Europe Part 1: Venezia!

Yes! We finally have a valid Internet connection and a new laptop. I feel like such a slacker since we've been back from Europe for almost two months now and I haven't posted a single picture...anywhere.

After loading our pictures onto our (new!) laptop, I realized that blogging about 2000 pics would be ridiculously tedious, not to mention horribly boring. So with that in mind, I decided to post pictures according to each city we visited so hopefully I'll only be boring people with relevant pictures of our backpacking adventure.

The last city on our trip was Venice, Italy (I'm going backwards because these are the pictures that are most easily accessible). If we look really grungy and smelly, it's because we are. Living out of a backpack is surprisingly difficult. We rotated four or five outfits and hand washing really takes a toll on clothes! The hope is that we'll look better, more put together during later pictures.

This is the glass bridge that you can cross to enter the actual city of Venice. We didn't stay on the island because of the outrageous prices...and we were on a budget.

We saw incredible architecture in the buildings, bridges, and parks. It was impossible to take pictures of everything, but we tried our best. I had heard from others that had been to Venice that the city was dirty and stinky. I wholeheartedly disagree. The city had an old world charm full of what was once Venetian opulence. It was once the richest city in the world. The pealing paints and scuffed walls only added to the testament of its character. The pigeons, however, were dirty and stinky...and aggressive. As you may or may not know, I have a fear of birds. So me+mean birds+an open courtyard by the sea=worst nightmare ever.

I was quite enraptured by the gondolas, as they kind of represented a mythical creature or something. You grow up hearing about them, but you never actually see one. We didn't get a chance to ride one because they were about $130 an hour. Now that we're back from Europe and not totally broke, I think I would have liked to spend that money for the experience. Ah well, ces la vie. The gondolas, the water, the character of the city really to make Venice the most romantic place in the world. After seeing museum after museum for three weeks, Andy and I decided to spend money on a candlelight dinner on the canal and a baroque opera (the photographic evidence of which are temporarily missing). The dinner was three courses of deliciousness. I had a grilled salmon, spaghetti, roasted veggies and a chocolate mouse. Andy opted for the roasted chicken, vinaigrette salad, and lasagna with the same dessert. When we were finishing the started pouring rain. It was almost like a fairy tale where you have this amazing, romantic day ending with kissing in the rain.

Only our fairy tale ended with us running a mile in the pouring rain to catch our bus. But we laughed almost the whole way, until we got lost and had to back track. Then we were grumpy. Then we were laughing at how ridiculous the whole situation was. It was a fitting end to our three week trip.

Next Up: Florence

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