Gondola ride!
Jeannette, this is for you. The island of Burano.
Burano, the lace island in Venice.
Burano again.
I snuck onto a boat!
I took a sleeping pill last night, had a good talk with Kelsey, and hoped to wake up on the right side of the bed. Well, it worked. It's funny how emotions are so up and down here. One minute things are awful, the next they're amazing. I think it's the situation...the lack of sleep, the close quarters, the constant moving, and the group dynamics. My goal today was to branch out with the group, and I had a lot of fun with different people. We went to the Doge's Palace (HUGE) and had an audio tour that took SO long...it was like two hours of this English dude. But not the hot kind of English. After that a big group of us took a water taxi to the island Murano, which is famous for its glass. I bought a few souvenirs there and we had lunch and sketched. I love sketching now. I'm not as good as a lot of people here, but I enjoy making my sketchbook into a journal and writing down funny experiences then sketching them. After Murano I went to the island Burano with Kelsey, Jessie and Amanda. It's famous for its lace, and I got a baby dress there for in a million years when I have kids. It was only 8 euros and really cute and I figured I'd never be back there, so it was worth all the ridicule I will probably get for buying a baby dress without even being engaged. Bring it on, I can take it.
Burano is the coolest city ever. We walked around it in about an hour and a half, and there are a ton of lace shops with dresses, masks, handkerchiefs, table runners, umbrellas, etc. All the buildings are painted a different vibrant color (kind of like mexico, but they're connected, much cleaner, and more quaint than I imagine Mexico being.) All the waterways where the streets are supposed to be were filled with swaying boats. We were there when all the shops were closing down, so all the tourists were gone and we had the whole town to ourselves pretty much. After a short ride back to the main island, a long walk back to the hotel, a happy meal from McDonald's (yum, fruit, burger, and fries!...and coke!) we went on a walk to find a gondola. It ended up being 25 euros a person for half an hour, but that's the price everywhere. Our driver, Enrico was really nice. He has been a gondolier for a very long time, and his dad and grandpa were gondoliers. He said that 80% of gondoliers do it as a family trade. There are 450 of them in Venice, and each boat is hand-made with 7 different kinds of wood. He had the striped shirt and cool hat and everything. He showed us a picture of his 2 year old son Federico. He was in the shower with snorkel goggles on. He took us past Casanova and Mozart's houses and some other cool sites. The seats were really comfortable and I defintiely couldn't get a good picture because of my flash. We went at like 11 pm. But the experience was very memorable. So peaceful on the water late at night.
On the water taxi ride home, this asian dude started singing opera...like legitimately. Everyone on the taxi started singing and clapping with him until the driver yelled at us for crowding the open part of the boat. I love when strangers bond like that.
Tomorrow we are leaving Venice and going on to other places. We are going to climb the bell tower tomorrow before we leave. These feet are getting a beating, I tell you. But it's totally worth it. Ciao.
Kellie
MATT: HAPPY 10 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Statue time in Murano
Becca, Kelsey, Me
Lisa, Heidi, Kelsey, Amber, Me, Janey, and Heidi outside of the Doge's Palace in Venice.
Me and Heidi
Me and Alexis!
I took a sleeping pill last night, had a good talk with Kelsey, and hoped to wake up on the right side of the bed. Well, it worked. It's funny how emotions are so up and down here. One minute things are awful, the next they're amazing. I think it's the situation...the lack of sleep, the close quarters, the constant moving, and the group dynamics. My goal today was to branch out with the group, and I had a lot of fun with different people. We went to the Doge's Palace (HUGE) and had an audio tour that took SO long...it was like two hours of this English dude. But not the hot kind of English. After that a big group of us took a water taxi to the island Murano, which is famous for its glass. I bought a few souvenirs there and we had lunch and sketched. I love sketching now. I'm not as good as a lot of people here, but I enjoy making my sketchbook into a journal and writing down funny experiences then sketching them. After Murano I went to the island Burano with Kelsey, Jessie and Amanda. It's famous for its lace, and I got a baby dress there for in a million years when I have kids. It was only 8 euros and really cute and I figured I'd never be back there, so it was worth all the ridicule I will probably get for buying a baby dress without even being engaged. Bring it on, I can take it.
Burano is the coolest city ever. We walked around it in about an hour and a half, and there are a ton of lace shops with dresses, masks, handkerchiefs, table runners, umbrellas, etc. All the buildings are painted a different vibrant color (kind of like mexico, but they're connected, much cleaner, and more quaint than I imagine Mexico being.) All the waterways where the streets are supposed to be were filled with swaying boats. We were there when all the shops were closing down, so all the tourists were gone and we had the whole town to ourselves pretty much. After a short ride back to the main island, a long walk back to the hotel, a happy meal from McDonald's (yum, fruit, burger, and fries!...and coke!) we went on a walk to find a gondola. It ended up being 25 euros a person for half an hour, but that's the price everywhere. Our driver, Enrico was really nice. He has been a gondolier for a very long time, and his dad and grandpa were gondoliers. He said that 80% of gondoliers do it as a family trade. There are 450 of them in Venice, and each boat is hand-made with 7 different kinds of wood. He had the striped shirt and cool hat and everything. He showed us a picture of his 2 year old son Federico. He was in the shower with snorkel goggles on. He took us past Casanova and Mozart's houses and some other cool sites. The seats were really comfortable and I defintiely couldn't get a good picture because of my flash. We went at like 11 pm. But the experience was very memorable. So peaceful on the water late at night.
On the water taxi ride home, this asian dude started singing opera...like legitimately. Everyone on the taxi started singing and clapping with him until the driver yelled at us for crowding the open part of the boat. I love when strangers bond like that.
Tomorrow we are leaving Venice and going on to other places. We are going to climb the bell tower tomorrow before we leave. These feet are getting a beating, I tell you. But it's totally worth it. Ciao.
Kellie
MATT: HAPPY 10 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1 comment:
Hehehhee, good thing it ain't really May 1st eh?
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