VENEZIA!!

Wow. What a beautiful city!! It was altogether peaceful and calm and quiet - so relaxing!

Rachel and I left Friday night. We took an overnight train from Zagreb to Venice. We left Zagreb at 11:30 and arrived around 7:15am. It wasn't direct, plus we stopped for 45 minutes at every border (Slovenia and Italy), so it took awhile. Luckily, we were able to sleep for a few hours.

We arrived in Venice and went straight to our hostel (Absolut Venice). It was located right across the canal from the train station and it was really easy to find! The manager, Franco, was already awake and he made us coffee and gave us some cake for breakfast. The hostel was beautiful - it had chandeliers and moldings and MTV!

After our cake and coffee with Franco, we hit the streets. The city is spread out over a bunch of islands, which have canals and little windy streets running all through them. Everything (at least on the islands connected by bridges) is within close walking distance, so we found most of the major sites by early afternoon. We got to San Marco's Basilica shortly after it opened and walked right it - by the time we came out, there was a line stretching around the square!

Plenty of tourists were out, but probably nothing compared to what it's like during the peak season. Also, there are no cars on the islands, making it really different from Zagreb and Belgrade! It was nice to know that we weren't going to be nearly killed at every corner! The lack of air pollution was very welcome. The weather was warm and sunny (but not too hot that we could smell the canals).

We stopped for pizza at a little trattoria and had excellent, polite service from a few Italian guys who thought we should join them later on that evening for some street dancing. We passed... After some gelato, we eventually made it back to the hostel, where we napped for a few hours since we hadn't gotten the best night's sleep on the train.

After our power snooze, we went to the Venetian Ghetto and ended up at a major grocery store (the selection there was sort of reverse culture shock!). We bought some pasta and such for dinner and went back to the hostel to cook it. I haven't cooked for myself since January! It was so nice to be free in a kitchen without a host mom trying to prepare something for me! We were also able to buy tomatoes, which are a rarity this time of year in Croatia. In the market, only one or two vendors have them and then, they are really expensive.

We went to bed pretty early - there were a few other people at the hostel (2 girls from Canada and a few kids from China), but everyone was pretty quiet/tired. Sunday morning, we woke up and packed up our stuff. Franco said we could leave our backpacks in the closet and invited us back for dinner that night, which was really nice.

We saw some more sights and had cappucinos at an outdoor cafe on one of the squares. I wish I knew more about Italian history, because I think I would have understood the significance of some of things we were seeing better. I wanted to go on a guided tour, but we really weren't up for it and didn't want to shell out the Euros! I have a little guide to the city, so I'll just have to read it as I look at my pictures; hopefully, it will all make sense.

We got kebabs (I know, not Italian, but we needed something flavorful and not the bland meat they serve in Croatia) and ate them on the promenade along the Grand Canal. After more gelato, we went souvenir shopping! Murano glass (a Venetian original) was everywhere. I bought a pair of earrings and a glass pendant for a necklace. I really wanted a Carneval mask, but needed to prioritize/budget!! After that, we bought some drinks (Bellini for me) and went to a park to sit and relax... our feet were killing us! Then, we went to the hostel for dinner and to get our stuff.

We left Venice at 9:30, had some time to read/do homework on the train before we got to the border and then we slept until 4am, when we arrived in Zagreb. We went back to Rachel's apartment and slept for 5 hours before class! It was a fantastic trip!!

My pictures will be up sometime in the next 24 hours.....