Glass Blowing and Pigeons

I (Kaycie) started my day by opening my eyes and watching a cruise ship go literally right past the window! We had a boat tour of the islands today. I always expected Venice to be a city with some little rivers running through it…but it is actually a bunch of islands separated by some pretty large canals! I would imagine it is fairly impractical to live here all the time. It would be so hard to get from place to place. We stopped at the Morano glass factory to see the glass blowing and buy some souvenirs. I’ve seen glass blowing before, but was still pretty impressed when the man made a glass horse in about two minutes. The gift shop was awesome and I would have loved to spend tons of money there. When the tour was over, we took some time to explore the back alley of the main island to see how the people of Venice really live. Some of those alleys are so small only one person could pass through at a time! People also tend to live in the second floor rooms and above, and the bottom level is reserved for shops and cafes. I (Sarah) was quite amused by all the laundry hanging over our heads that is strung across the alley. We also stopped at the piazza outside of St. Mark’s cathedral to feed the pigeons. Sarah bought a bag of feed and had pigeons all over her in an instant! I’ve never seen so many birds in one place in my life! Once the day was over we took a “bus” – or boat – back to the hostel. I like that the taxis and buses are actually boats! The city is defiantly a great place to vacation, but I still don’t think I could live there.

--Kaycie and Sarah