DAY 2 March 23, 2008- Venice

We had our first italian b-fast (which is weird... like hard buns and chocolate cookies.) we then caught a intensly packed bus to the islands of venice! When we got there we bought 72 hour vaporetto (like the metro but on water) tickets covering our whole time there. We found our hostel (on the farthest island) and dropped our bags off... and then went off to explore venice... on easter sunday (insanely crowed and a bit rainy). We traveled across to one of the main islands and walked around San Marco and Dorsdoro and San Croce. We basically were completely lost for hours... but on small islands its no big deal... and it seemed like if you minused the tourists and the vendors and the gondola guys... there would be no one left... did all the inhabitants leave the islands for easter or just hide in their houses? We ended up in a park laughing at pigeons... it must be pigeon mating time because everywhere (italy and greece) the male pigeons are strutting thier stuff and spinning in circles... i took video of it... haha. WE found the famous rialto bridge and I bought souvenirs... a small classic venice festival mask and a tiny gondola hat. I had gooooood pizza for lunch and then gelato for dessert.... (some of you may know that i have not had ice cream in 14 months... the gelato in italy does not count and I am once again not eating ice cream... there had to be an exception) We found the famous snail staircase church in a back alley and wandered around some more... basically all we did in venice was wander the islands. Then I ran into Rachel Cohen from Deis... it was crazy!! It was really good to see her... Shes living with Nina and the crew next year so I will see them eventually.Amy and I got dinner (pestoooooo) and found the vaporetto back to the hostel... for my first hostel it wasnt that bad.. they gave us clean sheets (i still used the ones we brought with us) and a locker for our stuff... we were kinda bored and watched a movie on my ipod and then crashed and went to bed.
lots of venice pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050627&l=67669&id=9804527