The end of enero

We started Saturday off with 'okay' pastries. We walked to St.Mark's square, which was the center of the festivities. It took us about an hour to get there, but we did it. Once we were there we were rallied up with thousands other people. People were dressed up with cloaks, masks and 1800's attire. Everyone was scrambling for photos, and at one point we were all pushed away by the police, and it was slightly terrifying, but we made it out and never lost one another. After walking around the square and watching the hosts on the big screen we went on a search for lunch, and somewhere warm to sit. Lunch was alright, except here they included a service charge and an extra tax, so even though my pasta was only 11€ I had to pay an extra 5€, which is ridiculous. We really just explored and we bought ourselves masks. Brittany's is a full facial covering, Jacqueline's is a cat, mine and Aleesia's are half masks with lots of sparkles, and mine has feathers. Of course we had to get real masks, an Italian man actually scolded Brittany for taking photos of the masks made in China, sold on the street, because they are, "not Italian," but you can't take photos of the real masks...it's weird.

 

Once we had our masks and took a few photos, we hoped on a gondola, because I'm in Venice, and I was told I had to...I'm not so sure, it wasn't anything spectacular. It might have been better in the summer, but I think it's overrated. It started to get dark around 3, but it was cloudy and foggy all day, so it wasn't super noticeable, but we tried to keep warm. We stopped for hot chocolate and milkshakes (weird, I know) as we walked to the Arsenal, where fireworks would be shot off at 7. After walking for a few hours and waiting at the water's edge until 7:15, with no fireworks in sight, we started walking back to the bus station...about an hours walk away. It was great waking around Venice because there was confetti all over the street. You child buy confetti in large bags for 50 cents and children were throwing it all over the street and in their and their parents hair. Anyways, we heard fireworks on the distance at 7:34, and we could see the fog light up, but we decided, from what we could hear/see it wasn't that exciting and we weren't missing much. We ate, a not so great, dinner and got crepes for dessert. We made it to the bus and got off at the correct stop this time, though, so that was a success.

 

Sunday: we went back to the island for breakfast and to catch the train. The trains were nice and we passed miles and miles of vineyards. It felt like home, except instead of corn or soybean fields we just passed grape vines, it was ridiculous. We ate the cheapest, and best lunch we've had the entire trip in Bergamo. I'm on the airplane writing this and I'm so grateful that I got to experience this weekend. Jacqueline, Brittany and I were all placed in the same row on the plane 6A, B and C, and it's a great way to end this journey. Tomorrow we have to be on the bus by 8:30am for our FSU trip to southern Spain and I still have to pack. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed again. Traveling is exhausting... but most of my apartment will be gone the next weekend, after the trip, so I'll have some quiet, relaxation time. Jacqueline has told me though, that we might have to take a bus to a random location because we don't know how to stay in Valencia for that long.

On the way back our taxi driver got us back in ~8 minutes, even the average time to and from the airport is 20. We all saw our lives flash before our eyes and I'm utterly terrified of Spanish taxi drivers, they're insane.