Venezia

Even though we were in TLA, we decided to take a trip for Martin Luther King weekend.  Matt, the baby and I went to Venezia for a long weekend.  This was our first “real” trip while living in Europe (real means more than a day trip, one that requires a suitcase and a dog sitter!).  We got a good deal on EasyJet (although the baby cost 24 euro to sit on our laps).  Matt found a good deal on a hotel that was right near the Rialto Bridge and we our friends agreed to dog sit.  There is even free parking since the base is right next to the airport.  Everything seemed perfect!

Our flight was at 18:00 so Matt took the bus to work that morning.  The baby and I were going to meet him at 14:00 for a Hail and Farewell and then we were going to be off on our big trip!  Everything seemed right on track so I checked my email to make sure Matt didn’t forget anything (his phone doesn’t work in his secret security office) and read an update from the Ombudsman (person who is supposed to keep all the spouses informed about all the important information).  The email told me that there was an airline strike from 12:00-16:00.  Yep, that is right!  An extra stress in the form of a strike (I am already a stressful flyer.  I have this irrational fear that I will miss a flight even though (knock on wood) I have never missed a flight.  I have only come close once and that was flying with Jay and Tracie who are always delayed.)  I decided there is not much I can do about the strike…maybe our flight will be delayed but at least it won’t be cancelled since it was not scheduled during the striking time. 

I dropped the dog off at our friends’ hotel room and loaded the baby in her car seat.  Everything was in the car and we were ready to go!  I realized this was the first time I had driven by alone in Europe AND the first time I had driven to Capodichino.  Hmmm…this may or may not be a good idea!  Luckily, I was able to find Capodichino in the recent destinations on the GPS.   And you don’t have to drive too far in “downtown” traffic, if you go the right way. Which of course, I remembered Matt saying something about not taking the first exit and taking the second one labeled Capodichino so I was good to go. 

Driving on the autostrada for the first time was a bit exciting.  I am not going to lie, when I got to 100 kph, I felt hardcore.  Granted, 100 kph is only 62 mph but seeing the number exceed 100 was pretty exhilarating.  I came to the Capodichino exit with signs towards the airport.  And I didn’t take the first one, even though the sign said aeroporta.  And the GPS told me to take it.  I decided that my memory of the conversation with Matt was correct even though the signs and the GPS were contradicting me. Tip-listen to the GPS and the signs instead of confused mommy memory. At least, I got to experience my first scary Italian driving moments!  I ended up in a very very congested traffic circle with cars and mopeds going every direction.  Luckily, I was able to pull a Clark and go the full traffic circle to head back towards the aeroporta.  And I survived a really crazy driving area. 

I finally made it to the base and parked where Matt told me to park and then walked to meet him.  Little did I know, the walk was pretty far.  And the baby gets pretty heavy.  And the diaper bag is awkward.  And shoes don’t stay on her feet.  When I finally got to the restaurant, I was ready to give Matt the baby!  It is a good thing he is a baby hog!  Of course, he says, why didn’t you bring the ERGO, and reminded me that I was supposed to take the second left not the second exit!  Oops.

When the Hail and Farewell was over, we did the hike back to the car to get all the luggage and head to the airport.  This time he carried the baby.  Our luggage was one suitcase, and two carry-on bags (diaper bag and Matt’s backpack).  Yes, you read that right, we packed ALL three of us into one suitcase!  And I packed our travel bassinet in the suitcase because we were not sure the hotel would have a port-a-crib. I was impressed by us! 

Now that we were headed to the aeroporta, we started to actually think about the strike and wonder what it would be like.  But when we got there at 15:45, there was nothing going on. I guess it was over.  Or not that big!  Thank goodness, I didn’t stress too much about it.  I actually thought it would make my story more interesting! 

Time to check into our flight and drop off our bag, which you think would be simple.  EasyJet has a bright orange logo.  But for some reason, the kiosks for the airlines were not clearly labeled and there were several bright orange signs throughout the airport!  We asked for directions to the kiosks, checked our bag, and headed to the gate.  EasyJet is similar to Southwest in the first come first serve idea but since we had the baby would we be allowed to board first.  Unfortunately, we were allowed to board the shuttle first!  Along with 60 other people.  When the shuttle unloaded, it was a mad house!  The Europeans were serious about getting on the plane first!  One man shoved me and the baby out of his way.  Both the front and the back of the plane are utilized for the boarding of the plane.  We chose the back and got a row towards the back.  As we got on, the flight attendant handed me the seatbelt attachment for the baby and we got settled.  The baby seat belt slides onto the adult seat belt and wraps around the baby’s waist.  It is the most ridiculous thing ever because if the plane crashed, the baby would slam into the seat because of the seat belt.  And it made it awkward to move the baby and get her comfortable.  But I am a rule follower so I used the seat belt.

