Carnevale
We were up at porta fiorentina at 6 am to get the bus. The USAC students all chipped in so that we could get a bus there and back, which since about 50 of us went was much cheaper than the train or flying. Anyway we get there at 6, hop on the bus and start our godfather marathon. Yep, all 3. Though most people only saw the first since by the second people had started waking up and talking. We had to go through a pass to get to Venice and it was a lot like going to school except the trees on the pass weren’t green which made it very weird. The Southwest students were fascinated though. We stopped at a rest stop over the pass for a half-hour or so and got breakfast/lunch and bathrooms since the one on the bus was broken. And then it was off to Verona, where we were stopping for a couple of hours to break up the ride.
In Verona we were let loose and Caitlin and I went to see Juliet’s balcony. You can also tag the wall leading into that area and we made a little USAC heart where the USAC students signed. We also went to a castle and one of the prettier bridges and took pictures. Otherwise it was pretty crazy, there was a little market and confetti and people had silly putty and a few people were dressed up. The problem was getting back to the bus Caitlin and I were cut off by a parade. We kept trying to find a place to cross and almost ended up crossing in front of the tv camera’s until we saw them. We did finally make it across and weren’t the last people to the bus. Though we did get confetti on the way.
From there it was about an hour to Venice. We dropped off most of the students at this campsite on the mainland (so glad we weren’t staying there, everyone who stayed there mentioned how cold the weather was, and we didn’t even notice that it got that cold.) The bus dropped the last 13 of us off at a train station and we all got tickets for going onto the island which were like 1 euro. From there Caitlin, Maggie and I just walked straight to our hostel, Which was maybe 500 meters from the train station. Everyone else had to figure out what bus to take to get to the island their hostels were on. Ours wasn’t the nicest place to stay but it worked perfectly for our needs. It’s called Archie’s House and Archie greeted us to get us checked in, give us a map and tell us where to eat. The Map also had where to catch busses to go to different places.
The Hostel was tolerably clean, well it wasn’t as clean as you would except a place you were staying in to be, but it wasn’t gross. Though the shower scared us and we didn’t use it. But we locked up our stuff and headed out to see Venice.
It was dark by the time we got out to start walking around but we met up with some other USAC students right away, and managed to recognize them even though they were already wearing masks. Everyone wears masks out during Carnevale, which was super awesome. But our little USAC group moved very slowly (I think if they hadn’t met up with us they would never have made it out of the area right by the train station) but we slowly moved towards San Marco, or St. Petersburg if you were MJ, one of the guys from USAC. We had someone constantly explaining to the people he would talk to that’s not what we were looking for he was just confused. We actually ended up having McDonalds that night since we had gotten in late and a lot of the bars (coffee shop type places, they are called bars here but they aren’t what you would think of as a bar) were closed already. No Panini (sandwich) for us. But it worked and we did make it to san Marco ( at least a half hour longer than it should have taken us to get there. ) Here there were a lot of people in costume, and you can just go up to someone in costume and ask to take a picture with them. At this point Maggie and I still didn’t have masks though Caitlin had found an inexpensive one she liked already. We were pretty much the only two in our group that didn’t have them yet. John Scott had a lovely butterfly one. Very secure in his masculinity. So while they were taking pictures with a Jedi we went to a little shop in an alley and bought some. Maggie’s was purple with a lot of silver glitter, mine was black with gold glitter, but it had a veil pinned on it with a fabric rose and some feathers. So we went back and joined the others and it took Caitlin a minute to recognize me. All a sudden she is sitting there going ‘OMG YOUR ERIKA’. After that I went over to the main board to read what the events going on were. That night there were people in costume dancing the tango. But walking back to the group one of the people who was really into the photography aspect saw me and asked to take my picture!
That was about all we did that night, though we wandered around a bit more the night life was pretty dead on Friday night. However we had a nice warm hostel to go to right there on the island and everyone else still had to get home.
The next day I got up about an hour earlier than Maggie and Caitlin and went out to the fruit market outside, actually first I walked around a met up with some other USAC students briefly and went to a coffee shop and got a cafelatte and pasta (pastry). It was so affordable compared to some of the cities I have been to lately but more on that later. It also made it very obvious I studied in Italy since I could see people looking in considering but deciding against looking slightly confused. There don’t tend to be chairs and tables in all the bars and if there are they aren’t used in the morning because there is an extra charge if you use them. I was the only non Italian in there.
