I flew into Venice from Kiev, Ukraine on one of those low cost airlines that make Europe so easy to get around. They go everywhere, and Venice flights
are particularly easy to find. Venice is great, but let me tell you that traveling around the city is not as easy as those photos of couples lazily cruising through the canals would have you believe.
The airport in Venice is out there. It’s not unmanageable or anything, but know that you are taking a bus, and then a boat before you get to the real part of the city.
Yes, it’s beautiful. Look at that clean(ish) water and the way that the rustic charm of the buildings and boats blends with that weird modern cat person bill board.
Actually getting in the water taxi is a bit confusing. For alot of them you are supposed to buy tickets for five euros, but there isn’t a gate or an obvious point you are supposed to stand and board. So you see tourists lining the banks of the canal, holding tickets and looking confused and blinking a lot.
They also don’t really check for the tickets all that much. So people just sort of hop on. I guess the drivers must be paid by the hour. That’s that Mediterranean efficiency I’ve come to love.
I took the picture below while I was exploring my last day there. I enjoyed the city, but the hostel was brutal. Just one of those crappy hostels where nothing worked. The owner also yelled at me when I checked out twenty minutes past the 11 o’clock checkout deadline, and could not have been more offended or put out when I asked him if I could keep my bag at his hostel while I killed time before my night time flight. (I have never seen any other hostel owner or worker respond to this request with anything but the native linguistic equivalent of “no problem!” )
So not wanting to drag my backpack around all day I set up shop at a pizza place with wifi and got some work done. Hey, it could have been worse.