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Venice – Day 1 (Burano, Torcello and Murano)

Since I arrived so late last night I decided to lay in bed and catch up on a few things. Then I ate some of the complimentary breakfast and realized that here in Italy no one knows what a café mocha is either! So I asked for a cappuccino and hot chocolate and mixed an approximation myself. I strolled down to the boat pickup point and made my way to Burano, an island about an hour north by boat from Venice known for its lace making and brightly colored rainbow buildings. It’s a really cool place, and not very big, so I wandered around for a couple hours enjoying all of the colors then hopped back on the boat to Torcello. Torcello is another island just north of Burano with a super old Catholic cathedral on it and that’s about it. Still, because it’s so quiet I can imagine this island as a nice retreat for locals trying to get out of the city for a day picnic. Then I got on the ferry to Murano which is known for glass blowing and glass making. It was around 5pm by the time I got there so most of the shops that gave demonstrations were closed, but I’ve seen enough demonstrations at Ren Faire and in Japan and other places. I found a cute little glass black cat that I bought, and wandered over to another really old church to take a look. Afterwards I headed back to the main islands and wandered the market streets and Grand Canal and walked over the Rialto Bridge before stopping for some pasta at a restaurant overlooking the canal. Then I swung by Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute and made the short walk to my hotel.

I’m really digging Venice, it’s so laid back and the people are nice. There are no cars here, just boats, including police and ambulances which was interesting to see. The tourist areas are crazy, but otherwise it’s quiet and easy to get around once you know your way around.

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Travel Safely Part 1: Avoiding Pickpockets

Barcelona has been getting a lot of bad press recently because of all the petty theft, and it is a legitimate concern. I even got an email from the U.S. Embassy while I was there saying they are aware of the rising problem and more Barcelona police were being dispatched to tourist areas. But to the people saying they want to cancel their trip because of it, please don’t! You just need to be aware and prepared. Hopefully my experiences and suggestions will be useful to those going soon:

– Get a cross body security bag. I got this Travelon Bag off Amazon and this thing is legit. It’s heavy duty, cut resistant, has RFID protection, and the outward facing zippers have clip locks on them. It’s also pretty cute and comes in all sorts of colors.

– Phone theft is the most common thing I hear about, so I got a wrist strap and a finger holder for my phone. They’d have to break my hand to get my phone off me, so not an easy worthwhile target for a thief looking for a quick score.

– I kept 20 euro in a front pocket to use as needed, but the rest of my money as well as my wallet/passport stayed inside the locked purse and I never opened the locked part in public.

– I was traveling solo, so I tried to look for obvious tourists to hand my camera to for photos. Bonus points if they were clearly experienced and taking photos of each other with good angles and stuff on their own. Then I would offer to take a photo of them together in exchange. We all left happy!

– Most importantly though, don’t be afraid to be rude. Don’t feel guilty about it. If someone is bothering you, or making you uneasy, you don’t owe it to them to stay in the conversation. You can leave without their permission. You can walk away without saying a word of goodbye if you have to. Or if you must, you can look them right in the eye and let out the loudest, screechiest, most T-Rex sounding wail right into their ear then stomp off with impact-tremor inducing ferocity. Whatever you gotta do to stay safe.

And that’s it. I walked everywhere, I bought a 3 day metro pass and took trains/buses all over and never once felt unsafe. So go and do the thing! Barcelona is gorgeous, and a half day trip to Montserrat is TOTALLY worth it. I did mine with a company called We Barcelona, and would definitely recommend. Have fun!