The leaning tower... of venice?

Kaylen and I left for Venice Friday morning and had a nice 2 hour train ride through the country side.  The trains here are really a pretty nice way to travel! I had planned on reading my Rick Steves book on the train to figure out things to do in Venice, but of course, I forgot that in Florence.  Once we got off the train we had a kind of like "so, we're in Venice... what now?" moment, but started making our way to the hostel. We had no map, but did have instructions... which in Venice doesn't mean much.  The streets are more confusing that Florence, and people kept saying "just keep straight, 2 bridges and you are there".  After an hour and a half, we FINALLY made it to the hostel... it always feels like such an accomplishment when we navigate a new city! Take that Venice! 

first view of Venice from the train station, so beautiful!

we found the hostel!!! (brown door on the left)

Once we got settled in, we asked the lady at the desk for a map and recommendations for how to spend our afternoon.  She suggested we go to a touristy area and then to Campo Margarita for dinner.  Unfortunately in Venice, getting anywhere is definitely easier said than done! First things first though, we were starving and found a Chinese restaurant a few doors down from the hostel.  Don't get me wrong, I love Italian food, but it was so exciting to eat something other than pasta and tomatoes.  After lunch, we headed out (armed with our map) and started exploring the city.  After about an hour of walking around, we felt we had really gotten a since of Venice and wanted to find a destination/something/anything to do! 

got a map!

Venice is so pretty!

As we were walking along the grand canal (seen above), we happened on this pink building advertising it had a Marilyn Monroe exhibit.  We figured this would be a good starting place, and headed inside.  The guy working the front desk was nice and told us that we really shouldn't pay to see the exhibit, but did tell us how to get to the Campo Margarita.  This is how that convo went...

museum guy: "Oh its easy, just a 30 minute walk, pretty straight from here"

Kaylen/Laura" "hahahahahahaha"

museum guy: "whats funny?"

Kaylen/Laura: "umm 30 minute walk? We're from Texas, we don't even like to drive for 30 minutes!" 

museum guy: "Oh I love Texas, Rangers and guns!" 

Kaylen/Laura: "uhh ya..."

Museum guy: "haha just kidding, but really, I love guns!"

Kaylen/Laura: "uhhhhh..."

Italians really love Texas, especially when you tell them that you ride a horse to school... silly gullible Pablos! We started our long trek to the Campo, and found a piazza with what looked like a leaning tower... didn't know Venice had one of those too! In our walking around, we also stumbled on the Academia, an really incredible art museum in Venice.  Seeing as we had nothing else to do, an art museum seemed like a pretty good idea.  As always, Italian art is simply amazing, but after as many museums as I have been to at this point, I think I can check seeing Italian art off the list! 

Academia 

Leaning tower of Venice... doesn't look like its leaning here, but it totally was! 

We finished with the museum around 4:30 and figured that by the time we found Campo Margarita (a piazza) that it would be dinner time.  Of course, the first time that we actually wanted to take a while to get somewhere, we found the Campo pretty quickly.  Like actually, we didn't get lost at all! At 4:45 we arrived in the Campo and decided to go grocery shopping for our dinner.  We ended up with a loaf of bread, potato chips, lunch meat/cheese and wine... pretty classy right?  We sat on a bench and ate our feast (surrounded by tons of cute outdoor patio restaurants... but we were totally beating the system so we felt pretty smart) and it finally started getting dark.  To warm up, we decided to go into one of the pubs in the square called the Cafe.  After being there for a few minutes, the guy from the Museum (Dominick) walked in, Venice is so small!  He introduced us to some of his friends who were pretty eccentric and fun!  Hanging out with locals is one of my favorite things to do abroad! It is honestly the best way to get a real since of the city and the people who live there.  Also, Italians are so much more fun and chill than Americans as a whole!  Thank goodness, Dominick offered to walk us home after a while because otherwise we would have been totally lost!  On the way, him and some of his friends suggested that we go see a really cool view of Venice! We went back to the museum where we met him earlier (on the main canal) and went to the top floor where they have a balcony.  The view was so beautiful, and it was such a cool experience! Again, when you hang out with the locals, you see things that the guide books don't tell you about! 

classy dinner

our new Venetian friend, Dominick 

In the morning, we slept in and went back to the Chinese restaurant for round 2.  Seriously though, you can get 4 euro chicken fried rice at this place... jackpot! We went back to the hostel to get our bags and ended up napping for another hour, before heading to the train station.

big girls gotta eat... round 2! 

All in all it was a really great weekend!  Although we won't be making a habit of it, coming without a plan turned out really great.  Kaylen and I always joke that only we could make something out of nothing! Every trip that we take makes me into a more and more confident world traveler, and I can't wait for the French Rivera this weekend! Also, I'm so excited because my parents told me that my plane ticket can be extended coming home and I get to stay for a few extra weeks and travel around with David! We haven't worked out all the details yet, but its going to be so much fun!  Hopefully after that, I can just move here permanently... but really.  Anyway, hope all of yall have a great week! 

XOXO