The Birth of a Phoenix

Gallery: Piazza San Marco, Venice

shanamave — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:38:00 GMT

Day trip in Saint Marcs Square

Day Trip to Piazza San Marco

shanamave — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:00:00 GMT

"The Drawing Room of Europe" - Napoleon

I have never been anywhere where the sound of the people talking, people laughing, street music and the pigeons have completely drowned out any sounds of motor traffic. That might be due in part to the fact that all non foot traffic is on the waterways only.

I got to see the infamous Ponte de Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs) which connects the ducal palace and the overflow prison built just across the Rio di Palazzo, the bridge of sighs connects the two buildings. When a prisoner was sentenced to death in the ducal palace they took their final walk across the Ponte de Sospiri to the executioner. This was the last time they got a chance to see the water and the sunlight before death. Awful pretty bridge for such a gory use. And even more weird is that there is a superstition that is you take a gondola ride underneath the bridge of sighs at sunset and kiss as you are directly underneath your love will be eternal.

The pigeons are amazing, you can buy a package of corn kernels for about 1€ and walk into the center of the square and feed the millions of pigeons waiting for you. They will even fly up and land on your arms to eat right out of your hands... I even had 4 and 5 pigeons landing on top of one another in order to get some food. Being a bird lover myself I had a great time doing this, check out the video (assuming it is up and running on youtube -- they take FOREVER to upload videos).

This is a very pretty place to see and quite a bit of shops to wander around, don’t forget to stop and get yourself some Gelato and don’t miss out on the local street performers. The gondola ride are pretty expensive so i didn’t partake in that, but I'm sure it is one of those things you just HAVE to try while you are in Venice, and since I'm not leaving Italy anytime soon I think I will end up taking a ride on one before I go.

Venice -- Plane rides

shanamave — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:44:00 GMT

Flying Into Venice

The flight was HELL... once again a trip over The Big Pond with a plane seat that won’t recline!! Not to mention the flight was delayed by like 8 hours so I was flying in the middle of the night and found it almost impossible to sleep. I had a typical Italian grandmother seated next to me and she was just as unhappy about not being able to sleep. There was actually a portion of the flight where this woman decided 'fuck this' and she took her airline blanket and actually lay down on the floor of the aisle to sleep. I couldn’t believe it, here was this woman in her late 60's sleeping in the aisle. It didn’t last long before the sky waiter came over and made her return to her seat -- how I wished I had my camera so I could have taken a picture of that!!!

From Decision to Departure

shanamave — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:45:00 GMT

Airline Ticket

For me this was a little different since I wasn't going on a trip with a set date or even a decided upon time frame so I needed something flexible. I had heard GREAT reviews for airtech.com with their standby tickets, you get prices that are unbelievable in comparison to buying a round trip from the airlines or even the cheap flight websites. Unfortunately they didn't have what I needed for dates and departure cities.

Instead I ended up getting a one way ticket through europebyair.com directly to Venice for only $578 which is unbelievable since my travel agent could only find a one way as cheap as $2000. The problem is most countries don't want you to show up at incoming customs with a one way ticket and no visa. So to avoid getting a visa and sticking with the 90 no visa required holiday visitation I also bought a $99 FlightPass which allowed me to specify a date and arrival and departure city now and still have the ability to change any of those requirements at anytime during my 120 day window with no charge for doing so. So now I arrive in Venice with an onward ticket to Brussels that leaves in 10 days of my arrival. I then change the ticket to another date and destination and take a trip later on down the road when I need a weekend in Paris or Amsterdam.

Travelers Insurance

Well how do you think I ended up with a World Nomads travel blog?? The price was incomparable for the plan offered, the contract was in simple language I could understand, and is underwritten by BSC so I felt comfortable I would be taken care of if something should happen. When I quit my job I even had our current work insurance representative look over the plan and World Nomads in general and he gave his thumbs up. Ill keep you up to date on if I have to use it -- here's hoping I don't.

