Venice Calling part 2…

I’m back to London, older, wiser and happier (part 2).

Anyway, taking a glimpse of the Carnival was really nice but the rest of our holiday was amazing as well. Each morning we would take the ‘vaporetto’, which is the local water bus, to a different part of the city and we would try to walk back to the hotel, wandering the small streets, visiting places and trying local delicacies.

We visited the Guggenheim museum, a very old Gothic church, the San Marco church and the naval museum. We tried pizza with prosciutto, ravioli with salmon, bistecca, seafood, fresh fish, tiramisu and all sort of other delicacies. Needless to say that I gained 1.5 – 2 kilos while staying there apart from the miles of walking we did everyday.

On my birthday we visited ‘Murano’ which is another island in the same lagoon, famous for its glass making industry. They have a tradition of producing very good quality air blown glass ornaments. We didn’t really buy anything but the journey, watching a demonstration of how they create their goods and walking around the island was really nice. We spent the evening in Venice in a really nice jazz bar after visiting yet another wonderful restaurant.

The last evening of our trip we heard some arias as well. We booked tickets and we visited a Palazzo where the event would take place. There was a pianist and two opera singers. Taking turns, they played classical music and sang beautifully well known Italian arias. It was all very nice. We were surprised to see at the end of the performances that the piano used was a Bechstein donated by A. Hitler!

The only grey thing of the whole journey was the call I received from my father for my birthday. When he called to wish me happy birthday his tone was very serious and after telling me the typical wishes, he quickly ended the discussion by telling me to ‘put some brain in my head’ (βάλε λίγο μυαλό στο κεφάλι σου)! That’s a very Greek expression about wishing someone to start thinking straight (excuse the pun) or more maturely.

He was clearly unhappy that I was openly away with a boyfriend on vacation. That fact put an extra gravity to an issue he would like to forget. He couldn’t openly quarrel with me on the phone but wanted to make his point. I don’t think he will easily open another discussion about my homosexuality. He wouldn’t even like to acknowledge it and mention words like ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual’. I can see in my head the discussion between my parents. My father would ask my mother ‘who is Nik going on vacation with?’ and she would simply disapprovingly nod her head and reply ‘can’t you guess?’.

Of course I didn’t let this incident mess with my mood and holidays. It did annoy me a bit though. I had such a nice time and that is what I am concentrating on.

I did miss StevieB’s FIVE DEGREE meme though. When I got back everybody was finishing with it… boo… :-(

the view of the Grand Canal.

View from above from Campanile

The jazz bar had a very cute bartender and series of bras on the ceiling donated by customers.

Me, goofing around

delicious food in every corner

The Grand Canal during sunset

The gondolas of San Marco waiting for passengers