Beautiful Venice!

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This holiday season, Kai and I traveled to four European countries. We were on vacation for almost three weeks, starting in Venice, Italy and ending in Prague, Czech Republic. We had an amazing time and saw a lot of beautiful places. On December 19th, Kai and I met in Nykoping, Sweden to fly to Venice. It is where the Ryanair airport is based outside of Stockholm. I got up at 5am after 3 hours of sleep (too excited to get to bed early) and took a train and two buses to the airport. When we met at the airport we were talking and an American guy overheard our English. Turns out he is a student from LaCrosse studying in Germany and visiting Sweden for the holidays. What a small world!! We flew to Venice and on the way I had a window seat with an amazing view of the Alps. Check out the pictures, I am really proud of them. We took a bus into the city of Venice and walked to our hotel. We had a great dinner that night near our hotel. The next day we walked to Piazza San Marco and on our way saw many old buildings squished together in many colors with laundry hanging out to dry. If you didn't know, Venice is an island with one grand canal and many others. There were small bridges to cross each of them. The long and narrow alleys were easy to get lost in, but there were always signs pointing us to either Piazza San Marco or the train station. I noticed a lot of dogs in the town, they are a popular pet. I kept pointing out how cute all of them are and it made me realize how much I want a dog of my own someday. Like in most big cities, there were lots of peddlers selling knock-off handbags, belts, watches, and wallets. My friend Cheryl was in Italy a few weeks before me and bought a red bag from one of them. I made the mistake at pointing at one that looked just like it and sure enough the peddler was running after me with it trying to sell it "good price for a pretty lady"! We had a Coke and a small lunch on our walk to the Piazza and stopped in a few shops. I found a great shop where one man makes journals, bookmarks, photo albums, and other things out of leather and hand paints them. It was really beautiful stuff. I bought a bookmark and it was my first transaction in Italian. It felt good to understand him and he was very thankful for the business. I love buying stuff locally and getting to meet the creator of the products I buy. We took a water bus (no land buses on this island, there's no room for that) and we went to an island nearby. We went to the top of a bell tower and got an awesome view of Venice and the Alps in the distance. We took the water bus back to the Dorsoduro Penninsula and walked around until we took another up the Grand Canal. On our walk, we passed a man playing Violin for change. He was really good so we tipped him and I grabbed a picture for memory. I recognized the song he was playing, it was classically Italian. The trip up the Grand Canal was amazing. We saw a lot of people in gondolas but the water bus is just as good in my opinion and a tenth of the price. We stopped at Riolto Bridge and took a fika (Swedish for mid-afternoon coffee break). The Riolto Bridge is unique because it has a lot of shops right on the bridge that have roofs on them. There was a lot of things to buy on this street but we refrained, we like to buy things off the beaten path. After taking a nap and a glass of wine in our room, Kai and I walked through the Christmas market, which raps around the city and crossed the Riolto Bridge again, this time at night. We went to a nice restaurant by the train station. I had a pizza with ham, artichoke, and mushrooms. Kai had scallop pork and we also had a liter of red wine and tiramisu. Venice is beautiful!! Its like nothing I've ever seen and I'm amazed at how condensed everything is and how well it works. The canals are the main mode of transportation. People can't even ride bicycles here because of the narrow streets and bridges. I can't wait to go back to this city, it was the first city we went to and honestly might be the best in Italy that we saw...I absolutely loved it! Going with my boyfriend made it so romantic and it was a great way to start the big trip.

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Photos

A Pug for Patsy
I saw this at a flea market and thought of Violet, Patsy's dog

Water buses
This is the best way to get around Venice, they were fast and easy to use; cheap as well.

Orchestra Practice
We walked by a building and hear wonderful music inside. I caught a picture of them practicing.