Fight or Flight in Venice.

Venice from top.

Now onto the weekend with Rich in Venice. I felt like such a pro getting through the journey alone to Venice and figuring out how to get to the train station from the airport and all those logistics. It's nice feeling confident in a new place and people in the airport seemed to notice cuz they kept asking me what to do since the Marco Polo airport is across the water from Venice... too bad my response was always.. ''um... ya, im just gona buy a bus ticket i guess.. you should ask her'' as I pointed to some lady at a desk.. it seems like as long as you look confident in what you're doing and where you're going, you don't stand out oto much and especially, no one tries to fucks with you. good rule of thumb in traveling if i've learned anything.

Venice was great. If you ever go to Venice, you must stay at the hostel A Venice Fish. It''s located in this little island almost close to everything- train station, bus station, rialto, san marco. It has a private bridge and it's just a beautiful building. It used to be an old Venetian house. I would wake up and walk around the balcony and tourists would always be taking pictures of it. That was kinda weird but pretty sweet. BUT the BEST thing about the hostel is the owner cooks up FREE dinner every night for the hostel so everyone just comes together at night over drinks and food and gets to know each other. It's like a family around the big table every night PLUS you save like 20 euro each night from dinner.

Besides the hostel, Venice was pretty sweet. There's not much to do there but that's the strength of its charm. You can get lost in the city and just be overwhelmed with the visual stimulation. Every corner there's a surprise- whether it be a beautiful sunset or a small unknown canal with houses with architecture you've never seen before. It's not a normal European city where you have to hit all 20 sites in one day but its a city you can stroll around in with life passing by really slow.

Rich and I had two amazing meals. Well mostly Rich had two amazing meals.. I was just there to watch him enjoy them while I ate my mediocre but still good enough food. His infamous spaghetti with clams and spaghetti with langostino sauce. It was the meals he had always been searching for in Italy and he finally found satisfaction.

Very satisfied customer.

We also went on a gondola ride. We agreed that the most we would spend was 80 euro on a gondola. Normal is 100-150. The first guy we talked to wouldnt go lower than 100 so we were like nah... stick to the plan. The next guy we passed, I was SO ready to haggle and he goes "80 euro"... i think i was too in shock that my haggling instinct left me immediately. and he totally knew it. But in hindsight i think i coulda haggled it down to at least 60... gotta work on keeping my game face on. Nevertheless it was great. Our gondola guy was cool, he showed us Marco Polo's house and Casanova's house. Rich and I couldn't hold back our immature nature to scream out "marco" "POLO!" We kissed under the Rialto bridge, and took a tour of the little canals which we couldn't ask for more on our first gondola ride. Interestingly enough, tourists kept taking pictures of us on the gondola.. We're FAMOUS!

Gondola ride with Gondola man.

We went to the glass blowing city of Murano. The main thing to see here is the glass blowing show. Everyone says its a great experience. Unfortunately, they don't show it on the weekends so we weren't able to hit it up but if you ever go, let me know how much I missed out on.

San Marco square was quite the experience. If you know me, you know I have this weird phobia of birds... well not birds per se but when birds flutter uncontrollably. It's probably the scariest thing in my life. San Marco square is where ALL the pigeons in the entire universe come to gather to attack humans. I've never had so much fear in my life but at the same time I've never been so exhilarated in my life. It was such a weird anxiety... cuz I'd run away but always come back for more... like getting back in the ring after being knocked out... many times.. well regardless, Rich bought a bag of birdfeed and went all out with the arms stretched out and pigeons covering him and fluttering all over the place. GROSS.... I tried to face my fears... it took me awhile but once I got enough courage I put the feed in one hand... held it out...

Bird fluttered straight at me, I dropped the feed and fled...
it only took one.
you won this one bird. til next time.

Pigeon killing man in gray.

Not a happy camper but happy enough. =)