What did you do on the weekend? The jealousy blog!

Venice – Rachael

One should not always take mind to how things begin. A thing can begin brilliantly, and then go pear-shaped. Or, a thing can begin very badly and turn out to be truly excellent. Thus was our pop-over to the continent – a weekend away in Italy’s amazing water city.

We were scheduled to depart Stansted Airport (London) at 7:00 – or more correctly, 19:00. 24 hour time is used extensively here, not just in airports and should have been well and truly mastered by Ben and I by now. Earlier in the week we had found that we hadn’t planned so well – not two whole days in Venice with a late Sunday night flight; we had booked a Sunday morning flight home at 10:10. No huge drama – we would have to make the most of our Saturday in Venice.

The plane took off with no mishap and we looked forward to landing in Treviso Venice at about 20:10. Unfortunately Venice was blanketed in a heavy fog and we would have to land in “Schmernnaejhjfh” – I’m sure that’s what the helpful stewardesses on Ryan Air said! After landing in Schmernnaejhjfh we looked around and found ourselves at an airport in Milan. After much following-others-who-looked-confident-and-maybe-like-they-spoke-Italian we all waited for helpful instructions on what to do next. It was 20:30.

No really helpful instructions came. We followed those confident travellers and, to cut a long, tiring, freezing cold and frustrating story short – we had to bus to Venice. It was equivalent to landing in Canberra when you want to be in Sydney. Although the writer appreciates Canberra (and remembers most fondly April Fool’s Day 2000 when Ben proposed) – it would be a most sad disappointment for travellers expecting the sights of Sydney. After much waiting, a long bus ride and then a water-bus(Vaporetto), we arrived at “Casa Linger Hotel” at 5am Saturday morning. Ben picks up and continues the story.

Venice - Ben

We awoke at 8am, three hours later, and struggled towards a cafe for a strong Italian coffee. The main reason we went to Venice on this particular weekend was because we were hoping to suprise some of the people from Penrith Anglican College who are on a three week tour of Italy and Greece. They met us in St Marks Square and we spent a lovely day walking through the streets, seeing the Doge's palace, seeing the Rialto Bridge, feeding the birds in St Marks square and eating Italian food (this was accompanied by an italian busker on the piano accordian in the evening) The day went quickly but it was fantastic.

The thing about Venice is that everything you would otherwise hate about somewhere else is what you love about Venice. For example, the streets are narrow and poorly lit with bad signposting, (elsewhere bad, cute in Venice). You get lost all the time down little back alleys and can’t walk in a straight line at any point for more than 50 meters. (Good in Venice). Some of the buildings lean a little and are clearly unstable, bad elsewhere but cute in Venice. The buildings don’t really have proper addresses. There is a distinct lack of tourist signage. You travel everywhere by boat or on foot (no cars in the city), our hotel lobby and rooms were up five flights of stairs. You stumble through the streets, finding great views which you weren't looking for, trying to make sense of your Lonely Planet map as you go. It’s discovery tourism at its best. Even though you know that people have lived there for hundreds of years, you still feel like you discover something for the first time when you walk down an alley and into a courtyard with 500 year old buildings starring down at you. If you love Backyard Blitz then you will love Venice, its acres of paving and one of the biggest water features you will ever see all rolled into one.

There isn't much else to say. We put some pictures down the bottom, including feeding the birds which is fantastic. So anyway guys, don't let us do all the talking. What did you do on the weekend?

VIEW OF ST MARK'S CHURCH FROM ST MARK'S SQUARE

THE PIAZZA

BEN FEEDING THE BIRDS(IT WAS FANTASTIC)

RACHAEL FEEDING THE BIRDS(CAN YOU SEE THE LOOK OF ENJOYMENT ON HER FACE?)

BRIDGE OF SIGHS

BEN WITH JENNY AND EMMA (FROM MY OLD SCHOOL - PAC)

THE GANG AT THE HOTEL

TYPICALLY VENICE

THE SIGNS SAY "MILITARY ZONE! KEEP OUT!" (WE HOPE THAT ITALY DOESN'T HAVE TO GO TO WAR AGAIN, THEIR HEARTS CLEARLY AREN'T IN IT!)