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The Odyssey of a Seahawk: |
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The Odyssey of a Seahawk: |
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Venice: words cannot begin to describe . . . |
| 17 September 1999 Europe is not immune to rubberneckers!!! It took me over an hour to go just three kilometers!!! I thought I was never going to get out of Vienna. I was starting to get very upset that I would never make it to Italy this weekend. Finally, I got to a point where the traffic was going, and there was a bus stopped on the side of the road. Everyone had to drive very slowly past it. It wasn't even an accident. For some reason, I was glad to see that people over the world are not that different, even though I was in credibly annoyed at the people who stopped, just as I am annoyed with them in the States. Drove through Austria and ended up taking a 5 hour nap in the parking lot of a rest stop. At 5:30 this morning, I started driving and discovered as the sun came up that I was driving through the Alps. Very high in the Alps! I'm really glad I didn't know this last night. I am not a fan of heights. Arrived in Italy-- European Union changes are already in effect--didn't have to stop and show my passport to anyone, it was like driving from Florida into Georgia, except I was driving from Austria into Italy!!!!! The roads were well marked, and I got on the toll road to Venice. The anticipation of going to Venice made me so jumpy that I couldn't sit still in the car and I could barely keep my hands on the wheel. I had a tape in the cassette player that Bob made for me (Boys and Girls, Bob!), and I couldn't help but shout out the songs as I was driving. It was still early in the morning, and "rush hour" had not yet begun, I guess, so the roads were not very crowded. I could tell I was nearing Venice. I could smell the sea. Funny, growing up near the ocean, and living on an island, one would think that smelling the sea would not be that big of a deal, and I have only been away from home for a month. But it was really a jolt to smell the salt and the faint but sharp sea odor. Then, of course, I started crying because I was actually going to Venice!! I drove to the ferry dock, and took the auto ferry to Lido. I had the address of a relatively inexpensive hotel, and eventually found it, but it was no longer relatively inexpensive. So I drove around Lido, and then parked the car and walked around the main district, and took the ferry back to the mainland. The ferry was great--I saw so much of Venice and the Giudecca (the island across the canal from Venice) on the 30 minute ferry ride there and back. The canal was like a major highway--small boats carrying vegetables and other goods, police boats patrolling the waterway, tourist taxis, it was quite a sight. I didn't really want to leave the car parked in the city anyway, as the thought of its being stolen terrified me, so I decided to check out the campground on the outskirts of town, Campeggio Venezia. It was perfect, huge, clean showers, $8 a night (!!) and the bus stop into Venice was right in front of the facility. So I set up, packed my backpack with notebook, pen, water, reading book, and camera, locked the car, and then caught the bus to Venice.
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