It's A Small World After All

So I have a wonderful tour of Padua this morning, where the 2nd oldest university of something is located. It is the university where Gallileo taught until they couldn't pay him enough so he left for Florence and many times wished he'd have stayed in Padua. The tour was fascinating but more about that later!

Small world stories:
I arrive at the airport after the tour, collect my luggage and go straight to the waiting hotel shuttle and arrive shortly at the Courtyard by Marriott. After getting settled I got explicit directions of how to get into Venice and decided I had to try it, although it was quite a journey for me to undertake alone. So I crossed the street and waited for bus no. 5. No one mentioned that the bus would be crowded and I'd have to stand for a long time. The bus arrived at the Piazza de Roma, the main bus station and I proceeded to a vaporetto, a water bus, and was told to take no. 1 or 2 so I took n. 1, it had more stops and more to see, I was told. I was nervous but so far, so good...I waited in line and got on my water bus and watched the stops and talked to 2 kind Austrian young ladies next to me who had a map and they told me when we were nearing St. Mark's Square so I got up and ready to jump off, actually you don't have to jump, just move very quickly! I walked along the canal to St. Marks, a little bit of a walk and then went through the square, the church is incredibly beautiful! I wanted spaghetti hoping for a repeat of the Florence experience. I didn't see a place in the square so I stopped in a place that said Americana bar and asked for a restaurant. I was told to go down a block and take the first right and there would be several restaurants. I followed her directions and chose a little place that had tables on the tiny street, and I do mean tiny! I sat and 2 sweet girls from America were sitting next to me and talked to me and had an interesting story. One was from Oklahoma, had moved to upstate NY to be a waitress for a change, met an Italian who sells pasta makers and has been living in Italy with him for a few months!! From Oklahoma to Venice, she said she never would have dreamed that would happen! I know that feeling! Her friend was visiting and they were enjoying a pizza. Shortly after I ordered a girl at the other table next to me asked if I was from the ship and it turns out that the 4 girls there were crew and in the photo dept. I didn't recognize the one because they all had on cute hats and glasses and I didn't know the others. We all started talking, Cesar would not have been surprised at all, however as the conversation progressed, the crew was telling the young girls how wonderful it is to work on a ship and how to get the job. I said that it wasn't all good, I had a friend Cesar from Portugal who'd worked in the tour office and really got burnt out. One older lady looked at me in surprise and said she knew Cesar from Portugal. I knew that just couldn't be and asked if she'd been on his ships and she said no, but she'd been on a ship on a different cruise line in the S. Pacific out of Australia and there was a tall kid with dark hair and skin who was from Portugal named Cesar...and amazingly, she was on the ship he was on in the S. Pacific on another cruise line!!! Yes, sitting at a tiny restaurant on a tiny street in Venice behind St. Mark's I had lunch with a friend of my Cesar!! Small, small world! I took a picture of her and will email him when I get home and want to hear his amazement at this meeting! We had a delightful conversation...and a fond farewell, with many comments about what a small world it is! And chances are I will see those photographers on another cruise another time.

Small world story no. 2---a few minutes later--- I walked back to the vaporetto landing and asked a couple who was in front of me if they spoke English. A very nice lady said they did and asked what I needed. I told her where I was trying to go and asked which line I needed to be in to go that direction. She was so kind and told me she and her husband were going back to the main place at the bus station so I could just follow them. She asked where in America I was from and I told her Colorado and she asked where. Well, it turns out her son lives in downtown Denver and is an architect there! She was so excited that I could call him when I got home and tell him I'd met his parents on a water bus in Venice. They live in the countryside of Milan and of course we exchanged names and phone numbers and she told me she has thought of her son all day because it is his birthday today and she hopes I can meet him in person and give him a big hug from her! He's adorable, they showed me pictures and only 28, but I will offer the hug! We had such a nice conversation that I relaxed and wasn't so nervous at all. We said goodbye at the station, and I got the traditional European cheek kissing goodbye and I waited in a line for my bus no. 5 to get back to the hotel. Well, a line isn't a line there, everyone just pushes on when the bus stops and it was quite a scene, rush hour and the bus was packed! I can see why pickpocketing is so successful in that setting! there are not many seats, so I was standing for a very long ride back to the hotel, but I made it before my feet gave out!

Small world story no. 3---The hotel recommended a little Italian restaurant a couple of blocks away for dinner so I headed there. When I walked in there were 2 couples I'd met at the hotel who had biked their way around this area and all the way to Slovenia. We said hi and then the couple next to me asked about why I was there, they were from California on a trip around this area. Then a couple sat down next to me and were telling me they were in Slovenia visiting relatives so I introduced them to the people who had just returned from that bike trip. Then a lady 2 tables down asked me where in Spain I was becasue they want to go there on their next trip. We talked about traveling and when they got ready to leave she came over and shook my hand and thanked me for helping them plan their next trip and it turns out they were from Canada, where the couple who had been to Slovania were from!! Pretty soon the whole room, about 4 tables were chatting. Cesar would have been laughing at me, the way I was introducing people to each other with stories or homes in common. What a delightful, not to mention delicious, dinner I had!

