One Lady in London: Spring Break Part Three: Venice

Venice was picture perfect: exactly how I had imagined it to be, and I couldn't be happier about that. Our original spring break plan had us in Venice for two days, however we got much cheaper flights if we were only there for one day. This ended up working out perfectly because we were later told by multiple people who had been to Venice that you really only need a day to do it, and boy was that the truth. There isn't really anything specific to do or see in Venice. Obviously it's filled with little shops and restaurants, and the gorgeous canals, but those are all things that you don't need much time to see. We ended up actually being in the heart of Venice for 6 hours Saturday, and that was the perfect amount of time. Any more than that and we would have been itching to leave as the island is really tiny, and taking the water taxis to other islands is outrageously expensive. Once we were in Venice, everything was smooth sailing, getting there was another story in its own.

We flew from Berlin and landed in Venice around 11.30. Our hostel had given us directions using the public bus system, and it looked simple with only one transfer. Yeah- Italian public transit is a nightmare. The first leg went smoothly, we had to take the bus from the airport to a train station where we were to catch our next bus...only thing, that next bus didn't exist at the train station. After a really confusing 15 minutes, we found an adorable Italian woman who spoke with a bus driver who agreed to take us to the stop where our bus picked people up. That whole process alone took a good 20-25 minutes start to finish. So we get to the new stop, get on our bus, and the directions said that the bus stops directly in front of the hostel, and is the second to last stop. Italian public transit doesn't have names for stops, so we just knew it was the second to last, but they also don't have maps of the routes, so we had no idea how many stops were on the journey, therefore no idea where to get off. We were a little worried, but since the stop was supposedly right in front of the hostel, we just kept our eyes peeled as we were driving for the name of our hostel so we could figure out where to get off. We didn't see our hostel. We did see several Italian prostitutes though. Wish I was kidding. High heels, mini skirts, sitting on a plastic lawn chair on the shoulder of the road. To say we were petrified at this point would be an understatement. We had no idea where to get off, and if we did get off but at the wrong place, we would be walking along the deserted road with the prostitutes. Awesome. Our bus driver knew enough English to verify that we were indeed on the right bus, and just as the directions said, the stop was immediately in front of the hostel. Needless to say, after seeing the seedy area our hostel was located in, we were a bit worried, but ended up being very pleasantly surprise. The place was adorable, just how you'd picture an Italian hotel to be. AND it was a hotel too, not a hostel, so we had our own private room and bathroom and everything. Small victories. We were a little flustered still from the whole getting in process, so Hannah took a shower as I did some deep breathing, and before we knew it we were in Venice. Thanks to the beautiful city and a gelato, we were happy campers once again and that morning seemed like it was days ago.