We got off Friday morning to a rather rocky start, considering that we had to (a) get up at 6:30 and be ready to get on the buses by 8, and (b) the buses themselves didn't show up until well after nine. But after that and a fairly uneventful three and a half hour bus ride, we made it to Fusina, an industrial-looking port about twenty minutes away from Venice by ferry. We checked in to our campsite there, which was actually much less of a campsite and more like a little trailer park, and jumped straight on the ferry for a tour of Venice. The ferry itself though was freezing! We sat on top to get the view, but didn't bet on such a cold wind. I had to wrap myself up in my scarf like a bubushka to try not to freeze!
I don't think I ever got warm again all of Friday, even though the weather was gorgeous. When we got to Venice, chilled but excited, people everywhere were wearing masks and the elaborate costumes were just starting to come out. We walked and walked and took lots of pictures and got ourselves all kinds of lost. We saw St. Mark's Cathedral and another gorgeous baroque church across the grand canal, and all sorts of people in costumes in Piazza San Marco, where there was a competition going on for the best costume. Unfortunately, it got much too chilly as soon as the sun went down, so we gave up on our sightseeing and ate at a little trattoria a little off the beaten path with phenomenal pizza and bruschetta. After dinner we took the ferry back to warm up with a shower and crash early to be ready for a full day of masquerading on Saturday. Unfortunately, there was no hot water in the campsite, so I went to bed as freezing as I had been all day and hoped for warmer weather Saturday. [Here's a few pictures from the first day]
(a band of costumed musicians playing on a ponte)
(St. Mark's Cathedral -- sunset)
(the baroque church across the canal)
(crossing the canal by gondola)
(one of Friday's crazier costumes)Saturday was perhaps one of the craziest days I've ever had, but so much fun. It started out pretty low-key, with a fairly full ferry ride to Venice full of masked and costumed people, and then another packed ferry ride to Murano, an island about twenty minutes away from Venice. We spent a few hours walking around and getting a feel for the beautiful island complete with canals just like Venice and doing some blown-glass shopping, as this is the island famous for what the rest of the world calls "Venetian Glass." Venice itself actually doesn't have any glass blowing, because the furnaces were all moved to Murano in the 1400s for fear that the wooden houses in Venice would all catch fire and burn down the whole city. I actually liked Murano itself better than I liked Venice, as it was a little more laid back and cozy feeling. It might have just been because it was away from the crowds though. There were beautiful blown glass statues all over the town, some gorgeous churches, and lots of fun blown glass shops. We intended to take a ferry back at 2pm but through a series of strange mishaps and irritating ferry drivers, we didn't get on one until almost 3. When we got back to San Marco, the piazza was literally PACKED. Like sardines. It took us near an hour to get from the ferry stop on the grand canal across Piazza San Marco to the Rialto Bridge, which if you've ever been to Venice before, you'll know is ridiculous. We finally gave up on walking after Rialto and decided to take the ferry back to Piazza San Marco to find some food. The ferry was a ridiculous idea as well, because it was just as packed as the square itself. We rode for about an hour, getting shoved around and packed in close, but everyone was in such a good mood, it was actually kind of fun. I also got some beautiful pictures from the grand canal, since luckily I was near the edge of the boat.
(Rob and me in Murano)
(Walking back to Piazza San Marco)
(View of the Grand Canal from the ferry)
When we returned to Piazza San Marco, we were so excited to try and get food at the Hard Rock Cafe, which would have been our first non-Italian food since being in Italy. Inconveniently, it was closed for the whole month, so with our hopes dashed, we went out to wander aimlessly to search for food. We happened upon a mostly empty chinese restaurant that was fairly inexpensive and stopped to warm up and rest for a while. The food ended up being delicious, and the stop was entertaining as well since some very drunk Italian men in bear costumes (not the Venetian norm) came in and asked us questions about American culture and whether we were enjoying carnevale. After our long dinner break, we went in search of masks (actually, we'd been in search of masks since Friday but hadn't found the perfect mask for fifteen euro or less, which was my budget, unless I found something impossible to pass up. I finally found one I liked for ten euro and promptly snapped it up and wore it for the rest of the night. It's amazing how wearing a mask automatically improves your level of fun. I was enjoying myself before, but somehow everything seems a little crazier and you feel a little more free to be silly while wearing a mask. After the mask escapades, we went in search of a ledgendary wine shop where the man who worked there poured your wine of choice in to 1.5 L water bottles for three euro. Sure enough, we found it, and the wine was delicious and inexpensive and it seemed by the end of the night, everyone had one and was having quite a good time. Since 1.5 L of wine is much more than I can drink, Rob and I shared, but still ended up coming home with half a bottle. We're silly enough on our own...we don't need alcohol to have fun.
