please venice to me 2

The sun light creeps in the wooden window sills with glass panels and thick curtains.

I was disoriented when I opened my eyes. I remembered I was on the third floor of our Airbnb house in Venice.

I saw Anna still dozing off and J heading slowly for the bathroom with her towel.

“Ah, I have a few minutes more before I go to the shower.”

I lay there trying to sleep a bit more but the excitement on seeing Venice in daylight is just too strong to resist. My energy is back to 100% and I am visually imagining what I’d see when I step out of the house.

I got out of the bed and head for my luggage. “I guess I need to sort what I’m wearing for the couple of days that I’ll be here.” and for that day, I managed to pull on a sweater, a culottes and some scarf, later I will decide which coat to match it with.

I head on to the kitchen and sat there, just absentmindedly looking at what’s around me.

The Airbnb house was fully furnished with microwave and a refrigerator. Except for a RICE COOKER! The host was generous enough to include a pan griller though. “ah this is a good house!”, I reckon.

J went out from the bathroom and asked about the breakfast. I told her, I’m craving for rice in the morning and she laughed. (No, I wasn’t joking, I’ve been really feeling famished for lacking rice in this travel’s menu.) In Amsterdam, we mostly had yogurts for breakfast and coffee and I’m afraid we’d have yogurts every day in Venice as well. So I told J, we should go for groceries and buy rice! It was a deal. Hehe

A moment later, we all finished grooming and breakfast and waited no time to head out.

It’s a lovely day in Venice. The air is cool but the sun is out. What’s interesting in Venice is that, we are like in a giant maze where you need to successfully come out from it to see the particular place you have in mind. The alleys are narrow and so are the bridges that connect it. But in this maze were plethora of cafes and restaurants tucked intricately as if it’s a rest stop. We finally managed to get past the “maze” and for the first time laid our eyes at the grand canals.

One word: WOW! It was one of the most amazing places I have ever seen!

It was totally straight from a postcard.

With the connecting canals , countless gondolas, flashy speedboats fresh from that of Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp’s movie “the tourist”,  

Quaint cafes in al fresco as background… it was awe-inspiring!

There were literally people all over the place. Some happily resting while feeding some pigeons, others in huddles of groups enjoying some wine. There were clueless tourists following their guides and others like us, busy taking in the moment, wide-eyed and awestruck as if some giggling teenage girls getting excited over a new stuff.

Venice was truly magical. We spent the day going around shops and trying cafes.

We spent the day taking photos, covering each angle as if it’s the norm and looking around piazzas and secret places.

When we had a full, it was dark and we decided to go to the groceries first before coming home. We met a Filipino lady and had a chitchat with her, she helped me find where the bag of rice is. I was so happy. Haha

Heading back in the dark, entering the “maze” again was challenging. It was one of those moments where you try so hard to figure out which way to go so you can just go home and rest. The narrow alleys in daylight were narrower during the night. Carrying some heavy groceries on top of getting confused was a struggle. We stopped a couple of times as we ended up on to so many detours. We managed to find a local who can speak a bit of English and asked her about our location. She guided us to turn right when we should’ve turned right instead of turning left and going further from our house. Needless to say, it was an adventure, tiring but fun!

(for part 3.)