Merry Christmas! Buon Natale! (Venice Day 2)

Merry Christmas to you all! I'm publishing this post out of order, ahead of the rest for once... because I want to wish a festive greeting to you all. That, and because I'm in no mood to edit the SLR pictures whilst I'm on the go like this, so you'll just have to wait a bit longer.

At this point, we've been through London, Barcelona (Spain) and Rome (Italy), with lovely things to admire about each place. For the moment, I have to say that Venice is my favourite, with London just an inch behind.

We have one more day in Venice tomorrow, flying out to Paris on the 27th. Can't wait for our Parisian adventure too!

Anyways, enjoy this posting (with mostly iPhone5 pixs). Stay safe, cheery and happy!

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O Christmas Day

What did you expect? I really can't come up with a better title, so be grateful =P

The 10 hour time difference between Italy and Sydney meant that I was able to chat and Skype away to my earlybird friends back home, who woke up before 10am on this festive day (why do you not sleep in?) to be badgered by a flurry of calls and texts from me as I lay in bed. 'Twas 1am before I was sleepy enough to put my phone down and knock myself out.

9.30am: seated in the breakfast room, munching away on an assortment of croissants, cereal, hardboiled eggs, pannetone (Christmas fruit cake), biscuits, jams and honey, washed down with milk, water or hot tea (each to their own preference).

10.30am: we three [royalty figures, not all male] were back in our room, with the [not male royalty] jumping straight back into bed.
(Comic voice): seriously guys, it's Christmas, it's holidays... and you want to sleep? Fair enough... each to their own, I guess.

Looking up the ACTV (Venice's public transport) website, I downloaded the amended Christmas timetables, and set off alone to explore Lido. This long island to the southeast of Venice isn't explored as much, but if you're thinking of getting a cheap place to stay that's a little bit quiet, a little bit private... then this is for you. A 20 minute boat from San Marco ( S. Zaccaria) port takes you to the Lido (Santa Maria Elisabetta) stop, and to the Venice beach area.

The travelling in Venice isn't too bad: for the prepared, go look up the ACTV website and download the route map for the vaporetto (the public waterbuses). For the unprepared, cough up €3 when you get to a ticket counter (I did at the 'Ferrovia'/Santa Lucia station stop) for an excellent map that shows you (in detail) the various alleyways and lanes of Venice and each of the surrounding islands, summary of the good museums, and most importantly the ferry map. The best €3 you will spend here - better than the food (can't eat if you can't find the place)!

The transport here is a unlimited bus-vaporetto combo pass that is time-based, and prices have gone up compared to the Rick Steve's guide I've been following: €7 for a 1-hour pass, €18 for 12-hours, €20 for 24-hours, €25 for 36-hours, etc. Knowing tomorrow we're going to have to catch a boat over to Murano/Burano, I forked out for a 36-hour pass - covers for my hop to Lido and back, and for the three legs for tomorrow - and I've already saved a bit for not having to pay for 5 individual legs :)

If you didn't plans things out in full, don't worry. Start with a 1-hour pass, then reload it when you become more certain of your travel needs. Remember that it's €7 a journey, so 3+ trips should already start saving you money. Just tap your iMob (their name for the Oyster/Octopus/myki) ticket and select the new ticket required, and cough up your dough. Oh, and don't forget to tap on everytime you board the pier to validate your journey!

So 20 minutes, and many nice pictures later, I was in Lido. Forgoing the full (and, as it turns out, the last morning service bus), I strolled down the main road and enjoying the lovely quaint buildings, the peace and serenity of a out-of-the-bustle location. 30 minutes later, I was a quarter of the way down the island and getting tired, so stopped at a bus shelter... only to have a local pop up a minute later and tell me there will be no more buses. Bugger.

*whips out iPhone to look at the amended Xmas timetables...*
Oops. Pity my poor Italian: Bus A runs from 6.26am to 12.46pm, then 15.26 pm to 22.46pm.

Lame! So I called it quits: there would be no buses running back up to the pier either, so I walked from Lido's west side to the beachy east side... only to discover... what beach?!

Either they're still recovering from the floods and the beaches were wrecked, or I didn't go to the place... but all I saw were beach cabins everywhere, and dredged up sand along the shoreline. Oh well... back to the pier now.

Tea time: coming up to 2pm, and I was getting hungry and tired from all the walking. Despite most places being closed on Christmas Day, this lovely pasticceria (pastry shop) is a MUST if you're out the Lido way. From the S.M.E. stop, walk along the Via S.M.E. for two minutes, with Al Canton del Gallo to be found on the right side of the road.

I spent 40 minutes in here: not just enjoying the lovely chocolate profiterole and this unknown creamy-jelly-filled cake of sugary goodness, but sipped away at a coffee whilst talking to the Muslim couple sitting next to me. I'll skip the details, but the couple (early 40's, I'll guess) were enjoying a few days off alone together in Venice. We talked about some Islamic views, and discussed travels of Continential Europe. After talking about travelling to Paris, he invited us to come over to Brussels (only a 1.5hr train ride away) and offered to show us around! Anyways, things finally wrapped up... and he paid for my meal whilst paying for his, and refusing to hear any more about repayment. I will keep this act of charity in mind for the future - and it is nice to see there are others in the world who have open hearts and open minds.

