Island Hopping

Liebe Familie, Samstag 11 Oktober 2008
Although the day started out very stressful, it was absolutely amazing! I got up bright and early, breakfasted, and then waited for my friend Willow to get ready. However, while she was in the shower the water in the entire hotel went out, and so I ended up having to wait for her a lot longer, as she needed water to wash the shampoo out of her hair. When we finally got water again we were leaving much later than we thought we would be, but luckily we ran into the Brewers at the ferry, and they were going to try to visit both Murano and Burano—which was our goal but we had been told we wouldn't have enough time. However, as there is no way the group would leave the Brewers' in Venice, we figured we'd be safe if we went with them.

We bought a 12 hour ferry ticket—sadly we were so lost yesterday we didn't have the chance to see any of the islands around Venice before today. We hopped on a ferry and went to Murano and saw a man make a glass horse. Apparently different kinds of horses stand for different glass-making families, so they keep their secrets within their families. Also, the artist has at the most a minute and a half before the glass is too cool to work with, so they know how to make these within 30 seconds, it's so cool to see how fast they make them!

We saw several glass shops, and then we hopped back on the ferry to go Burano, an island famous for its lace. The lace factories were closed, so we just looked at the shops and took loads of pictures with the VERY colorful houses there. They were gorgeous.

After getting back on the ferry I advised Cindy on the Berlin program, and then we were back on the mainland Venice, if you can call it that. We went on two of the short, 50 cent gondola rides, purely for picture and bragging purposes. It was really fun, because one of the gondaliers was a very short, old, angry man, who had a voice that brought sailors to mind when he spoke. It was quite funny. He was not a fan of tourists taking pictures on his boat, but as he didn't speak anything but Italian we played the American tourist card.

Leaving the gondola we didn't have that much time left in Venice, so we went to a cafeteria called Brek for lunch (I had the most amazing grilled zucchini and tomatoes, it was fabulous. But far more expensive than expected. Then I had my last gelato, it was a tragic, tragic experience. I shall never forget the scrumptiousness of gelato here. We went back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and went off to the train station.

The train ride consisted of homework, homework, and homework. Although I did have an hour conversation with my professor and her family about raising children bilingually. I am DEFINITELY doing that. Just need to work on finding an Austrian.....

Anyway, let it comfort you to know that I am safely back in Vienna, and will be sleeping in my own bed tonight! Yay!
Deine Anna