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ATTENTION: READ THE OTHER VENICE BLOG FIRST THIS IS THE 2ND HALF
Okay. On to Saturday! Saturday started much later than Thursday. We finally got up and around at about 11 and walked through the Rialto area near by our hostel. We found lots of really cool shops, a super market and some neat little neighborhoods around in this area. We also found a TON of tourists and a Ton of umbrellas. I hate umbrellas. Man up and suffer in the rain - or wear a hat or something but umbrellas inhibit the walking ability of all tourists. Honestly. We walked the long way to San Marco because there was a play that Steve wanted to see going on next to the square at 2. The play was canceled because of rain so we endured the tourists for nothing. We then spent forever trying to get home by using the back roads. Laura's boots were soaking wet, I was cold and we were all tired so the three of us girls went back with Adam and we took naps. Wonderful wonderful naps. Steve went out to find some other carnivale thing that was also canceled. When he returned around 4 we were all asleep but once Steve returned it was no longer peaceful - sorry Steve but your voice only has one volume: LOUD. Steve told us about a circus he wanted to go see so Adam Allison and I went with him while Laura stayed behind to catch up on some reading for class.
We finally get to the location of the circus and see a tiny tent. I think they said 3m by 4m by 2m high. Very small. 20 people went to the circus at a time. We got our tickets, free, and waited for the show to begin. We were ushered into the tiny tent by two italian ring masters and as we entered the tent we entered a world of miniatures. It was as though they had put the circus in the dryer and shrunk it. There were little miniature models of people sitting on model stands and we sat/scrunched underneath the big..er...small-top. the ringleader handed out popcorn in tiny cones, one kernel per person, and the show began. There was a trapeze artist, canon man, lion (bar) tamer (He tamed a chocolate bar! haha it was great.) a bicyclist and as the grand finale a group of russian tumblers all named boris, except one named andre. All of the entertainers, except the 2 ring leaders who were actual people, were intricately made little figurines that were played with in such a way that made them appear "real." It was fantastic. We walked back and got Laura and attempted to find yet another carnivale event in some random church courtyard. We wanderd through tourist crowded streets at 7pm to find out that it was canceled due to rain. We then returned to the hostel, stopping at the supermarket and getting food for that night and the morning. After pizza for dinner we had a few drinks (in the hostel - we broke the rules. oops. too bad it was prison and it was awful. we didn't really feel bad) and went out to the square right outside our hostel where they were playing reggae - the same 4 songs - and people were dancing. It was pretty fun. Around 1 am we returned to the hostel for the last night of our adventure.
Sunday was a hard day. We all just wanted to go home because everyone in Venice (I'd say 95% of people) was mean. and we were sick of it. We were unwanted and it was very clear - everyone glared at us no matter how hard we tried to fit in. We went to the train station because Steve needed to get tickets for his trip to Vienna...or something. Laura and I wanted to see the inside of a church and since it was Sunday we decided to go to the 11:30 service at one of the big, beautiful Catholic Churches. Mass is much prettier when it's in a church built 300 years ago and when it's in Italian. Well worth it.
We then decided to go to Burano, the Island of lace. After a really long trip to get there we got off the boat and we realized how beautiful the island really was. Pictures don't do it justice. There were all these shops that were full of lace that would have been more appreciated if we were 100 year old women who wanted to collect lace everything. Some of it was beautiful but mostly it was just absurd. Anything you can think of, they have it - made out of lace. It was insane and super expensive. We decided to splurge and have a nice lunch (meaning spending more than 2 euro on bread and cream cheese.) and we had delicious pizza in a little local cafe. After lunch we wandered around some more and we all decided that we need to live in Burano at some point in our lives. It was gorgeous.
Finally we got back on the boat and headed back toward the hostel where we had stored our bags. We stopped and got gelato one last time from our friends (not really) with the amazing gelato (chocolate and mint were the two best flavours - Allison might argue caramel was up there but for me it was definitely the chocolate and the mint...so delicious.) By the time we finished eating and got our bags from the hostel, checked our facebooks and whined a little bit it was time to go get on the bus. We were on our way home, and although Venice was beautiful - we were ready.
In conclusion: Venice is a beautiful city; the gelato is amazing; carnivale was cool except when they canceled things because of rain; the vaporetto is an awesome way to travel but don't buy a ticket; the venitians are mean; Mass is better in Italian; 4 full days is too long to stay in one place; don't always believe what you read about hostels and how good they are; Gondola rides are a must.
Ciao Venice, see you someday again when it's warm!
I hope you've enjoyed this EPIC entry and as always I'd love to hear from you! (Thanks for the birthday card JoAnn and Dan! My first piece of mail!)
Be well!
Natalie
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