Venice, January 25, 2006
I arrived in Venice bus surrounded by Belgian tourists, couples, mostly from search the city a few days romantic - getaway in Serene before a return to the monotony of everyday life. I was entitled to very interesting comments from my neighbor on the Castle of Julius Caesar in Treviso, or force sneers at the Villa Bolognese, the most picturesque. Behind me, a couple of flamingos prefer to watch a football game on their iPod while before me, a thirty Carolo described his libertine escapades with his new conquest whose molars were so black that I would see them fall Every time she opened her mouth. Arriving at Piazzale Roma, I quickly got rid of my countrymen and my suitcase and engulfing me in the first lane coming, that opened on the Grand Canal.
Venice had occupied my imagination and the previous days I could not imagine what I looked like the city. My mind was full of phantasmagoric images populated by masked, channels unclean and old witch shook their dusty clothes from the top of their rickety balcony. I also saw dancing churches and bridges, pigeons fluttering demonic and I heard the dogs howl. But the reality was quite different.
A gentle sun was reflecting its rays on the Grand Canal that I saw turn and getting lost between the two lines indented palace. The city was bathed in a light opaque immediately seemed to invite me to dream and contemplation. What I saw before me went far beyond anything I had ever imagined. The shock that causes such a spectacle is not describable. Such harmony of architecture, sky, water, air, quietness, such a majesty, such perfection is beyond human understanding. That's what I thought when I resumed my journey haggard, mouth agape, drunk and disoriented.
I spent hours wandering aimlessly through the maze of San Polo, my backpack. I do not know what I was thinking, I forget the time. I had already forgotten Louvain-la-Neuve, Tournai, the same morning in Charleroi. I knew where I was or why I was there, where I came from. I walked mechanically to the darkness of an alley in the light of a Instead, spent ten times in the same traboule without realizing it, before I find myself accidentally Ca'Foscari before the palace, the seat of my university.
I was very con in the corridors with my bags, I set up large flights of marble stairs, staring into the void. And ottoman by chance I came across the international relations office. I knock, enter, and ten people watching me. I remember when I did not speak a word of Italian, I'm reminded that I'm from Belgium, Erasmus exchange student at the University Catholique de Louvain, I need to talk to some Manuela Spagnol, I pronounce a few words of Franglais, mouth stiffened having talked for hours, and a young woman reaches out to me saying she was waiting for me.
The woman with whom I communicated was a window overlooking the Grand Canal and a horizon of orange roofs and church steeples, a window ten feet high and twenty meters wide, with stained glass above and a stone balcony. Manuela Spagnol was also nice that his e-mails and a quarter of an hour later I was officially registered, I had my student card, my noma and Internet password.
I continued to wander throughout the afternoon, without looking at the map, too happy to have already achieved something in this strange city. That's how I came out by chance on the Piazza San Marco from the rear of the Procuratie, while I thought at the other end of town. When we do not expect it, something! Piazza San Marco is probably the only clear memory I had of Venice, was a symbol of my little adventure, where I was going to say: "Here I am Venice. " It was 4:20 p.m., and a flight of pigeons, I entered the square.
The rest of my day, I spent looking for an inn and snatch all listings of apartments scattered across the city. Evening in the room, exhausted, I scarcely know my fellow Brazil, Mexico, Japan and South Korea. I went to smoke a cigarette on the deck thinking in Canada, the wooden houses and rivers, trees, red and rusty petrol stations.
Venice, January 26, 2006
Most apartments boasted the ads were in Mestre and Marghera on the mainland, far from the pomp of the old city. But it seemed unimaginable to have to live outside of Venice, having to take the train every morning, leaving this out of time so enjoyable. I had actually found a single room in the city itself, which is less than 300 euros and that is a camera and not singola doppia. So I called the next morning and Francesca landed a wave go to the Campo San Margherita around 13h, the 'caffe rosso, for a meeting with roommates.
I looked in the Backpacker where was the Campo San Margherita and I saw that it was the nerve center of student life in Venice. The square in the center of Dorsoduro, dominated by the Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta o dei Carmini is an authentic place to live non-tourist heart of the city. I went fast enough in me to account executive at the stroke of noon. There was a noisy market and workmen to my left were fighting for a dark history of pipes and valves. The colorful houses, without being exceptional, attracted me very much.
Francesca arrived at 13:15 and invited me to drink a spritz - Venetian specialty consisting of Austria came in wine diluted in water and add a liqueur. Filippo and Roberto, the two other roommates in the apartment we joined immediately. Filippo, the smallest, had very black hair and square glasses. Roberto, a little thicker, the Greek profile and beard. We became acquainted and set sail towards the famous room.
Two or three meters square, that's what they offered for 250 euros per month. But what square meters ! Barely bigger than the room of my former colleague Sergei, the "cage of love" on a window channel, is located in the student center, is located two hundred meters from the Zattere and the Giudecca canal, two hundred meters from the Accademia Bridge, a few hundred meters from the ancient palace of Lord Byron, etc.. Two or three meters in a palace authentic unrestored. Two or three feet, yes, but sleeping. I still have an entire apartment, lounge, kitchen, bathroom, patio + lawn and office!
But at this moment I do not have the room. Learn 15 people have already seen the day before, and it remains 2 after me. Nevertheless, I begin to sympathize, especially with Filippo, intellectual brilliance than 28 years - he looks 16, with a degree in languages, speaking English and French, and working as a night bellhop at a hotel in an island in the lagoon. I am invited to eat with them, and after an hour of haggling different, I am assured of having the room.
the evening, I receive a confirmation message, the room is mine, I have come to settle the next morning. I have trouble realize, I enter the inn, take my roommates in Ohio and the Czech Republic drink my health in a cafe near the Jewish ghetto gay Canareggio. I walk through the night, drunk and free, I am in Venice for six months, I am in Venice for a little over 24 hours and I'm already installed.
