ahhh venice. how wonderful it was. but before I get to that re-cap, I have to complain about one thing: the price of printing.

i just went and paid 57euro to print 27 pages (A3/tabloid) in color and have it bound. For that same price I have printed 100 pages back home, on higher quality paper. I cant believe how expensive it is here! I am NOT looking forward to having to print all these projects come June for our final portfolio presentation... there goes a few hundred right there. The only good thing is that the quality is good, and the service was fast, the whole thing took less than 20 min - where as at home I would have had to wait a day or two. Still, 57 euro... and tomorrow I have to give it to the client (bastard) who for sure isnt actually interested in using any of our work - and even if they did want to use it, they get to use it for free - how crappy is that!

At least though I had my venice mini-vacation, so im in a good mood even though ive got a long night of work ahead of me still. The day started off a bit rough, waking up at 6.30 to get to the station at 7 for a 7.15 train. Then it was too close to departure time for me to buy a ticket from the automatic machine, and the lines were so long at the counter that there was no way I'd get one in time. So I called up a friend of mine who was waiting at Lambrate, the next station to catch the train, and had her buy one there for me. I figured that the guy wouldnt be coming by before Lambrate to check the tickets anyways - unfortunately he did come by. But it was alright, I told him that my friend had my ticket and we'd had confussion about what station we were meeting at. He didnt seem to care, as we were just pulling into Lambrate and sure enough a few min later when he came to check the tickets, I had one.

The ride there was an uneventful 3.5 hours, spent listening to an American across the isle complain loudly to her friend about anything and everything. I wanted to strangle her by the end of the trip. Although it was funny listening to the Italians who were sitting next to her talk about her in Italian as they understood her English. The train was packed full of people heading to Venice for Carnivale, and when we arrived we all poured off the train in a big mob heading to San Marco. Along the way I decided to play tourist for the day (something I rarely do) and gave in to buying a mask as my friends had them as well. It was fun to join in the festivities. We found a place selling hot wine, which none of us had ever tried but considering our cold hands thought it'd be a good idea. So we grabbed some to have with our lunch, and then wandered the back streets some more. Eventually we made our way to the Rialto Bridge and Piazza San Marco stopping along the way to take some photos.


(K, me, and Sasha after our hot wine)

(while I'm becoming Italianized in my lazyness, I'm becoming Asianized in my photo poses)

(a new friend I met along the way)

(Sasha and K in front of the Rialto bridge)

The closer we got to San Marco, the more people there were. Way more people than the little streets were meant to handle, as we were packed like sardines, unable to do anything but move along with the crowd as we were smashed body to body everyone pushes forward. Eventually though the crowd broke as we entered into the Piazza - of course there was a new crowd awaiting us, but this one was slightly more dispersed. Here we ran into all kinds of people masked and costumed for Carnivale. Some were decked out in extravagent costumes, others were in halloween type costumes (normal in Italy for the youth during Carnivale) and everywhere there was confetti being thrown. At one point a little girl ran up to me, threw confetti all over me with a big grin on her face, giggled and ran away. After a brief tour of the piazza and photo sessions with the costumers, (on Sasha's camera, I'll post them after I get them from her), K and I decided it was time to open one of the bottles of wine we'd bought. I'd come prepared with a bottle opener, so we found ourselves a seat and started drinking. Sasha was catching an earlier train back and only had another hour or so left before needing to head to the station, so she continued on the photo-hunt through the piazza while K and I relaxed.



We warmed our steps for a couple of hours enjoying the people watching. As I was opening the bottle a group of Americans passed and made a comment about how it was a good idea. I think they were a bit surprised when I responded back in English, as I had previously been speaking Italian. They asked if they could use my cork screw if they got a bottle, and I said sure thing. So after a few minutes they returned with a bottle and we all sat around talking for awhile. It turns out they are living in Germany working on building a cruise boat for an American line. They had just come down to Venice for a couple days for Carnivale. After awhile we said our goodbyes as they decided to continue their tour of the island and we still had more wine to drink. While sitting there masked I looked over at one point to see a guy crouched down next to me taking a photo. I couldnt tell, but it looked like he was taking a photo with me on the side. After a min I felt a tap on my shoulder, and sure enough there he was motioning with his camera for me to turn around so he could take a photo. It was a bit strange, but I figured what the heck, so now some tourist or someone or other has a nice up close shot of me in my mask. I'm not sure where he was from, as he didnt say a word the whole time, but he didnt look Italian...



Eventually Sasha came back and we said our goodbyes as she headed off to the train station. In need of a bathroom, K and I decided to wander a bit more. Long lines and an euro charge each awaited us at the bathroom, but boy did we feel better after that. We headed back to the square where a big stage was set up and a bit of a fashion show going on.



After the show was over we decided it was time to open the other bottle of wine, so we found ourselves another step, and relaxed. After a while a mother and her son in costumes decided to hang out next to us for a photoshooting. So pretty soon we were unable to see anything but the crowd of people in front of us taking photos of them. While it was a bit annoying we kept ourselves entertained with our bottle, and conversations with the boy who really didnt want to be there. He told us he wanted to go home and was tired of having people take his photo. He found it fun though putting on a bit of a show for us as he made faces to the different cameras, and I even got him to make one for me.



Around this time we had a choice to make - we could either start heading back to the station to grab an 8pm train home, the last of the night, or stick it out till 5am when the next train left. We were feeling pretty good with the wine in us, and the festivities were starting to pick up, so we decided we'd stick it out. We wandered off in search of an area with more locals and students rather than all the tourists, and headed over to Campo Santa Margherita. Here some music was just starting up as the students were coming out for the night decked out in all their strange costumes (sandwiches, football players, babies, etc). We grabbed ourselves a couple of kababs and beers, and found a bench to hang out on. We talked to various people throughout the next couple of hours, but no one had any definite ideas on where we could go that night to party. Eventually I had a guy come over and start talking to me in what I thought was bad English, but after realizing that he wasnt understanding my Italian, found out he was actually from New Zealand. He was living in Venice working, and after a beer with him (Alex) and his friend (Andy) we decided to head off with them in search of some of their other friends. The next few hours were spent wandering the streets through the crowds of parties, and stopping at various bars to drink. We met quite a few people, some italians, some from australia, and others from other places. It was a great time speaking a mix of Italian and English and making some new friends. As the night wore on and we were all getting a bit tired, Alex and Andy offered to let us crash at their place instead of having to stick it out for the train (not to mention trying to find the station in the dark). We eagerly took them up on the offer and were soon sleeping peacefully in a warm house rather than hanging out on a cold bench at the station. We ended up missing the 5am train as we slept till early afternoon. Eventually we caught a train and made it back to Milano around 9pm, exhausted from our adventure but quite happy all the same - and better yet with an invitation to come back and visit with a free place to sleep.