Grand Finale Chapter 2: Venice

After Paris we flew to Venice and slept at the airport again. We actually got lucky though because it was a really small airport and they shut down at night but since there were a lot of flights canceled in Spain (because there was a strike) they were letting people sleep there for the night. We actually even had security come up to us and ask us for our passports. Anyways, once morning came around we got up bright and early to take the bus to actual Venice which was only 40 minutes away.
From the bus stop we took a water bus to the area where our hostel was. It was so cool that the city was all on water, no cars, no bikes, just boats. Actually the day before we got there the city had been flooded a whole meter and we could actually see some of the water still pretty high. After getting to our hostel we walked around to explore a bit. We went to a little cafe and had cappuccino and pastries. (So yummy!) My pastry was more like a cookie with a blackberry type jelly inside, sooo good! After the cafe we walked around some more to find Piazza San Marco. It had a big cathedral in it and lots of little shops and it was still kind of flooded in spots too. We continued walking around, semi shopping. It was kind of hard since all of the stores were designer, Prada, Channel, Burberry, etc. It really sucked because I was trying to find a dress for New Years but I was not about to even go in any of those stores. Since we still had our backpacks on (we couldn't check in yet) we started heading back to the hostel and went through Piazza San Marco again and saw the weirdest thing. Well I didn't mention that the first time we were in the plaza we saw a dead pigeon, like torn up, DEAD. So on the way back we saw a seagull pick up a pigeon and fly away with it, set it down a few feet away and just started pecking at it and swinging it around with it's beak. It was crazy! (and really gross!) I guess the pigeons really make the seagulls mad in Venice.

After checking into our hostel (which was so cute like a little Italian home) we headed out for lunch/dinner. We were so hungry we stopped at the first place we saw. It was crowded so we figured that was a good sign. We all decided to get our own dishes and then share them all. It was great! I just had spaghetti and meatballs to keep it safe for my first meal in Italy but Margarite got Gnocchi with a four cheese sauce and Michelle got a pizza. Also, as an appetizer I got brochette which was so yummy!
 After dinner we walked around some more. I really wanted to go on a Gondola so we asked around for prices. Well stopped looking around after the first one who told us it was 120 euro for a 35-40 minutes ride. HA! So we didn't go on a gondola ride, instead we shopped around for some souvenirs instead. It started getting dark at like 5 so we decided to head in since we had homework to do and it was getting even colder than it already was. (It was freeeezing in Venice!) Also, Michelle and I had to get up early to catch our train to Florence.
There wasn't a ton to do in Venice but I'm really glad I got to see the city on water. It was really pretty and a great way to start our visit to Italy.