Venice and Barcelona!

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The past two weeks have been a fantastic adventure. Come with me, will you?

Alright, so, last weekend, February 6 to 7, I was in Venice, enjoying the beginning of Carnevale.
We took the 6:45 am train to Venice on Saturday morning, to get there in time for the night's festivities. We got there around 10:30 am. The train ride was fine, if early, but my headphones were broken, so that put a big damper on things.

I was traveling with my roommate, Matt, our friend, Jeff, and his friends, Colleen, Jordan, Becky and Susan.

Venice is a fantastic city made of tightly packed buildings with canals snaking through the streets. The weather our first day was gray and a little rainy all day, but hey it was still nice. We got off the train, and left the station. We were in the city no more than five minutes when we walked over a bridge, and heard a splash behind us, followed by screaming. There was a series of steps down to the canal, presumably for a docked boat, and a man had gone down on the bottom, algae-covered step, while trying to take a picture of the bridge we had just walked over, and then he slipped and fell in. He had one of those crazy expensive DSLR cameras, and he was screaming for someone to take it so it wouldn't get wet. Some people helped him out of the canal, and Jeff tried to take a picture. The picture didn't really come out so well, though. That guy was stuck in soaking wet clothes in the rain in the forty degree weather, and he probably got a disease or two, cuz that water's filthy.

We stayed in a one-or-two star hotel because all the hostels in Venice were all booked. We found our room and Matt needed to meet up with another group of Temple kids who took a different train to Venice. After trying to find Matt's hotel for an hour or so, we came to learn that he was staying in the hotel across the street from ours, which owned and operated our hotel. Funny stuff.

We went to lunch at a cafe, and I got tuna pizza. Tasty.

After lunch, we walked around, enjoying the Carnevale festivities and trying to find masks. Everyone wears these old Renaissance-style masks around, and its so cool. I got a ten euro Casanova mask with these gold and multicolored diamonds all over it. Very nice. We all got masks and wore them the rest of the day as we walked around. We got hot wine, which was hot red wine with some spices and booze in it. Then we went to St Mark's square and saw the tower and the Doge's palace. There were all these decorations in the square for Carnevale. There was a big hedge, cut to look like the lion on top of the tower. There was a stage with a clown introducing performers to the crowd. We watched a cheesy magician, then tried to meet up with Matt and his group. Never happened.

After St. Mark's, we decided to head back to the hotel. We bought some dinner, alcohol, and went back.

After an hour and a half nap or so, we got up and changed into our going out clothes. We knew what area of Venice we wanted to go to, but didn't have a specific edifice in mind, so we were just wandering about. Then we got a calling. A group of seven or so people dressed in metallic gold ponchos walked determinedly past us. They came dressed to party. We followed them and came to a huge piazza with a gigantic outdoor dance party. Piazza San Margarita had a big stage with a DJ in the back and two huge Heineken tents selling overpriced drinks. If you build it, they will come. We had a blast! Long story short, we stayed there all night and left around one am to go towards the hotel and see if anything else was going on.

Walking over a bridge, an intoxicated fellow ran past me and slipped. I helped him up, and we came to talking. Turns out he's from Wyckoff, and knows my fraternity's former president, and a kid I graduated from Cresskill with. He's studying in Torino and took the weekend in Venice. Small world, right?

We went back to the hotel and got some sleep. We got up the next morning and had a great free breakfast at the hotel, which was absolutely clutch for our hangovers.

It was a gorgeous day outside, and we walked along the grand canal for a bit, taking pictures and relaxing.

Then we took a bus on the water to the train station. Public transportation in Venice is so cool, its just big yellow boats. So different.

We got to the station and took the one pm train back to Rome. It was a slow train, so it took 6 hours, but the plus-side of slow trains is that they're set up Harry-Potter-style, with closed in booths of six seats. We talked the whole way back and it was a fun time.

Taking the subway back to the apartment, I realized how crazy Carnevale in Venice was. Absolutely insane.

Last week, I went to the same place for two different classes, which is cool because I learn a whole hell of a lot about it.

I went to the Capitoline Museum for Museum theory, which was neat. The plaza that the Capitoline is built in is cool in its own right, with a lot of history, and the first opening in the museum is cool, because it has these relics from gigantic statues. Big hands and feet and Constantine's head. Neato.

That was on Tuesday. On Thursday, I went to the Capitoline plaza for my Renaissance class, where we studied only the plaza outside, not the inside of the museum. Cool because Michelangelo designed it all.

After the plaza on Thursday, I took the metro all the way to the Anagnina stop to get to Ciampino for my flight to Barcelona. I went to Spain with Matt, and the group he was with in Venice, Nikki, Katie, and Cat.

We got to the airport around 8pm, and went through security. Ciampino airport is where all the low-cost airlines fly to, they don't fly to Fiumicino, Rome's real airport. It adds a nice challenge to getting from A to B.

Ryanair can be described as charming. Their motto should be "Do it yourself." They get you where you have to go, I guess. I shouldn't be too ungrateful.

We got to Barcelona at maybe 11pm or so, after an hour and a half flight. We had to take an hour and a half bus to the city, because Barcelona's crappy airport, Girona, is whimsically far from the city, just like Ciampino to Rome.

We took a taxi from the bus station and got to our hostel at like 1 am. After being nickel-and-dimed to death by the front desk guy, we got in our room, which was on the top (sixth) floor of the building. We had a rooftop balcony! Very cool at night. The view was awesome.

We were hungry, so we went out at night and found this place called Doner Kebap, which is awesome Turkish food. We got durum which is basically a cross between a gyro and a burrito.

