Third Full Day, Second Day of Action

Today we went around Venice on foot and visited all of the churches and more important monuments and stuff. We also visited the legislative building and whatnot. It was actually pretty neat, considering how much interest I DON'T have in politics. It was probably one of the better days. The sun was out and shining and it got quite warm around the middle of the day. And we were able to explore a little bit more, and at lunch we lazed on one of the docks at the edge of the piazza in the sunshine eating our sandwiches and singing silly songs holding hands like we were little kids. People gave us strange looks, as I'm sure it is not a common sight, as we all communicate in Italian and break off into different languages like Spanish and German, as well as English and others. At one point we were on another big boat along the Grand Canal, travelling to another point to visit, and we sat next to a small group of guys from the Netherlands (and listening to awful club music). We had already been accustomed to the strange glares of people silently questioning us, so we took no notice of theirs, when one beside me tapped my shoulder and asked what we were doing. And so I explained. And he asked me how we could all be friends if we're from all over different parts of the world, how we could speak to one another even though we all spoke different languages and such. And I told him that we all spoke to each other in Italian. But how is it that you can explain to some common teenage boy listening to club remixes drinking coca-cola and just looking for a good time to party how we can all be so close even though we're all so different? It just is. You bring a group of people together from all parts of the world, all with a passion for exploring and learning, and from there it turns into love. There's no explanation for it. It's just how it is. Sure, there are always groups of friends within groups,and there's always someone that may kind of bother you. But it was in no way divided because of race, religion or origin. Not even language. And you were more bothered by a certain characteristic of a person, like talking too much or something, not bothered by, again, race, religion, language, values, or whatever. We are just people. And we are all from the same world. Why can't we be friends? So when I was asked this question I just smiled and said, "Because we are." And I left it at that. Whether he understood or not. Most likely he didn't understand, nor did he have an interest in thinking about it further. Although one was very into my Ray Bans. I had a little more respect for him and his good taste ;)
So now I will show you pictures from that day, and then we will move on:

Diego in front of the first of many
and very similar but beautiful churches

 

We weren't allowed to take pictures
But turning off the flash and peeking
the lens out of you hoodie pocket is a good
little trick.

I quite liked this

A bust

All the churches are cavernous and
echo like crazy. Pretty neat.

Those same jazz guys. I quite liked them

TUNA

A beautiful sunny day

A rather horrible picture. But it's proof that
I stood there.

Me and Diego foolin' around

Up in the tower in the pizza. Here is all
of Venice from above

Basically impossible to find your way
around

Galileo Galilei - with his telescope from
here on the 21st of August 1609 increased
the horizons of man in the fourth centenarian.

The Islands from afar.

So that was that day. When I arrived back at the house I was exhausted. Temporarily. Then it was back with the silly games. We even attempted to play Monopoly but it just turned into stealing each other's money piles and moving people's wooden players around when they weren't looking. Then I had a shower and went to bed, exhausted. There was not a sound except for Mr. Turtle slowly milling around, constantly trying to escape. I caught him once standing on his hind legs staring over the edge of the lip of his container. A mischievious turtle. Great.

The next morning I once again arose early and met up with Laura and her host mom and we were driven to the meeting point called Piazza Roma just outside Venice to find the others. This was the Island day. We visited 3 islands. The first one was called Torcello. Very cute. But basically nothing there. Very quiet. And the next one we visited was Burano. Every house was painted a different and very bright colour. It was very happy looking. Although the lasagna I ate at a restaurant was quite awful. But we didn't stay very long there. Lastly we went to Murano. The place where all the blown glass is made. It was full of glass shops. And that was it. Just shops with all kinds of things made from glass. We also visited a church. But by then we were a little tired of churches.

Diego on the boat

The boat

A colourful boat

Torcello

Santiago from Argentina

Walking to the center of Torcello

Historical site

Church

Thomas from Belgium on an
old stone chair

Burano dock

Murano

 

A glass....thing

Church

Me and Diego in a glass shop

Next Blog to come:

The cities of Padova, Treviso and Verona :)

Venezia

So on Saturday morning I woke up and took my small (as in tiny) suitcase and my bag in hand(s) and I was off to Venice (I prefer to say Venezia so from now on I'm going to write it that way)! I soon boarded the plane where I then stared out the window for two hours and I landed in Rome. I had less than an hour to find the gate in order to catch the plane to Venezia. The tram we had to take after the plane seemed to take forever...but I found the panel with all the gate numbers listed right away and found my gate number: B13
Awesome. Then I just followed the signs and walked quickly down hallways and up and down stairs and around corners. And I was so nervous and flustered that during all this sign-following for some reason I somehow got in my head my gate number was actually B14...so then I turned around a corner and down some stairs...and then at the end of a long hallway I find B14. Then I realize it's actually B13 and I turn around and go all the way back down the long hallway, up the stairs and down 3 more VERY long hallways and I finally reach gate B13. By the time I got there, there wasn't even time to go to the bathroom. I waited about two minutes and it was boarding time. So at least I made it. I was basically crapping my pants (not literally). Then we were in the air headed for Venezia. Near the end of our flight I began to see things down below us, and we started passing over what looked like huge swamps and mazes of water and canals....and we were nearing landing and I was expecting to see Venezia...but I never saw it and I thought "Oh my God the city finally frickin' sank. What the nut am I supposed to do now?!" Of course it would've been just my luck mind you.

