Getting to Italy!

Its been done!! I have taken my first steps on European soil. My first stop Venice, where the cars don't go.

Before I go into the details of Venice, Rome and Milan. Lets discuss the circus I call......

"Getting to Europe as Cheaply as Possible"

In an effort to save money I decided to fly with Ryanair from Liverpool to Venice. A smart decision my dad would say.....a penny saved is a penny spent on FOOD later on. After 3 hours of sleep ( I went out on Friday night, and then had to pack at around midnight) I awoke at 4 am on Saturday Oct 20th to catch a cab to the Leeds train station where I hopped on the 4:30 am train to Manchester, then I waited 1 hr to catch a train to the Liverpool train station. Once there I needed to get on a shuttle bus to the John Lennon Airport. (It is now approx. 9:00 am)
After checking in for my flight I settled down in the airport by the statue of John Lennon to wait for 2 hours for my plane. (You need to be at the airport 2 hrs before your flight!!!!!! Even though it took 5 min to check my bag. Grrrr.....) I pass the time by eating breakfast and reading a book, trying to read ever so slowly, so that the book would last the entire trip. After about 1 hr in the airport I glance up to the departure board to notice that my flight has been delayed 1.5 hours.

Cest la vie!

Still in a good mood, (I am going to ITALY!!!! How could I be in a bad mood) I settle down to a cup of caffinated tea to keep me awake (Remember I am working on 3hrs of sleep) Eventually the flight leaves the airport and I am aboard. We touch down in Tevisio (Please note that this is not Venice) where I hop on another shuttle bus that will take me into Venice for 4 Euros, what a deal! Finally, I have arrived! (It is about 5pm)

I get off the bus, and I am rejuvinated with energy.
I AM IN ITALY!!!
What to see first?
What to eat first?
Obviously the first thing you do is go for a stroll along the nearby canal to see your first gondolier, and then you continue to walk down the canal following the sites and smells of ITALIAN PIZZA. Hmmmmm....... Others, more experienced than I, might maintain that the first thing you do in Venice is get your luggage off the shuttle bus, before heading down the canal. It took me almost 20 minutes to clue in to the fact that I had left my luggage behind at the bus station. (Yes I am paid to educate others!!! No snide remarks now.) Next ensues what I call the "500m Dodge the Penshioner DASH" I scramble past what feels like 1 million slow moving senior citizens with canes and walkers, praying that the bus driver has not left. I dodge the suitcases and the traffic to come around the corner of the bus station where my bus is NOT where I left it.

Panick sets in.

I am not worried about the luggage, but more about how I admit to friends and family how stupid I've been. The luggage is somewhere in Venice, I just need to call the bus company and find out. (See I can remain practical in the midst of stupidity)
Out comes the cell phone and I call the number on the back of the ticket. I start explaining the situation to the first person who answers the phone, I am talking so fast that I haven't noticed that the person on the other end of the phone is not speaking ENGLISH!!! Who knew that Italians speak Italian??? Eventually the person on the other end of the line conveys to me in broken english that the Lost and Found center is across the street (Under a huge lit up sign with the bus company name, and the words in English LOST AND FOUND) Within 5 minutes I am hugging my luggage and saying thank you with a bad italian accent.

After the luggage incident I find my Hotel with very little effort and I settle in for a bit of siteseeing. It is now 6:30pm. It has taken me 14hrs to arrive in Venice from Leeds!! The lesson I learned was that next time I will spend 50 pounds more to catch a flight direct from Leeds to Venice. Then the whole trip would only take a maximum of 5 to 6 hours door to door.

Its time I told the truth!!

I have to be honest with everyone, especially the British.

Having tried "Fish N' Chips" several times now, from all kinds of recommended locations. I have come to the conclusion that I am not CRAZY about them.

I love seafood, and I do enjoy fish n' chips. But to me they are like ginger snap cookies, I'll eat them and like them, but only if they are the only cookies left on the plate. I would prefer to eat almost any other type of cookie. (They are on the bottom of my "like" list)

My question is ....Why deep fry your fish, when you could have it as sushi or grill it or BBQ it or do almost anything else other than soaking it in FAT. I don't mind Fish n chips, but it would be near the bottom of the list on how I like my fish prepared. Maybe my palate isn't as discerning as others, but all fish n chips taste the same to me.....But according to the Brits there are different tastes from different parts of the country????? I am confident that deep fried fish will alway taste like deep fried fish, no matter who has made it.

