Cynthia's Euro Adventure: Day 23 - Venice the floating city

Thursday, June 4th - I woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly good despite the previous nights drinking. After a quick breaky it was time to walk to the train station to catch a train to the port of Venice. 40 minutes later we arrived at the port and it was pouring rain, this was the first rain I had seen since London. We then boarded our ferry to get into Venice and 20 minutes later we were there. It was beautiful and even better, the rain had stopped and the clouds had already cleared up! We had a walking tour scheduled first thing and our guide was actually pretty decent. We started off at St. Marks Basilica and it was really impressive. We then spent about an hour walking the streets of Venice - it was so pretty, exactly how I imagined. It was full of canals and picturesque buildings, simply amazing. Non touristy highlights of the walking tour include Matt F ringing everyone's door bell's as we walked by and also the biggest seagull I've ever seen.

After the walking tour was over we had heaps of free time before it was time to leave Venice. Rochelle, Sukhey, Jas, Sandra, Lorraine, Sarah and I decided it was time for lunch. While sussing out a place to eat we found Promode again and did a lot of shopping. Afterward we grabbed lunch outside right on one of the canals - it was delicious. Sandra, Rochelle and Sarah got fresh lobster. Rochelle had a bit of trouble with her lobster and at one point as she tore it apart a lot ended up all over Jas and I. People were pulling lobster out of my hair the rest of the day, I looked liked a mess!

After lunch our group split off and Sukhey, Sandra and I went shopping. This was probably one of my most successful shopping days of the tour. I got a lot of great things that were pretty cheap. We also got a personal shopping tour of some high end store as I was looking for a LaCoste dress that I had been looking for since Corfu. I never did find the dress in Venice. After shopping we had our contiki organized gondola ride. I ended up going with Sukhey, Jas, Geoff, Ali and Matty Ray. It was so perfect, a relaxing ride along the canals. We even saw a guy proposing to his girlfriend along the way - she said yes! Very romantic. After the gondola ride Sukhey, Jas and I opted out of the organized contiki dinner and went back to a spot that Sukhey and I had found earlier. Our tour guide told us that it was impossible to find the same place twice in Venice but we managed too. The food was great and our waiter was gorgeous, definitely made for a great meal.

After dinner we met up with the rest of the group to catch our ferry back to the mainland. I definitely have to visit Venice again, it was such a great city and I still have a lot more to see. We caught our train back to our hotel and then had a pretty quiet night. I hung out in Kate, Nicole and Yuri's room (which was quite a lot nicer than mine) with a few people and then headed off to bed for an early night.

Markets in Venice