Cool, right?
Me and Mandy
Oh Venice
No cars, just boats :-)
The colors just seemed so vivid!
Basilica di San Marco
So Thursday after class we packed up and took off like a bat outta hell! Ryan, Kevin, Mandy, Tim, and I bused, trained, and planed to Venice, and that was the easy part. Little did we know that when we were to arrive, we would have to deal with our first language barrier! For one, it was later than we had hoped when we arrived at the airport we were still outside of Venice and we had to find a way to contact Michele, who we were renting an apartment from for the weekend, (a guy… I was expecting a girl… silly me). This was rather stressful and tricky (payphones are scary when you don’t know how they work), and then we called, took a bus, called, took a boat, and finally met up with Michele. He had worked really hard to give us directions, but we really struggled to understand him because he was less apt at English than most people we came into contact with. He was really nice though, and tried very hard for us, so we mostly nodded and pretended that we knew what he was saying. We understood the things that were important, and let me tell you, our accommodations were pretty kickass! Lol, there was even a hair dryer and cable tv! Anyway that night we all got dinner, and then Mandy and I were exhausted, so we stayed in while the guys went out.
Friday we woke up early and headed to the San Marco square… well I should say the Basilica di San Marco, but let’s face it… I’ll probably just always call it the San Marco square. We shopped, and just marveled at this beautiful building… and city for that matter! Really for the rest of the day we just wandered, took many photos, shopped and ate lots of gelato. We ate pizza and watched some performers who were playing on wine glasses. Around 5 it started to rain, so we headed back to the apartment, which was literally a 4 minute walk from the Basilica di San Marco… it was right in the middle of town! Kevin took a nap, and the rest of us watched MTV in Italian for a bit. Around 6 we headed to dinner, where I had some delicious cheese gnocchi. After dinner we all got some more gelato, then stopped back by the apartment. Tim, Kevin, Mandy, and I found the Basilica Di Santa Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari and took photos… and then more photos, then we went back eventually and got some sleep!
Saturday was for yet more shopping! We checked out every tourist shop we came across, along with almost every Murano glass shop… beautiful! For lunch I ate pizza again, and then we all went back to the apartment to use the restroom. Kevin, Tim, and Mandy ended up napping, while Ryan and I chatted, and you guessed it, shopped! We met up with everyone for dinner, and then Tim and Kevin went back to the apartment again, while Ryan, Mandy, and I strolled along the grand canal. We found a great park, but it was really a bit to dark for pictures to come out by that time. When we got back, all of us drank some wine and watched Forrest Gump in Italian, thoroughly entertaining! Then we watched some MTV and great infomercials… then slept hard!
Sunday we woke up, packed up, checked out, and traveled. We had a long wait for the bus, but everything worked out smoothly. The plane ride was also smooth, but there was a big scare for me when I left my purse in my seat! It was recovered pretty quickly though (kudos RyanAir), and we ran into Kymber, Megan, and Sara who were also headed from Amsterdam back to Maastricht. We talked a van into driving us to the trainstation for the same price as a bus would have been, with some confusion about 150 euros to Liege… lol. In Liege we hit up a Quick (the best fast food in Europe, I swear!). We made it back to Maastricht pretty early and most everyone headed down to the square for a big party that Maastricht has every year. Megan, Sara and I chose to stay in and had really good bonding time! I adore those girls!
Oh Venice
No cars, just boats :-)
The colors just seemed so vivid!
Basilica di San Marco
So Thursday after class we packed up and took off like a bat outta hell! Ryan, Kevin, Mandy, Tim, and I bused, trained, and planed to Venice, and that was the easy part. Little did we know that when we were to arrive, we would have to deal with our first language barrier! For one, it was later than we had hoped when we arrived at the airport we were still outside of Venice and we had to find a way to contact Michele, who we were renting an apartment from for the weekend, (a guy… I was expecting a girl… silly me). This was rather stressful and tricky (payphones are scary when you don’t know how they work), and then we called, took a bus, called, took a boat, and finally met up with Michele. He had worked really hard to give us directions, but we really struggled to understand him because he was less apt at English than most people we came into contact with. He was really nice though, and tried very hard for us, so we mostly nodded and pretended that we knew what he was saying. We understood the things that were important, and let me tell you, our accommodations were pretty kickass! Lol, there was even a hair dryer and cable tv! Anyway that night we all got dinner, and then Mandy and I were exhausted, so we stayed in while the guys went out.
Friday we woke up early and headed to the San Marco square… well I should say the Basilica di San Marco, but let’s face it… I’ll probably just always call it the San Marco square. We shopped, and just marveled at this beautiful building… and city for that matter! Really for the rest of the day we just wandered, took many photos, shopped and ate lots of gelato. We ate pizza and watched some performers who were playing on wine glasses. Around 5 it started to rain, so we headed back to the apartment, which was literally a 4 minute walk from the Basilica di San Marco… it was right in the middle of town! Kevin took a nap, and the rest of us watched MTV in Italian for a bit. Around 6 we headed to dinner, where I had some delicious cheese gnocchi. After dinner we all got some more gelato, then stopped back by the apartment. Tim, Kevin, Mandy, and I found the Basilica Di Santa Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari and took photos… and then more photos, then we went back eventually and got some sleep!
Saturday was for yet more shopping! We checked out every tourist shop we came across, along with almost every Murano glass shop… beautiful! For lunch I ate pizza again, and then we all went back to the apartment to use the restroom. Kevin, Tim, and Mandy ended up napping, while Ryan and I chatted, and you guessed it, shopped! We met up with everyone for dinner, and then Tim and Kevin went back to the apartment again, while Ryan, Mandy, and I strolled along the grand canal. We found a great park, but it was really a bit to dark for pictures to come out by that time. When we got back, all of us drank some wine and watched Forrest Gump in Italian, thoroughly entertaining! Then we watched some MTV and great infomercials… then slept hard!
Sunday we woke up, packed up, checked out, and traveled. We had a long wait for the bus, but everything worked out smoothly. The plane ride was also smooth, but there was a big scare for me when I left my purse in my seat! It was recovered pretty quickly though (kudos RyanAir), and we ran into Kymber, Megan, and Sara who were also headed from Amsterdam back to Maastricht. We talked a van into driving us to the trainstation for the same price as a bus would have been, with some confusion about 150 euros to Liege… lol. In Liege we hit up a Quick (the best fast food in Europe, I swear!). We made it back to Maastricht pretty early and most everyone headed down to the square for a big party that Maastricht has every year. Megan, Sara and I chose to stay in and had really good bonding time! I adore those girls!
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