Packing

Well if you've looked at the gallery for pacing you'll see it was an adventure on its own. Now don't get me wrong, I have gone on the 10 Ecotour to Guyana, South America and taken next to nothing with me; However I'm going where I will have a home base to keep all of my stuff in and I will be there for a substantial amount of time so this was actually harder for me. I can very easily narrow down what I need to be alive anywhere, but you give me leeway to bring cute clothes and shoes and personal effects and books and geek toys. Now we have an issue, how much is TOO much. Once again I refer to my packing gallery. I ended up with about 1/2 of what the pictures show, I did some serious self negation.

Gallery: Lil Ole Me

shanamave — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:38:00 GMT

Random Shots of Me From Times Long Ago

The Deal-O

shanamave — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 09:47:00 GMT

How fate lined up the dominoes

I was told that all you have to do is ask for something, and see
yourself already with it, and it will be yours, its not your place to
ask how it will happen, what needs to fall into place for this to be
mine, this is not yours to worry about. Your only job, your only
concern, the only thing required of you is to PAY ATTENTION to what is
brought into your day to day life, live life aware, if something falls
into the category of 'coincidental', 'de ju vue', 'serendipitous' or
'ironic', pay attention to it. When life presents you with the steps
to take ACT, and ACT NOW, don't wait, don't think about it a zillion
times first, don't over analyze it to death, just act.

That's what happened to me. I asked for an Italian villa to live in
with no concerns for money, the ability to travel the world and just
do as I please. Eat when I'm hungry, sleep when I'm tired, drink when
I'm thirsty and fuck when I'm horny. Everyday I said to myself that I
had these things, I sat and closed my eyes and pictured how it would
feel to have them, how it would taste, or smell or feel, in my day
dreams I felt as if I already had what I wanted.

Then it happened. In little pieces flagged by coincidental events like
little road signs saying "go this way". I was coming up on the end of
a Biology PreMed course requirement, one semester left, a part time
job who expected me to be leaving at the end of the semester, a house
that a co-owned with a friend who owed me a little money, a zoo full
of pets, and a home situation that was miserable for everyone living
in the house. The chance to go to house sit for a friend in the
military during his 5 month deployment in his house in Italy. WOW I
thought, what a great time that would be, but there is no way *I* can
do that! I mean I have all of these responsibilities to live up to,
this job my house, the pets, school, and besides who can just up and
leave the country like that. I politely decline my friends offer

I happen to find out that the friend in the military only found me was
by getting lost and just happening to end up at my work place and
happened to recognize my car and stopped in to say hello to me. -Hey!
That sounds very *coincidental* so I brought it up to my housemate who
I was having a hard time living with about this offer, sort of
offhandedly. That's when he asked me why I said no. I reminded him of
that list of things I just mentioned to you guys -- he made me an
offer that was very ~serendipitous~, he would exchange the debt he
owned me for taking care of the house, the pets, storing my
belongings, and paying the whole portion of our shared bills, for the
6-7 month trip to Italy and when that time was up we were square.

It was extremely *ironic* that we had this conversation the day before
my school Pass/Fall deadline for the semester. Then it occurred to
me... ironic, serendipitous and coincidental all with regards to going
to Italy. Well that was my only job right? I mean if I wanted my
dream... of . living in .... oh shit ..... Id been asking to live in
an ITALIAN villa. That was it, there was no more denying it for me, I
HAD to go.

So from Wed to Fri I passed/failed all my classes, I gave up
responsibilities of my house, pets and belongings, I quit my job and I
bought a one-way ticket to Venice Italy!

Gallery: Packing Dreams

shanamave — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 08:20:00 GMT

All the crap I _thought_ I was going to bring with me. What a joke!

Gallery: Guyana Ecotour Day 1

shanamave — Thu, 8 Mar 2007 11:45:00 GMT

We flew out of JFK and landed Georgetown and then a chartered flight to Kaieteur Falls and finally to sleep in Letham