After tea, I chose to cut my explorations short and head home directly, rather than catching a boat to Venice north. Although there promises to be more hidden gems in and amongst the alleyways, I was getting a bit tired myself.

Heading home and touching base with the girls, I headed out again three bags full... of laundry! I'm such a domesticated male.

Actually, I walked passed the lavanderia as explored the alleyways near our hotel, and decided to get my laundry done whilst the girls were procrastinating the day away. Two hours and €13 (€2 for the detergent, €6 for the wash and €5 for 20minutes in the dryer) later, I emerged with three bags of still slightly damp laundry and made my way back home.

Well, that's been my Christmas! Tonight's dinner was a slight disappointment for me: our receptionist suggested the Rosso Pomodoro (the Red Tomato, literally) for its good pasta - unfortunately most of those dishes contain pork in one form or another. So I settled on this Chicken dish, which was quite tasty, but inconsistent: some pieces were dry, others succulent. For €13.50 (plus a €3 service charge), I wouldn't be recommending this place to others :(

Compliments were paid to my friend's dish: she quite enjoyed her proscuitto pasta!

And to celebrate, we popped the cork off a complimentary bottle of prosecco (white wine) and laid back, a small cup of wine and enjoying movies off my iPad!

Buon Natale everyone!

London Day 1

Cathay Pacific pilots must be trying hard to earn a gold start for fast flying: despite a short delay of 20 minutes on takeoff, we arrived London Heathrow 3 10 minutes for an early landing.

For me: welcome to chaos. I've got an annoying trait that wants to have a map and know where I'm going, and to stay connected or have a connection to ensure I won't get lost. This translates to arriving, finding a map, and finding a new SIM card. Long story short: we spent the next 2 hours at the Airport relaxing, settling, trying to look for non-existant free WiFi. Not completely true: it does exist for 30mins, but requires signing up for some account or another - something that gives me concern. Also, the possibility of having to pay extra is worrisome.

By the by, we dived down to the London Underground rail system from Heathrow 3. For all London travellers: definitely get yourself an Oyster card if you're travelling for more than two days. It's a £5 deposit (A$12.50), plus extra to prepay your fare. For those who have doubts, you WILL be able to get a refund before you depart - just stop over at any Underground station to get a cash refund for your £5 deposit and any remaining balance. Also: it's cheaper than having to buy individual tickets for both bus and trains - there's a £2 surcharge for buying individual paper tickets - so get the Oyster!
I can appreciate the convenience of this network, having grown up with the Hong Kong OCTOPUS system, and is similar to the Melbourne myki system: one always tags on and off for every journey you take.

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Got to Clapham Junction station without issues, but then left the station and walked in the wrong direction for about 10 minutes: so what should have been a 5 minute stroll took 25 minutes to complete. Getting to the Travelodge, the receptionist refused to let us leave our bags: so we had a 4 hour wait until 12.30pm before we could check in. What to do: the classic tourist's solution - find a Starbucks and camp there for free WiFi until things are ready!

During this time, I went off to look for a prepaid SIM card to abuse on our journey. Having done some research beforehands, I was keen too look at Orange UK for some data options, especially with Euro Zone roaming. What I found instead is that they had merged: EE is the new company formed from Orange and T-Mobile UK. Despite doing the research beforehands, talking to the sales guy helped much more: I got me a prepaid service that offers unlimited internet usage for £2.50 for 5 days: the length of our stay here in London. This plan also had a roaming data option too which I could use during the Continental parts of our holiday coming up... but roaming will always be roaming - ie very costly (£10/A$16 for 50MB).

Stay until 12pm, then finally checked in at Travelodge Clapham Junction. Newly opened for less than two months, our Family room was rather basic and fresh: just the way we want it - one queen-sized bed, and a sofa with a pull-out roller - enough to comfortably sleep 4 people.

Relaxed, showered and unwound: we hadn't had any time or space to ourselves since leaving Sydney exactly 48 hours earlier.

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The afternoon came around: time for a bit of light exploration. Now I had planned to visit my extended family here in London, thinking of having dinner at his end of town. However, plans changed whilst en route to Walthamstow (how on earth does one pronounce that name!?). So we had a bit more free time on our hands, so we took a detour and swapped train lines to explore a few attractions.

Exiting at Waterloo station, we admired the night sky and twinkly lights as walked over London Bridge and also seeing Tower Bridge from a distance. Not as appreciated was the acutely felt effects of the night chill: air temperature possibly 1-2 degrees above zero. Brrrr! We explored a bit of the alleyways and laneways around the station area, but mostly we were cold, tired and hungry, not in the serious mood for exploring.

That's it for our first day in London - dinner with my cousin was great, and we made it home in one piece, tired and keen for a hot shower and a warm bed for a good night's sleep.

Europe Holiday: Transit Day!

