Beautiful Venice

Ali & I eating ice cream in a park

I’m writing this from my “lovely” hostel common room.

Even though the hostel experience left something to be wanted this city has been nothing short of spectacular!

When we got off our plane into some town outside of Venice, we were immediately thrown into massive confusion and crowds. Our airport-bus dropped us off at the bus station but our directions from the hostel said to start from the train station... getting from A to B was confusing madness as the buses we took didn’t announce when a stop is approaching or the name of the stop (needless to say we missed our stop at least once). Eventually we found our way to the hostel, which is a bit away from the main part of town

Sunday morning we set off to find our way to actual Venice. This was also a difficult and confusing journey to figure out so once we got there we were very happy. Before, when I thought of Venice I figured only a small part of the city would be the picturesque parts you see on brochures and pictures. However, literally the whole city is these islands and canals. Bridges and tiny narrow streets are the town.

I’m pretty sure we took pictures of every canal and picture only to realize later they are all the same. But nonetheless they are all gorgeous. At times I felt like I was in a dream. I can’t believe I am able to just fly to Italy for Easter Break and spend several days in such a beautiful place.

That evening we met up with some friends that are also studying in Oslo. It was Amy’s birthday and we spent it eating Italian food and drinking Italian wine (perfect huh?) We made a interesting but very fun group of all native English speakers but with so many different accents and dialects. We had British, Australian, Canadian and 3 Americans and it was just a lot of fun eating and being in a large loud group. Once we split up again to go back to our respective hostels we found out that Venice at night is like a large dark labyrinth. It’s a crazy maze system with such high buildings you can get very disoriented quickly (and a bit freaked out).

Yesterday we met back up with the other girls for breakfast and a little bit of site seeing before they had to catch their train to Rome. Afterwards Ali & I visited a park at the edge of an island and explored the reminder  of Venice. Our feet were sore from walking on so much cobblestone though so we slowly meandered and took frequent stops at cafés to eat pastries, drink tea and sit in the sun. We almost fell asleep on a dock over the canal at one point. The amount of sweets we consumed is sickening but amazing. I have had so much pizza, croissants, and other itialian sweets and yet my trip is only just beginning!

When we were told Southern European cultural was very different from Northern & Western European they weren't kidding. People here are a lot more forward and pressing than we Americans are used to. Especially traveling as two American girls we get lots of notice just by talking as we go through town. This past day though we decided to speak in Norwegian to try and not stand out with our English. We decided our language was a "Englnorsk" since we had to throw random English words conversations (we're not quite fluent in Norwegian yet). Overall though we were surprised at how much Norwegian we could actually speak when we tried. When you pass shops or restaurants there were people waiting to convince you to come inside, and yet that actually made me less likely to go in. Also the men are very obvious in their observation of women, it made us feel a bit awkward but we're pretty good at ignoring it.

Today is our good-bye to this gorgeous city and a train ride through the Italian countryside to our next destination.. Rome (I'll be able to say "when in Rome:" now)

Gondalas going through a canal

Canal

Mask Shop

Rialto Bridge- most famous in Venice