Getting to Venice

Hey Everyone!

So this last weekend Kristen and I went to Venice....It took us the whole weekend to get there, but we made it hahha.

Starting Thursday night, Katies birthday lasted kind of late and then i skyped with Peej, mom, dad, & Trev until about 2 in the morning. So Kristen and I decided to change our Venice day from Friday to Saturday. We spent Friday having a hangout day and just getting caught up on everything. Then Saturday morning we woke up at 4:45 am and headed to the train station where we bought our train tickets (weàd looked up the times about a week before). But what we didnt realize was that the tickets the machine printed for us required us to catch a train to another florence station before leaving for Venice. So we had already missed it.

Therefore we went to the ticket counter where the lady proceeded to tell us we could not get a refund and all the other trains that morning were full. She did tell us we could use the tickets sunday though. So we went to our cute corner coffe shop on Via Faenza and Nazionale got our cafe lattes and pastries and headed back to the apartment. Our other 4 roomies headed out at 4 in the morning so we had the apartment to ourselves and basically just ended up getting internet, watching movies, making chocolate chip cookies, booking our Ireland, England, and Scotland hostels and trying to get Phantom of the Opera tickets for London, which we couldnt figure out...but we will buy some broadway show for London at some point haha.

So Sunday came around and Kristen and I woke up at 4:45 once again....that is wayyyyy too early for me :P. So we went to the train station and purchased our tickets for the train home that night. The guy behind the counter told us the lastest trains were already booked up so we would have to come home at 4:56 that afternoon. We were so excited to go to Venice that nothing was going to stop us! We got to Bologna where we had a quick lay over and sadly missed our next train haha. Kristen and I have not missed a single train until this weekend and then we missed 2! Crazy! Anyway, we were with two other American study abroad girls so we all just waited for about 45 minutes for the next train. We made that one and got to Venice around 11 in the morning.

We heard that if you buy an all day ferry pass itàs a lot cheaper and you can by pass the lines. So we did and that was sooo helpful. We got on the first ferry which took us to the island of Murano. Venice is known for its glass and Murano is the island that makes the glass. So we wanted to see how it was done. I had never seen glass blowing before and it was seriously one of the coolest things. The two guys doing demonstrations that day looked to be about our age and for their intricate work that seemed insane! So after that we went SHOPPING! Of course! I bought a venetian necklace and watch (i havent had a clue what the time has been since i got to italy haha). Afterwards we took another ferry back to the center of Venice and went to Piazza San Marco. It was absolutely gorgeous. As is all of Italy. Each region is so unique and from the landscape to the architecture is completely stunning. So we had about an hour there to see the basilica, go in a few more shops (there were glass shops everywhere), take pictures of the gondolas and beautiful houses...not to mention everything else thats on the water. There were so many people in Venice too, honestly I think it was more touristy than Milan which was absolutely packed!

So we walked for awhile and then hopped back on another ferry to the train station. We made both trains and made it back to florence by 8:39 last night. Oh and the ferrys are hilarious. Kristen said it best when she was like "come on think sardines people." Everyone would push to the front of the ferry lines and honestly it was like cattle call to get on board. One guy even started mooing...im not even kindding haha. Oh and at one point I was one of the last on one of the ferries and Kristen hadnt made it on. The guy told me no more people when I pointed Kristen out. So I just grabbed her hand and yanked her on and he made a weird face but Kristen kept saying "oh my gosh that was just like titanic" hahha. Anyway, the ferries were quite the experience and Im very surprised with how many people they can fit on those things! But overall theyàre really fun because you get to see so much of the city. Oh and that was another thing that was really cool. All of the families have boats instead of cars. So youd see like a mom and dad in the front with the kids in the back heading off somewhere. Or one dad was letting his son drive and they looked like they were just hanging on the lake. So fun!

The whole trip was fast and furious. But now I know that Venice is sooo beautiful and definitely a place I want to go back to. If I find a free weekend during the rest of the semester I will probably head back that direction and try and do Verona as well.
Okay Hannah and I are going to meet our church group at Tijuanas for some Mexican food. Im craving nachos and havent had them since I left Idaho haha. Okay ciao ciao & baci