Ciao Bella!!

As far as wonders of the world, I truly believe Venice is something you've got to see! It's all pigeons and bridges. There are over 160 bridges! Including the famous Bridge of Sighs, which was the first one we saw. When we arrived in Venice, Ryno handed us maps, as per usual, and then told us they would be generally useless. The streets and canals of Venice are crazy! I felt like there was thousands. I think the coolest thing about traveling through Venice for me was the fact that I felt like every turn I took was a secret passage that no one else knew about. Then eventually we would run into some people on a busier street. But it was really like a maze, I felt like it was a game to get back to San Marco's square that afternoon to meet everyone. Liz, Krystyna and I just wondered around all afternoon. We found ourselves in a marketplace where there were the most beautiful Venetian masks everywhere!!!

After strolling around for a few hours it was about time we started to find our way back to the square. At first we found a sign or two that said San Marco with an arrow pointing in the right direction. Then those started getting fewer and far between but luckily there was graffiti "S.Marco -->" But I liked that feeling of not really knowing where we were going. It was adventurous a bit I guess. I also liked the locals. It was so fun to see everyone riding gondolas and boats everywhere. We were taking pictures on one of the many little bridges and some gondola men were coming down the canal and Krystyna yells out to one of them "Ciao Bella!" which literally means Hey Beautiful, and is something that is said to a girl. The gondolier thought it was funny anyway and responded with the same.

Finally we were back in San Marco square where we all headed over to the docks for our very own gondola ride! It was so surreal- a gondola ride through Venice! There was about 6 people per boat and we were generally with our regional groups. Zac, being the pimp that he is and the only gentlemen in our team, gave a lovely toast, as we shared a bottle of champagne together. The ride was so nice, and I shared the love seat with the one and only Janessa Reyes! It was beautiful.

Then after the ride we went to a demonstration where we watched a guy blow a snail! (out of glass- duh.) The show room of the glass blowing places was pretty incredible. I bought myself some pretty Venetian glass earrings too. There were a lot of pretty gifts in Venice. I got a friend of mine a pretty martini glass for her birthday and a sweet silk tie for my brother. It really was a unique place to say the least, everything was so beautifully aged.

That night we went to dinner where we had more pasta but also seafood, very regional. Also we were serenaded by a man on a clarinet who also knew the chicken dance. And I believe it was Dan's birthday that night. I could be mistaken because our tour manager, told the restaurant if was someones birthday every night. It was so funny because we would all chime in, and we wouldn't know who we were singing to until the waiter had walked over to someone from our tour with some free dessert. Something you should definatly do when you go on a Contiki ;)

Later that evening we jumped back on the ferry back to our hotel. I personally took that night to catch up on a bit of much needed sleep especially with white water rafting and biking through mountains to come!