The holiday begins! Celebrating the end of 5 years of Optometry studies (6 for me, given that I had to repeat at year), 6 years of high school, etcetc... I couldn't wait to begin this 4 week self-exploration of Europe!

Travelling in a group of 3, my friends and I met up at Sydney Airport shortly after 8pm, checking in our big bags into Cathay Pacific. Now I planned ahead: we could have flown direct to London with a 3 hour layover in Hong Kong. Instead, I played the time zones nicely and wangled a 16 hour transit period, arriving on the first Cathay flight into Hong Kong from Sydney, and departing on the 23:55 last flight to London.
So for our bags, we checked them in direct to London Heathrow and holding only our handcarry pieces with us in Hong Kong. We always could have checked them in to Hong Kong then re-checked them in...
(For the detail minded: CX138 from Sydney, for the CX251 HKG to London flight.)

The flight was fairly smooth, with the usual mild turbulence over Darwin as the pilot caught the northbound jetstream. This meant that we landed 45 minutes ahead of schedule at 0415.

From the Airport, I planned to take my friends to sightsee a little, but primarily to shop for extra winter things for the European trip. My cousin kindly agreed to meet us in Causeway Bay at 10.30... but the first bus to Causeway Bay didn't leave until 6.10am... we're two hours early!

We ended up staying at the airport until 7am - napping, using the free WiFi and (me) deciding our next move. Given that we still had plenty of time before meeting up, we went up to Victoria Peak. This highest point on Hong Kong Island has been a traditional landmark for over a hundred years, with a special cable car to cater for folk to travel up from Central MTR Station.

So for over an hour, we wandered through the silent mall full of closed shops, and enjoying the picturesque mountainous views of south and west Island. Northern aspect of the Island fronts Victoria Harbour, full of commuters, business, boats and people every which way (below). Stretching from Sheung Wan, Central and Admiralty in the west (left) to Chai Wan in the far east, Hong Kong Island is port I call home, having been born and raised here in my early childhood.

Eventually all things must come to an end: we came down on the tramway below to the hustle and bustle. Speaking of which: it was 9.15am, and we arrived to a platform of full queues awaiting the upwards journey. I must say - it was a good thing we went up when we did, else we get stuck behind the tourists.

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For a round-trip up, it's HK$40 (A$5) via the Cable Car. Alternate methods include walking (1+ hr), bus (Citybus Route 15), or taxi. This is the most efficient journey, with a cable-car journey of approximately 15 minutes each way.
Boarding from the lower station is closest to Central MTR Station and follow the signs.
Nearby Landmarks: Cotton Tree Rd and Hong Kong Park.
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Next, we took a slow tram along HK Island. For HK$2.30 (A$0.30), one could theoretically travel across HK Island from west to east or vice versa. However, don't expect to get a seat, and likewise be prepared for a crush of people shuffling in and out and up and down. One of the oldest tramways to still operate, taking the 'ding-ding' is an enjoyable method for those with plenty of time to spare whilst enjoying the sights of Hong Kong.

Eventually, we got to our destination: Times Square, Causeway Bay. We still had time to spare, so we dived underground to the Basement B2 level. Now I was expecting to find some food - unfortunately much has changed over the past 6 years: no more cheap eats there, only decent restaurants. So back up we came, across the street to McDonalds and tucking into a hot breakfast.

Shortly after, the time came and we met up with my cousin: Shopping Time! First stop Esprit (mid-range prices), then along Jardine Crescent to Forever 21 (mid-range), across to Lockhart Rd for (mid-range) footwear. I picked up a down jacket for Europe - everyone in my family insisted I get one... who am I to argue the point? Actually, I am stubborn enough to argue back, but just this once...

Did I mention I had family in Hong Kong? But yes, my cousins all knew I was stopping over for a day. And I owe one a huge favour: they let us store our hand-carry pieces at their place for the day - so we could go shopping without much fuss!

Back on track: more shopping. Next stop - Tai Koo, wanting to have a look at H&M. Although one might want to go shopping straight away, we had more pressing concerns: our stomachs. We got a snack (sago pearls in mago pudding) from Jusco and stopped at Yoshinoya for a Japanese lunch. We then spent the rest of the afternoon shopping around Kornhill Plaza and Cityplaza, picking up a few items here, there and everywhere (including H&M).

The evening was upon us: 6pm and craving for sugar, we stopped over at Honeymoon Dessert in the new Hysan Place. This is a new shopping centre that only developed in the last year by my recollection, so it's a place I'll explore on my own time later. For our stomach's sake: we scooted up in short order to 11th Floor, drooling a little over the selection of Asian desserts before ordering durian pancakes and a mixed grass-jelly thing. At HK$63 (A$8) for the two desserts, this is a LOT cheaper than what we get in Australia - and quite filling despite being shared amongst 3. =) Hong Kong - home of cheap eats!

So that was our day in Hong Kong: bit of sightseeing, bit of shopping, bit of eating... especially the eating! Back to my cousin's place to collect our bags, then hopped on a slow bus back to Hong Kong Airport. Eventually, the time came for us to board... and thus begins our European journey.

Stay tuned!
Sal =)