Dear Irina!

Dear Irina! This is our fourth day in this amazing city. It is unbelievable how much beauty surrounds us. But you know it is also heart-breaking to see and to know, that this was once a living place. People explored the streets of Venice, and instead of the submarine-gondolas of today, real gondolas were floating around in the water, like those on old paintings and photos. You can find several of these if you draw up the keyword from the System. You should really think over to these, because they appear in really high quality, with spatial dimensional renovations on the screen of your helmet. You wouldn’t believe it, but I actually saw a real one, of course just from under water, when the taxi brought us to our floating platform.

It was floating on the middle of a billionaire’s luxury platform. No wonder, they’re the only ones who can afford such a rarity these days. Abdul is also really excited. He already went running in the morning to the park under our hotel-tower. You know that he can’t stand even two days without doing any sports. There is maybe one thing that positively changed since the huge city reconstruction: the city is much greener, with many parks, which I adore. The city is full of birds, you can hear the chittering everywhere, which could not be said of the old Venice. I thought about it, and the System barely found data. From the many memoirs of Casanova it only found one place, where it mentioned that there were once singing-birds here. Just some pigeons, but that was also very long ago. All in all, it was not very typical, but now there are so many birds, it feels like a center for ornithology.

The swimming-city is incredibly comfortable. We travel between the floating platforms with submarine-vaporettos, along with the locals who are going to work to the tower, and are very friendly to us. We went out for dinner at night by taxi and on our way home we made a circle around the old town. You can see a lot under water from the hotel as well, the walls, the former ports, but it is still very different to saunter through by taxi. It is so romantic to swim through the jagged streets. Even though years have passed, Abdul was holding my hand the entire time, we were just like two lovebirds. It seems like Venice is able to move even the rusting hearts. On the first day we saw a beautiful view from the floating platform second from ours. The pictures and murals of Carpaccio were hanging from the ramp, it was just like the old Museum in Central Park, the old monument where we once went to together during our college years.

The murals of Carpaccio were lifted out from the wall just before the last tsunami came, covering everything. It’s unbelievable what treasures were destroyed, that’s why the very smallest thing that they managed to bring to a floating platform in time is so precious. Before the exhibition we went to register to at the check-in point. Since the Register was set up, this is a bit difficult everywhere, but the Italians top everyone. They are so incredibly bureaucratic; a 20 second long administration takes up 15 minutes here. By the way there are so many cultural programs, the visit of Anne IV excited the entire city. People are still actually religious here. They supposedly marched with real old type candles from one platform to the other at the time of the Easter procession. They were even allowed to pollute the air with smoke. Since the pope fled to Bamberg, this was the first time she returned back to Italy. At the reception they told us, that Anne IV is just as gracious and empathetic in daily life, as strict she is regarding politics. She is also staying at our platform, which does show something. Our Hotel is quite nice, but I wouldn’t say that it is luxurious at all.

It is pretty good however, that the platform generates all of the energy itself, and therefore the prices are quite low. But I’m just chatting around here. What do I know about politics? Besides, since the System was unified, everything became so simple. I just wish that there weren’t so many poor people. Even here, on some of the platforms, you can meet people who are so poor, that they are either being sent to the moon, or for some reason, possibly family issues, they are temporarily let back. It is better not to look at their faces, so much sadness reflects from them. They just sit around in front of ramps’ restaurants and stores and wait. For who knows what… But my dearest Irina, how about you? How are you? Did the orange harvest take place yet? Do you still have your farm in Vladivostok? Has Greg’s new venous system been incorporated? Has he calmed down? It would be so wonderful if next year, on your 125th birthday, we could be here together again, just like when we were little girls of age 25, when Mom and Dad were still with us.