WRITTEN TRANSCRIPTION OF THE PODCAST:

Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková and I am an English tutor and are on this podcast I am speaking in slower English and with clear pronunciation so that you can improve your oral comprehension. Find the complete transcript, vocabulary, and comprehension quiz in the notes of the podcast.

In this episode, I will talk about last weekend because it was finally my holiday weekend and I have prepared some small quiz questions for you, so get ready!

My boyfriend and I decided to go to Venice. Venice is a city in Italy where there is a river flowing through it and you might know pictures of people riding on gondolas. I do you know the name of the city in Czech? What is it? Yes, it’s „Benátky“!

Oh, anyway we took a plane on Friday morning from Prague and landed in Venice at 7 AM. And when we got there there was a public transport strike.

What it means is that buses trams and boats were operating only at certain times and then they were not guaranteed. So you could be waiting for a bus but the bus would not come. Not the best day to be in Venice. Oh well.

It didn’t stop us from discovering Venice, walking through narrow streets – narrow means the opposite of wide and trying Italian food.

Quiz question: What do we call the style or method of cooking especially characteristic of a particular country so for example for Italy it is Pizza, pasta, and so on.

a) Italian kitchen

b) Italian Style

c) Italian cuisine

It is c) it’s Italian cuisine. Of course, we had to try pizza, lasagna, pasta with pesto, and drink a lot of Aperol.

We finished the Friday evening with a 50-minute wait for a bus that never came. So we took a train and absolutely exhausted when to sleep.

Saturday was amazing. Finally, the public transport was reliable and we could discover islands around Venice. Reliable means that you can count on the fact that for example, someone comes when they say they will come – On Saturday we went to an island called Lido. It has beautiful beaches and you feel like on a true holiday there. This was a beautiful day and we walked a lot but we also just sat around and enjoyed our rest.

On Sunday, we again were met with a problem. Because on Sunday there was an event called vogalonga. Quiz question number two. Do you know what vogalonga is?

a) Italian street food festival

b) peaceful boat protest against damage caused by motorboats

c) city music festival on boats

It is b) a peaceful boat protest against damage caused by motorboats. So again the boats were not operating on this day. Which was a pity for us because we wanted to visit islands around Venice called Murano. and Burana. But we couldn’t. The first boat operating that day was scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

Instead of that, we went to an art museum in the center of Venice. And in the evening we managed to see Murano. We were a little sad that we had to change our plans but it was beautiful anyway.

In the evening we returned to our accommodation and went to sleep. I didn’t sleep for long because I couldn’t fall asleep and we had to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a bus to the airport.

Everything went smoothly but on the bus, we found out that we forgot to do online check-in for our flight. And because we flew with an airline called WizzAir, the airport check-in was for a fee. A fee is when you pay money because you didn’t do something properly. We arrived at the airport and when to check-in. There was quite a long line and we had to wait maybe 20- 25 minutes. When we got to the counter, I was already quite stressed because we didn’t have that much time. And the lady told us that we have to pay which we knew already but…can you guess how much we had to pay?

a)13 euros each

b) 30 euros each

c) 45 euros each

It is c) 45 euros each. So 90 euros in total.

just for the check-in. That was crazy. So I was a little bit mad and sad. But it was our mistake. So learn from my mistakes and always do your check-in online if you can. And it wouldn’t be my story if something didn’t go wrong. Lesson learned…again.

Anyway, we landed in Prague and seven am and that was the end of our trip. I had a great time and finally got in some rest. Even though I was very tired physically at the end, my head was rested, and ready to go back and work with my wonderful students.

Do you have any funny stories from your holidays? Send me a message and tell me about it!

Thank you so much for listening to this episode, as always find the full transcript with the vocabulary list and comprehension quiz in the notes of the episode. If you tell about this podcast to one person you know I would be very grateful. Give it five stars on any platform you are listening to this podcast if you like it or send me a message on my Instagram when you find me @dajinka73. I will see you very soon bye.