Waking up in unknown places

Waking up in a hotel is a strange thing, a new experience almost every time. You have never been there before. You were probably so tired when you collapsed the night before, you might not even remember where you are.

In April 2005 we had been driving by the Adriatic Sea, having spent a few days in Ljubljana in Slovenija and wanting to find a hotel somewhere on our way to Venice, and we did, in fact, have a hotel in mind in Caorle. It was really dark when we arrived, and the hotel was closed. So, we had to find another alternative. I might want to tell you right away, that we can easily sleep in the car, if need be, so if we didn't find a hotel, we would have survived. But middle aged bones like a proper bed :) I found a restaurant and went inside and considering that the owner did not speak any language I know, and I know a few, and my knowledge of Italian is more or less non-existent, I was pretty proud when came back to the car and could find the way to an open hotel. They had a vacant room that a wheelchair-user could use and we fell asleep looking forward to spending the next day in Venice. I remember that we discussed how far from the ocean we were, but since it was so dark, we had no idea. I woke up the next morning, went out on the balcony, but I could not figure if we were close to the beach or not. Imagine the surprise when we came down to breakfast and discovered that we were actually on the beach. We had a wonderful day in Venice, my second time there, Janke’s first. Some people thought we were crazy thinking one could visit Venice in a wheelchair, but it was fine. You can use the Vaporetti (waterbuses) to get just about anywhere you want, and that we did. There are no cars in Venice, so you park your car before you go into the city. And it is true; Venice is a city like no other.

The picture I just uploaded is from that morning. For me, a typical morning in a hotel, not really knowing where I am, but indeed enjoying the scenery, such as it was :) Next time when you wake up in a hotel and the only thing you see is a wall and a balcony, it does not, as you can see here, have to be all that bad.

caorle, italia