Venice - Random

So, for things that I didn't get pictures of or write about while we were there, here are some other things we did while we were in Venice.Shopping! Of course. Venice is (apparently) known for their Murano glass. And lace. We roamed the streets and allies looking for deals and pretty things :-) Being who I am, I knew I would buying jewelry during the trip. (More details will not be disclosed due to not wanting to give anything away) I really wanted to get some lace for my cousin; she's an amazing seamstress -- she's actually sewing her own wedding dress! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to really find what I was looking for (and a price I could afford).

One of my favorite things we found was THIS:

No, no, no, not that guy....

THESE!

Okay, so it's not a great picture. I was taking the picture blindly and trying not to draw attention. But they are balloon animals made out of glass! I thought they were pretty cool.

Then we kept passing this, which I loved.

AND there were festival masks everywhere.

(We were told afterwards we couldn't take pictures....)

Other reportable news: the discovery of GELATO. So good! Normal ice cream has been ruined for me.

Evening, 3 June, Venice

"Tonight we ate dinner on the waterfront, had gelato as we hung our feet over the edge of the street and laughed like there was no tomorrow. It was divine.

(^This one isn't mine^)

I can't believe we're leaving."

(Little did I know we had way more fun ahead of us)

Long-lasting Churches and Palaces (Venice)

"What to write, what to write. We went to the Doge's palace today.

(This is just a small, small section of it)

It was beautiful, grand, big & expensive. It's one thing to see pictures of places like this or read about them, but you can't understand the detail, the effort, the meaning & scale unless you see it in person. It's like the first time I remember seeing a pure white marble bust. It glittered! I was amazed at the light a piece of stone could produce; that aspect is always lost in a picture. Being in the palace was similar. The rooms are huge. The paintings to cover them, equally so. And the amount of gold! I was amazed.

The same with the church, San Marco. The church is absolutely covered with mosaic.

(I don't have any pictures because taking pictures inside isn't allowed.)

And again, so much gold! Even the colored stones. I'm surprised they could find so many colors & in such quantities.

What struck me in both places we visited today was the amount of time and effort that went into not only the art but the buildings themselves. Even more work has been done to restore & repair it all.

It seems to me that today things are made to break or consumed right away when, hundreds of years form now (if we make it that long), what will people have to look back upon of the world we know? Digital photos, mp3s, landfills full of electronics & inherited pollution problems? I'm not exactly proud of the world we live in.

One of my ceramics teachers in high school had a poster on his wall that said

"Do something everyday that proves you exist."

I read that every other day for a year yet often forget it. It was fitting since we were in an art class, creating art that would be turned into stone. He also held art history in that class though. I imagine it was his way of telling his students

"Look! Look at what's been done in the world! These people have all left their mark, even if we don't know who they were, we know they existed. What are you going to do?"

I've been realizing that I really have no idea what I want to do with my life. I have no clear goal, no career aspirations.

I think I'm okay with that.

As long as I'm making my mark. As long as I'm doing something I love, I don't really care what it is or how much money I'm not making. If I could put the kind of effort it took into building, creating, these beautiful places, I think I'll be okay.

I just have to remember these things don't happen with a single person working on their own."

Morning, 3 June (Venice, Day Two)

This morning we had breakfast while listening to the pouring rain outside. I thought we had left Oregon back in the States! I wasn't too upset about it though because....I mean, come on...we're in Venice! Who cares if it's raining?! Plus, they have thunder and lightning there. Rain is always better with thunder and lightning.

The plan for today is to go to the Basilica (church) and Doge's palace.

"Thankfully I slept well last night. Unfortunately, my roommates decided to get up a whole hour and a half earlier than I was planning and woke me up with their whispering. Thus, I have spent much of my morning wondering what to do with myself."

Instead of going out in the rain to explore Venice, we decided to wait until it cleared up a little. Mark something along the lines of "We don't have to be the tourists that prove they can tough the rain; we're from Oregon, we know we'd get along fine in the rain, but we might as well just wait it out."

I went back upstairs to our room. I laid down to rest; I was still tired and I couldn't decide if my dizziness was due to the traveling or being able to feel the buildings sway slightly. I'm pretty sure I took a nap, falling asleep to the (possibly mind-induced) rocking, sound of the rain and the thought

"I wonder what the gondolas do when it rains like this."

