i fail at keeping this blog up to date....

I like that i am still trying to catch up on Italy and Croatia blog time when we are going to arrive tomorrow morning in Greece! sorry guys!!


Thursday: Day 17
Italy day three: VENICE

Ready for an exciting day in VENICE, we woke up and immediately took the bus into the city.  Our hotel we stayed at was actually located right on the outskirts of the city, which meant we had to take the bus, but it saved us a BUNCH of money.  Before we left, the hotel manager suggested a route around Venice that would help us get the most out of our day.  Taking his advice, we took a water bus for 6.5 euros from the bus stop to Piazza San Marco.  From here, the manager suggested that we walked back stopping at basically three major points in the city: the Piazza San Marco, Academia, and Rialto. Taking this route would put us close to where we began at the bus station to catch it back to the hotel at the end of the day. 

The plan was going great! The water bus is basically just what it sounds like.   A large, bus-like boat that literally acts as a bus would along the roads only it moves through the waters of Venice.  SOOOOOO cool.  We got off at the stop the manager said to get off and began wandering around in search of the Piazza.  Along the roads of shops, we found a little pastry shop where we stopped for a minute.  Kyle got a apple pastry for only a euro, which he said was awesome and I got a chocolate milk cause I have been craving it for like two weeks.  Its all Heather’s fault!! We talked about how delicious chocolate milk was in Barcelona and then never got any… so yes. I got a little juice box size chocolate milk and it was tasty.  We also passed by a fruit stand where Kyle got a banana and I got an apple. So that was breakfast. Haha.

We kept walking and eventually found ourselves… in Rialto.  Now, remember that we were heading towards the PIAZZA. Or so we thought! Instead we ended up hitting what was supposed to be our third and final stop of the evening first! Oops!! Ohhhh well. Instead we decided to pick up some lunch at a place we found a little off the beaten path where we ordered lasagna and spaghetti with meatballs. The lasagna was AMAZING. The spaghetti with meatballs was good too, but it had NOTHING on the lasagna! Haha.

Afterwards, we walked all over the island.  We decided to just take the day backwards and head to the Academia. We got gelato of course, and then decided to see if we could go around all of Venice via the water bus.  We ended up riding around the water bus for two hours. It was absolutely beautiful! Was cool to see the entire city across the water.  The bus went out to Marano island, which we wanted to see more of but did not get a chance to.  We also passed ambulance BOATS! Everything here is perfectly set up for water transportation.  They even have speed limit signs and markers.  Was pretty cool.

We eventually got back to the bus terminal, and from there we walked and found a spot where we could eat by the canal.  I tried pasta carbonara, but did not care for it.  The lemon chicken however was excellent especially since we have not had that much chicken.  I am going through chicken withdrawal!! I was so excited for chicken Parmesan in Italy, but apparently that is just an American Italian dish because they had it NOWHERE! So sad! Kyle and I tried another of the local beers with dinner. 

After dinner, we walked back to the buses and hopped on the one we were supposed to take back to the hotel. We had no idea where we were going, and when we saw/passed the hotel we did not think fast enough to jump off.  We thought it would just loop back and go back to the bus stop we got on at in the morning, however, an hour later we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere at a bus station.  We asked the bus driver where we were and how we should get back, but he did not speak any English. He told us we had to go back all the way to Venice and try again.  He told us that another bus would be coming in 15 minutes, and with that he shooed us off the bus and took off.  About 10 minutes later, another bus pulls around heading towards Venice.  Kyle and I hopped on and immediately asked the driver if he spoke English.  Turns out it was our same driver!! He motioned for us to get on the bus, and then he motioned for us to sit together in the front seat.  Basically, we knew he was going to take good care of us.  After a total of 2 hours on a bus (basically the entire first hour in reverse), the driver told us to get off at a stop, and we finally found ourselves outside of our hotel! We took hot showers, told the others our bus story, and fell asleep safe and sound in our hotel beds. :)