58 Hours To Go......But Who's Counting?

I’m counting, that’s who! We have been so incredibly busy getting ready for our BIG adventure that we have hardly had time to breathe. Between gathering our passports, getting international driver’s licenses, and buying traveler’s checks, then shopping for things like voltage adapters, money belts and security purses, my life in the last few weeks has definitely taken an interesting turn.

Did you know they made shoulder purses with steel cabling in the straps so they can’t be cut? Neither did I. Did you know that they drive on the “wrong side of the road” only in Ireland and England and that the rest of Europe drives on the right side as we do? Neither did I. Did you know that the American dollar is so weak in Europe right now, that for my $93 American dollars, I only got €61 Euros? Can you imagine that three nights in a hotel in Italy is in the same monetary neighborhood as a month’s salary for someone making minimum wage here at home? Neither can I.

Clearly, this trip has been, and will continue to be, not only a wild, fun, exciting adventure, it has been a learning experience of the first magnitude. It’s also a great way to clean out your savings account. We have gotten wonderful “deals” at every step of our planning. Fabulous price on our cruise, good deal on our hotels, wonderful sales on “vital” new articles of clothing, and yet, we are saving so much money, we’re going broke!! I can’t believe the amount of money we have spent and are planning to spend in the next 3 weeks. No wonder the world calls us the “rich Americans”. Even the poorest of us don’t really know what “poor” means. We are truly a blessed people.

We’re heading out of here Monday afternoon and will stay at a hotel by the airport on Monday night. We live a long distance from LAX and with the need to be at the airport between 5:00 and 5:30 AM on Tuesday morning, we simply had no choice. We couldn’t take a chance on getting caught in morning rush hour traffic on the way to the airport.

We’re going from here to New York and then, from there, on to Venice, Italy. We leave L.A. about 7 AM Tuesday morning and by 10 AM Wednesday morning we’ll be in Venice. It should be a long, exhausting trip, but we’re doing everything possible to make it easy on ourselves. We hope to be able to sleep on the trans-Atlantic flight and I know The Spouse will snore with ease. She’s like that. But me? I will doze some but since they won’t let me stretch out in the aisle, it is doubtful that I will get much real sleep. For some annoying reason, I simply can’t sleep while in a sitting position. Unfortunately, those economy cabin seats just don’t recline enough to be considered even partially lying down. So, probably, no sleep for me. But I’ll try. It would be nice to arrive feeling fresh and ready for adventures!

The first adventure will be getting from the airport to our hotel. Since, as you know, Venice is a city with waterways instead of paved streets, we have to take a water taxi from the airport. We will use the public transportation as much as possible since the private transports cost about 10 times as much. So just picture it. Two California girls arriving in Venice, probably in the cold and the rain, each of us wearing a backpack, carrying a shoulder bag and pulling a single, large suitcase. Off the plane, pick up the bags, go through customs, find the “taxi place” and buy a book of tickets, then head outside and find the right place to catch the right taxi so we’ll get taken to the correct part of the city. Get on said taxi, dragging suitcases along with us. Get let off at the “curb” near “the square” where we’ll then roll (drag) our suitcases through the cobblestone streets until we find our hotel. Our hotel is located right in the center of town and apparently we have to “only” go over a couple of bridges to get there after we get off the water taxi.

I believe “adventure” is the correct word for what we are heading into. I am truly looking forward to everything. It will be very exciting and a whole new experience. You don’t get too many of those after you reach a certain age in life.

But do you know what has been the most challenging, interesting, exciting, crazy thing of all so far? Trying to pack three weeks worth of clothing and “stuff” into one suitcase. I AM DYING HERE! Packing light is not my forte, but God knows we are trying.

Keep your fingers crossed. After all, we don’t want to sink that water taxi.

The regular vacation posts will begin in the next couple of days, as soon as we are on the road, so stop by often.