(C) THOUGHT OF THE DAY - The night train sucks, don't trust Chad with the timetables, and why are Germans so weird?
It felt like a tactical error on the backpack idea. These things are heavy. We made it from Cap d'Ail to the train at Monte Carlo, but I thought my hips were going to give out because it feels like 100 pounds back there. We worked so hard to get them down in weight. We got a new tent at Decathlon in Monte Carlo that weighs in at only 6 pounds and is just 12 inches long. I got my clothes down to only 2 ½ days. The computer is just 2 pounds. We even left most of our books. Still - I feel like a donkey.
Overnight train to Venice was long. Shared our sleeping compartment with two girls from Florida who are backpacking around for three weeks. Nice but CLUELESS! They hated France because of the bread. They hated Spain because of the meat. They were spending a day in Venice where I'm sure they will hate the pasta and then on to Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris and London in 10 days. They were rightly complaining about their travel agent and their boyfriends. One boyfriend was so bad he was going to a lingerie party which was causing much grief, girltalk and phonecalls home to get additional opinions about the depth of this crime. Slept some.
Venice is still there. The sunshine was really nice!! We dropped our bags and got on the boat. Traveled down to San Marco. Looked at the pigeons. Passed a couple of very funny new statutes at the market that resembled Chad and Sara taking pictures several months back. At least I THOUGHT they were funny!
Contemplated going to the Doge's Palace, but even at 9am, there was already a line. I noticed something VERY FUNNY on the big zodiac clock. Every sign is in its happy place EXCEPT for the Scorpio which is busting out of it's place and preparing to eat the Libra. I knew something starry was going on. I'm going to keep a better eye peeled for these kinds of clues from now on.
So we needed to be back on a traghetto (no. 82) at 10:30 to return to the train station, get our luggage, and take the next boatbus-traghetto to the harbor by noon. Our big ANEK ferry left at 2.
At least - I THOUGHT our boat left at 2. This oh-so humble author forgot to doublecheck the time until we were on the traghetto back to the train station at 10:45. Ooops!! Guess ANEKleaves at noon, Minoan leaves at 2. This causes normally calm and patient Sara to bust a vein in her forehead and Chad almost goes overboard. Chad almost goes over voluntarily.
But we made it. We (Sara) courageously cut in front of about 70 people to claim our bags (granted, all Asian tourists who really had no idea what was going on), then we ran with our donkey packs across the grand canal, past the bus station, and down about 2 miles of dock to get to our boat in time, giving Chad extra reason to feel like an ass. I think I might have also had a risotto aneurism.
But we made it on board and the trip out of Venice - down the Giudecca canal on top of a very tall boat - was cool. Seeing the city from that height, so close up, I hadn't imagined.
We bought deck seats, so we staked out a good camping place early, circled it with furniture, and settled in for our 24 hour journey. The advertised pool was rusted shut, and there were lots of weird people about. Many androgynous germans in leather and a group of - maybe gypsy - truckdrivers, bombed and sleeping on mats in the corner.
(S) Why do I trust him with small details? Like when our 24 hour long boat ride begins. Grumble. But we made it, so I had to talk to him eventually. And after he bought me a beer.
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