I finally took a much needed vacation. It was split between two events.
The first event was helping out a few friends at a glass sale they were holding. It was great! Two days of troubleshooting point-of-sale computers and helping out the general public. A great time was had by all and a lot of hard work paid off for both me and my friends.
The second event was a bit larger. I took an inaugural trip to Murano, Italy. Yep, you read it right, I went to the islands. Now, one would think that it would be all fun and games. You would be wrong. The aforementioned glass sale was a lot of 5:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. days, so I was a bit tired from those. So, sleep played a major part of the trip.
I was contacted by a friend to check if I'd be willing to take a bag to Murano for a friend of hers. (The friend was grossly over the 50 pound bag limit a week before I left.) I said, "Sure."
Airport to airport to airport, I finally reached the Venice airport. After collecting the bags and waiting a few minutes for the mysterious bag owner, she greeted me with the greatest (and I mean greatest) hug I have ever received. After a quick "Hi, how are you?", we left off to the boat bus.
Now, you might be questioning the idea of a boat bus. In the island of Venice, Murano, Burano and others, everything is boat based. There is no need of a car, in fact, if you had one, it would be useless. There are boats for everything. If you can imagine it as a boat, it exists.
Now, I should be awestruck of an island of glass people, but unfortunately, I was a bit "ah, duh" from lack of sleep. Throughout the week, I had a few things to do: take a murrini class (the reason I was there), meet up with Afro (a glass blowing friend who lives on the island) and try to spend some time with Amy (the mysterious bag lady). Only one of the three items I feel was accomplished, taking a murrini class. Afro wasn't there at his studio when I dropped in the couple of times. And, Amy or I was too busy for any real hang-out time. This has a simple solution... I'm going back to Murano.
The class was great. It had a slow start, but met my expectations nearer to the end. It was held in the studios of Lucio Bubacco, an Italian flameworking glass maestro. Lucio was a great host. He made sure that everyone had everything they needed. The class was a Loren Stump murrini making course. We chose to do a picture of Murano (and make it authentic Murano). When it was all said and done, we got the whole thing to about 3/4 of the way done before class was over. A bit disappointing that we didn't complete it, but the class was still great.
Now, looking at things from the rear, I needed to spend more time in Italy. Everything seemed so rushed (because it really was). There was very little time, if any, for "fun". Everything seemed so scripted, making sure I was here, or there, at a certain time. As I mentioned above, I will be going back for a "fun" trip.
