I can't believe we are already on the Italy portion of the trip! That brings part one almost to a close - how quickly has time been going!
Check out was uneventful, as was making breakfast and the salads for lunch. We had bought tickets the day before for the 3pm bus from Ljubljana to Venice so we were going to catch the 11.30am bus from Bled to Ljubljana. However we were packed and ready early, so we hopped on the 10.30 bus instead. A few buses came past while we waited there although none were going to Ljubljana.
Just before 10.30 our bus pulled up and we waited patiently for him to serve everyone else and open the baggage compartment. We found ourselves a seat in the middle and settled in for the journey. Unfortunately this driver was a bit jerky on the transitions and it was about 10 minutes in that I had to reach for my chewing gum. The scenery outside was rather dramatic - low hanging clouds over the houses and lake - but with how unwell I was feeling I kept my eyes closed for most of the journey.
Thankfully we got into Ljubljana a full half an hour early, which was a reprieve for me but left Dan and I at a bit of a loss for what to do with the additional time. The last thing I felt like eating for lunch now was a salad - so Maccas it was! I had spotted a Guacamole burger there the other day so was keen to try it.
When it was literally hand delivered to our table (wut?) it came with a little flag in it, all gourmet like. Our receipt was priceless too, stating we had ordered two "No thanks", whatever they are, but at least they were free! We wiled away the time in Maccas downstairs where we were out of eyeshot.
After a while, we also grabbed an ice-cream, which was almost as much of a performance as previously, but we got there in the end and without any arguments! We also returned to the €1 wine bar while I wrote a little bit, while it rained - which thankfully stopped before we had to leave.
Soon enough it was time for our bus to Venice. We got around to the stop about half an hour early and set up camp. And waited. And waited. I went to the toilet about 8 times as Dan had an app on his phone which showed where the bus was - and it wasn’t going anywhere fast. It ended up being half an hour late, and jumping on was a bit of confusion, but we got there in the end. The drive made me feel really rather sick - I have misplaced the motion sickness wristbands that Nat kindly gave me (they’re in my luggage somewhere!). I was never sure whether they worked or they “worked” because I was wearing them - well, I think they do work now as that whole day without them was pretty sucky!
As we are travelling now within Schengen we were surprised when our bus pulled over for passport control at the Slovenia Italy border. I think they pull over cars randomly, but perhaps all buses. 2 gentlemen with large guns jumped on board, and started with a South Korean woman just in front of us. They interrogated her quite significantly, flipping back and forth through her passport. As a result, Dan and I prepared ourselves for an onslaught of questions, as our entry and exit stamps from various places are missing.
The biggest of the two gentlemen took both our passports, looked briefly at our photos, and our faces, passed our passports back and then moved on. Dan and I looked sideways at each other…really? Obviously the Aussie and Kiwi passports don’t elicit any interest at all! They ended up kicking two people off the bus - one eventually was able to rejoin but we never saw the other one again. Guess he has to go back to Ljubljana!
Now across the border, the drive continued to be slow, and strangely filled with trucks. Trucks everywhere! Sometimes we passed whole lines of trucks just stopped as the traffic in that lane was moving so slowly that right back here the trucks couldn’t move. It was a very industrial route, and when the train hit 6:55pm, the time we were SUPPOSED to be in Venice, we were very much not in Venice, although I do remember seeing a solitary seagull at one point.
Soon we arrived to the Venice mainland train station, and almost everyone got off the bus. I found this a bit confusing, especially as some of the people then were intending to get the train across now to the other side…? We stayed on the bus and soon we were on the concord over the water, Venice proper looming ahead of us. When we had chosen the bus in the end, I had thought the bus station was close to the train station, but this wasn’t entirely the case. Our accommodation was near the train station, so that’s where we wanted to end up.
The bus drove across and rounded into a giant parking and bus area. We were quite a walk now, but we realised we had been dropped off at something called a “people mover”. This was a weird monorail type thing that connected the bus station, the cruise terminal and the train station. It was only €1.50 for a ticket and if it was going to save us walking a long way, then it was a definite. It was kind of fun, too - it had strange compartments - think the shuttles in an airport, and we managed to get one to ourselves. The view was nothing spectacular, but then we were really just skirting the outskirts of the city at this stage.
We were deposited near the train station, and started to get a small understanding of the city. In our path stood a large, staired bridge over the waiter, which would take us to the train station and our accommodation beyond. With our backpacks, it was all relatively easy. I did not envy anyone who had a wheeled suitcase, although some of the staired bridges had a sort of ramp-y section which would have helped.
The sun was gently lighting up the buildings as we walked, and I thought it looked a little bit pretty. But we really had to get to our accommodation, so no time to stop for pictures now. We arrived at Hotel Adua, and checked in. The man behind the counter threw us a curveball, asking if we would like to do a tour to Murano and Burano. He briefly explained these are the glass blowing and lace islands, and we said we would think about it (as we had to do some research as we had no idea what these were!).
