I love traveling alone, but it is wonderful to reconnect with the people you’ll know you’ll get along with. In Venice, I meet up with Jonathan, whom I met in Stockholm, for what is the last leg of his journey before he heads home to New Zealand.

Tourists Line Up To Take Our Photo

I am really excited to meet up again with Jonathan, and of course, he is really excited to meet up with me too. Which is pretty evident on our gondola tour of Venice that I insist upon.

“In the three months I’ve been traveling, this is the only time I’ve actually ever felt like a tourist.”

“Oh my God, are they taking pictures of us? Great, now I’ve become the tourist attraction.”

The look on his face says complete horror, but I know in his heart of hearts he would have been devastated to miss this authentic Venetian experience. And in my heart of hearts, I know he’ll regret his decisions not to take the gondola tour wearing Venetian masks or to get his picture take with the ribboned gondolier hat, per my suggestions.

I find it really easy to talk with Jonathan. Not because he’s an easy going Kiwi, has put together

Complete Horror

an incredible European experience or because he listens to crazy amounts of indie music, but because he’[s a Macbook Pro owner. Mac owners are just better conversationalists. You can talk (or not talk and just be smug) for hours about the superiority of Macs, apps you like and Steve Jobs.

With our full day in Venice, we see the classics. And take our authentic Venetian gondola ride. But the highlight of this trip is food. A Canadian staying in my room in Bern told me to look for the snail symbol on menus, which signifies the slow food movement. The other tip the Canadian gave me for finding amazing gelato is that banana gelato should be a grey color since it'll mean they aren't using artificial colors or preservatives.

Flooded in Venice

We don’t actually see many people who are actual Venetians. I express my view to Jonathan that not many people appear to live there. “Elaine, I don’t think the entire population consists of people selling leather handbags and Venetian masks,” Jonathan expresses in his smug New Zealander accent.

We’re staying a hotel in Venice rather than a hostel. Previously, I used to be a bit elitist towards hotels and their services. Once you start renting sheets and towels on a regular basis, you become a lot more appreciative of the little things. Pre-hostel living, I would have been unappreciative of mini shampoo bottles. Not Aveda or Bliss Spa? Meh. Now I’m more along the lines of, “Is this Suave??? Oh man, I love Suave,” and stuff my backpack full of said Suave.

Our hotel offers complimentary embroidered slippers. (At least I think they were complimentary. Waiting on the bill to be certain.) Which are now residing at the bottom of my back pack. It is nice to take a few steps back in life to be more appreciative and realistic on what you actually need in life. My experiences are not diminished because I’ve been wearing the same clothes for multiple weeks straight or sleeping on rented sheets. It does not make what I’m seeing less beautiful or the

See, this is pretty and FUN!

people less interesting. And when I do receive embroidered slippers and Suave shampoo, my attitude is of appreciation rather than expectation.

Jonathan left me with two sentiments that I hope will season the remaining weeks. At one point he mentioned that he just wanted to live as much as possible on his trip. While simple, I loved this perspective of cramming in as much fun and adventure into three months. He also told me about one of his trips into Estonia that he figured a lot could go wrong, but a lot could go right.

Thanks Jonathan for such a fun couple of days and helping me view my trip with a different perspective. And sorry that I ruined your hardcore backpacker reputation by making you take a gondola ride. At least I didn’t tag the above photo, Jonathan <omit last name>: Venetian Gondola Ride Taker.