neko's thinkbox

I suppose it’s time I finally conclude this enjoyable chapter of my life I’ve been savoring up to now. (Excuses, I’d just been distracted by all kinds of games up to now.)

It’s already been two months since I returned from my trip, and I already forgot quite a few details. But it’s the pictures and the videos that matter…
Remember, you can click on any thumbnail to see a bigger version of the image.

EDIT: I had a huge note on my desktop, which I bravely omitted up until now. Either way, I wanted to have a small thought for Kawai Eri, Athena Glory’s voice actor, who passed away on August 4th because of a liver cancer. I know, I’m over a month late, I could have mentioned it on the 5th, but I didn’t. I’ll be damned anyway.
R.I.P., Athena-senpai.

Navigation Day 3: Sunday, June 13th

If I remember correctly, I overslept a bit with a burning face that day. That night, I was trying to forget the sunburn on my front and lulled myself to sleep with the many Gokusen 3 episodes and the ARIA Drama CDs on my iPod… It was a rough awakening in the morning. Not only did I realize that omgosh it was already the last day!… but as you can see from the video…

…the weather really looked awful that morning. It was a bit depressing at first, but the rain stopped soon after I took that video. As if… I was allowed to visit Venice once again with good weather, and to see yet another face of the city… 恥ずかしいセリフ禁止!!!

We already had seen most of the city on the previous days, so this day we wanted to take it slowly and savor our last day in Venice. As you can see on the map, we went several times across the Piazza San Marco. The rest of the path was rather random; and now, two months later, I can remember it even less. Great thing I have the photos to help me remind at least a bit about it.

My main goals that day were to find a shop that sold stamps, the Carpaccio, the restaurant where our Undines often go to (remember Ep 7.5…), and the building of the Himeya company. YES, I know by now that it’s the Danieli Hotel next to the Piazza and the Bridge of Sighs, but during the entire trip, it really didn’t occur to me at all. I instinctively tried to take a photograph of each building that remotely looked like what I remembered from the single panel in the manga. Like here…

OHAY IT IS THE HIMEYA COMPANY!

So. The first place we visited, obviously, the Piazza San Marco. It wasn’t “all that crowded”, considering that it was a Sunday, but the rain must have had an effect on that I guess.

Not knowing where to go at first, at least on that day, I wanted to sit at the terrace of the Caffè Florian. Most people would not have done that, because the prices are simply horrid, but I had to do it to make my ARIA-inspired experience complete. Go ahead, call me a hypocrit for not boarding a gondola… At least I was on a Traghetto.

So, at Caffè Florian, I got myself a Cappuccino con panna, ie. Cappuccino with whipcream. Stupid me, I don’t like whipcream on my cappuccino. Muz got the same as well. Oh well, at least it looked more than presentable.

I couldn’t help laughing, sitting there like Akari, looking at people, blurting out “Hahi~!” …okay, I didn’t say it. T_T But still, it was a special atmosphere to me. Sadly, no Undines in sight.
But despite the huge price of the cappuccino (10.50 euro each), I was glad to drink it. And it was quite good too (if only it hadn’t been for the whipcream… but okay).

Oh I forgot, there was a 6 Euro fee per person. Why, you ask? Because of these guys.

Good music, but quite expensive for simple background noise. In the end, we paid 33 Euros in total for two cappuccinos. Oh well.

By the way, that morning I bought myself that white hat you see in the photo. I figured it would protect my front from being burnt any further… Muz said I looked funny with it. I dunno, heh.

After the cappuccino, we looked at the map, and then noticed we hadn’t been to the Giudecca island yet. So we went to the next waterbus stop to fetch a Vaporetto.

Compared to the central (and popular) parts of Venice and the Lido, that place was rather… deserted.

