An Afternoon at the Lido

The Lido is known to the Venecians (and tourists) as the place to go to the beach and swim. But first I will explain how I got there.

In the afternoon yesterday, one of the guys who works in the office invited Kyle and me to his son, Barnaba's, birthday party. It happened to be on a private beach on the Lido island which largely barriers the Venecian Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea.

I was unsurprisingly one of the whitest people on the beach, and one of the very few not wearing a speedo-like bathing suit. Still, it was nice to work on my tan, swim in the warm but refreshing water, and ride the waves slowly to shore. The birthday party was nice, too. Barnaba had turned 5, and all his tiny friends were running around with squirt guns. It was very cute. There was cake and snacks, sparkling wine and soda, and shade.

In the evening, Kyle and I stopped at the apartment to change out of bathing suits and go to dinner. I relaxed after a shower on the window sill.

Dinner was at Pampo's again (the place we had gone the first night). The food was again superb and the atmosphere authentic, pleasant, and thoroughly relaxing. After dinner we ran a local errand and then stopped at the apartment to fill a couple cups with Gappa and sat outside by the water at the edge of the park. We each told our story about how we ended up traveling so much and how we ultimately arrived in Venice. I particularly enjoyed the part of Kyle's story where he described nonchalantly walking into the Global Opportunities Fair at WPI just because he wanted to know what it was. He had no idea coming to WPI that people could do their projects somewhere else and no expectation that he would ever do his in Venice. Now he has been living and working here this summer. The moral of the story is that these great life-defining experiences seem to start out as merely an idea, an introduction, or a fleeting moment of curiosity. This is about where Venice ends for me. It is Thursday morning and I leave tomorrow midday for Berlin. My time here has been every bit as wonderful as I had hoped. The food was amazing, the Venecians friendly, and the days sunny and warm. I walked, rowed, swam, climbed, and boated all over this city for almost 4 days. I saw great works of art and architecture, learned some Italian, and experienced the city and culture in ways that most of the people who pass through here only wish they could. I leave you with a video that I took at the beach yesterday. The next time you hear from me will be when I am in Germany.

A Very Long Venetian Day

The day started as I described before, with the walk to work and the local café with the excellent cappuccini. After writing the previous post, I grabbed my sunglasses and walked outside. I walked until I got as lost as I could get and then took out a map. I was exploring the other side of the Grand Canal (which I snapped above). There really wasn't anything exciting or noteworthy that happened on the walk other than that I got a really nice look at the city. Tired, I returned to the office where Kyle works. Shortly thereafter the office went to lunch at the place they always have lunch, just down the road on a busy street. We each had a spritz and a toasted sandwich as we watched Venetians and tourists walk by. Pictured are my hosts, Kyle and Fabio.In the late afternoon Kyle took me to a rowing club called Settemari (Seven Seas) where he has been learning to row a traditional Venetian boat called a "caorlina". It is not a thing for tourists but for locals to enjoy. Besides none of the others there knew more than a few words of anything but Italian. Kyle taught me a few useful words when we arrived. Pictured is the boathouse.I climbed into the boat nervously though it was not because I have a fear of rowing or water or anything like that. I was nervous because I knew that whatever transpired over the following couple of hours, I was sure to screw up. Besides, I had never rowed standing up. However, with five other rowers I didn't expect my contribution to me critical. I was wrong about that. There really was no stopping to enjoy the view or a swim. Pictured above is me after we reached the mainland and got out of the boat to restock the water and get some beer. The bad news was that the bar was closed. So instead of getting a nice rest, we immediately climbed back in the boat and rowed back. The boat I was in is the one closest to me in the picture. I am sweaty because we had just rowed 4.6 km non-stop in the summer Sun. I felt like a wimp because everyone else seemed to not be sweating as much. Also, I could barely stand because my legs felt as though they would collapse at any moment. The return trip was difficult, but my rowing technique improved a little. The others said I did fine for my first time. In any event I paid close attention to the pointers the instructor gave when we were on shore. Ultimately, I was glad to have had the exercise and the truly Venetian experience.
But the day did not end with that.

Kyle and I walked for another five or so kilometers looking for a good restaurant. I try not to take too many pictures when I am out and about but I snapped this one quickly as we walked.
The restaurant we found was right next to the location of the next event we had planned to attend: an outdoor concert of a jazzy Venetian ska band called Ska J. We ate a bunch of delicious food and had a couple Italian beers. When the show picked up, we moved to where we would have a better view. We snapped a couple of photos of each other.

