So as I was scanning my list of blog entries, I noticed the italicized "draft" next to a couple of posts - Venice, and Amsterdam. How could I possibly have forgotten to post them?! To remedy the situation, I'm posting them now (and experiencing a heavy dose of nostalgia!). I had only put in the pictures before, but I'll fill in the stories as best as I can along the way!
Where I last left off, my roommates Mariel, Hayley and I had started off our Easter Break trip through Italy and had spent a few days in Florence (which to this day remains one of my favorite two cities in Europe). After absolutely falling in love with Florence, we boarded the train for Venice. As trains usually do, the train to Venice ran late - Duh! We ended up having the looooongest layover EVER, which I think was in Bologna? Literally, we had to wait there for about three or four hours (which we hadn't really planned on) in order to get on the next train to Venice (Finding THAT out was a feat in itself, seeing as Italians have no sense of order what-so-ever! Well, at least not in comparison with any Austrian or German cities we have ever been to). Anyway, we FINALLY got to Venice about 11am and thus began our whirlwind trip through Venice.
Mariel with her lunch in Bologna
Not impressed with Bologna - "WE JUST WANT TO GET ON A TRAIN!"
Bridge on the Island of Murano
Once we got to Venice, we realized that maybe we should have scheduled more than a day trip to take it all in.
The city impressed me a lot more than I thought it would - I didn't expect to be blown away since you generally know what to expect when you go to Venice - canals and lots of them. The fact that we arrived there on a beautiful, sunny day made our first glace of the sparkling canals that much more impressive. And let me tell you - there is nothing like taking a ride on one of those boats! (We were even lucky enough to be out on the canals during the sunset - so picturesque!)
Rather than spending most of the day in the main part of the city, we took the vaparetto out to a couple of the larger islands surrounding Venice - Burano and Murano. We wanted to avoid any major crowds, and had read that many people miss out on this beautiful part of the area.
If you ever DO make it to Venice, I'd definitely keep the two islands in mind - Murano is where they create the world-famous Murano glass sculptures, jewelry, and various other items. The shop windows sparkle with the gorgeous (and equally expensive) creations of the local merchants. We loved not only this, but also the fact that there were not NEARLY as many tourists in Murano than in Venice itself.
After Murano, we took the next vaparetto ride out to Burano - the least populated area that we visited around Venice. Burano is a small fishing island outside of Venice that is world-famous for its lace. The shops here were VERY impressive as well (pretty much everything mildly authentic was out of my price range, but they were all pretty to look at!), and there were even less people on Burano than in Murano (probably because it took so long to get out there). This island was THE picture of Venice that people have in their minds. The houses were all painted beautiful colors, there was wash hanging on lines crossing over the canals, and unbelievably there were practically NO tourists there! Definitely the best decision we had made all day.
Mariel on the Vaparetto in Venice
Venice
Venice
Glass shop in Murano
Canal in Murano
Lace shops in Burano
Canal in Burano - SEE?!? In a word: picturesque.
Me in Burano
Sunset on the vaparetto back to Venice
Bridge of tears I think? Prisoners were led across it on their way to trial...
Gondola!
Paid way too much money for this wine...
Grand Canal
Mariel & Hayley with their Gelato
Grand Canal
One of my faves - moonlit canal in Venice
Grand Canal
Our first view of the city!
Me & Mariel on the vaparetto!
Where I last left off, my roommates Mariel, Hayley and I had started off our Easter Break trip through Italy and had spent a few days in Florence (which to this day remains one of my favorite two cities in Europe). After absolutely falling in love with Florence, we boarded the train for Venice. As trains usually do, the train to Venice ran late - Duh! We ended up having the looooongest layover EVER, which I think was in Bologna? Literally, we had to wait there for about three or four hours (which we hadn't really planned on) in order to get on the next train to Venice (Finding THAT out was a feat in itself, seeing as Italians have no sense of order what-so-ever! Well, at least not in comparison with any Austrian or German cities we have ever been to). Anyway, we FINALLY got to Venice about 11am and thus began our whirlwind trip through Venice.
