Venice

This is only a condensed version of things I will eventually post in my travel blog.

I'm out of love with Venice. It's still a beautiful city, but it no longer enchants me.

First of all, the logistics of getting around are a bitch. No vehicles are allowed in the city, so you get everywhere by foot or by boat (if you have heavy luggage to carry any great distance, woe to you). And we stayed on one of the islands, so we had to take a boat to even get to the mainland. Not that that was a big deal, really, but it made luggage handling a bit more complicated. And the vaporetto is very slow, so you can't exactly be on a tight schedule if you're planning to use it (and if you get seasick easily, a trip to Venice is probably not the best idea...not that this was a problem for me).

I didn't have this experience last time, because we stayed in Vicenza and only spent 2 days in Venice and traveled in and out by train. And we went through Treviso Airport last time, instead of Marco Polo, which, as we discovered, is a tremendous pain as far as transportation into the city. You have two inexpensive options:

1> Buy a vaporetto ticket, take the #5 bus to Piazzale Roma, walk to the vaporetto station there, and take the boat to the nearest station to your final destination. This can take a lot of time. (This is what we did upon arrival).

2> From the airport, buy a pass for the boat transfer that takes you to the closest point to your final destination (we were lucky in that the boat stops at Lido). Walk 7 minutes from the airport to the dock to catch this boat. The boat takes an hour. Then, depending on where you get off, you still have to walk or take the vaporetto to your final destination. (We did this in reverse to get to the airport yesterday.)

Also, I can't remember everything being so expensive. The food is ridiculously priced. And I didn't have a good meal there. The lunch I had the other day was so disgusting (penne with tomato sauce and meatballs) that I was sick to my stomach the entire day. It tasted like Chef Boyardee. I paid 14 euros for something I could've bought for 50 cents at the store and dumped out of a can and heated up.

I can't believe that I couldn't get a good meal in Venice. I could, however, get fantastic tiramisu and gelato.

And the last time I was there, I remember everyone being so nice. Not the case this time. We dealt with a lot of rude Italians.

Maybe it's because I was there at Carnival last time...things seemed more magical then and people seemed happier and friendlier. And there wasn't so much graffiti. There is a ton of graffiti around Venice, desecrating even some of the most beautiful landmarks of the city...like the Rialto Bridge.

And the weather yesterday - thunderstorms, wind, and rain coming down in sheets - did nothing to add to the charm. It pretty much ruined our plans yesterday. The umbrella I borrowed from the hotel blew inside out, which apparently caused a laugh riot among the other people walking through the square at the time. Why it was so funny, I do not know.

The weather was gorgeous the first couple of days - warm and sunny - which was great. We spent Monday on Lido since we got there early in the afternoon. That was fine...we just checked into the hotel and explored a bit. Tuesday was spent almost entirely in Piazza San Marco. And that was basically it.

This Blog is Used for Good, Not for Evil

I just got off the phone with Dad, and he told me that a couple of things I wrote about Grandma here on my LJ were used in her funeral service.

I'm really touched.

So in some small way, I was there.

It tickles me to think about the minister reading about Grandma's antics in taking me to get drunk for the first time. But hey, that's just the way she was. She was fun-loving, amazingly open-minded and accepting, and found something to love about everyone.

I feel like a rock star

You know, I think I may have a chance at getting a book published.

At IWC this evening, this woman I don't know approached me and introduced herself, and told me that she's been reading my travel blog and enjoying it a lot and she thinks it's hilarious. I was very surprised, flattered, and a little embarrassed. I have trouble accepting compliments gracefully.

But yeah...it felt great.

And then you have unsolicited and inappropriate compliments, which would be the drunk guy in the Frisbee Club bar telling me that I have a nice ass. But I shouldn't care too much, because he apparently said something similar to every woman that walked into the bar this evening. He even took it upon himself to come out of the bar and accost us all when we were waiting in line for our food.

Anyway, it was an interesting night, and a desperately needed respite from all the travel, overwhelming life stuff, etc.

Lance had an equally exciting evening, but not in a good way. He picked up the rental car for our trip to Belgium tomorrow, and was driving it this evening to go get dinner with Kim. And he had an accident. No serious damage done...the passenger side mirror was torn off and is dangling from the car, and he damaged the mirror on the car that he hit. But he talked to the guy who owned that car, and he was cool about it. We were told by the car rental company that our USAA insurance covers rental cars completely, so I suppose we'll have to pay a deductible on it or something, which will probably cost us more than just paying for the rental car company's insurance in the first place.

Our trip to Belgium might not happen now. Too much anxiety over the events of this evening and such, I guess. We'll have to pay for one night's hotel (unless I explain about the car accident, and maybe they'll take pity and not charge us for it). If we don't go, that's actually fine with me. I felt like I got to see enough of Bruges when I was there the first time.