Escape from Heathrow...

I was getting pretty irritable at Heathrow. When I had some lunch (aka stale English sandwiches) - there were all these noisy kids mucking around - piercing screaming into my skull...

A couple of hours later after lunch - I decide to kill some time playing some Sudoku in a local newspaper... This almost drives me to sleep - and after spending almost 10 hours at the airport - I ironically almost miss my flight. I thought my flight (according to the BA lounge screens) boarded at 3:40pm - but that was the departure time (not the boarding time). I checked the monitors about 3:30pm and I see the "final call" flashing against my flight. I mentally go "oohhh poo" and I grab my stuff and sprint about 2km to get to the gate. The gate was totally empty and on my way - someone over the PA said "could Mr Plowman go straight to gate number 111 FOR IMMEDIATE DEPARTURE".... I was the last one onto my flight - yay!

The flight to Venice was quite full - there were a couple of annoying Brits sitting next to me who liked making bad movie references and the like when all I wanted to do was sleep.

Upon arrival at Marco Polo Venice airport - everyone pretty much raced thru immigration. I had spent a whole 5 seconds showing my passport to some dude - who couldn't care less if I was a drug dealer entering into Italy or not...

In Canberra Airport style - everyone waited about 20 minutes for their bags to arrive on the carosel.

I pass thru the non-existent customs (note to self - next time I'm going to Italy - take half a kilo of heroine) and make my way to the airport shuttle and get myself a 3 euro bus ticket into town (pretty cheap).

Waiting around for the bus - I notice that people here don't queue... About 15 minutes later - my bus arrived and it was about a 20 minute ride to Mestre (where I was staying the night). On the way - I noticed an H&M store (I had printed out the address before I left Australia). Hopefully - I would do some great shopping there upon my return to Venice.

The Mestre train station was quite seedy - there were a couple of requisite druggos and deeros following me off the bus as I was trying to get my bearings.

I didn't have too many problems getting to my hotel - the Hotel Delfino (luv u Mike from Desperate Housewives)...

After a somewhat frosty reception from the staff - I checked into my v. retro 3 star room. The kind where there is a 1950 bathroom with a toilet right next to the shower type hotel room. I dump my stuff and head back to the train station - because I wanted to get my s££t together for my train ride tomorrow to Bolzano.

There was about a 15 minute walk to the Train station from Hotel Delfino - and I get my bearings. I have some Euro Kebabs for dinner (3.50 euros) - the guy was desparate to upsize my meal to a 'maxi' - but that sounded like a tampon so I passed on the upsize.