What can I say…Venice was everything I always pictured it would be…Blue skies, colorful buildings and winding canals. We chose to go to Venice on sort of a whim, so what was planned as a day trip turned into a 2 day trip. I was excited, however, to get that extra day because there was no way we would have seen everything one day. We stayed at a very nice hotel just a minute from the train station, so that was very convenient. When we got there, we freshened up and headed out for the day…We walked through the town for a little while at first, until we decided to meet up with a few of our friends from school on the island of Murano…yes the island where Murano glass comes from. Let me just say that I wanted everything on that island. In every store window, and I am not exaggerating, there were elaborate displays of one-of-a-kind glass pieces, from miniature candy's to giant chandeliers. On our way over by waterbus, we got to see the sun set on the skyline of Venice. It was so beautiful. The waterbus system was very exciting. Think of it more of a subway system, except by boat…It was fun to get to see the city by boat without having to pay an arm and a leg. After Murano, we headed to dinner with Jenna and her new Australian boyfriend Vu. We met Vu at Oktoberfest earlier in October when we sat at his table in one of the tents…Out of 10,000 tables we could have sat at, we sat at Vu's, which turned into a great relationship for them. Yay! Anyway, we headed toward the Rialto bridge for the ghost tour of Venice we decided to do. Let me just say that it was the biggest waste of 15 Euro I ever spent…haha. The description was definitely deceiving. Instead of a scary tour of the back alleys of Venice, we took a historic tour at night with 30 people on the trail of Marco Polo. On top of the lack of scariness, our guide was the happiest woman you could ever meet. She didn't even try to be spooky. She said with a big smile on her face and a very peppy voice how Marco Polo's wife jumped out the 5th floor window in a fiery flame where she was never found again. There were to be 6 stops on our tour. By the 3rd stop, instead of turning right with the rest of the group, we took a right and went to dinner along the Grand Canal. A much better choice if you ask me. We ate dinner along the Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge in our midst. Now when I say dinner, I mean more of a feast. We decided that after our hard week, we all deserved a nice meal. So we decided to go all out…3 appetizers, 4 bottles of wine, entrees and desserts. Despite what we thought the bill would be, we kept treating ourselves. After about 3 hours of talking, laughing and stuffing our faces, we finally got the bill. Before I could look down at the total, Vu snatched the bill up and told us that tonight was on him…At first we hesitated because we knew the bill had to be ridiculously expensive. But he insisted because we let him live with us in Florence for 2 weeks and cooked him a Thanksgiving feast, which he had never had, being from Australia. The bill was 250 Euro. The next day, we got up nice and early and did what we came to Venice to do….gondola rides!!!! We took a gondola ride through the canals of Venice! It was so fun. Our gondolier was singing songs, and the day was simply perfect. After every corner, the view was like another postcard. There was no part of Venice that wasn't picture perfect. After our gondola ride, we headed to St. Marks square to see St. Marks basilica. Now I have seen some amazing churches and cathedrals all over Europe, but this one was spectacular! I had never seen so much detail in one building. The entire basilica, on the inside, was covered in a gold mosaic. I mean ¼ inch by ¼ inch golden tiles coveting the entire thing. It was absolutely insane. We spent quite some time in the basilica before we climbed to the top. The views were amazing from the top as well. By that time, our day was running short so we had to head back to pick up our luggage from the hotel. We saw almost all of Venice's main attractions in 2 days, which I think is pretty impressive. There are not many tourist attractions around Venice, because the essence of the city itself is truly amazing. Whether it was sitting for gelato alongside a canal, or people watching in the streets, Venice is truly a magical place. There is so much culture and history that is so often overlooked. Our train ride back to Florence was a nightmare. We had to switch trains twice, where there were no seats available. So we sat on the floor of both trains. I won't lie, it wasn't too bad. We had some laughs and had more leg room! J Our second train was delayed for over an hour so we went to McDonalds for some late night munchies. After an hour and a half, we returned to the train station to see that the train was still delayed. It got a little weird, so we asked the attendant what the problem was. She told us that the train was "finished." At that point it was almost 11pm, and we had class the next morning. She told us that there was another train leaving in 4 minutes, so we ran to that platform. Luckily for us, that train was delayed 15 minutes, so we had time to recuperate. Unluckily for us, the seats we had purchased would be void because it wasn't our train. So once again we sat in the hallway of the train. Overall, Venice was an amazing experience, much like the rest of the trips I have taken. Each city, however, has its own memories with great people and places. Venice was defiantly one of those cities.