London Calling!

Post no 5. It is been a couple of days since I have had the opportunity to write. Dodgy internet connections, haste to make connecting flights and general pandamonium have meant that I have not even turned the computer on for 48 hours (yes, I know, many of you would argue that that is a very good thing for everyone!) Suffice to say, the fun of international travel as outlined in my previous posts just kept on coming, but in the end we made it to Venice! A summary follows:

a)Flew out of KL pretty much on time. The reason that our our dear friends at MA (acronyms rule!) had said that we would need to stay in KL for two full days was because every other connecting flight to Rome or London was fully booked. As you know, 'somehow' our tour company Harvest managed to sqeeze us on a flight to London. Bizarrely, the plane was only one third full. I am sure there is a perfectly good explanation for this but seeing that it is 5.30am here in Venice and I am not very good at working out perfectly good explanantions at any time anywhere, I can't think of one. I am sure that our dear friends at MA would have done their best - sometimes the words 'seats available' and 'all seats fully booked' can look very much the same, I suppose. But we did get on and the extra space meant that many of us were able to get a row of seats all to outselves which meant for some a few hours of desparately needed sleep!

b) On arrival at HA (okay, Heathrow Airport), we learned Harvest had booked us on a flight to Milan whioh is about 2.5 hours from Venice. Excellent! Things were on the 'up' which quickly tranferred back to the 'down' when we tried to check in for the flight and the stony-faced CSA (okay, Customer Support Attendant - this acronym thing is not working very well, is it...) for Alitalia Airlines (AA - Oh forget it!) said we couldn't get on the flight because we did not have a paper ticket. Unlike our friends from the previously discussed airline, this gentleman made no attempt to soften the blow with an untruthful 'we-are-doing-all-we-can-to-help' explanation but preferred instead the 'who-cares-not-my-problem' approach. Weary from previous battles and no sleep, our much beset-upon but stoic Tour Co-ordinator Elizabeth flew straight back into battle, and in the end, got us onto the flight with only minutes to spare.

The flight itself proved uneventful. We were met at the airport in Milan by the charming Ricardo - a lovely gentleman who spoke no English and had no idea where the hotel we were booked to stay for the night was. After numerous stops to talk with stangers (who also had no idea where the hotel was) and lots of u-turns where u-turns should never be made, we found it. I am not sure if the fact that the building was 6 stories high made it easier or harder to find but I can assure you there were 14 very relieved people when we checked in and were given our room keys. Time: 12.20am.

c) Despite my fatigue, I needed a walk so I went for a wonder down-town and stumbled (literally) on an Irish pub outide which was an American hamburger van and a group of German revellers trying to juggle full bottles of Becks beer. Considering my previous two days, this all made good sense to me, so I bought the 'Americano Cheeseburger RealMeal Deal' and tried to convince one of the German revellers that the beer was much drunk than juggled - which I was more than prepared to demonstrate for him. Of course, as a drunk German outide an Irish pub in Milan, he had no idea was what I was talking about and keep on trying to juggle until one of the bottles broke. After that he went back into the pub, I think to get another bottle. I decided that I wouldnt follow him in and instead headed back to the Hotel Uno to eat my Americano Cheeseburger and fritters (aka fries). It tasted like I would have expected an Americano Cheesebuger would taste and despite myself I enjoyed it. Back in my room - time 1.30am.

Things have gone to plan since! We made it from Milan to Venice in under two hours (speed limit - what speed limit?) and caught up with the rest of our group at around 10.30am yesterday (at least I think it was yesterday...) Our extraordinary day in Venice I will keep for my next post which will try to make up for lost time by completing today but in the meantime I will attempt to put some photos up on the blog before I have to go to breakfast.

So we finally made ot Venice! Can't wait to write to you about that. Wow!!!

Reflectively yours...
Mark