Carnivale!

The weekend was spent wearing masks, dancing in St Marcs square, gondola rides, costumes, water everywhere, and good friends.
We woke up early friday morning and were on our train at 8:30 am. We stopped in Bologna, switched trains in 4 minutes (sprinting) and made it on our second train to Venice. We brought breakfast scones, croissants, and some mimosas for the train ride and had a great few hours chatting and eating yummy food.
We didnt stay in the actual island of Venice, but on the mainland, in a part called Mestre. After a bit of confusion and wondering around, we found the bus stop and were able to get to our hotel easily enough. We stayed in a three star hotel for the same price as most hostels. I shared the entire top floor with 4 other girls. It had two rooms and a bathroom in it, it was lovely. Eight other people that we were traveling stayed in the same hotel with us, so we all got ready for the entire evening and headed out to Venice. The group got separated, but sometimes that is a blessing, and it was. Traveling with six of us was much easier than trying to travel with 12. I was with Kiki, Chloe, Laura, Sean and Keagan. We took the bus to the train station, and a one euro train ride from Mestre to Venice. When we arrived in Venice, we got on a water taxi which took us right to St. Marcs square. St. Marcs was PACKED. There were thousands of people there, everywhere. Most were people like us, looking fairly normal, but wearing masks or face paint. Every few steps however there would be people completely decked out in full blown costumes. Amazing dresses, face paint/make up, wigs and head pieces. The people there really do it big for the holiday and it was so fun for us to see. We made our way to a restaurant and got pizzas. They were delicious, of course. Its hard to go anywhere here and order a pizza and not be completely satisfied with it. We left there and went out for more exploring. It was easy to be entertained there. All we did was walk around and observe and there was so much to see. We met up with everyone else we had originally been traveling with, and walked around with them. Some shopped for masks, some got face paint, and some of us just sat there on a bench by the water marveling at the crazy sight in front of us. There were couples walking around everywhere that were completely dressed from head to toe in huge costumes. Even better, others who didnt dress in the classic Carnivale style wore costumes like it was Halloween. There were little kids everywhere dressed up. Even kids our age and adults dressed up in Halloween type costumes.
We went to a bar for a bit, then headed out to St. Marcs square, where all the main events were going on. There were about 5 or six stages, all with different things going on. There was music playing on loud speakers blasting over the entire square. After walking to each stage and checking them out a bit, the group found a spot to hang out. Its hard to keep me still with music playing, so after a few minutes I was dancing and playing around with Chloe. We were having a ball, when two men in Canon gear came up and asked if they could photograph us. We of course said, SURELY! We were just playing and had fun. They took pictures of us twirling and running around and said they had a blast filming us. They said what they took will be put into a commercial..we don't know if we believe them, but either way it was fun :)
One of my friends got a bit sick at the end of the night, so I ended up taking care of him and leaving a bit earlier than the rest of the crew. This turned out to be a blessing, because about thirty minutes after we left, the water started rising. Our friends came home with soaking wet feet, and Laura was completely drenched because she slipped in one of the puddles. It is crazy how much the water level rises at night!
The next morning when we got up and left, the city was still filled with water. We woke up early, had our delicious complimentary breakfast, and were out of the hotel and in Venice by 11 am. We decided to walk through the city to St. Marcs instead of taking a water taxi. This was fun because we got to see a lot more of the city. We walked down tiny allies, saw different squares, crossed bridges, and walked down canals. It took over an hour to get to the main square, but it was worth it. We people watched for a while, found more friends and hung out with them. We stopped for some pizza, got our face painted, and then met up with the other girls to go on a Gondola ride. They gave us a cheaper price since there were 5 girls and we could fit ourselves onto the boat so nicely. Our gondola man was very nice, he spoke english and thought we were quite funny. Every where we went in the gondola, people on the bridges or streets were taking pictures of us. So naturally, we smiled and waved at everyone :)
On the ride we saw the some churches that were hundreds of years old, but what we loved the most were the homes of Casanova and Marco Polo. The ride lasted about an hour, it was a blast and completely worth our 20 euro.
The sun was going down so we met up with everyone quickly after that. We roamed the square and a few shops one last time before heading back to the bus station. Traveling back to the bus took a bit longer than planned, and we were worried we wouldnt make our 8pm train in time, but thankfully, after lots of running and last minute jumping onto busses, we made it with about ten minutes to spare. We found the others who were on our tickets, and boarded the train with no problems. Unfortunately there were no seats, so we had to stand for about 20 minutes of the train ride. Eventually people got off and we sat, talked, and listened to music. In Bologna our second train was delayed. We had some problems figuring out which train was ours and which platform it left from because of the delay, but figured it out eventually. It was freezing outside so Alexandra and I changed out of our wet socks from the day and put on two pairs of dry ones. When we got on our second train, after it started moving, we found out it was the wrong one. Woops. We all spread out and found random seats to sit in and thankfully, no one came and asked for our tickets. We got to Florence in about an hour and were home in bed by 2 am.
Naturally we spent a majority of sunday sleeping, doing homework, and skyping with friends and family.
Kiki, Chloe, and I were each others Valentines. We did our laundry together and then, as we do every sunday, went down the street to Il Panda (chinese food) and got our 2 euro dinner - delish.
Carnivale was an event/experience unlike anything I have been to. I was so happy I got to go because I have seen pictures of it or seen it in movies before, but nothing can compare to being at the actual event.
It saddens me so much to see that the city is sinking. It is quite visible on the sides of the buildings and on the streets. I am so lucky that I have been blessed enough to visit the city twice in my lifetime while it is still there.