Venice...

So I tried to buy train ticketed to Venice today with Katie…

The guy selling tickets was older and didn’t speak any English. So I decided to use my Italian skills. He gave us our tickets and I was pumped because instead of 22 euro they were only 16.50! Then Katie grabbed me as I started to walk away, the tickets were for Florence, not Venice, oops.

The next set of tickets we got were to Venice, but they were really expensive, we didn’t want that, Katie told the man Regionale (a cheaper train) and he about threw out money back at us. In the end we got our tickets to Venice for 22.50 and managed to piss off a sweet old Italian man and the huge line of impatient Italians behind us… nice

So we are walking to the train station and I have the feeling I forgot my train tickets. I ask Carly to check my bag for me but she can’t find them. I take my pak pak off to check myself, they are there. We start walking again and I hear Carly say no no nonononon stop! As I feel my pakpak getting lighter and listen to its contents spill across the sidewalk.

Crap

But somehow neither the tomato sauce or vodka bottles broke.

So we just missed out train, our heads were on the door as it pulled away. The lady inside the window just shook her head as all five of us, Carly, Alyson, Katie, Molly and I watched with disbelief as our train disappeared into the tunnel.

Oops.

Well now I have some time to tell you about Venice. Venice is a port city in Northeast Italy. It is built on the water of the Adriatic Sea and is composed of many Islands.  It was a city that blossomed around the 12^th century when the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman empire, successor to the Roman heritage and to the line of Caesar’s from the time of Augustus) weakened and continued to gain power during the 13^th and 14^th centuries due to

the growth of commercial trade. Venice and Genoese ruled the sea trade routes. Markups were great and covered ocean travel insurance.  Venice was dependant on imported food and raw materials. Germans went to Venice to set up markets: Venice became main carrier of eastern products.

Venetians themselves were very proud and wealthy. They would were fancy outfits when walking the streets, often thousands of dollars worth of clothes and jewels. They were so proud indeed they married the Adriatic Sea to show their power over her. They did this by tossing her a golden ring, pronouncing Venice the Virgin city because she has never been taken by force.

We are going to Venice not only because it is beautiful and rich with history, but to celebrate the biggest party in the world, Carnivale. Carnivale is a time where people dress in costume with masks and do as they please. They can party and sin as they please without anyone knowing who they are. This festival comes before lent and allows a person to get all their craziness out before they have to “be good”. Marty Gras is a spin off of the Venetian Carnivale.

So in Venice most of our group will be staying in a hotel in Lido, a nearby Island. I didn’t want to waste my money so my friend Katie and I decided to Couch Surf. Our host, lets call him Host Man, is a 40-year-old single man. We will be staying in his second house, which is located near the city center of Venice. There will be nine girls staying there, two from Russia, two from Israel, three from Turkey then Katie and I.  This should be interesting.

We have an hour layover in Civitanova, a city on the sea just northeast of Macerata. We need to find an internet café because Carly needs to get the hotel information to the rest of the group who didn’t miss the train so they can check in.

Ok so I’m pretty sure I almost peed my pants and blew out my friends eardrums. An express train just went by and I’m sitting on the platform. It was coming straight at us at like 100 mph. I fetal positioned so fast and screamed. I thought I was gonna die. My friends just laughed…. Not funny

So I just sat nest to a really cut boy on the train. He doesn’t speak any English but its nice to look at him while we are trying to figure out how to communicate.

Well the cute boy just got off and now this Old Italian man keeps talking to Alyson and me about collecting miniature monuments. He wants us to find one of the Whitehouse and mailed it to him. I don’t want to. I told him American mail is dead (my Italian vocabulary is limited) and wrote e-bay on a piece of paper and gave it to him. Poor Alyson, she speaks way more Italian than I do and he keeps talking to her, ha.

We switch trains again in Ancona. Molly made some kind of pasta salad and we all dig in with our fingers because we don’t have forks. We are dirty Americans and I don’t care.

I really need to use the bathroom, I’m waiting and waiting by the door but no one comes out, I think they are having sex so I go sit back down.

So I guess the bathrooms on trains don’t work when they are at the station. I think this is because the stuff all just flushes out onto the tracks, my bad.

I’m tired so I fall asleep, the other girls are all chatting in the seats on the other side of the train leaving room for random people to sit by me. This young couple gets on and sits directly across from me. I can see them threw my scarf which I wrapped around my head to sleep. (my face looks funny when I’m sleeping and I guess sometimes I drool). They were fine until the girl took the guys face in her hands and started talking to him in a nasally baby voice. I wanted to puke. Then he wrapped his arms around her like John Lennon and Yoko. This lasted for like a half hour then she started talking again in her nasally valley girl voice and proceeded to make out, nosily. I feel nauseous.

