Part II Venice and Burano

Sorry this took me so long to get to. I'll try to be better :(

So these pictures are kind of in order. Me and mom went to Venice 2 days in a row while Nikki had to work. The first day we spent totally in Venice. We walked all over everywhere (including into a residential section that we couldn't seem to get unlost from). We very much enjoyed the shopping, and I, at least, enjoyed the meandering. We went to St. Mark's and up into the balcony, but once again I skipped the Doge's Palace since we didn't have a ton of time (nor did I want to pony up the 22 Euro for entry). I didn't take a ton of pics in Venice, but here they are.

This is just a restaurant that Mom wanted me to take a picture of. I can't imagine why.
Here's Mom on the Balcony of St. Mark's

A little side canal (my favorite)

Even though this picture isn't super colorful, I love it for some reason.

Me at the top of St. Mark's (you can't even see my legs shaking)

I think this might have been either a Military HQ or Police. We kept seeing men in uniforms go in here. We actually were sitting in a little plaza across from this having a bite to eat. (If it is the Police, that would be very exciting for me as I am currently reading a detective series set in Venice by Donna Leon).

So the second day we went to Burano. We didn't have quite as much time as we would've liked for various reasons. First of all, we got a late start. Then, the vaporetto to Burano takes a long freaking time. Also, the stupid vaporetto went the opposite way around the island of Murano as it said it was going to, so I essentially messed up. So we had to get off at Murano and wait for the boat to Burano. We were starving and I made Mom run through the streets of Murano so we could get something to eat. We (finally) found a little cafe that had some take away sandwiches and I swear I almost told them to take the stupid things out of the oven early it was taking them so long to heat up (we were on a deadline to make the next boat). So we got a nice running tour of Murano is what I'm telling you. But all that was worth it. I LOVED Burano. I just loved the colors (less so the pushy saleswomen, but whatever), and it seemed so different to me than the rest of Venice. Now here's the pretty pictures :)

So the other reason that we didn't have much time that day is because as we got on the boat out of Burano, we noticed a storm rolling in (apparently Mom and I had better things to do than check the weather). It was quite pretty and we got to the mainland all right. I think we got off the vaporetto because we had to, it was the end of the line for that one. So it had started to rain so we went down to the next vaporetto station where ours was going to be. Um, yeah. Guess what everyone in Venice does at rush hour in the rain. I swear every citizen and tourist of Venice was on that stupid floating station with us. And dude, pushy. Seriously. Me and mom (being a bit pushy ourselves) made it to the front of where the doors opened after maybe 45 minutes. The problem was that every vaporetto that came, by the time it got to our station was ridiculously packed. I kept thinking of how people seem to die in stampedes at soccer games every year. I'm not sure why I associate being trampled to death with Europeans, but I do. So the next vaporetto to show up, me and mom decide to make a break for it and we totally made it on. I mean, MAYBE 7 or 8 people were making it on each boat and the boats were a good 15 minutes apart with at least 80 people crammed into that little station. We got lucky, really. So I was standing up on the top of the boat with my back to the outside and rain is just dripping down my back. I, being a stupid tourist, did not have an umbrella or jacket and I was freezing. I said to Mom at one point that I needed to just think of Chicago in January and then it wasn't so bad. Some woman took pity on me (a very, very nice woman) and gave me her umbrella for the rest of the ride. I actually memorized the brand name of this umbrella because it was so awesome. I believe it was Roncato or something like that (ok maybe TRIED to memorize). So that's why we (and by we, I mean me) cut our day short. Mom wanted to go back out in the rain to buy towels and look at paintings because she is the world's most persistent shopper. :)

Next time: Lake Barcis, then Part I of the Neverending Roadtrip.