Our First Trip: Venizia!

Hola a todos. It has been a while since my last entry, alas, we still do not have our own internet. Therefore it has been difficult to publish entries. Although my previous entry said we were going to Milan and Florence, we instead decided to go Venice, the city of canals. We took a plane to Bergamo (which is about an hour bus ride from Milan) on Thursday, and hopped on a train to Venice. When we stepped off of the train, our jaws literally dropped. We found ourselves surrounded by canals filled with water taxis and gondolas located between romantic winding streets. After getting settled in our absolutely amazing apartment, we freshened up and went out to dinner. We decided to check out the nightlife in Venice and after walking for about an hour (it is very easy to get lost ambling down its' narrow windng streets) we found a cute little karoake bar (filled with Venetians singing Venetian and American songs and dogs as well!). I actually fell in love with a little pup (you know me and my love for dogs!!) who had wandered in and was enjoying the atmosphere

The next day we woke up early and went to St. Mark's Cathedral and plaza, at the very top was a wonderful view of Venice, the body of water that all the canals empty into. The plaza was FULL of pigeons, one of my roommate's boyfriend got an amazing picture of us right as a pigeon flew across the screen. We did a little (that is an understatement) shopping, Venice is very well known for their glass and leather. It was amazing because in one store we actually saw a man handmaking the glass jewelry and figurines! After our shopping excursion we decided to take a romantic gondola ride. Five of us girls jumped in a gondola with Gabrielle (our Venetian gondola driver). It was beautiful and muy muy romantica! I also learned how to row, I am now qualified to be a gondola driver (haha). All joking aside, Gabrielle said that it took over a year of training to become qualified.

That night at dinner we met a wonderful French couple (who were in their 70's and didn't speak any English) who decided to befriend us. They were absolutely hilarious and a little drunk (to say the least). We left with their address to visit them in France and 5 red roses (one for each of us girls from Andres- the husband). We set up a lunch date with them the next day (we were to leave at 6 the next day) but they skipped out on us!

At about 6ish we left the beautiful city of Venice and arrived to Milan by train where we saw the Cathedral of Milan and ate a nice little dinner in the center. We caught a bus to Bergamo and waited at the airport for about 5 hours until our flight (which was at 6 am). Not surprisingly, when we arrived to Sevilla Sunday morning we were exhausted but the trip was well worth it!

I will try to be better about writing entries... an entry about our Sevillana thanksgiving is soon to come!!

Besitos a todos,
Lauren