Frustrated

I recently returned from a very restorative trip the U.S..  When I came home I was determined to, among other things, take more pride in my housewife duties.  Plus, spring has sprung, so it's a bit of spring cleaning, and I finally ordered my new doTERRA OnGuard cleaner and couldn't wait to give it a test run, so I've been systematically cleaning the entire place.

Today my mission is to clean the cat bathroom, like really clean it.  I thought maybe that it always smelled because of reside left in the stall, since there were some butt smudges and whatnot in there.  Plus I am just kind of spring cleaning in general.  After cleaning the shower stall where the litter box resides, I dumped all the remaining litter out of the box and washed the litter box inside and out, and refilled with fresh litter.  I poured the litter straight into the trashcan, which was only about half full at the time, but the litter made it pretty heavy.  So I take the trash to the dumpster, ensuring not to let the heavy bag touch the ground and tear.  I was only about halfway to the dumpster when I felt sand going into my shoe, I looked down and there was a steady stream coming out of the trash bag.  Apparently the weight of the bag was enough to push some corner of something through the bag and make a little hole.  I moved the hole over the grass and hustled the best I could to the dumpster.  On the walk back I followed the trail, which lead all the way back to the edge of the building but not to the door, thank goodness the trail didn't start at our front door.  It's super crazy windy today and is supposed to rain later, I hoped the weather would take care of it, since I don't even think we have a broom here.  How embarrassing.

To thank me for my efforts, or as part of some curse I am under, where the house is not to smell cat poop free for even 5 minutes, there was a fresh, uncovered turd waiting for me by the time I got back from the dumpster.  Boddington also kindly re-covered all the surfaces I cleaned yesterday with fresh tear-stain drops.  That's doubly disappointing because he was doing so well with his eyes for a while on the other food, the one that made Paris sick.  I guess there isn't a food that will please both cats at once.
After coming in and sulking for a bit, I remembered that the landlord did leave us a broom, and I went back to take responsibility for my mess and try to clean it up.  I also remembered that the unit next door to us is having an open house today, and I didn't want to dissuade potential buyers by making the neighborhood look dirty.  Unfortunately that was just enough time for most of the litter to start to do it's litter thing on the patches of moisture on the ground from the morning's off and on sprinkles.  When I tried to sweep those spots, it mostly just smeared, doing more harm than good.  

I eventually managed to scrub event he smeared spots, and left it looking alright, but not quite as good as new.  The whole thing left me feeling a bit defeated.  Especially as I vacuumed really well on Tuesday, after brushing the cats, and then did some spot-cleaning vacuuming yesterday, but when I opened the patio door today (Saturday) and the wind came in, like 5 tumblefurs blew across the living room floor.  Tumblefurs is hubby's cute name for the clumps of cat and dog fur that gather around the edges of the room and blow like tumbleweeds across the floor at the slightest provocation.  It makes me wonder why I bother cleaning at all!  This blog was meant to help keep my spirits up through the transition period, and I try to post mostly positive things, but sometimes I just need to vent!  And it worked, now I can laugh at it a bit, but now time to get back to cleaning.  :)

Volunteering

I am not a great housewife, never claimed to be, but here I am anyway.  Although I do not miss having an office job (although I did at first), I do miss being with other people, doing something useful, being with other people, feeling valued for my contribution, and being with other people.  I get quite a lot of enjoyment out of social events, particularly with the American Women's Club of Dublin, but that's not everyday and it's not the same.  Since I can't work now due to my residency status, and really I don't want to at this point, hubby suggested I try some volunteering.  Not only will it help fill that void, but I can do it as little as I want, and it will look good on a  resume to show how I filled this time if and when I need to go back into the workforce.  Hopefully that won't be until after I have kids and they are back in school (I have baby fever right now).  I found a website that listed all sorts of volunteer opportunities, and decided that the one at Imaginosity, a children's museum that is on my bus route, looked like the best fit for now, due to the easy transportation and baby fever and all.

