I was very looking forward to this trip to Venice, not because it was my first time in this city, but also because I do not know much about italian LEOs. Italy is a huge country (with something like 4.000 LEOs in lots of lots of clubs) and I knew that there will be around 600 LEOs on one place. That’s crazy. In comparison: Austria has around 350 LEOs in total.
Okay, so let’s start from the beginning. My train to Villach (via Salzburg) left at 6:45 in Wels and I got to Villach at around 11am. The so called „InterCity Bus“ to Venice left Villach at 12:45 so I had some time to walk around Villach and explore the center of it. Actually I have never been there before, the weather was super and I was in travel-chillout-mode. So I walked around ab it and really enjoyed it.
Venice
After another 3hrs bus-ride to Venice Mestre and 15 minutes walk I finally arrived the hotel and my room. Pretty cool thing, because I had something like 2 more hours to chill-out before the evening-program started. So I used the time for coffee, chilling in the room and working on my presentation for the next day.
The party itself took place in a sort of disco/restaurant combo and after nice italian food the crowd got dancing like wild. LEOs where everywhere even on the tables. So yeah! That was a great start into a new LEO country on my list.
At 1am my time had come. It was a long and exciting day and I needed some rest. I also needed to gain some energy for the trip through Venice, my talk and the gala-night on Saturday.
Venice, day 2
After really shitty weather on Friday we left the hotel at around 10:30 with sunshine and blue sky. What a wounderful day for a trip through – I guess the most crowded place I’ve ever been – the town of love.
So let’s start with a boat trip on the famous canale grande right through the whole inner city to the island „Murano“ where we had an appointment in Murano Lab, the place where this world-famous Murano-Glass is being produced.
Murano-Glass
To be honest: I really did not know this company, but as far as I got to know, many others do – all around the world. We got some great insights of how their products are being produced and could actually try glass-blowing by our own. That was funny 🙂
http://www.muranoglass.com/de/ After getting back to Venice we started our sightseeing-trip through millions of these small and narrow streets. It was fascinating, because there were millions of tourists around, turn two times and there were nobody. Really crazy – and really exciting.
Back to the hotel I had some time to prepare my talk about The LEO Book – which was the greatest thing for me on this national convention. Unfortunately there are no pictures about me talking to the crowd, but as soon I get some, I’ll post them here.
It was an amazing feeling talking about my project and giving Lions and LEOs insights about what I will be doing. I really enjoyed it and I’m so thankful that I got the opportunity to talk about it in front of so many people.
Here is a panorama shot of the listeners
In the evening I attended the official part – the closing ceremony – which happened right before the gala dinner. I did not understand any word they were saying, but it was really impressive to see how they celebrate their clubs and national rules.
My ride home, especially through the alps was really stunning. Listening to good music, chilling out in first class seats and editing photos from the trip.
Overall it has been really a great trip and I definitely enjoyed it. I got to know super motivated, lovely, happy, friendly and inspirative people and I’m really looking forward visiting them during my LEO book as well on next year’s convention.
Thanks for this experience!