We made it to the Riviera!
Since I have stable internet again, here's the happenings since last Thursday and some pictures:
February 15, 2006
Today has to be hands down the worst travel experience I have ever had. I can’t possibly think of a travel experience that has been worse. And it all started way too early. I wish I could go back in time and visit myself as I was booking a 6:45 am flight and first slap myself and then change it to a midmorning or afternoon flight. Our alarm clock went off at 3 am after going to bed after midnight last night. I took a shower, finished packing and met our cab downstairs at 4:00. I felt bad because his car was way too small for all of our luggage, but we made it work. We had about a 45 minute ride to the airport, so we talked to our cab driver to pass the time. He was a really interesting man and we learned a lot about him. He was from Afghanistan and moved to London with his family when he was 20 due to all the fighting there. He had an arranged marriage when he was 28 and he and his wife have been married for four years now. They have a 2-year-old daughter and he even showed us a picture of a dark eyed little girl with a head full of dark brown curls. We asked him what it was like to live in Afghanistan and have an arranged marriage. He said he’s been lucky to get such a great wife, but he said eventually he wants to move to another Middle Eastern country because he doesn’t want to raise a family in London where no one knows each other. When we got to the airport he gave each of us a hug good-bye and I felt like he was an old friend since we had gotten to know him so well. But that was about when all the fun ended.
We got to the Easy Jet counter to check in and my bags were 5 kg over the weight limit which would have cost me ₤25 so I quickly took out my pea coat and a massive book that I had gotten for Christmas that I had to throw away. I was disappointed, but I didn’t know what else to do. Then Sara put her things on the scale and she was 25 kg over which would have cost her ₤100. We both looked at each other and we had no idea what to do. We stepped aside and she opened both suit cases and started throwing away anything she didn’t absolutely need. We got rid of about 10 kg but she still ended up paying about ₤75 to check her bags. Then we found out that you can only have one carry on which I figured didn’t include a purse, but it does. So we went from frantically getting rid of things to trying to somehow combine the two carry ons that we each had into one each. My huge purse wouldn’t fit into my laptop bag so I fit it in as best I could but it was pretty obvious that I was trying to cheat the system. The guy checking to make sure everyone only had one bag took one look at the contraption on my shoulder and said, “Oh dear.” I was scared he wouldn’t let me though, but he did. We even had to throw away the little bag of croissants that we were going to eat for breakfast. The rest of the day Sara and I laughed about the look on his face and kept saying, “Oh dear,” to each other. We finally made it through security with only a couple of tears and we both vowed to never fly Easy Jet ever again.
Our flight to Venice was short and we found the bus that we needed easily, but getting all of our bags on the bus was not so easy. I also wish I could go back in time and bring a much smaller suitcase. We were pretty disappointed about the look of what we thought was a hotel. It’s actually a campground and the pictures on the internet made it look a lot different. I’m sure it would be nice in the summer since it has a bar and a restaurant that overlooks the pool, but in February it’s far too cold to camp and pretty muddy. Our room is a single wide trailer cut in half with two little beds and a bathroom. We quickly realized that our heater didn’t work, but we decided to head into Venice for some lunch since we hadn’t eaten all day and it was already 1:00. We took the bus into town which is about a 45 minutes to an hour ride depending on how long we have to wait for the second bus. Venice is so much better than I could have pictured it. We ate at a little pizza place that was right on the water and we watched the boats float past us. Gondolas gently passed each other and boat taxis took groups of people around the small island. We wandered around after eating to try to orient ourselves which proved to be rather difficult even with a map. The roads are winding, short and dead end suddenly. You can be in a huge group of people on one little street and turn down another street and be completely alone. We got lost in the residential area. Sheets and clothes hung between different colored buildings and quietly followed the wind. We saw neighbors greeting each other with a friendly “Chaio.” After getting our bearings again we found a little square called Campo de Santa Margarita not far from the bus station. There was a stage set up so we waited for something to start, but nothing ever did. We got some gelato and sat on a bench and people watched for a while. There were several dogs in the campo and little kids dressed in costumes roamed around throwing confetti. We finally decided to head back to our room and call it a night since we hadn’t slept in a day.
Back in our room the heater still wasn’t working so I walked down to the reception to ask them about it. She said she could give us another room, but that they couldn’t fix it right then. I decided that it wasn’t worth moving all of our stuff for one night, so I said, “Thank you,” and walked back. About 3 in the morning I was really wishing that I had taken the other room. I don’t know how cold it was, but I’m guessing around 35°. In all my years of camping, I have never slept or rather tried to sleep so cold. My knees hurt from being in the fetal position for so long. I couldn’t sleep, so I thought about all the things I could do to get warm. I thought about turning on my computer and putting it in my bed or sleeping in the shower with the hot water on. When the sun came up it finally got to a reasonable temperature to sleep, so we slept in until about 10:30.
