The thrilling conclusion to the "Spring Break" blog series

(Ok, don't know if it's actually all that thrilling, but I found the title to be amusing.)

I recommend taking a train from Geneva to Venice... it is BEAUTIFUL!! It was really one of the most beautiful countrysides I've ever seen. I didn't really know when I passed into Italy because I was half asleep/half awake on and off but what I saw was awesome. Cute little mountain towns with beautiful lakes and little villas! Plus it was sunny and wonderful out. It was a 7 hour ride, but it was totally worth it.

When we got in to Venice the sun had left and it was raining. Good timing on our part, I guess. We got in and went straight for some Italian food!! I got tortellini in a cream sauce. It was amazing. Our waiter was also wearing some extremely tight pants... it made me laugh. I literally couldn't even figure out how that man was moving his legs they were so tight. Welcome to Italy, I guess. I had a vision of Ross on friends trying to pull up his leather pants with lotion/powder/paste, which made me laugh harder.

Off to the hostel. I was excited to have another "true hostel" experience. Laura said she booked us in a 10-person dorm. The name of the Hostel was "Camping Serenissimo". I was like, "Ummmm, are you sure this is a hostel? Cuz if I have to pitch a tent, screw that. We're finding something else."

"No, it's a hostel. The picture online was of a building, and I booked us in the 10-person dorm. I think you CAN camp if you want, but we're not."

Hahahaha, you already all know where this story is headed.

It was definitely a camp grounds. We stayed in a little mini trailer thing that was just a little box with 2 beds in it. The bathrooms were across the camp grounds. Sweet.

Again, not terrible, just definitely NOT what I was expecting. But really-12 Euro a night. You just really can't beat those prices.

We went back into Venice (it was a 30 minute bus ride) and walked around and got nice and lost. We have heard from people that the thing to do in Venice is to just walk around until you get lost. So we did. It is sooooooooooo beautiful! All the buildings are really old because there are so many building restrictions there. The whole city is literally sinking. So it was a good thing I saw it now because it probably won't be there for much longer.

Just walking around, seeing all the canals, and old cute buildings was really neat. We kept going until we sat down for some dinner. Lasagna for me! Yum. It was awesome. We sat at a little sidewalk cafe on a canal for dinner as it got dark.

Went back to our "hostel" for some sleep. The next day was our last, and we had to carry our backpacks all day :(

More walking around and getting lost the next day. We had a really long lunch at 2:30 with pasta, chicken, salad, and Italian wine.

It is REALLY hard not to spend money at this place!! Every other shop has tons of hand crafted Murano Glass goods and hand painted Carnival masks. It's so shiny and sparkley and pretty... it's easy to be distracted if you happen to be a 20 year old female (which, in fact, I am). I did buy myself a necklace, but for pretty cheap. I think the woman I bought it from may have been going out of business. She had a cute little shop somewhere further away from the "tourist" spots and had all of her stuff on sale. But, what are you gonna do? I'm sure she appreciated me buying at least something from her. And I still think it's cool because I now have a necklace that is someone's art.

Not to mention the food. I pretty much wanted to go to Italy just for the food. We ate at every chance we got. I had lots of gelato, pasta, and other pastries. It was pretty amazing.

So after a full day of walking around with our backpacks on, we headed to our lodgings for the evening-the airport. I may have mentioned before that the Dublin airport is a great place to sleep. It's HUGE and has tons of couches, chairs, benches, 24 hour McDonalds with booths for sleeping, etc. The Venice airport is not QUITE the same. The only place to sleep beside the floor was some metal seats. So 6 hours on metal seats that suck all the heat out of your body was pretty fun. Our flight left at 6:30 a.m. and we had a layover in Germany.

I'm happy to be back in Greece, but it was nice to get away for a while. There are just a few things about this country I don't care for too much... Like not being able to flush your toilet paper, and people not understanding what a "line" is. Greek people don't line up, they just sit in a large confusing mass and push their way around.

I did really miss Greek food!! I need to have a gyro pretty soon or I may lose it. I did eat about half a block of feta in the 2 days I've been back. I am getting a really severe feta addiction, not good. It's pretty expensive back home!! Hahaha, we'll see how long I can last :)

If you have any questions about any of my travels, let me know! I can't really do it all justice with just some typing on a blog. I will have much better story telling skills in person when I get home!

To conclude, I'll just say this, see the world. It rocks.