Go Away

"How can I miss you if you won't go away?"

Last week, for the first time in what feels like forever, I was on a foreign holiday. I had to get on a plane and everything! Venice was magnificent and exactly what I hoped for. It was so different from what I'm used to. 

Historically it was all really interesting and the architecture was beautiful. There's water literally at the end of every street and over 400 bridges. You don't get on buses as public transport, you get on boats. There's also water taxis, and the emergency services are by boat. Even more interestingly, I discovered there is Italian Deal or No Deal on TV. Also Italians eat raw ham that is worryingly easy to mistake for proper ham.  

Marred only by the fact I was frequently trampled by tour groups, I had an amazing time. I lamented the separation from my laptop and had to pay 11p per text so was cut off from civilisation for the most part. My boyfriend texted me to say he was sorry that he couldn't get any texts through to me in Italy - which obviously confused me - then he texted me to say he'd done that "to see how stupid you were." As you can see, I was missed by many. This was especially depressing as I was in one of the more romantic cities of the world, where I was subjected to a constant stream of couples taking giggling holiday snaps of themselves together.

When I returned, my luggage was about double as heavy as it had been when I went. I acquired on my travels rather a lot of stuff. Venice and Murano are famous for their glasswork and glass jewellery and I wanted to buy everything I saw, which I very nearly did. I used the excuse of buying presents for other people as I don't want to feel greedy. Unfortunately my budget stopped me being too adventurous. I regret not buying a sweet heart-shaped glass fish bowl with two glass goldfish inside but did return with more glass jewellery than any one person needs.

I am not a particularly frequent traveller, mainly for reasons of cash, but also because I am generally a slightly boring stay at home type, who misses her own bed when she's away. I would like to become more intrepid though. There are many places I would love to visit and firmly believe in expanding your horizons. Egypt is top of my list, followed by China - all that remains is for me to summon up the gumption and raise some funds. If anyone's planning a trip away anytime soon, I would love to accompany you.