So.... I went to Venice.

And it was beautiful.

I took an amazing adventure to Venice with three girlfriends: Morgan (OCU), Miriam (Tasmania), and Jess (Tasmania/UK).

We bought round trip bus tickets for 40 euro and took a 4 hour bus trip through the Alps. It was a double decker bus and quite comfortable!

(A reminder that you can click on the picture and

see them in a larger slideshow format)

From the bus

 This is the view from our room window.

We stayed in the Mestre area, which is across the lagoon from the actual island of Venice. It's less than a ten minute train ride to the island and we were about a minute walk from the train station.

My first REALLY REAL Italian pizza!

Our room! It did the trick for 14 euro a night:)

I packed this tinnnny little purse with all kinds of things for the whole day out (lipstick, camera, kleenex, phone, ipod etc!). Miriam carried my sandwiches and we ate our packed lunches to save mula!

So...it's our first time on the train in Italy.  We know our stop is the first one and the train stops... so we think we need to get out. Jess goes first and she shoves the doors open and gets out. I follow her, but the doors start closing... they're not like an elevator where the doors sense you and open... I got stuck in the trian doors. With the help of some random men, I escaped the jaws of the Italian train and made it out to the random area that wasn't even a legitimate platform! The train had just stopped for a moment to let another train pass or something. A nice train attendant lady came and escorted us to another part of the train where we stayed for the rest of our journey. We held up the whole train packed full of people.Talk about embarrassing!

My other half!

We took a water taxi from one end of the island to the other. It was great to sail along the Grand Canal and see all the fabulous architecture. We scored awesome seats in the back that allowed us a spectacular view!

I have an Italian heritage and felt a strange connection with the place.

A real life glimpse at a ride down the Grand Canal:

 Doge Palace aka Ducal Palace-this is the area of San Marcos Piazza. The Doge, or ruler of Venice, lived in this palace for hundreds of years. The inside is now a museum. It is incredibly exquisite; gigantic rooms with gold trim and walls and ceilings covered in fantastic murals. Unfortunately you cannot take pictures inside! Take my word for it that it was unreal. The amount of time it must have taken to do so much detail in all the artwork is unimaginable. Every room surpassed the previous one in grandeur and detail. This complex also housed a prison where we walked through the halls and into cells. It was very eery and chilling.

The exact view from the guide book

A hallway where photography was allowed!

I tried to recall some of my Latin knowledge!

 I may or may not be in love with gelato.

San Marcos Basilica. It was super big and crazy detailed

 This was a real street! With a label on the map and everything...

not designed for American SUVs

Sunset over the train station

Some Italian wine on the canal on a Saturday night. So classy.

We didn't realize that today was daylight savings time in Europe... Awhile after waking up we realized that all our electronics had conflicting times. We needed to catch a train and then walk to our bus stop by 11:20 to return home. We quickly got dressed, packed our things, and walked to the train station. When we got there we bought our tickets and found the next train to Santa Lucia. The screens had a message that some of the train workers had gone on strike and trains would not be running on schedule or may not run at all...Luckily we finally got on a train and made it in time for our bus!

And now for the food portion of the blog:

Thanks to Morgan for some of the pics :)