As Arthur Symons wrote, "A realist, in Venice, would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him."
Words so true. This place.... it is beyond words. Everywhere you look you are mesmerized by what is before you. The streets, the canals, the architecture; no comparison to anywhere else in the world. No matter how grand and beautiful you picture it in your head, it will never do true justice.
But beyond that, lets get to the beginning of my 16 day Spring Break Journey across Italy and Greece!
So obviously, we began in Venice. We arrived there pretty late on a Sunday night and grabbed the last bus into "town" where we were supposed to then get on a water bus to our hostel. Yes. Everything literally is transported in this city by boat or donkeys. Ambulances, police, ice cream vendors, taxis: everything is done on boats via the canals! Unreal.
Well we didn't seem to think our hostel would be that far away and didn't know how to work the water boat maps so we decided to just walk. Well everyone.... welcome to the most confusing city in the world. Everywhere leads to a dead end or another canal. I am pretty sure at one point I was just getting sea sick from walking all around and over all this water. It was intense. and their lack of street signs proved another difficulty for us to find out hostel; A Venice Museum.
Eventually we began to give up hope because it is almost midnight and we end up right back where we started.... Oh no. This must have been very apparent because we were stopped by 4 different people in attempts to help us. The first was a couple from California who led us to an Italian man that only knew the word for bridge, who then led us to a couple who were probably just as lost as us, who evenually led us to man with not a single hair on his head, but a beard bushier than that of Santa's and his blonde... "lady friend." Thankfully they were the winning ticket and led us straight to our hostel!!! Thank goodness!!
So we ring the bell and all of a sudden hear a voice from above... a girl no older then I greeted us and buzzed us in... Hmmmm this could be interesting. So we walk up to the hostel itself and are greeted by an obnoxiously loud group of people all just hanging out and having a good time. This place seems pretty fun already!
So we are checked in by a guy, Matt, who probably was not in the right state of mind to be working at computer and money exchanges, but not to worry - everything got settled and he led us to our room of 10 other girls and 1 bathroom. Oh that was not enjoyable. Constantly a race in the morning to get in there... Besides that he hands us our sheets.... well, not sheets... I would say more so a weak excuse for a dish clothe. And each blanket was different; as if they went and raided a Goodwill bin... Later we find out this might have been the case because it turned out the place had bed bugs.
Now I know I am making it sound like a horrible place to sleep and stay; but this hostel was probably one of my favorites! We met so many people and made so many friends and just hung out with everyone there. We were like a small family... we even all ate together some of the most amazing food from all the trip - a homemade potato gnocci with meat sauce paired with a freshly baked cake filled with a raspberry jelly and to top it off homemade sangria. The food was out of this world; and the hostel was in a great location! Turns out we were right across the canal from Brad and Angelina Jolie's apartment they are currently residing in. Although we didn't see them, we kept our eyes peeled.
Ok back to Venice itself; the second day we went off exploring. We really had no clear sight of where to go outside of seeing the Riolto Bridge, St. Mark's Basillica, the Grand Canal, and whatever else we stumbled upon. Lucky for us we had amazing weather! Sunny and warm with the perfect breeze blowing. Ahhhhh Heaven. So we walked and walked and just tried to take everything in. The architecture was unreal... just like the food. We stopped for some gelato of course (the first of our 16 day gelato binge), and pizza twice as big as my face. YUM.
After lunch we continue exploring when all of a sudden I hear my name being called out.... Turns out our friends also studying in London were in Venice and we just "happened" to bump into them? Small world... but we continue our journey and head into a couple shops and fall in love. Venice is known for their glass and their masks for Carnaval.
It's no wonder cause never have I seen anything like this before. Each mask was handmade and different from the last and each one was so beautiful!!! It would have been amazing to see them actually in use during Carnaval, but just seeing them everywhere you turned was unreal. The shapes, colors, designs, embellishments; amazing. Of course the prices reflected these, but so worth it!
With this we found ourselves exhausted and decided it was time to head back for dinner. A good day all in all. Throughout the night we just made new friends and then we said our goodbyes before heading out to Cinque Terre... Goodbye Venice... You will be missed.
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