I spent the last week in Italy. To be more precise, in Lido de Jesolo which is about 30 Km away from Venice. The reason why I was there was because my daughter was selected to take part in the World Championships of Karaté for people under 21 years which took place in this town.
We took the train from our town to Zurich Airport from where we took the plane to Venice. We then took a Taxi to reach our Hotel in Jesolo. My daughter travelled with the Swiss national team and they arrived a couple of days before us. We met her over dinner that day. Of course, we started with a pizza.
When we planned our journey, we booked the plane, the hotel and even the taxi transfer but I didn't think about booking tickets for the Championships. I realized it only a couple of days before leaving and all the tickets were sold out. Fortunately, my daughter managed to buy us tickets for the day of her competition. That was great news. It would have been awkward if we went all the way to finally watch the competition on youtube from outside the competition hall.
To qualify for this event, my daughter has worked very hard for over a year. Only one person per category can represent Switzerland and she had to get enough results from international tournaments to be able to be selected. It was therefore already a great achievement to be present at these championships.
A town of people with national team tracksuits
We quickly realized that something special was going on in Jesolo. As soon as we left the Pizzeria, we saw many groups of people being dressed in similar tracksuits. We met the French, the Croatians, Senegal, Morocco, Spain, Lithuania and some others within our first 20 minutes in the town. It was great to see all these young people from all over the world. There were 109 nations present at the event from all 5 continents. In total, more than 2000 athletes took part in the competition.
When Papas tremble and are close to heat attacks
The day after our arrival was the day when my daughter would compete. We went to the hall early and took seats close to the tatami where she would be fighting. The closer we got to the fighting time, the more nervous I became. My daughter took part in the European championships this year in Tiblisi, Georgia. It didn't go well for her because she lost her first fight there 7:0 and it was a bad experience for her. For these championships, I just hoped that she would do better. About two hours before the first fight, she left for warm up and I tried to simply tell her to enjoy the atmosphere and the experience and not to worry too much about success or failure. It's not easy to deal with such pressure when you are not even 18 years old.
The athletes lining up before the tournament starts
For the first fight, she was opposed to a girl from Luxembourg that she managed to beat earlier this year. I was asked to film her fights but when the time came, I was trembling so much that filming was a challenge. I could feel my heart beat very strongly. Then the fight started and there is nothing like it when you are a Papa and you see your daughter fight on the tatami. I'm always close to a heart attack and I have to make sure to breath very deeply and not yell like a madman...
The fight was difficult but my daughter managed to win 3-2. It was a close call, but it was a victory. Her first victory at a world championships.
In Karaté, the tournaments work similar than in tennis. You have a tree structure and if you win, you continue to the next branch. When you lose you are eliminated. The only exception is when you lose against a later finalist. In this case, you can do what is called a repêchage. After the first victory, she went to fight against a girl from Kasachstan which arrived 2nd in the Asian Championships this year. The fight started very badly. Very quickly, it was 0-2 and I was worried that the match was already over. However, my daughter gave a magnificent comeback to finally win the game 10-2. It was really an amazing performance and I was very proud of her fight.
The third fight was the round of 16 where she was opposed to the French athlete which is the number 8 in the world ranking. She had fought and lost against her once already. The fight started balanced but then my daughter caught an ippon, which is 3 points against her and she could never recover from it. She finally lost 2-10 and was then eliminated from the competition.
Happy all the same
After the experience she had in Tiblisi, my daughter was happy with the result. That is what matters most to me together with the fact that she didn't get injured.
The competition went on for 3 more days but we followed just one more day when other kids that we know were taking part. We tried to encourage them as best as possible. We even could watch the opening ceremony that took place in the middle of the tournament.
The opening ceremony
After two days in the Karaté world, we went to discover Venice
My wife and my daughter had been in Jesolo for about 3 times already. There is a yearly Karaté tournament that takes place in December. For me it was the first time that I was there and I wanted to visit Venice. With some other parents, we took the car to the Ferry station and from there we took a boat to Venice.
Picture of Venice taken from the boat
We were lucky, the weather was very nice and quite warm. When we reached Venice, it was very crowded. We just went from one place the next without much of a concept. We strolled around and took some pics. Stopped for a coffee or two and had lunch in a nice little restaurant.
In Venice, tourists are everywhere
I was surprised by the size of the city. I didn't imagine that it was that big. I knew about the water, the Gondolas and all that stuff but I had no idea about the size of it all.
There was one Gondola after the other on this channel. The ride costs about 90 Euro.
We walked around for about 5 hours without seeing much of the city. We got lost in some places but thanks to google we found our way back. After a while of walking through the town, the kids got tired and we stopped for another cup of coffee and an ice cream for the kids. We sat on a nice terrace but when we saw the menu, we all got up and went somewhere else. One cup of coffee was sold for 10 Euros! The day before, we paid 1.5 Euro for a coffee in Jesolo....
There are many nice terraces in Venice but it might be a good idea to check the menu prices before sitting down...
I was impressed by the whole geographical situation of Venice. The town is in the middle of a Laguna that is almost closed by islands and banks. It's an amazing place and there is so much history that was written in these streets and these water channels. It's definitely worth a visit.
All photos were taken by myself
With @ph1102, I'm running the @liotes project.
Please consider supporting our Witness nodes:
