Venice, the Tourist Trap

Second full day in Venice. I decided to head "downtown" to the even more touristy parts, crossing the Grand Canal with great views

and although it was cloudy (the day before had been one of four sunny days in all of June) and the lighting isn't great, I like the green sea, white clouds, and blue sky in that last shot.

I found some nice places for pictures of gondolas

A very small variation on that last one (taken at sunset) is, I later found out, a very common postcard/magnet souvenir. Clearly a good spot to take a picture. Actually, I took three pictures that are nearly identical to postcards, haha, without having seen the postcards beforehand. Here is another one

and here's the last, the Doge's palace with the light coming through the arches

That area of the Doge's residence is incredibly grand

and so very busy

Although, truth be told, most of Venice is that busy. Here's Rialto Bridge

and the main waterfront

The waterfront was insanity, but it was beautifully warm and everyone is dressed for a party and laughing and throwing money around... so it's kind of fun to be there for a while. Venus fly traps trap flies, and Venice traps tourists, but they don't seem to mind.

A street artist from Croatia cut my silhouette out of paper. "You look like Crocodile Dundee," he said, which is true. Oh yes, I've wrestled a few crocs in my time. (Not true.) He had cut out of a folded sheet of paper, so he had two copies of my silhouette. "One for you, and one for your lover," he said. "If you have many lovers, make photocopies."

The view:

My SIM card was broken again and I had to pay to have it fixed. What the hell, cell phone companies. But it seems to be good now and I'm writing these posts over tethered 3G for good measure.

I hurt my leg bending over to photograph a pigeon (lamest injury ever). A waiter was kind enough to let me borrow a seat and I stared at this for a while

contributing to Venezian happiness by rescuing some dropped groceries from the store nearby. Some grizzled gondola operators sat down next to me and tried halfheartedly to drum up customers. One girl took a photo of the grizzliest, and he smiled during the photo, then gave a two-fingered salute. She didn't recognize the gesture as obscene and returned it, smiling. Oh, Venice.

I left in time to catch the sunset

Other thoughts: this is what a Venetian ball looks like

and a pasta shop

and can you tell up from down in this picture?

This is what it's like to have the ocean "by your doorstep"

complete with fish

(the last one is enhanced in the Gimp so you can see through the water better).

The highlight of my day was watching a resident open up his door, and emerge into four-inch-deep water wearing crocs. He fiddled with keys and locked it despite the bottom of the door being four inches underwater with no pedestrian approaches. His boat was tied up literally inches away and he just stepped inside, shaking the water from his feet. I'm sure this was quite normal for him, but I was quite bemused and even forgot to take a picture.

Day 3

I'm putting this here because it was only a partial day and I didn't take too many pictures. Venetian life goes on

even though the sea rising and the city sinking has combined to make the water level at least a foot higher than original design specifications

Nothing in Venice is a straight line

but there are plenty of places that are beautiful beyond expectation

So people keep coming and the city lives on.