I have to share this unfortunate event… not unfortunate for us, but for someone else. We were at the train station waiting for the train, and I was watching a woman on a different platform. Her train arrived, but the train door was about fifteen feet away from her, so she carted her three bags to the door and placed her first bag in the train and turned to pick up her other two bags. She got the suitcase about halfway through the door when it shut on her suitcase. She wrestled it free and the train door snapped shut and the train rolled away. To say the least, she was stunned! So were we. She just stood there with her hands on her head. Trust me when our train arrived, we jumped on as fast as we could… it wasn’t the correct car, but we could get to our car after the train got moving.
Once we arrived in Venice, we had a little surprise waiting for us. First let me say that I’d reached out to our Venice host to let her know when we’d arrive. She never responded, so when we arrived we were basically on our own. We went straight down the train steps to the Grande Canal to the vaporetto (water bus) ticket booth and asked for the fundementa Nove stop. She told us in very polite, but firm English, “That’s not possible. It’s Acqua Alta.” To our surprise we’d came during the high-high tide. The vaporetto for our stop was suspended until the tide dropped for some reason… maybe it wouldn’t fit under the bridges? She looked at a timetable for a moment and said, “It will start running again in 45 minutes.” We decided this would be a good time to eat. I got onto the restaurant WiFi to see if our host had responded to me yet. Nothing.
We got off the water-bus and hour later and found our apartment. I was immediately pissed off. When I booked the place a couple of months ago, I’d noticed a construction project in front of the door to the place on Google map’s street-view. I’d contacted her and asked her if they actually did have a huge construction job going on at the doorstep. “It will be completed in a week. When you come in October, it will be finished.” Now I stood looking at a project double in size to the one I’d seen.
We followed the instructions given to me when we booked it and got into the apartment, still without having made any contact. Inside the tiny, stuffy little apartment, was an instruction manual with the WiFi address and code. I searched for the WiFi router address, but none existed. Joe and I searched the apartment, top to bottom, but couldn’t find a router. I tried to text her, but she didn’t respond. There are spider webs in the place and the air was very still. The electricity worked, but otherwise it felt abandoned. The youth hostel next door gave us their WiFi code and I tried again to get ahold of the host through the Airbnb app. Nothing. I was beginning to think she was hospitalized or worse. We put it out of our minds and went out to discover the maze of our new neighborhood.
That night was a little nerve-wracking because once inside the apartment behind the twelve-inch thick walls and door with one little lock, our cell phones didn’t have service. That meant we were pretty much cut off from the world once inside. Hopefully nothing happens, otherwise we’ll be calling for help from behind our barred windows! The next afternoon, the host contacted me. “Sorry, but we don’t have WiFi. I hope that doesn’t create a problem for you.” What!?! I won’t bore you with the following back and forth messaging. I’ll be leaving a scathing review on Airbnb. Needless to say, this will be posted from the hostel next door.
Venice is gorgeous as always. We wandered all the way to the south-east portion of the island where the gardens are. Very pretty. Then we headed back to Saint Marks square. That place is always a madhouse, but especially during high tide because it floods the square. It’s not as bad as it used to be because they built gates at the bay, which prevent the wind from combining with the high-high tide to drop the city completely below the water-line. Now it just creates big ponds. The city-workers set up raised sidewalks to get over the flooded areas. It was crazy. We escaped back to our construction zone.
Apparently our plaza is a favorite for the youth, especially on the weekends. There’s only one exit to the water, so they can play ball. I really enjoyed the sounds of the kids playing in the area (around the fenced off construction site). Our place is part of an old monastery with an enormous church next to us. The rest of the monastery is the hostel—it’s huge. Next to the church is the north bay with views of the cemetery island and Murano.
It’s much colder here than we anticipated. I’ve been bundling up with three or four layers. Joe’s been shivering. We saw a household doorway with a bunch of used jackets hanging there. There was a sign saying the jackets were free, but an offering would be appreciated. A little old lady came to the door and chattered kindly in Italian. She went back in and came back with a huge coat. Joe was lost in it. He picked out a thick black jacket and gave her twenty Euros. She was so excited and Joe is warm.
We walked along the north-western edge of the island and got completely lost. If you like corn-mazes, you would’ve had a great time with us. After about two hours we finally ended up at the train station! Speaking of trains, I got an alert from my train app, Trenit, telling me that the Italian trains were going on strike Sunday night through Monday night… thank goodness we don’t leave for Rome until Thursday! The guy at the restaurant told us they’d be closed Monday night because nobody would be able to get to work. I have to admit, there were a lot less people today on the island (but then again, we were lost in the residential area). They do have roads to the mainland, but most people don’t have a car.
Today we headed to the south-west. Lucky for us, Joe found a map on the ground. Yay. We still got lost, but for less time. We’d discovered a terrace restaurant called the Old Wild West. It was pretty cool and the wine was the best I’d had since coming to Italy… it was an Italian wine. We split an enormous double cheeseburger. A young lady came out, took the corner table, ordered her food and went inside leaving all her belongings. Pretty soon the waiter brought her drink. Still no girl. Then he brought her food (a crepe loaded with whipped cream and berry sauce). Still no girl. All of a sudden the pigeons swooped onto the table and started ripping apart her crepe. Whipped cream and bright red berry sauce went flying every which way. Her bags of stuff and her black jacket got covered in it. I tried to shoo them away, but they weren’t giving up their feast. When the girl finally came out it was way too late. The waiter shrugged and picked up her decimated plate and brought her a fresh one while she moved her stuff to another table. The ring-leader hopped onto the rail near us and tried to look innocent with his bright pink berry covered beak!
Once back to our pad, we took a nap and now we’re next door at the old monastery cloister. Every teenager on the entire island is here. Seriously… it’s entertaining. It’s also free, though they do have a restaurant and bar here along with a very popular hostel. I’m nursing a glass of wine in a water bottle from our room. :)
Tomorrow we’ll do a test-walk to the train station to see how far it is by foot. On Thursday we head to Rome.
No comments:
Post a Comment