Venice: 1st - 4th

The little island Venice is on most people’s travel list, so it was a must see destination while I was in Europe. Getting there was a difficult task as only one train left Ljubljana per day and that was in the early hours of the morning;

• So we set our alarms for 1:30am to catch the 2:30am train.

• At 2am as we check out of our hostel Joel sees a Black Cat and makes a joke about it. I said it wasn’t funny and that Black Cats are bad luck (I’m very superstitious)

• At 2:15am we arrive at the train station, and at 2:25 there is an announcement that the train is delayed by 150minutes!

• Talk about bad luck. So we had to sit in the cold with nowhere to go until 5am which none of us were pleased about. Nevertheless we eventually got on the train and slept the whole way to Venice, and Joel will hopefully not joke about black cats again :).

As the train crossed the ocean you could see the buildings are literally on the water’s edge and there were many little boats coming across from the mainland to drop off supplies to the city, just amazing. Our hotel was on the canal and very easy to find, whilst many people utilized the water taxies and busses to make their way around.

The first day in Venice we got lost in the Labyrinth and realized how much fun that could be. If you love shopping this is the place to be, so many beautiful leather products and Murano glass. It is hard not to spend a fortune especially if you are like a Lyre Bird and attracted to shiny things. So the next few days we literally just walked around looking at all the shops, Sarah and I found some lovely Italian leather boots and we all invested in a custom made leather belt. If you were not careful you could spend so much money, but I believe quality is worth every penny.

Life in Venice is very unique, the day to day routine is unlike anything on the mainland. You forget that the garbage collection, resource dispensing and food supplies all have to be carried out via little motor boats. Around the smaller canals are charismatic men dressed up in funny little hats trying to persuade you to have a ride on their Gondola, unfortunately at €80 we decided to give it a miss and spend our money on the lovely glass work.

All in all I absolutely loved this island, if I had more money I could have spent weeks there getting lost in the shops, I just love the Italian Style, must be my expensive taste. Overall I can’t wait to return to this place one day as it was such a treat.

(Is Venice sinking?? Take a look at the photo below. On our first day it was flooded)