Bienvenue en France!: The island floating on water... Venezia!

The main canal in Venice

Finally, we were on our way to Italy!! It was not a easy road getting there... We left Nemours early so that we would have some time to find our way around the train station and get to Gare du Nord where we had to take an hour and twenty minute train to Beauvais where our flight was leaving from. All was smooth until we noticed our train in Gare du Nord was not leaving... 5 minutes passed, then 10, then 20, 30, 40.. We were starting to get nervous because our flight was at 3:55 pm out of Beauvais, we had a 1h20 minute train ride and it was already 1:40 pm. Not to mention that we had to take a taxi from Beauvais train station to the airport which took approximately 10 minutes!! Omg... We were freaking out! Then finally, the train started moving at 1:45!! Thank goodness!! We got to the Beauvais train station at 2:55 pm and thankfully, there was a taxi ready to go! We got to the airport at 3:10 and there was a huge line going into security which closed in 15 minutes.... OH NO... Now we were getting really nervous! By as our luck continued, we were sitting on the plane at 3:50 pm... 5 minutes before deprartue.....phewf, never doing that again! We flew with Ryan air and this was my first experience being able to pick my own seats. In actuality it is more of a hassle then picking your seats before you enter on the plane because there are couples and families who want to sit together but sometimes there is only middle seats left and it just seemed so unorganized. They were also selling a lot of random things; things like scratch tickets, bus tickets, duty free and cigars/cigarettes which they were willing to give you a light because there was a designated smoking area on the plane..... Ugh, WHAT!?!? I could not believe I heard that right... I had to turn around and ask Courtney if she had heard the same thing and sure enough she did... There was a legal designated smoking area on an AIRPLANE!!! Crazy right!?!? So we arrive in Venice around 5:45 pm at the Treviso airport, which is about 30 miles away from downtown. We got on a bus right away because all buses and airplanes are in sync which makes perfect sense... We should think about this in Canada, eh!? We arrive at the Piazzala Roma (major train/bus station) around 7 pm. Courtney and I didn't have a map and we had to find our hotel, however, we had to go to another hotel first to check in... Weird! After looking long and hard at a map, asking tourists and locals, we found our way to our check-in destination - did I mention the view we had on this journey!? Oh my goodness! It was a city floating on water! Water, bridges, gondolas, boats, and did I mention water!!!!!! It was absolutely breathtaking! Finally I feel like I'm in Europe!!! This place stole my heart from the moment I saw it! For our entire 2 day journey in Venezia (Venice in Italian), I was in awe. I never imagined a place more beautiful would exist in this world. Court and I had many adventures, went shopping, explored, ate the best pizza and pasta of life (sorry mom), had gelato (heaven to say the least), hung out at local pubs (cafe noir was our favorite), and experience Carnival (a special event that happens each year for two weeks in February celebrating the end of winter and the beginning of spring). Everyone and their dogs were dressed up for this thing! Many people were wearing masks, face paint, wigs, costumes (lots of random ones; it kind of reminded me of Halloween), and some were very elegant/formal outfits that one would wear to a opera in the 18th century. It was incredible and there was always something going on! We saw the "Bridge of Sighs", "Dodge's Palace", amongst many other beautiful sights! So now we are off to Rome... Again we made it very close to the train station, however, we made it! I am writing on the train as we speak... Ciao!