After 2 weeks in the UK, selling houses and replacing lost items it's time to get back on the road again. Given my 6 week window, the choice of destination (the Balkans) was, ironically, the hardest part of getting away (or at least that was how it appeared). I had already been informed that my plane was to depart 3 hours later than planned and so I arrived at Ringway just after 3PM in the hope that I could use the time to play with my new camera. T2 was quite quiet and so I passed through the security nonsense relatively quickly. Everyone, from the miserable gate attendants, to the passengers who had not been alerted of the 3 hour delay, were all milling around at gate 208 with one common goal, working out where the plane was! Apparently it had diverted to Shannon and although a spare plane was available, there were not enough flight attendants to form a crew.
After a further 3 hours we set off for a very smooth flight to Venice where we arrived just before midnight local time. With Venice itself at least 40 minutes away there was no way I was going to get to my hostel in time and so I, and several others with the same problem, headed over to the last minute accomodation office to be ripped off royally by the airport hotels. I shared my cab with a couple of them and arrived in a nice, yet unneccessary, holiday hotel. My bedroom was seperated on either side by paper thin walls that seemed to amplify the snoring couple to my left as much as the 'definitely NOT snoring' couple to my right!
In the morning I tried to similtaneously eat and waste as much breakfast as possible before catching a bus into Venice, after all, just being a transit passenger shouldn't preclude me from seeing what has been described as one of the most beautiful places on earth. My first task was to locate the hostel that I had been unable to get to in time the night before. The owners had very kindly charged me for the night I missed and after arguing for a while I realised that walking away there and then would not be such a good idea as I'd then have to find somewhere else to stay in this over-priced tourist hell-hole. Once I had accepted my fate things got a little easier and I allowed myself some time to wander around the streets of Venice to try out my brand new camera!
Venice itself is pretty much as I'd imagined it to be apart from 2 of the most popular sights, the Rialto bridge and St. Marco's square. The former seems to have become an ugly market across the canal whilst the latter is practically inaccessible due to the millions of people milling around with ice creams and pizza slices. The vapparetto seemed like the best way to head back up town so I relieved myself of yet more money and squeezed myself on board. My one remaining hope to see something of interest was dashed as Calatrava's controversial, yet essential, new crossing of the Grand Canal was not sufficiently complete enough to warrant photographing. After a tourist-grade pizza and a slightly better Valpolicella I returned to the hostel to prepare to get out of town first thing in the morning via the fast train to the border town of Gorizia.
No comments:
Post a Comment