Have you ever volunteered anywhere before?  My experience has mostly been like this:  Place:  Please volunteer, anybody, we are desperate!  Me:  I'll do it.  Place: Great, we don't know you or what you can do but we are desperate so start now please!  That is now how it went here at all.  First I had to submit my name for consideration through he volunteer site, who then passed it on to the place.  Then the place had to review my basic info, like my age and hours of availability, and decide if they wanted to deal with me at all. Then the place sent me an email saying here is what we expect out of you, if you are okay with that then submit us this other application AND A RESUME, which I did.  Really, are resume???  The description of the position was help set up for craft time.  I don't have a resume for that.  I dug up my last version of my professional resume and added a few lines at the top about how I had volunteered for church before, then put in the cover letter an explanation of  how I was a professional before but moved, blah blah blah.  Then I had to wait to hear back from them and go for an in person interview, at which the lady said they are really informal there.  This process is not what I consider informal, but at least the interview was, and we agreed I would start after my vacation (or Holiday as they call it, which I think is more fun) and come for a few hours every Wednesday for at least a month, then take it from there.  But first I had to fill our a form to get vetted by the Garda (police background check), on which I had to list every place I have lived, and when I lived there, since I was born.  That seems like overkill, since I only had to list the last 10 years when I got my security clearance working for the U.S. Government, but at least they are being thorough with the people who will be working with little kids.

Today was my first day.  I think they forgot I was coming, and weren't really sure what to do with me.  They weren't that busy so I only stayed for 2 hours, which included getting me oriented a bit.  The next two weeks are going to be some special camp stuff while the kids are on school break, so they expect to be really busy and have some more structured stuff to do, and I think they will need me more.  The reason I started this week was so they would have a chance to show me what's up before the craziness hits. I had to wear one of their volunteer t-shirts while I was there. They have a bucket of shirts they rotate, I think even the staff has to do that, you just wear it for the day then leave it behind and pick up a new one the next day.  Unfortunately, they only had one size that said volunteer on it, and it was a little snug :(  So I wandered around for about 15 minutes and found out that this place is actually really rad.  They had a ton of interactive exhibits along with the activities, like the ones I helped with.  I am jealous I didn't have this when I was a kid!  We did have the Exploratorium, which I loved, but I think this is targeted at younger kids and have lots more stuff to climb and play on.  They even had this section that was a green screen where you stand on it and play a virtual video game and see yourself on TV.  They flashed a screen of high scores and it was all pictures of adults :) 

After wandering around I "helped" with Nursery Rhyme Time, which meant I laid out some yoga mats, then did the hand motions along with the songs while I sat in the corner in case any kids (toddlers) looked my way.  Then after a few songs they brought out a bucket of random instruments for the kids to just play with.  I actually did help a bit there, ushered some new kids into the room, helped some figure out what to do with their instruments, and just encouraged the kids to play and make a racket!

Then, after music room cleanup, it was Toddler Art Workshop time, where I helped set out supplies, did a tiny bit of helping with glue sticks, and then, after the kids left, I helped cut out more shapes for tomorrow's craft.  They keep mentioning I can lead my own craft class, so I might bring in a bunch of flower or star or whatnot cutouts that I make with my crafting supplies and have them glue them to a piece of paper to make a picture of a garden or something.  After seeing the kids today, I need to keep it easy and simple.  Or maybe I will come in the afternoon when (I think) it's geared more towards older kids.  It's kind of cool that they want me to be more active when I come next time, but I also have only spent like 2 hours total there, so that seems like it's jumping the gun a little!  I did tell the coordinator that I would make a project at home and bring it in next time to see if that is the kind of thing they are looking for.  Maybe I will be leading it soon, time to hit pinterest and look up toddler friendly crafts!

So far the people seem nice and I had some fun, so looking forward to going back next week.

At the grocery store

The grocery stores here aren't TOO unlike those in the US, but there are some definite differences. The first difference you notice before you even get in the store.

