VENICE! <3 <3 <3

THURSDAY April 16th
We headed out on Thursday the 16th at about 1:20PM to start our Venice trip. We made a few stops at the Eurochange booth and at the bank to get euro for our trip and then headed to London Victoria to wait for our bus to Stanstead Airport. We took an easy bus (which are bright orange!) and after a bumpy ride from hell during which the driver enjoyed speeding to red lights and then slamming hard on his breaks, we arrived at the airport a bit after 5:00PM. We found the Ryanair booth and the line was so long that we were glad we got there early. However, Stanstead had these cool “check in yourself” machines and since we had no luggage to check we just printed our boarding passes there. So we went through security no problem and when we were done and had put ourselves back together, it was only 5:20PM! We still had over 2 hours to go until our flight! So we walked around and went into the bookstore and the shoe store and we waited for our boarding gate to be posted. We got chocolate chip cookies and water for the flight and then shortly after headed to gate 43 for boarding. We waited at that gate for a long time as the minutes passed by and with each passing moment Bridget and I became more hesitant. We looked at each other and shared the mutual “maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, we could go back to Regent’s” thought. I don’t exactly know what Bridget’s reasons for feeling this at the time were, but for me (aside from overheating in the mass of people I was surrounded by) it was the realization that this was our first big trip alone. We went to Dublin with her brother, Michael, and we went to Edinburgh with the school. This was the one trip we had to take care of everything for and arrange all of the details and I just began to worry that I forgot to do or check something important or that something would go wrong. I don’t think it helped that for the entire day before our trip we said to each other (jokingly, of course!) “we’re gonna die!” I believe at one point while we were standing in line Bridget looked at me and said, “If we don’t get on that plane in 5 minutes, I’m going back.” While I shared the feeling and was tempted, I tried to remind both of us that we would be fine. Luckily we never got to test out if we had the guts the leave since we started getting onto the plane within the next few minutes.

It was a pretty short plane ride, about 2 hours before we landed at Venice Treviso. Venice is an hour ahead of London so it was about 10:30PM when we landed. We got off and got through customs without so much as a question and then got onto a direct bus to the Piazzale Roma, a car park and the last place that you are able to have cars in the city of Venice. We got off the bus at about 11:15PM and then asked the driver to send us in the direction of our hotel. He gave us a map and we used it to try and follow the google directions I had gotten. Well google and Europe = DON’T GO TOGETHER! The directions put us in the opposite direction and had us going in circles. The hotel was not on (or even near) the street that google had told us! This was the second time that they have misled us during our time in Europe (besides it isn’t a secret that I prefer mapquest anyway…) Luckily, despite the fact that it was almost midnight at this point, we felt completely safe walking around the city and weren’t too worried about anything other than getting to bed because we were exhausted. We stopped into a little café because the door was open and asked the woman if she knew where Hotel Alex was. She did! And pointed us in the direction we would need to go. We were so close! It was less than a 3 minute walk from the place we had virtually been walking circles around…DAMN directions!

So shortly after midnight we finally found Albergo Alex! We went inside and an older woman had been waiting up for us. The hotel was really nice (much nicer than a hostel despite the fact that we still shared a bathroom and shower room) and run by a family so this woman pretty much does everything. She gave us our key, took our passports saying she needed the information (much to our dismay and confusion) and sent us off to bed. Obviously Bridget and I have had it engrained in us to NEVER let our passports out of our sights so this situation was quite worrisome to us. We decided to just go to bed and get up early to deal with it.

FRIDAY April 17th
We got up early Friday morning to head to breakfast and saw our passports sitting on the kitchen counter. After we were done eating we asked for them back but she said she had not had time to get the information. She took them out to the main reception desk and Bridget and I followed. We were quite relieved when we learned that it was a mandatory form that she needed our information for and calmed down a bit. Since the hotel required that the bill be paid in cash, we wanted to pay early instead of walking around Venice with loads of cash on us. We were expecting it to be £222 for our total for the 3 nights, but the woman told us £148. No complaining from us poor college students!

After we got that all taken care of we ventured out for our first day in Venice! We headed to Piazza San Marco and on the way were astonished by the beautiful sights! We saw the Grand Canal, the Ponte di Rialto (a bridge, connecting San Polo where we stayed to San Marco, which is lined with shops), many churches and waterways and gondoliers and it was all just so beautiful! When we got to San Marco we saw the Basilica, Doge Palace, the campanile and the two statues in the square. It is the heart of the city and it was breathtaking! We just walked around and looked at the HUNDREDS of vendor stands and sat by the water looking at everything. The weather was amazing despite the fact that it called for rain the entire weekend! The sun was shining and it was SOOO warm! We decided to take a tour of the islands Murano, Burano and Torcello since it was such a nice day and we weren’t sure of what the weather would be like the next few days. The tour didn’t start until 2:30PM and it was only about noon so we walked around a bit more, ate our first real Italian pizza by the water and relaxed before boarding our boat.

