Let's Play Catch Up

For the record...

The trip to Venice was great. It was relaxing, there was good food, and it was nice to see Dad on his birthday. The getting to and from Venice however was kind of a pain. I'm sick of airports and the millions of modes of transportation it takes to get there when you don't have a car! So I left on Friday and took two tube trains to get to the bus station, where it proceeded to start hailing. Then about 10 minutes later there were clear skies. I got to Gatwick, went through security and got a sandwich and I finished with all of that with 3 hours left until my flight took off. (I get really paranoid I'm going to miss things and leave way too early.) And of course, it took off late. (P.s. despite having ginormous orange planes, easyjet is wayyy better than Ryanair. No drunken Irishmen asking how old I was or passing out in the aisle and trying to steal cans of beer from the stewardesses cart.)

So we set off to Venice and everything was going smoothly until it was about time to land, and it started to get bumpy. So I thought...ok we're just going through some clouds and it's getting windy since we're starting to get lower. Then I see a flashing out my window and realized we had just descended into a thundercloud. It was cool to watch once we got far enough away that I didn't think we could possibly get struck...but when it was right outside I was freaking out!

So I got a bus to meet Dad, and we found out that the only way to get to our hotel was by waterbus. We stayed at a little place right next to the Rialto Bridge. So we checked in and then had dinner outside near the Grand Canal. The seafood was amazing! And then it was off to watch a little CNN and go to bed. On Saturday/Dad's birthday it rained for part of the day, but we did the touristy things anyway. San Marco Square (luckily no one got pooped on by pigeons), cappuccino, gelato and some pizza and "water with gas" for lunch. Those Italians make me giggle. Why can't they say bubbles instead of gas?

On the way back to the hotel, Dad found a restaurant that he really wanted to eat at because they had cantaloupe with proscuitto, but since Venice is all narrow alleys and canals, we had a hard time finding it and just ended up going somewhere else because it was raining really hard. We went back to the hotel a little while after that and were looking for something to do, but there wasn't anything except for bars and "discos." So we watched a documentary on Darfur instead.

On Sunday we went for a little boat ride out to the Murano glass factory, which is on an island that's just before you get into the open water of the Adriatic. It was pretty awesome to watch...however the tour was less about the glass making and more about Italian people trying to sell you 20,000 euro glass sculptures. (A lot of them were amazing, and then a lot of them were of two people making out...which was kind of weird.) Speaking of that, what is it with Italians? I can't tell you how many couples I saw fully making out in the streets. PDA is awkward anyway, but particularly when you're with your Dad who says "get a room." I mean, I know Venice is romantic and all but hold it together, people.

So then we finally went to the restaurant Dad wanted to find for dinner the night before, and I ended up getting sick after spaghetti pomodoro and a cappuccino. But we walked to the train station to get his ticket and to walk along the water since it got nice and warm in the afternoon anyway afterwards. Then it was out for the last dinner and gelato, to head out in the morning for another hectic day of travel. So after a boat, a bus, a plane, a train and two tube trains I finally got back to London for my last couple weeks!

Unfortunately those couple weeks are going to be filled with finals and figuring out summer internship stuff. I've been trying to get these people to talk to me since October and then in the span of one week I get three offers and now have to decide between them! Oh well. It's certainly better than the alternative. Alright off to dinner with Dad!

Thanks for listening and more later

~Jamie