Delapidation of Electronics

Although things of mine seem to be continually falling apart the rest of our trip is going smoothly. We went to Venice this morning on the shuttle bus where we met our first legitimately crazy person since being on this trip. I had assumed since we were booking hostels and other sketchy places for teens to sleep for cheap there would be some odd balls about, but today took the cake. The woman, she looked about 40, was standing in front of us in line and came over to us with a very old and faded bear backpack and talked to us as though the puppet backpack was alive. We didn’t really speak directly to the woman, just to her backpack, which she was pretending was alive and animated. On the bus she sat it next to her by the window and laughed and talked to it for the reminder of the ride including making lewd and inappropriate jokes about bears as she went.

Other than that my Ipod has reached its final hurrah in its 4 year life. The top of it came off in my purse while I was walking around, so while it still works crumbs are getting inside it and I’m mildly afraid of something metal, like a safety pin, getting lodged inside or somehow shocking/electrocuting myself with it. My phone, which I have had a little over 2 years now has been my alarm clock on this trip and now it will no longer hold a charge, I can’t go for more than a few hours without it beeping at me that the battery is dead. Additionally when I was rummaging through my suitcase a few days ago I’d forgotten I’d misplaced my razor blade and shoved my hand into the pocket where it was and am consequently missing half a fingernail. It was painful as you can imagine. I still need to go to the grocery and invest in a box of band-aids. The shower stopped draining and began to overflow into the tiny bathroom the 5 of us share and though it is fixed now the water left the most wretched smell that makes everyone hold their nose going in there and makes us hesitant to shut the windows or door ever because that would cut off our supply of fresh air.

It may sound crazy to have all that happen within a week but it hasn’t put a damper on the trip at all. We spent a few hours in Venice today and enjoyed our last day here. It was been absolutely fantastic and beautiful beyond our imagining. We took a gondola ride around the city and the man sang to us the entire ride. It was peaceful and very relaxing sitting in the boat as we drifted very slowly along and the water in the lagoon is a lovely cloudy light blue.