48 hours in Venice

it is hard to explain just how excited kate, katherine and i were for our adventure to begin in italy. waking up last tuesday in barcelona felt a little bit like christmas morning. we boarded a shuttle bus headed for the remote barcelona airport, and braced ourselves for our next ryanair experience. turns out we were much more relaxed this time, and nearly missed our flight because the board said "west midlands" instead of "venice". needless to say, when we heard "last call for venice", we became a little flustered. all this aside, we made it! our arrival in venice that evening was just a little unwelcoming... it began to lightly rain. we boarded the venice public transport... water buses to navigate through the canals, (somewhat like a subway line) and hoped for the best. then it began to really rain. then it began to piss rain. we got off at our stop, with all of our worldly possessions on our backs, and no sweet clue where our hostel was. it was a bad scene. we were absolutely soaking wet within seconds, and and all we could do was burst into laughter. katherine kept saying "this is an adventure guys!!", and really, all we could do was accept our fate, and try and figure out where our hostel was. we finally found it (after fifteen full minutes in the pouring rain), and we could not have been happier! we had a little hotel room on our hands, HAIR DRYER INCLUDED! this was very exciting after weeks of limp locks. we unpacked our gross bags, and kate and i had to hang up almost all items of clothing to dry. being the alberta girl that she is, katherine had brought a camping pack, and none of her stuff was wet. lucky her. after a change of clothes and a good laugh, we ventured out to have our first italian meal in italy. we have been trying very diligently to eat the cuisine of the country we are in on this trip. it was important to us to get a taste of the local food. FINALLY we were in a place where pizza and pasta WAS the local food!! we called it a night pretty early, knowing that we had a big day on our hands on wednesday.

we awoke on our first full day in venice to... sunshine! we deserved it after the night we had. we also were treated to a breakfast tray in our room... what service! by the time we wandered down to the reception desk to get davide, our host, to help us plan our day, we were dying to know the results of the american election. he enthusiastically said "OBAMA!" and we all celebrated for a moment. throughout our trip, we have politely corrected those around us who call us americans, firmly saying that we are in fact, proud canadians. we found it really interesting and really quite neat that people all over venice were celebrating, so enthusiastically, such a monumental day in american history. suddenly, being confused with americans was not so bad, and the win was certainly a conversation piece all over town. after finding out that happy result, we got down to business planning our day. davide told us that the only way to really see venice was to get lost within the tiny labrinth of streets and canals, and that we did. we checked out san marco and the rialto bridge first, and after the major sights, we just wandered around. it was a fantastic day. in the afternoon, after a pannini break of course, we hopped on the water bus headed for murano, to explore the little island known for its blown glass craftsmanship. it was definately a highlight, and we appreciated seeing a different area of venice during our short stay. for supper, davide sent us to this little restuarant that his friend owned in st. toma square, a short water bus trip away from our hostel. it was a great little dinner, and we made it home in time to enjoy the 1.70 euro bottle of wine that we had purchased earlier. to bring you up to speed, we made a deal early on in the trip to try and buy the cheapest wine we could find in each country we visited. we must have hit the jackpot in madrid, because the 99 cent bottles there were amazing. this, on the other hand, reminded me of vinegar, and we decided that maybe springing for a 3 euro bottle next time might make all the difference. although our time in venice was very short, we really appreciated the chance to see such a unique and beautiful city. there really is no other place in the world like it, and before we went to bed on wednesday night, we traded cameras to look through each others photos of our great little trip to venezia!