Weekend Trip to Venezia!

Hello all! I hope everyone is doing well, apparently H1N1 has made its way to CSB/SJU, and I hope everyone there in Minnesota are doing well and avoiding the flu. Going back to my first day of school I had Senior Sem. and then Language class which were good. Then Tuesday I have Art history and history which are on site. (They will probably be my hell days b/c they walk and talk sooo fast). Wednesday I have Senior Sem. and Thursday I have Language. All in all the week went pretty well.
This weekend we decided to go to Venice and leave Thursday night on a night train. It sounded like fun, but I didn't get that much sleep at all. We arrived outside of the island around 5:30 am on Friday. We eventually found the bus to our hostel/campground which suprisingly better than I thought. We decided to head towards Venice and go to St. Marks square. Once we arrived, it was amazing. All the cannals, gondolas, boats, bridges, appartments, it all was just a site! After wandering around for like 2 hours trying to find either the Realto bridge or St. Marks square we finally stumbled across the Realto and then found St. Marks a few minutes after. We went inside the Basilica which was decorated which mosaics and paintings. It was beautiful to see all the gold mosaic tiles they used to make the picture scenes. Unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures. After St. Marks we found the Bridge of Sighs which is going under renovation or construction of some sort. Then I followed another group of classmates and we decided to call it a day by 5:oopm and went back to the hostel.
On Saturday we checked out early and made our way to Venice with all of our stuff. This time we went to the Dodge's Palace, which is huge! If I were a kid that lived there it would be an awesome place to play tag or hide and seek in. There was a golden staircase that lead to all the different rooms, which I snuck a picture of, hehe. And in each room, had these gorgeous and huge paintings that were spectacular to see. And most rooms had the original fireplaces. The armory room was so cool to see with the different swords and guns used. The court room where most of the voting goes on, is considered one of the largest rooms in Europe. (just a little fun fact for you all). We made our way to the prisons and walked across the Bridge of Sighs. After the palace we quick made our way to the Museum of Mark which connects with the Correr Museum, but we couldn't spend that much time in there b/c they were closing. But we saw a lot of statues, figurines, and different coins. Once we ate dinner we made our way to the train station to catch the night train back to Rome. This time it was a little better, or at least I got more sleep. Now I am doing homework for the day and organizing things for next week. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a great week. Love you!!