The "trolleys" are chained together, and you have to insert a €1 coin to release one.  The first few times I went to the store I only used the hand basket because I refused to pay €1 to rent a basket for my shopping trip.  Only later did I find out that you are just putting this down as a deposit (not all stores have this handy sign), and you get it back at the end when you clip it back onto the chain on the end of the next cart.  It's actually a very clever way to make sure the carts end up back in the cart storage area, and not all over the parking lot or stolen outright.

Some of the stores are also combination department store and grocery store.  Kind of like a Super Target, but the food selection is larger, and the clothes and food are on separate levels.  So you can go buy some sheets and some new shoes, then take the escalator down to do your grocery shopping.  Some also have a little cafe!

Once you get inside, the stores are mostly like you would expect, just with different brands, and flavors.

These mostly just tasted like BBQ chips but not quite as sweet.  Surprisingly, they actually listed both Roast Beef and Irish Stout (beer) on the ingredients list!  Also, don't call these chips, they are "crisps."  "Chips" are thick french fries.

Some of the candies have names you might recognize, but most of those don't taste quite the same as the US versions.

Some things use the same words but mean something different.  When people here speak of bacon, it usually means rashers, which is more like ham than bacon, and if you want something close to what you are used to, you have to look for "smoked streaky rashers" or "smoked streaky bacon."  Sometimes they just call it "American style bacon."  While we are on the topic of breakfast, pancakes is another funny thing.  "American Style Pancakes" are usually found pre-packaged and don't look very tasty to me.  I have seen a few pancake mixes, but pretty sure they are not the American style.  When they say pancakes here, they mean something more like crepes, which is confusing because they also have crepes.

We had trouble one day finding lemon juice, like in one of those squeezy lemons or a bottle, so I asked one of the store employees.  She didn't know, so she asked another employee, who sought clarification by asking, "You mean like for pancakes?"  I was totally confused by that, but we did finally find our lemon on the baking aisle.  I found out later from a cab driver two interesting things about pancakes here.  First of all, it is what they eat on Fat Tuesday, it's a big thing apparently. Second, the preferred method of eating them is with a  squeeze of lemon and some powdered sugar, like shown on the cookbook cover below.  Now the whole "for pancakes" thing makes more sense.  I still haven't tried these pancakes yet, but some day I will see what this crepe and lemon thing is about.

Some other things I find interesting are the basics: milk, eggs, bread.  I have only in the last month or so seen stores carrying something called "skimmed milk."  Up until then I have only seen "Milk" and "Light Milk," or sometimes "Low Fat Milk," which seems to be like 2% milk.  The eggs are usually stored on a shelf at room temperature (but recommend storing in the fridge after purchase), and there is a huge selection of free range eggs.  I have only seen brown eggs, and the yolk is more orange than yellow.  Some brands of bread offer both a full loaf and a "Half Pan" of bread, which is half a loaf. This works out great for us, because we can't go through a full loaf before it starts to mold.

And finally as you exit the store, I am again fascinated by the carts.  Every cart we have used have all four wheels that turn in a full circle, not just back and forth, meaning you can push the cart sideways. I actually hate that, I have trouble pushing it when it is full, but still interesting :)  Two of the Three stores we frequent have parking on a separate level than the store.  One of them is in the mall, so you see people pushing grocery carts around the mall on their way to the parking garage, which is kind of funny.  Unlike IKEA, you don't have to wait for an elevator to take you down.  They just use inclined moving walkways instead of escalators.  What's really brilliant about this is that the walkways are grooved, as are the cart tires.  The tires sink into the grooves on the walkway, and now the little rubber stopper that goes partway down the wheel is making contact with the walkway and holding the cart in place.  So genius!  They do shopping carts so much better here than we do in the US.

So if you come over for a visit and hit the grocery store, you'll get along okay, but expect adapt a little :)

Happy Year of the Sheep!

