a blog about cultural differences

Gondolas at Piazza San Marco

I really suck at this. Actually, I don’t… I’ve just gotten really busy with school and everything. That being said, I’m going to try and update this weekly… hopefully more than that though. For this entry, I’m going back to last weekend, the one before Mardi Gras.

I took a trip to Venice with Kelsey and Rachel on Saturday. We left Ferrara on the 10:30 train, and barely made it because the line for the ticket machine was so long. We stood the entire train ride (2 hours) because it was so crowded, and we ended up stopping just before the S. Lucia station so it looked like we were stopped on the water–if I didn’t have to stand the entire train ride it would have been cool looking, but by the end I was claustrophobic and warm and just wanted to get off the train.

When we got off the train, we bought our return trip tickets just so we’d have them and not have to worry about it later, and then exited the station with the mass of people. Venice, honestly, was still incredible, despite the thousands of people there (I hate crowds). After wandering for a little bit, we found a cute place to eat lunch–we thought it would be cheap, but it ended up being 40 euros for all three of us to eat–including a 4 euro bottle of water? Sad. The food wasn’t even that good. After lunch we wandered the narrow streets of Venice, occasionally stopping in mask shops to get masks for ourselves and in Rachel’s case, for souvenirs. After about 3 hours of walking, we finally reached Piazza S. Marco, where the party really was. There was a band walking as they played, people dancing–it was great. As we got further through the Piazza, we stopped to watch a comical play, but didn’t stay long, because we didn’t understand much of it.

The Venetian people must get a kick out of Carnavale each year, because all of these tourists come, and they get to dress up in elaborate and amazing costumes and get their picture taken about a thousand times per day. After wandering some more, we decided to start making our way back to the train station. I decided that I really wanted to ride in a gondola, and managed to convince Kelsey to as well. Rachel insisted that she had already ridden in one, and didn’t need to again. When we finally found a gondolier, he told us that the 2km (I think) ride would be 80 euros total. Split into three, it was about 26.50 or something like that–which Rachel refused to pay because it was more expensive than her previous gondola ride. If she didn’t come with us, it would be 40 each for me and Kelsey–ouch. We both really wanted to go… so we agreed that it was a one time splurge. Rachel was going to meet us back at the original starting point (because the gondola brought you back to the same place) and then Kelsey felt bad, or something, I can’t remember… but she ended up coming with us and not paying because she still was picky about the price. The ride was totally worth it though–we saw Casanova’s house, and our gondolier started to sing to us towards the end. Literally, he just busted out with… “I love you baby…” and Kelsey and I giggled, because that’s what Heath Ledger sings in 10 Things I Hate About You, and then he stopped. We turned around and tried to clarify that we weren’t laughing at him, which took a bit, but on the last stretch of the ride he started singing in Italian.

After the gondola ride, we stopped in a bar to get some hot chocolate (con panna!) It actually ended up being the worst hot chocolate I’ve had here so far–there was too much cream and the chocolate was really lukewarm… sad. But we also ate some delicious chocolate cannoli (btw… cannoli is the plural, cannolo is the singular. People in the states also get that wrong with panini–the singular is panino.) Finding our way back to la stazione ferrovia was interesting–we just kept following the signs, but with everyone trying to get back to the station at once, it was quite difficult, and it took about 2 hours. Thankfully, we arrived at the station with about a half hour to spare, and validated our tickets. Right after the train came up on the big screen, we got on, and still were barely able to find seats–so Kelsey had to sit across from me and Rachel in a completely different row. It didn’t matter though, I was so tired that I fell asleep almost immediately. I woke up after our stop at Rovigo (the one right before Ferrara) and listened to the Beatles with Kelsey.

After getting home, I found Giuseppe and Luciana on the couch, watching Cold Case in Italian. They probably thought I was crazy, because I definitely flipped out about it. After eating some gnocchi al formaggio, we went out and picked up Andreas from his home. We parked the car, went to the same bar from two weekends ago, and then after spending about an hour there, went to a different one called Lobster. I actually ran into some people I knew there, which was quite interesting, but a little awkward, because we never really talk that much. We left this place at around… 2:30 I’m assuming, and went to Renfe (the local discotheque), where we passed back Luciana’s membership card for… 5 people–all of them were guys except for me. I’m still not sure how we did it, but they didn’t even look at my card as I walked through the gate, and I have no idea how harsh they were on everyone else. Also, I had no idea that we were doing such a thing until Vassilis came out and tried to discreetly hand me the card, and it took me about a minute to understand what was actually going on. After getting inside, we had to stand for a half hour in the bathroom line (because people here go into the bathroom to smoke… stupid people) and then we just stood around and didn’t really dance much (which I suppose is why no one pays 10 euros for a membership card…)

The song lineup later in the evening really made me happy though. At first, it was just normal club/dancing songs, and then “I Get Around” by the Beach Boys came on. Immediately following that was “Twist and Shout” and “She Loves You” by the Beatles. Then they played 2 songs from the Grease soundtrack–including Greased Lightening, to which I did the dance… and no one knew what I was doing. It made me incredibly sad. After, they played “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham, which proved to me they couldn’t really decide which musical era they wanted to be in. We left around 4:30, and I was in bed by 5:30. I actually got sleep this time, and woke up around 1:30 to eat lunch.

