Blogpagation: Venice Day one (part two)

Mestre is on the mainland, and you have to take a train or bus to get into Venice. Train tickets are only 1 Eur and trains depart with high frequency. The view is insane as it seems you're taking the train on water! When it's after 12am, the trains stop and then the only option back to Mestre is by bus. Note: remember to validate your ticket - we forgot to do this the first day, but which means we had an extra ticket for the next day!

After elbowing through the masses of Italians in the train station to get onto the street (or piazza), the view slaps you in the face as it didn't actually hit me that I was in venice until that moment. Yes it is exactly how you see it in the movies. As a bonus, since Carnival was going on, there was even more activity on the Piazza de Roma right in front with tables set up for face paintin and such.

The first thing we did was head to the first bus stop (vaporetti, or boat bus) and figure out how to get to Murano, a famous island for making glass objects. There are many more islands that you can visit, but we chose this one to see the glass making stuff - as we heard they make great and cheap souvenirs (thanks Danielle!)

When you get on the bus, the venetian feeling hits you even stronger. Of course taking a boat is a lot more gentler than your four wheel bus, and the ride is very nice and calming; allowing passengers to take in the view. You can also take a water taxi, which would be more expensive, but you would have the boat all to yourself, and last a gondola which is more for the romantic side of things.

Once in Murano, we wandered around the outer parts of the island and then tried to figure out how to get to the centre using a map. Unfortunately this is probably one of the most inefficient ways to discover and make your way in Venice and in Murano as the best way is to wander and follow the signs on the buildings to point you in the general direction. It took some time but we eventually found the centre of Murano! We browsed from shop to shop looking for souvenirs as we only had about an hour before the shops closed.

Once back onto the main Venetian island. We decided to get off at a stop opposite of the train station and then wander our way back. We happened to stop at an awesome gelato place (of course) and then made our way through the confusing streets of Venice, but not without seeing many mask shops!

Then we made our way into the Piazza San Marco, the main attraction in Venice (more pics on day 3 when there's sunlight). When we got there, there were some people (not lots) dancin and listening to the act on stage. We got a glimpse of costumes people would be wearing and headed off to wander again.