Venezia!

Oh my goodness! Crazy stuff! But really great. I'm random, I know [smile].

So Jill and Beth were here last week [they actually just left this morning :)]. But we had a really great weekend in Venice. We had a really great week too!

On Tuesday Whit and I went to see "Dumb Show" with our theatre classes and Jill and Beth went to see Phantom of the Opera.Wednesday was our looking hott night [smile]. We all got dressed up in nice dress pants and high heels [except for Whit, ‘cause she doesn’t have any high heels…yet], and then we rode the London Eye when it got dark [which was really great]. Afterwards, we went out to dinner, which turned out to be in Leister Square at a Mexican restaurant [even though they didn’t serve us free chips and salsa]. It was absolutely fantastic. After dinner, we came home, got into comfy clothes and fell happily asleep.

Thursday we got up early enough and started packing for Venice to find that Whit’s class was cancelled. We caught up on some errands [like laundry and Venice research], headed off to Oxford Street for a while and then back to grab our bags and head for the bus station.

Okay, at this point I would like to point out, we were very careful to plan correctly. Whit had laid out enough time for us to screw up once and still be at the airport in plenty of time…however, plans changed. We made it to the correct bus stop in time for the bus, and got on the correct bus successfully. But after the 75 min. maximum time had elapsed on the bus ride we started to worry. Whit had found info in our lobby that said the bus right would take between 60 and 75 min. In reality however, it took us 2 hours. 120 min! This put us right at the absolute last min. So when the bus pulled into the airport parking lot, we ran like hell!

I have always wanted to be that person who was running through the airport, afraid of missing their flight, but just barely making it. And now…I never want to be that person again! Ever! We literally ran all the way to the check-in counter, and only made it by 3 min. If we had been three min. later we would have been screwed! And then, to top it off, we had to run to get to the boarding area, which apparently stopped boarding in 5 min. Signs leading the way told us that it would take 12 min. to get to our gate, but let me tell you, I think we made it in only 3 min. And of course we then found out something messed up in Ryan air and we had to switch gates and then wait in line.

In the case that we missed the check in time for our flight, we came up with many back up plans. I would cry, of coarse, Jill would act mentally slow, Beth would cry with me, and Whit would try to reason and perhaps become very angry. Luckily for us, we didn’t have to do any of these to get onto our flight. All we had to do was haul it through the freakin long airportJ.

We finally got into the plane and had a wonderful flight, however, after we landed and took another bus into Venice, we were more or less lost. Beth and Jill hadn’t eaten, we didn’t have a great map, and had no idea where the bus to take us to our campsite was. After getting them some food we found that it would be necessary to get a cab to get to the camp place. Finally we make it there and find our small little cabin, which is cool, but of coarse everything is damp.

Friday we went into Venice finally and did a lot of shopping, ate gelato [which Jill tried to spell “Jill-ato” (when I asked how to spell it for a post card)]. We went out to eat right off the main canal, outside, next to the water. Then we took a gondola ride, which was really sweet!

Saturday we did more shopping, wandered around, ate gelato, watched a man make a glass horse [wow!], and walked to Singapore [the other side of Venice:], Found four cute Italian boys who checked us out as we checked them out [lol], ate some great mozzarella and tomato, caught the bus back, chatted in bed and fell pleasantly asleep.

Sunday we once again had to get a cab, caught our bus, checked in [with no running!] and then waited for an hour and a half [our plane couldn’t land because of the incredibly thick fog covering the city], caught some turbulence when we finally got off the ground, landed and then took another long bus ride [like 2 and a half hours! We were on the bus longer than we were on the plane from Venice!], had to listen to annoying and loud Americans talk about eating gelato 8 times in 3 days (I might be exaggerating a little bit, but it was stupid, and I thought that people who go to Oxford were supposed to be smart!), then we made it back to Regents to clean up and go out for tea. Then we relax and Beth and Jill pack.

It was a wonderful trip. And what more, we just found out that Lori is going to be coming out here for Thanksgiving! Sweet!!! [Rika, my sister, and Alicia, friend, will be in town too!].

LOVE<><,
*maike rinaye*

PS: next week is fall break, we're going to Italy: Genoa, Florence and Rome. If you have any suggestions post 'em!