Sunday on Lake Garda

The shoreline at Toscolana Maderna, Lake Garda

Ciao tutti!  I know, I've been absent for quite some time, and I'd like to thank all of you for the many emails inquiring "What the heck is going on?"  The answer- lots of stuff going on.  I've been studying my rear end off, ramping up both my Italian lessons and writing courses. We've been traveling, AND I've been rowing. My most recent row was this past Sunday, which is the topic of this post. 

I've been to Lake Garda before for several days of relaxation and exploration. I can highly recommend a day trip, or an overnight from Venice. It's a glorious location. Sunday's trip to the lake was hardly relaxation, though. My rowing group, the Pink Lionesses in Venice, were scheduled to compete in a Dragonboat race. A gara (war, in Italian).  Normally, my group rows in Venice-  up and down the Grand Canal, in the smaller canals, and in the lagoon surrounding Venice. Usually at a nice leisurely pace. This dragonboat competition was a distance of 200 meters, at a pace as fast as you can row. 

At 7am we were gathering at Piazzale Roma, which meant I had to be on a 6:13 am vaporetto from Sant'Elena in order to get there in time.  Dragging my paddle, life vest and change of clothes I left home with my eyes barely open, wondering why I get myself into these things in the first place! With everyone present and accounted for at the appointed hour, we loaded all our gear into the cars, divided ourselves up, and set off for Toscolana Maderna, on the west coast of  Lake Garda about 40 km from Brescia. 

Living in Venice, I don't own an automobile. I rarely even ride in one anymore. We use the train and public buses for getting around if we are going out of Venice for any reason.  So the 2- plus hour ride in the car was a treat, especially the pit stop at the Auto grill  along side of the Autostrada.  

With a bit of persistence on the part of our drivers, we found the location of the event just in time. We had about 5 minutes to change clothes and get into the boat. Rowing on a lake is quite different from what we are used to. Even getting into the boat on the shoreline was a bit of challenge for us canal rowers. 

When you are in a competition, there isn't even time to look around. You must be completely focused on the race the entire 200 meters, and focusing on every command your helmsman shouts. Too bad, because the area is stunningly beautiful. Sunday was cloudy, I can only imagine how gorgeous this would be on a sunny afternoon.

Here's my team, Pink Lionesses in Venice, on Lake Garda getting ready for the first match. 

We didn't place well, but we did finish, and that was a grand accomplishment in our opinion.  It was tough rowing. I was wishing (praying) that we would not have to do a second match. My prayers were not answered. The video below is our second match. We're in the middle boat. Actually, we improved our performance the second match, despite much worse conditions. The wind had picked up, the waves were fierce, the boat was rocking and we took on quite a bit of water at the back end, where I happened to be sitting. Before we were two seconds into the boat, just getting into position, we took on a good 5 inches of water into the boat. My partner and I were drenched from head to toe. I was trying to keep my feet out of the water, it was impossible. I remember thinking, "Oh what the hell!".  I put my feet into the swimming pool I was sitting in and rowed like a bat out of hell. 

After our second match, the rest of the event was cancelled due to weather conditions on the lake. We changed clothes, packed up, and headed out to find a restaurant for some food. Lunch was a two hour operation, par for the course for Italians. Lots of pizzas, beer and wine, dolce, the coffee and there was even a grappa or two down at the end of the table.  Eventually we piled back into the cars for the journey back to Venice. Exhausted, still with soaking wet shoes, (did I already mention exhausted?), I arrived back home at 7pm. What an adventure!

Sunday was a grand challenge for me, for two reasons. First, I completed a race I never would have imagined I would do at my age. Never in a million years did I ever think I'd be rowing, let alone competing.  This just goes to show you that you can do anything you set your mind to. Trust me, if I can do this, anyone can. You just have to get up and do it, whatever it is you dream. Just do it.

The second reason Sunday was a challenge is this:  I spoke no English the entire time. 12 hours of non-stop Italian!  Incredible! (Well,  aside from one little mini English lesson at lunch when someone asked me about the f-word and when to use it.)

I can tell you right now, I am not ever going to be a professional dragonboat racer, or racer of any type for that matter.  I wasn't built to be an athlete!  But I wouldn't trade the experiences for anything.

And that was my Sunday. How was yours?

*Special thanks to Pink Lioness Monica Nardini for the group photo and video.

