I can't believe it's August. I can't believe it's our last day Italy. I can't believe how fast time flies when you're on holidays.
I woke up early this morning to do some emailing and then we started repacking everything for our afternoon trip to the airport.
We checked out at 1030 and went and got some breakfast.
We headed over to the other side of the Islam's to check out the Academmia bridge and area for a while and then marched over to the local Co-op to buy fruit, sandwiches and chips for the airport as it would be a heck of a lot cheaper now. We made our way back to our hotel and picked up our bags from a rather unprotected non descript area of a hallway and luckily they were all still there. We repealed and headed for the water. A water transport boat would take us all to the airport at 225pm and it was supposed to take 70 minutes.
We had to wait on a floating spock that was bouncing up and down rather furiously but because there were so many people cramming on to get to their locations, we had to stay close to the entrance. It's a good thing we did as when the boat arrived, he called out "Aeropuerto!" Once and was ready to leave had I not yelled from the middle of the pack.
We got on and put our bags in front and settled in for the milk run to 20 stops before getting to the airport. In hindsight we should have looked into the costs of an actual water taxi as the cost had to be relative.
The meat thing about the boat ride was having a chance to see multiple islands and sightsee areas of Venice we hadn't seen yet. As we cruised past all the giant yachts and occasional cruise ship moored in the ocean, it became quite apparent there were a lot of rich people in Venice. We went past the party of the mainland where all the shipping ports and terminals are with a multitude of cranes loading all sorts of products from around Italy onto.
The downside ( unless you are into it ) is the loud sounds of the boat, the profound smell of diesel fumes and feeling your teeth rattle fairly hard for an hour. I exaggerate you not. This was an old clunker and quite the adventure.
We arrived at the airport and walked 10 minutes and we're about to get the surprise of our holiday.
After looking at the departure board and not seeing or flight or any other flight with Ryanair we realized we were at the wrong Airport....
SERIOUSLY!???
Apparently there is another airport half an hour north of the main airport.
Holy. Crap.
We checked on buses and shuttles and we were too late to get one that would get us there on time so we grabbed a taxi bus and asked him to hurry. Well he hurried! 150 km/hr down the highway and 25 minutes later we arrived. FOR 80 EROS ! After shelling out 60 Euro to take a water taxi from the hotel. $200 - yahoo!
Krista stopped panicking.
For about 5 minutes.
The check in line had 60 people in front of us and our flight was an hour away.
Meltdown.
We tried to use the self check in but our boarding passes on our phones and we didn't have WiFi so we had to stay in the long line. By the time we got through checking in and security we ran to our gate and arrived just in time to board the plane.
Phew.
We didn't have time to grab any food but we brought some sandwiches apples and chips with us for snacks.
We wandered out on the tarmac and boarded the plane from the back and grabbed a seat. Ryanair is a no frills airline and you pay for everything including baggage except to use their washroom on the plane. There is TV or radio or absolutely anything.
Krista tried to order some food but all they had was fries. 3.50 Euro for literally 15 french fries in a box. Hilarious.
We quickly escalated over the alps and were surrounded by clouds for most of the trip. We played many card games to occupy our time and it went rather quickly.
As we started to get near the mainland the clouds subsided and we could see the ocean and occasional ship. As we arrived at the airport it was very interesting to see how green everything was. The emerald Isle indeed.
Tuesday August 2nd Part 2
We had an uneventful landing and breezed through customs. We got our bags and headed over to the car rental desk top get all the paperwork done. We shuttled over to get our car - a cute little automatic Toyota Yaris hatchback. I tried to get in the passenger seat at least three times. :)
We did a walkabout and found a few dings and off we went out of the airport driving on the left side of the road. It actually went very well except we quickly had to get on the M1 onto the M50 superhighway in the pouring rain and darkness driving 110 to merge while driving on the left side of the road and right side of the car. We couldn't get to our hotel soon enough...
Traffic was actually OK - it was 10 at night so not too bad for a Tuesday night. We arrived in 20 minutes, parked the car, checked in to our lovely room with one double and two single beds. The restaurant was closed so I ordered some take out - yucky pizza and great wings which arrived at our door in 20 minutes.
We inhaled the food while making plans for Wednesday morning. We didn't get to sleep until almost 1 after bed routines like brushing teeth and deciding what phones would be charged first since we only had one working adaptor.
We might have to invest in another tomorrow... ;)
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