Well we are still alive. I actually didn't sleep all that bad either. And
neither Meredith and I hogged the bed we had our sleep sacks (or cocoon as
Meredith and I like to call them :D)

We were in a RUSH to return our key and be done with this hostel. So we packed
up quick and headed to the main office. I told Meredith that I would stay with
the bags and she could just run the key upstairs... She gave me the death glare
followed by a few inappropriate words when I suggested this, but still did it :D
Haha, it was quite funny.

She came walking out of the office building and then came one of the creepy men.
He then threw her a wrapped cake which was supposedly the included "breakfast"
... we totally threw it away right after that fearing it had been poisoned.

We then headed to the train station to store our luggage for the day. We read
in our Rick Steves book that the luggage storage was between the 13th and 14th
platforms, which it completely was not. So we had to get in line at the tourist
information center.

We had planned on going on a speed boat tour of Murano and Burnano which was at
9:30am, and a 40 minute walk away. But with the delay of standing in line at
the tourist information center and then at the baggage check there was a slim
chance we would make that time.

Also at the tourist center we read that today the public transportation boats
and buses were on strike... great... we were not having the best luck in Venice.

While waiting in line to check out luggage the line started forming into the way
of the workers moving luggage from the trains. One of the workers started
yelling at the people in Italian and being very rude. But then another italian
woman in the line stood up for the tourists and yelled back at the worker that
they did not understand and to not be rude. I was actually really impressed
that someone stood up for the tourists. Although Meredith and I haven't been
welcomed with open arms everywhere I don't think we have really received any
overt hatred for being American. But I definitely know that it is possible.
Some Americans that we have ran into definitely add to our bad reputation but
Meredith and I have consciously tried to break the mold.

Even though we were going to miss the tour, we decided to head to the docks
anyways to just see if we could catch a private boat to the islands. When we
got there we went to the tourist information center, and waited in line for what
seemed like 2 hours! The woman was extremely helpful, but almost too thorough
and slow helping everyone.

She told us that the public transportation would be running again at 4:30pm but
that there was still one open dock on the other side of the island and that we
would have to walk there or wait till 4:30pm. We had a train to catch to
Budapest at 9:30pm from the mainland, so we knew that we would have to go to the
alternative dock. We bought the one day boat pass for 16 Euro, which was a
little expensive but not too bad considering that was the only transportation we
have paid for since Paris.

Another thing to know about Venice is that it is impossible to use a map.
Because there are thousands of little alleys and most of the roads are unmarked.
The best thing to do is to just head in a general direction and then look for
landmarks and go from there. And one thing that I wish we would have brought is
a little compass. There are a few times that it would have been extremely
handy! We got to the dock and had about an hour or so to waste before the next
boat to Burano. So we decided to get lunch at one of the close cafes.

In the tourist areas a small pizza is about 5 Euros, so Meredith and I both
ordered a margarita pizza. But we definitely could tell that we were out of the
main tourist areas when two HUGE pizzas came out! We now know to ask how big
everything is before we order, because we definitely could have split the pizza.
We ate outside but in the shade. About half way through the meal this bird came
and tried to land on our table! Hating birds, I freaked out and shooed it away.

People must let it land and eat with them, because for the rest of our lunch
this bird was trying to land on our table. And I mean was like diving right at
us! It was so strange, because Meredith and I would shoo at it and it would
just come right back. Finally it got to be too much. We let the bird win and
we left.

I truly hate birds.

We then headed to the dock to make sure that we would get on the water taxi.
Which we did. It was about a 40 minute boat ride to the furthest island we
would be going to Burano. But one of the cool things we saw was Venice's
cemetery. It is an individual island completely separate from Venice.

Burano is known for its colorful buildings and lace making. So Meredith and I
wandered around the bright island and took pictures. The islands are small so
we didn't really need much time. We wandered the streets and got a water but
then headed back to the docks. We had to wait a half hour or so to catch
another boat. There was no real schedule for the water taxis with the strike
going on, so you just had to sit and wait...

We got on the water taxi and headed to Murano. Murano is known for glass
blowing. So that we just wandered in and out of the stores. Some of the glass
blowing was so impressive! LIke huge chandeliers that were over 2,000Euros! But
it was fun to just see all the different designs and art.

We only spent an hour or so on Murano as well and then headed back to Venice.
It was so hot out we were excited to get to the train station and relax before
heading to Budapest.

We had to take a short train from Venice St. Luica (the island) to Venice Mentra
(the mainland) ... and then we just waited in the lobby. We were so hot, and
there was no air conditioning. I just read on my iPad and Meredith caught up on
her blogs. We also enjoyed the wafer cookies and nutella that we bought earlier
today :)

At one point the police came around the waiting room. Meredith was sleeping on
her luggage and they came up to me and were like "is she with you?" .... in
hindsight I should have just said no :) haha, and seen what they did. But I
think they were just making sure that no one was just bumming around the train
station.

About thirty minutes before our train we headed over to the platform and ran
into Charles from Florence! He was on the same train with us, but getting off
in Croatia at like 2am! Such a small world.

I was a little nervous about the night train because I really didn't enjoy the
last one, but I think we had learned from that one. This time we brought food
and had lower expectations. The train eventually came and we made our way to
our coach.

Oh I also didn't mention that Meredith and I bought groceries before the train
ride. Including our wine juice boxes, haha that were one Euro... which is the
new record for cheapest wine!

We got on to our coach and the worker showed us to our cabin, which was empty!
We were so excited. But the numbers didn't match our reservations. Initially
we thought that he had made a mistake, but we were not going to correct him. I
went and looked in the cabin that our reservations were made for and it was just
two older men.... We definitely didn't want to be with them, so we put our suit
cases away and set up our beds as quickly as we could, praying we wouldn't have
to move.

We thought we had the cabin to ourselves but about 10 minutes before we left,
another woman came in. Which we were completely okay with, because it was still
better than our last sleeper train.

It was just the three of us. We learned that the woman was Hungarian but living
it Italy. She spoke 5 different languages (Hungarian, Albanian, French, Italian
and English) ... We were amazed! She said she didn't like it though because she
feels so confused all the time. And she was actually reading a book about
preserving your memory. It is quite funny!

She taught us some words in Hungarian like sorry and hello and told us some
places we had to visit. It was a little difficult to communicate (I don't think
she spoke English that often) but we made the best of it.

Charles also came down to our coach to visit with us. And then he got yelled at
by the worker. I guess the rooms are divided, and boys are not allowed in the
girls. Haha, which was funny. We said goodbye to him, and we may even run into
him in Germany in a few weeks.

After we all headed to bed and we will be in Budapest tomorrow!
-brooke.