CARNEVAL!!!

February 5: 6am wake-up call! Now, if you know anything about me at all, you know how much i HATE mornings. But on February 5 I was so excited to be waking up because I was heading to VENICE, ITALY for the opening of Carneval! CIAO BELLA ;)

Getting ready to leave foggy London town, I was eager to touch down in Venice, see the beautiful ancient city built on water. Instead, as we landed, I saw nothing but heavy rainfall and got quick news of the 52 degree, sunny weather in London (yes, that is warm here!) But it didn't take away toooo much from the excitement of landing in Venice.


Night 1 wasn't the most spectacular evening and the trip seemed to be having a bit of a rocky start. We waited at the airport for HOURS before our bus arrived to take us into the city to our hostel. When we finally arrived and put our bags down, we quickly headed to dinner in St. Margarita Square.

Me in our Hostel Room :)

The Italian food is beyond words, it was absolutely amazing! We toasted to a fantastic weekend with authentic Italian wine and headed back to the hostel to get some rest for the first long day ahead! Oh, did I mention that my Uggs (my prized possession) got completely soaked through?! Ugh it was awful :( but the group picked my spirits up and I brushed it off because we were in VENICE! :)

Brittney, Alex, and I: Dinner, Night 1

Day 2 of the weekend was better than the first. The rain had subsided but the sun was still no where to be found. My Uggs were toast so I got to wear 4 inch heel boots for 9 hours... WOOOOO, so fun! haha NOT. It really was a good day though. We decided to dedicate the day to Murano and Burano -- 2 of the main tourist islands in Venice. Murano is famous for its glass blowing so naturally, we headed to the the glass museum. Seeing how it's made and how long it has been around was incredible! My favorite was a random window flower box filled with Murano glass flowers. It was so cool!

Alex, Katie, Brittney, and I: Murano

Glass Flowers :)

After spending hours on Murano (and enjoying yet another delicious dish of pasta) we headed to Burano which is famous for its lace making. The lace was BEAUTIFUL! We didn't spend as much time on this island but there wasn't as much to see anyway. We admired all the little shops and bought our masks to wear for Carneval! Then we finally headed back to the hostel to get ready for dinner.

Masks on, we headed out to dinner on the edge of the Grand Canal, right by the Rialto Bridge (the oldest bridge in Venice). The site of the restaurant was enough for me, but the food did not disappoint! However, towards the end of dinner I started feeling VERY sick :( I guess the dehydration caught up with me and Brittney and I headed back to the hostel for an easy night while the rest of our group went searching for a place to par-tayyy. The night was actually really fun, I think I've needed a girls night with Britt for quite some time so I was happy with our decision to stay in.

Katie, Alex, Brittney, Markos, and I: STRIKE A POSE!

Day 3 was my favorite day of the entire trip! The sun was shining and the sky was a beautiful blue! I got new boots to wear so my feet wouldn't kill me for another day and then we headed into St. Mark's square for the Carneval festivities! We all decided not to bring our masks to the festival so when we got there, we fought through the crowd of so many people and got our faces painted! It was great, I felt like a 5 year-old girl again :) We then watched some of the opening parades and finally went in to St. Mark's Basilica. It was unreal!!! The craftsmanship that still stands was incredible and it felt like the history was just cutting through you while you walked through the halls. We finally made our way up to the terrace of the basilica where we watched the last of the parade and marveled at the amazing sites from above.

St. Mark's Basilica

Dinner that night was not the GREATEST experience, but the food wasn't awful. We ate at the dodgiest restaurant ever with flies and ONE worker- haha. But we took over the small venue and made the night our own. It was definitely a great last night in Venice!

Day 4 was the typical tourist day filled with museum hopping and souvenir shopping! Of course, we had to take a gondola ride, despite the large price tag that came with the experience, but it was just something we had to do! After the gondola ride, we walked the islands of Venice and found ourselves standing in front of the Divinci exhibit... clearly we had to go in! DIS-A-POINT-ING! We paid 5 Euro each to see replicas of the great things Leonardo DiVinci had created. I felt like an adult in a toy store.. not fun :( But the fantastic gelato we stumbled upon shortly thereafter made up for it! haha.

On the gondola ride... squinting from the SUN!

DiVinci museum.. BUMMER

And after a long day of museums and walking, we finally headed back to London- or so we thought. Our flight was delayed 3 HOURS! boo. Let me tell you, sleeping on the floor of a freezing cold airport terminal is not the most fun experience in the world! But it was great to finally get home and in my own bed :)

Clearly the weekend was unforgettable and one I wouldn't trade for the world... Can't wait for my next travels.

Ciao!
Brittany