30th Sept (Thurs) - Venice

These 2 days have been great. A little too great actually. I was hoping for a bit of rain, contrary to what I was wishing for when I was in other parts of Italy, so that I could see and experience for myself how the locals would re-arrange the nicely stacks tables and stands into instant narrow platforms for people to walk on, instead of having to thread through the flooded, low-lying areas. But what's new, Italy seldom answers my 'prayers'. So the days remained exasperatingly sunny.







I didn't take any of the boat taxis, boat buses (6.50€ per way though a day ticket would cost 13€) or even the gondola. Anyways, it's no fun sitting in the gondola alone. If I ever do sit in one, it better be of a romantic reason or with a bunch of friends. Otherwise, no way.



Surprisingly, it's really easy to just walk around Venice even though it's quite divided because if the canal network. Apart from the main touristy lanes, the track less beaten felt safe to explore alone as well. And everywhere on the island just seemed so laid back, quite without a worry. Really made me slow down my pace to just stroll along and see the gondolas pass by the neighboring canals and etc.















And, if you looked really closely, some of the stuff in the touristy areas were easily sold twice the price than the other lesser known shops in the back alleys, off the main streets. For instance, like the murano glass work below :)



I'd fun making my way to the wet market in the Morning as well. Along the way, there were the small and also bigger boats that would carry like fruits, bottles of water or other goods around, making their rounds of delivery to the shops on shore. I got to witness a water traffic jam as well! :)



And at the wet market itself, I would see seafood that I had never seen before. And somehow, the overall setting didn't seem too different from the wet markets in Asia. There were also lots of fruit and vegetable stalls around it as well.











But then again, 2 days probably good enough to explore around Venice, including a boat trip to nearby islands like Murano, Burano and etc. Sadly, I missed the guided boat tour (30€ or 40€) to the 3 islands. It only happened twice a day. If I remembered correctly, one's at 9.30am and the other at 2.30pm. Duration's about an hour and you could get your ticket only at the ticketing booth, near the tourist info office at San. Marco pier. Alternatively, if you want to go to these islands by yourself, you can also take the respective boat bus using the daily (or extended) transport pass. But do note that the last boat back to Venice usually ends at 4pm. So, go early.

Last but not least, what's more well known about Venice other than it being a floating city? Masks!








P.s.: To save money, I bought an instant pizza and brought it back to the hostel to microwave it. But the guy at the hostel said it's better to oven it and helped me to set it up and reminded me that it should be ready in about 2 mins. But, I have never really used an oven before. The very few times that I did, there was the timer that would auto shut it when it was done, like a microwave. So I kept waiting for the 'ding' that never came. And after like 8 mins, he came out to check on me and we realized that the pizza was burnt! Like really black. We had a good laugh over the 'ding' thing and for the rest of the time, I picked out those black bits and continued to eat whatever was left/ edible. Remember, I needed to save $ and couldn't just throw the whole thing away. Now I know.