But then I went to the fruit market and got some blood oranges and strawberries for breakfast. Within just the last couple week’s strawberries have come into season and they are excellent.
From there I went back to our place to pick up Maggie and Caitlin. And my mask, I stood out without a mask on the street. Once we were all up and moving we went to the train station very slowly. On the way Caitlin got a tricorn hat with a veil and a mask to go with it. I ended up getting a cape to wear with mine. We figure we are set for Halloween. And we fit in with the crowd perfectly. This was all on the way to get our bus ticket, where we got a 24-hour pass one. Since it was about 12:30 and by 1 the next day we had to be back at the train station it was pretty much perfect for our needs. We also stopped and got Maggie’s face painted since she wanted to wear glasses that day and they didn’t work with the mask. There were lots of people with face paint as well. While we were doing that someone else asked if they could get a picture with me. But some of the costumes walking around were spectacular. It really makes Halloween seem like a sad holiday.
From there we ditched some stuff in our room and headed out to Murano to see some glass blown. Stopping to get a Panini on the way, and it was the cheapest we had ever seen in a bigger city. We actually got to that bus stop no problems since I recognized a bit from when were in Venice last time. It was a pretty short trip over and we walked around to see the glass blown. After that we went into several shops just to see what they were selling.
After that we took the bus (ferry) to San Marco and let me tell you it was crazy. Everyone was at least wearing a mask or dressed up completely, people were shoulder to shoulder and over the bridge where you could see the bridge of sighs from there were police to keep people moving, it was an insane bottle neck. We literally had to hold on to each other to keep together in the square, look away for a minute and you will never find your people again. We got in line to go up the bell tower. And by line I mean mass of shoving people. It’s kind of like the end of a game of sardines where you are all stuffed in the closet or something. That’s what it was like except that these are complete strangers and there was shoving involved. We did get up in the end, which was fun but after that you have to go back down again. Which we did and got in ‘line’ to go into the church. It was super pretty and all gold inside.
After that we took a ferry up to the train station. We had just found out that Monday mornings class was canceled so Caitlin wanted to go up and visit the family she stayed with last time she was in Italy. Maggie and I browsed in the shops while she did that.
After that we went to our room to get more warm clothes. Then we took the bus down to the rialto, we were passed by the ghost busters on the way, complete with a boom box playing their theme song. There was a restaurant by the Rialto that Archie said had super good seafood and was also affordably priced. And apparently a local hangout. Amongst other we had to squeeze past a giant caterpillar. We ate there and then went back to our place to drop Caitlin off since she had an early train in the morning. Then Maggie and I hit the streets.
There was a much bigger nightlife on Saturday night. The streets were coated with confetti; you couldn’t see the bricks anymore. And there were stands for drinks and such everywhere, including hot wine, which it took me a bit to convince Maggie to try. But it was very similar to the hot-spiced wine we get in Leavenworth. We wandered around for a while since there was pretty much a party going in every square. And since we were on the island we had the option of sleeping in and still doing things in the morning.
We got up and were moving around nine, though Caitlin left at 6:30 for her train. We checked out and then headed over to the Jewish district, dating back to the early 1500s and the first Ghetto. From there we wandered seeing some things like the best preserved gothic architecture in Venice before taking the bus down the canal. At the side opposite San Marco there were some women giving a concert of some oldies which we listened to for awhile and then started walking around. We got to a bus stop that would take us around to the train station and waited for about 20 min watching some medieval people get into different poses on a pier nearby for pictures. When the boat didn’t come we got up and cut through the island to get back to the bus stop we got off at and catch one up the canal. On the way a little boy who didn’t even make it up to my knees saw us both wearing masks and shouted MASCQUARADE before turning to his mom to get confetti to shower on us. Unfortunately he wasn’t quite big enough to get us but my boots got confetti. We got to the station and had to catch our train away from the island and back to Viterbo (which looked like it had a good time when we finally got there). All 12 of the hostel people made it back and got to wait in the sun for the late bus. It also meant we all got window seats since it was only 10 out of 50 that got on first. Then we picked up the campsite people and were on our way. I admit I slept most of the way back but we did get one rest stop again. We pretty much crashed hard core when we got back to our place.
And that was my Carnevale weekend.