NashkaTravels

How a picture with a stranger almost left me minus €20 before I even had breakfast. If there was ever one way to feel awkward in the middle of Venice, take a picture with a complete stranger, who you thought offered. 

Day 1 

The day has come to travel to Venice, much like my other trips, they are gradually booked within 2-3 weeks before leaving. I took this trip with my friend Alana a.k.a Alan (just a heads up if I swap the name during the blog, I’m still talking about the same human just using a nickname). Our coach was booked for 10 past 9 in the morning, So Alana and I set off to Victoria Coach Station at 8AM as it roughly takes half an hour from my house to get there. I had never travelled from London Stansted Airport before so getting a coach there was a new experience for me, the booking said we should arrive by 11AM, giving us just under two hours to get there. The coach was as comfortable as it could be, until a woman came and sat next to me even though the coach was empty but hey ho maybe she wanted a snuggle. 

We arrived at London Stansted Airport a couple of minutes after 11, I was definitely not prepared for it to be this cold. A comfy airport outfit outweighed being warm, so i found myself standing there in a pair of leggings, airforces and a jacket with my ankles surrendering to the cold. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 13:10PM; I always try to arrive at the airport at least two hours before my scheduled flight time for 3 reasons; 1. I feel on edge if I have to rush through security and to my gate 2. Nine times out of ten there is always something wrong with my cabin luggage (leaving a lip balm loose and not in the liquids bag 😒) and 3. I always end up leaving something I need or want to bring with me.

Top Tip – I always separate my liquids before I fly, to avoid the embarrassment of digging around my bag trying to find my scattered liquids and then attempting to squeeze them into the small ass plastic pouches (because save the planet where you can; you can buy a reusable small pouch set from Boots or Superdrug.

you’re welcome – Sadie, AWKWARD). 

After check-in, we made our way to security and entered the gates with our digital boarding passes (another save the planet). We queue up, Alan goes before me gets through it’s all Gucci, then there’s me. Well… would you look at that, I was nine out of ten. My bag made that hop, skip and jump straight to the left side of ‘Ma’am can you open up your bag please’. 🙃🙃. They grab my bag and yell ‘whose bag is this’, I make my way over and say it’s mine. He checks the screen to see what has flagged up and he says there’s some sort of powder concealed, (I’m thinking powder 👀). Oh wait, I remembered it must be my setting powder. I take it out so he can check it in the machine, I thought these things only flag up liquids – the more you know! All checks out fine!.

We made our way through duty free and towards the food court, as its an airport food restaurants choices are quite slim. We decided to grab something to eat from Leon. I have never ordered from here before so decided to give it a try. I wanted something to fill me up until it was time for dinner as our flight was getting in for 4PM. I ordered a chicken burger and chips; I even asked if they had a student discount even though I’m not a student – thanks unidays 😏. It came to roughly £7 (savings Queen 👸🏾lol, literally saved £2 but who am I to complain). Alana ordered the same food but she was too quick and paid before I could offer my “student discount” and we were not about to ask for a refund (I mean i’m all for getcha coins sis, but not today). First impressions, it was good in my opinion as it was a healthier but more expensive version of Mcdonalds. What can I say 🤷🏾‍♀️. As we let our food digest, we read the flight board which is now displaying flights to Venice. Gaaaateeeeee 37. Let’s go!

We began to board the plane. 

Alan booked her ticket after me, so we were seated separately, but the flight journey was only 2 hours. My choice of seats on planes will either be an aisle or the middle seat, this is because the window seat makes me feel claustrophobic because of the limited space due to the overhead luggage. Luckily I was assigned an aisle seat. 

Fun fact, I actually do not like flying so I try to fall asleep as quickly as possible whenever I board. So, that’s exactly what I did. The next thing I heard was the captain announcing we will be landing in the next 20 minutes and the weather is 6 degrees (jesu-). We land and because we have only carry-on bags it’s an easy process of just grabbing our stuff and leaving the plane.

Now we’re standing with a bunch of other British people laughing about what line to join for passport security, as if you were not aware we left the EU on the 31st December 2019, but we joined the EU queue anyways. As you make your way towards the Airport exit, there is a machine where you can either buy a boat or coach transfer to the city centre. After weighing out the pros and cons of which transfer to take, we decided on the cheaper option and took the coach which costs £8 one way. We waited roughly 20 minutes for the coach, as we had just missed one. It was a pretty easy process: you scan your card at the machine by the coach station and then the driver checks it and then you board. It’s roughly five o’clock now which means the sun was setting, creating a pretty sight. It took approximately 30-45 minutes to get to the main city centre via coach. Our accommodation was then a 10 minute walk, which was not far at all and comfortable shoes were definitely a plus considering the amount of steps that we had to endure 🙃. 

My first impression of Venice was that it is very picturesque. I took out my phone and was snapping pictures of anything and everything wanting to capture each moment I was truly in awe. 

Tiredness had started to kick in, as it was getting to nine hours of travelling mark. We tried to find our accommodation which we booked through Hotels.com. I was on the verge of crying as it was starting to get dark now and google maps was not working that well in terms of pinpointing exactly where the location was. We had already been walking around aimlessly for 10-15 minutes. I tried to call the number on the site but it continued to keep ringing out with no success. I looked at Alan and thought we had been conned 😂😂. I kept frantically calling until someone picked up and finally, they did. A man answered and spoke only in Italian, I replied ‘Hello’ and then the phone went silent. A woman then replied to me speaking English. Thank God!. I asked her for directions, which she happily gave us but informed us she was not currently at the premises but would buzz us in and arrive shortly. 