Murano was our first stop and the island is known for its glass blowing. We got right off of the boat and walked into a glass factory where we saw the maestro blow glass to make a vase. Then he started to work on a second piece and we were all wondering what it would be. As he continued it became clear what it was, he was making a horse! It was beautiful and the skill and talent he had was astonishing! It was so neat to watch that! When he was finished, he lit his cigarette off of the horse to show how hot the glass was. After the presentation was finished we ventured off into the shop where they encouraged us to buy some Murano glass. However, it was super expensive and we could buy some for much cheaper back in San Marco so we just walked around and looked before getting back on the boat.

Our next stop was Burano. When we got there, we had to park two boats away from the dock and climb through all three to get onto the island. Burano is known for its lace making and bright colored fisherman’s houses and we were headed to one of the lace shops when we saw it! An ambulanza! I was SOOO excited that I actually saw a Venice boat ambulance to take a picture of so I started clicking away. Bridget was excited too (though she won’t admit it she was TOTALLY an accomplice to all of my fire truck and ambulance picture taking this semester) and demanded that she get pictures of me WITH the ambulanza (that is fun to say!). After taking a bunch of silly pictures, we headed into the lace shop where we both bought some beautiful pieces as presents for people. We spent a lot of time in the shop and before we knew it we had to head back and board the boat.

Torcello was our final island and it was so beautiful! I do not believe that anyone actually lives on the island, but there is a magnificent 13th century church to go see. The walk to get to the heart of the island where the church and small museum are was neat because you walked forever through this long, windy path and there was water on one side but overgrown land on the other. It was really pretty! After Torcello we headed back to San Marco and then walked back to our hotel. We were both really tired and super sunburnt and wanted to relax a bit before dinner. When we got back the woman asked us if we were staying for 3 nights or two, because she only charged us for 2 but her son told her we were staying for 3. Uh oh! Bridget and I instantly looked at each other fearful that they had double booked our room and that we were going to have to find somewhere else to stay the next night. Luckily that was not the case and we paid for the 3rd night and had no problems.

After hanging out for a bit, Bridget and I headed out to dinner. We ate at this little restaurant by a waterway. I got spaghetti pomodoro (tomato sauce) and we got a bottle of Rosa di Corte, a fantastic rose wine! I also got tiramisu for dessert and it was fantastic (everyone knows it is my all time favorite dessert anyway, but having authentic tiramisu was fabulous!) It was so amazing to be able to sit outside by the water and eat, but despite how warm it was, we were both freezing because of our sun burn.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for gelato (gelati depending on where go you or who you talk to) and just meandered around Venice taking in the nighttime views and enjoying the city.

SATURDAY April 18th
Saturday we took our time getting up, went to breakfast downstairs and then headed out for some more exploring of Venice. The weather was beautiful again so we decided to head to Piazzale Roma and board a waterbus to Lido, where the beach was. We got to Lido and it was almost like a different world! There are cars in Lido and it is definitely like a beach town. We stopped into a pharmacy to buy some suntan lotion since we were already burnt and didn’t want to get worse and paid €15 for the (not large at all) bottle. Then we realized that we couldn’t take it back with us because it was too big….(f our lives!) We walked in the direction we thought the beach was in for a while and were beginning to get skeptical since we had walked and walked and had gotten no indication of a beach anywhere. However, we found it and were on a Venice beach! We took our shoes off, rolled up our pants, applied suntan lotion and were all set! Before getting to the water we had to walk over thousands of seashells! There were just massive piles of them! Seriously, I have never seen so many seashells in all of my life! We carefully made our way through/across the piles and stepped into the water. Of course Bridget thought it was freezing but I thought it felt really nice and was warm (it must be something about living in Upstate NY and swimming in Margaretville and Prattsville creeks…). We took the obligatory silly pictures and then found a spot on the sand so we could read. My ability to focus was at 0 at this point however, and I decided to take a walk along the beach. It was so beautiful and serene and HOT (with HOT Italian men….)! After a little while we headed back to the main strip and found a place to eat lunch. We got gelato and walked around the town and sat along the water looking across to San Marco and then got back on the water bus to head back to Piazzale Roma. The first waterbus to Lido we took was more of an express bus and did not stop in many places. However, the one we took back stopped at every stop and we got a scenic tour of Venice! When we got off the boat we walked back to the hotel and did some reading and napping before dinner.

