Venezia...

The mafia said if you don't wire me 10,000 euro, they're going to start chopping my toes off and mailing them home. Kidding, the mail would likely never reach anyone. I'm safe and sound in my hotel in venice despite the university of maimi's best attempts to provide me with as little information as possible. Last night i went to go watch the germany game at a local bar and ran into a friend from undergrad, so my quite night at home packing turned into finding my way home at 2am.This morning i finished packing and did a final sweep of the house. They are gonig to want to get a maid in there sooner rather than later. Found a taxi alot closer to my apartment than expected and made my way to Termini Stazione. It was all pretty straight forward, i had a ticket with the train number, car, and seat i was in....no problems. The train ride went though florence and bologna, if knew that i would have tried to set it up so i could hop off and back on later, but oh well. THe ride was comfortable and they brought little snacks, just liek on a plane. In Venezia the only thing i knew was the hotel name and address, so i figured i'd buy a map, look it up and then grab a cab. I realize that venice is all canals but i figured there would be taxis...and there are...water taxis. I bought a map for 3.50 euro and as soon as i turned around i saw them for sale at another shop for 2 euro...bummer. Anyway i looked over the mp for over an hour tryign to find this street and no luck! I figured i was screwed and was gonig to go find an internet cafe and hunt there. Luckily i found a place you could reserve a hotel and I asked the chic in there to show me on them ap where it was and she laughed because its not in Venice proper and thus not on my map. She said i should take a bus...but still didnt tell me any more about how to find it. Heres where some info from maimi would have been helpful. so i walked around with my big suitcase until i  found the bus station asked the chic there. She told me bus 5, gave me a ticket and then played with her cell phone instead of telling me like where to get off. Again luck was with me as i spotted the hotel....as i passed by it. I should have got off at thefirst stop a block before the hotel, but i had no idea where it was, so instead i got off about 6 blocks after it. Checking in, OF COURSE i wasnt on the list. The guy had some kind of other secret list he pulled out and i was on that...not sure what thats all about. Got my key, went to my room, showered (because its like 88 degrees here) and here i blog. Theres a few people down stairs at the bar, but i think i'm gonig to go to the concert thing set up next door and see whats going on there. Tomorrow we have a riverboat tour of Venice which will be sweet...except that yet again I have no idea when or where to meet for that. I don't know if i have a roommate or not but i guess i should figure it all out sometime.