Goodbye, Venice. Hello, Scotland!

 Zoe and I woke up early to get ready to go to Murano, the island that Luca had recommended to see glassblowing. (YAY).

The day before I had searched for a glass-blown horse for my sister, Alison. All I could find were unicorns. 

Plans changed a bit and we ended up meeting up with Melanie earlier than expected. The three of us took the long trip to the island, with only a slight unease at the fact that our departure flight time was creeping closer...

Again, only unicorns! When I asked this guy if there were any horses sold anywhere he said, "Ma'am, We like our unicorns." Oh well.

Luca told us that all the glass-blowers would try to charge us money to see demonstrations, but that it was illegal. He told us to ignore them and continue in, and they would not ask again. He was right. 

We walked around and went to the demonstration through the side door, and no one asked us for money. The demonstration ended up being really cool (it took this man maybe five minutes to finish the entire sculpture!) so I did leave a tip:

(And yes, he made a unicorn.)

After the demonstration we headed to one last island:

As you can see, Burano is relatively far north...(compared to San Marco) we used our travel pass so it was not expensive but took a decent amount of time. 

This place was SO COOL. The island had a completely different feel:

oh. the. colors. 

 We spent the short time we had there exploring the stores and walking down the streets. The middle picture (above) illustrates just how crowded some of the roads were (not even sure if I can call something so narrow a road!). The homemade lace and paintings were absolutely breathtaking.

 

Tiny openings between buildings to form pathways to walk. 

Laundry hanging from the line...just an ordinary home :)

 Vibrant colors make a good backdrop :)

And nothing like a reminder of home for a good shoe picture:

I have no idea what this actually stands for :)

Our journey back to San Marco was a bit rocky, but we did eventually make it back in time for our flight. 

And just like that, I was back in London.

And back to studying for finals. 

"City life without elevators is exhausting."

I had one final due that week. My journalism feature article. That Monday I had my last interview with The Orchard Project, gathered all the pieces I had gathered over the semester, and sat down in a cafe to put it all together:

I felt like a real journalist for the first time. It was awesome. 

And then, with that out of the way, I headed North:

(T.k. Maxx isn't just a Stirling thing. All of Europe has the 'k' variation. Weird? Yes.)

More about Scotland, The Orchard Project, and this girl coming soon!