I arrived back in Avignon on Saturday night, after a series of adventures through Italy, Croatia, Greece and England. Most of the trip was a family affair, as I joined s/y Barinia in Venice where Narelle and Patrick, my uncle Graham and my Grandparents were already on board.
25th May - Caught train from Avignon to Nice after literally zero sleep and having to move everything from one appartment to another by myself, in the space of 15 minutes. Then I had an hour to clean my old appartment perfectly before leaving. Des and I power-walked to the station still in the clothes we were wearing the night before, lugging my bags down the street and speaking in some sort of ridiculous language due to serious tiredness (why oh why did the student farewell party have to be the night before?!) Made the train just in time. In a semi-asleep state I arrived in Nice, walked as far as I could laiden with about 30kg of bags before collapsing with exhaustion and waited for Narelle to pick me up. Narelle, Patrick and Graham arrived a couple of hours later and we decided that we were all too tired to drive straight to Venice, so we had a lovely dinner in Valbonne (one of my favorite towns) and stayed overnight at the house in Antibes.
26th May - All rested and refreshed, the next morning we had an early start at one of my other favorite places in France - the Antibes market, where we stocked up on chevre, tapenade, and some other yummy Provencal delights, and made our way to Venice. We stuck mainly to the motorway - stopped for a delicious Italian feast at a road-side restaurant, recited some quick Shakespeare as we passed through Verona, and arrived in Venice in the early evening.
27th May - The Cipriani hotel in Venice just has to be seen to be believed. Each time I am there I just get blown away by how amazing it is and how filthy, filthy rich it's guests are. We remain discreet staying on the boat moored behind the hotel, but to go anywhere we have to walk through the hotel's pool area, bar and foyer. Waiting for the hotel's private speed boat to arrive, it is a constant parade of guests dripping with Gucci, Chanel and Prada. I look at these people and wonder who they are to think nothing of paying 3000 euros a night to be staying here. The boat arrives and Marco lets me ride up the front with him and points out things of interest as we cross the Grand Canal (much more interesting than just lounging on the Vercace cushions at the back of the boat). Had a wander around Venice, met the others for dinner and returned to Giudecca that evening.
28th May - An early start, Marco took me over to St Marks square where I went to Sunday mass! Something i have always wanted to do, and because it was the feast of Pentecost, it was a huge, full Italian mass. Then on my way back to the Cipriani, Marco told me that the Vogalonga regatta was about to begin! Back on the boat we saw most of the teams arriving on the Grand Canal. Then, as the Canal was closed for the afternoon, Marco had no guests to shuttle back an forth from Giudecca, so he offered to take us all out to the edge of the Canal where we watched the race! Best seats in the house! There were boats of all shapes and sizes, and all types of people as well - some were totally professional, with matching uniforms and gleaming gondolas, and others just rowing along with their whole families in row-boats. There were a few big Galleons also, which were quite spectacular. That evening we left Venice, always a sad day, but with great adventures ahead of us! We sailed about an hour to Chioggia - Italy's largest fishing port - and a very lovely, friendly place. We moored for the night.
29th May - Wandered around Chioggia. No tourists at all - very Italian, amazing afternoon bars where you buy a drink and you are free to take anything to eat from the bar - which is laiden with cheeses, olives, pizza, sandwiches, its incredible. No one could ever possibly starve in Italy, wherever you go they feed you.
30th May - An early start and a walk through the early morning Chioggia markets, one of the most amazing fish markets I have ever seen (it even rivals Sydney) and streets full of deli stalls and fruit and vegetable carts. That afternoon we left Chioggia and sailed another short distance to San Pietro Involta (a tiny town close by) where we moored for the night. Jeff, Patrick, Graham and I spent the evening in Bar Da Anna drinking Prosecco and Aperol and meeting some hilarious locals. One man told us all about his oyster farm and tried desperately to convince us that we needed him to work on the boat so that he could come to Greece! Jeff and I half expected him to be stowed away on the deck somewhere the next morning!
31st May - Ciao Italia! We set sail at 5am into open waters, heading for Croatia. It seemed our mad friend had decided to stay at his oyster farm as he was nowhere to be seen. It was a 14 hour sail into Croatian waters, during which Patrick, Narelle, Graham, Jeff and I took turns on watch. We stopped briefly in Mali Losenj to refuel and restock, then found a picturesque bay which we had all to ourselves to anchor for the night. Jeff, Shadow the dog and I took the dingy ashore to explore the bay. We walked around to the outcrop where the ocean lapped at a shore made of solid marble - this area was the source of most of marble in Venice! Back on the boat, we changed into our swimmers and jumped over the side - my first real swim of the summer. The water was a rich, clear blue and we could see the anchor chain drop for metres and metres and metres before it disappeared into nothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment