Paris-Italy: 29 Dec (12 Dec 2011- 2 Jan 2012)

Venice
Venice had been enjoyable but it would not be a place I would choose to live in. =X Venice was a love-hate. More love than hate. On good weathered days, the venice streets were a charmer. The river edges and the many little bridges connecting streets to streets were interesting and pretty to walk through. Looking at the venice map itself was an art; same for the water bus map. By the second day, we had been able to easily walk from the hostel to San Marco Square and back. Charmer, interesting and actually nice to walk in, if you know where you're going. On bad weathered days, specifically rain with wet shoes, soggy socks and cold, the Venice streets were quite a maze. Having the most uncomfortable walking foot wear and getting to dead ends and river edges were quite frustrating. Only comfort was from the snuggling under the umbrella.
Our hostel, Ca Contirini, was located at the S.Samuele water bus station at the edge of San Marco. Although it was not exactly at the busiest streets, it was close to the water bus station, which meant less dragging of luggage. =Z
Venice's water buses came as ferry boats and water taxis came as speedboats. Although the water buses took a long time to travel from point to point, it had been enjoyable sitting in them and moving through the river (the Grand Canal). Only thing was figuring out the routes and the schedules, of which, both of us always had different understanding of whenever we wanted to go to places. Is it #2 towards San Marco or #2 the other way round? #N?
In Venice, we had spent our most expensive meal of the entire trip- £95 on risotto, fish soup (with lots of squids, mussels and fish) and grilled sea bass. Good food had been costing us a bomb to our pockets, warmth to our stomachs and happiness to our cheeks.