Aperitivo: A look at my favorite restaurant in Venice

There is a little restaurant, right on the water, that my friends and I go to when we are sick of the places that take our Day, or more affectionately known as our Kangaroo dollars.  They are our meal plan tickets that get us far, but sometimes not far enough.  They get us food at:
1.  the Mensa, which is the cafeteria on the island.  Lets just say the Mensa is not worth real money.... it is for some reason, measurably better at lunch and dinner seems to be whatever is left over.
2. the Cafe, which has coffee, brioche in the morning, panini at lunch, and ice cream whenever.
Its pretty decent, but only open until 5pm and doesn't give change for meal plan money (Kangaroos)
3. cafe's in Venice, a lot of little panini shops take our kanga's, but they are not always excellent...not that there is bad food in Venice, but I have become a bit of a snob. (Prolly bodes badly for my return to the states)
4. AeOche, lovingly referred to as the Applebees or Chillis of Venice. Super-americanized, big, cheap and absolutely delicious.  They also give free tap water, which is not usually the case here.
5. The secret Upstairs, we have gotten to the point where we do not know the names of the restaurants... the secret upstairs is thus named because it has a few tables downstairs, but also a secret room upstairs that we were shown on our 1st day in Venice.
6. The Tortellini place, a pricier restaurant that has, you guessed it, really good tortellini.  It was previously referred to as the angry waiter restaurant, but on our second visit they accidentally hit our friend Nick on the head with the bread basket and suddenly turned into funny, if not friendly waiters, who wave whenever we pass.

There are a few others, but these are the main 6.  And believe me after a few months, 6 restaurants is not enough.  So we also go to this little restaurant on the water that I previously alluded to.... it is the Venetian version of heaven on earth.

Basically, it is a bar with tables and chairs and a little old man who plays live piano and takes requests from little old women.  At this bar, from 6pm to 8:30 you can buy a 4 euro drink and enjoy free homemade antipasti that usually consists of crostini with cheese, risotto, and some sort of pasta dish. All delicious, and all free.  The best part of Remmer, however, is the view.  You can sit outside with your spritz (or drink of choice) and plastic plate and watch the sunset behind the Rialto.  It never fails to give me the strong impression that I actually live here.  In this beautifully ancient city sinking into the water that supports it.

And so I finish my poetic procrastination with a few pictures taken from San Servolo of a sunset over a settling city.

5 towns by the Sea:Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre has been recommended to me on numerous occasions by many well traveled persons, so when I found out a group was going this weekend needless to say I tagged along.  There were 11 of us, which proved a large, but manageable group.  We caught an early train and made what felt like 50 transfers getting us to Riomaggiore at about 2pm. 

We searched for our hostel, which ended up being a sketchy man working out of a little cubby hole of an office where he collected the money and then showed everyone to their apartments throughout the town, which were fully functional, but difficult to get to.  Ours was up a few stairs with 10 beds, but one shower.  Megan's, however, was up what felt like an eternal staircase that ended in a small room with one single and one double; which held a couple.  Awkward...

After finding the hostel we went straight to find where the trails were, but to our chagrin they were all closed since it had rained all night the night before.  The only open trail was a non-national one, which was "un po pericoloso" or a little dangerous.  We took a note from Simba's book and laughed in the face of danger as up we climbed. 

It was a beautiful trail, but after about the first 200 feet we had to pay attention solely to our feet or risk slipping in the mud or falling down the side of the mountain.  Xander, one of the guys on our trip, ended up leading the way, smoking like a chimney the entire time. Lord knows how that happened.  After a few gasps and 11 pairs of mud caked shoes, we finally arrived at the top and boy was the view worth it.

I think this view may have been inspiration for the heaven room....

Then we went down, the same treacherous path.  Our legs were tired and our stomachs empty, so we grabbed a snack and then waited for the national trail to open to the public at 7:30 (for FREE!).  We walked to the next town over and had dinner by the sea at sunset.  I ate a ton of delicious seafood even (gasp) shrimp with eyes!

