Saturday, February 7, 2009

My Travels: Part 2 (of many), Venice: our arrival and first impressions

We trained it from Rome to Venice, a nice four hour ride. It was actually an enjoyable train ride, very smooth and good conversation. I was sitting next to Gi, the Venetian uncle, and we had some great talks on the train ranging from his childhood in Venice to why we had to slow down for the tunnels (the pressure difference). But still it was a four-hour train ride, so I did get a bit sick of it by the end.
After about four-hours we were crossing the bridge from the mainland to the station on Venice. Looking out on the water it was a nice site and we decided we would have to get some photos of sunset or sunrise on the water. The train pulled into the station and we picked up our luggage and head out into Venice. When we stepped out of the station, we stopped, Pam and Gi were discussing how to get to the apartments. I just looked at the Grand Canal, the surrounding buildings, the people, the life. Before I had left some people had said they didn't particularly like Venice, I had the feeling I wasn't going to from my first look. Which I was really worried about, considering we were spending the majority of the trip there.

Eventually we got moving. We hoped on a water ferry, Nina and Dominic headed off to Lido (a suburban island of Venice) to get their suitcases. They had dropped their big suitcases off there on their way from the UK to Rome at Gi's sister's (Nina's auntie) house. The rest of us headed to the apartments. We got off the ferry at Academia, where we waited for half an hour to an hour for the person who owned them. Needless to say, most of (particularly Pam and Gi) were not happy, I remained calm. I was merely interested about the city and what it had to offer after Rome!

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