Venice

Traveling with 6 girls across Europe is definitely a fun, unique experience. We kick off the trip by arriving in Venice with no plan and my friend chiming in going, “huh, now what”. A little chaotic, a little spontaneous is the theme for this trip and basically anytime we are all together.

Side note: I am now having a humbling realization that any group of people or friends I am in is usually the most chaotic one. I’m now seeing the common denominator here. No further questions.

This weekend was my favorite trip so far. This is not lessening any of my other trips but I finally felt like I was in a peaceful place mentally and all felt right with my soul. However, this was not the case with public transportation.

Public transportation won the battle with us this weekend. We could not be worse at simple navigation, but hey take the road (or the tracks) less traveled… amiright?

We arrived in Venice Friday night after the day in Bologna. Once we got out of the train station we checked the map to realize that we couldn’t take a simple bridge or taxi to our hostel (yes, a hostel), but miles of the sea separating us.

After realizing this at 10pm on the streets of Venice we went back inside of the train station and realized we had gotten off at the wrong exit. The only way to get back to our exit was to hop on another train. No worries, right? Well after walking outside ot the very last platform, we approached what seemed to be a graffitied, rusted box… but was actually our train. With no tickets or sense of logical direction, we hoped on. I know, super safe.

Thankfully the train took us right back to the right station which was a 5-minute walk to our hostel. But no, this wasn’t any hostel. But the “best party hostel” in Venice with a bouncer to get in and a DJ, dance floor, and bar in the common lounge.

After entering our 9 bunkbed bedroom we walked to a pizza place. We ended up drinking and talking longer than expected (per usual) and stayed at the restaurant until 11:30. A little wine-drunk, we were quickly lured into the party scene in our hostel. We danced for a little bit and then went up to bed after a long day behind and an even longer day ahead.

Saturday morning we woke up and were super excited about the $6 breakfast until we realized that the bacon was cold, the eggs were plastic and it was ultimately the worst breakfast we ever had. So that was great.

But thankfully it fueled our energy to sprint to the train that we missed, and arrive in Venice a little later than expected. As if we couldn’t mess things up more, we then realized that the boat tour we had in 20 minutes, was a 35 minute walk. Without any form of transportation on the island of Venice besides a gondola, we had no choice but to sprint the 3 miles.

Mind you, “Carnivale”, a large festival where everyone is dressed in masks and costumes, similar to Mardi Gras, was occurring in Venice. So while we were sprinting for the 30 minutes we had to dodge men wearing wigs and women wearing large dresses.

After sprinting the 3 miles in new dress shoes and full faces of makeup, we faced the ultimate devastion. We had the wrong address in our navigation. So there was absolutley no hope for our boat tour.

Fortunatelyyyyy we got to exchange the tickets for the next boat tour, an hour later, and had time to get funky masks to match the current Venice crowd, and to-go drinks and food. Arriving with tons of food and full drinks with our boat leaving in 10 minutes, we were told that we were not allowed to bring food or drinks on the boat. Alcohol going to waste is basically a sin so you can guess how those 10 minutes went.

As if more could not be added to this situation, I completley disregarded the fact that I get very motion sick and had the suddenly realization that we were going to be on the shaky tour boat for over 3 hours. A great touch. AND we realized that the boat tour we were on, was a Spanish speaking boat tour. I can not make this stuff up.

Regardless, the boat tour was absolutely amazing. The day was foggy which actually made every island have a mystic feel which was gorgeous.

The tour was 3 and 1/2 hours and went to Murano, Torcello, and Burano. In Murano we had a short presentation where we watched a craftsman make a beautiful glass sculpture in under 5 minutes. We walked by the colorful buildings and around the shoreline.

Torcella was a very small, rural island which felt a lot like The Little Farmer (for anyone from the 920). There were open fields without much civilization but a small, calm stream running through it and a couple of buildings.

Burano was my favorite island. This was the one that is commonly showed in magazines and travel movies. It has all the colorful buildings that line up arojnd the canals. There are small boutiques everywhere which we all gave plenty of business too.

When we arrived at the dick back in Venice, we realized that we sprinted through it all morning and needed the chance to actually see it. So we walked around and danced with the people dressed in costumes to some of the street musicians. My friend Carly’s friend was in Venice as well so we met up with her, had a couple of Aperol Spritz’s with their friends, stopped and danced at a random bar, and then headed back for dinner.

After the day and the drinks, we were all pretty exhausted and starving so dinner was very needed. I had the best seafood pasta I had in my life and we all had our fair share of bruschetta.

The wine consumed at dinner gave us a second wind and when we got back to the hostel there was a DJ playing so we checked out that scene and then hung out in our room and basically laughed at our friend Alexa for 3 straight hours.

Sunday morning came and like most Sundays, it was peaceful. Once more for good measure, we sprinted to our train that we just about missed. That wasn’t too peaceful. We headed back to the center of Venice and had a great breakfast near the canal.

We hoped on two gondola rides and spent the 30 minutes on the ride with the highest serotonin levels I have ever had. It was so sunny and peaceful out I could’ve stayed on the boat all day. Our paddler was a traditional gondola conductor with a stripped shirt and a sun hat. This was surely the best part of the trip.

After this we walked around, grabbed pizza and gelato, and headed back to Florence.

This trip is one I will tell my kids about and am still laughing over how much we unintentionally ran. I don’t think my heart rate was below 100 the whole time but a little menace in Venice never hurt anybody. I’m so thankful to have met these “abroad besties” to travel Europe with. Every trip just gets better and the chaos makes life a lot lighter. Venice brought me so much joy (& shin splints) and I can’t wait to return again someday.