Venezia!

I have so many pictures: please look at them :)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2156121&id=58215937&l=308e87f963


My adventure in Venice was great! Luckily I was with a great group of people who truly believed that having fun was just making fun of what was happening to us. I did not exactly know how I was going to get to the meeting place by 7 am...when taking public transportation would take me an hour and a half. Thankfully one of my new ESEG (The international student association that organizes a lot of the activities for students) friends, Maria, helped book a taxi that would pick us 30 minutes before we needed to be there instead of two hours, phew! I did not go to bed until late anyways...somehow whenever I have good intentions of sleeping early I end up on facebook or on this blog :) Not that I mind too much I am learning to live with sleep deprivation... Whenever I got the bus I was too excited to sleep for the few hours that it took to arrive in Venice. Jordain and I (Jordain is my cooking companion and now partner in crime) took pictures of sleeping people and entertained ourselves by singing along to the classics, The lion king, Aladdin, Mamma Mia, etc.. Quite enjoyable time.

Arriving closer to Venice the group took a ferry into the city. The buses weren't allowed into the main city area. The view was beautiful and the water pretty. Of course my mind went to the summer and water skiing, but it was a little too cold for that here. When I got off of the ferry it was to be surrounded by hundreds, literally hundreds of people, and clicking cameras. The group I was with mostly spent the day trying to get lost in the narrow streets of Venice, which was difficult because of the thousands of tourists... I do not consider myself a tourist since I am a student at Cattolica.. ;)

I ate a pizza place and learned that in the afternoon it is practically a crime to drink a cappucino. This drink is only for the morning, because of the milk in it, and it sometimes excused because of tourist's ignorance. The people at my table were from Austria, Hungary, France and they all stared at the Americans ordering cappuccino's like we were crazy literally. I am glad I have been updated on the coffee life here.



I took a lot of pictures and saw a lot of beautiful things. The costumes in Venice were intense!! They have a costume parade that decides who has the best costume in Venezia! We got to watch the parade, which was on an elevated stage, from only a short distance away. By the time the costume people were paraded by I could not see the end of the crowd behind me. It was intense. I think what I liked the most about Venice was the architecture. Venice is a completely different world than Milano. And It was great being able to experience another wonderful side of Italy. The streets were tiny and the walls of each building a different color. Every few blocks you would have to cross over a bridge to avoid the water ways...I'll admit the first thing I thought of was the movie The Italian Job...

The group of people that I tagged along with decided that the reason everyone has masks on is spying on other people...there were several times that I wondered whether the person in the costume dress in front of me was male or female...our theory gives a lot to consider...

I left Venice at 6...everyone fell asleep on the bus because it had been such a long day...long but fun. I hope to go back to Venice in a few weeks to maybe see the city in a less touristic light and not get overrun with the crowds...

I am including a tutorial below on what I learned while in Venice:
(The fluent Italian speakers find it hilarious to teach things to the non fluent speakers that really shouldn't be repeated)

1. Venice is very glamorous: The word glamorous was repeated throughout the day so much so that when I went to be I dreamed of the word...

2. Let's go there...Where?...There! : I don't know how this statement came about, whether it was making fun of someone, Americans haha, or whether it was just the simple fact that all day long we said we were going there and on the return boat ride from Venice we said, We went there!

3. Pirla: This is a nasty Italian word that means bad things :) It was used in our group all day...do please remember that if you use it...stress the rrrrr sound

4. Limonare: the Italian word meaning to make out...The guys in our group reported 2 instances where they used this word and 1.) A man turned around and said oh yeah 2.) A man turned around and said do you want to?. This word should be used cautiously and with friends so as to not attract unwanted attention...Lesson learned!

5. I am not always to best story teller: The early morning and long bus drive gave way to stories...somehow in my story telling one of my avid listeners came away with the impression my father was death and that when a goat is run over it makes no difference what noise it makes...I am still confused and blame this situation on the fact that this listener is Hungarian...no fault of my own you see....but because of this mishap all day deaf goat?? was asked as a question between our group...the response was oooh so glamorous...

6. I learned from several reliable sources that it is a common belief that Austrian lovers are quite passionate and very glamorous. This was not learned from experience...I know you were wondering, but my an Austrian...so it has to be true.

7. And finally when one does embark on a trip to Venice make sure to get sleep :) Cause there is too much to see in such a short time...