change of scenery

I am sitting in a hotel in Venice.  Waitwaitwhat?  What?  Yes, ok.  I am in Venice, Italy.
I cannot believe I am finally here.   Most everyone on the trip has said the same thing-

We have all had these marking points for ourselves.  Places we were really looking forward to that split the trip up into sections.  For me it was to start in London, then go till Paris, then I finally got to see what Germany was like, and then it was Italy.  A place I had already seen but a place that I had loved.  And now I'm here!  We are here for three weeks and then it is Israel... and then the trip is done!  It is just mind-blowing.

My time in Mittersill was wonderful.  Like I said, it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen in my life. It snowed the first two nights we stayed there.  We had class every morning till 1, then we would all eat soup together for lunch, and study until we went to sleep with about 2 hours of of a study break when we would break free from the castle and breathe the mountain air.  We wrote papers and studied hard for an entire week,  all getting a a serious case of castle fever.  I barely changed out of my pajamas the whole stay.  Each night the 'wine cellar' was open when we could all buy cheap beer and wine from Colby for a euro in our classroom.  Totally worth it.  We also had a day trip to Salzburg to see Sound of Music sights and Mozart's home.

On our first stop in Salzburg we stumbled upon this incredible playground.  43 college students on a playground made for children but lacking serious safety precautions = awesome but disastrous.  After being stuck in the castle for 5 days.. we went wild.  The playground was full of millions of different kinds of swings and spinning devices high above the ground, even a zip line.  We jumped on everything and expounded all of our energy until, unfortunately, one of a girls was being pushed by three guys on the zip line and got so much air at the end of the line that she split her head open on a metal beam.
here's a little bit of what I saw:

(view from hill by our castle)

(I want one of these cows when I grow up)

(one of our study breaks/ play dates)

But now we are in Venice.  I came here 4 years ago with my mom and I am still trying to figure out how it feels different.  Maybe it doesn't.  I am just noticing more.  I went to mass at Saint Mark's Basilica this morning and my appreciation for the art and the architecture is obviously far superior than it was 4 years ago.  This is absolutely my favorite church in Europe.  The domes, the gold, the mosaics.  It is stunning, but not overdone.  The mosaics are simple in nature that I am not overwhelmed by them as I am with so many Renaissance and Baroque alter pieces and sculptures.  And then of the course the architecture is unbelievable.  A church that took two centuries to complete, drawing from both Eastern and Western styles.  I also have a new appreciation for the technology it took to build Venice.  Never thought I'd say that before...

Being by the water feels so incredible.  I am so in love with the mountains that I forgot how wonderful the ocean truly is.  In one day we went from the crisp mountain air of the Alps to the salty breeze of the Adriatic Sea.  It is so windy by the water, oh how I love the wind.

But, with all of it's wonderful things- Venice is a tourist town.  Every single street has shops on it.  So many shops.  Apparently all you need to survive in Venice are glass animals, lingerie, fur coats, jewelry, leather shoes, squishy rubber pigs that continually flatten and reform, and handbags.  Because that's all they sell.  And really, you don't need any of that.  Also, there are practically no locals whatsoever.  Just the 20 MILLION people that visit every year.

So what is the 'feeling' of Venice?  Fake romanticism encouraged by the cheesy gondola singers?  The preserved culture of a place with few inhabitants?  A sinking city that was once a refuge but soon became a town based on money and pleasure, now turned into a tourist trap?


I can't leave on that cynical of a note.  Yes, I believe all of that about this place.  But romanticism, even if fake, feels nice every once in a while.  And I am so happy to be in Italy.  And it is beautiful.  And I am here with so many incredible friends.  And I am very blessed.