Venice - Day 2

Islands hopping~

water bus stop

We've been having our meals religiously in this one place - Pontini's for all our days in Venice - cheaper than the others. You can see Calvin here is eating by a bar/stand  - most locals eat by the bar right next to their cashier - it's about 50 cents to one whole euro cheaper per order - so a cappucino would cost about 1.50 euro standing up by the bar versus a 2.00 euro sitting down. Once you tally that up with the rest of your meal (bread, etc), you saved a good few euros by eating like a local. So apart from saving money, we truly enjoyed eating and blending with the locals for breakfasts here at Pontini's.

Murano

Murano glass

Anyways, our day -
First to Murano then to Burano. Those are two islands not too far from the venice side - from san marco, about 45ish minute water bus ride to Burano, and only about 10 mins or so to Murano. Murano is famous for its glass making while Burano is more about lace-making. Writing about the visits still make me feel a little bit tippy - after all that waterbus-ride, I still (every now and then) feel as if I am still aboard a boat, rocking gently. Murano wasn't too much of a fun stop for us, the whole place is just filled with shops after shops of selling pretty much similar items of glass products - accessories or high end chandeliers or mantlepiece decors. Had a panini speck with Brie cheese - yuck - not a fan of Brie for sure (good thing Calvin has no problem finishing it for me).

Burano

Burano was a pleasant surprise - rows after rows of colors popping in every corner you turn. It's a smaller island than Murano, we didn't expect too much but turned out to be our favorite stop for the whole trip to Venice. I would go back in a heartbeat, still a little packed with tourists but quieter and cheaper items for sale too. Ride back to San Marco wasn't too fun - packed like sardines for a good 45 mins, a Canadian couple who stood next to us felt the same way, couldn't imagine packed the same way in the heat of summer (lucky us, it's cooling a lot now). Greeted by thunder and lightning halfway back, rocked back and forth a little more and this time we were prepared with an umbrella but still managed to get pretty drenched. A nice touch of rainbow overlooking lagoon to end the day =)