Now we are in Bologna

Katie told her parents that the guy we are staying with is a friend of mine. Now I’m gonna feel even worse if we die.

I already ate a whole loaf of bread.

So Katie and I just realized our tickets take us to Mestre, a city just outside of Venice. I think that must have been the old mans way of saying f**k you. He wins…

Everyone else’s tickets go to St. Lucia, which is the main train station in Venice, and they are the same price! Katie and I are just going to play dumb because it’s just one train stop more.

Katie’s travel book says playing the dumb American card wont work in Venice because there are so many tourists here. Crap….

So we are almost to Venice. I am really nervous about the playing dumb thing, I’m just gonna do it and cry.

Now we are at the place were we are supposed to get off and we are not getting off. I’m freaking out, my heart is pounding, I know if we get off here we will get lost and its dark and we don’t know how to get to Venice, it’s just a bad idea. I know they are gonna check our tickets, it’s gonna happen…

We are still on the train,

Still on the train…

Ok the train is moving. We are doing it, no turning back now, I hope I have my passport.

Oh my gosh we are in Venice! It’s dark and it’s pouring. Oh man I don’t care!!!

I have no idea how to get to Host Man’s so I call him. He gives me directions but I forgot them already. Now we are lost but he is calling me back.

He met us half way and walked us back to his place, thank goodness.

Katie and I cannot believe our luck, it’s to good to be true, Host Man is so nice, perhaps a little ocd but it’s a good change from our messy lifestyles. Katie and I take shots with red oranges, probably one of the best ideas I have ever had before heading out to explore before dinner.

Agh. Its dark and rainy but we are like little kids gawking at everything, the gondolas, canals, churches, wells, piazzas, its is so beautiful here! We are soaked then at 8 we come back and put our wet clothes on the registers and talk with Host Man, his English is so good and he as only been practicing for six months!

The Turkish girls just got home too. They are so nice. The one likes photography and used my lens to check it out. Katie and I helped Host Man cook. He is a chef. The Turkish girls brought wine and onions. We brought water and tomato sauce.

Dinner took a while to make, but it was worth it. We set the table and it was beautiful. The wine glasses sparkled in the dimly lit room. Classical music was playing in the background and it seemed to match the dancing light reflecting off the wine as we talked and ate. It was the best spaghetti ever.

The Turkish girls brought Turkish delights (like the ones form the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) they really are good!

Katie and I did dishes while one of the Turkish girls made us all Turkish coffee. It was good but all the grounds were at the bottom. I asked what to do with them and she to leave them because some people can read the drinkers fortune with them.

So far so good : )

We are too tired to go out.

The next morning…

I feel so sick, like I need to throw up.

I didn’t sleep so good, my bed was really small and my sleeping bag is slipper, I rolled over and almost slipped off.

The Turkish girls were out late last night, we didn’t see them this morning. We made proschutto and cheese sandwiches, tea, and croissants for breakfast. We had the house to ourselves because Host Man was meditation and the girls were sleeping.

So it took us four hours to find San Marco (the main square were all the people go to). But that was ok, we enjoyed looking around at all the beautiful shops and masks.

We found a Burger King! I’m so excited because Burger King is American and Americans have big coffee’s.

My coffee is the size of my fist. Fail.

We sit down because we are exhausted and I’m trying not to throw up.

We leave and walk some more, find San Marco. Its huge, the church is huge and beautiful, but there are just so many tourists, I cant handle it and we are both hungry.

Oh that picture is of a friar talking with some hippies...

My stomach hurts like I have the flu but I’m not achy and I don’t have a fever. I dragged Katie around the city looking for a kebob lace. It took forever and I was just feeling sicker, we fond one for four Euros. Katie thought I was crazy for eating it. We were so tired of waling so we sat in a small piazza on a well to eat. We met some dumb drunk American guys in white masks and ponchos.

We wanted to get gelato, but I thought it would be a bad idea, but I got some anyway.

I am so sick, I tell Katie go to meet up with the rest of our group. I need to go home.

So I thought I knew how to get back. But after 90 minutes of painful walking I ended right back at burger king. I’m gonna die right here in burger king, I know it.

I finally gathered enough strength to try again. Its getting dark and I need to hurry. I keep asking police where the station is and they nod me in a random direction. I don’t think, I just walk and push my way threw the masses of people.

So its dark now and I’m in a quiet back alley. Host Man isn’t home. I text him, but no answer. I sit on tome stairs going into the canal and try not to pass out.

I really need to go to a bathroom.

Another forty minutes goes by before he gets home. The American and Israeli girl just arrived. I introduced myself, tell Host Man I ate evil food, use the bathroom and go to bed.

I blew chunks. I swear half of the kebob is still in my sinuses.

I went back to bed.