Following the woman’s instructions, it led us to the apartment and she buzzed us using her phone. Inside, the steps leading to our apartment were very steep and narrow. We walked in and it looked exactly like the pictures so we know we are in the right place. First impressions are that it is clean, tidy and very quiet. We waited 20 minutes then a woman entered the house. We greeted her and she informed us that she was not the woman that we had spoken to on the phone but she was basically the host assistant. She went through our booking with us explaining the usual service. She then asked for us to pay the city tax but the price we were given was much more than what the website stated (this is where it pays to use screenshots and have things saved). I hurried to find my screenshots of the price to check if the information was correct, turns out it was an honest mistake. This was slightly annoying because if I did not check then we would have been charged almost DOUBLE the price. She apologised and was nice about it, it was resolved quickly and efficiently and I had no complaints. She showed us to our apartment and gave us the keys to leave us to settle in, our room was pretty exact to the picture so I was pleased with that. I normally panic before I arrive at my chosen accommodation because I get worried it is not going to match the pictures they post online and any reviews people leave.

The accommodation was an apartment with 4 bedrooms in total, three on the ground floor and one at the top which was accessed through another staircase (this was our room). The kitchen area was a shared space and each bedroom had an ensuite. It was a nice accommodation for the price of £120 for two nights and three days split between us. After unpacking our bags we then found somewhere to eat. We found a small, family run restaurant in the centre which had set menu deals. I picked the option of a starter, main and drink, costing €10 which roughly converts to £8. Not bad. I ordered salmon pasta, fish and chips and a Pink Bellini. After a nice meal, we took a short walk around before heading back to the apartment ready for our full day tomorrow.

Day 2

We woke up around 10:30AM and set to head out for 12PM. At 12PM we found ourselves walking along an alleyway where we spotted a woman outside a restaurant, she was dressed up like the people that usually dress up outside Hamley’s. Boy. I was very mistaken. I had my camera over my shoulder, which she noticed and called me over to take a picture of her. She then asked if we both wanted a picture, we thought nothing of it and each took one with her. As I had just finished taking mine with the woman she then turned to me and whispered ‘20 euros’. It took me 5 seconds to acknowledge what had just come out of her mouth. I said ‘excuse me?’ She said ‘20 euros’ louder with her hand stretched out, already holding 20 euros from the last person. I looked at Alana and let out a nervous laugh thinking qué? 😂😂. All this time we thought she was a part of the restaurant. I said I didn’t have any money, only my Monzo bank card (because it’s true, living life on the edge). She tutted at me and feeling awkward we just slowly walked away. AWKWARD!

Our accommodation was roughly a 20-25 minute walk to St Mark’s Square but, as it was our first time out during the day it took us about two hours to get there as we were exploring the many corridors and alleyways passing different shops. There were many known stores also such as H&M, Louis Vuitton. We came across a Pizza take-away restaurant that was very tempting, as we had not eaten anything yet. The pizza slices were HUGE!. We both ordered a large margherita slice which was only €2.50. 

We finally reached St Mark’s Square and it was packed, bear in mind it was only two o’clock. We took some pictures as the sun was shining but yet, still cold so my jacket was not coming off anytime soon. We visited the Basilica (the cathedral) which had free entry and surprisingly the queue was not too long. Sadly pictures are prohibited inside the cathedral. After exiting we then walked further along the river and found a small illy Caffè. The large floor to ceiling windows is what first caught my attention. I am not a big coffee person but after speaking with the barista, I bought an espresso shot. It was nice but very pricey for me. Unless you are a big coffee lover, I would not recommend it.

Retail Therapy in Italy of course!. We went into Zara, tried on a couple of things but I tried to remember that I only had one cabin bag. I did buy some tops and dresses and just hoped I could shove them into my bag, fingers crossed! 

The centre of Venice was nice to see, as not congested with cars, only gondolas (small boats). We walked across The Ponte di Rialto bridge at night and watched the boats along the canal. The views from the top were so scenic from walking during the day as the sun was setting. Looking for somewhere to eat for dinner, we spent some time walking around trying to find somewhere we fancied. We noticed a seafood restaurant which looked decent so we chose to eat there. Unfortunately I did not take many pictures but the food was good and so was the host (If i ever return I will tell you the name). After the meal we walked to a supermarket to grab some snacks and some drinks for a quiet night in. As we were walking back I noticed people holding glasses of red wine IN THE STREET. Seems like they are trying to have the same kind of night as us. Never in my life have I seen anything like it.

Day 3 

Our last day! Check out was for 10AM but our flight was much later in the evening. We packed our stuff and were able to leave it in the seating area downstairs collecting when leaving for the Airport. We left around 12PM and spent most of our last day walking around, exploring the last bit of Venice. We came across a restaurant along the canal so we decided to stop for lunch, a prawn caesar salad and gelato. Good Food and Good Vibes. 

It was nice to just sit and soak up our last day. It was coming up to six o’clock so we headed back to the apartment to grab our stuff. Our flight back to London was departing at 10PM, we grabbed our bags and headed to the bus station. We had just yet again missed a bus due to needing to use the bathroom (just my luck), which I shall inform you now that the majority of places charge €1.50 to use their bathrooms. The wait for the next bus to Venice Marco Polo Airport was roughly 20 minutes, so we arrived at the airport fairly early. The airport is relatively big, but there were not that many shops and restaurants there and the majority of them were closed. I think we waited roughly an hour until we made our way through security which was pretty much empty. Turns out our flight was delayed by two hours but I can not complain as we had a great trip.. 

Until next time Venice!