Venice, Italy

Last night after finishing my blog, I went out walking for a little bit trying to find a phone signal. The night air in Venice smells like the inside of The Pirates of the Caribbean ride. To some people that just smelled like cigarette smoke and chlorine, but to me it always smelled like adventure. Standing on one of the many bridges over the canals I stared at the reflection of the street lamps in the deep green water. It was quiet, not like the other cities in Italy. Just a few murmurs of the sea slapping up against marble steps, and distant bells from boats swaying in the canals. I felt a little out of place walking out on the streets by myself. Everyone else out tonight had someone to walk with. Even seemingly platonic groups of people were sectioned off into couples. Not a single odd number of people walked the street last night, save for me. Venice seems an amazing city for someone who has someone. However, not the place to be single. It was lonely walking romantic seaside alleyways, watching Gondolas carrying lovers pass by, and no one to experience it with. I went to bed that night feeling a little incomplete.

In the morning I set out to find my exit strategy out of this country. I also thought I'd try to find an Opera that was playing tonight, so that I might get to experience that in Venice. The man at the front desk of my hotel pointed me towards Pointe Rialto. That was somewhat on the way to one of the docks as well, so I headed in that direction. Venice is a really hard city to navigate, almost more so than Cyprus. You'll be walking in a straight line when suddenly there'll be a giant wall, or a canal in the way, and you'll have to find your way around, but the city's laid out like a maze to where every other street's a dead end. Whoever designed the layout of the city was a very bitter, tormented man, who wanted everyone lost and confused not knowing which way, or in which direction they're going. Luckily, I found that if I stay with the flow of tourists, they lead me right through the main roads. After all the complaining I've done about tourists, wouldn't you know it that they're the one's that finally got me back on track.

I found the Rialto, but no Opera house anywhere. Although there were some cool little fruit stands and shops around that area. I often got sidetracked, stepping into the little shops to look around for a bit. I found my way over to San Marco, hoping there might be some kind of theater there too, but I found nothing. I did find a lot of cool stuff at San Marco though. The place is packed with pigeons, and there's a huge open square where you can buy a hand full of bird seed and get flooded by thousands upon thousands of them. I watched some little kids get so covered that you couldn't see where they were anymore, they just disappeared behind a cloak of pigeons. There was a quartet playing to the side of the square by a little cafe and a fancy hotel. I listened to the music, while watching people get attacked by waves of pigeons. The huge church of San Marco is beautiful as well. Although it kind of reminded me of a lot of other giant churches I saw in other cities in the world, so I wasn't really as impressed as a lot of the other tourists seemed to be. The really big churches seem to be getting almost monotonous now, and kind of annoying. You usually have to wait in line, and sure they're usually beautiful inside, but honestly, they all look curiously similar, as if they were all made by the same architect. If you put them all together though, they're one giant stunning church, which I've now seen about 8 million times. The small churches are nice though. I spend much more time in the small churches. They're often the only places you're allowed to sit down in without buying something, they're quiet, and you can just sit and look at beautiful paintings. I find that I just jump from church, and try to use them as markers of where I've been. Also in big churches, I've noticed that a lot of them charge some kind of entree fee, or have a gift shop at the exit, which really bothers me. Isn't that exactly why Jesus totally lost it and turned over the tables in Jerusalem? People shouldn't treat a church like theme park attraction, but I guess that goes for both the people running the church, and the tourist entering. They shouldn't even have to put signs out that say no pictures. I just always thought that was common knowledge, it just seems so disrespectful to walk into a church, and start snapping photos. I can't say I haven't done it at some point on this trip, but I always felt bad about it, and I never took pictures with the blatant disrespect that I've seen several people do on this trip. People stepping up on the pew to get a better shot, using their flash all over the place. Sometimes it's like the paparazzi. People just amaze me sometimes with how they just miss the point. Why travel to see something you have no respect for? Anyway, that's my ranting.

San Marco is right next to the dock, so I walked along the dock, and inquired about getting a ferry ticket to Dubrovnik on Sunday. From what I gathered, the ferry to Dubrovnik (called The Dubrovnik Princess) comes everyday at 4pm, and you just buy your tickets before you get on. That seems simple enough, so tomorrow I'll get back down to the docks just after 3pm, so I'll be ready to catch by ferry at 4 to Dubrovnik, Croatia.

After I had that all settled, I went window shopping again in the little shops by San Marco. A couple shops were these amazing stationary stores. They were full of these beautiful leather bound journals, and albums. They also sold these awesome wooden fountain pens, and customized wax stamps. A shop just around the corner from there was entirely devoted to old paper mache masquerade masks, and costumes, and hats which all looked like they had come right out of the 16th century. The place was absolutely beautiful. I couldn't believe the artistry on some of these hand painted masks! These masks were some of the most touching works of art I had seen yet! Out of all the famous galleries, and museums I had paid an entree fee to see, this shop held more inspiration to me than the good majority of it. There were masks shaped and painted like animals, some were decorated with feathers, and all of them had the most amazing color schemes and patterns. I found a mask painted in deep reds and golds which had musical notation pained around parts of it. I thought it'd be awesome to have that hanging in my studio back home. It just absolutely lept out at me, and I found it's female counterpart, and planned that I'd hang the two masks together, sort of perhaps making a statement about my feeling lonely here in Venice. The masks were each 18 euros, and the clerk told me It'd be another 30 to ship them home, so I left the store, deciding to walk around, and look at some other stuff as to not pressure myself into buying something. However, a couple hours later, I still really wanted them, but that was a lot of money to spend on something that I can't eat or wear, or doesn't get me to my next place. I called my mom to have her talk me out of the idea, but she said it sounds really cool, and I should go for it. My dad agreed, and my mom even offered to pay for the shipping. So, I went back to the store, happy to find that the ones I wanted were still there where I had left them, and I bought them. I hope it doesn't have too much of a negative affect on the journey. However, I felt really good about buying them, I was so moved by the artwork in them, I felt like I'd bought a little of the Sistine Chapel.

On my way back to the hotel, I got lost again, for a long time wandering through the local alleyways on the opposite side of town, until I finally remembered just to follow the stream of tourists, and I immediately found my way again. I think I need to find myself a compass. I can't always rely on the constant stream of tourists to lead me home, and I seem to get myself lost fairly often.

When I got back to hotel, I was exhausted, so I just decided to run down to the nearby grocery store, pick myself of a couple of beers and some snack food, and lay low watching TV in my hotel for the night. Maybe I'll get to bed a little early tonight. That would be nice!
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