Venice! (Day One)

"We're in Venice! I can hardly believe I'm here. I've wanted to come to Europe all my life & I thought I would have to wait longer to actually be here. It's pouring rain and it's beautiful.

"We took a boat 5 stops around the city, then navigated through allies to get to our lodgings. I can't believe how beautiful it is. Venice is exactly what you think when you think of the city on the water & Tuscany. There are gondolas everywhere, flower boxes hanging from the windows. Best of all, it's warm!"

* * *

Venice truly is exactly what you would imagine it to be.

Water everywhere (of course), boats everywhere (obviously) and the men who work the gondolas even wear striped shirts. The city is made up almost purely of allies that open up to unexpected squares.

We were all in kind of a weird place when we arrived in Venice. Though the whole group was in various states of alert/tiredness, after we checked into the hotel our professors insisted on taking us out. We went out to St. Marc's Square, had our first gelato (ice cream has now been ruined for me) and were sent off on our own to figure out dinner.

Actually, Mark helped a group of us find somewhere to eat. A couple of the girls ordered gnocchi, and the rest of us ordered pizza. A margarita pizza. Just a "plain" pizza. Thin crust, gooey cheese slipping off the marinara sauce, the whole pie the size of the plate. It was so completely un-American, it was beautiful. Our first real Italian pizza. So darn good. Each of us stared at the pizza the size of our plate when it first came to us. We thought maybe we should have split a couple. We each finished our own. All of it. Pizza in Italy is meant to be eaten. Every dish you are given is meant to be eaten in whole. And it is very poss

ible to. I doubt to-go boxes for your leftovers even exist in Italy. The thin crust makes it so easy to eat all you are given. (I'm sure all the walking everywhere doesn't hurt either.)

After dinner we walked around Venice. It was the perfect city to start off in; you could only go so far until you hit water. Then you turn around and go a different way! I truly couldn't even believe we were actually there for the whole afternoon. Not until we we were walking around and I looked at some of the pictures I took did I believe that we were actually there. I had wanted to go to Europe for so long and I never thought I would get the chance to go so soon. I figured I would be at least fifteen years older than I am now before I went. Yet there I was!

In the sinking city

with people that I'll never forget.

(The picture that made me realize: We're in VENICE!!!)

2 June 2010 (In the Frankfurt airport)

(From my journal)

"We're in Germany, waiting to board onto Venice. I am so incredibly tired. The whole flight here we were in this time warp of changing days in the middle of the night. I didn't sleep at all on the plane and I'm so tired now. Hopefully I can sleep on this short flight."

* * *

I didn't sleep at all on that incredibly long flight. I watched Valentine's Day, part of Planet 51, part of Inglorious Bastards...maybe that was the returning flight.

We flew above the night the whole flight. Finally, we reached Frankfurt.

So close!

Leaving Portland

Days before the trip began, one of my housemates, Jessi-Ann, and I had begun to pack. We were constantly running into each others rooms asking "Are you bringing this? What about this? Do you thing we'll need this? I don't know how this is all going to fit...." I was constantly down-sizing myself. I tend to over-pack and that was not something I wanted to do if I was going to carry all my stuff for three weeks (plus whatever I bought while I was there). I was amazed to see all of this this:

fit into this:

The morning that we were leaving, my wonderful boyfriend called me to wake me up. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a morning person. There was no way I was going to wake up at 6 and actually get up on my own, even for the trip that I had been looking forward to for over a year. Josh repeatedly asked if I was actually up and out of bed. (Since he's in Illinois, the two hour time difference makes it convenient for this kind of thing to work.)

Jessi-Ann had already been up for quite some time and had gotten us coffee, bless her. Four of us drove to the Portland train station where we waited for everyone else to get there. That's when the adventure began - on the way there. Downtown Portland is a maze of one and two way streets. We made a left turn from a one-way street onto what the driver thought was another one-way street. It wasn't. Thankfully the on-coming traffic was far coming and shouts of "TWO-WAY! TWO-WAY!" from all parts of the car saved us. Everyone got to the station (Mandy just barely in time) and we got on the train to Seattle.