Last weekend I decided to brave Venice Carnival for the weekend with 7 other friends. Of course we thought it was a great idea to take the 4:30 am train to save money so we were all exhausted and grouchy. Then we arrived in Venice and decided to cheack into the hostel. Lets just say it was a little sketchy, not the cleanest, and wasnt even marked. It all worked out in the end as we ended up being right in the center of Florence on the main road and they also gave us free dinner which was a plus. I think everyone that was living there was a study abroad student from Florence so we met a ton of people which was alot of fun.
We spent alot of time wandering around on Friday which was an amazing idea because most of the crazy crowds showed up for the weekend. The costumes were amazing. It was basically Halloween for adults. We decided to join in the fun and bought masks and took tons of pictures af all the people. I was talking to a guy from Germany the next night who was with a bunch of locals dressed up like cacti and he said that all of the locals know about the costumes and do very elaborate ones and then come just so people can take pictures of them. It is a blast. we discovered the fun of having pictures taken of you on saturday when we sat out on the window ledge of our second story room that looks right out onto a canal and then a bridge for the main road. We all had our masks on and just let people take pictures and talked to people. It was probably one of the main highlights of our trip.
On saturday we ventured to Murano to see the glass which was a great idea to avoid the crowds. The glass is beautiful but it is definetly touristy. We were just happy to soak in the sun sitting on the waters edge and eating gelato. The other highlight of our trip was Saturday night. We ventured to St. Marks square where we ran into gonzaga friends by chance and then we somehow snuck into the main square dance party. They were playing 80s italian music and I have never danced in that many tango lines in my life. Everyone was dressed up and having a blast. After a long night and walking along the water and on the streets with the hundreds of other people still up at 2 am we went to bed to head out the next morning. I am so glad I got to experience this Venice traditions and would defintly go back soon. Be sure to check out my pictures on facebook the costumes are amazing!!!!!
For your info: this weekend I leave for spring break in Greece...hopefully it remains safe:) I will update when I get home!
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