So our train to Venice what at a much more reasonable hour (10:30am) so there were no problems getting there on time. It was a 3 hour train ride so it was nice to arrive and it was actually sunny! We walk out of the train station and there's just a giant mass of people everywhere! In the square right outside, there was a bunch of people who set up stands where you can get your face painted. We weave our way through the tiny sidewalk-size streets and find our hostel. Our room overlooked the Grand Canal, it was awesome! The manager & another woman who worked there were unbelievably nice so it was more like staying with a friend than a hostel. We did the grocery shopping, cooked and ate dinner together both nights and then they took us out at night and showed us the best places to go... but more on that later. So we were starving by this time and we found a typical little italian café to eat at that just happened to be right across from a dessert stand. I say dessert stand cause I'm not sure what else to call it... they just had every type of chocolate covered anything (pears, bananas, strawberries, rice-krispie treats, peanuts) and a bunch of italian candies. After we had refueled our energy, we decided to "get lost" in Venice. There was no real point in trying to navigating the streets with a map because it's just too confusing. We make it about 2 feet before we stop at a shop dedicated entirely to selling touristy carnevale masks. It was tiny but every surface was covered with these elaborately decorated masks. I lost count of how many we looked at but we all eventually found one we loved. And then we just kept walking around.
I don't think there's a single ugly spot in Venice; even when the sun went behind the clouds, the views were amazing! Just walking over the tiny bridges and looking down the canals was beautiful. We retrace our steps and somehow find our way back to the hostel. We headed out to the grocery store to get some dinner supplies and got cooking right away.
While I would have liked to help, there were already enough people in the kitchen so me and two other girls watched some youtube videos until dinner was ready. We ate an immense amount of delicious pasta, all for 2 euro! By far the cheapest meal yet! My knee was really bothering me at this point, I guess all the walking had finally caught up to me, so I got out of doing dishes so I could lie in bed with a bag of frozen peas on my knee. But it's Carnevale! So I took some motrin and started feeling better really quickly. We all wore our masks and headed toward Piazza San Marco. People were just partying up in the streets, it reminded me of Ann Arbor during welcome week (with infinitely less beer pong tables and solo cups). We danced in an open square for a bit to some random guy playing his drums... why not? Then we headed to a bar where they only played reggae music, this was quite a contrast from all the techno we'd were used to. Then we wandered around for a bit more going to different bars and/or open squares but we were pretty exhausted so we headed back.
The next day we took the main street that winded all the way down to Piazza San Marco and near the Rialto bridge. We started off near the train station and the 3 girls I was with decided to get their faces painted.
I would have done it but it costs 5 euros, I already had my mask, and I knew I would accidentally rub my face right after I got it done so I opted out. Anyway, we continued down the main street where there were tons of people of course. Some of the costumes were pretty ridiculous but the best ones were the traditional victorian-era dresses with beautiful masks to match! There were a lot of other costumes too, I noticed a lot of people dressed up as Heath Ledger's Joker. We finally make it to the famous Piazza San Marco and it is absolutely packed. It's so big and open compared to the rest of Venice, with its tiny streets and all. We wandered around for a bit but we felt like we were going to get pick-pocketed so we didn't stay there for too long. Then we took a 50 cent gondola ride across the grand canal (it lasted about a minute). We were all set to splurge on the traditional, romantic hour-long gondola rides but it was 80 euro for 40 minutes!! And it was cold and cloudy, so I think we made the right choice. We explored some more and somehow managed to get away from the crowds. We walked along the water and just enjoyed the view (again)! But as you might of guessed, we were getting tired again so we decided to take the water bus (a.k.a. the vaporetto) on a scenic route down the grand canal back to our hostel.
We all took a nap and when I woke up, half my group was missing! They had already went to the grocery store to get all the ingredients for a giant lasagna. Once again, it was delicious and we all got to spend some quality time together... it was 11 pm by the time we had finished eating! We were going to go see some fire works at 8 but that didn't work out, as you can guess. But we still went out after dinner to an open square that was packed with people dancing and having a good time. So the hours flew by while we were doing just that.
We had such a good time in Venice but the next morning it was time to leave... But we were going to Rome so it's hard to be sad. Andiamo!
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