As soon as I landed I ran to the bathroom like a racehorse. I was really nervous about meeting this new family. And when I came out a tall man with grey hair and a well-dressed woman followed him. Beside her was her daughter, both with red hair, and the girl was carrying one of those lap dogs. I remember thinking "Oh no..." But the initial awkward moment passed and we were soon in the car headed back to the house. Turns out the father could speak english as well...which was nice, but it's not like I really need it now. I learned that the girl's name was Ilaria, and I was surprised to find that we were very similar.

The first thing I said when I walked into their "apartment" was "Wow."
It was the first Italian home I'd seen with wonderful wooden floors that I have missed so dearly, instantly warming your feet, and it was wide and spacious, not fancy, but nice. And they had a nice WOODEN DECK, not a stone balcony. Not a single cold place in that house, and at night I was actually dying because I was so hot. But the room I stayed in was the study, with all the computers and everything...and it was very small and stuffy. I shared a room with the pet turtle that was kept near my bed. Me and him soon became buds.
As for the dog....well...depended. The dog at first hated me..for the first day. Then the rest of the time it was humping leg basically whenever it saw me. And one time I left the door to the study open and it went into my bag and ate all my kleenex -.- But it was surprisingly cute. From a distance. It definitely had character I'll give it that much. Speaking of character, let's move on to Ilaria's younger brother of 10 years. What a handful. A little on the heavy side. Blond hair with blue eyes. He was hilarious.
Although I'm quite used to having a younger brother around always getting me to play the strangest made-up games in the world with him so it wasn't a bad thing. We played all kinds of strange games with a squishy foam soccer-ball, as well as making faces at each other when we were watching TV. Good stuff.

Anyways, we stayed at the house for about an hour and a half, and I was already tired from all the airport business, and then we went to Venezia (the family lives in a city just outside Venezia called Mestre and I loved it) for a good 2 hours at least. Probably more. And we walked all over the place and I had already taken way too many pictures of the place. Everything seemed like a painting. And there were thousands of shops filled with masks and blown-glass figurines. And then there was also Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Ferrari, Louis Vuitton, etc. It is one of the most amazing places I've ever seen.

One of the first things you see

Grand Canal

Ilaria and I

One of the many shops filled with hand-made
puppets and masks

A "street"

A nice quiet place

A building

I quite liked these

A door..I dunno I like it's character

A terrace

An extremely old church
There's pics of the inside later

Gondola :)

Another "street"

People actually live down here

Some jazz musicians in the street

Some cool jewelry 

Markets are everywhere

Nearing the piazza

Another gondolier

Grand Canal

The church in the piazza di San Marco

So that was the first day after I'd barely arrived. And then that night we met up with all the other kids from Intercultura with their host siblings and we ate some pizza and walked around and goofed off for a bit....and by the time we got back to the house I was dead. And unfortunately I didn't have a very good sleep. I was too full of exciting thoughts and plans and I was hot and my mind was everywhere. And then Monday morning I had to wake up at 7:30 to meet up with the others at 8:30. And I was already a zombie and we hadn't even gotten started.

That day we spent I don't know how many hours visiting the gargantuan residence of Doge, who was the governor of Venezia when it was still an independent republic. I t was gorgeous...what a "residence."

A little bar on the water..and boats

A "street"

Looking back from the boat (which would
normally be a bus in a regular place)

An arts museum that I had wanted to go see

Un palazzo 

Gondolas covered from rain

Wine anyone>

I've been on this bridge a few times

Ani from India

Me and Minglu from China

.......heheh

The Basilica

San Marco...obviously

Joaquin from Bolivia

Left to Right: Diego (Bolivia), Karina (Russia),
Me, Minglu (China), Ani (India), Joaquin (Bolivia)

Back row Left to Right: Ani, Joaco (nickname),
Thomas (Belgium), Diego, Laura (Paraguay)
Front Left to Right: Minglu, Karina

A column

La residenza del Doge
(I know right?)

The Grand Staircase
(I'm pretty sure that's what is was called)

Golden Ceiling

Me and Diego at the window

The map room.

;)

The church in the piazza di San Marco

A shop

 

Dhali

So that was the first day! It was pretty exhausting. And my shoes were soaking wet and squishy and I kinda felt like poop so that night I went to bed early...but I still couldn't sleep!

Third Day Coming Soon..