Last weekend, I packed a backpack, hopped on a plane, and traveled to Milan and Venice, Italy. No big deal.
First, a word about traveling in Europe. Let's just say, Europeans don's seem to be too concerned about efficiency. You never know how much you miss Southwest's overly organized system of boarding group and number until you are standing in one line with everyone on your flight. Once I finally reached the front, I found myself walking out of the airport, not onto a plane. Ok, flight boarding a la Burbank. Well, not exactly. I had to get on a bus which then took me to the plane. Besides the fact that this was simply annoying at 7:00 AM, it also should be forbidden anywhere but Burbank, where dropping below 70 degrees is considered the depths of winter. After all of this, I managed to overcome my usual inability to sleep on planes and passed out.
After about 2 hours, I arrived in Milan and was reunited with one of my high school best friends, Caitlin. Before we left, we casually (read: freaked out and super excitedly) chatted about meeting up in Europe. Now, the day had come and those seemingly impossible ideas became reality (wow, I'm dramatic today). I went to her beautiful homestay with her and then went off to see some sites. We went to Il Duomo, a huge beautiful church in the center of the city (I'm realizing there are a lot of those on this side of the world...).
Later that night, after a delicious dinner from Caitlin's host mom, we went out with some of her friends from the program. The freezing cold seemed to be keeping people away because nothing was very crowded, a slight change of pace from Madrid, but it was still a fun night with fun people.
The next morning, we woke up and rushed off to the train station to head to Venice. What a beautiful city. We talk a "water bus," a boat that went around the city making stops like a bus, to where our hostel was. I don't know how we managed to find it in those impossible, tiny, dead end, roads, but we did. The hostel was sort of like a hostel-level bed and breakfast with only a couple rooms and a very friendly host. We had a private room and shared a bathroom with 2 German girls. Our host gave us a map but told us that Venice is better without one.
We made it to the center of the city, San Marco Square, and were greeted with the Carnavale celebrations. People in crazy masks and crazy costumes everywhere in site. There was music and celebrations and people selling souvenirs in carts. We were awed by the site of the Palace and weirded out by the wine fountain that looked like it was pouring out blood. I particularly enjoyed seeing the campinele since it reminded me of Berkeley. We wandered a little bit out of the super touristy area to find lunch with some of Caitlin's other friends. After that, we decided that the only way to really enjoy the festivities were to get masks of our own.
After a little debate due to the extremely cold weather, we decided that we couldn't leave Venice without going on a gondola. So, as bundled up as possible and with masks to keep our eyes from the wind, we boarded the famous boats and got a little tour of the city via water. Yay for being super big tourists. I really wanted to wander the city for hours and get out of the hustle and bustle of San Marco Square but it was really just to cold to be outside for that long, so we went back to the hostel to relax a bit. Later that night, following a dinner at a restaurant only serving us, we went in search of some nightlife-none to be found. I guess the daytime events of Carnavale are enough festivities for one 24 hour period. Nevertheless, us group of Americans studying abroad (some in Milan, some in Florence, and me) had a fun night walking around and chatting.
After waking up at a ridiculously early time and taking the train back to Milan, Caitlin and I were too exhausted to do much more exploring, so we just hung out at her homestay before I had to go back to Madrid. Overall, it was a good trip, but I feel like the cold weather kept me from getting a full experience.
I guess it's just an excuse to go back one day...sigh.
To check out all of my pictures from the trip, click here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2517588314031.96618.1682940053&type=3
To check out my latest Global Jewish Voice blog post and read about my experience on a Friday night at Chabad, click here: http://www.globaljewishvoice.com/2012/02/12/judaism-something-to-hide/
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