Between the brush strokes: Time is flying by

I'm more than halfway through my tour and the time has flown by. Although it does feel like months ago I was in London. Go figure.

On Friday evening I flew to Venice. My plane had ashtrays on it and no TVs! It had to be at least 20 years old, right? The flight was fast, but I did get that cold, so my ears didn't unplug after landing. I could hardly hear the sweet italian girl helping me with my water taxi. She talked non-stop about what to do in Venice, and to be honest, I couldn't hear a thing she said.

I arrived in a torrential rainstorm, so everything was wet by the time I got to the hotel. I was so tired and sick and wet I just wanted a nice warm bed to get into.

Guess what, not at this hotel! The room is, to put it mildly, gross. Venice doesn't stink, but my room does. The bed is so old that it has sections in it that have sunk to the floor. And when I pulled down the sheets (a weave from the dark ages) it had at least four hairs in it. Ewwww. Not very tempting to crawl into when you are sick. The hotel lobby is beautiful and maybe other rooms are too, but this is definitely not the four star room I paid for. There are holes in the wall and stains all over the carpet. To top it off, the staff is not very helpful or pleasant. In case you want to know, I'm staying at the Venice - Monaco + Grand Canal.

Suffice to say, yesterday was not a good day. I was miserable by the time I sat in the room for a few minutes. I couldn't hear, couldn't breathe, was damp and sitting in one of my bed "holes." I became completely homesick in a matter of minutes.

Cut to this morning. I woke up, crawled out of the "hole" and left this shit-bag place to go on an island tour of Murano, Burano and Torcella. It turned out to be a beautiful day and the islands were so pretty. Made it all better. They gave us a cool Murano glass blowing demonstration. We all oohed and ahed, then bought some glass. You can buy Murano glass everywhere here. Every store carries it, except maybe Chanel, but you never know!

After the tour, I had the rest of the afternoon to get lost in Venice. It's not hard to do. The streets are beautiful here. And no cars! It took awhile to notice that missing sound. Pretty sweet.

Venice is quite a unique place. The gondolas are everywhere and there are people playing instruments constantly. I ended up at St. Mark's square tonight and sat down for a sandwich and ice tea and watched a lovely orchestra play. When they say Venice is expensive, they aren't kidding! That little dinner and show cost 32 euros! Most expensive sandwich ever! But the experience was worth it. Especially seeing couples get up and spontaneously dance at their tables.