heat. We slept a combined 12 hours of sleep before waking up bright and early to board the train.

The train ride itself was actually not too bad, save the guy who was listening to music very loudly on his laptop and the guy who either hadn't bathed in a week or had just forgotten to apply some deoderant that morning sitting right next to us. Whichever it was, everytime he moved I felt like I was being punched in the face. Talk about pungent.

Once we arrived in Venice, we went to book our tickets and were promptly met by possibly the rudest ticket agent of all-time. We asked what time the trains were running on Thursday morning and he just started yelling. In my opinion, he's an incompetent jerk who shouldn't keep his job but hey, I'm not bitter or anything :)

Crisis over, we found our hotel, which is very nice, particularly because of the AC. Venice is like a sauna right now, it is difficult to move in this heat. Yesterday we wandered around in the streets before checking out St. Mark's and sitting by the Rialto and watching the boats.

This morning we visited Murano and almost died of heat, but got to see some cool glass-blowing in the process. After a little siesta we wandered some more. Tonight we're going to watch the Germany-Turkey game somewhere after we eat.

Miss everyone,

-Charl