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This could be the moment many of you have been waiting for: the story of my time at Carnevale Venencia 2010. Before I give an account of my adventure, let me preface it with I'm freaking exhausted.
Friday: Our train leaves from Rome at 10.30 PM. This is where the first story begins. As we are boarding the Metro-train to get to the train station, the doors close on two fine feathered women that were traveling with us. I wish you could have seen their faces as they were about to be left behind. I laughed at them, trying to open the doors. Don't worry though, the doors opened again and we were off to Termini: one of the Roman train stations.
On our way to Venice! Because we bought our tickets later than others, Catherine, Courtney, and I sat separate from the group. But, we sat with other students, nonetheless. This is where the second story begins. The trains are separated into carriages--6 seats each; 3 seats facing the 3 other seats. Catherine, Courtney, and I sat on one side (after I talked, inefficiently in Italian, to an old woman who was in the wrong seat). Following us, three other students walked in, continued to talk inefficiently in Italian to the old woman, successfully convincing her and her husband that they were in the wrong seats. Sitting down across of us, they were clearly just a bit tipsy. All was well until they didn't come close to shutting their mouths. Not to mention, Girl A was all over the Dude, and Girl B, sitting on the other side of Girl A (and therefore not in contact with Dude) was clearly wanting in on the action. But, I think they were all satisfied when somehow, they were all cuddling together: Girl A and Dude enjoying a kiss here and there, and Girl B and Dude enjoying their hands caressing their hands. Anyway, it was a night train so I tried sleeping through the night. However, this proved difficult when Girl A did not understand the concept of high pitched voice is a bothersome. Hell, one time, she freaking woke me up just to tell me it was 4:30. You gotta be shittin' me.
We arrived in Venice at 5:30 AM. None of us got much sleep. When we all met up off of the train, we stood in a circle. I don't know exactly what we were doing, but it was as if we were waiting for something magical to happen at 5:30 in the morning. Fat chance. "So what do we do now?" I asked. We laughed. Then I asked seriously. We walked 10 yards, and assumed the circle position again. I cannot tell you how many times we walked a few feet only to assume the circle position..."This is going to be a long day."
We walked into the train station. Before I write anymore, I have to explain something about Italians. I'm not sure what is wrong with them, but for some reason, they are totally okay with indoors being cold enough to make ice out of water. My point: we were tired and cold, and there was no where for us to go to at least warm up. Grr. Also, our original returning train was scheduled to leave Venice at 9 AM on Sunday morning; sounds fine, but we didn't have a hostel. We decided it would be a good idea to try and change it to an earlier time given the slight chance we really would freeze to death. Thank God, we succeeded. We were going to leave at 3.11 AM Sunday morning.
To pass time, we went to a Bar that was luckily open and got some Cappuccino and what not. O we made friends with a dude from Montana. His name was Brian. That's all I know about him.
The day begins. We walked all the hell over Venice. It is a remarkable city. And it was especially beautiful in the morning with hardly anyone else walking around. The water is so peaceful, and the many bridges definitely add to the overall beauty of the city.
Time went on, and we decided to spare some more hours in another caffe. We all sat down (6 of us). Four of us ordered--Catherine and I did not. Well, "no drink no pay", the overly nice Italian barista told us (kidding about the overly nice part...). So, we ventured to walk around outside nearby, and we would just meet up when done.
Good joke! We didn't see anyone in our group until about 8.30 that night. It was an awesome day. But, let me say, multiple times, I would say to Catherine: "You know, they have our tickets. This could be really, really bad." Luckily, they ran into other students who had my number and so we were able to hook up.
Anyway... the day... A lot of walking around, enjoying the amazing view of the Adriatic Sea with the distant sight of Basilicas, boats, other islands. Sitting at the dock was so peaceful. We loved it. It was incredible that in the distance, separated by water, you would see a massive dome and know it as a church. So sweet. We also watched some mimes in the center Piazza where the majority of the Carnevale stuff was occurring. I cannot come close to describing how weird it was; but I can also not justify why I was addicted to watching them! Catherine thought I was weird. Oh, and Dad, multiple times, Catherine said to me: "You are a 20 year old version of your dad," and also "You know, I have not come close to meeting anyone like you before. You are such a different person." Thanks, Dad... O man, we laughed so much throughout the day.
