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Angel Safari with Fred
  • Dana of the Ozarks
  • Dana of the Ozarks

Angel Safari with Fred

A 27-day adventure by Dana of the Ozarks Read more
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  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler
    Started the day feeling ill and standing in line to see inside of the church outside my window.
    I'm disappointed with the interior...1Really? Plastic chairs?... except for the Dome, which, unlike the Tardis, is smaller on the inside.1Finally identified old dude angel as "Time"1Sitting on the floor. Waiting for the train we missed.Even dad got travel weary1I just realized...I'm in Venice!1Walked here in the dark. Found it.11Room isn't much, but who cares?

    Crappy room. Marvelous views.

    October 30, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    We had a dreadful day traveling to Venice. I got sick and missed the starting time of our tour of the beautiful decorated church just outside my window. Dad went to a pharmacy and found me some Dont-throw-up medicine. We stepped into a different tour and the fabulous church on the outside was really dark and dreary inside. Missed trains, wrestling 50lb luggage over cobblestones all with a stomach bug and pounding headache. And doing all that over an unnecessary mile because we were directed to the wrong platform a quarter mile past the train station! Dad had to purchase different tickets for a later train. All told, 3 1/2 hours in the train station with no seating. But here we are! Dad actually got all excited on the water taxi (more of a bus) because he'd never done that before. We were rescued by a brawny young woman who carried our bags up 3 flights of twisty narrow stairs to a crummy flat, but who cares? We haven't ventured out yet, mostly resting up, but the views just from my apartment made all of yesterday worth it.Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler
    Streets can be creepy at nightThey set these out last night to prepare for high tide.I went kayaking near here at nightGarbage truck. Bags are tossed into it off the bridgePeople power-- no trucks, no carsBreakfast companio. Lots of beggars here and not feathered2

    Just for Zac

    November 1, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    That time I actually said Ahhhh, Venice! Coffee latte was involved at an outdoor Cafe.

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler

    Venice Day 2 Mirza's Pics

    November 1, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ -4 °C

    VENICE (3RD OF NOVEMBER)
    Local Guide: Your Trip Leader, Francesca at the
    Squero, Franco the Forcolaio.
    Learning and Discovery: How a Gondola is
    made and conducted. The forcola, the shift gear
    of gondola and its art. Discovery walk in the S.
    Polo and Dorsoduro districts. Jewish Ghetto
    with Alon. Grocery store in a Teatre.
    Included Meals: Lunch at the Trattoria San Tomà Restaurant
    Food or drink given by your trip leader: Impade, the almond pastry. Spritz Aperol,
    Campari, Cynar or Select. Cicchetti (Venetian fingerfood).    Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler
    14 flights of this.
    Human trucks have beefy calvesEven human trucks need help getting over bridges.Empty spaces used to be farms. Most were paved over. Boo.AngelAt the hotel front door. That first step is a doosey.AngelsShoemaker angelFlatiron of Venice. Empty and for sale. And spooky!Other side of spooky.Rehearsal before Vivaldi concert. Blue jeans. Malinials ruin everything...Medusa's big sister Karen.Truly unique glassesThe mask in the middle is leather and cost 3000 euros. My kids need a mask store. Seriously.Just St. Marks square on a Wednesday night.Angel.

    Things I've learned

    November 2, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    1. Keep a closer eye on dad. He lost his wallet. Fortunately I brought my credit card and his passport was not in it. Today we retrace our steps and hope it was left in a friendly restaurant. We should have tipped...
    2. Order a latte or an Americano coffee or you will be served a shot-glass of bitter resentment covered in a foam of sadness.
    3. Don't buy expensive water bus (Vaperetto) tickets online. They don't work.
    4. Do drink the water. Even the ever-flowing water fountains in the squares are piped from the alps.
    5. The canals smell like a sewer for a reason. I have seen men pissing right off the sidewalk.
    6. Navigating Venice is like doing a speed run in a video game. Hidden passages everywhere... called streets... that you swear is a dead end until you come up and face it. Crazy fun place to get lost.
    7. They dont always check for tickets, but if they do, don't lose your ticket to the Vaporetto or you will get deposited at the next stop despite your loudest protests and no matter how far it is to one of the only 3 bridges that span the Grand Canal. This didn't happen to us, but we witnessed it.
    8. Only Americans offer to help if you are struggling with luggage over stepped bridges, with the exception of our female host at the bnb.
    9. Every square across the cities we have visited have swarthy characters selling one of two things: a helicopter slingshot that lights at night, or a squishy toy that flattens when you throw it on the ground, them resumes it's form. I admit I was tempted.
    10. I want to keep going around the world, even though sleeping with dad is like ... well, I keep earphones on playing soft music all night. Unfortunately I lost my nifty eye mask with built in Bluetooth earphones on the plane, but I kept cheapo phones we got to hear a tour guide. Oh, and I found my missing makeup while turning everything out to look for dad's wallet. Perhaps all the freakin' angels I've captured on my phone will lend us a hand on getting it back, but so far no trench-coated messenger has appeared.

