Hey everyone (tutti quanti)!!
Well, I appear to be in Venice! Such a bizarre and exhilirating experience to be hurtled across the hemispheres in a sterile, domesticated pod with only daylight, darkness, passing clouds and in-flight GPS tracking on the screen to discern your whereabouts and then to seemingly instanteously find yourself surrounded by a different climate, landscape, culture and language!
The trip started off with the good news that Paul's contact at Emirates had managed to wrangle me an upgrade to business class!! That was a ridiculous luxury! I got to say goodbye to Perth sipping on champagne and being referred to as "Miss Brown". At least they didn't call me "m'am" which really freaks me out and makes me feel like a burnt out old spinster. I had the pleasure of 'supping' on some fine lobster medallions for appetizer, followed by chilli prawns then a lemon tart.....well I could keep talking about the food forever but let me just say, that I will never accept substandard food in economy again! I thought airline food had to be tasteless and rubbery as a result of the pressurised cabin.....ahem. Apparently not.
Dubai airport was awesome - reminded me of one of the space stations from Star Wars - thousands of people with different cultures and languages all in transit....a lot of families sleeping on the floor....and that's where Erika and I ended up towards the end of our four hour wait. Oh yeah, and of course I had a hilarious moment where I got stuck on the travelator but that goes without saying.
So on to Venice. My first experience of Italian culture was at the baggage claim where Erika pointed out a verbose and unintelligble sign in both Italian and English explaining why Venice airport was not responsible if your luggage didn't turn up. One of the carousels was actually painted like a roulette wheel which we found pretty amusing - maybe your luggage will turn up, maybe it won't. It's a gamble!!!! Had my first Italian coffee at the airport and that alone was better than anything I have had in Perth so the bar has been set high from the start!
From here on, it is difficult to describe the full gamut of experiences and emotions I have felt since arriving. Amazement, shock, bewilderment, relief, excitement, and generally just out-of-body type stuff!! The first two days just felt surreal. I have never seen a place like this before - it just seems like a fairytale land!! Our apartment is part of the "Molino Stucky" Hilton Hotel complex. "Molino" means mill - it used to be an old flour mill set up by some dude called Stucky. Amazing location.....we just hop on a traghetto (ferry) and we are on Venice island in less than five minutes.
So......been wandering around all over the island......with jet lag....been trying not to stand to close to the edge of the canals. Had my first Italian pizza and have been enjoying the cafe / bars where you can buy pastry goodness, have a coffee and wash it down with a shot of whichever alcohol you so choose!! Tried a cafe corretto (means 'corrected' coffee with a shot of alcohol of your choice) - so I had a shot of whisky.....mmmmmn.....buzzy.
The language barrier is a little intimidating at this point......I've certainly got my "ciao, grazie, comme si chiama questa, uno, and due"s down pat. Ahem. Long way to go. Paul and I are going to stick post-it notes all over the apartment so I can increase my vocabulary. I asked in Italian what the name is for post it notes in a shop....felt pretty stupid to be told "post it notes". Yo. We then went to a butchers where they do their butchery a la 'grass roots'.....chopping up a huge chunk of pig, cow, small child etc in front of you. Paul was searching for a type of lard for pasta fagoli.....we now have a kilo of pig fat in the fridge. Great. I'm going to be trying hard enough not to put on a ridiculous amount of weight as it is let alone with a kilo of pig fat to use up.
It's Christmas Day today....so we've been to check out a full-on Italian Catholic service in one of the many chruches here. The organist blew me away! I think that I'll become a regular church goer here because they give you a transcript of the service and speak really slowly so it's a good way to learn the language, see some amazing churches, be absolved of your digestive sins, and listen to virtuosic keyboardists! Yo.
Well this is the end of the blog post. Congratualations if you managed to read all of this. I'm sure as I get busier and less blown away by every second that passes I'll write more concisely.
Rock on
Ali
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