Now I am at the hotel and ready to call it a night so I can get up early and leave for home. A long day tomorrow, but then I'll be home and able to relax and get ready for the next adventure. I will also write about my 2 days in Venice then, just had to share the small world stories tonight before I went to sleep.

Sweet dreams all!

Ciao Venizia, Ciao!

Venice, gondola rides, St. Mark's Square, Murano glass factories, the Grand Canal, water taxis, belfry towers...

been there, done that!

more when I return home this weekend, until then, thanks for sharing my adventures!

Bits and Pieces

So many thoughts crowd into my head on this calm, relaxing sea day. I actually slept until almost 8AM, it is a cloudy day so no sun snuck in through the crack in the curtains to start the day. Some people say it is humid, that I don't notice and I'm looking forward to sitting out in the cool weather reading, although I had hoped to soak up a little sun rather than get soaked by the few raindrops that come down intermittently. Many people are already out there, mostly sleeping! This has been an exhausting cruise and I've taken it easier than most people so I might be a little more rested.

I realized that I didn't print out the information for my hotel in Venice so I hope there are no problems and I have written Marriott an email hoping they will respond while I still have access to email with my confirmation number. I found out today that the airport hotel is 6 miles from the city, but the man with all of the information helped me and showed me how to take a bus to a place where I can then get a vaporetto on the Grand Canal to get to St. Mark's square so I don't feel as nervous, well I am as nervous really, but like having the information. I am spending most of my time in Venice on the ship tours, but he encouraged me to go back in even at 10 at night to see things lit up, the pictures are beautiful! But since I will be alone, that might have to be another time, and I believe there will be another time in Venice! Peter told me where to stand on the ship as we arrive into Venice so hopefully I'll get a good spot before the decks fill up. I'm excited to watch this entrance to this beautiful Italian city, one I have taught about for years and never, ever thought I'd visit! A poster of the Grand Canal has been up year after year in my classroom and I've read books about the city whose streets are water, and now I will be right in the middle of that poster picture and the stories! Hard to believe!

I think that as interesting facts I haven't written about come to me, I will just include them here and add them as I think of them. For example I forgot to mention the amazing bridge we saw in the countryside of Marseilles, it was built in 300AD and was made just of large stones, no mortar because it had not been developed yet. The bridge had archways in it above the water line to help when the river flooded, the water could go through the arches rather than over the bridge. The construction was really brilliant! And since one year I did a unit on bridges around the world and throughout time, this will be an interesting one to add. I was amazed the kids loved learning about bridges. I asked if we were near any ancient aquaducts and we were about an hour away from the closest, so I didn't see that this trip.

Well, now I am off to read...and dream of places I'll see in the future...

ADDITIONAL bit and piece - I believe I forgot to write about an interesting thing our guide told us in Kusadasi. Sometime in the years BC, the Amazon women lived in the area of Ephesus and they were very big and very strong warriors. The story is that they cut off the breast on the side of their dominant hand so it wouldn't get in the way when they used their bows. She told us that she is privileged each year to be the guide for a group of women who have had mastectomies and come to this place for the strength that the Amazon women showed in ancient times. What an experience that must be for all involved, it is such an amazing place!

I'm feeling a bit better about the time alone in Venice, other than the quite common warning to be careful of pickpockets, I'm told it is very safe and easy to get around. Robbie, the tour person, in the same job as César was, has been very helpful and is very knowledgeable and has helped me with things since I first got on the ship. So many people are new or don't really know what goes on so I always feel very lucky to find someone who is smart and knows everything about the ports we are going to. Being alone makes me have to plan a lot more and make sure I can get from point A to point B on time! He told me that the most beautiful part of the arrival will be at about noon until 12:30 so I will have plenty of time to then go down and get ready for my first tour of Venice, one of the basilicas, the Murano glass factory and a gondola ride. Then I will be back for an hour before the serenading gondola ride and now it seems I will stay in Venice to see the magnificent St. Mark's Square lit up at night and then return to the ship by water taxi...and hopefully it will all work out well and easily. We won't be the only ship in, and I am sure there will be a lot of people who will be boarding the Emerald for the transatlantic trip it will be making when it leaves Venice. It is an 18 day trip and I have to admit I am quite tempted to try to get a cabin and stay on it, but I'm doubting that would be possible even if I did want to spend 18 more days at sea! It goes to some of the same ports, which is always exciting because you can do different tours, and just happens to stop in Lisbon for a day! Now that would be the highlight I think, but it may not work out as César is now working midnight to 8AM and is in school from 8AM to 1PM and then has to study and sleep, so seeing him probably wouldn't happen anyway. With all he is doing it will realistically be 3 years before I see him again...so I might as well travel to new and different places!

The weather cleared up, I'm almost packed and I have to say that I didn't get a lot of gifts this trip, but several souvenirs that will make my home, which needs so much work, on the verge of being an international museum! Yes, this was a wonderful way to spend the new year!