Venice

- "What way?"

Our first words uttered in Venice. Never a good sign. Armed with a map that consisted of white lines for streets, blue lines for canals and little else we decided to go right. We proceeded to get completely lost before running into an Italian man and asking him the way. He was kind enough to walk with us to the Ponte dell' Accademia and tell us where to go from there. Too bad his directions were in Italian. It's close enough to Spanish that we understood most of it, but 'most of it' doesn't cut it when it comes to directions. We wandered around some more until I looked up and noticed a street sign.

- "Stop. I remember that street name from when I looked up the hostel's address."

While I fumbled around my purse for the scrap of yellow paper I'd scrawled the hostel details on, Kathleen confirmed my suspicion.

-"Ya. I think we should turn right..."

and then there we were, standing in front of regular looking door. A yellowing piece of paper taped above the door bell the only indication we'd actually arrived at 'Venice Academy'.

The rest of our weekend was far less eventful. Venice is small and once you get the hang of it, not too difficult to walk around. It's filled to the brim with expensive Italian restaurants, bakeries, pizza stands and tourist shops. Fancy hotels. Men in striped shirts hawking gondola rides. But put these modern manifestation aside and you're left with an old warm charm. With the air of whimsy and romanticism we all associate with Venice. With peeling paint, deserted cobblestone streets, enormous stone cathedrals and absolutley no bicycles, mopeds or cars. Venice is unique and I am glad I got to experience it, but sadly I have to say the city can be seen in a day or two. Something to keep in mind if you ever get the chance to visit the 'City of Water'.