Carnival in Venice

February 28, 2011

Well, this was one of the best weekends of my life. Seriously, so much fun!! Let's see.

Well, it started out as a complete disaster. I booked a flight for 7 am but the problem is the metro doesn't run at that time which meant I was in trouble. I found buses that run there but there were a bunch of transfers and I didn't know how long it would take so I opted out this time and went for the more expensive but more secure option of a cab. 30 euros later I was at the airport and the ridiculous hour of 4:30 ish AM. I checked in, found some breakfast and was quite content. After waiting awhile I went to check what gate I would be at and guess what?!! The flight was cancelled!! Yay!!! Hahah!! Whattttt a gong show. This is the point that things went nuts. There was now an entire plane full of people ticked off, tired and grumpy! We all stood in line arguing over who got to buy the new tickets first and which ridiculous out of the way route we could take later that day and such. A couple times I was actually worried a fight might break out. It was awesome. Finally, at about 8:30 I was able to get a flight from Madrid to Barcelona and then Barcelona to Venice. I thought it was the better option than Madrid-Barcelona-Rome-train to Venice. Haha! Who would think that lucky me, my flight to Venice from Barcelona would ALSO be messed up and get delayed. Haha! Seriously. Airports hate me. It worked out though. I finally made it to my hostel in Venice at about 12:00 which was only 14 hours later than the original plan. Poor Mike and Sadie waited for me at the pre-arranged location and the contingency plan and I never showed. I am super flaky like that. What can I say?!

So, I am now finally in Venice and holy crap I love this place. More than words can describe. Saturday might possibly be one of the best days I have had in my life. The weather was quite nice for Venice weather. It was super sunny, clear skies, and around 10-12 degrees ish. This place was packed!!! We were there for the grand opening of Carnevale. Oh ya, I was in Venice for Carnival. Like Count of Monte Cristo style Carnival with period costumes and the whole bit. It was the most amazing experience ever. Everywhere you look there are shops just full of these RIDICULOUS masks that are super detailed and unique and over the top. We spent the morning buying our outfits. I never got bored of looking for masks. It was amazing. Every corner had a mask shop on it and yet I kept finding new, unique masks everywhere. There were ones you could get for like 4 euros all the way up to like four hundred. They were all different colors and there were feathers and jewels and lace and veils and giant flowers. I was seriously in heaven. It was like Randi’s over the top heavenly happy place! I ended up getting a full face, black and gold mask with a hat tipped to the side type thing and these giant leaf, vine type things on the side. I can't explain in very well but I will get pictures up eventually. We also decided to get these long black cloaks with giant hoods. Seriously, coolest thing ever!!! Sadie bought a little half mask that looked almost like lace but it was made from metal. It was the coolest thing and soooo Sadie. It was perfect. Mike had his glasses so he opted for an excellent Casanova hat. We were a pretty excellent team.

Oh side note: so, Sadie and I slept in and so we totally missed our meet up time with mike. We got to the bridge meeting point an hour and a half late and obviously he wasn't there. So, we took off and hoped to meet up with him later... Somehow?? Sadie and I were at the Riolta Bridge looking at masks when suddenly, there was Mike sitting on the bridge, waiting for us! Haha! Turns out he had left a note with a street vendor, which we never got, saying he would meet us there. You have to understand that this place is one of the busiest places in Venice. It is PACKED with vendors and people shopping for masks and tourists and bah, ya. Just take my word that it was a complete miracle we found him.

So, we were all together and all dressed up and ready to party hard. I felt like such a celebrity all day. People would actually stop me in the street and take my picture or even jump in and take a picture with me. At one point this old man that was DECKED out in an old period piece walked up and took his picture with me. I felt so mysterious and loved!! Haha!  You have no idea how awesome these dresses were that people had rented. There were ladies with giant hoop dresses and bird cages on their heads or head dresses like two feet tall. It was head to toe. The guys even had the awesome little napoleon or captain hook type shoes on!! Sooooo ridiculously cool. I could have walked around taking pictures forever!!

Ohh there was this one lady that when she walked into the crowd it actually parted and everyone started clapping. She had this GIANT skirt on that was so wide that she couldn't fit down some streets! Haha! She had had this huge head dress on top with a freaking bird cage too!! The best part was that behind her was her husband dressed up in the same poofy pink material with little knees high knickers, the shoes, white haired wig, hat and he was pushing a stroller that matched all the while ensemble and inside said pink, poofy stroller was a dog. I seriously laughed so hard!!! It was Sooooo cool!!! Haha!

In San Marco's square there were people and costumes and music all over. We hung out there for awhile and while doing so we ran into these two ladies I spent the day having flights cancelled with. Ohhh they were a hoot! They reminded me of my mom except shorter and Spanish speaking. They had this spunky exciting goofy personality and were just there to party! We all decided to take the tour through the big cathedral in the square. It was gorgeous and cathedral like. One thing that stuck out to me about this one was that it seemed much more elegant than the dark moorish or gothic type cathedrals I have seen in Spain. Also, it had the coooooolest mosaic tiled floor. We paid to go upstairs and from there you could see out to the sea or into the square and it was quite the site to see. As we were up there the official opening of carnival took place. We got to watch the procession pass through the crowd and man, it was just so outstanding!!!

After that we went out on a boat bus. Yup, they have buses that are boats. We had a tour around the entire island and could see all of the out skirting islands and churches and it was amazing. After our little round about on a boat bus we made our way down to finagle with the gondola dudes and take a gondola ride!!!! Yup, I road in a gondola. And the gondola dude even sang for us. Haha!!!

The day seriously couldn't have been better. We finished it up by eating pizza at a little restaurant. As we were about to head back to the hostel we ended up running into this outdoor dance party! There was a DJ and music and dancing and tons of people all crammed down into this little corner street. We danced for about half an hour ish and that was that! It was the perfect ending to the perfect day.

Sunday started out rocky. I am not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination and I didn't eat breakfast, so basically I was destined to be grouchy. Haha! We had quite a hard time trying to find the church in the morning. After wandering for quite awhile we decided to just jump in a cab and not worry about buses and so we ended up making it there.

Church in Italian was pretty stinkin' cool. I have a pretty firm grasp on Spanish now but I was shocked at how similar Spanish and Italian are. I know romance languages are similar but I did not expect to be able to pick up as much as I did. There were five travelers there, including me, so for Sunday school and sacrament meeting they pulled out headsets and had a translator for us. It was super cool. Plus, the church was in this old historical building. It was amazing and gorgeous and so unique from anything I have ever seen before.

After church Sadie left so it was just Mike and I. We ended up sticking around at the church for awhile and hooked up with the other travelers. We met two new excellent friends from the states. They were in Europe for like two, two and a half weeks traveling like crazy. I think they hit 13 cities and 9 countries in a week and a half. Something like that and it sounded ridiculously awesome.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around Madrid being sarcastic. It was the best ever. I love being sarcastic and I love it when people laugh at my jokes and it is fabulous. We went through some of the less touristy areas of Venice. We wandered down back streets and at one point Dan took the iPad he has in the back of his jacket and turned on that Pa Par Americano song and they made this movie of Dan dancing down the street with music playing out of his jacket. It was hilarious. Brandon studies film at school and so they were making a documentary of the whole trip. They were pretty intense about taking pictures and video and everything but it was enjoyable to just wander and look around and see Venice at a slower pace.

In the end Dan and Brandon left and then Mike and I went out for awesome Italian lasagne and then I went home and sleep.

All in all, awesome weekend. And I love gelato. And my little happy, over the top, feathers and flowers happy place. I love it. Love, love, love.