The flight was uneventful which is what I like for my plane flights!  There was a couple who was next to us who were very clearly American.  We ended up having a casual conversation while waiting to de-board the plane.  The woman, Katherine, was sharing with us how to get to Venezia using the waterbus or the taxis. 

After we got off the plane, we headed to the baggage claim.  This was the first thing I saw:

If you know my family (mother really) you know we like to gamble.  And if you knew my Uncle Bobby, you know that gambling in our family has to be consistent.  Everyone has four numbers that are “their” numbers which are used in roulette and/or keno.  Bobby even played his numbers in a certain order every time.  I saw the baggage carousel and immediately took a picture.  I was amazed and excited that the impromptu picture captured Bobby’s numbers. Made me feel connected to him even though he is no longer with us.

We found our luggage carousel and got our bags and went to the kiosk to buy our water bus tickets.  Somehow we ended up chatting with Katherine and Brandon again.  Katherine was a girl that you want to hate when you see her.  She was incredibly stylish, cute, knowledgeable, organized, a firecracker if you will!  She had every detail of the weekend planned out and an itinerary printed.  I had a book I checked out from the library which ended up being worthless.  The book was so old that the currency was lira, not euro!  We ended up deciding to split a water taxi (100 euro) and if we couldn’t get a water taxi, the waterbus was at the same dock.  Brandon apparently was a really good negotiator. When we got to the dock, there were two water taxis waiting and Brandon tried to get one for 100 euro.  The guy wanted 120 euro (the water bus is 30 euro per person).  We decided to wait and see if we could talk him down or if he would decide we were better than nothing but another group came and jumped on the taxi.  As soon as the taxi drove off, another one pulled up.  They make it look like there are no taxis and you must take the one there because it is the last one, but they wait just out of view for the taxi to leave!  Anyway, Brando tried to talk to the next guy and somehow it went from 100 euro to 160 euro.  So we decided to take the waterbus. 

This was the baby’s first boat!  It was a 20-30 minute boat ride and you couldn’t see much because it was dark.  The boat took us to the Rialto Bridge stop and we jumped off. 

Now to find the hotel!  Using your smart phone GPS is difficult in alleys of Venezia because the buildings are made of thick stone and you can’t get a good signal!  Matt seemed to know where he was going and we wandered a few blocks.  We found a little advertisement alley.

We found a little piazza and a little canal and bridge.  Although we were pretty sure we were close to the hotel, we could not find it so in the open area of the bridge, we double checked the GPS and ended up in an alley.  That didn’t seem right to use so we cut down another alley and ended up back at the piazza.  We wandered a little more and I was starting to get a little worried that maybe the hotel didn’t exist when we found the hotel door, which we had passed at least twice.  After checking in (you MUST bring your passports when you travel and the hotels make a copy of them when you check in. also you must pay a room fee in cash when you check out), the hotel manager walked us to our room; which was out the front door, around the block towards the bridge, and down the alley that we first wandered along.  There was a random door with no label that we used the key and went up the stairs.  There were about ten rooms and we were room number 2.

We have a baby.  In Italy!

As I mentioned before, I packed a travel bassinet which probably took up at least a third of our suitcase.  This was a big debate before we left and Matt finally said that it would come if we had room, if not, she could sleep in a drawer.  For future reference when traveling in Europe, there are NO drawers in hotel rooms.  This makes since when you think about the fact that Europeans use armoires instead of dressers. So we were both very glad that we had her little bed so we didn’t have to share the two twin beds pushed together.  Our hotel room had a canal view, a private bathroom, and a big bed.  The bathroom had a towel warmer and a hairdryer.

Two twin beds pushed together to make a king. The thinest pillows ever!

Armoire

Weirdest looking hair dryer!

View from our room

Our balcony (picture from the bridge by our canal view)

We put our stuff down and let the baby fidget on the bed for about twenty minutes but then we had to go find something to eat.  It was 22:00 so there was not much opened.  We found a little restaurant that had panini and pizza in the window so we ordered a panini for me and a piece of pizza for Matt.   Matt loves to eat on the go from little shops like this.  I prefer to sit and eat.  This might be because I am a messy eater.  Or maybe it is because at little shops like this, they just micro-waved the food in the display!!  So needless to say our first meal in Venezia was less than stellar.  We wondered a little bit on our way back to the room to eat our microwave meal but ended up going home so the baby could get out of her ERGO.

Stayed tuned for the rest of the adventure!!