This past Wednesday I went to a Chinese New Year’s event. Technically I think it was Chinese New Year’s Eve.  The event was not a big deal in itself, but since I was already headed into town that night, I decided to go a bit early and check out the Well Wishing Ribbon Ceremony:

To ring in the Year of the Sheep the Dublin Chinese New Year Festival invites you to join us on the Millennium Bridge on Wednesday 18th of February at 5.30pm to tie ribbons and hang your special wishing cards with your hopes and dreams for the year ahead. Enjoy Dragon dancing and further entertainment on the bridge. All are welcome on this unique special gathering amongst friends and family on Chinese New Year’s Day!

The Millennium Bridge sounds like a big deal, but it’s really just a plain old bridge that is not very big.  It was pretty crowded with everyone there for the event and all the regular folks who were just trying to get across the river.  Somehow that worked in its favor though, making it all seem more exciting and well attended.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, so I just headed to the bridge and thought I would know it when I saw it.  I got to the bridge and heard some music, so I tried to walk toward the sound.  I had trouble getting through the crowd, and didn't realize that the music was moving, and it was moving towards me!  After a bit of trying to fight my way through, someone wearing an event vest ushered us all to the side, and right after him came the folks playing the cymbals and a dragon!  He was inches from me, it was kind of cool :)  The dragon dancers did a great job of dancing around while simultaneously blinking the eyes, flapping the mouth, and twitching the ears.

"Help," the dragon says, "I can't get through!"

Peek-a-boo!

After he passed I was able to find someone with the wish cards, thought of some good wishes for the new year, and tied it on along with the others.

I heard the volunteers talking about candles floating down the river, so I hung out for a bit to see what that would be like.  It was a pretty nice day, but the wind over the bridge was so cold!  They started dropping the candles, which were in a lotus flower shaped holder, into the water before it was dark, but I was glad because I didn't want to hang out in that cold any longer and I had a Girls Night Out wine tasting to get to.  He only dropped them one at a time, so it was not a glorious light show or anything, but I was still glad to be there for it.

It was interesting to see how Dublin handles these festivities.  We all tied our ribbons onto a length of fishing line that was strung right under the railing, for easy cleanup.  They also had two kayakers waiting about 20 yards down from the bridge to scoop up all of the candles, presumably to prevent litter.

It was a small event, but I enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to lots more events as the weather gets warmer!

Rome

Rome was the last stop on the trip.  By this point we were getting overwhelmed by everything we had already seen, and everything we still had yet to see!  Rome has SO MUCH to see, but we only had a day and a half and our legs were tired from all the walking we had been doing, so we focused on just a few things.  First things first, off to the Colosseum! 

On the way there we passed a few ruins and other sights that were just dotted around town.  Some were just neat looking old buildings, some were huge ruins.  It was crazy to see the old mixed in with the new.  One building we passed in the taxi looked like they just built a new building right on top of the old, so that half way up it transitioned from weather-worn marble to stucco with glass windows that looked like apartments.  Craziness, I have never seen a mix of old and new like this anywhere before, usually the ruins are in a completely separate area from the rest of town. 

We also noticed that orange trees line many of the streets in Rome. I have no idea if anyone eats them, but since all the low-hanging fruit was gone, we supposed that they did.  I don't know if there is a story there or not, but it sure was pretty!

Speaking of trees, I couldn't pass up a chance to take a picture with a genuine Italian olive tree, even it it was in a pot outside a restaurant.

When we got to the Colosseum, I was surprised at how it looked.  I am not sure if I can explain how, but it looked a bit different than I had expected based on pictures. First of all, I thought it was whiter than it actually was, and I thought it would be bigger.  Don’t get me wrong, it was BIG, but somehow movies make it look even bigger.  It was also rather difficult to figure out where people would have sat based on what was left.  We had a good look around but didn't stay too long because a very strong, rather cold wind was making us a bit miserable. 

I had planned to go check out the Trastevere neighborhood that night for dinner, but once we made it back to the hotel we were too pooped to leave again.  Something for the next trip!

