Venice - Carnevale

I spent the second week in February traveling to the beautiful city of Venice – built entirely on water. It has six different districts and you can either walk along the canal to get to them or take a ferry. Movies and pictures can’t do justice to just how pretty and amazing Venice is. I choose this particular weekend to travel there because of CARNEVALE season – a Venetian tradition where people dress up in masks and costumes and gather in San Marco Square to celebrate. It is similar to what Mardi Gras in New Orleans would be – but without nude people and crazy drunk Americans. And much more cultural and authentic.

We took a six-hour train into Venice on Friday night, and stayed at a Holiday Inn for the weekend. It was nice to stay in a clean and secure place that had unlimited amounts of hot water J I thoroughly enjoyed the free American buffet-style breakfast that I got upgraded to receive. It was delicious, and a good way to begin the day. The next day we bought a 36-hour bus and ferry ride, because you need to take a ferry or water taxi to travel from one point in Venice to another. How interesting that the city does not have actual cars but water taxis or ferries to travel! We began the day by shopping around for a unique mask that we could wear for the festivities. On that particular day, there was going to be a parade and an evening concert in San Marco Square. After trying on dozens of masks, I settled on a navy blue and gold one that was pretty big and obnoxious. Most of my friends selected smaller ones, but I wanted something that would stand out. San Marco Square itself was so amazing at first glance  - St. Mark’s church was breathtakingly beautiful. We walked around and took pictures for a while before finding a nearby restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was a tourist trap with terrible service, but we were so hungry that we settled for it. After lunch my friends and I each bought a bottle of wine and headed back to the main square to watch the parade. We met up with other people in my program and spent the afternoon drinking, taking pictures in masks and watching people dressed up in obscene costumes walk around San Marco Square. One thing is for sure – only the Americans visiting Venice were actually drinking publicly in this square….apparently it’s not suppose to be a shitshow like Mardi Gras is.

We went to dinner with the group far away from San Marco Square so that we wouldn’t be near touristy restaurants. I wasn’t hungry so I skipped ordering food and got wine instead, which put me at a happy place by 6pm. Afterwards, we found this winery place that let you fill up one liter of wine in any bottle for 2 euros. It was a FANTASTIC deal – because the wine tasted good and it was so cheap! I knew I didn’t need the wine, but I couldn’t pass up the deal. We decided to walk back to San Marco Square for the “evening party” because not everyone in the group had the ferry pass. It was a long walk, but it was really fun going up and down the streets and looking at the different shops that were selling Venetian masks and costumes. We spent the rest of the night in the square – drinking, dancing and listening to music. It was VERY cold, to the point where my toes and fingers were numb – but I had a great time. My greatest difficulty was finding a bathroom – only customers were allowed to use the bathroom at any nearby cafés and there were no public bathrooms. So, I ended up buying the cheapest thing every time I had to use the bathroom – an expresso shot. I had a total of 4 expresso shots by the end of the night. That mixed in with over a bottle of wine = not good things for your body. Gathering the girls and finding our way back to the Holiday Inn was quite the journey and made for some very interesting memories.

The next day we decided to take the ferry to other areas of the city and explore. We quickly came to realize that almost everything was closed – either because it was Sunday or because everyone went to San Marco Square for Carnevale festivities. The only other area that was open was Murano – a place known to make and shape real glass into various objects. We went to Murano and saw a demonstration of how real glass is made. It was really cool to see the glass artists make different objects & color them. Afterwards we shopped around for Murano glass souvenirs. As fond as I was of this Murano glass, I ended up falling in love with a random bronze ring with a turquoise gem that was displayed at one of the small shops. I decided to buy the ring as my souvenir because I knew I would most likely break any glass object before it made it back to the states. Afterwards we went to Rialto Bridge, which is the main bridge crossing Venice’s grand canal and it is covered entirely by shops. It’s a great picture taking point, and it looks really pretty in the evening just as the soon is going down. By the time it was early evening, we were all really exhausted so we spent some time in a café drinking hot chocolate before heading to dinner. Hot chocolate in Italy makes any hot chocolate in America seem like a joke….it is sooo good. We rested in the hotel lounge for some time before getting on our midnight train back to Rome. This train ride was awful. It was an overnight train, I had booked my tickets last minute so did not have official seats, the train was extremely cold, and my stomach did not feel well. I would have given any amount of money to somehow have magically gotten home and avoided this train ride – but life does not work that way. I was SOO happy to be home and crawl into my bed at 7:30am. It’s amazing to think that I’m calling my little Rome apartment “home” J

Venice Carnevale was pretty cool, and going to it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can only hope that some day I’ll see be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and at least be able to compare the two events.

P.S. I did not do the ever-famous gondola ride through the canals of Venice – but I plan to be back with a lover some day and do it. At the very least, I want to re-visit Venice for a day in a month or two when it is much warmer and I can enjoy the scenery better. 

