Venice: Water everywhere

Welcome back! I'm sure its been a while since anyone has checked this...probably because it's been a while  since I've checked this. I have all of spring break to write about. Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, and London will all be written about in due time, but since it's a lot to cover I'll be spreading those posts out over the course of...a bit of time. For now however, let's play a little game of catch up.

So a long time ago I went to this place called Venice. Although I was only there for one day, I accomplish a lot of what I had hoped, and found the city surrounded by water to be one of my favorite up to that point. One of the most amazing views I have had abroad was from the train on the way to Venice. Surrounded by industrial areas at first, I wondered what was so spectacular about Venice, and even began to debate whether I should've gone...and then I saw it. One second I was looking out at cranes and dirt and stuff; the next second I could see nothing but calm blue waves and the sea on all sides. It took me completely by surprise and immediately a wave of tranquility fell over me. It wasn't long before I was on the island and realized that I was surrounded by canals: All boats, no cars.

All in all, Venice was pretty straightforward. I walked from the train station to Piazza San Marco, which despite lacking quantities of old gigantic buildings was still a fantastic sight due to its quality. My roommate and I hopped on a student tour of the San Marco Palace where the old monarchy found itself and parliament held office. We skipped the tour of the basilica, but it certainly looked interesting from the outside. We then met up with a couple of the girls on our trip and took a gondola ride around Venice. Seeing Venice from the water looking up was a perspective I could never imagine without seeing it for myself and it was breathtaking. After the gondola ride, we all went shopping for murano glass, a specialty of Venice, and truth be told there was some beautiful glass on the Rialto Bridge where all of the nice shops are. I bought a vase for my mommy.

After that night fell. Dinner and a night of wandering aimlessly and sneaking into Hilton hotels on neighboring islands ensued...the water is very still at 5 in the morning.