(our masks!)
(explanation of how huge the wine was. Notice that (a) the bottle is full, and (b) Rob's nose is actually too long for him to take more than a drink. It was a funny attempt though)
After the wine escapade, we had a string of ridiculous experiences people watching and just wandering the streets. We stopped to look at an artist's paintings, and all he said to us in a very raspy voice was "'ello!," and then, seeing our giant water bottle full of wine, pointed to us and said "Red Wine," as though it was our name. Highly amused by this whole exchange, we spent the rest of the night calling everyone in our group and that we saw on the street by their drink name. I'm pretty sure this is one of those stories that is only funny if you were there, but to us, it was incredibly amusing. I swear, there was just something in the air that night. Everyone was in the best mood, everything was funny, and the whole city just really seemed to be alive and celebrating. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Large groups of costumed people were singing at the top of their lungs parading through the streets, and any person was free to join in and sing, whether they knew the words or not. Piazzas were full of candy vendors and there were masked musicians of every kind on every street corner. It was as if everyone was high on adrenaline and a little bit drunk, but with none of the negative aspects of anyone getting 'out of control'. Granted, we left the city at 9:30, before it got crazy, but it seemed like even the people who stayed out until 2 or 3 in the morning came back with the same impression.
A note about getting back: there were only two ways to get back to the campsite: taking the ferry which came every half hour until 9:30, or taking an hour-long bus ride, which ran every half an hour or so until 1am. Any time after that, a person was trapped in the city until the boats started running again at 6:30 or the buses at 4:30. I heard some pretty crazy stories about people's missing transportation and being stuck in the city, but there were two that were outstanding. First, one (I assume, fairly drunk) girl missed the last ferry and was distraught. Apparently she sat on the dock for an hour sobbing hysterically and inconsolably until, apparently, a taxi driver took pity on her and drove her the twenty minutes back to Fusina free of charge. Another girl got stuck, wandered in to a hotel, and paid 100 euro for a room for the night. Crazy. I'm glad we made it back okay.
When we got back, inconveniently, the power was out, so it was frigid in the cabins and still no hot water. We just crashed and woke up early again Sunday to wander once again. It was our intention do to church for Palm Sunday but it was hard to find which churches were open when and which lines were for tourists and which were for mass, so we wandered with Kate and Megan looking for a mask Kate had seen a few days before and fallen in love with. She couldn't find the mask, so we went wandering along the grand canal to find one comparable. Instead of finding one, we ended up going art shopping! Rob and I found a gorgeous oil painting that the guy sold to us for only twenty five euro, and then we found another artist who made etchings and then made prints using watercolor and acid. They were so original and gorgeous, and so we bought a few with the intention of giving them as gifts or keeping a few ourselves. Art is the one thing that we are trying to bring home as souveneirs, and the weekend ended up being much less expensive than expected (since we forgot to eat for most of it), so it was a good use of the extra money.
Much too soon, Sunday afternoon came, and we headed back to Florence. We got home about seven pm, grabbed some quick chinese food (not sure what was up with Chinese this weekend), and ran to a concert at Teatro della Pergola of Andras Schiff playing Mozart Rondi and Sonati. He was SO incredble. He hardly looked like he was playing, he was so composed, and I've honestly never heard Mozart so incredibly, well, Mozart-y. It was cheeky and crazy while still being brilliant, and it really felt like the man himself was coming out of the music. He's playing two more concerts the next two weekends, all of Mozart, and while I'll be gone this upcoming weekend, I plan to catch the last one, if I can.
As for this week...BAH. Midterms, midterms, midterms. I had one that I felt really great about on Monday, and then for the rest of the week I just have class as usual and crazy amounts of studying. Thursday morning I have three back to back: an Italian oral exam, a history comprehensive midterm with an essay due that same day, and then an Italian written comprehensive test. I've also got a term paper proposal due that day as well. It's a little crazy. I should be done by noon though, and then at seven, we leave for Prague! I can't wait.
Sorry again for the marathon post. Hope you're enjoying the pictures...it's something I'm trying. You probably won't hear from me until well after Prague, since I'm going to be (a) exhausted, and (b) recovering from midterms and getting back on track with school. I think if I stay on top of things and do fine this Thursday, I may actually end up with a 4.0 this semester. It'd be really great, since next year's going to be rough. I started looking at grad schools and other post-grad options today and got a bit overwhelmed, so I'm leaving that for this summer/next year and just doing my best for now to enjoy where I'm at. It's not too difficult, considering how wonderful it is to be in Europe out exploring.
Well, I'm off to fill my brain with Renaissance politics, Italian directions and prepositions, and hopefully some good ideas for papers and creative writing pieces. Ciao!
