Venezia!

We arrived in Venice in the afternoon and were immediately taken into the city by our tour leader: Carly. She basically walked us around and dropped us in the center of the city for us to explore for the rest of the evening. Venice is not as big as I thought it would be, and there are only a few ways in and out of the city since it is surrounded by canals. People who live there only come in via bus or tram, and then have to get around the city walking or via the boats and ferries. So the first evening we had we walked around and crossed over the Rialto bridge, saw the Piazza San Marco  and Basilica San Marco. We also saw the Dukes Palace and the adjoined prison. We then had an option of going on a gondola ride. It was pretty expensive as I'm sure this is the most popular thing to do when coming to Venice other than shopping. So me and a few others decided to try to bargain with them to get a lower price than the tour group was giving us. So we did find one that was willing to bring the price down and so it only came to about 13 euros each split 6 ways. (80 euros total)

I have to be honest, I wasn't impressed once all was said and done. I mean it's cool to say I've done the gondola ride, in Venice, but I don't see it being as romantic and magical as you would imagine, and doubt I would do it again upon returning to Venice. Reason why:   1) the waterway stinks (not cute when trying to be romantic) 2) the gondola is quite wobbly so you have to keep your mind on not tipping it over and 3) the gondolier doesn't sing like you see on tv and movies.  The plus side was you got a chance to see the alleys and houses of the canal and flowers and such.  I was telling my parents and sister I preferred the faux gondola ride at the Venetian in Vegas better....lmao!  Yes, I know...SAD, but TRUE!

San Marco Cathedral

Alvix, Tia, Me, and Diya, on the gondola

I think it's hard when you go to a city or country where you've envisioned certain aspects of it, and have high expectations only to find out that your vision wasn't quite as it seemed. That's how I can describe my vision of Venice, don't get me wrong, I loved the city and it's clean and the people are great, but definitely expected more out of it.

Anyways, after that me and two of the girls I was on the gondola with Diya and Tia, decided to just walk around and window shop and eventually decided to just get some champagne and drink by the Rialto bridge and watch the sunset and the city light up. It was so nice and relaxing. As I mentioned when I was in Rome, I was looking for a moment like this, where I could just stop from the rush of all the traveling and just have a moment to take it in and just be in a "happy place", well I've found that in almost every city I've been in. This here, was the moment in Venice.

Diya had just started our tour with us in Rome, so it was a great way to get to know her, and Tia and me had already talked some over the course of the past few days, but it was great to just have some girl talk and to relax by the water. We had some fun out there too, between our photoshoots by the river, and the drastic moment when I kicked our empty glasses into the water....LoL. The reaction was hilarious, we all yelled "nooooo" all at the same time, you would've thought we dropped our cameras or phones or something in the water.  (this is one of those moments you had to be there for, to really understand why it was hilarious). 

We then returned back to the hostel to get ready for our free day in Venice