Venezia

Thursday, May 28.

Took the train from Salzburg to Venice's San Lucia train station. After arriving, we decided paying 4 euros each was WAY too expensive for storing our packs-so we went on a four hour walking-venture in Venice. With our packs. And purses. Before leaving the station Melodie, Kristen, and I easily booked our train tickets to Zurich. But Mark and Kristina weren't so lucky. They had a language-barrier, no microphone, talking-through-glass adventure. And FINALLY got there ticket situation to Amsterdam figured out :) Thank goodness. While they figured out their mess, Kristen and I bought a map of Venice that turned out to be our BEST Italian purchase ever....that map saved us several times!
Venice is truly a magical city with its stair bridges, canals, yummy gelato, and crazy winding streets!
Back to the packs! With map in hand, our group of 5 set out with our backpacks. Four hours later I felt "in-one" with my pack. With the straps adjusted the 30 pounds was pretty okay-but after four-hours I was a tad tired. We found the Rialto bridge, ate some authentic AMAZING Italian pizza ( mine was topped with fresh tomatoes, red onions, and cheese) and stopped for a scoop of mocha gelato. We managed to get lost on the way back to the bus station, so using our super duper map Mark navigated us to our correct destination. We rode the bus to Marghara where we walked and walked and walked to our hostel (seemingly in the middle of nowhere)-Camp Jolly. And jolly it was. We had two hard canvas "tents" each with 3 beds. There was a community-campground style bathroom and a swimming pool (which we weren't able to use). The shower was hot and hard and perfect. Especially after such a long day of traveling.

Friday May 29.

Today we got to experience Venice withOUT our heavy bags :) Our tents were kind of chilly but for the most part I slept well. The walk back to the bus stop was a lot shorter this morning than the night before! We took the bus back to Venice and then quickly bought a 24 hour bus/boat pass. We definately got our 18euros worth. Riding the boats in Venice is like riding the bus in any other large city-other than that you have to walk everywhere. We went straight away to San Marco's Piaza and the Basilica. The Basilica was sooo busy! On this entire trip I haven't see a church so filled with tourists as this one. I personally think it's really sad to see places of worship so marketed. But the Basillica was very beautiful and ornate. A lot of gold in the domed ceilings and wall paintings. After walking through tthe Basillica we stood in line for an elevator ride up the San Marco Basillica's separate tower. It was windy at the top but the view gave us an aerial panorama of the entire city. We got cold, but looking over Venice was incredible. For lunch we bought ourselves some more freshly made pizza! This time I had mushroom and artichoke toppings :) We found our way through the maze of streets, almost getting lost again, but I led our group with our AMAZING map! and we made it across the city to the station we wanted. We took the boat to the outer island of Murano where they make glass. After stepping off the boat, a man pointed us in the direction of a shop where men demonstrated the art of blowing glass. Incredible. After watching the glass making/blowing process we found the nice-small downtown. We then proceeded to shop and shop and shop-poor Mark! Around 2:30pm we left Murano for the San Marco boat stop. We were back in Venice. And of course-we wandered around again! This time we bought some extremely rich and dence chocolate balls from a small corner bakery. We got on the boat again-this time riding down the Grand Canal, down the "main" part of the city and got three stops past the famous Rialto bridge. We tried to find a restaurant for an early (5pm) supper, but to no avail. Apparently they don't start serving supper until 7pm in Italy? And most restaurants close for the late afternoon/evening. We decided to use our time to get groceries for our train rides the next day. After getting gelato for an early dessert, we wandered around some more before heading to the Rialto Bridge/Grand Canal area and happened upon a restaurant that was actually open! Plus there were no cover charges! I ordered a typical Italian dish...spaghetti with vegetables (mixed in) and a glass of red wine. We had a great evening-our last night as a group of 5. (I also managed to stain my khaki skirt with a huge blot of ink...:() It presently has a light remnant of black...but is much better than it was.