I Love the Way You Freak Out

Venezia, Venezia, Venezia . . . How do I summarize the Venetian experience? Well, let me start by saying that, while cliche, Venice is as beautiful as they say it is! Some people think its too commercial. Eh, that may be true. But it's busy and lit up and romantic and just lovely. For those of you who didn't know, I've been to Venice before. Unfortunately, though, the last time I went was rushed and consequently, abbreviated. I was able to trek all over that wonderful city this time and it is breathtaking. First of all, one of my favorite parts of being there was that there are no cars to dodge in Venice. There are no streets that fit cars, there is no space for cars. No cars. Everyone walks or uses a boat. In fact, if you'd like to drive to Venice, you drive to the part of the city that's connected to the mainland and park your car in a giant parking lot. No exceptions. I looooved that. Not only did it keep from interupting my walking space, but the whole air felt a little less polluted.

We arrived at 1:30pm on Friday and spent awhile trying to find our hotel. You must understand that Venice is comprised of 118 islands and 387 bridges. Sometimes it feels redundant -- like you've walked that exact street 40 times but really, it all looks the same. We were a little deceptive on this trip. We decided to go during Carnevale season so finding cheap housing is near impossible. We use sites like hostels.com or hostelworld.com and they show us private and public housing available. One of the girls reserved a 4-person apartment for 9 people. But only two of us had to sleep on the floor so it wasn't too bad! When we were on the mission to find said apartment, I was passing by a little restaurant when I saw some men working on some sewage lines. Obviously the smell was repulsive so I said, "Ewwwwww, it stinks!! I'm freaking out!" For those of you who understand my theatrical character, it sounds exactly like me, right? The restaurant owner hears me and as I'm passing by, says, "Ohhh baby, I love the way you freak out!" Whhhhhaaaattt??? He was literally 60 years old. We were all cracking up and I, of course, inserted some jesty comment back to the ole' grandpa. Friday evening was spent meandering through the streets and buying masks. We didn't want to hit the road too quickly because we just wanted to soak in the smells and atmosphere. I was a little surprised/concerned that there weren't a lot of people. It's famous for these celebrations but it was pretty calm . . . which worried me. Turns out we just hadn't made it to the right places yet.

Saturday morning, we were out of the apartment by 10 to go see what we could see! I'd say we got a lot accomplished! Only 5 of us were interested in doing the museum thing so we bought our tickets and headed to Doge's Palace.

While I would go on and on about its historical significance, I won't bore you. I will, however, share some pictures from the dungeons:

After Doge's palace, we investigated St. Mark's Basilica, which is amazingly a huge mosaic on the inside. I'm amazed at the amount of time and labor that was necessary for such a project! The day was spent shopping, taking a ride in a gondola, walking along the Grand Canal and hanging out in St. Mark's Square. There was live music and costumes all day long. It smelled like the State Fair and was a hybrid of people from countries all over the world. We heard English all day, which was a nice feeling when you're constantly having to carefully construct sentences in your head all day long. One of the girls really wanted to find Harry's Bar, which is supposedly the bar famous for the frequent visits paid to it by Hemingway. Apparently you're supposed to go and order a Bellini but we decided against it when we looked at the menu and saw that they were priced at 22€. Not a joke.

That night, we went to dinner close to St. Mark's Square. We wanted to spend our evening there observing the night life. There was live jazz music playing, which if you didn't know, was perfect for me. I could.not.stop.dancing. We were all swinging each other around, which attracted a lot of new friends that we ended up making. One being a man that grabbed my hand and started twirling me. He said, "Do you have a boyfriend?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Why you break my heart?" To which I said, "I think your heart will be just fine." Most notably, though, were the 3 USAF guys and 2 Navy officers that tagged along with us the entire evening. We had a good time! There's nothing like jazz! It made me miss the Sinatra CD that Chloe bought me last year.

I've loved everything about this weekend except for one thing. D-r-a-m-a. For the first time in my life, I'm hanging around girls who don't waste time talking about each other behind their backs. Which is actually a great thing; but they just nip it in the bud and lash out at each other. Often. We came home on interesting grounds so I'm anxious to see how everyone does this week. I guess I'm just from a family who, for all our faults, is really good at owning their portion of the blame. It's a skill that's taken a long time to develop but it's so, so useful. I don't understand people who, when they are obviously in the wrong, will try to use every excuse to defend themselves to the death. There's nothing wrong with being wrong. Right?

On a better note, here are some lovely pictures from our Venetian holiday:

"To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded."

 -Ralph Waldo Emerson