Venice...

We arrived in Venice at about 7:30 am and I had to make my way through the windy unfamiliar streets to my hostel. I eventually could not figure out where I was so I found a vaparetto stop (it's like their bus system on water) because I knew which stop I needed to get to for the hostel. It ended up I was only one stop away, but across the grand canal from it. The streets there are totally and completely confusing until you get used to it, but luckily you can't really get lost on an island and as long as you can find the grand canal and know where to go from there you should be fine. Anyways, I had to ask a few people for directions, easy enough using sign language and such if said person did not speak English. I found the hostel pretty easily which felt like it was in a back alley, which I later figured out is pretty much all of Venice, it's part of it's charm.


This is the 'alley' my hostel was in.


Just a canal.

I got checked into the hostel and started walking around just exploring. I stopped for lunch at this small cafe and got some really amazing pizza. I met a couple from Dallas there and chatted for a while, then we parted ways after lunch and I went to do some more exploring. Eventually I got tired and went back to the hostel to chillax for a bit. I met the girl that was in my room with me and we went out later to dinner and I finally found Piazza San Marco, which is CRAZY full of people and pigeons. After that though, I was completely beat from not really sleeping the past two nights on the boat so I went to bed.


See all the pigeons? See all the people?

The next day I took Isa's (fellow classmate in Ireland) advice to go to the Peggy Gugenheim Collection and it was great. I got some more gelato (there are gelateria's everywhere you turn) then went back to Piazza San Marco and went into the Basilica which is completely amazing, mostly because of the floor. It's all rumpled and crumpled from years and years of flood damage. And the floor's all mosaic so it makes it all the more interesting. After walking around a bit more, me and the girl from my hostel went on a vaparetto ride out to Murano, one of the Islands in the lagoon. It's the island famous for their glass blowing. We watched a few demonstrations and I recorded one on my phone, mostly just because it was in Italian and sounded lovely. There was this one man that had a lump of hot glass one minute and less than two minutes later it was a horse that stood perfectly upright when he set it down. Oh the art of glass blowing, how I wish I could conquer thee. After that we went back to the main islands and just went on a relaxing vaparetto ride just to see the city. Once the sun went down we headed back to Piazza San Marco because at night they light it up all beautiful like and have bands playing all around the perimeter. It was awesome just to see all of the people walking around, but it was still rather peaceful and serene. We went back to the hostel and slept, preparing to venture forth the next day, destination Florence.


One minute it's a ball of glass, the next it's a horse, ON FIRE!


Shop of masks.


Piazza San Marco at night.

*A few things I will miss about Venice: the gelato, the pizza (both the best in all of my travels through Italy), the atmosphere, the fact that I couldn't get lost, the streets that looked like alleys, waking up to gondoleers (sp?) yellling 'OY' from outside my window, and pretty much everything to do with it.