And why, in a country surrounded by the ocean does nobody eat SUSHI!!

Why does "land-locked" Calgary have lots of SUSHI restaurants and not Leeds????

WHY WHY WHY....

Forgive this rant, It comes from a sushi deprived maniac. (SUSHI.........Where are you??)

Getting into the Travelling Mood

I have been getting flack for not updating this blog sooner, and I apologize for that.

These last 3 weeks have been busy. As you may remember, September 24th was my birthday. I turned 30 this year and it was hard to not celebrate with my friends and family back home. Knowing this, many of my new friends here in Leeds came over to my house to help me celebrate. Gill and David have gotten to know me so well that their gift to me included 4 different types of cheese (All local varieties) Hmmmmm.... There was much wine and beer shared and I now have two new guides to England and the local hiking. On Monday, my actual birthday, I went with Jenny and Simon to see a movie (Not available in Canada, it was a British movie) called "Run Fatboy Run" all about a man who runs a marathon to get his girlfriend back. It was pretty funny, and a good example of the British humour.

I forgot to mention, on Sunday Sept 23rd I went down to the local pub for "Quiz" night as usual and found out that Rollie (The quiz guy) had made up a Canadian round for the quiz. My team did very well that night. We even won £30 for being the only team to name 7 of 10 provinces (We got them all!!) The next weekend (Sept 30) we WON the quiz, and I actually got a few of the questions!

With my new touring books I headed out to the city of YORK on Sept 29th. What an amazing city. It still has the Wall around the original city, and you can walk on it and look in on both the new and the old parts. It is a cute city with small streets , just for walking and lots of shopping. The "minster" is a huge church that takes a minimum of 2 hrs to tour. (This city was originally a Roman city, and still has some buildings from that time) As luck would have it there was a food festival going on in the market and I tasted a "Wild Boar" burger. It was worse than eating Liver!!! i eat everything, but even I had to throw it away after 3 bites. (picture on facebook) Met many nice people in York, even the local crazy woman. She sat down next to me as I was eating an ice cream (to get rid of the taste of the burger) and started asking me my opinions about world politics...it was awkward, but I finally managed to get away from her by pretending to see my sister across the lane. Thank you Jen or Carmen

Just this last weekend I went to "Pickering" a small town in East Yorkshire. Also very pretty, but I went there to ride the authentic Steam Train 20 miles from Pickering to Whitby, through parts of Yorkshire that are not accessible by car. The train was cool, with family compartments and all. (pics on facebook) The scenery was great, and I spent the trip with my head hung out the window, taking pictures of the heathered hills and forest. Goathland was my one stop on the trip to take a Level 2 walk (from my new walking guide) I was sure it was mislabelled as I scrambled over rocks and trees to follow a muddy path beside a river for 1.5 miles. (I was covered in mud, leaves and tree slime....No pics, sorry) After the first 1.5 miles the other 3 miles were less grouling and very pretty. Just so you don't think I was all by my self the entire time, I had tea and scones with a gentleman in pickering (stranger) who gave me some great ideas of things to see in Scarborough (NEXT weekend) and I shared a pint with 2 other couples in Goathland who did the same walk/hike as I. Again a very nice trip.

I ended the weekend with a trip to the YSP (the Yorshire Sculpture Park) near Leeds. They had an Andy Goldsworthy exhibition on that blew me away. I've never really been into sculpture as an artform, but I found Andy's work inspiring. Google his name to see some of his art!! Its all based on building something from his environment. All of his works are natural.

To finish this post I want to say that school is going well. I feel comfortable in my classroom and with the students. They have stopped repeating everything I say in a whisper (trying to mimic my accent) and we are now getting lots of work done. I have 1.5 more weeks of school before I have my October Half Term break. I am spending my week off in Northern Italy (Flying in to Venice, then a train to Rome, Florence, Milan and Verona)

Talk to you soon!