Venice and other stuff

So, last weekend Megan and I went to Venice. We both skipped our last class of the day to make it to the airport in time for our flight, made it to Venice by about 6pm (where it was already pitch black), caught the bus to the water taxi station and took the water taxi toward our hotel.

While we were looking for our hostel we stopped to look at a map and these 3 little old ladies came over and asked us where we were trying to get. We told the name of the street and they directed us right towards it. When we got to the street we couldn't find the hostel and eventually ended up calling them. He told me that we were at the wrong street... aparently there are numerous streets around Venice with the same name as the one we were looking for. So we found the new one on the map and tried to make our way there. We got lost again, and this time a nice old man stopped, asked where we were going, and gave us easy directions. We finally made it... like an hour later... and waited around for the guy to show up to let us in. (Our hostel was just like an apartment, not an actual hostel.) I can't tell you how grateful I was of the people that stopped to help us and give us directions, without even having to ask them. It was SUCH a welcomed difference from Spaniards.

Once we got settled in the hostel we went out to find some dinner. It was like 8:30pm and the streets were completely dead! All the shops were closed and hardly anyone was walking around... it was so strange and quiet. We had a delicious dinner in a little cafe, walked around a little bit and headed back to the hostel for the night.

The next day we had a guided walking tour of city, which was really cool. We got to see a lot of interesting places. After that we had pizza for lunch and went back to the hostel to check out my guidebook. Pretty soon after we got there, our roommates for the night arrived. (We were in a room with 4 beds.) They were two really nice girls from Pennsylvania, so that was a relief. We went out for the rest of the afternoon, walked around and took pictures and did a lot of shopping! After dropping things at the hostel we went to grab dinner and found the best invention ever! It was a sandwich wrap made out of pizza.... like, chicken and lettuce were rolled up inside a slice of pizza and grilled. SO GOOD! We spent the night in the hostel drinking wine out of a box :) because there's literally no nightlife in Venice. It was okay though, it was super relaxing!

On Saturday by the time we got up our roommates had already checked out of the hostel, so we were excited to have the room to ourselves again! We got ready, walked around exploring the city for a while, had lunch at a cute little cafe, and then roamed the streets some more. Eventually we made our way back to the pier to meet up with our tour group to go to Murano, Burano, and Torcello (3 little islands off the coast) for the afternoon.

We stopped first at Murano, famous for it's glass blowing factories. We watched a guy make a glass vase and then a glass horse faster than you can imagine... so cool! I have a video, you should see it! We walked around the island for a few minutes, then had to be back on the boat to head to the next island. We went to Torcello after that... a REALLY old island. It wasn't at all touristy... just a few small churches and a few tiny little houses. It was gorgeous but I can't even fathom living somewhere like that; such a different life! After that we headed to Burano, a gorgeous little island famous for its lacemaking. We toured a little shop, walked around for a while and then headed back to the boat. After getting back to Venice we did a little more shopping, and picked up some paninis for dinner. We ate dinner and just chilled at the hostel for the night. Late that night, our new roommate arrived. She was a nice girl from Argentina, but who had lived in London for a while. She was really sweet, so once again we were relieved.

Sunday morning we had to be out the hostel by 11, so we spent a lot of the day walking around the city with our suitcase. Not a fun experience. A heavy suitcase + TONS of stairs to cross every canal = not fun. Eventually we got tired of walking around, and were basically out of money to spend, so we started walking towards the bus station in order to save ourselves a water taxi fare. We took the bus to the airport (for free... we got on without paying...shhh!) and arrived at the airport quite a few hours early, lol. We felt like losers sitting in the airport in VENICE, but we had basically run out of things to see and we were exhausted of lugging the suitcase around.

We had a really great time though... I absolutely LOVED the city. It's so cute! With the exception of the pigeons in St. Mark's square, which I could easily do without, it was perfect. Definitely the best trip I've been on yet. I'm so glad we saved it for last. It was the perfect end to the semester! I would LOVE to go back and see more of Italy after going there!

A few more tidbits...

I was disappointed to find out that Gondoliers don't actually sing to you- thats only in the movies. We didn't take one because they were outrageously expensive, but I saw a ton of them and no one was singing.

In our hostel/apartment, the gas didn't work... so we had no heat and no hot water. We had to go to the apartment across the hall, where boys were staying, to shower. Their bathroom was pretty much the most disgusting thing ever. There was black mold growing all over the walls, the floor was covered in about 1/2 inch of water, and it SMELLED HORRIBLE- a mix of mold/mildew and urine. I pretty much wanted to vomit every time I stepped foot in there. AND we didn't know that the hostel wasn't going to supply towels, so we definitely used the shirts that we wore the first day as towels for the rest of the weekend. Good times.

Oh...and a funny story! The first night, since we didn't have roommates, we just spread all our stuff out on the other two beds... like our shirts and stuff, so they would dry. The next night when we were coming home, we ran into the owner and she told us that we were getting roommates, so we went upstairs and moved all our stuff off the beds. The girls (from Pennsylvania) got there and started getting settled and stuff, and one of the girls sat down on the bed where all our stuff had been, and was like "thats really weird." And her friend was like, "what?" And she goes, "my bed is like... wet. but only in certain places. is yours?" Her friend was like, "no, mines fine." It took all Megan and I had not to laugh... definitely was our fault. OOPS!


This week was my last week of classes, and we had Wednesday off for a holiday. Just have 4 finals and a short paper due next week and then I head home! A week from tomorrow... I can't believe it! Lots of mixed emotions. This has been SUCH an amazing experience! :) But I'll definitely be happy to get home to my friends and family!

I'll try to keep you updated on my last week here! Hope everyone is doing as well as I am!

SEE YOU SOON!