Venice

First and foremost, I'm home. I've been home for about three weeks now. I'm still going to update the blog though!

That said, I suppose I should start this post with an obituary.

Whilst on the ferry taxi to our apartment, tragedy caught up with our group. Abby is currently coming to terms with it. In the Grand Canal our ferry hit some wake from other boats. Abby lost her balance and her backpack knocked into the rail on the ferry. In the mesh compartment of her backpack was her trusty Nalgene. A Nalgene that had been all over the world with her and was covered with (to quote) "once in a lifetime stickers." Well, it hit in such a way that out popped the Nalgene. It took a swan dive of sorts into the canal and slowly floated away as Abby watched in horror.
It was a terribly sad moment. One where Abby was near tears (understandably, the bottle had never let her down), and her brother dad and I were trying very very hard not to laugh.

Once we got back to on land we were led the apartment. I kid you not, Venice is a maze. Had it not been for the person taking us directly there we would have never found it.

We wondered around for a bit that evening and I saw my future. It was in the form of a glorious yacht (Dad, remember that boat I promised you, this is also your future). The yacht looked like a modern day tall ship. I think I would have sold my soul to be on it. I didn't get a good picture of it though. Carl the younger and I had a good long talk about our future yachts while eating gelato and staring over the ocean.


The yacht of my future, taken from a creepily far away distance -----------------------------------------> 

The next morning we were woken up at 7 on the dot. The house attached to the apartment we were staying in was under construction. The particular place being worked on, the wall that shared our bed.

This is going to sound ridiculous but we had the BEST breakfast in the apartment of a bowl of cereal. It was heaven. Up until this point Abby and I had been basically grabbing a coffee and a pastry on the run.

We walked to San Marco Square which was a surprisingly short walk, considering how long or ferry taxi took to get around.

Very cool statue of a Lion (the symbol of Venice) outside of San Marco Square

We weren't sure what to do first but Abby and I immediately noticed that the square had another astrological clock. This one was much simpler and also more practical than the one in Prague. It also told time! Imagine that. On top of the clock tower was a gigantic bell and two human statues holding sticks. On the hour one person would move and ring the bell by hitting it with it's stick. It was a little creepy honestly.

<- Above view of the clock tower and creepy men on top of said tower. (Also a view of the Square).









While in the square we decided that, why not, we'll climb the Campinole. It's the tallest building in Venice after all and the line for St. Marc's Basilica was already unreal. Granted, we were all feeling a little tired from climbing the Duomo the previous day so there was a bit of grumbling.

I have this aversion to elevators, especially European elevators, so I was all for stairs. Unfortunately, the Campinole, as it turns out, is not a tower you are allowed to climb. It's elevator or nothing. I sucked it up and got in it, it wasn't so bad at first, but then 11 other people got on to make it a grand total of 16 people in one small elevator. I don't think I have ever been so happy to be out of one, but the view from the top was totally worth it. I could even see my future, excuse me, I mean the yacht.

Left: Campinole                                        Right: Abby & I at the top of the Tower

When we made it down the line was still ridiculous for the basilica so we wandered a bit more. About a block until we hopped on a gondola. I'm still not sure how I felt about it. The ride was nice and relaxing. I was surprised by how crowded the canals were. I was not so surprised though by how rocky the boat was. It's a precarious balance you have to keep in it and Abby's dad moving around to take photos, was funny, but did nothing for the boats balance. Are gondolier didn't sing though. But we went through a lot of little canals and a part of the big canal. We saw the Bridge of Sighs and Ponte di Rialto as well as the Opera House and doors that simply opened up into the canals.

Ponte di Rialto 

Above: Bridge of Sighs

Once off the canals again we began wandering through the maze again. There seemed to be a repeat of stores: food, more food, places to by Venetian masks and repeat. I wanted to get a mask, but they were all so pretty I couldn't decide, so I didn't get one.

We made our way back into the square where we finally went into the basilica.
This was also a basilica I had studied in art history ages ago because of the mosaics. The church is entirely made up of mosaics, except for the columns. The ceiling was a combination of blues and golds but while Abby was stuck on the ceilings, I was, once again stuck on the floors.

The floors were made up of 88 different types of marbles cut into triangles and placed into giant starburst patterns. As I've mentioned before with the churches we've been into, I loved the way my feet felt sliding across the floor but this time for a different reason. Venice was built on a sandbar and over the hundreds of years the church has been there the ground has shifted. This shifting has caused the floor to be very wavy in places. It really is astounding.

Exterior of the Church and part of San Marco Square

One of the MANY MANY Mosaics

On the agenda for the evening was finding a place to watch the Eurocup in. It was the deciding match Spain v. Portugal. Who would advance to the final round? Spain ended up beating Portugal in overtime. Which was unfortunate for Italy's chances if they were to beat Germany Thursday.

The next morning when we were in the train station I had the biggest fan girl moment of my entire life. Growing up in the Bay Area I'd thought I'd become desensitized to seeing famous people but when I saw TJ Thyne walking through the Venice train station I sort of lost my shit. It went a little like this.

Kristin: ABBY OH MY GOD ABBY THATS THE GUY FROM BONES ABBY THAT'S TJ THYNE!

Abby: Oh. You should go say hi or something.

K: NOOOOOOO

Carl the younger: Yeah you totally should.

K: NOOOO I have too much stuff with my right now and he's with his family and HO MY GOD I JUST SAW TJ THYNE.

Yeah it certainly wasn't my best moment and I know I was loud to the point where I'm positive he heard me but oh well.

The things that surprised me most:

I was most struck by the fact that there are absolutely no cars in Venice. 

Second, the doors on house that simply opened up into the canal, no step or anything.
Third the stairs that led straight into the water. It was really cool.