The Colosseum was hubby’s must see, but mine was the Trevi Fountain.  We hit that first thing the next morning, but were surprised at what we found.

Somewhere behind all that scaffolding is the Trevi Fountain.  You think the guy at the hotel would have mentioned this when he was circling all the sites on the map for us.

Going to Italy off season: no overheating, no big crowds, rarely a line, huge sales in stores and with street vendors, but many of the restaurants are closed and the artifacts are being refurbished.  :( They at least had a walkway so we could get close and peek between the scaffolding, but definitely not the same!   Sigh….

Scaffolding or no, I wasn't going to miss my opportunity to get my picture in front of the fountain!

Off to the Spanish Steps where we found MORE refurbishment.  At least this time the steps were uncovered, it was the church at the top that was being worked on.  We honestly couldn't remember why the steps were a big deal, we just remember it was a thing to see and we were close, so had to check it out.

Later that day was our most exhausting, and most satisfying, site so far: a three hour tour of the Vatican.  This was the only guided tour we booked, and we were glad we did as we would have missed so much without it.  Hubby and his parents are Catholic, so I think it was a little more special for them than it was for me, but I still thought it was great.  Much of the tour was discussing the vast amounts of artwork in the papal palace, where the tour guide confirmed the rumor FIL heard that it would take 10 years to study all the art.  Paintings, tapestries, statues, mosaics…you name it hey had it, and it was EVERYWHERE!  One hallway had every square foot covered in paintings, it was a whole museum’s worth on the ceiling alone.  It was quite gaudy, actually, but I guess tastes change with the times.  

Not just paintings on the ceilings, plaster sculptures too!

The guide explained how the artwork in other parts of the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel specifically, were influenced by the sculptures that had already been brought to the Vatican.  She also discussed some paintings that I remember discussing in my Art History class in college, I had no idea they were from here.  The Sistine Chapel is what I think we were all most anxious to see, but it was nothing like we expected.  I had not done my homework at all and thought, somehow, that it was painted under one of the domes in St. Peter's Basilica.  But it was instead a chapel within the Papal Palace and was a long rectangular room, which was also much smaller than you would think.  Michelangelo painted the ceiling, but other artists pained the walls, and the effect was one ginormous canvas, the only thing not painted was the floor, and it had marble designs in it.  It was dizzying.  We couldn't take pics of it so you’ll just have to google it, sorry.  We were all actually a bit disappointed in the Sistine Chapel, but St. Peter's Basilica made up for it.

There is a dome on the Basilica, which you can't see from this view, but I couldn't pass up getting a shot of the sun starting to set and the lights coming on.

Every Cathedral we've seen is amazing, all have their own special touches and elaborations, and many are so over the top they turn out gaudy.  St. Peter's Basilica pushed right up against, but stayed on the classy side of, that line.  It was so impressive that MIL was literally stopped mid-step by the beauty of it as we came in the door.  Again, the enormity and scale of this place is something you just can’t understand without being there, it was amazing.  It also held this piece of art, which was something I was so happy to see in person.  My father’s urn is a bronze casting of this same statue, so it was very special for me. 

We had only seen part of the cathedral when we heard bells and singing.  At the very front of the cathedral, in a small section that was roped off from visitors, they held a small service complete with a choir.  That was pretty amazing to witness.   You can hear a little bit of it in this video hubby took.

As we headed out we passed a huge nativity, even though this was the last day in January (maybe we got to see it on its last day???).  There was lighting that changed from twinkling stars to sunrise to full daylight then back again, and had figures that moved.  We saw another nativity outside next to the huge Christmas tree, but without the special effects and a little less detailed.  Still cool.

I wish I had captured a video of it, but you can see that the lights change and the people in the foreground give you an idea of how big it was.

The outdoor nativity and Christmas tree.

The Vatican tour was exhausting but well worth the visit if you have the chance, even if you are not Catholic or even Christian.

