Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone

With the impulse purchase of the flight to Venice, I didn't have much time to think about what I was going to be getting myself into, but the more people commented on me travelling alone, and the more time that passed before take off the more nervous I began to get. I kept postponing planning the trip, and delaying research, finding anything else to do instead. There were even a couple moments of "Maybe I just won't go." This was until last Wednesday, when it finally hit that I was leaving for Venice that night. The train ride to Stanstead Airport was when the excitement began to build up. Getting on the plane was fine, getting off the plane was fine. But the moment I stepped foot onto the bus I realized this was real, I was in Venice and there was no backing out now.
I looked around at the people on the bus around me, a threesome and two other couples. Everyone was travelling with someone and here I was on my own, in a place I don't speak the language, at 11:30pm. I kept going over the directions to my hotel in my head, which bus stop, where to get the water bus, which water bus, which stop and where to walk from there. I looked around at the scenery and using a combination of what I remember of French and Spanish trying to translate the words around me. However, because it nearing midnight, the pitch black, rainy skies blocked most of the scenery. This only allowed me to continue to think about what I was doing, and really at that moment, I had become fearful of my decision and just felt like crying.
I made it my bus stop and to the water bus safely. From there I had just kept staring at the cartoon map my hotel had sent me with the directions from the water bus stop to the hotel. It was time to get off the boat and this was my first experience of the narrow alleys - breaking all rules of travelling to a new place - walking down alleys, alone, at night time.
Thursday I still woke up with some hesitation as reality sunk in that I really was in Venice. This was the first time I truly was travelling on my own; wasn't going to meet family, wasn't a part of any group, this trip was just me and my camera.
I spent Thursday exploring. No real plan in mind other than to figure out the areas, check out the scenery and take some pictures. Walking around Venice is like being in a corn maze. Always walking through narrow alleys and picking any possible route - sometimes you end up a dead end that made lead into water, sometimes you walk in a circle and other times you end up where you were eventually hoping to get! This was a unique feeling in that sometimes it really was just you wondering around, all I could hear was the noise of my boots on the cobblestone and the abundance of seagulls and pigeons everywhere. It really was a freeing experience though and removed some of the fears and hesitations I had coming into the trip.
While I was walking through the maze and hunger struck, the uneasy feeling returned. I was going to have to talk to someone and barely anyone speaks English. I passed many delis and restaurants on my journey, looked at menus, then walked away, would stand and look at the place and then walk away again. I had completely reverted back 10 years ago to shy me. Luckily, I was able to come across a sandwich shop that had them displayed and all I had to do was point.
As I made my way up to the top of Campinale Tower, the temperatures began to drop. Campinale Tower gives you a birds' eye view of Venice, showing the different canals, the whole island and surrounding islands. Beautiful view, but absolutely freezing. By the time I had reached the bottom of the tower a blizzard hit Venice. Standing in St. Mark's Square, it was exciting to see everyone's reaction to snow - for most of them, this must have been their first experience to it. This is also when I bought a museum pass and headed for the indoors.
Walking through St. Mark's Church is where you really get a sense of how much Venice is actually sinking. The floor is so wavy, with divots everywhere. Much like how driveways sink, the stunning tile floor is as well.
Friday was spent travelling to two other islands; Murano and Burano. Murano is famous for glass blowing and it's beautiful glass sculptures. The island is filled with little shops, with all sorts of things made from glass. Some of the sculptures were absolutely stunning, unfortunately you couldn't take pictures of them. I also watched a 10 minute glass blowing demonstration where in 10 minutes, the man had made a beautiful vase and horse sculpture. He then threw both objects into a bucket and broke them. The horse sculpture took about 2 minutes to make, inside the show room they had the same one for 350 euros.
The next stop was Burano - one of the fastest sinking islands. What is unique about this island, is that to distinguish property lines the home owners paint their houses bright colours. It reminded me much of Bo Kaap in Cape Town. The houses were hot pink, orange, lime green, purple. It was incredible. My favourite moment was walking through these little alleys, just down a normal street, you turned a corner, came out of the alley and met with a canal and some of the really bright houses. You just had to stand there for a minute and take in the view. That moment was absolutely breathtaking. It was also in that moment where the excitement for what I was doing and crossing another place off the To Go list settled in. Burano is also the island of handmade lace. As it is not a peak tourist time in Venice, a lot of things were still closed. This gave Burano a very ghost town like feel to it. Most shops and restaurants were closed and a lot of residents have moved off of the island. The only shops open were the lace shops. I fell in love with a dress in one of the shops, but wasn't prepared to pay the 260 euros for it (that was more than my trip costed!)
By the time I got back to Venice, it was dinner time and with now feeling at ease, I was prepared for a proper sit down meal. As I was wandering to find somewhere to eat I came across a mass of photographers lined across a bridge. There was nothing in particular that their cameras were aimed up, but with the amount of tripods set up, I knew something had to be coming. I set post with these photographers, waited a few minutes to find out it was rush hour in Venice. The sun was setting, the "street lights" were coming on, and the boats were all travelling down the Grand Canal. Seems like a much better commute than sitting in the traffic on the 403! This was such a cool moment for me. I later bumped into the photographers again, when they noticed my camera - this stuck up conversation. They're a group of professionals travelling the world for the year. Absolutely envious of their life. A couple of them showed me their pictures and I took them through a couple of mine. It was crazy to see how we could shoot the same thing and how different all the pictures could look.
Saturday I spent the morning walking around areas I hadn't been yet. I was able to find more local spots and came across a farmer's market with all fresh fruits and vegetables and some small local, non touristy shops. I also ate the best pizza I've ever had! Which oddly enough, does not come sliced, but served with a fork and steak knife. After the pizza, with the little bit of sun shining, I hopped on the water bus and went once more around the island. Sat out on the front, just snapping away on my camera.
Venice was an incredible trip and having gone and made it back I can't even believe I had reservations or thoughts of not going. However, I am glad I had those feelings. The past couple years have been a lot of progress and moving forward, breaking out of that shell, it was in a unique sort of way kind of nice to know that there are still barriers to break down, there are still personal challenges to face. A friend sent me a card a couple years ago and on it, it said "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." Since the day that card has arrived, I have tried to follow that saying. Alleviating a lot of the fears I once had, but I also started to think because I had so many fears; dogs, animals, heights, being shy, just to name a few that fear was a bad thing. Having that fear of travelling on my own, to Venice, made the trip that much more exciting over coming that fear and because of that will now become a trip I hold onto forever.

You can find my pictures of my trip by clicking here for Flickr or here for Facebook.