City on Water!

Wow so I am safe and sound in Venice! I can't believe I was just in Spain this morning. It has been a challenge making the adjustment...no more Hola or Gracias!! I have had to catch myself a few times. Also saying I love spain while in italy..not cool! =P

My day started at 4:30 am. Got up and got ready to depart Rio Vida at 5. The goodbyes were hard! Had a few tears but I was mostly looking forward to Italy =]. Me, Heidi and 2 other girls (leanne and Amy G.) got taken to the airport and went to check in with our flights. I ended up being 4 Kg over and it is 20 euros per Kg over and so I was not going to pay 60 euros!!! I took out lots of clothing and eventually it was perfect =]. Now for the fun part...the clothing had to go somewhere! So I ended up putting on 10 layers of clothing haha (3 tanks,2 pants, 1 shirt, and too many sweaters =P). I ended up ditching 2 of my sweaters (one was my fav blue american apparel one!) to Joe who will give them to his oldest daughters. Atleast they will do someone some good!! I took it as an opporunity to tell myself not to dwell in material things haha it was a struggle at first though. Right when Heidi and I got through security we found ourselves staring at a big STARBUCKS sign!!!!! =] We got ourselves a drink right away! Oh how I have missed Chai tea lattes! Although it wasn't as good as the ones in Canada =P. We also met this Italian lady who was on the same flight as us...didn't speak a word of english but still tried to communicate with us anyways! haha
Everything went smoothly. I was worried Ryanair would make me check my carry on in the size measurement thing...lets just say it was bulging!...but they just let me go through so that was an answer to prayer! God is so good! I spent the flight ready Psalms...got all the way to Psalm 137 during a 2 hr and 45 min flight!! I LOVED it!! helped my fear of flying a lot =P.

We arrived in Venice 25 minutes early! VERY impressive if you ask me! We got our luggage right away (we were in the first 10 suitcases to come out),got a ticket for the ATVO bus and we were off!

Not sure how I feel about the language difference! I was just getting the hang of spanish! But it is neat to see the similarities and differences (how much: Cuanto Cuesto? (spanish) ...Cuanto Costa? (italian). Hello: Hola(spanish)....Caio/Chow (Italian), etc! ) I will hopefully learn a lot more italian while being here =] .
There are a lot of english speaking people though. It is nice to say hi to them in english once in a while =P

So we got to the area where our hostel was but it turns out we didn't know the name OR address!! I asked Josh to print out the travel documents I saved from emails on friday but it turns out the computer broke before he could actually do it!! I never realized that within those documents was the address and that I didn't have it anywhere else on me! Here comes the stressful part:
We arrived at 9:20 but didn't end up getting to our hostel till 2!! Want to know why? Well, first off heidi and I took turns asking people in the area if they know of a hostel that use to be a convent..no luck. Then we got some false leads so ended up walking around a lot (oh by the way, my suitcase is a piece of junk =P...the plastic inside that supports the shape got crushed and so the wheels are messed up now cause of uneven pressure. I practically had to drag the thing around! I am buying a cheap shoulder bag tomorrow since British airways allows 2 carryons =] hopefully this will lighten the suitcase!). Then we decided to destress and have lunch. We ended up meeting 3 people from france who love canadians and one of the old guys said how there was an internet point in St. Mark's square (10 min away...or 30 min water taxi ride due to the waiting I had to do =[ ). So while Heidi had lunch with the people I offered to go find the internet since it was my lack of responsibility that got us into this mess! haha So I ran over 1/4 of venice trying to find this hidden internet place!! Finally a lady actually lead me there haha. When I walked in it turned out I had to have ID on me...SHEESH! I left all my stuff back with Heidi! I pulled the 'crying card' haha well not really. My eyes did water up though as I explained how we had been searching for the past 3 hours for this stupid hostel and the address was sitting right in my email! So I convinced him to go onto my email for me (he let my type in everything..he just watched) and I got it and he actually explained exactly where it was! He was soo nice..great english too! I tipped him 2 euors then ran back to Heidi-kins! Woooh stressful day!

We freshened up and then went to St Mark's square to walk around the Doges Palace. This totally infused my passion for interior design! I LOVED IT SO MUCH! It is a shame we couldn't take pictures but I will never forget it =]. We did that for 2 hours and then came back to the hostel to put on warmer clothes then just walked around side streets until we got to the Rialot bridge! So cool =] We walked around there as well and then found a cute little place to eat dinner (my first meal in Venice!). I had this yummy spaghetti (best ever!) with FRESH bread...mmmmmm (jacked some for lunch tomorrow haha shhh)....and then a yummy fruity custard pie for dessert. Now I am back recapping my adventure!!

Oh the water taxis are pretty sweet here =] Sometimes you have to be aggressive to get on or else you will end up having to wait for the next one to come! (happened twice today=[ ). I love being on the water!! The people on the taxi can get pretty rude though. Lets just say they werent a fan of our luggage and how much room it took up haha oh well! I will never see those people again =P. Great experience for sure!

Well, I am facing a time change tomorrow...so for all you guys in cow town, I am 9 hours ahead of you!!
Have a great Sunday!

CHOW! xox