when the moon hits your eye like a big gondola, that's venezia

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bonjourno!
so today is our last day as italians, i must admit my heart is a little sad. so no blog yesterday, and that would because we did not have the day in venezia we wished for. rather we spent the day in the venice ophedale (hospital). no emergenices, chris' cough was getting worse and he had been in bed for a couple days so hospital it was. so let me paint a quick picture. maps in venice are as useful as flippers in the snow. getting to the ophedale was based on random "H" signs and me asking random shopkeepers which way the ophedale is. we get there after a good 30min of frustration, but this is no canadian looking hospital- it looks like a church that is now a museum, hmmm seems to be a trend here. when we walked in, the security guard asked if we were tourists, i guess because people come in for tours. oh geeze than finding the "first aide" in the hopistal! parts of the hospital are actually outside! so in and out, out and in we go, following the good ol' trusty red cross symbols. by magic and heavenly guidance we found the emerge. so blah blah we get chris registered. so we wait for hours and hours in the waiting room, everyone speaking italian, and somehow every person there knew eachother- i guess actual residents of venice is small? so as we sit there not really knowing if we've taken the proper steps to see a doctor, orderlies are wheeling patients in from other depts in what i can only describe as a wheel barrow with a seat-aka italian wheel chairs. the guy lifts the handles (like on a wheel barrow) and push them he does, patient facing him! and because they are coming from outside the patients are covered in blankets and jackets. weird, soooo weird. oh and p.s. there was so hand sanitizer! now that's weird as a canadian hospital go-er, daughter of a nurse. italians yelling (because that's how they talk, if only i could speak italian i would have been yelling with them. i am a yelling kind of person you know). so chris gets called in, and oh happy day! 2 minutes later, he's out. darn. this is what he told me; "they asked me if i played rugby (because of chris' size). spoke in italian then said follow the orderly". so we follow the no english speaking man up to a floor that we cannot read the signs for. we sit and sit in a random hallway. i stop a nurse, "parla ingelse?" "no". somehow she manages to understand that i'm asking what dept we're in. she comes back with a form and points to "surgical". WHATTT?!?!? chris and i think/say. thank goodness for italian nurse lady who tracked down chris' form that had been lost. she assures us we are in the right place and tells us "i call doctorrr nowe". english speaking italian doctor comes, and now it is oh happy day. he does a real consultation with chris, gives him a real perscription, but then sends us back to emerge. so we get back downstairs and finally figure out that they probably sent him to surgery because that was the only english speaking doctor. maaayy have been helpful to have some indication why we were sent to surgery. kinda scary. so wait wait wait in emerge, venetian drunk with a black eye is yelling and entertaining all the italians, we of course can only guess what's being said. chris gets called to radiology for xrays. the technician there could only say "breath, don't breathe" and needed help xraying chris cause of his size and had another guy come help. then back down to emerge. finally finally they say we can go- 8 hours we were there. but bonus, it didn't cost anything.
we ate dinner on the way home and then i had second dinner here cause it's free and they made pesto for my vegan stomach 😊 then chris and i visited with other hostel-ers. florence guy, aussie girl, calgary girl and mexico guy. we somehow were singing children songs from our countries. great fun i tell yah. my soul was lifted up when i shared my song "hi my name is joe. and i work in a button factory. i have a wife and a dog and a family..." nobody had heard it, BUT then the florenzian said they sang that song in italy, but toby rather than joe. OHHHH how my heart exploded! i see it as a sign that i was italian in my past life. oh it was just beautiful and soooo validating for my italian wannabe identity.
today chris and i embraced venezia! we wandered and got lost in the crazyness of the streets, which is the thing to do here. you ask people 'what should i do in venice?', and they always say "get lost!". we took the water-bus to murano island, the glass blowing capitol of the world i think. we watched some 'masters' blow glass, pretty cool. we took the water bus back and toured Saint Marco Palazza, which is the one to see here. it was really odd because there's an old cathedral, and other old old buildings, but then across from it there was a humongo, times square sized billboard. it sort of crushed my stuck in the past vision of venice. still beaitul though. we made our way back to the rialto bridge and managed to hop on a gondola. by this time it was dark, so it was definately a different gondola ride than i had first thought, but stunning nonetheless. our gondola man whistled in italian gondola ways, and told us some ventian history as we were weaving in and out of small canals to the main canal, under a bridge and then around tight corners. he wouls call out different words or sounds when coming to a corner, we think to let other boaters know. i even got a picture of cassanova's house, gondola man called him a 'sex robot' or something. afterward we had dinner on the canal by the rialto bridge. the heat lamps they have at all the restaurants here make it quite lovely to eat outside when it's cool.
anyhow, we came back here met some new hostel-ers, then off to second dinner once again! oh how tough it is to eat italian pasta twice in one day. the italiano men here made me a special pasta because the risotto had meat in it. we all piled around the big family table and they just kept refilling our plates. it is very difficult to tell an italian man that your want no more food.
off to salzburg in the morning, actually 8 hours from now. my sister is flying in to spend the weekend and oh so excited i am....because i have heard The hilllllls are alive with the sound of musicccccc! chris will want to choke me and my sistah come sunday night, but i am fully prepared for all consequences of von trapp singing and hill frolicking!
a last thing i must mention because it is the heart beat of this hostel, is the young russian man that lives and works here. he is the one that cleans, cooks, everything. me and a couple other of the girls have been calling him Cinderelly. he comes into our rooms and gathers us for dinner, and serves it all to us! anyways, yesterday i popped my head in the kitchen and i kid you not there was his bed a couple steps above the counters-in the KITCHEN. poor cinderelly, he works so hard, and his evil step brothers get all the glory. he's actually at the table cleaning up from dinner as i type. i shall miss stephan the venetian cinderelly. he makes my vegan food extra lovely.

for now ciao, for tomorrow hello in german

amore amore amore
chris and meg

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Comments

[Sharon]

I am so jealous of you guys!! Sounds like you are having such a great time minus Chris being sick, hope you get better soon. Love the letters guys!!! Talk to you soon. xoxox

[MOM--Sue]

So glad to hear Chris may be on the mend
The children of nurses, Mother Sue and Mother Barb, should not visit a country without checking out the health care system...so glad you had the opportunity to do this. Hope the medication the doc gave you, Chris, will help speed up your recovery. And I do hope you have the little bottles of hand sanitizer that I got you. A gondola ride...sounds glorious. And a Cinderelly, that has to be the best. Looking forward to hearing the sound of music!!

[Roberta]

Hope Chris is on the mend
You'll never look at Canadian health care the same again I'm sure. Hope Chris is on the mend...If not he can rest up while you are out yodelling in the hills. SNow arrived here yesterday, it is oficially winter.

[Sue Allen]

so exciting
Hey you two. Sounds like you are having a great time there. Your Mom did mention that you had a blog, but she didn't know the address or perhaps didn't want to tell me. She can get all like that. Enjoyed reading about your adventures. Have a great time where the hills are alive with music. Give your sista a big Callander hug and kiss and sing really loud and make me proud.