20 years ago today - Day 186

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Thursday, September 5th – Venice – Day 3

I am still feeling solid about my decision to aim for Slovenia tomorrow morning. I will be leaving Jochen and Lee Ling here, at least for a day or so before they go their separate ways. We gather again at 8 am for our uninspiring breakfast and eviction notices in the hostile cafeteria. Lee Ling wants to see the beach at Lido today. We decide to go early in the day the boats and beaches are crowded and we are tired.

It is foggy in the morning. I had hoped to take more pictures along the Grand Canal that snakes in a big S-shape through the centre part of the city, but they will not turn out well. Our motor launch stops first across from the Piazza San Marco on the island of La Guidecca. The fog is already burning off but the haze adds a veil of mystery to the view.

Lido has none of the romantic charm of Venice itself. It is of course flat and long, a straight European version of Fire Island, one could say. The mist here is mostly gone but the beach is still deserted as we are one of the first motor launches to arrive. We rest here until early afternoon when the density of tourists increases significantly. We enjoy lunch at one of the many boardwalk eateries before catching the motor launch back.

Jochen wants me to reconsider my decision to head for Slovenia tomorrow, in spite of all my considerations about tourists and cycling in Italy. He says he is worried about my safety. I am worried about my sanity if I was to stay here, I tell him. I reassure him I will be very careful and will not enter any place I feel is going to be a danger. I won’t be far from the border at any place, I tell him, and I will make a dash for it if I have to. He remains concerned.

We land on Lido, a sandbar island that separate the Venice Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea. Venice seems so small from here. It is hard to imagine that it controlled an empire that encompassed most of the ports and trade routes in the eastern Mediterranean during the Middle Ages and early Renaissance periods. I have been in Lisbon, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna and Budapest, all capitals of former empires, and Venice feels the most down to earth.

We spend the afternoon walking around more pedestrian accesses on the main island and over on the San Polo and Castello districts. I am definitely less into taking photographs today than yesterday. There are only so many shots of canals one can take before they become repetitive. I wish there was something to fill my time for the rest of today, something that is not a museum or church. I suppose there are many things to do here listed in my guide book that I haven’t checked out, but I can’t deal with tourists so I keep to the areas of the city with no major attractions.

I am way over budget here. Every day I am spending twice my allowance, which is another reason put up with the bad food and surly service at the youth hostile cafeteria. In the evening, Jochen, Ling Lee and I return to the out of the way area frequented by locals to celebrate our last night together. The music is especially festive tonight, but I am feeling the mild anxiety that always comes before I leave a place I have enjoyed to enter a strange new country. Before we say good night for the last time at the hostel, I take both Jochen and Lee Ling’s addresses. My next poste restante address will be Istanbul. I promise to write to both of them to tell them I have made it there safely.


PHOTO 1: myself, Lee Ling and Jochen at the dock
PHOTO 2: a foggy view of Sam Marco and the Campanile
PHOTO 3: beach at Lido
PHOTO 4: Ca Rezzonico Theatre from the motor launch
PHOTO 5: cargo boats on a side canal
PHOTO 6: pedestrian walkway on the main island
PHOTO 7: pedestrian walkway over the canal