Ok so I woke up a little tired Saturday morning and took a nice shower. The shower in my apartment is really tiny so it was nice that the hotel allowed me to take a shower where I could actually move. Afterwards I went down to the breakfast buffet and managed to eat some stuff. They had some really weird breakfast options: cakes, pastries, sliced deli meats, really odd cereal, yogurt, pineapple and grapefruit juice that was really strong (I later learned that you are supposed to add water to the juices not drink them straight), and some really good croissants. So after breakfast we met up with some of the California kids and Angela led us on a tour of Venice. She gave us headsets so she didn't have to yell, and led us onwards. We started at the Academia, which was an old school that now houses a large amount of amazing paintings. We didn't go inside because we didn't have tickets and there was no way we were paying for them (too expensive). We headed off towards Piazza San Marco. Venice is kind of a pretty city if you couldn't tell:
Eventually we got to Piazza San Marco and it turns out that it was a little flooded. But we weren't going to let a little water ruin our time in Venice, so we explored anyway and we did not get attacked by any seagulls. Lauren, Darcy and I in the piazza:
Me in front of Saint Mark's Basilica where his body is housed. There were wooden boards to stand on to get over the flooded parts:
A truly beautiful Cathedral filled with Gold mosaics:
Marble was also everywhere and the floor was like an ocean and very wavey, with some cool designs. St. Mark's body is under the altar and the staircase to get there is behind this wall and you have to pay a lot of money to get to see it, as you can see from the sign, general public was not allowed in:
The lobby of the Church was flooded as well so there were more planks:
Apparently at one time there was an attempted rebellion here but they failed and as they were trying to escape, one old lady through pottery down from her window at them and managed to kill a conspirator. The people loved it so much, they made a statue of the lady here:
By the fish market they had some fresh water and I did not actually drink it but the guy after me did and he seemed fine:
Apparently when the Moors were defeated and banned from Spain in 1492 the Jews were also banned from Spain. So these Jews went to places all over Europe including Venice. Venice made the world's first ghetto here by saying this little place was the only place Jews could live. They were free to go anywhere in the city but they had to live here. This was 1516. The ghetto never grew and was used through World War II. You can't see it in the pictures I took but the Jews just built apartment on top of apartment with the levels being really small. It was really sad to see:
After our tour we were headed to Murano, the island near Venicevwhere glass is blown beautifully. The water bus gave us a nice beautiful trip:
We had lunch in Murano. I at first didn't know what this was but understood the guy when he told someone later that it had fish, cheese and something else. It was kind of like a fish stick/ cheese stick. It was good:
Then I stopped by to say hi to Dr. Malone, his wife, and our tour guide (Angela):
Murano is so pretty:
The girls in my group agree:
Then we were headed to Burano, which is an amazingly beautiful island a little further out than Murano. I thought this statue was kind of cool:
And I'm a little immature:
But the houses were really cute, and painted to look so pretty:
They sold Murano glass, Venetian masks, scarves and a lot of lace:
This reminded me of my good friend Vanessa:
Lauren didn't think I would post this when she took a selfie on my phone, but I did:
Of course there are so many beautiful bridges on this small island because there are so many canals:
Afterwards we headed back to our hotel and I got dinner at McDonald's because it was so cheap and Venetian food is not that fantastic. Then I took a nap, lost my credit card, cancelled my card and then went out to carnival a little. I'm not a huge fan of Venice, but I have to admit, it was pretty fun.
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