We ate, and went back to the apartment. Nope. It was locked. We apparently needed a separate key to get in the building. So we had to get another. That was fun. We went to bed and woke up in time for the hostel's free breakfast. Let me tell you, if you want to enjoy a free hostel breakfast, you'd better like carbs. Breakfast was a small muffin, three dry pieces of crouton-like bread, and some butter. Yummer.

Then we went to Dunkin' Coffee, Dunkin' Donuts overseas counterpart. They still don't have American style coffee, so I had to get essentially an espresso with a bunch of milk. It was good. And I got a donut. I never ever get donuts, even in the States, so it was a special treat. We went to the market, and Matt got some fresh strawberry and banana juice for a euro. I didn't try any but it looked good.

Then we walked around for a bit. Our apartment was right on La Rambla, the main street in downtown Barcelona, which was nice. We walked north on La Rambla, and the girls were enticed by a El Corte Ingles store, which is like a trendy Bloomingdale's or Macy's or something. Matt and I went next door to a music store while the girls shopped, and we looked at melodicas and all sorts of exotic instruments.

We them met back up with the girls and walked further north in the city. We saw a big house that was designed by Gaudi, in the cool mosaic style. We took pictures. Then we saw another building that looked like it was melting. The architecture in Barcelona is absolutely crazy. So cool.

Then we went to one of Barcelona's biggest sights, Gaudi's crazy church. It's actually called La Sagrada Familia. It looks like a big drippy sand castle with four gigantic spires in the top. There's all these cool statues lining the base. We went inside, which is unfinished, and then we took the elevator to the top. It was insane up there. We were in one of the shorter spires, but it was cool because you can see the others way up there. Its absolutely insane. I think it was around 200 feet in the air.

Then we walked around, taking pictures and looking for lunch.
We got lunch at a place called El Pans, which is like a spanish quiznos. They messed up my order, but hey. Whatever.

Then we walked the rest of the way north and went to the Parc Guell. We tried to get in the Gaudi house inside, but it was closed. We still enjoyed the park and took pictures. Its really cool because its this park with these houses in it, you know?

Then we took the metro back to our apartment. We walked the entire length of the city, so we felt justified taking the metro back.

Later, we went out to this really crowded shots bar and ran into some girl from Franklin lakes or something. She knows kids from Cresskill high school. Small world again. The shots bar was terrible and really packed, so we got one round and left. We got Bob Marley shots, which are grenadine, creme de menthe and some other liquid poured in such a manner that it resembles a Jamaican flag from the side. Definitely going to be making some when I go home. They tasted like banana.

Then, we found a bar that was right out of the show Mad Men. The Milano cocktail bar in Barcelona is so cool. We ordered some drinks, and the guy poured the drinks at the table. The walls were lined with red velvet couches and there was jazz playing. So cool.

Then we went back to the room and slept.

The next day, we got up, got Dunkin' Donuts, and went to the Picasso Museum. The museum was very cool. I liked seeing his early work when he was making gigantic realistic oil paintings, because everyone just knows about the cubism.

After the Picasso Museum, we went to a spanish restaurant across the street, and I got a chicken burrito thing. It was really good.

Walking back to the hostel, I got a call from one of my fraternity brothers, Max. He was in Barcelona with his parents and we made plans to get dinner together.

I walked back to the hostel, enjoyed a beer on the rooftop deck, changed, and went to meet Max. I walked to the area of the city that he told me to meet him at.

The restaurant we originally planned on meeting at was shut down for renovation, and it was a shame, because it is widely regarded as the best tapas in the city. However, we had a reservation for another restaurant, Biblioteca, which was down near my part of the town. We took a taxi down there, and found the restaurant.

It was so cool. The front of the restaurant looks like a storefront and you have to ring a doorbell for them to answer. The place inside is gorgeous. We had great wine, max and his dad got this big beef thing that has to be shared with two people, I got squid casserole, and Max's mom got risotto. I got croquetas for an appetizer. We all got dessert, too. Max's dad got an apple tart, which was very talked about on the internet, Max got the Gordon Ramsay, which is some cooked chocolate pudding, I got a banana cake which was aaaaamazing, and Max's mom got a spoon.

I left Max and his parents right by the restaurant because my apartment was only a block or so away. Before I got back in the apartment, I had a Baileys cappuccino at this espresso bar. Good stuff. Then I got in the apartment, and we all got ready to go out.

We walked around a bit, and couldn't find many good places to go, so we ended up going to Doner Kebap. We had doner kebap three nights in a row. That's customer loyalty.

I woke up and packed because we had to leave by 11. We got Dunkin', then we walked around, headed towards the bus station.

On the way to the station, we found this crazy little kid parade, presumably for Carnevale, and we watched that for a while. They were marching with these giant puppets. Absolutely insane.

Post parade, we walked and found an insane huge arch, made of red brick. The architecture in Barcelona is absolutely insaaaaaane. Can't say it enough.

Waiting to kill time, we went to a dog park right by the bus station. We hung out, looking at the dogs and enjoying life and the nice weather.

We watched an amateur soccer game from some bridge overlooking a field. It was really cool. We made nicknames for all the players.

For lunch, we got shawarma at this Turkish joint. Honestly, if you want great Turkish food, go straight to Spain. If you want Spanish food, good luck. We looked everywhere in Barcelona, found one spanish place, and 15 turkish places. Spain is much more Americanized than Italy, and they don't seem to embrace their own cultural identity, as it were.

We were headed back to the bus, and Matt realized he forgot his headphones at a gas station. We booked it back to the gas station, and Matt got them from the clerk behind the counter. He was sooooo lucky. We got back to the bus station, and went on the bus to the airport.

The flight back landed 20 minutes early, which was absolutely great. Then we got back in our Rome apartment around 10:00pm last night.

Right now I'm sitting on our couch, watching the Winter Olympics in Italian. Weird and cool.

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