venice recap: part 1

We are back from Venice, and indeed the city is everything I expected and more. :-) Sure, it is a tad touristy, but this is a city like no other and thus I believe allowances can be made. At times, the experience was surreal because I am not used to hearing American on a regular basis, and in Venice I found myself surrounded by voices from seemingly all over the lower 48 (as well as the UK, the whole of Europe, and the full range of Asian languages). Also surreal, the fact that I could understand Italian almost better than the Spanish spoken here in the village (after 6 bloody years!!!!)

Tourist life in Venice is also not cheap, but then again the city is like a sophisticated version of Disneyland, so we didn't much blink an eye at most prices (although if anyone can guess correctly how much we paid for the two coffees and my little birthday cake pictured below, I will give a proper shout-out here---aim high, people). We also saved euros because our hotel has its own private (and solar-powered!) shuttle boat, and thus did not have to pay 6,50 euros/person to ride the waterbuses. We did splurge for the private watertaxi to and from the airport, and I must say jetting around the Adriatic like James Bond did wonders for my mood after leaving the Lost Baggage counter with my pathetic little courtesy bag from Skyteam.

But, of course, one of the star attractions of the trip was the food, and, as you can see, we were not disappointed. :-)

hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain