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blood_wingedWhen we got to Venice, and it was a very odd feeling. It never really sunk in over the entire weekend that that was where we were, and once we got home it didn't feel like we'd been. I didn't feel as if I was abroad though I quite obviously was. This was our hotel, and our room. It had a staircase!
I was so tired on Friday night, but dad was hungry so he dragged us out to a restaurant that was recommended to us by the hotel manager. We discovered that dad gets incredibly single minded when he's hungry, and when we mentioned it to mum she said John is the same, so perhaps it's a man thing. I fell asleep around ten (nine UK time) though I did wake up a few times in the night because of various things.
Still, I managed to sleep for around twelve hours and woke up around nine-thirtyish to find that I had the mother of all midge bites on my right wrist. It looked like Alien was about to burst out of it and it itched like hell. I put some Germoline on it and was a good girl all weekend and didn't scratch it.. much.
Saturday was the first full day of our holiday and it seemed that only I had any idea of what we wanted to do, so we walked to St Marks Square. It looked like the basilica was having some renovation done, and it had some scaffolding up on it but I tried my best to keep it out of the photos. Also, to our surprise, the square was flooded! Apparently it now floods at high tide and they're having to do a lot of renovation on the place to stop it and to repair the damage done by the water. We all ended up taking out shoes off to get through the water after spending some time wondering why there were people queueing in two directions in front of the basilica - it was the highest part and the only dry bit.
We went into the Doge's Palace, which was enormous and had a lot of paintings. They're big on the Jesus paintings in Italy. Photos weren't allowed in a lot of it, but I got some in the places where they were. They even have a prison in there D8
Once we got out dad's mind was on food again so he got a sandwich to keep him going, and I got some gelato. Every ice cream I have from now on will be compared to it.
Amy bought a Carnevale mask and the more I look at it the more it creeps me out, and we went back to the hotel because it was getting too hot and we were tired, and we didn't want to hang around for another five hours until the tour we were going on later. We had a sleep then went out to the Rialto bridge and got some food. This is the bridge..
Argh. Look at the colour of the sky. ;~;
Anyways we went on this tour telling us about the 'ghosts' of Venice. I don't remember the last time my legs ached so much and the bite on my arm was still huge by that point. I started to feel ill minutes before the tour started and had to run off to find a toilet. The public ones were closed to I had to pay €2.50 for a bottle of water just so I could use the toilet in a restaurant. To be honest I didn't care that much, I was just glad they let me use it. We ended up missing the first stop on the tour because the guide had had to leave, but we caught up with them as they passed a church. I don't think I want pizza again for a while. The restaurant toilets in Venice are very strange - barely a foot high. Amy didn't like it.
We saw a lot of interesting things on the tour and learned a few of the legends of Venice - for example the man who had a spiral staircase built so he could ride his horse up to his rooms, the wife of Marco Polo who lit herself on fire and threw herself into a canal after hearing of his supposed death, and the tavern owner who was found with the limbs of dozens of disembodied children in his back room, using the meat to make pies..
We didn't catch our tour guide's name, so we dubbed him 'Jeff'. After we finished the tour, I wanted to go take quick look at St Marks Square at night and it was very pretty, with all of the big fancy restaurants playing classical music.
Sunday was spent doing some souvenier shopping, but I will put the photos of the stuff I bought at the end. On Monday we went home, and got a great taste of Italian efficiency - that is to say, the lack thereof.
That is Venice airport. I had the feeling that the place wasn't built to cope with the number of people that go through it every day. Our check--in opened five minutes late (10.25am), and we finally got checked in at 11.10. I got frisked at security for some reason and we got down to the gate at 11.40, with the boarding gate finally opening at 12.10 (bearing in mind the flight was supposed to leave at 12.20). They put us on a bus where we stood for over half an hour, which we later found out was because they weren't allowed to board passengers at the same time as refuelling the plane. When we were all finally boarded, we were already an hour late, then we had to sit around for another forty minutes because the Swiss air traffic control wouldn't give us permission to fly in their airspace.
But we got home, eventually, got our bags and got the hell out. Our travels weren't over however as Amy and I also had to make the 190 mile train journey home on Tuesday. I was so sick of travelling x.x
And now, for your amusement, some more photos.
Some other random information.
Venice does not smell as much as you might think - though every now and then you get a whiff of this slightly nasty eggy smell that goes away in a few seconds.
It is a very expensive place, because they import everything.
Even Italians can be tourists ( XP ).
There are about 60 churches and they all ring their bells at the same time.
You have to walk everywhere.
Most Venetians speak at least half-decent English.
The cheaper restaurants have nicer food.
Venice has a graffiti problem, and you never see Venetian teenagers until the early evening.
Lastly, these are the things I brought back~
ALSO.
When I got off the train in Birchwood, a friend was waiting for me, with a pocket watch he bought me several months ago that I never got around to taking from him. It's gorgeous. It ticks once every quarter second and needs winding about once a day. I think I'm going to use it with my England cosplay so I don't throw the costume off by whipping my phone out to check the time.
