Woke up feeling really excited to get out to explore and get to know my crush.
Great breakfast and ran upstarts to put on some more clothes as its finally getting a bit nippy. Came downstairs to unusual calm... Took me a second to realise what was wrong with this picture.... Shit the group??? Quickly asked the desk the direction of the group and headed off with purpose but surprisingly without panic. Walked dodging and weaving the crowds until I saw a happy sight.... Some lagging huffing and puffing pensioners. Never been so happy to be on 60s travel tour 2013!!! Not sure you will hear me saying that again! Lol
We caught a boat to island of Burano to see glass blowing. We passed mansions apparently filled with the rich and famous. It's so amazing to see the little speed boats docked right up to the garden behind high walls.
Arrived at a pretty shmick looking glass blowing operation, complete with very stylishly dressed Italian men- highly groomed scarves that only European men can pull off. Saw a demonstration of glass blowing - vase and horse. Quite impressive. Then we were shepherded through the showroom to apparently be shown some more techniques. Despite the ' I'm not trying to sell you anything' preamble that it what it ended up being. Still we got to wander around the store/ showroom and look some of amazing pieces. If only I could carry them home, fit them in my suitcase, oh and of course afford them... Very pricey
Left the showroom and went back to St Marks square. After being told repeatedly and ad nauseum where to meet back we were introduced to another local tour guide. She took is around the small windy streets of Venice. Nice to be shown small treasures but really I can't say I was listening as attentively as usual I was just trying to soak up the atmosphere, and keep pinching myself about where I was. We ended back at St Marks church and had a look around. Beautifully decorated in glass mosaics. Sparkling in gold and jewels. Sometimes in these places I need to remind myself to really look individually at the pictures rather than just getting overwhelmed by the intricacies. In the past churches were used to educate the masses about religious ideas as most people were illiterate. FYI- some of those pictures are quite gruesome!
One the tour was completed we were given FREE TIME!!!! Woo Hoo!!! No annoying Americans until the next day. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Kerri, Georgia Sharon and myself were lie bloodhounds trying to find a toilet and coffee. Ended up in Hard Rock Cafe of all places. Very touristy I realise but at that stage we were excited to sit and be greeted with a smile. Some of the service in Italian has been a bit of the frosty side, especially compared to Croatia. Not a huge or really any type of complaint but more an observation
Sat, chatted and ate. Was still feeling a bit crappy but pushed on. We then got our shop on!!! I was trying hard to not impulse buy or buy little bits of crap Sharon and I split from Georgia and Kerri and searched, ahhhhed and wowed our way through many glass stores. I made some lovely purchases but gee money is easy to spend when surrounded by such beauty.
Only got bk to the hotel at about 6:45, when it was beginning to rain. 6 hrs of shopping not bad!! Glad I have been in shopping training for so long lol lol. I was very impressed when shagrin said I was so good with directions. WTF!!!! Lol I wanted her to repeat that so I could record it. We didn't get lost once!! And I found sits pretty easy to find which was good.
We all reconvened and had a lively but inexpensive dinner. Had two American guys and Gail join and it was funny reminiscing about certain travelling individuals. Roger and Wendell relatively conservative and I wonder what they actually thought of loud, sarcastic Australians. Not sure they got our humour which made us laugh even more.
After dinner went searching I the jewish ghetto / quarter. Eventually found it with Gail, the others had peeled off to bed. Wandered around a little but couldn't see much in the dark. Glad I at least went it would have been nice to see more of it, but it was just too hard as we were making our way bk from St Marks.
Then to bed to cough cough swallow swallow.
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