Katy + A 50-lb Suitcase: The North Trip--Venice

The first full day in Venice was very enjoyable. There was no rush to see anything or get anywhere and the sites we saw were beautiful. We started with a tour of the city with Marco. We started on the water bus to the Rialto Bridge and got off to walk to San Marco and the Doge's palace through the streets and alleys and over the bridges which was a lot more interesting than riding the water bus all the way to the San Marco stop. It was nice to have a guide because the streets in Venice are crazy, not to mention many of them are waterways. We stopped at some churches and other famous buildings along the way.

We didn't go into San Marco's because it's so crowded and hard to keep the group together, but we did go to the Doge's palace where Marco led a very nice tour. The main staircase was amazing. It's known as the golden staircase because the reliefs around the fescoes on the ceiling are all covered in gold leaf.

After the Doge's palace the whole group went up in the bell tower in San Marco's square. Unlike some of the other tall things we've been up in, this one had an elevator to the top! The tower provided a beautiful view of the city.

Next Katie, Ashley and I decided to go to the island of Morano which is world famous for their glass. Our first stop was the glass museum which had some amazing pieces of art both ancient and modern. There were clothes, chandeliers, vases, beads, animals, etc. made completely out of glass. Next we went to where all the shops were and did a little shopping. Some of the things in the stores were a little bizarre, but there was plenty to look at. Every store was different, but most of them had selections of wine stoppers, animal figurines, jewelery, and chandeliers. Some stores were the retail part of a shop where there were daily demonstartions but we got there too late to see them.

We were on the island until late afternoon and went back to Venice for dinner and nice stroll through the city.

The next day we had another walking tour with Marco. I don't remember many of the places we went because they were mostly churches and old government buildings that we just walked past. On walks like these I mostly just enjoy the scenery and not trying to take notes of every building we see. Sometimes I enjoy the character of the place more than the historic context of the buildings. The place I remember most about this trip was the bookstore we went into. The handwritten sign out front said "Welcome to the Most Beautiful Bookshop in the World" It wasn't lying. It was a hole in the wall place which displayed books in bathtubs, a giant gondola, and miss-matched shelves. There were no genere sections to organize the books, you just had to start digging. The guy who owns it is a goofy man who loves cats so there were kittys wandering around on the shelves. My favoite part was the emergency exit sign located on the back door (which didn't actually have a door) which lead right out to the water. The sign was just a little stick figure swimming away from the building. Classic. I will return to do some more investigating when I return to Venice at the end of the semester!

The tour was over at about 1:30 which was the offical start of Spring Break! Katie, Ashley, and I went back to the hotel to get our stuff and head to the airport for our 5:30 flight on RyanAir to Paris!

The trip to the airport was fairly stress-free but there was a lot of hurrying up and waiting because we weren't sure how long it would take to get to the airport and through security. We got to sit next to eachother on the plane which was nice, although all three of us passed out once we took off. There's nothing like waking up in Paris!

Once we landed we followed the crowd to the shuttle bus which took us to the metro. We hopped on the Metro and headed for the hostel which was conveniently located near Sacre Coeur so it was easy to find the right Metro stop. We got settled into our hostel which was relatively nice. The best part was the view out the window up to Sacre Coeur glowing at the top of the hill. By that time it was about 9pm and we were starving so we went out in search of some dinner and found a cute creperie which was delicious even if they did get our order mixed up with the table next to us like three different times. Oh well. To burn off our dessert crepes we hiked up the stairs to Sacre Coeur to see if there was anyone singing Hotel California (which is my fondest memory of the last time I was there Junior Year of High School). No such luck, but it was still beautiful!