I went onto the Net to check. On the 1st of December 2008, Venice experienced its worst flooding in 20 years.
"Sirens sounded across Venice yesterday as flooding submerged 95 per cent of the city and left tourists in St Mark’s Square thigh-deep in water.
The highest water levels in more than 20 years paralysed services. Elderly residents were carried to high ground and some people took to the piazzas in inflatable dinghies.
The flooding was compounded by a national transport strike, which affected the Venice vaporetto or water bus service. Giancarlo Galan, the head of the Veneto region, said that the workers had chosen a bad time to strike. “I’d like to give them a medal for their sense of responsibility,” he said sarcastically."
I can't imagine myself trying to stay dry by waiting on one of the tables for a few hours till the water subsides....
Or wadding through the knee high waters.....
Or chilling out with the locals with some good wine and a pair of sturdy Wellington boots.
Today's forecast of the water levels for the next few days. It's still water everywhere.My travel companions and I were seriously not looking forward to this trip since the news. Not only was Venice covered in water most of the time, the transports caught the 'on-strike' fever too.
Two weeks after the high Aqua Alta, the day we were supposed to fly approached. All of us had doubts in our hearts if the trip was worth going or not. M mentioned that this was the only trip which she hadn't felt excited about, which was very true for me as well.
We checked in early at the counter. I realised that the number of passengers checking in with us were fewer than usual.
Being not very enthusiastic about the trip, we took our time to eat at Burger King before lining up for the security check point.
The normal queue was extremely long and it wasn't moving at all. I didn't have a watch therefore, wasn't very aware of the time. With the announcement calling for passengers to Venice, we started to panic and made the decision to go back up and buy the Fast track ticket.
Ran back down to queue in the Fast track, there were about 15 people in front of us and only 2 counters working. We desperately tried asking the security personnels if they could let us go through first as our flight was leaving in 10 minutes and yet, they were letting passengers going to Barcelona pass through but asked us to stay in the queue.
'Don't worry, your flight will wait for you. Others here are in the same boat as you so, you'll have to stay in the queue'
How unfair! Just because the Barcelona flight was provided by Easyjet and ours by Ryanair.
We asked another lady at the counter prior to the x-ray machines to let us through quicker but she said:' There's nothing we can do. If your flight leaves, then you can file a complaint to the airport'
How rude was that?
We ran all the way to Gate 42 but was told that we were 5 minutes late and the pilot has off-loaded us. The plane was still there, right in front of us but the pilot wouldn't allow us to board!
Disappointment filled me but unexpectedly, a small sense of relief mixed in with it. One of my friend was really disappointed but I didn't know why I was all calm and wasn't really affected by it. I guess my heart wasn't in going to Venice all this while.
Shortly after, an Italian lady arrived panting with her face all red and she was begging to be let onto the plane as she was going to see her son. Another large group of youngsters arrived after and they did complain a lot.
We were escorted back to the immigration counter and back to the Departures. We enquired when was the next flight and it was on a Monday when we were supposed to be back. So, there wasn't anyway where we could have savaged our holiday.
Ryanair's service was really bad as we could only write to claim back the airport taxes and fuel charges which we have paid for not being able to board. They then pushed us to the airport authorities to deal with our complaint.
We spoke to the airport staff and the only thing which the lady at the counter could offer was to send in a compliant letter for us. Hopefully, we can get some refunds back and cut loss.
What's the point in buying a Fast Track ticket when we couldn't make it in time for our plane??? What M noticed as well was, there was still at 17.5% VAT tax for it. That's criminal.
M's friend offered to pick us us from the airport and drove us back home. We managed to cancel our hotel booking but was still charged for the first night. Another problem to settle was the Venice card which I have booked online as it was non-refundable.
To drown all our sorrows, we played Monopoly again, sang songs, and chatted the night away.
I guess it's just fated that we were not meant to visit Venice this time. Let's just hope that my Budapest trip will be smooth sailing and this time, I'm going to be at the airport really early.
The only photo for this 'trip'.
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