No better way to start than at 5:00am! Brenna and I hurried out to catch a taxi with Mark at a quarter to 6:00, and were joined by Diego, whose taxi didn't show up, and who had to catch a Flibco bus at 6:00. Good news! He made it! Mark and I caught the train to Luxembourg, Flibco allowed me to change my bus ticket to an hour earlier so I rode the up to Frankfurt Han airport with Mark as well. Things really did go smoothly the whole trip!
We passed over the Alps and saw some astonishing views. [Pictures I will post soon] And, as one might start to conclude, Europe enters its rainy season in the Spring. But this time the forecast was delayed until Sunday! And we had good weather up till then!
On the bus to Venice from the Treviso airport:
"Are you excited?"
"I'm so excited!"
The trip went so smoothly the law "for every action there's an opposite and equal reaction" accompanied my remarkable trip on the first set of many stairs in Venice. I assure you Mark did not let me live that down all trip. I only share the news because I don't feel so badly as I would have if my camera strap around my neck was two inches longer. Plus I guess it was a little entertaining.
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| Decorated Gondola |
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| Window shopping |
Food! Gelato and Pizza: 2 of Italy's best creations
Venice has masks all over the city, a lot are manufactured in Italy,
some are hand crafted, luckily even less are the cheap plastic ones. The
art and personality is incredible, I loved just looking in all the
shops. The shopkeeper in this one in particular was tons of fun.
He pulls off girl better than I do. He had me model for 5 minutes- believe me I know, so I think I'm more offended by that than he would be. It was early in our trip, so I got his card and figured I would come back if I decided to get a mask.
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| Market Street |
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| Pointing out here, that the sky was absolutely blue! |
On the first day in Venice the true love came between; 2 grey pigeons... And a partridge in a pear tree.
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| Venice traveling buddy: Mark |
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| Now I have seen it all! |
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| Religious wall motif decorated for Easter |
This view convinced us to come back to this location to watch the sunset. Looks a little like heaven.
It was unfortunate that the clouds decided to compete with the setting sun, but on the bright side, here's your silver lining.
The sun finally made it through the clouds, not too low on the horizon!
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| This is photo is not even pretending to be untouched- it was darkened to the silhouette such as you see it. Red sky at night, sailor's delight. If this were morning it would be a day for the Perfect Storm. |
To finish off the day we took a boat line to the island right off of Venice where our hostel was. It was very small and there was about three options for dinner: a 4 star hotel, a the World's Best Pizza place, and one other. Our hostel was a number off the given address, but that didn't create too many problems.
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| Attempted panorama... This technique will need work... |
The next morning Mark headed off to Rome, and I explored the little oasis.
This was probably a private dock, but there were no "no trespassing" signs.
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| In Italy it's perfectly normal to wave to the passing boaters. Europe's friendly like that. |
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| Story to tell: this cat up yonder, jumped 3 times its squatting body length, first onto the metal box then even more impressively onto the narrow ledge almost just as high. How the cat didn't face plant into the fence first amazes me. |
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| Back on the main island I began to repeat the journey of the day before in order to figure out where the mask shop was. |
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| It's hard to tell from the back, but this woman and her dog is an exact replica of the dog owner scene in 101 Dalmations. |
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| A very talented street performer. I ate lunch to his performances, and got his CD to bring back a little of Italy. |
I did realize just how easy it was to not find something as small as a mask shop again! And I was about to give up when I stumbled upon it at last. And it all came to be worth it! The shopkeeper told me that if I come back to Venice he would teach me how to make a mask from the beginning, and could also recommend great places to eat. He even gave me a 20% discount on the mask I bought from him. It was a good deal!
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| I didn't realize Italy had crazy looking scorpions |
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| Oh look it's the bridge again! |
This tent in front of the train station housed the petition against unemployment in the train work force.
After reading the petition I decided the least I could do was sign the
paper, and hope that somehow these few hundred of employers at risk of being laid off because the train company is switching night trains to run through different stations will not be at a complete loss of work.
I'm sure the petition did not go unnoticed.
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| Neither did I know Italy had lizards also! |
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| Poor man-tried for 15 minutes to court her, and she ignored and rejected him time after time until the train arrived and they flew away together. |
