Venice

Two weekends ago, I traveled to Venice for the Carnivale celebration.  On paper, it was probably the worst weekend trip possible, but we did it anyway.  We traveled with another school (one of the teachers in my program teaches there) on their trip.  There were about 35 high school kids, 7 Americans, and 6 Hungarian teachers.  We left Hungary at 8:00 on Friday night, and traveled through the night by coach bus to Venice.  We arrived on the island of Venice at about 7:30 the next morning.  We were there until 8pm and then left on our bus to return to Hungary at 6:30am. 

The bathroom on the bus was not put into service, so every three hours or so, we stopped at a large TESCO or a truck stop and unloaded.  We were also traveling in tandem with another bus of Hungarians, so there were double the people at each stop.  We were excited to watch Casablanca in-route, however Heath Ledger had been dubbed over in Hungarian, and the English subtitles were in white writing on the actual scene, not on the black frame of the picture.  Needless to say, I gave up about a quarter of the way through.  Being a morning person, and overly excited for my first venture into Italy, I was up early and ready to go.  When we arrived on the island, there were hardly any people there (since it was quite early) and nothing was open quite yet.  The vendors were just bringing out their slew of masks to sell and the street cleaners were cleaning up confetti from an obviously cool party the night before.  Megan and I ventured off to get some coffee (and a Diet Coke) and to check things out.  Stores eventually opened slowly and more and more vendors displayed their wares for our perusal.  We wandered around the narrow alleyways of the town for a while, not exactly sure where we were going or what we were doing.  It was one of the few trips where I didn’t read about the city prior to going there – I figured we only had about 12 hours there, I’d find plenty to do right?  I was amazed by the buildings as we wandered, and admired the glassware in the windows.  We walked over narrow bridges criss-crossing the canals as we continued our wandering escapade.  I loved the buildings, the decorative window boxes, the fact that they really looked “Italian” – which I know sounds stupid, but when I think of Italy, this was EXACTLY what I had pictured. 

We purchased a ticket for the “water bus” and traveled the length of the grande canal.  I  was fascinated by the idea of water buses- I don’t know why since that is clearly the way that they get around, bit was funny to see the yellow and black bus-stops every so often, and to have our boat sail across the water weaving back and forth to each stop.  I know this is silly, but it didn’t occur to me until after our trip was over that there wasn’t a single car on the island.  Maybe there are some somewhere, but I didn’t see one.  Having said this, it definitely did not phase me at the time as I didn’t even think about it while we were there.  We got off the water bus near a market – which was essentially the same crap we’d seen on the waterfront, but whatever, we walked around and eventually made our way back in the direction of the main square.  We had a nice lunch of paninis and wine – it felt like the thing to eat since we were in Italy.  The menu was hand written in marker – as a “tourist” menu.  We basically just pointed and said “that’s what I want.”  The funny thing about where we ate lunch is that the place was filled with Hungarians.  The people at the table next to us, the couple of tables toward the back- everywhere we went we heard Hungarian.  It’s as if they are subtly trying to take over the world!!  Or – they just smarted up and realized that they have to get out of the country every once in a while. 

We wandered some more through the afternoon.  I went up to the upper level of the Basilica and took some pictures of the square and all the people who were now crowding into the small spaces.  At one point, Megan and I came across a concentrated force of people moving in one direction through one of the narrow alleyways.  I told her that there must be something cool in that direction, or people wouldn’t be pushing and shoving for their lives to get there – so we dove in.  It was similar to what I’d imagine a death march to be – you can’t control the speed, there are people on all sides of you- the only thing you can do is push forward and keep moving.  We did this for a good 5-10 minutes, and then pulled off.  We later deduced that the end of the road was the McDonald’s that was nearby as we ended up there later.  I was going on very few hours of sleep, and I’m not a coffee drinker, so I really was craving a fountain pop.  We made our way to the McDonald’s and realized that there were no less than 5000 people in there.  You might be thinking, there’s no way that there were 5000 people in there- but I SWEAR there were.  We pushed and shoved our way to the front (avoiding the British family that had 4 large grocery size bags of just beverages – not to mention their meals.  I was about ready to just reach in the bag and take one of their drinks I was so tired of the pushing and shoving.)  We finally got to the front, and I ordered a Cola Light.  She took my money and gave me change and then her colleague came and said – “no Light –just regular.”  Now, I don’t know how many of you have been near me when I’m that close to a Diet Coke that I’m craving, and something gets in the way of me reaching that Diet Coke.  It was not pretty.  I kind of laughed at first, because surely she was joking… In the mean time, she had moved on to ask Megan what she wanted, and since Megan was just my wingman, she did the natural thing and swooped down in a ducking fashion so as to not cause confusion – she at the time, thought that was the clear signal that she didn’t want anything, I don’t know if it was so clear.  No more than a minute later the original cashier returned and said “it’s not a problem” – quite possibly Europe’s favorite English phrase.  I got the Diet Coke and we left. 

After the death march and McDonald’s we decided it was time for a rest.  We were having a good time, but without sleep and a home base, 12 hours in one place is a long time.  We returned to the water front and hung our legs over a pier and sat for a while.  We were perfectly content sitting in the sun (which we hadn’t seen in quite a while) and relaxing alongside the water.  Eventually with 5 hours left, we returned to the streets of Venice.  We did some shopping (I got a mask- BHS colors, some earrings and a ring) and wandered a bit more.  We stopped in a cute place to have some dinner.  Most of the restaurants were offering a multi-course meal for 20 or 25 Euro, but we aren’t those big spenders.  We had some Italian sandwiches and more wine.  It was a bit crowded in there, so we invited a nice Austrian couple to join us.  They were adorable (probably late 60’s early 70’s) and spoke enough English that we were able to have an entertaining conversation over good wine and food.  Leo – the guy- paid for a glass of wine for both Megan and I, and was just the sweetest guy ever!  We still had two hours after dinner, so we made our way back to the main square and watched some performances that they had going on there.  Eventually it was time to return to the bus following our tour guide who looked mysteriously like John Mayer. 

Though I was only there for a short time, and honestly didn’t see much other than the stores and main areas of the island, I loved it.  There was a bit of magic and mystery to the number of people walking around in costumes.  They weren’t collecting money, they weren’t being intrusive – they just walked around the main areas adding to the feeling of Carnivale.  Admittedly, it was a bit creepy at times to see masked men and women, but it was all a part of the atmosphere.  They paused for pictures and let you have your picture taken with them, it was really a nice effect.  I don’t know that one needs more than a couple days in Venice – I’m sure some of the museums and churches are worth touring, but I really enjoyed the short time I had there.  Good company, good food, beautiful buildings, nice atmosphere.  One of the top 3 cities I’ve seen in Europe so far.