February 26^th

Caity went home to Paris and Dayna and I headed off for a night in Venice. When we got there we walked around for a solid hour trying to find the Hotel. Let’s just say who ever translated their directions from Italian to English either didn’t speak Italian or didn’t speak English because I know I am not that bad at reading a map. But we did finally find it and it was very nice. We had our cute little hotel room with chandelier and all.

After we put our stuff down we went out to go shopping and we found some really cool stores and masks I love the masks at Carnival. I wanted to buy all of them but Dayna wouldn’t let me, good thing to since Ryan Air probably would have thrown a hissy fit if my bag was a tad too big.

Then we went on a very romantic gondola ride at sunset around Venice. P.S. they don’t sing; but they do talk to themselves.

The Gondola man dropped us off near our hotel and we went back to get ready for dinner. The very nice concierge told us of this little hole in the wall restaurant around the corner. We went for the fixed price menu of 25 with 2 courses and a dessert and glass of wine, but we ended up going all out, spending a lot more that 25 euro and having a really great dinner minus dessert. The guy told us they had apple pie and chocolate cake, the apple pie was actually pound cake with caramel and whip cream and Dayna’s chocolate cake was actually chocolate flavored bread. Italian dessert is not really worth the calories unless its gelato. And Dayna did a survey (ate gelato everyday from a different stand) and decided that Venice had the best and Florence had the worst.

Then we went home and put on our masks and headed off to San Marco Square. We were very lucky because the signs in the street all pointed to how to get to San Marco and how to get to Piazzale Roma (where out hotel was) which made it really easy to get around because Venice is a really easy city to get lost in. We went to the Hard Rock caf� for a little while and when it closed we headed on home.

 February 27th

The next morning we woke up and checked out of the Hotel at 11 am and gave the concierge our bags to hold until we had to catch our bus to the airport. We went back to San Marco Square because there was apparently this really cool parade type show going on at noon. The streets however were packed it was the most insane traffic jam ever. Way worse than trying to get into your seats at a Penn State Football Game.

When we finally got to the square there were way too many people to see or do anything but at least on the walk back to the Hotel which took an hour and a half (after only taking 30 min the night before) we got to see a lot of people dressed in really cool costumes.

We went to go get on our bus and first accidently bought tickets to the San Marco airport. WRONG! So there was a waste of 3 euro and we had to run across the street and buy a ticket to the Treviso airport. It’s the tiny not international airport that only has flights to places in Europe. We took  the bus 30 min to the airport and then once we got to the airport grabbed a quick snack and hopped into line to check my bag with good ole’ Ryan Air. We waited in line for approx. an hour and when I finally got to the desk I had the new girl and on the website it says that you can by checked luggage at the airport but not at the ticket desk a t a little office in the corner on the other side of the one room that is the airport. So I had to go buy this ticket that says I have luggage and then come back to the desk (thankfully I didn’t have to wait in line again) and get my boarding pass and then move on to security. Then you go to another line where you wait to get on the plane because the seats are first come first serve. Then we rode back on the plane which wasn’t that bad after the line waiting fiascos. However, it is a little unnerving that there aren’t really any customs when you fly in from another schengen space country but it does go a lot quicker. Then we get on a bus that is an hour and a half ride to the center of Paris and then a 45 min metro ride home. All in all it was a very good winter break possibly the best I have ever had, not that I have ever had a winter break before.

Location: Venice, Italy