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Nadine Walks

stories of trekking and travel

A Date with Venice

January 14, 2015

Within moments of stepping off the train and facing the city of Venice, I knew that I would need to return.

This is going to start to become a problem, at some point: every new place I travel to has me wanting to come back. And then there’s France, which seems to call me back every time. I’m beginning to wonder when I’m going to have the time in my life to do all of the traveling I feel like I need to do.

But back to Venice. My mistake- and it feels like a big one- was that I didn’t bring a good camera. I’ve said it already about this Italy trip: this was not ‘typical traveling’ (if ‘typical traveling’ can even be defined). I knew I would get to see Italy on this trip, but my focus was so far away from the touristy stuff. I did just a bit of research about Florence, and even less for Venice, and figured that I would just learn things on the way.

And that was the benefit of being with an Italian on my trip, I didn’t have to worry about transportation or finding my way around the cities. I had someone to point out the highlights and make sure I saw the “must-see” things for a first-time traveler to Venice and Florence.

But the drawback of traveling this way was that I didn’t prepare like I might have. I debated about bringing a good camera, and really considered lugging around my film camera and a half dozen rolls of black and white film, but I decided against it. I just couldn’t quite get into the spirit of sight-seeing on this trip (at least, not in the days before I left, when I was deciding what to bring).

In the end, of course, my very first thought when I was in Venice was, “I need to come back here with my camera and take some black and white photos.”

Venice, in some ways, was even better than I’d always imagined it to be. It was a place that I always suspected I’d get to, and it held an almost mystic-power in my mind. Maybe because the city is so incredibly unique: a network of canals and dead-ends and no cars and stairs that lead straight into dark water. And when I was there, it felt mystical, especially at night. I loved walking around the streets and ending up in what felt like forgotten corners of the city, far away from the crowds of tourists. It was eerie and spooky and I felt like I stepped back in time.

Even the New Year’s celebration felt other-worldly. Sure, there were masses of people, most who had been drinking, a lot who were acting foolish. There were tourists and people holding out their cameras to take selfies (me included) at every opportunity. There were discarded champagne bottles underfoot, lost gloves littering the square, elbows jabbing into my back.

But it was also magical. A dozen different languages were spoken around me, people ran arm in arm through the streets, many wearing masks covered in gold, covered in feathers. I saw a cat pass by, later a zebra. I was delighted by it, and also spooked. A mask conceals what is really there and it added to the mystery. Whose eyes were staring at me? I can only imagine what Carnavale is like, the annual festival held just before the Lent.

We were sitting in a small bar drinking a café on New Year’s morning (well, a doppio for me), at a table in front of a window that gave us a full view of the canal outside. Every few minutes, a gondola would float past. I know that this is how Venice works: outside that bar’s window was a straight drop to the water. No sidewalk, no street, just water. The building is sitting on a wooden platform held up by wooden planks driven into the ground, all submerged under the water. I understood this before I went, but it was another thing to see. It was pretty incredible- Venice really is a floating city. (I almost floated right along with the city when, in an attempt to take a photo, I slipped a bit on the wet stone of a stair that led into the canal. Otherwise, no close calls with the water).

For me (and I would imagine, countless others), the best thing about this city was to simply wander around the streets and climb over bridges and notice the small details and get a little lost. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a city where I’ve been so inspired to take photographs (well, maybe Paris, but even so, that is saying something).

So I’m not done with Venice, not by a long shot. We have a date (time, to be determined): me, the city, and my camera.

Row of Gondolas, Venice, ItalyCanal, Venice, ItalyNadine & Lion, Venice, ItalyView from cafe window, Venice, ItalyBridge & Gondola, Venice, ItalyStreet, Venice, ItalyNight in Venice, Italy

Leave a Comment / Filed In: Photography, Travel
Tagged: beauty, canals, celebrations, Italy, life, mystery, New Year's Eve, photography, travel, Venice

One Year Later

January 12, 2015

This new year kind of crept up on me. I guess being in Italy and attempting to navigate an unclear friendship/relationship didn’t give me much room to do my normal ‘end of one year, beginning of another year’ reflections.

I still haven’t really given it much thought, except to say this: It feels good to be in 2015.

2014 was an up and down year. The words that come to mind when I think about last January are ‘cold’ and ‘quiet’. I started this blog, and wrote about taking a single step towards… something. My serious relationship had just ended, I didn’t know what direction my life would be taking, and I had no idea what to do to move my life in any direction. So I began to dream about the Camino, and of how alluring it would be to simply follow arrows for a long, long time. Move myself in a physical direction, and determine the figurative one along the way.

Neighborhood Snow
cafe writing
2014 snow

The first half of 2014 was filled with preparing for the Camino. Did I do anything else? Maybe, but all I can remember is spending hours on my computer, researching gear and reading blogs. Of walking in endless small circles on an indoor track at the Y, and later walking in loops through a park. Multiple trips to REI, Amazon boxes delivered weekly to my doorstep.

