Bloggin From Venice

Wow, today has been a long day. Woke up at 5:15, showered, then was on the buy by a little after 6am. We all left on our weekend class trip at 6:15am. I sat alone on the bus the first couple of hours, but it was good to have some thinking time and to revamp my perspective on the trip. I just realized how special it was to be going to all these places in Europe, not even counting going with Liz. :) Also, it's just so nice; even though its a little cold, being out-of-season, there are hardly any tourists, so the plaes we go are not crowded and most of the people are locals. It really helps to give the actual feel for the "realness" of a place, rather than it would if it were swamped with tourists. Anyhow, the sunrise was really quite beautiful overtop of the Pyrenees Mountains and glistening on the snow along the ground. It warmed my soul. :) We stopped at a rest stop for 30 minutes after 2 hours of driving, then Liz came to sit with me for the next hour which was nice. We stopped in to a city called Verona around 9am and had about 3 hours to tour around there. We saw an old first-century Roman coliseum which was quite spectacular and then saw the balcony that Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet was based on. It was neat and thousands of people over the years have traditionally taped or gummed love notes to the wall by it, so Liz and I made one. Now, we're doomed to be together forever. Pity. ;) After that, we hung out and had lunch in a beautiful plaza area with lots of great architecture. Then we went inside an old cathedral which was amazing! I'm pretty sure that it was one of the most coolest things I've ever seen! It was really spectacular. :) Our bust left Verona at 12:15 and headed off to Venice. It was about another 2 hours to get there, I think. We got there and took a boat into the main area by our hotel. Probably got all settled by about 3:30, I think. Then, Liz and I walked about Venice observing, talking, and taking boatloads of pictures. It was very fun. :) We went over to the waterfront and sat and watched the sunset over the water. It was really something- I loved it. :) We sat there and chatted for a good long time until we almost froze to death. Then wandered some more, went in some cool shops and then made it back to the hotel by 7:15. We went out to diner with the group and ate at a nice restraunt. The food was great, especially the gelato(ice cream). =) That got done late, then around 9:15 the group was going over to some place called Bar Orange across town. It was a heft hike, but pretty fun to do. We got there and hung out for a little bit, but everyone was getting trashed and acting stupid, so we left there pretty early. Had a nice walk back and got to the hotel around 11:30. Going to rest now, so I can enjoy the sunrise in the morning. :)