February 16, 2006
We took the noon bus into Venice. We wandered around not really knowing where to go. We each bought several souvenirs and some masks. The masks here are so elaborate and gorgeous. I got a pink one with a silver design and pink feathers. We found the area that all the dressed up children were headed to last night. There’s a campo set up for children with cotton candy, a Merry-Go-Round, and a fenced in area with a stage and different booths. We spent some time looking at the cute costumes and I decided that Italian children are the happiest in the world. It was like a heaven for little kids with costumes, candy, and so much confetti you couldn’t see the cobble stone underneath.
I saw a post card for San Marco while we were shopping and I decided that we had to find it. We looked at the map and tried to make our way there. We crossed the large bridge at the Grand Canal and finally found San Marco which is the center for Carnival. There was a huge stage set up at one end and vendors and booths all along the ocean. There were people in incredibly elaborate costumes all over the place. They would stand in one place and people would gather around and snap pictures continuously. We saw some pretty incredible costumes. Sara wasn’t feeling well, so she sat down by the ocean and I continued to walk around. After I came back we were hungry, so we ate and then went back to Campo S. Margarita. It took us over an hour to find it again and we got lost several times. We sat down on a bridge and were each looking at a map when an elderly woman came up to us and asked us if we needed help finding something. We told her where we wanted to go and she walked us there. She said she traveled a lot as a young woman so she knows what it’s like to not be able to get around easily. I talked to her as we walked and found out that she was born in Venice and has lived here her whole life, but she wants to move off the island and live in mainland Venice. She said that it’s over run with tourists and that they have a very high cancer rate due to the oil refineries on the coast. When she said she wanted to move because of tourists I felt a twinge of guilt in my stomach as she showed us the way through the windy (?) streets that she knew so well. We thanked her when we parted ways and I was so thankful that she was able to show us where to go because I don’t think we could have done it without her. We spent some time in the campo looking around and eating before heading back to our room. Sara got very sick on the way home. I gave her some of my DayQuil, but it didn’t seem to help. I went to the reception and told them about our heater again because I didn’t want a repeat of last night. The maintenance man came and looked at it. He didn’t speak any English, so we had to communicate as best we could through hand motions. I gathered that he was going to bring us a space heater and he did. We turned it on full blast and relished in our new found warmth. Sara couldn’t sleep and coughed most of the night, so I didn’t get much sleep for the third night in a row.
February 17, 2006
I got up around 9:30 this morning and took a shower. I woke Sara up as I was leaving to ask her if she wanted to come with me, but she declined in a raspy voice so I ventured out on my own with a map and translation book. I bought a slice of pizza and took it to our favorite campo to eat. I watched the children play and wandered around to look at the booths that were set up. It was mostly antiques which really isn’t my thing so I bought some chocolate and cookies at a store in the campo and decided to head to San Marco which seems to be where the action is. That was a very bad mistake. The closer I got, the more crowded it got. I got to the bridge that Sara and I walked across yesterday and there were so many people that it took me probably 30 minutes to get over it. There had to be several thousand people on the bridge alone. I pushed my way through and I still had a ways to go before I got to San Marco so I decided it wasn’t worth the crowds. I fought my way through the crowd on the bridge for a second time and headed back to S. Margarita. I got lost of course and wandered around the small streets that feel more like ally ways than streets. It’s so odd to be in a large city and not see a singe car. There’s a parking lot when you first get onto the island and that’s as far as cars can go. They must have boat ambulance and fire trucks. I found a little park and sat for a while before finding S. Margarita. I bought some gelato and watched some street performers in the campo. It was really lonely by myself and it started to get cold, so by 4:00 I headed home. I found Sara in the exact position that she had been when I left her this morning and she looked even worse. I gave her some more of my medicine and we had dinner at the restaurant at our camp. I had a really good pesto pasta dish. When we got back I downloaded my pictures on my computer and we looked at all of them. She started to perk up and we listened to some music and talked for a while. I’m not sure if she’ll want to go out tomorrow, but I’m kind of hoping she will want to because it’s way too quiet and lonely by myself.