Honestly, there wasn’t much to look at either except the few churches and houses there either. We could have gone to the San Giorgio Maggiore church as well, but… guess the two previous days have taken a serious toll on our motivated feet after all. So we sluggishly went up and down Giudecca and soon returned to the Piazza San Marco. Funny enough, we went past the S. Eufemia church… …ok, what a foul reference. *facepalm.jpg*

Returning to the bustling Piazza, I was reminded of my original goals, once again, stamps, the Carpaccio and the Himeya company. I had previously marked some places to look for on my map, so we strayed around for a while, to no avail- a lot of buildings looked pretty similar, with their many tall and narrow Gothic-style windows, but I just couldn’t find it. Once again, I walked just in front of it, like the ignorant that I am.

HINT HINT!

But no…

…I really HAD to…

…look for similar buildings. GAH.

Stupid. No wonder I gave up soon. My feet wouldn’t survive this strain any much longer, I was hungry, and the sky was clouding again. So we decided to have some food.

It must have been 3-4 PM once again, I feared we wouldn’t be able to find a restaurant that would still serve food at that time. I guess they’re open all day, heh… the restaurant we found was really really great. I loved the food there, and prices were more than fair. But outside, the weather wasn’t fair at all: in that narrow alleyway, the wind was blowing hard, and it started raining again. People running for cover, etc… I found that situation quite funny. But once again, it calmed down after a little while.

As for the Carpaccio, the map said that there was such a restaurant indeed at the “Calle Corner”, but within the many Calle Corners and Calle Comers, I couldn’t find any restaurant by that name! And at the same time, I was desperate to find at least those stamps as well! Heck, they told me everywhere to look for a Tobacco store, yet all of those stores didn’t have any stamps at all! Some even said “only at the post office behind the Piazza”. I went there only to find out that it was CLOSED – of course, it was Sunday. Duh. And I forgot to mention, I dragged muz behind me the whole time. Poor guy. ;o; Well at least we shot some more photos…

I had almost given up hope, when, in some rather abandoned part of the city, there was a totally random Tobacco store. I told myself “Oh well, whatever. I might as well just try this place, now that I came here.” And, it’s true, it always happens when you least expect it: THEY HAD STAMPS! That saved my day.

Meanwhile, the sky started to cloud over again. And it wouldn’t be long before it started pouring hard. Real hard. And then there was hail.

My shorts were all soaked up because of the splattering rain. It was quite an amazing downpour. And like every shower, it was over within ten minutes. And it should be the last one for the day.

Wait…..what? Almost didn’t do it on purpose.

I was literally craving for a yummy yummy Gelato. Then I remembered that Hotel Bruno which Ruki had suggested to me before the trip. Said they made the best Gelatos in all Venice, and were often prized for that. And he was darn right. Boy, I hadn’t tasted such a tasty ice cream in a long time. It was really great. Loved it. So if you too are in Venice and want a Gelato… check out that store! In the Salizzada S. Lio, almost straight when you’re coming from the Rialto.

Don’t ask me why I didn’t take a proper photograph of that store.

Once again, we found our way back to St. Mark’s Square… for the last time, though. It was partly flooded because of all the rain that poured down earlier, and it was almost ankle-deep in front of the shops!

Hueg ship is impressive.

Unfortunately… It was already dawning. We did shoot some more photos, trying to stay as long as possible… but we realized we were extenuated from these three days of walking around, and we needed to wake up early the next day to catch out buses/boats and planes.

It was over. We reluctantly took the Vaporetto…

…like the two previous days, past the park and the Biennale which we never managed to visit, and arrived at the Lido. muz and I eventually parted ways in the hallways of the Hotel. I really felt bad for not staying longer. But I definitely made myself a ton of beautiful memories, which I will never forget.

Greetings from Venice!

Actually, there’s also the departure day, where I shot some last photos and a video, plus a rather annoying story with the bus and my luggage at P.le Roma. Guess I’ll add another entry for that, this one is already quite long. But it’s not that interesting..

…which is why I’d already like to thank everyone for patiently reading these entries, as untimely as they may have been posted. I hope that, with the contribution of many other ARIA-inspired reports, you’ll someday find the motivation and the means to visit this beautiful, one-of-a-kind city. I know that I will return there… soon. ;)

And I almost forgot, my! Thanks to muz for putting up with my often HAZUKASHII SERIFU remarks, and for tagging along during this entire trip. I’m sure you enjoyed the trip as much as I did! ^^