The next day the trails were still closed (sadface) so we decided to buy the 2.80 euro train ticket to go between the 3 towns we hadn't seen.  These involved more climbing, but not muddy climbing, more spectacular views, but cloudier views, and more adorably bright buildings. Oh, and a really cool striped church.

We left at 2pm, catching a much cheaper train back to Venice that went through Parma and Bologna and got in at 8:03.  On the ticket computer this train was hidden, but when I hit the button "Tutte le opzione" it suddenly appeared!  It left earlier, had more seats, and was about 30 euro cheaper than the train it originally recommended.  Thanks Trenitalia!  We caught all our trains, which were on time, and even one that went more quickly than it was supposed to.  We got back with plenty of time to grab pizza and the 9:30 vap back to San Servolo.  The others, however, were less lucky.  They had left their luggage in the hotel room, so they decided to take a later train.  The problem with this plan was that the entire world was apparently going from Florence to Venice, so once they got to Florence they found out the next train wasnt until 9:30pm from FLORENCE!  (Not exactly a bad place to be stuck, but it meant they had to stay in Venice because they missed the last Vaporetto...)

Overall, a super trip and I cannot wait to go back and actually do the trails with my family!  My pictures cannot convey the loveliness of the scene.  It was honestly the most beautiful place I have ever been.... and I knew that the 1st day.

Deutschland: German and English aren't as similar as they seem or The moment I fell in love with Venice

Just returned from a chilly, rainy weekend in Aachen, Germany where I visited family, saw the city, and heard a ton of Deutsch.  It was an interesting trip to say the least as I met many relatives and attended my 3rd cousin's confirmation.

We ate loads of cake, and turkish food.  Popped over to Belgium for lunch on Sunday, and discussed politics....a lot. 

I saw "Maibaums" which are birch branches that guys decorate and put in front of their girlfriend's house on the 1st of May. 

I also saw the Aachen Cathedral, which apparently contains Jesus' diaper, and lots of places that were frequented by Charlemagne.  I learned some german words: Genaugh means exactly (and they use it all the time!), verdamt means damn, kapf means head, augen means eyes, orring means earring, and schtool means chair.  Oh and I actually heard someone use the term Schadenfreude. (They were quite impressed that I knew what that meant.)  But I also spent a great deal of time sitting at a crowded table listening to everyone laugh at German jokes that I hadn't understood, and probably wouldn't have if they were in English.  I also sat through a 2 hour confirmation ceremony without the slightest idea of when to stand or sit, or how to pronounce the words of the creed.  But they sang some songs in English as well as a song in German that was set to the tune of Go tell it on the Mountain.  On Monday I helped clean up the house and ran errands with my... lets call her my aunt and then took a nap until my cousin got home and we had coffee and, you guessed it, cake, and then drove to Dusseldorf Weeze (an ex-army base) to catch my flight.

By the time I got to the airport I was tired and hungry for some real, untranslated English, but my phone didn't have enough money to call home from Germany, and the duty free store didn't sell Cosmo. So I settled for a Newsweek that cost a whopping 4.50 euro, and a seat next to an elderly British gentleman who was obsessed with fixing the zipper on his suitcase.  On board I encountered the rudest flight attendant I have ever met, she pulled the earphones out of people's ears and then grilled them on where the life-jacket was on board.  When they couldn't answer, she scolded in her heavy German accent, "Pay attention next time, it is your safety not mine."  I agreed with her sentiment, but not her behavior.  And the irony was they just continued to pay no attention to the rules.  The steward specifically said turn off all electronic devices including cameras, and a flash went off 2 seconds later.  Then as he was saying leave your seat belts fastened until we come to a complete stop, he was answered by a chorus of seatbelt clicks.  I am not sure if they were doing this to spite the flight attendants, but it certainly seemed that way.

I called home from the bus and almost cried when they picked up, so much for my firm stance against homesickness.  We chatted for the entire bus ride, and when I arrived at Piazzale Roma I was ecstatic.  The smell of the canals, the musical sound of the Italian language, and my slow meander through the creepily charming, empty Venetian Calle emphasized the fact that this place is going to be really hard to leave.  It feels like home.