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.
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.
4 comments:
Quite a frustrating weekend, Karen, to say the least. thanks for giving us a glimpse into how much more difficult life can be in Italy at times. I am glad your new computer is up and running!
You've been using Windows Vista for so long? Windows Vista was closer to a virus than an operating system. Once you get used to W8 you'll love it.
Jon- you're right, I certainly didn't like Vistza, but it was what I was familiar with. The new laptop has been a challenge. Two days withh it and it developed a failure loop, it wouldn't boot up at all. Took my husband a day to figure out how to get around it, but thankfully with research he discoved others had a similar problem with their brand new Asus laptops also. Then my ipad wouldn't boot up from an softwatre upgrade, and yesterday while loading Safari onto my, laptop I managed to also load Astromenda, an awful browser hijacking virus-like thing. Mike also got that fixed. I am not going to monkey with anything technical for awhile. Remind me if yiu catch me trying to do anything new!
Karen, that was really quite an adventure ! I have a suggestion, you might want to install comodo on your new laptop. It is a free internet security that blocks all spam and spyweare and I have never had any thing get in since I have had it !! Good luck with the new laptop and windows 8 !
Sandra
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