In the words of Indiana Jones from the 'Last Crusade' - "Ahh... Venice"

What a beautiful place, but let me start at the beginning...

Last week I got a job, finally!! I'm working at Marks & Spencer on a contract, and that'll give me some much sought after UK experience. The job itself is rather boring and tedious, but everyone I've met have been really nice, and I get to work with an old friend from my IKEA days (who gave me the heads up that the job was going in the first place.) So, I sent in my resume, got an interview the day after, and started the next day. What a week!

I started on Wednesday, working on the content of their website (not quite as impressive as it sounds...) and Wednesday was the day Jeremy had booked Mary Poppins, the Musical (from Valentine's Day). Friday snuck up on us very quickly, and before we knew it, we were on our way to Stansted via Liverpool St. A long trip, and one I'm not keen to do in a hurry again!!

We made it to Treviso airport (maybe 30kms from Venice itself?) and finally made it to our hotel around midnight. Getting to the hotel was nothing short of a "Surivor" type quest, but we found it, and the hotel I organised was actually really great. It was only a 5 minute walk to Piazza San Marco, and the Palazzo Ducale along with many other attractions. We had a midnight wander through the Piazza and had to wander back around the tiny alley ways to find our way back.

We had an early start (not something we're generally good at, but there was a lot for us to see!) and we started knocking off the major attractions off our list. The Piazza during the day had far too many pigeons for my liking, but I braved the birds (with photos to prove it, for the non-believers out there!). We wandered through the Basilica, beautifully ornate, went in search of the Library from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (where he finds the tomb) but had no luck. We did however, see about 5 churches on our hunt... We took a lot of photos along the way, did a little shopping, and we got a little lost as maps don't really help you much in Venice. We had fun getting lost though, and we had a lovely lunch along the Grand Canale (more pigeons came to bother me) and kept on wandering. At some point in the afternoon, I decided I needed my jacket and I snuck in a quick nap before heading out again for dinner. Along the way, Jeremy surprised me with a Gondola ride. Very toursity I know, but something that should really be done!! Lovely to see Venice like that... We had dinner near the Rialto Bridge, true Italian food with a lot of wine, followed by some drinks at a bar nearby. The city is so different at night too, very quiet, but with the odd bar that's swarming with people. Very cool :-)

We had a little sleep in on the Sunday, and I braved the Piazza, as well as the pigeons, AGAIN, to get to the Palazzo Ducale (recommended by Dad). An awesome sight to see, truly amazing architecture on a grand scale, with hundreds of ornate pieces of artwork to admire within. Just exquisite to take in, and the information they gave was really fascinating. That took a long time, and it was actually a lot of walking and standing, so we lost a bit of our energy. Over the 'road' from the Palazzo was the Campanile di San Marco (the big tower for the rest of us that don't speak Italian). We got the lift up, took in the incredible sight of the rooftops of Venice and jumped back in the lift as it was bitterly cold up there! We ended up at a coffee bar, had a pit stop, got our luggage and then camped at a bar nearby the Grand Canale to wait for the Vaporetto (water bus) to take us to the bus, to the airport. Phew!!

And it was a long night... Stansted is horrible for getting through immigration, it took Jeremy an hour to get through, took me half an hour. Very slow, and as we arrived at 11.30pm, I wasn't overly keen to be there for so long, with work for both of us the next day. We finally got back to the flat around 2am!! Probably not going to use Stansted again in a hurry, if there's choice to go elsewhere.

So, that was our weekend. And I guess, the last week as well. Everything else is going well, we've settled in well and looking forward to some warmer weather (hopefully) soon :-)