Early spring hike, PA
Camino guide

And then the summer came around and I was on the Camino, and I was finally moving. It was beyond what I expected, and I’m still processing that walk, still kindling the flame of energy that it gave me, still working on how to continue “walking” the Camino in my every day life.

Leaving on a Jet Plane
Walking through the Pyrenees, Camino de Santiago

In the months since returning from the Camino I’ve been a bit restless. I’m home, I’m back into my routines, but I’m anxious to figure out the next steps in my life. That feeling continued straight up until the end of the year, right up until I left for Italy.

Since returning? I’m sure it’s too soon to tell, but it feels good to have just returned from a trip. It feels good to be in a new year. It feels like I’m ready to start moving again.

Road Trip, USA

 

This year feels like an open book, like I could take it anywhere I want to. Soon I will start to fill in the images of what this year will look like, but right now the pages are blank. The only thing I see are possibilities, but nothing certain. Will this be the year that I finally start to write the book that I’ve been dreaming about writing? Will it be the year that I switch jobs? Will it be the year that I move out of my apartment? Will it be the year that I walk another Camino? Go back to France for another writer’s retreat? Do a US cross-country road trip? Will it be the year that I go on lots of dates? The year that I meet someone to settle down with? The year that I make a dozen new friends? Where will my travels take me this year? Where will I go?

Last year, as 2013 changed to 2014, I was in my best friend’s apartment. I was in a daze, trying as hard as I could to be happy, but struggling. We watched a marathon of Harry Potter movies and as we toasted the New Year with a glass of champagne, I remember thinking, “In 2014, I want to feel alive.”

And as 2014 changed to 2015, I was in the Piazza San Marco in Venice, with a man at my side, a plastic cup of wine in my hand, thousands of people packed in around me, and fireworks exploding overhead.

Alive.

So here we go, another year, an open book. This blog started as a place to write about my Camino, but I think it was really a place to write about my life. So have no fear, the blogging will continue. Thanks for reading and following along, I hope I can continue to share some good stories with you this year.

Leave a Comment / Filed In: Camino de Santiago, Inspiration, Writing
Tagged: alive, Camino de Santiago, dreams, goals, happiness, Italy, life, love, New Year's, New Year's Eve, preparation, resolutions, road trips, Spain, travel

Once in a Lifetime

December 27, 2014

So I’m going to Italy, for a week, to visit a friend from the Camino.

This friend came out to visit me in October. We’d only really connected at the end of the Camino- despite starting from St Jean on the same day- and when he asked if he could see me again, he explained, “I want to spend the time with you that we didn’t get to spend together on the Camino.”

It’s been a bit… confusing? odd? difficult?… to try to get to know someone who lives in another country. There are a million reasons why it would be simpler to have left this on the Camino, to have left it at a brief connection.

And maybe this will only be a brief connection: a conversation on the Camino, a visit to the States, a visit to Italy. And then 2015 will come around and it will be on to new things.

But for now, I’m going to Italy. Because even if it’s not simple and even if I can’t see a clear image of where this is going, not going would mean ignoring so many of the lessons I learned on the Camino. It would be passing up a chance to… well… live in the moment. To go with a feeling, to follow my gut which is saying, “Go to Italy!!” So I’m going.

I’ve been to Italy twice before, both times to Rome, when I was 20 and 23. This time I’ll be in the north of the country; I want to spend at least a day in Florence, and I know that I’ll get to see Venice (when I told him that I’d be coming to visit, his first question was: “Would it be okay with you if we spend New Year’s Eve in Venice?” How could the answer to this question ever not be a ‘yes’??).

And as an added bonus, I have a long layover in Copenhagen on my way home (it will be cold and I think I’ll have a total of one hour of sunlight while I’m there, but it’s still a new place!).

I’m shaking my head a bit about all of this, because in some ways I’m not sure how it happened. My life here feels mostly the same as it’s always been- same job, same apartment- and I’ve been feeling like I need something to change. This trip isn’t about changing anything, and yet, when I think about where I was last year at this time, it feels incredible to have this opportunity at all. A year ago, I probably never would have imagined that I could ever get myself to a place where I’d be doing this: flying off to Italy to meet up with a friend I’d met in the summer while walking across Spain.

I think this is going to be a good way to end the year, and a wonderful way to begin 2015. Standing in a crowded square in Venice, a place I’ve always wanted to travel to. Imagining the possibilities of the year ahead. Knowing that I can take myself anywhere.

Rome-2003

Leave a Comment / Filed In: Inspiration, Travel
Tagged: Camino de Santiago, dreams, Florence, friendship, Italy, life, living in the moment, New Year's Eve, travel, Venice

Welcome! I’m Nadine: a traveler, a pilgrim, a walker, a writer, a coffee drinker. This is where I share my stories, my thoughts and my walks. I hope you enjoy the site!
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