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).

Water, Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink

Today was the day! We were getting on our Mediterranean cruise! I stayed back and packed up while the others took Brian, Esther and Betty Jean on a walk to St. Mark’s Square, since they hadn’t had a chance to see it yet. I was on vacation and wanted to sleep in! I also had the surprise of being treated to more buttery croissants when they returned.

Then, we were ready to head towards the cruise ship terminal. We locked up the apartments and headed to the vaporetto station with our suitcases. We were learning that you had to fend for yourself here and had been working on the art of making human walls to stop people from cutting in line. This definitely almost happened while trying to board the boat. They even stopped letting on suitcases halfway through our group because the boat was so busy, but all seven of us managed to rush on, while the attempted line-jumpers had to wait for the next one.

We got off at the final stop, Piazzale Roma, and attempted to find the train to the cruise ship terminal. It seemed like a great idea that there was a train to get us out there. After walking in a few circles, we finally found it. We got settled on the train and quickly discovered that we would only be sitting for about three minutes. Then, we were up again to get off! We thought it would be a quick walk to the terminal because we could easily see it from the platform, but then we had to keep walking . . . and walking . . . and walking. We were at the FAR terminal. We were pretty much ready to pack it in with sore backs and no energy when we finally arrived.

We were able to get rid of our suitcases (finally!) and headed in to register and get our cruise cards. Unfortunately, the ship got in late due to some weather in Dubrovnik and we ended up in line quite a bit longer than expected. We were able to snag some water and juice while waiting though and one gentleman waiting near us took it upon himself to walk up and down the line offering people cups and water.

Finally, we got moving and after going through security, boarded the ship and headed to the lunch buffet! We found lots of great things and once we were stuffed, we went down to the rooms to check them out and get changed into bathing suits for some hot tub time!

We left port around 5:00pm and travelled down the Grand Canal and into the lagoon. It was a little nerve-wracking to see our massive ship try to navigate between the markers showing deep water. We watched from our rooms at the back of the ship and then rushed to get ready for dinner, since we were the first sitting.

We had heard rumours that tap water wouldn’t be automatically ready at the dinner tables (and even available at all), as we had experienced on all of the other cruises we had been on. After sitting down and taking a look at the menus, the drink server arrived to take our orders . . . and the rumours were right! They wouldn’t let us have water, unless it came in a bottle and was of the fizzy or mineral variety! We were pretty surprised by all of this and my mom, being my mom, wasn’t going to let the issue drop. We had heard that Americans got free water tickets for dinner, since it was something they were “used to with dinner.” My mom marched down to Guest Relations and explained the situation and how Canadians drink water with dinner too! She did it . . . she got us our water! It still came in a bottle, but at least we weren’t going to have to lug down tap water in our own water bottles from the buffet.

After a long and drawn out dinner, we headed off to our various activities for the night. Tanya and Stephanie tried to check out the candy store, Brian went to casino and mom, Esther, Betty Jean and I headed off to the show. Our first day on the ship definitely started out as an interesting one!

A Halloween Weekend

Since Halloween is on a Thursday this year, there was plenty of Halloween fun to be had this weekend, the last one before November! On Friday night, the boyfriend and I went out to a party. It was a good thing our costumes were a hit because we were both pretty exhausted from the work week and probably not that exciting to be around! Can you guess what we were?

A co-worker had told me about the Ghost Train in Stanley Park that runs every year around Halloween. Since I love trains (and hadn't ridden this one yet), it seemed like a good idea to check it out. We thought we would go for the afternoon ride (mostly because I'm a chicken), but when we got there, we decided to go for the full experience and do the ride in the dark. Since we had some time to kill, we started the walk around the Stanley Park seawall. We made it all the way out to Siwash Rock before turning around. I was super worried about missing our train!

I have to say, the people of Vancouver can be kind if gory. There was a memorial plaque at Siwash Rock that gave a fairly detailed account of how a young man died diving off of it a number of years ago. This isn't the first time I've seen something like that either. When I was out in Lynn Canyon with my parents,  there were multiple memorials for people who had drowned, dove into rocks, fallen of waterfalls and been crushed by falling boulders . . . all in fairly descriptive detail. That's one way to remember someone.

Walking around the park was a lot like being home too. The trees were all changing colour (unlike the evergreens that are very common around here . . . they really are always green) and some of the leaves were bigger than my head! We also saw ducks that would dive and swim underwater (faster than I can!) and some sort of bird that I dubbed the "penguin bird" because of their black and white colour. They would all dive underwater together and then pop back up (mostly in the same place because they were obviously not as hydrodynamic as the ducks).

Finally, it was time to head for the train. Although I'm sure I was way more scared than I needed to be, it didn't help that the boyfriend kept grabbing me and making noises to try and freak me out. It was super dark and creepy being in the woods on a train! My favourite part was definitely the little boarded up house with little skeletons having a party/barbecue/picnic/something outside. They even had little bony sandwiches! I'm pretty sure the boyfriend was way less scared, but I think he did enjoy some of the clever references.

It was a pretty fun and active weekend! I'm excited that I get to wear my costume a few more times too, once for our Sparks Halloween party on Wednesday and once to (hopefully) hand out candy to some trick-or-treaters on Thursday!