Italy 2015: To Leap or Not to Leap - My Birthday in Venice

If you believe the Facebook reminder that popped up today, you might think it was my birthday. If you wait until tomorrow, you will have missed it. However, for those who know me well, you know that I have one more year until my next birthday. Maybe my affinity towards little leaping frogs (one of my favorite words in Russian - Лягушка [lyagushka]...just like how it contorts the mouth and uses several funky letters) comes from being born on Leap Day. So this year, I decided I wanted to meet that birthday in Venice. I wandered to exhaustion once again today. First out to the Lido to visit the deserted beaches and then St. Mark's Square and as many back alleyways as I could find.

 

I planned on sitting down in a cafe to some real Italian cuisine, but I couldn't muster the energy. I passed by McDonalds and their Louisiana Bacon Burger?). Hidden behind a swaky cafe on Strada Nova I saw a sign for "Pasta - Take Away". Fried Land offered "high quality fried & food" and was no bigger than my hotel room. I almost turned around right then, but the menu looked promising and this way I could have my cake (or rather my pasta) and eat it too without sitting down to a full course meal by myself. I stayed away from the fried portion of the menu and took a chance on the Pasta funghi e speck (I had no idea what speck was, but assumed it was something akin to prosciutto or ham. I was right and the pasta was amazing! Along with some limonata and tiramisu for desert I enjoyed myself (with just a slight "nyquil-like buzz" from the tiramisu.)

Italy 2015: Serenissima –The Most Serene Republic

For some reason, I never really wandered around Venice at night. Probably because I was always so dead tired after walking all day. This time, due to flight delays, I didn’t arrive in Venice until after 5pm. I checked into the hotel Ca’ d'Oro hotel, neatly nestled into the Corto Barbaro alongside on of the hundreds of canals. 

The streets were full of people - mostly locals out for an evening stroll. Planks filled Piazza San Marco in anticipation of Acqua Alta - so far, not a puddle in sight.

My single room is enrobed in silver-blue paisley fabric wallpaper and the Murano glass light fixtures add to the authenticity. It has all the luxuries for a 3 star...even slippers and BBC World. Time to succumb to jet lag..buonasera.

Good Thing I Like Lemons...Stuck in Amsterdam

 

A series of unfortunate events brought me to my lunch in Amsterdam. I left Utah under clouds and heavy sleet - we were delayed about 30 minutes to have the plane de-iced before take off. In Portland, the girl sitting next to me in the middle seat ended up moving, so it looked like I would at least not be so cramped on the 9+ hour flight. It is highly possible I would have missed my connection anyway with only an hour scheduled to go through customs and to walk the extremely elongated terminals in Amsterdam. As it turned out, a 3 hour delay on the tarmac in Portland gave me the chance to sit for an extra 3 hours at the airport and to enjoy a Dutch B.L.T (pretty much the same as in the US, but the bacon was not crispy) and some Schweppes Bitter Lemon (I got hooked on this stuff in Russia). of course, I would rather be delayed 3 hours in Portland to wait for a valve to be replaced and the "light to go off" on the pilot's control panel than to have a mechanical failure mid air resulting in certain death. Just a few "lemons" at the beginning to make the rest even sweeter.


I didn't check any bags, just a backpack with wheels and my trusty Salt Lake 2002 bag stuffed to the gills. Much nicer to have everything with me for the layover. I am always amazed how much stuff I can get into these bags!