Probably because I had had a nap on the bus, I had a fair bit of energy when we arrived to our room. We collapsed for a short while, then decided we would jump out and do a bit of night exploring. Oh am I so glad we did this! As we left, we got a bit confused by the man at the hotel and left our key with him as it was on an enormous key ring and we thought we had to. Turns out we didn’t, and he would be closing the front door at midnight, so this gave us a bit of a time schedule. Either way, the chances of making it to midnight were pretty slim! We were still pretty stuffed.
Our hotel was at the very end of the main road that, if followed, takes you right around and deposits you in San Marco Square. The full walk would take about half an hour without any stops. Out in the night, the restaurants were still buzzing, and a few of the touristy stores were still open. Many shops had lights in their windows, and we saw thousands of glass figurines, necklaces and glass balloons light up by the gentle night-time shop light. We saw thousands of Venetian masks of all shapes and sizes behind the shop window glass. It was beautiful. And as we walked, we passed over channel after channel, little staired bridge after bridge. At night, there were few people walking and it wasn’t cold. We had the streets to ourselves.
We made it as far as the Rialto Bridge, which was beautifully lit up at night time. We stood here for a while, taking photos. At one point, as I geared up to take a photo, a couple stepped right in front of me for a selfie. I lowered my camera, and just stared at them. I heard one say to the other “Maybe we could ask…” And I turned and walked away. “Ah no, she’s just left.” No, I wasn’t going to take a photo of you after you blocked mine.
We crossed the bridge and started meandering through all the backstreets. We got wonderfully lost, although I think Dan had a decent bearing on where we were and which direction we generally needed to take. If we saw something pretty, we would walk down that street. I found it incredible that there were practically no walkways on the water front - occasionally we would pop out at the end of a little street with a small opening to the water, and then back into the maze of streets again.
We really ended up in the residential area. At one point I got a little bit jumpy as I realised the streets are quite dark, and there was literally no one else around. A guy was following us with something in his hands, but when I stepped back to let him pass, I realised it was a dog leash and a doggie was tailing him. Phew. Every now and then we would burst out next to a bar busy and overflowing with locals, standing outside smoking and drinking a glass of wine.
Eventually, we popped back out next to the Grand Canal, with the train station just ahead of us. Amazing! We had done quite a loop in that time, about 1 and a half hours, stopping periodically for photos. On the bridge, we also stayed for some photos too, and soon it was time to go back to our accommodation and head to bed.
I fell in love with Venice in the night time - what would the day bring?
Til next time,
xx
Check out was uneventful, as was making breakfast and the salads for lunch. We had bought tickets the day before for the 3pm bus from Ljubljana to Venice so we were going to catch the 11.30am bus from Bled to Ljubljana. However we were packed and ready early, so we hopped on the 10.30 bus instead. A few buses came past while we waited there although none were going to Ljubljana.
Just before 10.30 our bus pulled up and we waited patiently for him to serve everyone else and open the baggage compartment. We found ourselves a seat in the middle and settled in for the journey. Unfortunately this driver was a bit jerky on the transitions and it was about 10 minutes in that I had to reach for my chewing gum. The scenery outside was rather dramatic - low hanging clouds over the houses and lake - but with how unwell I was feeling I kept my eyes closed for most of the journey.
Thankfully we got into Ljubljana a full half an hour early, which was a reprieve for me but left Dan and I at a bit of a loss for what to do with the additional time. The last thing I felt like eating for lunch now was a salad - so Maccas it was! I had spotted a Guacamole burger there the other day so was keen to try it.
When it was literally hand delivered to our table (wut?) it came with a little flag in it, all gourmet like. Our receipt was priceless too, stating we had ordered two "No thanks", whatever they are, but at least they were free! We wiled away the time in Maccas downstairs where we were out of eyeshot.
After a while, we also grabbed an ice-cream, which was almost as much of a performance as previously, but we got there in the end and without any arguments! We also returned to the €1 wine bar while I wrote a little bit, while it rained - which thankfully stopped before we had to leave.
Soon enough it was time for our bus to Venice. We got around to the stop about half an hour early and set up camp. And waited. And waited. I went to the toilet about 8 times as Dan had an app on his phone which showed where the bus was - and it wasn’t going anywhere fast. It ended up being half an hour late, and jumping on was a bit of confusion, but we got there in the end. The drive made me feel really rather sick - I have misplaced the motion sickness wristbands that Nat kindly gave me (they’re in my luggage somewhere!). I was never sure whether they worked or they “worked” because I was wearing them - well, I think they do work now as that whole day without them was pretty sucky!
As we are travelling now within Schengen we were surprised when our bus pulled over for passport control at the Slovenia Italy border. I think they pull over cars randomly, but perhaps all buses. 2 gentlemen with large guns jumped on board, and started with a South Korean woman just in front of us. They interrogated her quite significantly, flipping back and forth through her passport. As a result, Dan and I prepared ourselves for an onslaught of questions, as our entry and exit stamps from various places are missing.
