Today I went to Venice...

Well, actually...yesterday I went to Venice.

And yes...I've been speaking promises of a blog since my journey to Italy first became a thought last April...and I am fully aware that it is now almost one year later that I sit to write my first post.  I've sat down to begin this documentation of my ridiculous life here more times than I can count.  Or should I say...I've THOUGHT about sitting down to begin this documentation of my ridiculous life here more times than I can count.  But I couldn't think of a blog name.  And I haven't felt inspired.

But today...I feel inspired.

What's not to love about this??

Yesterday morning, my friend Lisa and I hopped on an early morning train and began our simple weekend getaway.  No plans...no to do list...just simple relaxation.  And boy were we both in dire need of simple relaxation.  (Side note...how crazy is it that I can just "hop on an early morning train" and go to Venice for the weekend??  Legit.  Crazy.  But oh. so. AWESOME.  End of sidenote.)  Lisa and I have a plethora of things in common...a few being our love of headbands, gelato and reality TV...one of the biggest being that neither of us ever run out of things to say.  (Shocking.  I know.)  So...before we knew it, two hours had pased and our train had arrived.  I tried to take a quick little power nap (moving vehicles ALWAYS put me to sleep...just ask any of my former OB students or any passengers on the #4 bus here in Trieste).  Unfortunately, Lisa wouldn't stop talking.

The best thing about the Venetian train station is the moment you step out of it.  You walk right out onto the Grand Canal.  Several dozen giant steps spanning the length of the station lead you right down to the bridges, gondolas and water taxis...and you immediately feel as though you stepped onto a movie set.  The first time I journeyed to Venice in October to rendezvous with a friend from home...I had tears well in my eyes as I walked out of the station.  I'd always dreamt of seeing Venice...but never thought it would actually happen!  And now...I've been there thrice.

Enjoying the sunshine outside the train station

 The sun was beating down and so Lisa and I perched upon the stairs to wait for Christine to arrive from Switzerland.  Delightful.  We tried to read a little...but our endless banter did not allow for such activities. Once Christine joined our little party, we hopped on the water bus and spent the next hour and a half searching for the hotel.  I think we stopped for gelato to rejuvenate during the great search.  Once we discovered the practically hidden door and walked up the steepest indoor steps in the history of architecture we spent the next hour checking in and deciphering broken English as the precious hotel keeper explained the location of our room in the "annex" and how to use the keys and where to eat lunch.  No joke...it took 45 min for her to explain those things.  She was hilarious.  And precious.

The rest of the day we wandered.  And meandered.  And ate.  Gelato, pizza, both twice.  We went to Murano and lazily looked in all the shops.  Ate some too expensive, sub par pizza for dinner and lounged around Piazza San Marco enjoying late night gelato while sitting at the waters edge.  It was here that we encountered the best people watching moment of our recent lives.  A girl about 12 years old was trailing quite a way behind her mom...and was mesmerized by the street vendor trying to sell these random light up things that you throw in the sky.  They are annoying.  And one almost hit Lisa.  But to this girl...they were the BEST THING EVER!  So...she grabbed the guy by the arm and ran shouting, "Mom!  Mom!  Mom!  Mom!  Mom!"...incessantly...overflowing with excitement.  Her mom, pulling the suitcases, stopped and turned around.  The girl caught up, still pulling the vendor and said, "Look!  You throw it in the air!!"  The guy, anticipating a sale and beaming with delight, said, "It's a flower...you can throw it!"  And then...in the best "I've been traveling all day and you are ridiculous and I'm tired and why on earth would you ever want that thing" mom voice she said..."Sophie......COME ON!"  Mamma mia.  The three of us doubled over with laughter simultaneously as Sophie hung her head in defeat and sadly walked away with her tired and annoyed mother.  HA.  HAHA.  

Picnic on a Venetian dock!

And while last night was awesome...today was perfect.  After a lazy morning...we wandered the streets and basked in the sunlight...and did a little shopping.  We drank Bellini's while sitting next to the Rialto Bridge watching the gondolas go by and getting a little tan.  We navigated our way down little alley's and through random little piazzas.  We bought a picnic lunch of salami, cheese, bread and apples at the store and found a hidden little dock jetting out into the Grand Canal and camped out for the afternoon.  It doesn't get much better than that.  Eating, sleeping, laughing, talking, lounging...as gondolas and water taxis drive by and the sun shines down.  We spent hours there.  HOURS.  If only we didn't have to leave...we would have spent DAYS there.  It was pure, simple, perfect contentment.

As we leisurely made our way back to the hotel to retrieve our bags...we stumbled upon the cutest little headband and jewelry store I've ever seen.  I absolutely fell in love with two headbands...two of the cutest my eyes have ever gazed upon.  Seriously.  Incredible.  Deciding to make a big splurge, I spent last weeks tutoring money to purchase both, since my heart couldn't decide between the two.  They were that amazing.  My little Venetian reminder of this perfect day.

Oh man, those headbands.  Absolutely fabulous.

With one more stop for gelato, we headed back to the train station to start our journeys home.  Christine back to Switzerland...Lisa and I back to Trieste.  With hearts full of happiness and contentment, cheeks pink with sunshine and tummies full of gelato and hurting from laughter.  The perfect weekend.

Lisa and I settled into our seats with our luggage safely stored on the shelf above us...snacks on our little armrests...and Tangled (so cute!!) all queued up on her iPad for viewing.  A few friends from IST hopped onto the same train a few stops down after running a 10k in Milan this weekend...what a small world.

It wasn't until our bus was halfway home and I was lost deep in thought and contentment reflecting on the perfect weekend that I realized...I left my bag with the headbands on the train.  MAMMA MIA.  Pit in my stomach.  Those fabulous headbands!  All my tutoring money gone to waste!  Lisa and I ran back (she's such a good friend...) only to find the platform void of any train.  An awesome train guy made some calls...sent someone to check the train where it had been moved...asked the cleaning guy...and an hour later confirmed that the little white bag was no where to be found.  Such sadness.  Props to the Trieste train station on their customer service though!  So helpful...and so friendly!  I only got creeped out by the guy when he started to teach us how to say, "Come, my love!" in Italian.  Um...confusion.

Of course, being my luck, I missed my bus home by 5 minutes...so I decided to walk.  While strolling through the nearly empty Trieste streets on this beautiful spring night...I couldn't stop thinking.  About the fabulous headbands.  And how my contentment had disappeared seemingly instantaneously.  And then it hit me...yes, it is tragic to have them never be seen again and now have no head accessory to wear in London for the royal wedding next month...but...I just had a PERFECT weekend.  I've been praying and asking the Lord for contentment...for friendships...for peace...for opportunities...for sunshine.  And this weekend...I had all of those things.  Twenty years down the road, I'm not going to remember the loss of those headbands.  I mean, I'm sure I will, but it will be a funny story.  I'm going to remember the absolute contentment I had lying on that dock in Venice for hours with my friends eating in the sunshine.  I going to remember the Lord providing for me...answering my prayers...and giving me this opportunity.  These moments, these days, these adventures...are worth worlds more than my 40 euro headband purchase.

So...to whoever now has those headbands...I hope you have as much fun wearing them as I had buying them.  I hope you one day have a perfect day in Venice...and I hope that on that day you are wearing an awesome head accessory.

Now...I'm going to go eat a giant bowl of pasta...and dream of my afternoon on that dock...pure contentment.