Apparently, Giuseppe and Luciana had previous plans with friends to travel to Venice on Sunday, and despite my protests of “I’m tired” or “I just went yesterday,” they dragged me along with them. I made Giuseppe promise to be home by 10 or 11 at the latest, so when we returned at 2, I was not pleased at all. We parked the car in Mestre and decided to take the train into Venice. The ticket dispenser wasn’t producing any tickets for Venice at the time we got there, and the line to the ticket window was too long, and we were about to miss the train… so we got on without a ticket. All 4 of us. The ticket would have cost us 1 euro, and if we got caught, we would have each had to pay something upwards of 50 euros. So what did we do? We all hid in the bathroom. All 4 of us. I wasn’t too happy with them to begin with… but this definitely annoyed me for the rest of the night. After meeting Biddi and his girlfriend in Piazza S. Marco, we just sort of hung out for 2 hours and then walked back. We got on the 9:30 train to Mestre, arrived at 10… and then Giuseppe wanted to stick to the original plan and go to the casino. I told him it was fine, as long as we only stayed a half hour and were home by midnight. We arrived at 10:30, and by 11:30, Giuseppe finally decided it was time to go. I had won 2.50 euros on an electronic roulette machine, and when we found Andreas at the blackjack tables, he was losing money, so we “couldn’t leave.” I got really pissed, because it was an hour and a half drive home–putting us home at around 1. Luciana and I ended up going out to the car so I could at least sleep a little bit. About 15 minutes later, Giuseppe and Andreas finally emerged, and as soon as Giuseppe entered the car, he was like, “Holly’s angry!” Is there any reason why I shouldn’t be? I had class in the morning, and we weren’t going to be home until 2.

He’s also picked up “creepy” from me, because well, I call him creepy all the time, because he always stands in my doorway that’s cracked open a little bit and just whispers at me all the time. So now, my new name is Creepy. Or Creep Holly, whatever works or whatever he feels like. Fortunately, Luciana helps me with words like, “Shut up” and “asshole” so I can just respond back in Italian and he’ll leave me alone

I was completely dead on Monday, and ended up having to explain my weekend in Italian to the class. After getting back, I took a nap, and then we all ate lunch together and like most Mondays, I did nothing all day. I met Kelsey in the center around 5 after she was done with classes for hot chocolate… pretty much our favorite thing to do. When we were walking, I heard someone whistling at me. My first instinct was just to ignore it… but then someone started calling my name. Turns out it was Jordan, just being funny. He reminded us both of the cooking class at Balebuste, so we had to hurry through our hot chocolate to get there. The cooking class was totally worth it, we learned how to make cappellaci di zucca! It was soo amazing. Apparently the average serving of cappellaci is around 8-10 pieces. They brought us out the first plate, and then brought out some extra, which we all devoured even though we complained it was too much. After the first extra plate was gone, they brought out another! So all of us really ate about… 3 servings of cappellaci. Tuesday really wasn’t any better than Monday, because I felt halfway sick, like I just had a head cold or something. Wednesday was the long day, but I managed to get through it–went to try on new spring clothes at Pimpkie with Kelsey after meeting her for hot chocolate after class. I’ve been having problems with my wrist, probably from riding my bike so much, and ever since I got my brace at the beginning of the week, it’s been difficult to brake my bike–with only one brake functioning, and of course the left one, where I wear my brace. So I managed to part with my bike with the promise of getting it back the next morning. It was very difficult. After that, we met Rachel back at her house, and walked to Pizzeria Archibugio to have an organized dinner with some SPAL players and supporters (organized by Riccardo, of course). We ended up sitting next to this really nice German woman who knew 5 languages, including english, quite well. We also watched as a younger man who we thought was a player pour himself 12 glasses of beer. Just one right after the other. We counted. It was a hilarious dinner long joke. After dinner, Luciana picked me up in the center of town in her car (since I had no other way to get home).

Thursday, after she dropped me back off by the castle, I went to the bike shop–where the man explained that my bike wasn’t ready, so I had to take a different one. Turns out, I like this one a lot better–it doesn’t make any weird noises, and both brakes work. Also, the handlebars are red and white POLKA DOTS, and it has some cool rainbow chains on the back wheel. I’m going to go back tomorrow and ask him if I can just keep this one. One random thing before I close this blog up (will write about my trip to Siena in the next one, I promise)–I have seen some of the UGLIEST dogs here, but apparently they’re all purebred. I don’t understand it.

Ciao!