Backkk again!

Hello World,

So it's tuesday at 9:38pm. Which to everyone not in Europe means about 12pm amurican time. We went to Venice this weekend, left Friday morning and came back on Sunday evening.

Now Venice.. there's a city to rant about. So we got on a bus at 7:55am in the morning and headed straight to Venice. We were all obviously very awake and very put together and nobody slept on the bus. It was a scintallating four hour bus ride in which we got to look at the Italian country side. very very pretty. Success Italy.

We arrived at our CAMP ground... no I am not kidding, we stayed at a camp ground near Venice. It looked liked this:

Now normally I wouldn't think you would go camping near Venice, but hey, they were nice little mobile campers near one of the most beautiful islands ever. Totally made sense. It even came complete with a beer garten and happy hour. Not what I would have pictured but oh well.

That afternoon we headed by ferry to the island of Venice. I found out that Venice is actually 117 islands all connected by bridges, the moment you step off one and go to another is when you are entering a new island! So, we went island hoping one could say. The boat ride was not too shabby a nice 30 minutes on the water, with wind in our faces and our excitement about Venice growing. The view nearing Venice was absolutely outstanding. All of the buildings are very historic, and you can begin to see some of the cannals very far away.

This was the first view I saw of Venice. I was incredibly excited not going to lie. So when we got to Venice we got a tour of the city by a guide. I felt very much like a tourist wearing the headset and having to listen to her voice, but it was incredible to get to hear all about the culture of the city. The other picture is of some friends of mine and I in the main square of Venice. This was taken when we first arrived, before the tour and everything was new and fantastic!

Next we got a few hours to walk around the city by ourselves. A group of us got together and walked around got some food, and just browsed the city. It's a very toursity city, but there are a lot of little hidden streets with cool stores that you can browse and people watching is a must. I got really into all of the types of buildings of Venice and so managed to take a ton of pictures. I really liked the style of windows and the different colors that appeared archaic on some of them. 

Anyways, we also got to see a ton of gondolas strolling down the canals. Lucky for us, we even GOT to go on a gondola ride. Ironically it started to rain the moment we got on the gondola, which was pure luck. However, it was still an incredible experience to be able to stroll down the canals in VENICE on a gondola with some awesome people. We got to see everything from a different perspective and go under the bridges instead of over them. 30 minutes later, wet, but incredibly happy we emerged from the gondolas and went back onto land.

This is a picture I took of the grand canal, with two gondolas just sitting in their dock. An image that to me signifies Venice. The other picture shows the bridges that connect every island to the next. There is no actual land it was all man-created!

So after that we had dinner at a nice little place in Venice. Me and my friend Maddie shared a date table and a bottle of red wine. It was awesome food, I had pesto and spaghetti. Italian meals are longer and more enjoyable than those in the states. I get to spend more time talking with friends, enjoying the food, yet dont feel rushed or pressured.

My friend Maddie and I at dinner. We had a pretty nice romantic dinner, complete with a bottle of wine. :)

After that we headed back the campground to enjoy a night at the bar. We hung out with some friends from Gonzaga and later that night tried to go back to the cabins. They weren't kidding when they said it was going to RAIN. Oh it did. It downpoured. The walk, or rather really really fast run back to our "cabins" got us all drenched. We were completely soaked and our 'cabins' were also drenched. It was absolutely insane. Luckily, the next day our cabins were still wet and smelled like wet dog. But it's near Venice, water is a big thing!

Our gondola and our escape from the flood in the cabin... kidding. But really our gondola ride! "Cesar's Crew" rather.

The next day we headed for the Island of Murano. This island is FAMOUS for it's glass blowing artwork. We spent the day touring around the city and literally going into every glass shop we could find. We had a nice meal one of the local restaurants then spent the rest of the day looking at glass. The artwork of glass is incredible and one of the ladies even explained to us how they make them. There was a man blowing the glass in the back of the gallery that we got to see, it was very fast but absolutely incredible. After spending most of the day, we had an incredible meal which required that we buy drinks as well in a restraunt back in Venice. We all ate pizza because we were starving, big enough for about 3 people yet we managed them. We then headed back to camp and went to bed. Early, of course.

Murano, and below the man blowing glass in the back of one of the galleries.

Sunday we went to Ferraro. It was a little random town known as "the city of cyclists" it was very pretty but we were only there for 2 hours. We went to the castle and enjoyed seeing as much of the city as possible. Afterwards we came back and got back into the swing of things. Now it's Tuesday and my two most difficult days of school from 8:30am till 6:30pm are over for the week. I am exhausted but food coma happy and am in my triple enjoying the pure feeling of being well fed and in Italy.

Picture of the weekend: 

pure venice bliss with the madster. This is on the ferry on the way to Venice, we were pretty happy about it. The rain parka of course came out the day after the flood, wish it had been soon. Until next time, ciao belle! Buona notte!