Looking a little sleepy in front of a canal this morning. (I think I'm going to be tired for the entirety of this trip.)
We went out to the islands of Burano and Murano today. They're a little ways out into the lagoon, away from the main islands/canals that make up Venice. Murano is where all the glass factories are located (plus lots of shops and a small town) and Burano is an old fishing town that is a tourist spot because all of the houses are painted bright and crazy colors. I hadn't heard much about Burano before this visit, but Ana had visited it before I saw her in Nice, and she recommended it. You can get to both islands by the public water bus system, so it was an easy trip to get out to both.
The edge of the lagoon. This is the view from one side of Venice. We took boats from here out to the other islands.
Our first stop was Burano. Only 2600 people or so live on Burano; it's a very tiny island. It definitely thrives on tourists. But the houses were so cool and so fun! Even though it was raining on-and-off, the island was still a lot of fun to walk around, purely because the houses are so brightly colored.
Walking along the main street/canal in Burano.
Look how colorful all the houses are! Apparently there are rules about the colors - it depends on what zone you live in and what colors the other houses are.
Close up of the different colors.
Walking in the streets and a picture of one of the towers in town. My camera angle isn't bad; the tower leans a lot. It's like Burano's version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Colorful...
...colorful! The houses are so colorful that even though it was overcast, the photos turned out pretty well!
A nice Australian man took our picture for us.
After Burano we went to Murano to try to see some glass blowing. Not a lot of the workshops were open, so we ended up wandering around and going into a lot of shops. The Murano glass jewelry is really very gorgeous. I wasn't going to buy any because I already have a lot of Murano jewelry, but Karen saw a shop with modern-looking glass jewelry and we went inside. I ended up buying myself an expensive necklace. It's very pretty though and very different from a lot of the Murano jewelry that you see, so I think it was a good purchase. The guy in the shop also did a mini-demonstration for us. He uses a torch instead of a furnace when he makes his jewelry.
Murano itself wasn't that pretty. It was just some houses and canals, but it doesn't have nearly the same charm as Venice. We did manage to see one quick glass blowing demonstration though, so that was cool!
Glass garden in center of Murano.
Massive glass sculpture in one of the squares.
One of the streets in Murano - like I said, it's not as pretty as Venice. The factories were ordered a long time ago to move out to the island because they were too dangerous to have in the city. Since the island started with the factories, I guess it makes sense that it's not as pretty!
Canal/paths/shops. Lots and lots and lots of shops. Basically nothing but shops.
Another massive glass sculpture in town. This one looked like it probably lit up at night.
Part of the very quick glass blowing demonstration we saw. They were getting ready to close but there were enough of us that they did a quick, one-and-a-half minute demonstration for us.
The slightly-funnily-shaped horse that he made - in 1.5 minutes!
I really liked visiting Burano. The houses were really a sight. Murano was okay. I don't think I'd recommend it to people. You can get all the same stuff in shops in Venice, and Venice is much lovelier to walk around. Though I am glad to have bought that necklace.
I'm up late now and should probably get to sleep because I have a flight to Berlin tomorrow morning. Unfortunately I never sleep well before I travel, particularly when I travel by plane, so I'll be pretty tired regardless in the morning. I'll probably be tired for this entire trip because we're flying so much and because we're constantly on the move. I also think it's a bit hard to totally relax since I'm in between moving out of Périgueux and re-adjusting to being at home. I won't be going back to a normal pattern after this trip. So it's a whole lot to deal with! I'm happy to be traveling and I'm excited to be going home - I'm just already exhausted.
And one last picture of Venice to close this off:
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