Venice, Italy (Day 2) 6-30-08

On the way to venice I saw my first lighthouse this trip. I was trying to sleep on the bus, but suddenly awoke to the feeling that I was missing something and then it was there. It was so cool. So venice was really neat. It is built in a lagoon and all if it is built on the water so it floods in the winter. The history was amazing. We arrived at the ferry and took the half an hour trip across to venice. It was so cool. I got to see a few more lighthouses on the ferry. That was definitely a highlight on my trip. Once we arrived in venice we were met with a local guide named Federico. She was ok. She gave us a lot of information. Then from there we went to a glassblowing demonstration. We were a little rushed through it but it was amazing. Then we went to our gondola rides. It was so neat but also a little boring. Our gondolier was not too friendly. But the views were amazing. So that pretty much made it worth it. From our gondola rides we went to eat and drink cuz we were starving since breakfast was cereal with warm milk, rolls and jelly. So we sat down at a cafe in St. Marks Square only to be told that there was a sit down fee to sit and listen to music was 6 euros. So we left that cafe and went to another. We were once again told that we had to pay to sit so we all ordered drinks at 7 euros each with included seating. Then we all took turns going to get food from the cafe. When we can back we were told that we had to pay for a food seating charge. It was amazing. We all paid and sat there for a while. Then it was back to the glassblowing shop to look and to buy some really neat things. The guys there were anamoured by nikki. The followed her all around the store. It was so funny. We all thought it would be funny to take a picture with them. We asked the very gladly accepted. It was great. Then we did some shopping on the way to St. Marks Basillica. Once we figured our how to drop off our backpacks around the corner and down the street we headed into the church. It was really neat but nothing to the scale of the National Cathedral. The really interesting thing was the pictures on the front of the church were mosaics and made out of tiny stones. It was so neat. From that we did a little more shopping and then headed to the Rialto Bridge that is on the grand canal. It was really neat, we had seen it on our gondola ride. After that we went back into the square and sat on the steps for a while. Then we headed back to the boat for our trip back to the hotel. Once we got back to the hotel we had dinner (hamburger no bun and fries, with spaghetti ). Then the hotel owners told us that we needed to pay for the a/c that some of the rooms used the night before. Steven (our tour guide and walking encyclopedia) argued with them since they failed to mention that the night before. So no a/c for us tonight or we had to pay 8 euros. So we were all going to pay cuz it is sweltering hot. Then they told us it was a fire hazard and they told us not to use it. So another very uncomfortable night. But we made it through.