February 20, 2006
I thought that last Thursday was the worst travel experience I have ever had, but that was before yesterday. And yesterday tops the charts. Thursday was like a walk in the park compared to yesterday. Here’s the run down of events. We woke up early to catch the 10:30 bus into Venice to catch our 12:00 train to Nice. After checking out of our God forsaken hostel we were about to cross the street to the bus stop when Sara got a nose bleed. She was still feeling really sick and when the nose bleed started, all hell broke loose and she dissolved into tears in the middle of the campground. I made the suggestion that we go to the airport and try to transfer our flight from Nice to London to Venice to London and then try to change our flight once in London to get home earlier. We were both tired of traveling and the thought of getting home earlier than planned sounded like a good idea. We still managed to catch the 10:30 bus to the airport and I left Sara sitting on a bench with all of our stuff while I tried to play the part of the hero and figure out our flight stuff. The security staff was on strike and with everyone trying to fly out of Venice for Carnival it was a deadly combination. Thousands of people stood in a huge line that zigzagged and then snaked around all the way to the car rental desks. The woman at the ticket counter was of no help and only gave me the number to Easy Jet. I spent forever trying to figure out the pay phone before finally buying a calling card. Easy Jet’s phone number was busy or not working so I called my mom collect and asked her to call them for me. I found Sara sitting with all our luggage crying and still bleeding. Her nose bled for a good two hours before finally stopping. After waiting a while I called back and she told me it would be 300 Euros to transfer the flight. We decided that it wasn’t worth it and headed to the train station in a cab with a driver who almost got us killed on more than one occasion. At least at the airport the people at the counter spoke English fairly well, but at the train station comprehendible English was hard to find. I went to two different ticket counters before getting sent to customer service where I found out that the next train to Nice wasn’t until 11 pm. The only problem was that it was a little after 2:00 so we had roughly nine hours to kill in a train station. There was a McDonald’s nearby so we hauled all of our luggage inside and ate since we hadn’t eaten all day. We each pulled out a book and either read or stared blankly into space for six hours. Finally, we got kicked out by a man with a mullet who said, “There is no room. People need to eat. Leave.”
I felt like a vagabond as we gathered up all of our stuff and moved into the waiting room for the train station which consisted of rows of hard brown plastic chairs and filled with homeless people. We found an empty corner and I set my stuff down next to a conspicuous puddle and I tried not to guess what it was. Directly across from us a man sat with a keyboard on his lap and proceeded to pound out tunes to the pre-made synthetic background music the keyboard came with for the next two hours. At one point he was playing Jingle Bells and I wanted to go rip the power cord out of the wall, but I restrained myself. One elderly man sat hunched over in a chair asleep and another younger looking man sat upright and asleep as if he had just fallen asleep mid conversation. A woman in our row pulled out a massive bottle of wine that was almost gone. I tried to read, but between the keyboard and a drunken man stumbling around and yelling random Italian every so often I found it hard to stay with the plot of the book. About an hour into our time in the waiting room a man came in with a large suitcase and was carrying several coats. He had on tight bright red jogging pants that left little to the imagination and a black sweatshirt with the hood around his face. Dark circles ran around his eyes and he promptly put down his suitcase and proceeded to repack all the coats he was carrying into it. He talked with several of the other homeless men in the room so I figured they were friends and I felt like I was intruding on some kind of hang out spot for all of them. Just before leaving he pulled a small round pill case from somewhere and quickly did three lines of cocaine in the middle of the room. I looked at Sara with big eyes and tried even harder to read my book. At 10:00 the waiting room closed, so Sara and I followed the homeless onto the platform to wait for our train. I put on my two jackets and sat on my suitcase and swallowed my tears and shivered for the next hour on the platform before our train arrived.
Luckily we had a sleeper train so we found our room which we were sharing with two Australian girls who had been backpacking Europe for eight months now. I felt like a wimp for wanting to go home after four weeks! We talked for a while and then slept for about 9 hours before arriving in Niece. A relative of Sara’s picked us up and we checked into a hotel. We met up with her Uncle and had lunch at a pizza place and then went down to the beach. It’s easy to see why the rich and famous vacation in the French Riviera. It’s absolutely gorgeous here. I think I like it better than Venice (granted, we didn’t exactly have the best time in Venice). We laid on the beach for about an hour and a half and tried to forget about yesterday. It was about 60* and gorgeous, almost warm enough to tan. We took pictures and watched some kids play in the water. I laid by the water and closed my eyes and listened to the waves and the French being spoken around me. Sara is doing a lot better today so we decided no to go to the doctor. Tonight we’re going to dinner at one of her relative’s house to have fondue, so I’m really looking forward to that. Tomorrow her uncle has to work, so we’ll just hang out in Nice by ourselves and then we fly home on Thursday! I can’t wait to get home.
Venice
Me at San Marco with all the Pigeons
Sara and I with our awesome Gelato that we ate way too much of
More Venice
On the Beach in Nice
Sasha Inskeep | 2/20/2007 | link