    Random picture follow    Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler

    Venice with Mirza

    November 2, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 1 °C

    VENICE (2ND OF NOVEMBER)
    Local Guide: Marina.
    Learning and Discovery: Life in Venice, Venice’s
    secret side, the Phoenix Theatre,
    San Mark’s square and Basilica.
    Included Meals: Welcome
    Dinner at the Ten Restaurant
    Morning activity: Tour Briefing    Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler
    Leaning tower. Unlike Pisa, not the builder's fault.
    Pray the shoes fit.Sort of angel.1Spiral show-off.My favorite mask of them all. Unfortunately expensive.ST. MARKS in rainy daylight1I ate cuttlefish seasoned in squid ink.Dad's black polenta was also inked.Angel silly strawLeather masks made by pounding wet leather over wood moulds

    Quack quack waddle waddle

    November 2, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

    The rain came with joining the tour group. We have an awesome group leader. He's fun, energetic and kind to a fault, looking after all of us, almost hovering to make sure everyone is happy and tonight he taught us the 5 rules for proper toasting (where you clink glasses). We all waddled in a long line around town in the pouring rain in darkness while he shouted encouragement and held aloft his cell phone playing Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. I'm adding some random pictures from today. And some more.masks, which I can't get enough of. I learned it was the law to wear masks in public for 5 months of the year to promote social equality! Socialism in the extreme! Men's were plain white and had a flared.front (looks like Homer Simpson) so they could eat in public. Women's masks were plain black but were kept on by biting a mouthpiece, so there was no eating food for her in public! I have my doubts. Eventually, the masks conveyed social status in extreme one-upmanship. I still love them.Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler
    Aquarium wall to keep the church dryClock tower with sun for hours and moon phases

    Saint Marks

    November 2, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    This church gets its own footprint. Spectacular-- all gold tile and marble. We got there for the 1 hour each day they turn on the lights. It has a glass.fence.to keep the water out that regularly gets a couple of feet deep before the close the flood gates.because it costs the city 250000 euros every time they close the gates. They had so.e proper seraphim in this church. Also we passed a square.dedicated.to the angel Gabriel, but Napolean -- that short French guy--- destroyed the church (along with many others) so it is just an open square now. St Marks.is.1000 years old but the.greek horses on it is 2000. The horses, like the bones of St Mark, were stolen. (Yes, the Mark who hung out with Jesus and wrote the gospel). I saw the grave that is now an alter.Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler

    Venice Day 3 (Mirza's Pics)

    November 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    VENICE (4TH OF NOVEMBER)
    Local Guide: Your Trip Leader & Patrick
    Learning and Discovery: Gondola and Music. Comacchio the little
    Venice, the Delta del Po Natural Reserves. The Eels of Comacchio.
    Controversial Topic: MOSE dam project to save Venice and
    corruption around it.
    Included Meals: Lunch at the Le Gresine Restaurant
    On Board Activity: Captain welcome dinner, Music with the
    DeLiscious Orchestra and the Traditional music from Romagna.    Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler
    Burger joint.Traditional mask looks like Homer Simpson.Oldest Ghetto anywhere.Ghetto - a term meaning iron works.Forcula artist in his workshopGondola shop

    CIAO Venezia

    November 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    I stopped a pickpocket! A short man pressed against one of our trip members on board a crowded water bus and I spotted his hand fishing up to his pockets while his other was trying to unzip the backpack. I yelled Hey! Hey! HEY! and smacked him on the back exactly the way Megan does the dogs! Yes, I summoned my inner Megan. He looked fearfully at me and then changed his expression to poorly feigned innocence and disappeared into the crowd. It is probably what happened to Dads wallet. I spent the rest of the bus ride holding dad's backpack between me and my purse and looking around with murder in my eye. (Thanks, Megan!)Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler
    Eel fishing nets

    Recalibrating...

    November 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    On a bus. Feeling sad about leaving Venice while incredibly grateful. The delta of Italy is so like Louisiana! Except you can see the snow-capped Dolemite mountians (like the Rockies, sort of) there are flamingos and instead of shrimp and the fisheries.harvest eels, not shrimp. Hey, Megan, this is where I eels come from! I had some today. It grossed out my group but I cleaned my plate.Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler

    The good ship Artimus

    November 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Just arrived. Will update pics tomorrow. It is bigger than I thought and we have to do a lifeboat drill and have dinner with the captain. La ti da! I shall be dining with the captain this evening, Jeeves. Even the room is roomy! And an hour later... OMG. The menu. Read it. It wasn't a list of options they brought all of it for everybody plus petitions, and sherbet in champaign. Crazy!!! I sat with a couple of retired doctors and their wives. We discussed making the perfect spaghetti sauce, and now I'm enjoying live music flute and two guitars. I'm in heaven.Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler

    Roman villa found

    November 5, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    Our trip leader introduced his wife who is a mosaic artist who came here to study. For good reason. It has been a home for mosaics since Roman times. The neatest thing was an ancient Roman villa found under a parking lot with beautiful tiles, a road leading up to a front door and a marble bath. Sorry if these pics are boring. I was enthralled. I topped it with my second gellato of the day.