Mariel with her lunch in Bologna
Not impressed with Bologna - "WE JUST WANT TO GET ON A TRAIN!"
Bridge on the Island of Murano
The city impressed me a lot more than I thought it would - I didn't expect to be blown away since you generally know what to expect when you go to Venice - canals and lots of them. The fact that we arrived there on a beautiful, sunny day made our first glace of the sparkling canals that much more impressive. And let me tell you - there is nothing like taking a ride on one of those boats! (We were even lucky enough to be out on the canals during the sunset - so picturesque!)
Rather than spending most of the day in the main part of the city, we took the vaparetto out to a couple of the larger islands surrounding Venice - Burano and Murano. We wanted to avoid any major crowds, and had read that many people miss out on this beautiful part of the area.
If you ever DO make it to Venice, I'd definitely keep the two islands in mind - Murano is where they create the world-famous Murano glass sculptures, jewelry, and various other items. The shop windows sparkle with the gorgeous (and equally expensive) creations of the local merchants. We loved not only this, but also the fact that there were not NEARLY as many tourists in Murano than in Venice itself.
After Murano, we took the next vaparetto ride out to Burano - the least populated area that we visited around Venice. Burano is a small fishing island outside of Venice that is world-famous for its lace. The shops here were VERY impressive as well (pretty much everything mildly authentic was out of my price range, but they were all pretty to look at!), and there were even less people on Burano than in Murano (probably because it took so long to get out there). This island was THE picture of Venice that people have in their minds. The houses were all painted beautiful colors, there was wash hanging on lines crossing over the canals, and unbelievably there were practically NO tourists there! Definitely the best decision we had made all day.
Mariel on the Vaparetto in Venice
Venice
Venice
Glass shop in Murano
Canal in Murano
Lace shops in Burano
Canal in Burano - SEE?!? In a word: picturesque.
Me in Burano
Sunset on the vaparetto back to Venice
Bridge of tears I think? Prisoners were led across it on their way to trial...
Gondola!
Paid way too much money for this wine...
Grand Canal
Mariel & Hayley with their Gelato
Grand Canal
One of my faves - moonlit canal in Venice
Venice
Grand Canal
Our first view of the city!
Me & Mariel on the vaparetto!
After coming back from Burano, it was already dark so we went to grab something to eat. After paying a bit too much for wine and grubbing out on some lasagna, we set out to find the train station. Once again, in true italian style, there was no logical way to go about it. There were (sometimes) TINY very non-legit looking signs posted along the dark (and sometimes sketchy) canals. It literally felt like we were in a labyrinth. We had no idea if we SHOULD trust these signs, but what other choice did we have? After a long long looooooong trip through Venice running across bridges and trying to dodge the million sellers of fake designer purses (A HUGE PROBLEM IN ITALY! This is one of the main reasons why we wanted to leave the main part of Venice city and go to the islands!!! Sometimes these sellers would LITERALLY block your way as you walked down the sidewalks), suddenly the train station appeared in front of us in all its grandeour! Two words came to mind: Thank. God.
Little did we know that we weren't out of the woods yet. We got on a train about three hours later, and hoped that the fact that reservations were "highly suggested" would not make a difference. Long story short, we were woken up about 2am by a rather frustrated conductor who allowed us to sit on fold-down seats in the hallway outside the compartments, since the train was in fact completely booked. Little to no sleep was achieved, but at least we made it back to Innsbruck!
Little did we know that we weren't out of the woods yet. We got on a train about three hours later, and hoped that the fact that reservations were "highly suggested" would not make a difference. Long story short, we were woken up about 2am by a rather frustrated conductor who allowed us to sit on fold-down seats in the hallway outside the compartments, since the train was in fact completely booked. Little to no sleep was achieved, but at least we made it back to Innsbruck!
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