Carnevale!!

So sorry for the late blogging but I have been very busy!! This weekend my roomates and I teamed up with some of the boys and traveled to Venice for Carnevale! Everyone told me before I left, if I go to Venice you have to go during Carnevale, so I did! We figured it would be best to try to take the train because flying could be a hassle trying to get cabs to our hotels etc so we decided on a night train. Now this was also when we had a hostel reservation. After we made the reservation, the company changed management and dropped ours, so it was a fiasco trying to find a new one, but we did luckily with some help! Anyways, we left at 10 at night and took the night train to Venezia, arriving at 5:00am. At first I was excited because it was like the cars in Harry Potter with seats facing each other in little cabins. That excitement wore off very quickly when we realized we were going to be in the cabin with a random Italian and our seats sat straight up with legs running into each other. Our fantasy train ride was pretty awful but we made it there in one piece, with very little sleep for fear of having anything stolen and not to mention the minimal comfort factor. We arrived at 5 am and walked around the terminal with nothing open. Chrissy and I went to check in our hotel which they allowed, but they said our room wasn't ready yet and since nothing would be open til 9 we headed back to the train station to camp out. Luckily by 5:30 McDonalds had gotten its act together so we sat there and just chatted and fell asleep like homeless people in the fast food joint. Finally at 7:30 we tried again and were allowed in. We went up and freshened up and rather than wasting the day we headed into Venice. We were staying in Mestre which is a 5-8 minute train ride. Walking out of the train station is a wild view because there is a large bridge and a river in front of you with boat, beautiful colored buildings and no cars. That was definitely one of the best parts of my trip was no cars. We walked everywhere and no motor vehicles added character to the already interesting sinking city. Our main goal was to buy masks to wear for the day for Carnevale!! But one our way we did some sightseeing and stopped at the Rialto Bridge which had a beautiful view.

After that we kept looking for masks and I of course was indecisive and was the last to decide, but when I finally did it was totally worth it and I love my mask. I wanted to make sure that I knew it was made in Venice and was handmade so I had the lady who made it sign it! She thought I was crazy and protested because she wasn't famous but I don't care. After finding masks we looked at the Friars church which is the resting place of Titian and painter and also the home of the Ascension by him. Being in the presence of such works is always very humbling. Then we made it to Piazza San Marco. It is beautiful and so many people were walking around along with pigeons and people dressed fully in costume. We walked all through Saint Marc's church which was covered in gold mosaics and then we went to the museum and saw the original horses that are on top that apparently have traveled the world over centuries. From the top of Saint Marc's there is a beautiful view of the sea so we stopped for some photos.

Then we did the Doje's Palace which is right next to San Marc's and its huge! It holds the largest oil painting in the world which was pretty impressive, especially since its so old its hard to believe no one has outdone it. After this we were cold and exhausted since we decided we didn't need a nap but we trucked through. We went out to dinner with the boys near the canal which was nice but nothing too exciting. Carnevale was the best part of the day because everyone weird comes out then. People were in full costume with no skin showing and no one talks in costume. They also move very slowly and elegantly which actually really creeped me out especially since I was afraid of things like that when I was younger ( and still a little now). Some people were in all black cloaks and these large white masks with white beaks, and there were a lot of them almost in a parade which to be honest was very very scary. I preferred the more colorful people in hoopskirts but I guess whatever floats your boat! Day two will be posted soon!