Venice

March 20-21, 2009

went to Venice on an overnight class trip. We left Friday morning on a Eurostar train (those are the really fast ones). We got to Venice in time for lunch. After eating at the station, we got our boat tickets and worked our way over to our hostel. The public transportation in Venice is really cool, because they can't have a bus or metro system, so they have boats instead. We had to take one boat around the Grand Canal to Campo di San Marco and then switch to another boat to get out of the center of the city to our hostel.

After dropping our stuff off at the hostel, we took a boat back to the island that forms the main part of the city to see Campo di San Marco and the church that faces it. We walked around a lot of the city, taking note of different architectural elements and the way different buildings are restored. We also went in a couple more churches, before being set free to wander the get some dinner and wander the city. I enjoyed a long relaxing dinner with Nikul, Kelly, Izzy, Ash, Katie C., and Pat.

After dinner we walked around for awhile, exploring the canals and bridges and going into a few shops. Venice must be known for its glass, because almost every shop was selling glass jewelry or trinkets. While walking around, we could hear some really good music coming from somewhere, so we followed it to its source and discovered this little wine bar with live music. It was just a tiny little place but it opened up to the street, so there was a crowd filling the whole inside as well as the street. Now that I think about it, there are no cars, so all the roads are only for pedestrians. But anyway, the music was awesome, and we stayed there listening to it until we had to leave to meet back up with the group.

The meeting point was all the way on the other side of the city, and with all the canals and strange windy and dead-ending roads that work their way around the canals, it took us almost an hour to get there. We had fun, though, turning down random roads and hoping they led in the right direction, singing Disney and other classic songs the whole time. We were supposed to be meeting back up with the group to go out to a bar and experience the nightlife (this part of the trip was optional), but no one in our little group really felt like doing that, so we met back up with the group for a little while and then went back out on our own again. We went to see the new bridge by Santiago Calatrava (which isn't even completely finished, but is open to cross). Then Kelly and I headed back to the hostel while the others explored a little longer.

Saturday morning we had breakfast in the hostel and then saw some more churches and some of the more modern buildings around our hostel. It was interesting to see how these architects designed cost-saving (they're all low-income housing) modern buildings that still tie in with the historical context. We also went to the Fondazione Stampalia Querini Museum, because it was restored by Carlo Scarpa. That was fairly interesting. And there was a chocolate festival nearby that we walked through, so we all bought chocolate and were happy.

After the museum we had free time to get lunch and explore on our own again. I feel like most of this trip was free time. We walked to the outskirts to see some park Carlo (our teacher) recommended. The park wasn't anything special, but we came across this weird collection of buildings that each had a country's name written on the side. They were all empty and very abandoned looking. When we asked Carlo about it later, he said they were used for exhibitions at least once a year, but are currently empty. They looked like they had been abandoned for more than a year, though. They were still neat to see, in a semi-creepy, Planet of the Apes type way.

Late afternoon we met back at the station to catch our train home. Despite not being able to go on a gondola ride (which are super expensive but are on my list of things to do before I die), I had a really good time in Venice, and I'm really glad I was feeling well enough to go after the whole pneumonia debacle.