Venice - Arrival

Venice - First day:

Once we arrived at the airport, the wait for the luggages was pretty quick.  I researched for several commute options to our hotel.  We could get there by bus, water taxi or by boat.  I originally picked the bus one.  I went to the information centre to ask for directions to our hotel, and the counter person told me it was best to go by boat.  Why? Because if we took the bus, we eventually had to take the boat anyway, so why not just take the boat from the beginning? Right, points taken.  So we bought the boat tickets for 15 Euro each.  We walked to the port, but we didn't know which boat to get on and which station we needed to get off from.  One of the staff searched it online for us and told us to get off at the second station.  I was surprised I couldn't find any map on the way, I probably missed it somewhere.

So we got on to the bus, and everyone had a map out.  I had nothing.  So basically we just knew we had to get off at the second stop and then we had to figure our way to the hotel in Venice.  For those of you who had been to Venice.......You would understand the frustration.

We passed by the Murano, the island that is well known for their glass making.  We weren't interested after glancing at the island.  Once we got off the boat.... The streets were empty.  There was nobody to ask.  There were only a few tourists looking for directions.  We walked back and forth to see if there's any big direction map.  NOPE.

very Vintage and quiet...super dead

Hey, here! We found a local:

Meow~

We were so lost, we didn't know where we were.  I had no choice but taking out my iPhone and google map where we were and searched for the walking distance to the hotel.  ROAMING DATA.  We searched a couple of times and figured we were only 5 minutes walk from our hotel.  1.4MB of data costed me $47 canadian dollars - a 5 seconds click........

We had to carry our luggages to cross two bridges...there were no bikes nor cars (so make sure you pack light)

Near our hotel, super quiet

There we were! After all the frustration, we finally found our hotel!

We were looking for some big hotel signage.  It was hard to find in the beginning.  Good that we had the street number.  I guess they would to keep the vintage look of the island.  The whole island looked very vintage.  There were hardly any locals walking in the streets.  A lot of the buildings looked empty.   It was quite quiet.  We read that those from most tour groups and cruises don't stay overnights on the Venice island, that's why it was so quiet at night in Venice.  

Once we checked in, we got the gift from heaven (free):

gift from HEAVEN!

Moral of the day: MUST GET A MAP IN VENICE