It’s well and truly autumn in New Zealand. This weekend we turned back the clocks (and I can’t tell you how wonderful that extra hour was) but at the very same time, temperatures plummeted like crazy. Farewell, long hot summer – it was nice knowing you.
On the plus side, at least T shouldn’t be sweating buckets on our wedding day, though I might be slightly blue from cold…
I swear it gets colder every winter, and that much harder to endure. The days are still pretty warm – and as I look outside right now, there’s not a cloud to be seen anywhere – yet now, towards the start and end of the day, I can now see my breath in front of me in any given room at home. I’m so glad we won’t be spending another winter in this house.
Make that: I’m glad I won’t be suffering through a whole winter this year. Instead, we’ll be hauling our backpacks around Europe, and probably experiencing temperatures neither of us have ever experienced before. Italy and Greece will likely be sweltering; our first stop in that region should be Venice (hopefully we can find a hotel with a strong fan or good AC). I’m very much looking forward to being immersed in all things Italian, from the historic cities to the countryside (where we’ll be volunteering for a few weeks).
Speaking of anticipation, I’m also (somewhat impatiently) awaiting a response from the proprietors of a lodge on Santorini, who replied to my booking and deposit payment with an email informing me that the (insanely low) listed prices were wrong, but they’d split the difference with me. I asked them to confirm the total balance payable at that rate, but haven’t heard back yet. They do say things shut down around Easter (this all happened just before Good Friday) so maybe they’re simply on a long break. Here’s hoping.
It`s weird picturing that you´re awaiting winter, while we`re waiting for summer.. Santorini sounds amazing! hope it all goes well!:-)
I wouldn’t recommend staying at Hotel Domus Cavanis in Venice. We had a pretty bad experience there last summer. In at least one couple’s room the AC wasn’t working and there’s no front desk service so it felt like staying in an abandoned hotel for the most part. But aside from that, it was really the mosquitoes that did me in. When we entered our room for the first time, I was attacked! By about 10 of them! In about 5 minutes time, I had these huge bites appearing all over my legs and arms. And I don’t get the little dime-sized bites from mosquitoes but the huge baseball sized ones so it was pretty epic. All of the windows were wide open so we immediately shut them but it was too late! There were about 30 mosquitoes that we killed in the bathroom alone throughout the night and the next morning. Some of them we would smack against the wall and they left behind a stain of blood. My blood! For the 2 nights that we were there I slept with my head under the covers, tucked in like a mummy because if I put my head out I heard mosquitoes buzzing by my ears and it really creeped me out. Showering was also pretty traumatic as well. So.. yeah, not one of the more pleasant memories from our trip lol but still very memorable. Aside from the mosquitoes, Venice is lovely though!