Adventures Past #4: "On the Home Straight..."

# "I may take a holiday in Spain, leave my wings behind me...

Flush my worries down the drain and fly away to somewhere new..." - Counting Crows

10 years ago I was fortunate enough to be able to take a 2-month break

from "my day job" at the time and embark on an epic trip around Europe...

My travelling companion was the person who little did I realise then

would one day become my wife,

and we were travelling with the Busabout network.

I wrote a collection of articles en route and sent them back home

to the Northern Cross newspaper via small net cafes all around Europe...

These are those scribbles from the humble pen

of a wannabe European correspondent...

(C.G.Allan, Summer 2013)

(5th of July to 12th of August 2003 – “Italy & Spain, and Home again!”)

Like something from a sci-fi novel, these Venice pods
predicted the future fashion of 'glamping' by a decade!

In Venice we stayed at a campsite -  the first of three in Italy – and were pleasantly surprised at our cabin.  It was almost like a caravan back home!  The only thing that bugged us about the camping ground was the huge mosquitoes that lurked around looking for trouble.  We quickly bought some insect repellent to ward them off...

Venice was every bit how I imagined it would be – a maze of streets which we enjoyed getting lost in and beautiful buildings lining the waterlines.  The canals didn’t smell either, which was a great surprise to me after everyone warned us they would back home!

We found St. Mark’s Square after stopping at every shop to admire the Venetian glass-work and had our lunch on some steps there.   We shared our lunch with the many pigeons there who happily sat on our arms and pecked away at  the crumbs.

We got inside St. Mark’s Basilica itself after a huge queue and being checked that we were dressed appropriately.  Waiting to get inside was worth it because the interior of St. Mark’s is amazing, with gold being the main decorating feature...

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