And that concludes this entry o3o
I was so tired on Friday night, but dad was hungry so he dragged us out to a restaurant that was recommended to us by the hotel manager. We discovered that dad gets incredibly single minded when he's hungry, and when we mentioned it to mum she said John is the same, so perhaps it's a man thing. I fell asleep around ten (nine UK time) though I did wake up a few times in the night because of various things.
Still, I managed to sleep for around twelve hours and woke up around nine-thirtyish to find that I had the mother of all midge bites on my right wrist. It looked like Alien was about to burst out of it and it itched like hell. I put some Germoline on it and was a good girl all weekend and didn't scratch it.. much.
Saturday was the first full day of our holiday and it seemed that only I had any idea of what we wanted to do, so we walked to St Marks Square. It looked like the basilica was having some renovation done, and it had some scaffolding up on it but I tried my best to keep it out of the photos. Also, to our surprise, the square was flooded! Apparently it now floods at high tide and they're having to do a lot of renovation on the place to stop it and to repair the damage done by the water. We all ended up taking out shoes off to get through the water after spending some time wondering why there were people queueing in two directions in front of the basilica - it was the highest part and the only dry bit.
We went into the Doge's Palace, which was enormous and had a lot of paintings. They're big on the Jesus paintings in Italy. Photos weren't allowed in a lot of it, but I got some in the places where they were. They even have a prison in there D8
Once we got out dad's mind was on food again so he got a sandwich to keep him going, and I got some gelato. Every ice cream I have from now on will be compared to it.
Amy bought a Carnevale mask and the more I look at it the more it creeps me out, and we went back to the hotel because it was getting too hot and we were tired, and we didn't want to hang around for another five hours until the tour we were going on later. We had a sleep then went out to the Rialto bridge and got some food. This is the bridge..
Argh. Look at the colour of the sky. ;~;
Anyways we went on this tour telling us about the 'ghosts' of Venice. I don't remember the last time my legs ached so much and the bite on my arm was still huge by that point. I started to feel ill minutes before the tour started and had to run off to find a toilet. The public ones were closed to I had to pay €2.50 for a bottle of water just so I could use the toilet in a restaurant. To be honest I didn't care that much, I was just glad they let me use it. We ended up missing the first stop on the tour because the guide had had to leave, but we caught up with them as they passed a church. I don't think I want pizza again for a while. The restaurant toilets in Venice are very strange - barely a foot high. Amy didn't like it.
We saw a lot of interesting things on the tour and learned a few of the legends of Venice - for example the man who had a spiral staircase built so he could ride his horse up to his rooms, the wife of Marco Polo who lit herself on fire and threw herself into a canal after hearing of his supposed death, and the tavern owner who was found with the limbs of dozens of disembodied children in his back room, using the meat to make pies..
We didn't catch our tour guide's name, so we dubbed him 'Jeff'. After we finished the tour, I wanted to go take quick look at St Marks Square at night and it was very pretty, with all of the big fancy restaurants playing classical music.
Sunday was spent doing some souvenier shopping, but I will put the photos of the stuff I bought at the end. On Monday we went home, and got a great taste of Italian efficiency - that is to say, the lack thereof.
That is Venice airport. I had the feeling that the place wasn't built to cope with the number of people that go through it every day. Our check--in opened five minutes late (10.25am), and we finally got checked in at 11.10. I got frisked at security for some reason and we got down to the gate at 11.40, with the boarding gate finally opening at 12.10 (bearing in mind the flight was supposed to leave at 12.20). They put us on a bus where we stood for over half an hour, which we later found out was because they weren't allowed to board passengers at the same time as refuelling the plane. When we were all finally boarded, we were already an hour late, then we had to sit around for another forty minutes because the Swiss air traffic control wouldn't give us permission to fly in their airspace.
But we got home, eventually, got our bags and got the hell out. Our travels weren't over however as Amy and I also had to make the 190 mile train journey home on Tuesday. I was so sick of travelling x.x
And now, for your amusement, some more photos.
Some other random information.
Venice does not smell as much as you might think - though every now and then you get a whiff of this slightly nasty eggy smell that goes away in a few seconds.
It is a very expensive place, because they import everything.
Even Italians can be tourists ( XP ).
There are about 60 churches and they all ring their bells at the same time.
You have to walk everywhere.
Most Venetians speak at least half-decent English.
The cheaper restaurants have nicer food.
Venice has a graffiti problem, and you never see Venetian teenagers until the early evening.
Lastly, these are the things I brought back~
ALSO.
When I got off the train in Birchwood, a friend was waiting for me, with a pocket watch he bought me several months ago that I never got around to taking from him. It's gorgeous. It ticks once every quarter second and needs winding about once a day. I think I'm going to use it with my England cosplay so I don't throw the costume off by whipping my phone out to check the time.
And that concludes this entry o3o
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-16 12:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-16 10:51 pm (UTC)Can't we share?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-17 12:16 pm (UTC)<.<
Fine..
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-17 10:04 pm (UTC)Aw yeah. USUK relations FTW! <3