Wow: WAY too many things to talk about in regards to my weekend in Venice. Once again, I must organize myself and break my thoughts up into categories. Bear with me... :)
THE BAD STUFF:
1. Students in Aix:
So, I went to Venice w/ a local student group called "Students in Aix". I paid a pretty reasonable fee for roundtrip transportation, 2 nights in a "hotel 4 star" (as quoted from the SIA leader, Souheil, a French Mr. Bean lookalike), and breakfast at the hotel for 2 days. We met at 8pm Thursday for the bus ride, and didn't end up leaving until 9:30 pm!!!! Of course, that's the French way of doing things: always fashionably late. That busride may have constituted the worst night of my life. I slept on and off sitting up for the entirety of the journey, amounting to total of about 1.5 hours of poor sleep. The bus driver was rather schizophrenic about the climate control in the bus: it was either ice cold or 800 degrees (celsius). We made multiple stops for bathroom and food purposes, all of which turned into hour long pauses with the bus doors open to the freezing night air. Keep in mind that we did cross the Alps, so it was cold, to say the least. Anyways, enough description of the ride there as I don't want to relive it and would never want to put you through such torture. To make a long story short, it was pretty bad. Students in Aix is a horrible student group that has severe organization problems and has issues with misrepresenting the truth about their excursions. For example, our "hotel 4 star in Venice" turned out to be absolutely amazing, but an hours bus ride out of town. Aaargh.
2. Absurd amounts of tourists
Venice is an extremely popular tourist attraction as a general rule: delicious Italian food, beautiful canals, gondolas w/ attractive Italian gondoliers singing of amore...what else can you expect? But, Carnaval inflates the tourism factor 10 fold. On many streets I felt like a farm animal being herded, entirely unable to move amongst the crowd of umbrellas and expensive cameras.
3. Weather
The last two weeks of February, vacation time for all French university students and many students in other European countries, was downright awful weather wise. All over southern Europe: France, Italy, Spain...it rained. In fact, earlier in the week in Aix I even witnessed hail falling outside my window in the schoolyard just behind my building. Though fairly easily overcome by umbrella, rain coat and a little bit of optimism, rainy weather is admittedly a nuisance. Photos often don't turn out quite as well without the stark contrast between marble building and blue sky. It's also difficult to conserve money when the only way to escape the cold is to duck into a cafe or ristorante for a pinot grigio or Italian cappucino. Thanks to the wet and wintry weather the majority of my friends (probably 90%) are sick now. I'm not, yet. Cross your fingers and knock on wood.
THE GOOD THINGS!!!!
4. VENEZIA!!!!
Having only been to Venice once before, with my parents about 5 years ago, I remembered Venice as absolutely amazing, beautiful, full of delicious food, and rather small and quaint. This recent vacation to the City of Canals proved me wrong in only one aspect: Venice is actually quite large, and extremely maze-like and confusing. Perhaps because my parents are both very organized travellers, or perhaps b/c my memory fails me, I don't remember ever feeling lost in Venice on my previous trip there. During the Carnaval visit, however, my entire 3 days were spent lost in the maze of tiny streets, plentiful bridges and water, water, water. Unlike most cities, however, the best way to visit Venice is to strike out and get lost. Exploring back alleys, happening upon a new and different square or piazza every few blocks...if ever I saw a crowded street I didn't like, I just turned onto a smaller one and felt alone in the world.
5. Crazy masks and costumes
Carnaval in Venice is known for the crazy, elaborate and sometimes slightly unnerving masks and costumes. Everywhere I looked, whether it be in pigeon packed Saint Mark's Square, on the overcrowded and overpriced Rialto Bridge, or on a tiny street in between, there were festive participants ready to be photographed. I took as many photos as possible, but I can't explain how difficult it is with so many other eager lenses fighting for a shot.