Poland – Aushwitz

This trip required some preparation – both mentally and physically. The mental aspect was because we were going to visit Aushwitz – where the concentration camps that exiled and killed millions of Jews during the Holocaust existed. It was one of many subjects of history that always interested me, and I knew it would be a different experience than the usual sightseeing that I would do in other countries. The worst part was being able to physically handle weather in Poland that weekend – it was about 0 degrees the entire weekend. I expected Rome to be “peacoat” weather, so of course I had no heavy coat, boots, scarf, gloves, hat or anything warm of that nature. To make matters worse, I caught a really bad cold the night before we left. Nonetheless, I packed all the medicines and warm clothes I had and set out to try real pireorgi in Poland. We were exuberant the moment we set foot in Poland because we saw bagels and quickly realized that we would get 4 zloty (Poland currency) for every euro. (Italy does not have any bagels.) After finding our hostel – which was MUCH better than the first one, we got directions to get authentic pierogi and find a mall so that we could buy attire that would allow us to survive in Poland. We went to a restaurant called Miod I Wino, and I ordered a traditional cheese, onion and herb soup for an appetizer and cheese and potato pierogi as my main course. I also got “mould wine” which is hot and spiced up wine that is very delicious. I had a pretty bad cold at this point, so I had trouble truly tasting everything – but it was all still very good. It was a nice restaurant and my bill came out to be only $12 – you can barely get one dish in Italy at that price so I was excited to go shopping next! The mall in Krakow was huge, and there were endless stores that had cute clothes comparable to what we would buy in the USA but with different names. They had a “forever 18” but not a forever 21. I wanted to shop like crazy, but I kept in mind that everything would have to fit in the same backpack that I brought – so shopping had to stay to essentials. I ended up buying a long, fuzzy coat, FAKE uggs, earmuffs, gloves and a scarf for $75 – unbelievable. I freaking loved this zloty currency! I was also ready to bare Krakow weather, but I still suffered miserably throughout the weekend. We had to take multiple breaks inside stores wherever we walked to, and I literally bundled my body so that only my eyes and forehead showed. I put on FOUR layers of sock on each foot, and every warm sweater I had. In retrospect, I didn’t need to pack any clothes because I essentially wore everything I brought every day.

After the shopping, we went and looked at Saint Floran’s Gate – which is the entrance to the city. It was antique and looked very match like a castle. We kept walking and discovered the main square, which was beautiful even in the cold and snow. It was lined up with several restaurants and little shops. After everyone was close to attaining frostbite, we decided it was time to go back to the hostel for a nap.

For dinner we went to a place called CK Browar, which was a big pub with it’s own brewery. I ordered a Greek salad and “fried” potatoes. Apparently potatoes are a big side dish in Poland, and fried potatoes were suppose to be different than French fries. It turned out to taste like huge French fries in the shape of squares. We also ordered their tap beer – which came in servings of 5 liters in this very long dispenser. The beer was tasty and unique, and the atmosphere was a good change.

The next day we set out to Auschwitz, which was about an hour and a half away from Krakow. We hired private transportation and an English-speaking tour guide, and we watched an intense documentary on the way there. The first half of the tour was spent in the Auschwitz camp, and the second half in the Birkenau camp. Between 1942-1944, over a million Jews were exiled from their homes and sent to these camps to be killed in gas chambers. Children and families of all kind were told they were going some where that would have a better life. Little did they know the horrific realities of the concentration camps. Once the people got to the camp, 75% were immediately sent to be killed in the gas chambers. The SS German troops shaved off everyone’s heads, stripped them from their clothes and pulled away all their belongings. One by one, the gas chamber was filled with hundreds of people before the doors were bolted shut. It took fifteen to twenty minutes for the people to die. The 25% that were chosen to live had even a harsher reality – they were starved to death, overworked, and harshly punished for making the slightest mistake.

At Auschwitz, we walked through a museum that preserved belongings and artifacts from the Holocaust. I saw thousands of shoes and suitcases belonging to the victims as well as several adult and child clothing. The most shocking was the hair. There was a particular room that displayed thousands of bundles of hair – all from when the SS troops chopped or shaved it off. The Germans destroyed all of the gas chambers after the war stopped in 1945, but there was one that was preserved – only because it was a bomb shelter. It felt so weird to walk through a building where thousands of people were killed. Birkenau camp was much bigger than the Auschwitz, and this is where I saw firsthand where the exiled victims lived. It was heartbreaking. Four or five people were shoved onto wooden beds no bigger than full size, with no blankets or appropriate clothing to survive harsh weathers. The bathrooms were horrendous and publicly open. I can’t even imagine the pain and suffering these people went through, when I couldn’t even tolerate the 0 degree weather in my 10 layers of clothing for four hours. The ride home was a resting and reflective time for everyone.

After some rest at the hostel, we went out to a quick dinner. For dessert, we were on a hunt to find Wedel’s Chocolate Lounge – which was suggested to us by a friend. It was the most wonderful dessert place I have ever been to – and I literally experienced what I would call “food porn”. After wanting everything off that menu, I decided on a trio hot chocolate – which gave me large samples of white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate along with a fudge cupcake with vanilla ice cream. When the desserts arrived, I was in heaven. It was a great conclusion to my trip, as we had a very early flight out of Poland the next morning.