There is much much more to see in Rome, but I guess it will have to wait for next time!

The beautiful sunrise and rainbow from our hotel room window on the last day there was telling us to come back again!

Florence

After Venice we visited Florence.  You could immediately tell this was going to be much different than Venice.  While Venice seemed very old world, without even any cars in town, Florence was very much a modern city, but not too big, which is why I think hubby liked this stop the best.  He also said, after we visited Rome, that Florence felt safer and more high class than Rome, and was his favorite of all three cities we visited.  It still had a Tuscan touch to it, but nothing as drastically out of the ordinary as Venice.  Because it was a regular city, this was our first chance to experience Italian driving.  We were all very glad we didn't have to drive here.  It wasn't as crazy as I've seen in movies or TV, but way more than we wanted to deal with, we stuck to walking when we could and glad we didn't get a rental car.

Hubby thought the anti-mafia building and the tiny bus were funny.

We arrived in the afternoon and set off exploring and enjoying the sunshine as we walked along the river.  When the wind wasn't blowing, it was much warmer than Venice and a welcome change.  Walked a street near the river but were disappointed to find out everything was closed up.  And when I say closed up, I mean metal shutters rolled down over all the windows and doors, so you can’t even window shop.  We asked the hotel about this and found out that first of all, we weren't in a part of town that would have anything for us; and second, most places were closed between 1pm and 4pm for “lunch.”  We had better luck when we went back out after 4 and found a church where FIL attended an afternoon service, the high-end shop area of town, and the famous bridge.  The bridge looked kind of interesting from the outside, but turned out to be just another extension of the shopping center, and the sides were lined with jewelry shops.  Hubby enjoyed seeing all the fancy pants shops, even though we had no intention of even entering one. 

I didn't have any good shots of the famous bridge, but this was a beautiful view of the river!

The next day we headed to the site hubby couldn't wait to see: the statue of David.  Did you know it is supposed to be David from the David and Goliath story, or that it is 14 feet tall?  I didn't either.  I was shocked at how big it was, I tried to take a picture with hubby in the foreground for perspective, but it still doesn't do it justice.  We were extremely lucky no to have to wait in a line to see this, as the guide book had many warnings about it.  There are some advantages to coming to Italy in January I suppose.  The same museum that houses David also had a whole section on how the marble statues were made.  I had no idea they made a plaster version first, then transferred it to marble using guide marks on the plaster and a t-shaped measuring tool.  Kind of cool!

Near the museum was the Hotel Casci, which is owned by part of my FIL’s family.  We had to go see the family hotel!  Unfortunately, it was closed for renovations, so the sign on the building was all we really got to see.

The other site we wanted to see was the Duomo.  It was a cathedral completely covered, inside and out, with pink, grey, and white marble.  It was an amazing sight for the marble alone, but had a beautifully painted dome as well.

We spent the rest of our time there just recuperating and walking around town, during which we got to experience rain and snow.  It was sunny when we arrived, got very cold the next day, and in Rome we heard thunder and saw hail, so we experienced pretty much every weather pattern while we were here!

Venice

Since I was a teenager, I've had 3 places I really wanted to visit.  A few more have been added since then, but my top three for the last 20 years have been:

1. Germany
2. Italy
3. Australia and New Zealand

Really, it was more specific than that.  I had specific sites I wanted to see, and anything else I saw in the country after that would be great, but I really wanted to see these things:

1. Neuschwanstein Castle
2. Venice
3. The Great Barrier Reef

After 20 years of waiting, I got to see Neuschwanstein over Christmas, and now only a month later, I am visiting Venice!!!!! 

Finally here!  On the steps of the train station.

FIL is pretty excited too!  And looking much more photogenic than me, I am jealous. 

