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Giving Greystones a wide berth this weekend, we went to Venice courtesy of cheap Ryanair tickets bought during January sales. I know I've said it before but that's definitly the last time I'm using Ryanair (more later..).
Venice was really nice and actually suited our holiday criteria - no guide book and to everywhere on foot. We got lost in alleyways, took wrong turns onto canals with no bridges, and just explored the place until our feet were blistered. Plenty of glass windows displaying huge pizzas and fresh sandwichs with tonnes of mozzarella, and sculpted mountains of weird flavoured ice cream. We were really lucky with the weather - just about sunny and warm enough to eat outside. Considering there was a sign up next to the famous St. Mark's square saying that it is now flooded 250 days of the year, we were well lucky.
What I didn't count on was my camera crapping out on me an hour into our arrival! I couldn't believe my luck and I struggled in vain to get it working as we went up the Basilica in St. Mark's square, cursing having ever bought anything on ebay and missing out on the great views. Thank feck it righted itself after a few hours or I would have thrown the thing against a wall.
The whole place was packed full of tourists, so I can't even imagine how busy it must be in high season. And yeah maybe it was too touristy sometimes - way too many creepy masquerade shops and cheap souvenirs. Not really sure what we would have done with three days there instead of two; everything starts to look a little samey after that..
I missed out on the end of the rugby and a cold St. Patrick's day back home but I think it was well worth it.
Venice Set on flickr
Anyway, getting there half the fun? Saving money is great with ryanair, but with the zombie early flights, long check-in queues, even longer line for the gate, no assigned seat (hence the long gate line), baggage restrictions, tiny seating (that won't move), lottery ticket announcements, and near suicidal pilots ...means that this time I'm pretty sure I won't be flying with them unless absolutely necessary.
I thought our flight back would be pretty empty since it was still a bank holiday in Ireland...but I forgot the whole "banned fluids" thing, which meant security told me to check-in again if I wanted to keep my souvenir pasta sauces..then the plane was full of loud Italian students that ruined any chance of falling asleep with my head slumped forward.
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