Cousins in Italy part 2: Venezia

            April 3-5th we vacationed in Venice with my cousins Kat, Mati and Dante.  I found an appartment on the 'island' that could sleep 8-through AirBnB-check them out! Awesome resource for renting appartments for vacationing.  Anyway, we flew from Naples to Venice with no problems. Aaron and I got off the plane thinking, "this was too easy" (more on that later). 
        According to the map from the appartment owner, it should have been simple for us to find our destination.  Well, we walked around in circles for a while before we did..ugh. We just weren't familiar with the city and it is pretty easy to get turned around there.  Especially because we have always been able to use the water to find destinations; you know, "just go to the water and then turn Left".  We certainly couldn't do that in Venice-the water is everywhere!!  haha 
        The appartment wasn't quite ready but we were allowed to drop our bags off so we could go explore.  And explore we did!   However, since Aaron was with us, we weren't free to just roam.  He was determined to find a 'destination'.  We walked all over the place and found lots of churches, bridges, souvenir stores,etc.  The difference between Aaron and I when we travel is that I sincerely enjoy roaming and exploring. Seeing and experiencing whatever comes around.  I usually don't have too many expectations or 'set-in-stone' plans.  Aaron doesn't really thrive on that..however, he's great to travel with so it's all good.

 taken near the appartment we stayed in; in the Santa Croce district of Venice

 The famous Rialto bridge! 

 I love the orange and yellow next to each other. I like the perspective of this picture.

 Kat modeling and us feeding the pigeons near the church of Paul and John

 Isn't Mati cute?!

 Kat is reflecting my joy of being on the boat

        The next morning we got up and purchased 12hr water bus tickets.  The tickets allowed us to hop on and hop off any water bus traveling around Venice.  I could have stayed on the bus all day!  I loved being on the water and seeing the city from the water too.  We got off at the island of Murano-known all over the world for their glass art and jewelry. Beautiful! We also got to watch a glass blower make several different pieces of work.  It was especially nice too, because it was a little cold outside.  We got back on the bus and rode home.  It was our plan to get back on in the evening and ride around but we didn't. sob, sob, sob.. 
          Remember how I said our trip to Venice was so easy? Well, the 'other shoe dropped' on Thursday night when we got a message stating that our flight out of Venice the next day was canceled; due to a STRIKE. (go figure, strikes in Italy are so rare...haha NOT!)  So, we followed directions on how to remedy the problem: the airline told us to choose another flight.  We chose an earlier flight than what was originally scheduled. Early Friday morning we walked out to catch the bus to the airport-in the pouring down and sideways rain. Got to the airport only to learn (after lots of questions and pleading on our part) that our flight didn't exist. Aarghhh!!!  Long story short, we requested a refund for our flights and booked the train to get back to Naples.  The train would have been nice but it stopped at, I think, every stop possible between Venice and Naples(that's a long way!)..ugh..exhausting. Oh, and I'm pretty sure a guy seated near us rode the train for free. When the ticket checker came through he made the guy get out of his seat and then he gave him a piece of paper.  The guy proceeded to tear the paper up with no hesitation.  I'm sure it was a fine but how he would get the young man to pay it was beyond me. Interesting.