Venice- Day 4 (without Mama)!

We woke up bright and early to take Mama to the bus stop to go to the airport. She had to catch a 6:30ish bus. We got there in plenty of time, I then proceeded to go back and sleep for a few more hours! I then proceeded to finish packing and then headed out.

I wanted to try to find this guy’s house that was included on our museum pass (eh, why not?). It wasn’t worth the trouble to find it. I started off by walking towards it, seemed easy enough. But this is Venice mind you. About 45 minutes later, and asking about 3 different people where it was, I found it. And it was totally not worth it to pay to see it unless you have that snazzy museum pass. It was about three rooms about this guy’s life. Apparently his father built him a theater inside the house and then he became a famous playwright.

Afterwards, I took a boat to the center and bought some pretty art. Then wandering towards another museum that looked promising.  But it was closed.

Then I began the long process of finding a post office or even a drop box for the post cards I had. And when I mean long, I mean bout 45 minutes long. FINALLY I found a drop box, dropped the letters off and walked back to the hostel. I grabbed my stuff and headed to the boat stop. When I got there, I was able to hop on the first boat that went to the bus station.

Then I waited. And waited. It was about a 45 minute wait once I was there, but I thought it was going to be shorter. There were a few other people waiting for the same bus. It took about 45 minutes to get from the bus station to the airport.

Wizz Air has a strict one bag, 10 kilograms limit. I knew with my snazzy three new dresses from H&M. So I had my wallet, the travel book, and a few other things in my jacket (they don’t weigh you) and my camera around my neck. My bag was 9.3 kg. OH YEA!!!! But I had apparently forgotten about that little 3 oz rule (which is 100 ml in case you needed to know) and put some balsamic cream in my carry on. Now MK doesn’t really care about these rules, but the EU does. So she took my yummy cream. I had to buy it for 8 euros in the gift shop/duty free.

Then I was there about 4 to 5 hours because the plane was delayed. There was a big storm in Sofia, and the plane couldn’t take off. They didn’t even know when it would take off. But since we were in the EU, we got free food and drink. I met some awesome PCVs there and some MK’s who were also returning to Skopje. We had some good conversation. Then there was the added benefit to have a cheaper taxi ride into the city with their taxi driver. :)

Then sleep. Lots of sleep.

See you around the globe!

Venice- Day 3 (with Mama!)

After a delicious breakfast, we headed back out to Ca’Rezzonico. It was easier today because we took a vaparetto directly to the boat stop where the Museum was. It contains furniture, decoration, and artwork from the 1700s. It was apparently “the best place in town to experience the luxurious, decadent spirit of Venice in the 1700s.” It also looked like a really cool place to host a wedding, by the way. They had some really cool paintings in there, but it was kind of cool to see the rest of how the house was set up. On the top floor they had a special exhibit of random paintings by locals, but they were some really cool paintings. Also, they had it set up so you could look outside and see the skyline of Venice. Kinda cool, if I say so myself.

We then caught 2 vaporetti (?), to go visit one of the islands in the lagoon. We stopped off in the Cemetery island, technically called San Michele. We weren’t supposed to take pictures, they claimed that it wasn’t respectful enough. I disagreed and took some pictures anyway. It was created when Napoleon decreed that no bodies could be buried on the main islands of Venice. he claimed it wasn’t “healthy;” imagine that- dead bodies on the sinking islands where everyone lives?

We then headed off to Murano, our main goal for the day. Murano is famous of it’s glass factories. In 1292, a law restricted the factories to the island of Murano- they were afraid of setting fire to the islands where people lived. (We got off where Rick Steves’s suggested but I disagree with his suggestions. I think you should take it all the way to the museum stop, visit the museum first and then walk back through town. ) We walked along a canal to head towards the museum of glass (also included in our museum pass). We bought some cool non-breakable-ish glass stuff on the way (including my bridesmaids presents!).

The museum was cool- it actually reminded me a lot of the other glass museum I had visited- except this glass was so much more intricate! I got some cool pictures of stuff you weren’t supposed to take pictures of again. But these works of art were amazing!

Then we waited for the next vaporetto and headed back to Venice. We shopped a little on our way back, and then ate some dinner. We also decided to take a night time tour of the canal, so we caught a boat to catch a boat. We got to see part of the city that tourist probably never go to. It looked pretty residential. Apparently there is a really fancy hotel there. Then back to pack and eat some more before going to sleep!