Axl's Adventures In The Mediterranean: Part 4

Friday 15th: Venice.

Venice is without doubt the most beautiful place I have ever been to. It's like crawling into a beautiful painting and walking around in it. I wanted to photograph almost everything I saw (apart from all the clothes shops). When it was hot & sunny, Venice was beautifullyy picturesque and a breathtaking sight. Then came a torrential downpour - some of the hadest rainfall I've ever seen - and Venice was still just as beautiful. In fact, it cleared San Marco square, so you could actually see it properly. When you'ld managed to negotiate yer way thru the other tourists who had crammed themselves into any available sheltered area. Some were stupid enough to go into the San Marco cafes and get a 16 or 17 euro ice cream. (About an hour later, we had an ice cream a few streets away for just 1 euro, and it was possibly the best ice cream I've ever had. Tiramissu flavour. Yum.) That's just for a regular sized ice cream too by the way. I don't care how much it rains, that's just fucking stupid. Then the rain stopped and rainsoaked Venice looked just as incredible as dry Venice or being-rained-on Venice. The rain even kinda made some of the backstreet areas look even nicer. I'm not really saying anything about Venice am I. I dunno, it's difficult to write about a place I was just so in awe of. I just can't really put it across in words. I'll stop gushing about Venice now.

Saturday 16th: Murano.

(The only morning where we didn't wake up in a different place.)

We decided to go to Murano. I'm not sure if Murano is a part of Venice or a different place in the same area, but it is just as beautiful. Just with less tourists, and a bit more rustic. Glass is Murano's thing. Just about every shop in Murano sells glass products, from the practical to the decorative. The things they can do with glass are pretty incredible. Murano itself is like a village version of Venice, so there's not really anything I can say without repeating myself. It's just an incredibly attractive place. And it has a restaurant where I had one of the best meals ever. Giant plate of parma ham and melon to start, big old bowl of homemade carbonara for main. Axl's belly was the happiest ever.

Sunday 17th: Split.

Split is a port town in Croatia. Split looks pretty much just as you would expect a cityin a former Yugoslav state to look. The old town looks quaintly worn and beautiful in the sun, a maze of backstreets and alleyways. The newer parts, a shadow of Western European cities. Again, being a Sundayin Europe, there's not a great deal to do other than eat and look at pretty things, but I guess that's mostly what we've been doing anyway, just with more distracting open things.
Split has possibly the best church we've seen so far. It's doors, 2 huge wooden slabs with several carvings depicting stories of Christ on each, were worth going for alone. I'm not a Christian, but there is something amazing about European churches. Stunning architecture and an extreme attention to detail, I almost view them as works of art rather than places of worship. It always amazes me how much time and devotion has been put into them. Lots of gaudy gold things too. Can't be a big European church without the approved amount of tackiness, right?
Not much else to say about Split. It's not that it was any less nice than most other places, it's just that when yer in another beautiful European city with great architecture and gorgeous views, to describe it sounds like yer describing most any other place. It's hard to get across the details. The feel of a place, the subtle differences that make everywhere different and just as wonderful to be in. Just coz you run out of new things to say, doesn't make it any less good.