The biggest of the two gentlemen took both our passports, looked briefly at our photos, and our faces, passed our passports back and then moved on. Dan and I looked sideways at each other…really? Obviously the Aussie and Kiwi passports don’t elicit any interest at all! They ended up kicking two people off the bus - one eventually was able to rejoin but we never saw the other one again. Guess he has to go back to Ljubljana!
Now across the border, the drive continued to be slow, and strangely filled with trucks. Trucks everywhere! Sometimes we passed whole lines of trucks just stopped as the traffic in that lane was moving so slowly that right back here the trucks couldn’t move. It was a very industrial route, and when the train hit 6:55pm, the time we were SUPPOSED to be in Venice, we were very much not in Venice, although I do remember seeing a solitary seagull at one point.
Soon we arrived to the Venice mainland train station, and almost everyone got off the bus. I found this a bit confusing, especially as some of the people then were intending to get the train across now to the other side…? We stayed on the bus and soon we were on the concord over the water, Venice proper looming ahead of us. When we had chosen the bus in the end, I had thought the bus station was close to the train station, but this wasn’t entirely the case. Our accommodation was near the train station, so that’s where we wanted to end up.
The bus drove across and rounded into a giant parking and bus area. We were quite a walk now, but we realised we had been dropped off at something called a “people mover”. This was a weird monorail type thing that connected the bus station, the cruise terminal and the train station. It was only €1.50 for a ticket and if it was going to save us walking a long way, then it was a definite. It was kind of fun, too - it had strange compartments - think the shuttles in an airport, and we managed to get one to ourselves. The view was nothing spectacular, but then we were really just skirting the outskirts of the city at this stage.
We were deposited near the train station, and started to get a small understanding of the city. In our path stood a large, staired bridge over the waiter, which would take us to the train station and our accommodation beyond. With our backpacks, it was all relatively easy. I did not envy anyone who had a wheeled suitcase, although some of the staired bridges had a sort of ramp-y section which would have helped.
The sun was gently lighting up the buildings as we walked, and I thought it looked a little bit pretty. But we really had to get to our accommodation, so no time to stop for pictures now. We arrived at Hotel Adua, and checked in. The man behind the counter threw us a curveball, asking if we would like to do a tour to Murano and Burano. He briefly explained these are the glass blowing and lace islands, and we said we would think about it (as we had to do some research as we had no idea what these were!).
Probably because I had had a nap on the bus, I had a fair bit of energy when we arrived to our room. We collapsed for a short while, then decided we would jump out and do a bit of night exploring. Oh am I so glad we did this! As we left, we got a bit confused by the man at the hotel and left our key with him as it was on an enormous key ring and we thought we had to. Turns out we didn’t, and he would be closing the front door at midnight, so this gave us a bit of a time schedule. Either way, the chances of making it to midnight were pretty slim! We were still pretty stuffed.
Our hotel was at the very end of the main road that, if followed, takes you right around and deposits you in San Marco Square. The full walk would take about half an hour without any stops. Out in the night, the restaurants were still buzzing, and a few of the touristy stores were still open. Many shops had lights in their windows, and we saw thousands of glass figurines, necklaces and glass balloons light up by the gentle night-time shop light. We saw thousands of Venetian masks of all shapes and sizes behind the shop window glass. It was beautiful. And as we walked, we passed over channel after channel, little staired bridge after bridge. At night, there were few people walking and it wasn’t cold. We had the streets to ourselves.
We made it as far as the Rialto Bridge, which was beautifully lit up at night time. We stood here for a while, taking photos. At one point, as I geared up to take a photo, a couple stepped right in front of me for a selfie. I lowered my camera, and just stared at them. I heard one say to the other “Maybe we could ask…” And I turned and walked away. “Ah no, she’s just left.” No, I wasn’t going to take a photo of you after you blocked mine.
We crossed the bridge and started meandering through all the backstreets. We got wonderfully lost, although I think Dan had a decent bearing on where we were and which direction we generally needed to take. If we saw something pretty, we would walk down that street. I found it incredible that there were practically no walkways on the water front - occasionally we would pop out at the end of a little street with a small opening to the water, and then back into the maze of streets again.
We really ended up in the residential area. At one point I got a little bit jumpy as I realised the streets are quite dark, and there was literally no one else around. A guy was following us with something in his hands, but when I stepped back to let him pass, I realised it was a dog leash and a doggie was tailing him. Phew. Every now and then we would burst out next to a bar busy and overflowing with locals, standing outside smoking and drinking a glass of wine.
Eventually, we popped back out next to the Grand Canal, with the train station just ahead of us. Amazing! We had done quite a loop in that time, about 1 and a half hours, stopping periodically for photos. On the bridge, we also stayed for some photos too, and soon it was time to go back to our accommodation and head to bed.
I fell in love with Venice in the night time - what would the day bring?
Til next time,
xx
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