On the walk home, I took another picture of the Grand Canal from the other side of its biggest bridge.
We stopped off at San Marco's Square where we listened to the bell of its enormous clock tower sound with its characteristically rich and eerie notes unique to the midnight chime. When we got back to the apartment I took a very cold and refreshing shower, fell into bed and slept very well again. In just this one day I had walked about 20 km and rowed 9. Rowing class meets again on Thursday and so I plan to take it easy for today to save up my energy. However, there are some fun plans for this evening. More about that tomorrow :)

Venezia

It's really true. I'm in Venice now and for the next few days. The picture above is one of the first ones I took. I think everyone has seen pictures of the place before, so I will only put a few more up. I will tell you about my trip here and the first day and then give some remarks about this city.

I bought my ticket the morning before my departure. I flew Swiss for the first time to Zurich from Boston. The flight was nice. Each passenger had their own flat screen with which they could select music or audio books to listen to or watch movies etc. I opted to sleep instead which was difficult because there was this one Turkish kid three people away who was whining to his mom all night long. I could understand most of what he said and it fueled my dreams. When I woke up, the kid stopped whining and then fell asleep. The Zurich airport was not that exciting to me. All the stores in the airport were displaying Swiss watches for $500. The scenery was rolling hills and forest. I could have believed I was in West Virginia or something. The flight to Venice was short and it was over the alps which was spectacular as always. About 5 minutes before the plane landed a thought suddenly occurred to me: 'Holy vino, I'm in Italy! about to land in Venice!' I just felt so excited all of a sudden. It was like I just remembered that I have always wanted to visit Italy.

I am staying with my friend from WPI, Kyle. He gave me very good and detailed instructions for how to get to where he was from the airport. By the time I arrived on the island where Kyle was, I had already gotten a nice view of the city on the boat ride in. He took me to the WPI project site office where he works and later we went out for a long walk around. The first thing I noticed were the tourists:
They are everywhere. It is like the city is one big museum on a Saturday during the busy season. The good news is that they stick to only one section of the city.
Kyle took me all over one half of the city. One thing I liked seeing was the sundial pictured right. The other thing I liked seeing was EVERYTHING ELSE! Everywhere you look is just as beautiful as the next part whether there are lots of people or no people. It's like I was only expecting a part of the city to have that old elegant feel, but really it's the whole thing.

In the evening we found ourselves at a restaurant not far from Kyle's apartment. It was a cute family-run restaurant and bar that Kyle frequents. Everything about the experience was lovely and perfect. I know that lacks description, but it is how I felt during and after. I had fish lasagna with a salad and chicken. Needless to say it was phenomenal. restaurant was picturesque but I decided not to take a picture.Everything about the food and the the street to the park. The experience was very authentic as we were nowhere near the After the meal, we each had an espresso and then walked across touristy part of town (and hence the cost of the food was an order of magnitude less). We watched the light fade over the city.

When the Sun went down, we went back inside the apartment. Kyle lives on the top floor and there is an attic room where I sleep. Since the apartment is under construction, it is very empty and open. I love it. We conversed about Venice by large open windows over glasses of Grappa and then went to bed. I slept like a baby. Kyle woke me up to a bright morning at 7:00. We got ready for the day and then walked along canals and through narrow streets the couple kilometers to work. We stopped at a small café for cappuccini. I hate to gush over everything because it makes it seem like while I was there, I gushed. Well I didn't. The café was what it was: busy, relaxing, adorable, and friendly. Thinking back on it (it was a couple hours ago now) it rocked. I love these simple yet wonderful experiences.

The First Half of 2009 in a Nutshell

I was in Turkey of course. Hanging out with friends in Taksim.


Pınar and I went out to our now favorite restaurant.


Visited more friends in İstanbul.


Pınar holding Eşref Armağan's (blind Turkish painter) depiction of the Van Monster.

To see more of his works go here.

...and Sasha from my hometown was sitting behind me on the flight home from Paris.

Now I am about to embark on the next and last great adventure for a while...
2 or 3 weddings, 4 or 5 countries, and 40-something days.

...

dum dum dum dum dum DUMMMMMMMM!!!