(Rob and me in Murano)
(Walking back to Piazza San Marco)
(View of the Grand Canal from the ferry)
(our masks!)
(explanation of how huge the wine was. Notice that (a) the bottle is full, and (b) Rob's nose is actually too long for him to take more than a drink. It was a funny attempt though)After the wine escapade, we had a string of ridiculous experiences people watching and just wandering the streets. We stopped to look at an artist's paintings, and all he said to us in a very raspy voice was "'ello!," and then, seeing our giant water bottle full of wine, pointed to us and said "Red Wine," as though it was our name. Highly amused by this whole exchange, we spent the rest of the night calling everyone in our group and that we saw on the street by their drink name. I'm pretty sure this is one of those stories that is only funny if you were there, but to us, it was incredibly amusing. I swear, there was just something in the air that night. Everyone was in the best mood, everything was funny, and the whole city just really seemed to be alive and celebrating. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Large groups of costumed people were singing at the top of their lungs parading through the streets, and any person was free to join in and sing, whether they knew the words or not. Piazzas were full of candy vendors and there were masked musicians of every kind on every street corner. It was as if everyone was high on adrenaline and a little bit drunk, but with none of the negative aspects of anyone getting 'out of control'. Granted, we left the city at 9:30, before it got crazy, but it seemed like even the people who stayed out until 2 or 3 in the morning came back with the same impression.
A note about getting back: there were only two ways to get back to the campsite: taking the ferry which came every half hour until 9:30, or taking an hour-long bus ride, which ran every half an hour or so until 1am. Any time after that, a person was trapped in the city until the boats started running again at 6:30 or the buses at 4:30. I heard some pretty crazy stories about people's missing transportation and being stuck in the city, but there were two that were outstanding. First, one (I assume, fairly drunk) girl missed the last ferry and was distraught. Apparently she sat on the dock for an hour sobbing hysterically and inconsolably until, apparently, a taxi driver took pity on her and drove her the twenty minutes back to Fusina free of charge. Another girl got stuck, wandered in to a hotel, and paid 100 euro for a room for the night. Crazy. I'm glad we made it back okay.
When we got back, inconveniently, the power was out, so it was frigid in the cabins and still no hot water. We just crashed and woke up early again Sunday to wander once again. It was our intention do to church for Palm Sunday but it was hard to find which churches were open when and which lines were for tourists and which were for mass, so we wandered with Kate and Megan looking for a mask Kate had seen a few days before and fallen in love with. She couldn't find the mask, so we went wandering along the grand canal to find one comparable. Instead of finding one, we ended up going art shopping! Rob and I found a gorgeous oil painting that the guy sold to us for only twenty five euro, and then we found another artist who made etchings and then made prints using watercolor and acid. They were so original and gorgeous, and so we bought a few with the intention of giving them as gifts or keeping a few ourselves. Art is the one thing that we are trying to bring home as souveneirs, and the weekend ended up being much less expensive than expected (since we forgot to eat for most of it), so it was a good use of the extra money.
Much too soon, Sunday afternoon came, and we headed back to Florence. We got home about seven pm, grabbed some quick chinese food (not sure what was up with Chinese this weekend), and ran to a concert at Teatro della Pergola of Andras Schiff playing Mozart Rondi and Sonati. He was SO incredble. He hardly looked like he was playing, he was so composed, and I've honestly never heard Mozart so incredibly, well, Mozart-y. It was cheeky and crazy while still being brilliant, and it really felt like the man himself was coming out of the music. He's playing two more concerts the next two weekends, all of Mozart, and while I'll be gone this upcoming weekend, I plan to catch the last one, if I can.
As for this week...BAH. Midterms, midterms, midterms. I had one that I felt really great about on Monday, and then for the rest of the week I just have class as usual and crazy amounts of studying. Thursday morning I have three back to back: an Italian oral exam, a history comprehensive midterm with an essay due that same day, and then an Italian written comprehensive test. I've also got a term paper proposal due that day as well. It's a little crazy. I should be done by noon though, and then at seven, we leave for Prague! I can't wait.
Sorry again for the marathon post. Hope you're enjoying the pictures...it's something I'm trying. You probably won't hear from me until well after Prague, since I'm going to be (a) exhausted, and (b) recovering from midterms and getting back on track with school. I think if I stay on top of things and do fine this Thursday, I may actually end up with a 4.0 this semester. It'd be really great, since next year's going to be rough. I started looking at grad schools and other post-grad options today and got a bit overwhelmed, so I'm leaving that for this summer/next year and just doing my best for now to enjoy where I'm at. It's not too difficult, considering how wonderful it is to be in Europe out exploring.
Well, I'm off to fill my brain with Renaissance politics, Italian directions and prepositions, and hopefully some good ideas for papers and creative writing pieces. Ciao!
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