Venice and back…

"Lost tourists in Venice....NOT US!"

Well our time in Croatia is slowly coming to an end and before we leave we managed to sneak in a few more things. It all started when we decided to go to Venice for a few days. After the complicated booking process, we managed to board a bus to Split in order to catch the ferry to Ancona in order to catch a train to Venice. Sounded easy. How hard could a 2 hour bus trip, 5 hour fast ferry and 4 hour train trip be? We flew from Perth to Singapore to Frankfurt to Budapest to Split, we could easily manage this…

Caleb with Roman Guards in Split

The trip started off fabulously with us being collected from the house by Petar then as we arrived at the bus station, a bus arrived heading to Split. Awesome. The weather was a tad on the hot side reaching 38 degrees when we arrived in Split, a city that has a large port and ancient city. We explored the ancient city after checking in (all good so far) and we placed our bags at the left luggage. Excellent progress. The kids were getting hungry and hot so we found a place to eat in the shade and then we still had time to explore the city. We then made our way to the SNAV terminal and we passed through passport control ready for the Italian adventure.

SNAV Croazia Jet in Split

The SNAV boat – Croatzia Jet was impressive. It was sleek and big and only running about 20 minutes late. The majority of the passengers were Italians returning from their Summer holiday or a religious pilgrimage to Medjigore (Spell check?). The crossing was smooth and the transition from Kuna to Euros was relatively painless although the girl at the counter was disgusted that Stephen produced a 100€ note as that is all that he got at the bank.

We arrived at Ancona to be dumped on the dock at nearly midnight with not a clue as to where to find a taxi. After some clever scanning of the area by we managed to get a very friendly taxi to take us to our hotel. A speedy 5 minute ride cost us 25€ ($1.00 AU is about 0.75€)…okay, it is worth it, getting to the hotel safely and we were tired and ready for bed.

Waiting at Ancona Train Station

Day 2, after a pre-packaged continental breakfast (didn’t know they existed really) we left for the train station (22€) and only 3 minutes away. We happily waited for our train and boarded the first class carriage to find people in our seats! How could this be!? We planned everything so well, well it turned out that the computer changed our ticket. Stephen marched up to the conductor and said “People are in our seats!” and the conductor looked at the ticket then said calmly “You have the wrong day, you have no ticket.” Well, Stephen went pale then was told” Ah, it is hot, there are many seats, just sit anywhere”. So for 4 hours we had to change seats at every station until it got so annoying that we ended up sitting in the carriage that had no air conditioning working. It was about 38 degrees and the conductors were so distracted by the heat they never asked us once to show our ticket. They kept saying “It is so hot, please move up to the next carriage …” but we just said that it was easier to stay put rather than keep moving. We gladly jumped off the train once we arrived in Venice to start the exploration.

Stephen, Kayla and Caleb in St Marcs Square Venice

Venice is beautiful and it is somewhere you must visit at some point in time at least once. Stephen was fortunate to visit once before however this time he really felt he saw Venice as we stayed for nearly 4 days. And boy, an expensive 4 days they were! We walked the streets after finding our gorgeous apartments. The Venitians obviously hate tourists as they are rude and don’t try very hard at all to make your stay easy. When we arrived we were given no real information about where the local shop was or how to get about. Luckily we knew about the bus pass which was expensive and the discounted price was only for children aged 14 to 26….go figure, so at 33€ each, we made very good use of the pass as well as a museum pass that we eventually found. St Marcs square and the palaces are amazing. Caleb loved spotting gondolas (he called them canoes for 2 of the 4 days) and Kayla was obsessed with Gypsies. We looked at masks and glass and we did a trip across to Murano in the hope of seeing glass blowing but it never eventuated as it was way too hot. Fran and Stephen were keen to get some clothing which was good for Fran but not for Stephen. The kids were excellent with walking in the heat everyday.

Nice dinner in Venice

Our first real cost shock was when we were desperate to have a cold drink. We had a coke, a tonic water, 2 juices and a bottle of water. Stephen nearly had a stroke when he had to pay 26€. Highway robbery. After the first day we found the local shop tucked away so tourist can not find and got food and water etc…to reduce our cost of living. The kids were stoked as they were allowed to have cocoa pops for breakfast as it was cheaper than everything else. We rode the gondola knowing we paid too much but it was worth every cent. We saw Marco Polo’s home and Cassanova’s Venice hangout which would have been missed if we didn’t do it. Caleb loved seeing real dinosaur bone and sabre tooth tiger teeth at the museum and Kayla loved being in Venice. We were happy with our navigation and Fran was actually exceptionally pleased with her map reading skills.

Gondola ride in Venice

So we said goodbye with a little bit of relief to Venice and we headed back on the train with the correct ticket to Ancona. We had a cabin to ourselves which was great however the kids had been struck by cabin fever as there is no where for them to run and jump and play. We hoped that they would sleep due to exhaustion however they seemed to have more energy. So 4 and a half hours was spent saying “Sh” and “This is your last warning” and “There are other people on the train” and “How many times have we…” and with great relief we arrived in Ancona. Again, off to the hotel, only 15€ this time…keh? How come it was 22 and 25 last time? On arrival we asked the reception to point us in the direction of a park which we found and said “Run wild!”.

Kayla mesmorised by Monks and Priests

The boat crossing back to Croatia wasn’t as smooth and there was a delegation of Italians going to Medgegore where they gathered around our area in order to hold mass. Well, Kayla thought she had died and gone to heaven, there were 3 priests and a monk. She sat through the entire hour of mass in Italian and at the end the monk gave her a silver crucifix which she now wears proudly. On arriving home Kayla built her own wooden crucifix and she prays every night. Don’t ask us where this all comes from…we are just as confused.

The golden challis and Kayla

So we are back in a Croatia and starting to look towards the holiday destinations starting on the 9th of September. We have managed to set Petar and Stana up on Skype which has been a great achievement and they already been chatting to family in Australia. Today we went to Krka on a cruise and swam in a lagoon at the base of a waterfall…absolute bliss and we could have swam for hours, but the boat had to leave some time.

Where we swam in Krka National Park

There will be one more entry before we head to London and the entries will be shorter as we won’t have to luxury of time as we have had in Croatia. Now to upload a videos and picks for Venice and Krka.

Krka

*Unable to upload videos due to seriously weak internet*