Road conditions: wet

Venice was the city I had been waiting for. I dreamed of a city that embodied what if felt like to be in love.  I Imagined doves flying, pasta on my cheek and running barefoot over bridges. Secluded boats and snuggling next to someone handsome.

Unfortunately, Venice was not this city.

The day we were leaving the boats quietly puttered by on a morning commute. People cracked their windows enough to hear the water lapping at the edges of the city.

The sun shown down illuminating the canals.  liquid gold outlining the veins of a sleepy city.  For a moment the city was at peace. I could see what it might have been once. I could see the children playing soccer in the square. sticky gelato dripping down your elbows, a slow boat ride to cold white marble church.

The sun broke through the clouds, the cramped city bursting at its buttons was awake and the beauty dried up with the canals.


We arrived on monday afternoon, we parked in this cement maze of tourists who didnt know how to chitty chitty bang bang their way to downtown Venice. We experienced an italian taxi but inteads of wheels we crashed against water. i stuck my head out the side for fresh air and tousled hair. keith kept him head low ready to project bile at any moment. we arrived at the hotel wich looked more like a convention center for giants. most of venice is ancient and tiny, working hard to remain level and afloat. however, the Hilton is this massive structure, gleaming red bricks amongst the small colorful homes. We enter the Hilton and after some misunderstandings and confusion we are upgraded to a room with a view. we trade for our king bed for two queens sillily pushed together. The view makes me think of the vience I had dreamed of.


we headed down to the executive lounge for endless macroon, coffee and grapefruit juice. needless to say i was not shy in eating every vanilla bean macroon in the vicinity. we boarded the hilton shuttle and made our way to the famous square.

pulling up to the dock my heart was breaking. thousands upon thousands of people pushing and reaching for the best selfie with their selfie stick. a standstill no matter which direction you turned. lines to get into stores to walk across the street to grab a bite to eat. a majestic city full of twists and turns but each corner just lead to more people. most places we visited we could steal away moments of silence. you could find children, fresh laundry out the window, people walking to and from work. Here there was no sanctuary.

over every bridge was a conga line of gondola boats as we made our way to saint marcs square. From there we took a 360 picture using my head as a tripod(keith"standard")


next we sat and had a confusing bottle of wine in which i misunderstood 60.50 for 16.50
 after some attempts to head home early we decided on one last nice dinner out on the town. we had a lovely dinner on the sidewalk which ended up in a mild case of food poisoning. luckily those misfortunes took place after we got home instead of on our way.

After dinner we realized our shuttle to the hotel was a good 30 mins walk away and that the last boat for another hour needed to have us on it.

 this was honestly the hilight of venice. sometimes when keith and i are late for something we take off in a full sprint and race. erupting with giggles we hurdled over the globs of people. leaped down stairs and twirled around the corners. smiles from ear to ear, running fast enough everything was blurred but me and him. At last we made it on to the boat sweating and panting. ( only to watch it make a second stop very close to where we had started originally)

i snuggled into his arms, looking up at the stars as we bobbed along dreaming of a warm shower and a cozy robe. its the little things right?

we made it home to our brick tower and hurried up to the famous rooftop, it was a very underwhelming rooftop full of smoke and bad techno music. we quickly retired to our room with a spectacular view the coziest robe, two huge ass beds, comfs slippers and woke up still wearing the robes and slippers to a beautiful sunrise..

we arrived at marco polo airport, lots of marco polo-ing in the marco polo airport, naturally.

off to amsterdam we go!