Venice

after breakfast at the hotel in florence we went straight to the train station to sit there for an hour for our train. better to be early than late, from past experiance. we hoppen on, i passed out, jay had a good conversation with the older australian couple next to us, and we arrived 2 hours later. as we got closer to venice, spectacular views outside the wiindow welcomed us. but when we got off the train the hot humidity was the welcoming party. the humidity never left our side. through the hostel until just now, as i write this from our overnight train the karlsruhe.

lesson 1: don't buy the boat bus ticket things, you don't need them at most stops to get on, and only check at a couple of them. our hostel was on another island, luckily, closeby and easily accesible by water boat. we dropped off our stuff and sat in the lobby area for some internet and to hopefully meet some people. once we sat down the girl next to me recognized me, crazy. she and her boyfriend graduated from ucla last year and she was in MUN with me. see, MUN is FUN, sorry i had to do that. they gave us the breakdown on venice, they said 12 hours should do it. they were wrong, we did it in 6. really, its a small city with two islands next to each other, a few a little further away, and i swear no italians live there because you will only meet tourists in the streets. nonetheless, we embarked on our final italian adventure. first stop, saint marcos square. it is huge, aand there many pigeons, like the movies show. but, it is always packed and has long lines into the adjoining towers and church. so we moved on to see the second and final spectacle of venice, the rialto bridge. no offence to venice, but even florece had a cooler bridge. after that we ventured around the back streets, over the canals, and past the fancy resteraunts. we ended up taking the water bus with the long route to the hostel to rest up. that was likely the best 45 minutes of venice. just amazing views, on a boat, at sunset. i definately have a few new screeensavers when i get back. after a short break we went back to the mainland and walked around because we felt like weMd be wasting time otherwise. once we finally rigured out which station we were to leave from, we soakeed some more in the humidity and then went back. the hostel has a lights out policy at 1030 pm, lamest hostel we've seen, by far.

the next morning wee woke up to a decent breakfast and then headed over to murano island. this is where all the famous ventian glass blowing is done. we walked straight into a trap, i mean a tour. they scuttle everyone directly off the boat into a 5 minute presentation of how to blow glass. it was cool, but really basic and even hotter than outdoors. after the tour theyhad us go to a large store...of course. but the stuff was cool, and i ended up picking up a few things there. we walked around so more, saw some other awesome glass art and hand lunch with our feet hanging over the sea. we then gathered ourselves from the breathtaking view and sultry tan and mosied our way back to the boat bus. we walked around the city again, bought a camera battery because i somehow lost my charger and then took the boaat back to the island with our hostel for internet and dinner. right next door there was this cheap looking diner, but the food was awesome. we had some great pizza to top off our italian visit. then we headed to the station, early again, and we are now on our train to the next city.

all in all, venice would be great for a couple on a larger-than-post-student budget. i'm sure the gondola rides would be awesome and the tantalizing dinners along the waterfront would aalso be nice. but even then, i couldn't last more than 48 hours here. waaaay too many tourists to make it feel like an authentic italian city. but i'm happy i saw it and know when people should go...with money and a significant other.