Lake Garda/Verona

We woke up today excited at the prospect of a swim as the group was heading to Lake Garda, a beautiful fresh water lake in the north of Italy.

After a short bus ride we reached our private boat which was to take us around the lake and to the town of Sirmione, where we would spend the rest of the afternoon. When we arrived we had free time so we broke off into small groups to do our own thing. Shereen and I decided to head straight to the beach and we made plans to meet Kayla and Paul there later for lunch. Vinny directed us to the nearest beach and we set off eager to get into the beautiful water. But after finding the only stretch of land that could possibly be considered a beach Shereen and I were worried about our sunbathing prospects. It was literally a stretch of pebbly sand 2m wide by about 5m long. Right behind it was the crowded pedestrian path that takes you around the island, and behind that was a restaurant where diners were overlooking the water. So rather than strip down to our bikinis in an area that felt about as appropriate as a shopping center, we continued along the path to a more secluded spot.

/Nope, I really have no explanation for this, except that I told her to do it

The place we ended up swimming was not exactly better than the last spot. It was flat sheets of rock which were nice to sunbathe on, but they had also formed somewhat of a reef you had to walk out over to be able to swim. This was made super difficult by the copious amounts of algae growing on them. As embarrassing as it was going first and sliding about like an idiot, once I had made it I could relax in the water and enjoy watching Shereen and Leisle (who we had bumped in to on our way) attempt to join me. About half way out to the water we noticed Jess, Brian, Megan and Jake further around the beach, but rather than walk across we chose to swim and save some dignity. They had claimed this giant flat rock sticking out of the reef to lay their towels on and had claimed it in the name of America. We all took pictures on the rocks, including some of Jake and his soap which he had brought especially for his freshwater bath.

Kayla and Paul found us and the five of us including Leisle went to find some lunch and a gelato. In the restaurant we chose there was a group of old men singing acapella and after a while I realised it was "The Sound of Silence" except in Italian. I was so hot that I didn't feel like something too creamy from the gelateria, so luckily they also had handmade icy poles. I had a mandarin and pink grapefruit flavoured one and when we met back up with the group Vinny found it hilarious because he said only little kids ever buy them.

We left Sirmione on the bus and headed to fair Verona, where we would spend the evening. When we arrived Vinny led the group to Juliet's balcony.

I found this place confusing, mainly because I had no idea what relevance it actually held. People seemed to be going too crazy over a random balcony, chosen to represent a fictional balcony, in a city that William Shakespeare never even visited. On top of the hysteria people had in that crowed courtyard, the walls were covered in chewing gum, which seems to have become a sort of tradition there, as well as graffiting the walls and attaching padlocks to everything.

After taking our token photo rubbing Juliet's breast to give us luck in love (Vinny told us not to put to much faith in this superstition, in his words "I rubbed it, I grouped it, I almost raped that friggin statue and I'm still single!"), Shereen, Kayla, Paul and I continued on to the main square to find somewhere to eat dinner. Because it was still early we decided to find somewhere that served cocktails, specifically sangria which had become a bit of a tradition within our group.

We were perusing a menu when a staff member came out and when we asked if they could make us sangria he said "of course!". We sat down and a waiter came to take our order, but when we asked for a jug of sangria he got very annoyed and told us they wouldn't make it saying "we are not in SPAIN!". We left and looked around for another bar that would make it, but alas, no sangria in Verona. So we made do with another restaurant and ordered cocktails before we ate. I had a strawberry mojito and Shereen made the mistake of trying Campari in a spritzer. I don't know if it was the heat, my empty stomach, the strength of the drink or pure exhaustion, but the alcohol hit me very quickly. After dinner we had to walk to meet the group and I felt tipsy the whole way until I could finally lie down on the steps where we were meeting everyone.

We weren't staying in Verona, so we boarded the bus and set off for Venice. The bus ride was hell, as even though Vinny had asked the "naughty naughty" Australian girls NOT to open their red wine on the bus as it was illegal for them to drink on there, they opened it, downed it and spilled it everywhere. When they had drunk enough they all started kissing each other and taking photos of it as well as running up to the front of the bus to blast different but equally terrible top-40 techno crap. As you can probably tell, I did not enjoy this. Neither did anyone else on the bus, but when we asked Vinny to turn the music off he said he didn't want to upset them. This was ridiculous to me, but we all just suffered in silence/ incredibly loud music.

My next post is on our day in Venice! Until next time...