Part 141: Guest blog by Lizzie

Hello readers,

So this is my second guest blogger who I am travelling around Italy with, we are currently in Milano after some minor troubles and no internet. This is a blog from yesterday originally hand written by Lizzy herself. I'll just quickly set the scence. We arrived in Venice and the day before and my ATM card was not working so I was broke. Also, we were staying on an island named Guiddecca off the main Island in Venice.

"Venice: The city of canals, carnivales and masks (also, shitty train services and chinese rip offs)

The day started with Doug running off to increase his funds, the ATM worked... thank God! We began our journey by catching the waterbus to the stop directly across the water from us.(€6.50 but for us, free! I heart their lack of ticket inspectors) This was at 9.30am and by 10.30, weàd each bought an item of fruit for breakfast, Iàd paid €5.00 for the porcelein mask worth €6 that I accidently smashed (the first of many discounts) and we'd seen HUNDREDS of masks.

By 12.30 we'd been through a street filled with masks, all handcrafted and some even crafted in the shops we were in. Though we'd also seen the dark side, one beautiful mask was tried on only for us to notice the not so lovely 'made in china' sticker.

At this time, weìd reached a massive bridge, it was crowded with pedestrians and shops. There, Doug got our second discount €15 became €14. YAY.

We then preceded further, now well and truly in tourist central. We passed a beautiful mask shop whose name I can remember. ANother whereI bought a €5 mask for my nephew Blake and we also found 'La Bauta' the best mask shop in THE WORLD. We watched them create some beautful masks and it was a place we would definetly return to, that day and in the future.

Now was tie for lunch, one gelato each. Yummy.

We made our way back through Venice still hunting for our masks, our newest addiction. While searching, we found a massive square which must've been a tourist attraction, we didn't care, we wanted masks. I eventually found my one. It was from a street vendor, part of it made in VEnice but I am sure most of it was from China... Its pink and gold, only €5.00!

It took longer to find Dougs, we had tea before we did which was yummy lasagne. When we finally made our way back to La Bauta in search of Dougs mask, we only had €13 between us. The mask we found for Doug was €15. The shop owner remembered us as I was quite obsessed with their shop so the mask become our 3rd discount of the day.

We continued to stroll until we eventually strolled back to our hostel (universtity dorms) where we inveted hearts konverted, a fun card game.

Love,

Lizzy"

Et voila! Guest blog number two. Some things I should mention having read it are: we did go in a gondola but a cheap €0.50 one that took us about 30 meters accross the grand canal, we did not fancy much paying €80 for a gondola tour. The boats were really fun, I enjoyed them. Also Lizzy was MAD about that mask shop it was quite funny AND the guy who gave us a discount was really nice to us apparently, his wife came and said he never gave discounts to anyone, very sincerely. Do not even try to persuade me otherwise. My mask is awesome too, it has music on it.

I should quickly add today too because I may not have internet later.

Today we woke up and came to Milan. We missed our train so lizzy had a panic attack, long story. We argued then this random REALLY NICE man cam up and was like are you okay? and then he solved all our problems for us taking us to the station we were meant to be at and talking everyone into letting us change our ticket for free. I mean, this guy was just a legend and saved us a minimum of €30 each. Thankyou Fillipo for existing. YOu made our day.

We've since found our hostel and looked for internet. Milan is pretty plain and after the relaxing time in VEnice, all the cars seem annoying to me. (there are no cars in Venice).