Venice

My time in Italy has come to a halt. 

I spent 5 days in the Portogruaro and visited Venice too. My trip can be summed up by daily bike rides, weird weather and being randomly kissed by a man on the street 

Oh and injuries. So many cuts and bruises that truly exemplify my clumsiness. 

Will divulge into each in a second, I won't leave you hanging.

Dalal from the future here: I'm plucking this post out of the deep depths of my drafts folder and have subsequently been drenched with a strong wave of nostalgia for the summer. Even though we're currently in the deep depths of January I still want to upload this post on my blog as it's a place I've travelled to and well, my blog is some sort of travel diary. Venice was beautiful and quite frankly, I didn't take hundreds of photos to not share them as well as the stories behind them. I'd just like to add that it does feel a bit strange looking at photos of Venice when the season of high flooding or acqua alta is approaching. It's a bit unnerving to think that the city may be fully submerged underwater within my lifetime. I've just had a thought of me telling my kids something like "I was there in the summer of 2018..." as we watch the news report telling us that it's completely sunken.

bit morbid lol.

I didn't really know what to expect with this trip, I was going to be staying just outside of Venice with two aunts that I didn't really know, I think the last time I had seen them was a whole decade ago.  Despite this, I was so excited to visit which you can probably gather from this post. Aside from slightly falling in love with a guy who was boarding the same flight as me (honestly I don't think I've ever seen someone so attractive in my life) I just had a feeling that this trip would be one of good memories. The decision to actually go to Venice was so last minute, I think I booked the tickets in May? I was browsing Ryanair (this is honestly a real life hobby of mine) and saw that tickets were £55 so you know, it'd be rude not to...

I stayed in Portogruaro and cycled from one aunts house to the other every morning and evening- as gruelling as it was at the time, in retrospect cycling along a little river and being surrounded by greenery and hearing the crickets in the evening was a pretty good way to commute (especially as I've since had to become accustomed with delayed GWR/SWR trains with shitty wifi)

My Italian cousin and I took a train into Venice Santa Lucia station which literally cost us €12 return each. I got to the station and was instantly greeted with an actual swarm of people, so I guess what they say about Venice being full of tourists is 100% true- especially near St Mark's square, the rialto bridge, the bridge of Sighs and surrounding areas.

One thing I'd like to shout out is that VENICE ISN'T EXPENSIVE. Well at least not as much as travel bloggers online say it is. I was expecting to get there and be hit with expense after expense but a massive margarita pizza was €4.50 and our late lunch cost €24 (flirting with the waiter does help knock off some of the cost but still) You honestly just have to use common sense. Of course food in restaurants near landmarks is going to be overpriced but just walking for another 10 minutes means you can find places that are so much more affordable.

The one downfall of the city is that there are barely any toilets. A) you have to pay for the very few public bathrooms or B) you have to go into a restaurant. I was #blessed to have gotten my period just as I arrived in Venice so I had to buy an emergency pack of pads from a random supermarket and then hunt out a bathroom. 

What did I do in Venice?
I don't know if it's the fact that I'm writing this 6 months later but I honestly can't remember doing anything super significant. It was mostly just walking around, taking breaks and sitting by the canals in the backstreets to cool down, wondering if it's legal to swim in the canals (it's not) and just taking it all in. I didn't go into any of the museums nor did I pay €80 for a gondola. I do know that I walked 25km on that day which is saying something. I also spent €40 on a bikini from Oysho, instantly regretted it and returned it only to come back to the UK and order it online because I realised that I actually really liked it.

Aside from Venice, I went to the beach in Caorle so I can tick off the Adriatic sea in my non-existent list of where I've swam...which is a list that I'm now realising a former competitive swimmer should probably have. I also went to a music festival in Portogruaro and (somewhat ironically) tried sushi for the first time. I also had my face pulled in for a kiss by a random Italian man on the street which left me breathless, as you can imagine, and also had me yelling "Viva Italia" shortly after.

So I guess that was Venice for me. I had such a great time and ate a shit ton of pizza and just made a lot of good memories.

And in the very unlikely event that the guy who oh-so-romantically french kissed me is reading this: chiamami.

I hope you liked reading the very disjointed stories from my time in Italy. Oh the memories :')

-Dalal