As always, I am so grateful for every one of you who takes the time to read my blogs. Leave a comment and let me know where you are, what you are doing. I love hearing from you. Ciao!

A boat, a bus and a schlep on foot.

For those of you unfamiliar with the word "schlep",  let me give you some examples. If it's really hot and you have a long way to walk, you are schlepping.  If you have a lot of things to carry and you have to go up several flights of stairs, you have to schlep the stuff up.  If it's hot, you have a lot to carry, and a long way to walk, you are really schlepping. Ok, so now you can imagine me schlepping.

My Monday involved a 40 + minute boat ride from my end of Venice (way down in the tail part of the fish) to Piazzale Roma, a 10 minute wait for the 24H bus, a 35 minute bus ride out to the hinterlands of Mestre, and then a walk to several shops.  And it was hot. I avoid taking the bus to Mestre like it was the plague. For me it's like going to another planet. I have no idea where I am and  there are tons of cars, buses, motorcycles.  I am afraid I will get killed crossing streets, I always forget to stop and look.  I've gotten so used to not doing that in Venice, and I go to the mainland so infrequently  I just plain forget.

My laptop died over the weekend. Well, that's a slight exaggeration. It didn't quite die, but it would not boot up Windows Vista, the operating system on my laptop.  Mike tried using a restore disk, that didn't work. Nothing worked. I was very tempted to throw the darned thing in the canal. It was 5 years old, and had been giving me problems for quite a while already- it fried power cords 3 times a year. With what I've spent on replacement power cords I could have had a new computer 3 years ago.  My now dead laptop is the reason I had to make a trek to the mainland.

I went online and checked a few of the shops my friend Cat recommended.  Having  found a model laptop with all the features I needed and also in my price range at the Marco Polo Express, I set off Monday to buy it. First on boat, then bus, then a walk.  I figured this should be a piece of cake. Wrong.  I just should have known this was going to be difficult.

Inside the shop, I checked out all the laptops they had on display. The model I wanted was not there. I flagged down a store employee, who explained that the model I wanted could only be purchased online. It could be shipped to the store, or shipped to my home. I decided I wanted this particular model so much that I would do as he suggested, so I called Mike at home and asked him to go online to make the transaction.

Since I was out in the hinterlands and there were other large shops in the vicinity, I spent some time perusing a few other stores. I even purchased 2 pink tank tops!  Yes, I went where Karen had never gone before-- pink clothing.

Feeling good about my adventure (another opportunity to speak only in Italian), I waited for the next 24H bus back to Venice. At least finding a bus stop wasn't too difficult. Once back in Venice, I boarded a boat for the almost 45 minute ride to Sant'Elena, then the schlep to the apartment.

Once I got in the apartment, the nightmare part 2 began.  Mike had been unable to make the computer purchase online because the website wouldn't accept our US credit card.  We've been using this card all over Europe for years now, and this website wouldn't accept it.  I tried also, no luck. I called their customer assistance. Shockingly, they actually answered the phone without having to go through a ridiculously complex phone menu system.  Again, I had a great exercise in speaking Italian with the customer support rep. She also could not make the transaction over the phone, but advised me to go to the Rimini shop, where they had one of the computers I wanted in inventory. I thanked her and hung up.  I was NOT going to Rimini on the train to buy a computer.  I needed a Plan B.

Plan B involved another boat, bus and schlep to Marghera (another city on the mainland not far from Mestre) on Wednesday morning, to a different store.  My mission this time was to come home with a computer in my hand, no matter what. Mission accomplished- after another boat, bus and schlep.

My new laptop, an ASUS, runs Windows 8. It's foreign to me.  Everything is in Italian. Not good. First task was to attempt to switch the language to English, which thankfully was done fairly easily.  Mike was able to load all of my files and photos onto the new machine, and I am still reloading several programs I use. The keyboard (Italian style) is kicking my ass big time. Between figuring out how to navigate Windows 8 and locating keys on the keyboard, it's going to take some getting used to.

Nothing is easy here. I had moments when I was daydreaming I hopped in my car, drove to Best Buy and had the whole thing accomplished in 30 minutes.  But, it's the price you pay for living where we do. I'm not complaining, just laughing with myself over another one of my silly adventures.

I'm past this bump in the road, my new laptop is up and running, and I'm back online.  Life is good, aside from  the boat ride, the bus ride and the schlep.