It was nearly as great as I expected, I certainly was excited when I walked out of the train station and saw the canal.  I think I somehow thought that Carnivale would be happening all the time, so it was a little calmer than I expected, but that turned out to be a good thing.   I love being near the water, so it was like a breath of fresh air (literally and figuratively, since the infamous smell didn't roll in until later in the day) when I walked out of our hotel and immediately got a great view of the canal every morning.  Every time I saw the water it helped me feel a little more at peace.  Going to Italy in January may not be ideal, but it worked out pretty well for Venice, because instead of the hot stinky sewer smell I have heard so much about, the air was mostly clean and crisp, especially in the morning.  Hubby complained about the smell, but in my opinion it was nonexistent during parts of the day, and only mild during the other parts.

View from right out front of our hotel.  Not bad!

Nearly every time we crossed a bridge, I would stop at the top and take in the view.  I enjoyed them all, but of course some we better than others.  Even seeing the same canal over and over did not get old for me, especially as the light changed throughout the day.

One thing I didn't expect was that it was a little TOO quiet, especially being off-season for tourist.  The first night when we went out to walk around we didn't run into many people.  When we went back out for dinner, we were walking for about 20 minutes (we got lost), and saw only a handful of people, and lots of closed shops and shutters on homes.  It was kind of eerie.  Daytime brought everyone out and the atmosphere perked up.  The other thing I wasn't expecting is that the streets were very confusing and hard to navigate.  It didn't help that some were tiny and we didn't expect those to be mapped or labeled streets, and others were at such a funny angle that you couldn't even see them if you weren't standing in the right place! 

Do you see the intersecting street in the middle picture?  We didn't either until someone came walking out of it, like MIL is coming out of it in the picture on the right (see if you can spot her in the middle picture).  No wonder we missed it the first time through.

Maybe that is why most people stick to navigating by boat and not trying to walk through the streets.  Everything was done by boat: ambulance, milk delivery, trash pickup, even funerals!

 

We got a kick out of refrigerated delivery boats like this.  The white part is the refrigerator, you can see the compressor hanging off the back of that portion when it passes by.

Hubby saw this funeral from the public transport boat.  The canals make even a funeral look beautiful!

But the beauty made up for the frustrations, especially when you got to view it from the water.

I took a free trip out to Murano Island just outside of Venice.  This is where the famous glass comes from.  I got to watch a glass blowing demonstration by father and son artists, and walk through a gallery showcasing the work of many artist’s pieces for sale.  Way too expensive for me, but I did enjoying seeing them and found a pretty piece in the gift shop that was till genuine Murano glass.   

The red stuff at the end of those poles is molten hot glass!  When cooled it was a light blue color.  They had a lot of different types of chandeliers.  When we win the lotto I am coming here for all my light fixtures.

The best part of that excursion for me was the boat ride over and back.  The day before, hubby and I were admiring the beautiful wood paneled taxi boats that were too expensive for us to want to take.  Low and behold, that is kind of boat I got to ride over in!  The passenger compartment was like a limo inside, with the back portion having a Plexiglas roof, and having doors at the front to keep the cold out.  And I got to ride in it for free!  I was super excited.  There were also gorgeous views from Murano that I got to take in while I waited for my ride back.

The boat on the bottom is the one I took back, it looked the same as the one I took out except it was missing the gorgeous wood, like in the above picture.  The inside of the cabin was like a limo!

After my tour I met hubby, MIL and FIL at the Piazza San Marco, where we toured St Mark's Basilica.  The interior, and even some of the exterior, of this cathedral was covered in sparkling gold mosaics. Also cool was being able to go out onto the balcony and catch the view from up there.

 

The exterior of the cathedral and views from the balcony.  The mosaics were in those round cutouts over each door.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but these are some of the mosaics over the doors on the exterior.  If they put this much detail, and gold, into the outside, you can imagine what the inside was like!

At the time of writing this, we have now been to Venice, Florence, and Rome.  So far Venice is still my favorite.  Even though there weren't many sights to see, the beauty of the city and the canals, as well as feeling like we had the whole place to ourselves at times, is what made this my favorite.  So glad I finally made it :)

Oh, and no, we didn't ride in a gondola ;)