I wake up, its 12p.m now, Katie is home and we are talking about her day.

A piece of Kebob just dropped into my mouth from my nasal cavity, delicious…

I need to go to the bathroom again but the Russian girls are in them and will be for a long time. So Katie Achim Julia and I camp out on the kitchen floor just chatting. One of the older Turkish girls is supposably sick and Host Man is in the room with her taking care of her. We have a good feeling they were taking care of each other… so we moved the pow wow to our room.

The next day…

So this is awesome, we are taking a bus boat to San Marco. I just saw a bunch of kayakers in masks and costumes making their way into the canal.

We had another exciting time buying train tickets, I have no idea how this works, I don’t even know if we have seats.

Watching them work the boats makes me miss Shepler’s.

So yesterday was miserable and today is great. Katie went with the rest of our American group and I stayed with Julia and Achi. We were walking back to Host Man’s house when I saw two little boys playing soccer in the piazza, one passed the ball to me so I started playing, then Julia and Acheim started joined in too. I was on the boy’s team. I have no idea who won but it was the highlight of my weekend. The piazza was so busy and people kept getting in the way, but instead of getting mad they would just join in for a few seconds with a huge smile. Italians sure do love soccer, even when the ball unexpectedly hits them in the face.

When we got back to Host Man’s we made tea and sat on my bedroom floor and took shots of vodka with orange slices. I only had two hours before my train left so we made the most of it and hit the streets! They were lit and full of shops and merchants selling things from masks, to raw fish, to vegetables. My mission was to find a cheap bottle of wine to give Host Man for dinner. We got one for four Euros from this fun old man trying to speak English. We bought a bottle four ourselves as well. He even opened it for us. Only in Venice can you walk gaily down the streets wearing masks and drinking wine from the bottle. The city was beautiful, everything was beautiful, everyone was happy and excited. It felt like Christmas Eve.

Julia and Anchi are two very awesome girls. We met random people. One group of guys our age asked us if we want to go smoke a joint with them, how nice, but we declined.

Tonight is just so beautiful. I can’t remember all the details but it is a blur of laughter and glowing bustling streets.

I miss my friends from home so much right now. I just want threw my old pictures; I miss home and college and everyone so much. I wish they could be here with me. This is really sad.

Trip home…

Tickets different from schedule

Don’t know what train to get on

Get on train to Verona

Drunk obnoxious guys talk to us, take tons of pictures, deface my sketch of the Virgin Mary and scribble on our homework

Talk with two polite Sicilian gentlemen when the rowdy group gets off

We get off in Verona

We get on a train

It is a sleeper train, meaning it is horrible, assigned seats, skinny hallway, and sleeping next to random people.

I fall asleep

I wake up

The lights are on, Katie looks confused, everyone is talking in Italian like they are annoyed then look at us.

There is a new woman in our cabin

I have a feeling we messed up.

We messed up.

The older guy is doing most of the talking while standing in the doorway

Two younger boys heads are peering around the door to watch what’s going on.

We are in bologna and we need to get off

I start to get off and the man in the door tells me to sit

Katie tells me we were supposed to get off, but our train already left, she didn’t know we had to get off.

I don’t care cause I wouldn’t have known either.

The new lady and the boy are the people who’s seats were in

Mass confusion

I just want to stand, and they make a huge deal about it.

We just leave the cabin

The older man finds me a seat in a different cabin

I sit in it for 30 seconds, realize I am surround by middle age men who are looking at me like a juicy steak and flee the scene

I find Katie and one of the boys.

We stick together

There are two boys and we make friends with them

Then this guy I met earlier who I thought was nice started caressing my face and touching my hair.

Super not cool.

I give him the NO hand and squeeze threw the two “good” boys so they’re blocking him from me.

He tries to get threw and talk to me. I put my hood up and face the other direction

He talks to the boys for about a half hour.

then one of the boys looks at me and is like, He’s crazy.

I knew that.

The guy tries to talk to me again,

The second boys tells me something in Italian

I repeat it to the man

I think it was something like your crazy leave me alone, but that’s just a guess

Finally he leaves

We are exhausted so we camp out on the floor like packed sardines.

To bad we cant understand each other

This is all at like 2:30 in the morning

So we arrive in Ancona! Katie sees Alyson and some others in our group. I am so excited, we are not going to die. The good Italian boy gets our bags for us because they are in the creepy guys cabin. I really like those two and the ones dad. They saved us.

We run to the rest of our group, eat food then try to figure out how to get home. We take a train to Civitanova then from Civitanova to Macerata, the last train kept breaking and stopping in the idle of no were, we are so exhausted we have no idea what is going on.

The mile walk up hill to our apartment is freezing at 6 am. We have school in 2 hours and I still have to finish my homework, this is going to be a rough day.