Off to Stockholm!

In the morning we packed up, and talked with two girls from Germany who were staying in the hostel with us, then we checked out.

(leaving the hostel)

Maggie’s group was supposed to meet up at 11 am, so we set out to find her hotel and drop off her bag and then she walked me to the bus station. On the way to the bus station we ran into the girl who will be her roommate for the trip so she joined us. I got on the bus and headed to the airport and everything went smoothly. Got to Stockholm and Jennifer was waiting for me. Jennifer is Alexis’ friend from college who lives in Stockholm. We picked up my bags from the storage and went to her car. Due to lots of accidents and roadwork we didn’t get into town for a while. When we got there Florian was at the flat so we just went straight there and he let us in. Then gave us the key and Jennifer and I went to get some dinner and for a short walk around the area. On the way back I stopped to pick up some things like shampoo and breakfast food. Then went back to the apartment and Florian was in his room, so I didn’t see him for the rest of the night. And I unpacked my bags. I’m pretty much settled in now. J It feels nice to have a place to live for the next 2. 5 months, and the place is really cute! I love it!

(living room)

(my room)

Start the day with a boat ride

We woke up in the morning to catch a boat to 3 islands near Venice; Murano, Burano and Torcello. Since we didn’t have tickets we had to get there early to buy them, but the thing about Venice is that from our hostel there are only 2 bridges that will allow you to get the rest of Venice and they are both equal distance from us, so there is no fast way. But we got there in time and our first stop was Murano, It is known for its glassblowing so we went to a glass blowing demonstration, they made a glass horse which was really cool, but the glass blowing wasn’t as impressive as what I have seen before but still some cool stuff.

After Murano, we went to Burano, which was amazing! Maggie wanted to just stay there and not go back to Venice. It is known for its lace making, which we also saw a demonstration of.

Man I just don’t think I would ever have the patience for that. The shop we went into had lace artwork all over the walls it was very impressive.

The city itself was a site, multi colored houses strung along canals.

We wandered for a bit and got a meringue desert from a bakery then headed to Torcello. Torcello was the first settlement in the lagoon and houses a cathedral and church from the 11^th century, the island didn’t have much on it besides those 2 structures and few houses, but it was all quite ancient looking in a beautiful way. From there we took the boat back to Venice, once back we needed to find somewhere to eat lunch, but we were already tired of pizza and pasta, but it seems like that’s pretty much all they serve in Venice. We eventually found a place to get a wrap, and got free wifi, which is amazingly hard to find.

(Maggie wasn't finished using email so she stood outside the restaurant to continue using wifi)

After lunch we sent to the San Rocco Cathedral. As well as the Scoula Grande de San Rocco, both amazing buildings of completely different styles right next to each other. We were tired after all of this so we picked up some post cards and headed back to our hostel to rest for an hour or so before meeting up with the KU kids again. We got their hotel around 7pm and they weren’t there so we got a pizza to go and had a picnic next to the canal then went to a nearby square to hang out and happened to run into them sketching in the square also.

Then we hung out with them for the night at their hotel and got back to our hostel right before curfew at 12:30, and everyone else was asleep.

(our room at the hostel)

2 more fun pics:

(This is a little stop motion Maggie and I made- Nick put it together for us :) )

First full day in Venice

Maggie and I woke up in the morning and had to pack our stuff up to move hostels. Luckily for Maggie our next hostel was quite close, maybe a 5-minute walk. We had to cross through a square, cross a bridge and the hostel was at the end of the canal. When you walk under this beautiful archway it says University Housing, in Italian of course, apparently it is housing for 120 students that is run by the church, and you have to be selected to live there since its on an honors system. The boys and girls are in separate wings but there are no locks on the doors. Interesting little fact. Anyway we were not with the students, we were in our own hostel part of the area, and it does look like an old church or something, with 2 little courtyards. Anyway when we got there we couldn’t go in the room yet so we just dropped our bags off at the front desk. Then we set off for Ca’ D’Oro and Galleria Giorgio Francehetti which is 2 joined palaces with the Baron’s art collection.

From there we headed to the Piazza San Marco, the largest and most beautiful square in Venice.

There was quite a bit of construction within the plaza, but it was still stunning, we were drawn immediately to the Basilica, with its domed towers, and 4 horses perched above the entrance. The line was quite long but totally worth it the walls and ceilings were covered with gold mosaics.

It was truly amazing, I’m happy it was Maggie’s first visit to a church in Europe! By this time we were quite hungry, but since this was the touristy area in Venice, we needed to get out of there. I really have never experienced this many tourists in one area. Venice is not that large of a place and everywhere you go there are people (Maggie and I decided that the city is much more beautiful at night- when you can see things besides people). So for lunch we ventured away from San Marco in search of cheaper food options, we found a cute little pizza place where we got a ham pizza. We sat outside and enjoyed a nice break, as the service is quite slow, it was nice to have forced relaxation time. After lunch we wanted to go the Doge’s Palace. Wow was that amazing! We almost didn’t go in because the ticket was so expensive, but we ended up being able to get a student discount. I’m really happy we didn’t miss it. I was not happy that you were not allowed to take pictures though. Because it was so amazing on the inside, so decadent, with walls covered in metallically woven fabrics, and the ceilings with 2 foot deep gold crown moldings, in the shapes of angels, and animals as well as just decorative leaves and such, which surrounded giant paintings.

(I snuck a picture)

One room even had paintings on the wall that the frames were actually attached to the wall, like a part of the wall it was so interesting. After the palace we decided to take a ride down the canal, so we hopped on a boat, but since it was just a water taxi there were so many people it was hard to really enjoy the ride down the canal. However it was nice to get out on the water. That dropped us off near our hostel and we went to move our bags into our room.

When we got to the room there was one girl in there, she was just laying in bed listening to music. We don’t think she spoke any English because we said hi and she never said anything to us. We sat in the courtyard and read a little then decided to try and make it to the San Rocco cathedral before it closed, we didn’t make it though. But we did find Danielle, Maggie’s roommate from KU who happened to be in Venice for a school trip. And went to dinner with her group at a nice Italian place. Then we hung out with them that night along the canal.

When we got back to the hostel, 2 girls were asleep. One in the most interesting position…

And a British girl, who just graduated with a fashion degree and is now taking 3 months off to travel around Europe. We stayed up and talked to her for a while, then hit the hay!

Chao!

The Journey Begins!

So I left for Venice with Maggie Hirschi on June 12^th. So flew from St. Louis to Chicago and then to Stockholm. There were no problems! It was a miracle, seeing as I usually don’t have good luck with flying. If we can all remember all my delays and changed flights to Ireland last summer. But we made it to Stockholm and had a 4 hour layover in which we went through customs, baggage claim, checked my bags at Left Luggage and then checked in once again, went through security and some how still had almost 2 hours to spare. Then we flew to Munich, and then to Venice. Took the bus from the airport to the island of Venice. Let me tell you Venice is not a good place to be carrying a lot of luggage. Maggie had to carry her bag over 2 bridges to find the check in office for our hostel, Residenza Santa Croce.

Then since our room wasn’t actually near the check in office we had to go across 4 more bridges, which all have steps, not ramps. Our hostel was right off the main road however, which was nice. After we dropped our stuff in the room we went to go eat some dinner. We ate a nice Italian dinner next to the canal while gondolas passed by. We drank wine and shared a calzone and lasagna. It was quite tasty but a lot of food.

Afterwards we decided to just roam about the city.

So we just walked around the beautiful for a while ate some gelato and got back to our room around 11 pm, ready for some sleep!

Love Steph