Now, one fundamental feature of Carnevale is, hopefully you won't be surprised: masks! The costumes and the masks were so awesome! Che bellissima! I loved seeing them. And they all entered into character: those dressed up would end up having to stand still (but still in character, it was awesome!) as people flocked to take pictures. I was mesmerized, over and over again, at how sweet all of the costumes were! "O look at that!" "O wow! Look babe!" "Ah, that one is one of my favorites! See it?" I talked Catherine's ears off. I don't know how she does it.
We also went into the Basilica of Saint Mark (he's the patron of the city): I loved this church. The mosaics were outstanding. Moreover, it's arcuated architecture was fascinating: the many domes filled with gold and mosaics depicting scenes from Scripture, the Christ, and saints, were so pushing at the heart to think of the Divine. Catherine and I made it to Mass that night. To my surprise, there was a choir and they were exceptional! I think most of their singing was acapella. I cannot begin to explain how beneficial and proper it is to have the right kind of music at Mass. The liturgy is a place to enter into Communion with the Lord: it is so important that the environment, therefore, is fitting in such a way that it pushes the whole of the human person toward prayerful looking above. So, I loved the church.
After dinner and Mass, we ended up meeting up with the rest of the group we walked around. Fire show. It was so cool! They had crazy cool music being played, and on the center stage, they had guys and gals playing with fire. There is now way the show had any meaning, but it was so entertaining. They were throwing fire balls, dancing on stilts with fire, playing fire rods and sticks, and, this I thought was the coolest: pouring fire! They had tea pots that must've been filled with kerosine or something, and they would hold a flame at the tip and pour: then they would be dancing around in circles pouring fire on the stage! So freakiinnnggg sweet.
The night also included a DJ, and this necessarily meant dancing. Let me say this: I got into it. At one point, I taught Catherine how to paint the sky and stomp on the earth. Morgan said, "I've never seen you at a disco", to which I replied, "You haven't seen nothing yet." "That's what I was worried about!" Dancing was so much fun. I think I'm going to have to go to a disco this weekend or something. That got my heart bumpin in rhythm, and my ass shakin' to the bass.
Now the real story starts. So, it's about midnight, and the night is slowing down (at least the public Carnevale was). So, we decided to begin our hike to the bus stop, to take us to the train station across the bridge. When we got to the train station, by now there were two elements that defined us: "tiredness" and "coldness". When we got to the train station, we were obviously let down because the Italians like everything freaking freezing. But that's okay, we can wait in the waiting room. O no, wait, the waiting room is closed. O that's okay, we'll just go to a near by caffe, get a coffee and wait. O no, God doesn't like us that much. We were going to sit and freeze. That was not settling with me. It was about 1 AM (maybe just a few minutes before). That mean we would have to wait, outside in the cold for like 2+ hours. So, we all walked around the train station looking for something, until we found something! One of the rooms was filled with homeless; it was warm! But the cops came and kicked everyone out. Shit. We continued to look. Walking past a construction type of thingy, I walked through it because it was clear that there were stores under the construction (picture construction on a big building, but the stores on the first floor are still open). I found a door that was supposed to be locked and, it turns out God loved us because it was actually open!
This is what it was. It was an apartment building, but to get into the apartment building required two doors. You know, it was like one door that leads to another one that is the real entrance? Anyway, we ended up sitting, all huddled up in a corner of a room with a dirty floor trying to stay warm. Some of us got some sleep, some of us got no sleep. It got cold. It was the best thing we had. I was homeless for like 2 hours.
We laughed and are still laughing. If only you could have seen us...
Then a 6-7 hour train ride home. I can't wait for a real night of sleep. I haven't had one since Thursday night...
I just wrote a novel. Love you all! It was a hilarious trip: we've been talking and laughing about it all day. Peace! Hopefully pictures tomorrow.
sounds great! and hysterical! wish i was a fly on the wall. cant wait to see the pictures! love you and keep having fun!
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