Reviving Memory: In Venice
by shz
2 April 2005
Venice is undoubtly beautiful. But like I’ve heard before, it’s true that it is too “touristy”. There were just too many visitors, and you couldn’t identify the real local of the island. When you were there, you know for sure that you will be in the pictures people take with their cameras, and vice versa. The hardest part taking photos there was having to disregard the crowd, but Fakhrul, Nizam and I were fortunate enough to see the real Venice when we went out at 1 am in the morning when the whole city was deserted. (Oh, Amer went back to hotel :D).
We were there for 4 days and God no, it wasn’t enough.
Ever since Amer wrote about his first backpacking trip, my hands have been itching to write the same – but not in a traveller’s context like he did, just sort of reminiscing the time when we were in Venice. I think Amer said it all in his post. None of us had ever really travelled before. I remembered the four of us sat in my room back in Oxford for hours, each with our own laptops or computers, refreshing Ryanair’s website over and over again, finding the cheapest tickets to anywhere in Europe, being really safe with our choices of destination, flustered to venture for the first time out of our comfort zone together. Until finally Venice made its mark on our minds.
I also remember, once we got to the “real” Venice from the mainland Treviso, we were unprepared about how expensive the food was. Well, what did we expect for such a touristy place during Easter break, right? So we walked for hours until I felt terribly exhausted (and terribly famish) and moaned about it in a way that apparently made Amer really snapped. He shouted something really mean to me and walked off. I was pretty shocked with it because I never saw him angry ever since I’d known him, and the first time I saw it, he was angry at me! After we had our cheap pizza and he came to apologize on a ferry, I was actually fighting back my tears. I managed to act like everything was cool because knowing Amer, it’s hard to stay mad at him.
We continued on our next 3 days really enjoying Venice and the companies of each other. I guess that was the starting point for me (or us, even) to learn how to tolerate with your travel buddies, to respect each other’s wishes or personal goals and gains because you’re not the only one paying for the trip. We might want different things out of the same excursion and travelling together make you see a different perspectives on each other. It can also either make you grow apart or bonded more.
Luckily for me, I think it’s the latter.
They said you will only know your friends until you did these 3 things; stay together, travel and run a business!
That is true!
Oh my….Venice! This is the place where you captured the award-winning (or something) photo of the canals tu kan? Wow, that scene between you and Amer, I don’t remember it being penned down on fotopages. It makes this entry more personal. 🙂 And yup, travelling makes us see the hidden side of our travel buddies that we’ve never seen before. That being said, even best friends might not be the best travel budddies.
You went to Venice in April 2005? How was it in April? I went there in late May 2011, when the weather was so friggin hot I thought for once, I never left Malaysia. And how we went under the sun unprepared, without any sunblock, nor proper clothing (a much thinner & airy shirt would be better than my then plain t-shirt). And I went home being one budak hitam.
Anyway, contrary to my travel mates who thought Venice was hot and overrated, I thought Venice was beautiful, despite it being too touristy (we bumped into so many Bangladeshis making a living by selling souvenirs and working at pizza places, and they were so excited seeing us Malaysians). The best part was getting lost in the alleys. Oh well, I wouldn’t mind going for the second time. I think there are still some parts of Venice that we couldn’t covered back then.
p/s: I guess this is the reviving entry from fotopages that I’ve been waiting. thank you, shz. 🙂
I suspect that we went in March, since I posted this on 2nd April. It was quite chilly but sunny. So I guess whether wise it was really nice. Yes, summer in Europe can be unbearable, but in May?? That’s weird kan?
Quite honestly Venice is one of the places I wouldn’t want to return, hahaha. I probably went at the wrong time I guess.
Am glad I picked the right post from FP for you! Hehehe..
hahah..Sara, I’m sorry but I don’t remember that event at all! hahah..I hope you’re not keeping a grudge against me. Is that why I didn’t go on the night trip? Seriously, I don’t remember. Or was it because I had a bad tummy? Anyway, I only remembered the good bits of the trip. I think it was really awesome to have gone with you guys. I’ve learnt a lot especially the photography bits. But whatever it is, its good to know that we’re still good friends till today..heheh..nanti birthday ko aku blanja..hahah..
Hahahaha, aku pun tak ingat until I uploaded this pix and looked at them again. Of course lah no grudge, it’s been almost 7 years ago kan! And I know that I can be painfully whiny sometimes, so I don’t blame you at all.
Yes you had a bad tummy that’s why you didn’t join us that night. We just had our last nice dinner and as usual, you had to go shit bricks afterwards. Hahahaha
Waaa…muda remaja. Haha.
Err.. maybe it’s just me, tapi when looking at you in the pictures from side view and with your head tilted, ada nampak iras-iras Nurul Izzah Anwar la.
……Hm, saya je kot, kak. Hehe.
YES, JUST YOU! Hahaha
i strongly agree with your conclusions about grow apart and bonded more with friends thing. its not easy to have and be a good travel buddy, especially when we are traveling cheap on a very tight budget. but traveling widen my perspective on people, time and life. sometimes traveling with buddies are good and merrier but in the same time, it can be hard too. so most of the time, i just travel solo 🙂
anyway happy new year to u, fakhrul n daisy !
p/s~fakhrul’s hair looks really cool la in the pics. sooooo 70’s! ekekekek