I had the pleasure of spending the end of this week in Venice, Italy a beautiful city of Gothic buildings, boats and bridges.

Venice is an island, so its totally surrounded by water. The only way to get around is walking over canals on tiny bridges (some are quite large) or taking some kind of boat. They have the famous gondola which is a quintessential venetian experience – men in stripped shirts rowing you down the canals- which costs an arm and a leg. You can also take a vaporetto (public transportation ferry, which is lie $8 each way might I add) which goes from island to island (this is obviously the option I took).

I spent hours walking around like a mouse in a maze, because that is indeed what Venice is. The streets are narrow and the buildings are about 4 stories high, so the only thing you can see is the block in front of you. There are also no signs on the street. So, I wondered around and just happened to get to all of the places I wanted to go. There is no fighting it, you have no choice, you just have to allow yourself to get lost. And it paid off because after days of searching, I randomly found an English version the next book in the trilogy – the girl who played with fire. YES!!! There are also countless pizza places, restaurants and art shops the sell blown glass or Carnival masks.

I meandered along and finally found my way to Piazza San Marco, Venice’s most famous sight. There are more pigeons then you would every want to see in your life and countless people taking pictures with them. The grandest sight is the Basilica Di San Marco, which is all decked out in gold, marble, mosaics and a few domes. It was built to house the remains of St. Mark. It’s splendid!

Last but not least, I took the number 1 ferry along the Grand Canal which is lined with gothic and renaissance palaces. In most places, both within the city and along the canal, you have to take a boat up to the entrance. Venice is a city like no other. Its sinking or rather tides are rising and its said to be under water soon, so visit if soon if you get the chance.

At the end of the day, I went back to the train station, picked up my luggage and headed to Mestre, a suburb of Venice, which is where I was hosted by a Servas member, Nives Serafin, a real Italian. Ahhhhh, a bit of normalcy. I must say after backpacking for almost a month, I am tired of backpackers. Same conversation with everyone, where are you from, where have you been on you trip, how long are you traveling for etc. At Nives’ place, I had my own room, she made me dinner (pasta, bread, cheese, wine) and told me about some of the places she has been in the US. She has traveled there a lot and hosted quite a few Americans. Its nice to be greeted, welcomed and taken care of after a long trip, priceless even.

My second day in Venice, I awoke to a spread of breakfast complements of Nives and some Italian coffee. I found a park and relaed, read and then headed off to the city. To my dismay, I searched fruitlessly for an interesting exhibit I saw a poster for called “Black Motion.” It was a film and photo exhibit about the experience of peoples of the African Diaspora in Europe. Nives made me dinner and we went to a film festival in Mestre. Unfortunately, the subtitles didn’t end up being in English, so I watched a 2 hour Chinese movie with Italian subtitles. I got about 5% from the similarities to Spanish and another 50% from the excellent fighting scenes. It wasn’t bad.

I have just arrived in Zurich, Switzerland – the lake is lovely….going to an free concert. More to come…