Venice and Barcelona

VENICE

After Sicily, Danielle and I headed up to Venice, where we arrived at night in the middle of a big lightning storm! Luckily, the hostel wasn't a long walk, but of course I stopped to try to capture the bolts of lightning over the canal- would have been such a cool picture, but I kept just missing, and then finally gave up. But, if you know me, it's fairly normal to try to drive to the place I can see the lightning most clearly, so my efforts shouldn't be surprising- I think thunderstorms are the coolest :)

We had one full day in Venice, and woke up early to make the most of it. It was a great day, just wandering and meandering through the streets and over the bridges and canals of Venice. We stopped on probably half of them to take pictures, of course, but it was just so picturesque (or photogenic :), right Danielle?). We went to the big Venice market (name I forget, and I don't care enough to google it) and got some fruit, and then went to the Grand Canal by the main square and sat for a couple hours, soaking in the boats and the sunshine. Of course, we kept our backs to the hoards of tourists behind us, and tried to pretend that there weren't thousands of people just meters (so European) behind us. 

It was nice being able to walk around and head in generally the right direction, since the Grand Canal kept us enclosed and from getting too lost. We spent another few hours sitting in the sunshine at another, smaller canal later on, and ate gelato (of course!). We didn't have many specific things to see or do (the only bummer was missing out on watching the Murano glass blowing- the water taxi ticket prices intimidated us, and by the time we met a nice couple from Florida who convinced us it was worth it, it was too late). I'm definitely more of a nature person, and I don't like the crowds of tourists you find in the major cities (Venice in particular), but it was definitely a really cool place, and so unique (no cars!).

gondolas!

But, one of the best parts had nothing to do with where we were. When we got back from exploring, a new girl had moved into our shared dorm. I cannot remember her name right now, but she was so cool! She had taught English in South America after college, and then had a "real person" job, but wasn't happy with it, so she decided to WWOOF and travel for a little bit. She had come from a farm in Greece, and was headed to help on a farm in Tuscany. It was cool, because she was living out things that Danielle and I had been talking about (wwoofing and teaching English), and seemed so passionate about life! She even gave me an entire audio book series about the history of Venice after I mentioned wanting to know more. She said something that I thought was really cool- "When I was an accountant, I never teared up because life was so good. I've done that twice lately since I've been traveling".

BARCELONA

Then, we headed to Barcelona for the final stretch of break before heading back to Copenhagen and

 going on the Czech Trek. We got there in the afternoon, checked into a hostel, and *tried* to run by the beach. That didn't work out so well, but we then went to a nearby grocery store, picked up some super cheap food (read: 45 Euro cents for a full box of pasta, 97 Euro cents for a bottle of wine), cooked some dinner (pasta with chicken, tomato, and mozarella with bread and wine), and watched a movie on my laptop at the hostel. It was a wonderful, relaxing night.

incredible drummer
in the park

The next day I went for a run in the morning, and then we vetoed the free

La Famiglia 

walking tour in exchange for a day at our own pace in the city. It was a little chillier than usual in Barcelona, which was a bummer, but in retrospect I appreciated it on our long walk up to the famous Park Guell, which was entirely uphill, and entirely hot, despite the wind. The park was beautiful; we ate lunch there overlooking the city- it had an incredible view, and it was nice to be somewhere green. We saw some of the famous Barcelona sites, spent an hour at the beach (which was nice, albeit chilly, even in jeans. But, at least we found it, unlike our failed run the night before, where we found shipping harbors instead), walked on La Rambla and saw beautiful Easter palms and lots of candy, and then 

in the park

saw a Flamenco show! It was very cool, but kind of a blur thinking back to it. 

And the next morning, it was back to good old Copenhagen, where it was still cold, and still not green :( But it was okay, since the next evening we left once again, this time by overnight bus, to go with DIS to the Czech Republic!

:)