Back to Venice (And Canada)

We arrived in Venice early on the last day, but were not disembarking first, so we made it up to the Lido deck for breakfast. We happened to be sitting next to a couple that was also from Ontario and after chatting a bit, we learned they were from Sault Ste. Marie and the husband was an instructor at Fleming College, where Erin went to school. He taught Erin’s program and knew him very well!

After disembarking, we took the train into Venice to get on another train to the airport. The departures area of Marco Polo Airport was very different and much more lavish than the arrivals area where we started the trip by waiting quite a while for our travel companions.

We took a short hop to Rome and had to go through a passport check where a rude Italian man tried to cut in front our group. I explained that there was a line and he seemed pretty surprised to be told to wait by a young woman. Then he tried to pretend he did not speak English and finally that he was in a rush and should get to cut in. It turned out he was on our flight, so he was in the same rush we were.

We also got to experience a bussing facility to take us out to our plane in the middle of the tarmac. This was my first bussing experience and it was crowded, had limited seating and the lines for any type of food or drink were crazy long. After getting to our Alitalia plane, its airworthiness seemed a bit sketchy and it also had broken seats, broken entertainment systems and our Italian friend. Mom and I just tried to sleep the whole way home, which worked pretty well. After landing in Toronto, we finished off with our drive home to London and all proceeded to pass out for many hours.

Overall, it was an exciting and interesting adventure. We came home with many memories, stories and lovely souvenirs (including my bruise, which had become a beautiful rainbow in the two days since it happened).

The Last Greek Island

Our final stop in Greece was Corfu. The island had spent years under different rule, so while it was part of the country of Greece now, the buildings showed a lot of Italian, French and British influence. We started off by wandering the streets and picking up some souvenirs.

We eventually ended up down at the water, where Uncle Brian walked through the fort and the rest of us explored the courtyard areas along the sea. It was just a short stay at the port, as we were off to Dubrovnik the next day and we had to cover quite a bit of ground (water) to get there.

It also happened to be my mom’s birthday, so I had asked our stewardess if she could make my mom a towel animal while we were out and I set out a card I brought along. My mom was definitely surprised! Since there was still a lot of the day left, we headed up to the pool. I had not yet tried out the waterslide and was excited to do so. It did not turn out very well though because, unfortunately, a misbehaving child did not wait until I had gotten out of the way before he came down and I ended up with a big, awful bruise! That was the first and only time I used the slide. Even though we had dinner in the dining room (and mom had some giant prawns), I also decided to try out the room service for a late night snack that night.