    RAVENNA (5TH OF NOVEMBER)
    Learning and Discovery: The City of Mosaics, San Vitale and the
    Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the Baptistery. The Tomb of Dante.
    The Domus of the Stone carpets
    Included Meals: Lunch at the I Passatelli Restaurant
    Food or drink given by your trip leader: Gelato from Papilla
    On Board Activity: Your trip leaders darkest secret    Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler
    Duck.UFOs... or jelly fish. You decide.Dantes tomb 2Dantes tomb 3Dantes tomb 4All towers here lean. Ravinia is sinking too.Miracle mosaic moves.

    3 more tombs of Dante

    November 5, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌬 17 °C

    So... remember Dantes tomb in Florence? There are 3 more here. Long story. Big rivalry. We also saw a miracle mosaic that one of our trip members swore she saw move. Beautiful day in Ravinia. So many poodles! All midsized. And a couple of Borzoi.Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler
    Honoring his grandfather who was memorialized here WWI

    Trieste (Mirza's)

    November 6, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    TRIESTE (6TH OF
    NOVEMBER)
    Local Guide: Chiara, Your Trip Leader
    Learning and Discovery: Risiera di San
    Sabba Concentration Camp, Trieste, the
    hill and the church of S. Giusto, the three
    main squares.
    Controversial Topic: Foibe massacre on Italians and today’s memory
    Drink & Food given by your trip leader: Coffee in Trieste’s oldest Caffe!
    On Board Activity: Chef Darko’s carving skills.    Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler

    Concentration camp vacay.

    November 6, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    A very sobering and sad tour of human atrocities made especially poiniant in the company of Jewish fellow passengers. Sigh. We drowned our sorrows with fancy coffee and then went shopping. I guess that sums up how we Americans deal with the past. Chief Darko carved fruits for us. A fun... but surreal end to a day witnessing suffering and the futility of war. Kinda bummed. Didn't catalog this part of the trip until I returned and got some distance.Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler
    Look closely at rock carving.

    Prian (Mirza's best sunset ever)

    November 7, 2023 in Slovenia ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    PIRAN (7TH OF NOVEMBER)
    Local Guide: Peter, Your Trip Leader
    Learning and Discovery: The little colorful city center of
    Piran, Violinist Tartini’s birth home and Cello’s concert.
    Wines of Istria. 4 season in a day xD
    Included Meals: “Light” Lunch at the Coronica Winary.
    On Board Activity: Bingo night!.    Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler
    Window fishSalt evaporation poolsBig rocks were cast against building in storm just last week.Fickle weatherArtimus in the bay from the concert room.

    Love me tender, Piran.

    November 7, 2023 in Slovenia ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Fun scanning the shore with binoculars at sunrise to see what the day would bring. Had to ride a tender... a boat that takes us from the Artimus to shore. And some more pics around town where we got poured on and squished around the rest of the day in wet shoes.Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler
    Ancient oil press.Spot the chickenJust a rock.Kitty is the farm greeter like at home.Dad and I found a cliffhanger walkway.

    The Devil Went Down to Prian

    November 7, 2023 in Slovenia ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    So, Tartini was a fencer (swords, not barbed wire) and was wounded in a duel and decided handling a sword was similar to handling a violin bow and became the Michael Jackson of his day. The story is the devil (Crowley?) said he would make him an even more spectacular voilin composer in exchange for his soul. The guy hedged and said he first wanted a sample of the devils composition before he decided, and so the devil played it for him... he turned down the devil because he memorized what he heard and composed it without losing his soul. (Then, of course, he went down to Georgia.)

    We tasted wine at another winery after a 45 minute bus ride that crossed into Croatia.

    We learned the Angel Gabriel on top of the church is both a weather vane and a lightning rod. Some kids disconnected the lightning wire and Gabriel's wing blew off. They had to get a helicopter to fix it because no one could figure out how they got it up there in the first place!

    Finished the day seeing a fabulous sunset and playing an underwhelming game of bingo in the lounge where one woman suspiciously won all three games.    Read more

  • Dana of the OzarksAngel Safari with FredTraveler

    Rovinj (Mirza's)

    November 8, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    ROVINJ (8TH OF NOVEMBER)
    Local Guide: Nada, Your Trip Leader, Suzana & Emanuel
    Learning and Discovery: Little fisherman village, the jewel
    of the Adriatic, the church of St. Eufemia, The small village of
    Bale, Olive Oil tradition in Istria
    Included Meals: Olive Oil tasting and Home Hosted Dinner    Read more

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