We walked back to San Marco for dinner and ate outside at a restaurant by the Grand Canal. It was really nice, and Piazza San Marco is just as gorgeous at night as it is in the daytime! We were also quite entertained throughout dinner as all of these street vendors were set up on the sidewalk with their stuff on sheets or towels and at the same instant like 4 cell phones would go off and they would scoop up their goods and run/walk fast away. Then we would see police walk by and a few minutes later the guys would come back and set up their stuff again. This happened abut 3 or 4 times as we had dinner and it was pretty funny! As we walked through the square, there were three different orchestras playing so we stopped to watch them for a while, and they were magnificent! Before we headed back Bridget said I needed to try some limoncello, so we stopped at the Americano Bar to get some. On the way back to San Polo we stopped for gelato and then kind of wandered, taking a different way back to the hotel. It was so beautiful to just walk outside at night and take my time and not be rushed. It was amazing!

When we made it back to the hotel, we noticed the sign was off. At first we thought it meant no vacancies but then we got to the front and there was a gate in front of the entrance. OH NO! I saw a couple inside just about to go upstairs and knocked on the glass hoping they would let us in. They pointed to the side door and let us in and then told us that we were given a 2nd key for the side entrance when the owner goes to bed at night and locks the main entrance. This was great, except that we were never told that!

SUNDAY April 19th
On Sunday we got up a bit earlier, went to breakfast and then packed our stuff and checked out. We left our luggage there and headed to San Marco for some gift shopping and such. There was some sort of a celebration in the square and we watched for a while. The first group was African drummer and dancers, and the second performed with flags…they were both amazing and it was fun to watch them and their talent! After a while we went to Café Florian for some coffee and hot chocolate. My latte was pretty good, but Bridget’s hot chocolate was literally unsweetened chocolate melted. It took her a while to get through that!

From the café we went into the Basilica di San Marco museum and onto the terrace. It was really pretty and interesting to see some of the really old pieces of the basilica. We wanted to go downstairs into it, but it didn’t open until 2PM so we had to wait. It was pouring so we decided to go and get lunch and then come back after 2. Upon returning, instead of waiting in the ridiculously long line which was wrapping around the side, we went in the exit and then into the church from there. The line was really for the museum, which you had to pay for. The basilica itself was free and we had waited on line before, so we just went in. It was GORGEOUS! Gold mosaic from floor to ceiling covered EVERY inch of this building! It was so magnificent to see! I cannot even describe how fantastic it was!

After the basilica we said goodbye to Piazza San Marco and headed back to San Polo to get our luggage from the hotel. When we had put our gifts in and finished repacking our luggage we headed back out to Ferrovia (which is next to Piazzale Roma) and walked around for a bit. Then we headed to dinner and since we had a bunch of time to kill just took our time. It helped that the portions of spaghetti were the size of my head! It took me FOREVER to finish! It was soo good but I was soo full! Haha! So we finished eating and bought some spiffy Italia sweatshirts and then walked to Piazzale Roma to wait for our bus to the airport for our 10:30PM flight. We got to the airport and waited in line for over an hour to check in. Once we did and got our boarding passes we headed through security. Wouldn’t you know it the damn detector went off on me and they thought there was a bomb or something equally as dangerous in my bag so they searched me THOROUGHLY and then took EVERYTHING out of my bag and put it back through like 4 times. I was tired and getting bitchier by the minute….I am NOT a terrorist! After calming down I was actually happy they took such precautions but I was not happy that it was ME….haha!

So we went through customs and got our passports stamped again and then went to wait for our flight. It was late boarding AGAIN and once again Bridget and I were getting antsy. It was almost 11:00PM and we were tired and overheating and anxious. We finally got on the plane (after I got yelled at on the tarmac for taking pictures of ambulanzas (still just as fun to say!) and fire trucks) and made it back to London at bit after 11:30PM. We got went through customs again and then waited to board the easy busy back to Baker Street. The ride was MUCH smoother this time and we got back around 1:15AM. We walked back to Regent’s and talked to our parents for a bit to let them know that we had a great time and that we made it back safe and sound and then went to bed, eagerly anxious the last week of classes that would lead to finals week and then HOME!!!!!