Austria Journal: Venice

Days spent on trip: 9

Days until I stay in Austria: 9

There were many people at this square--and many pigeons!

Venice is beautiful like everyone says, just a bit crowded--but that's just me. I don't tend to like big cities becuase I live so close to Manhattan.

The buildings are so colorful and old, and there are gondoliers everywhere. You never get around on cars, but rather with water taxis and ferries. Some houses have doors that open up to the edge of the water.

We met my uncle Dylan and aunt Wendy, as well as my cousin Tarot and his fiancee Paulina (who are going to get married in Gdansk). Also there were Kes and Nirvana, my other cousins, and Nirvana's husband Adam.

Touring around the most crowded part of Venice with eleven people is not easy. It's hard to keep track of so many people in the crowd.

We waited in line to see the Cathedral of San Marcos, which had beautiful mosaics depicting various scenes from the Bible. There were also bronze horses.

Then we went to have pizza and thought it would be a good idea to go on a gondola. Eventually, we found the perfect one: it was on one of the narrow canals, and so was much nicer than the others we had seen on the Grande Canal. And it was only €75 per gondola, versus the much more expensive ones elsewhere.

The narrow canal was quite crowded, but it was very quiet. Tarot and Paulina got the luxurious loveseat on our gondola (of course). Dylan, Wendy, Nirvana, and Adam were on the other gondola that we used.

We went on the ferry to go to another interesting place, but there wasn't time, so we just ended up trying to figure out how to get to the right ferry to leave Venice. We said farewell to the seven we had accompanied in Venice, and went back to our bungalow.

We'll see them again in Poland at the wedding.