Venizia for Carnivale!

Carnivale!
It was an amazing experience. I woke up at 6:15 and took a quick shower, dried and straightened my hair, threw on some makeup and left the apartment by 7:00.
I walked to the Metro station, and took it all the way to Termini - the train station. There the whole group met up, checked in, and waited to board our buses and get going.
I met two girls who live in my neighborhood on the Metro and hung out with them all day.
I bought some chocolate and an overprices bottle of Coke - afterall, it was a 7 hour bus ride.
So at 8:30 we finally head toward the buses. Biggest fake-out of my life. These beautiful huge comfy looking buses were waiting.. behind two dinky buses.. siiigh.. here we go Venizia!

We finally start our voyage an hour and a half late, and I'm crammed between four people in the back of the bus - even the tour guide referred to my seat as "the bitch seat" - great.

An hour outside of Roma, a girl feels sick and decides she doesn't want to go.
"Can you turn the bus around??" - OMG WE'RE ALREADY RUNNING LATEEE!!
We pull off at a rest stop where she gets a taxi home.. - I can only IMAGINE what that ended up costing her!

We take off again, and drive about 4 hours before stopping again.
The sights were amazing - mountains everywhere! The fog was so thick as we climbed the mountains, then as we came down we saw amazing snow covered peaks.
When we stopped for lunch - I luckily still had some chocolate, so I just stood outside talking with my friends. It was surprisingly warm as I looked at the snow on the mountains.

Finally the last leg of our voyage. The last two hours were pretty uneventful - we watched My Best Friend's Girl - a HILARIOUS movie. I usually shutter when anything with Dane Cook comes on, but he was actually pretty funny in the movie.

So we get to Venice! (YAY!) and they tell us that since Venice is all canals and such, the bus cannot get us to the main island, San Marco, and that we needed to buy Waterbus Tickets for 16.50 - greeeaat. Good thing I didn't buy lunch after all.
We also bought our masks - mine was the most amazing green and gold mask with obnoxiously large green feathers :)

The Waterbus left right at sunset, and the view was INCREDIBLE. The setting sun cast the most amazing shadows on the water.

Finally we get to the island, put on our masks, and soak Carnivale in.
Like nothing I've ever seen. The party was HUGE.
We made it into the Square where a huge stage and lights were set up. There were masked people everywhere - the crowds were amazing.
The energy was explosive. There was a group banging drums, singing, chanting with banners, dancing in circles and making their way across the whole island.

We walked around for hours, I was amazed at Venizia's beauty. The canals with Gondala's lined up waiting to give the riders the romantic experience.

Venizia is like a maze of small alleys and canals. I would love to get lost in Venizia. Its so gorgeous.
So finally, we decide we're pretty cold and could sit down for a while. The nearest cafe we walk into looks perfect. I got a bowl of soup, expecting it to be MAYBE 3 euro. FALSOOO - it was 8 euro. RIDICULOUS.

After dinner we walked up and down the boardwalk again, stopping and looking at what every vendor had - the masks were amazing. So different and so breathtaking.

At 10 we decided the lines for the waterbus would be CRAZY and decided if we wanted to catch the midnight bus back to Roma, we should start heading back.
It was actually a lot quicker than we anticipated, so we walked around the market for about an hour, I bought Kacie a mask, and a fabulously tourist-y I <3 VENIZIA shotglass for her collection.

Around 11:20 the bus drivers pulled up, and we pleaded that they open the bus for us to sit for a while.
They obliged and let us on. I honestly fell asleep for a while, and as the bus filled, I was more and more ready to be back in my bed at home.

Finally we take off, with only a few annoyingly drunk people.
The tour guide put on Legally Blonde 2, then Legally Blond 1 (odd to play them out of order...)
and then no movie for the last 3 hours.

We finally pulled back to Termini at around 6 am.
Hopped on the first Metro back and was in bed by 6:30.

By then it was Valentine's Day!
I skyped Kacie to say Happy Valentine's day, and fell asleep.

The pictures I took in Venizia will NOT do it justice, but I will post them later tonight ( I haven't uploaded them yet)

Venizia definitely goes on my Top Ten most gorgeous places in Italy.

Ciao!