Venice [sigh]

I saw so much in Italy. I experienced so many things. It was wonderful from start to finish. I'm going to just tell you about my last two days in Italy then I'll move onto the best part of my trip....Israel. We took a train to Venice, arriving late afternoon. Every form of ground transportation ends in the same location. The only forms of travel in Venice is walking or boat. We took a water taxi to San Marco where our hotel was. I was in shock at how unbelievably beautiful Venice is. It truly is like the movies. The buildings are old and some would say in need of a good paint job. But when I looked at the buildings, I could see only history and beauty. The "flaws" add character to the place.

In Italy, they refer to Venice as Venezia. Well, Jessica kept saying, "I can't believe we're in Venezuala!" That's my sister :)

Now the day we arrived was the last day of Carnival, the night before Ash Wednesday. They had a masquerade theme. Everyone dresses in costumes and masks. Traditionally, this was to allow freedom of expression without revealing identity. It was to allow the different classes to intermingle. Apparently, they wanted to be able to do as they please without any repercussions and no one knowing their identity.


The costumes were extravagant and beautiful. Some of them had this Marie-Antoinette-flair...powdered wigs 2 ft high and massive ball gowns. However, after only a few moments in the sea of people I became very uneasy. Alcohol was flowing heavily. The masks dispersed of many inhibitions, but if any inhibitions were left the alcohol finished them off. Add to that, everyone was masked and speaking a foreign language. In my exhausted state, I became stressed, and when one man grabbed a hold of my shoulder and began following me for a good while I began to panic. In typical Tanya fashion, tears of fear were shed intermixed with laughter because I was crying in the middle of Venice over something foolish. The masked man finally backed off at that point, and I slowly began to relax. This is not a picture of the masked man but you can definitely see why I got a little freaked out.

Outside of that moment, it was an interesting experience. The costumes were worth seeing. Plus, they had entertainment at the center of the square. I turned to a friend and said "we're getting to hear opera in Italy!"

The next day was so much better. Every Venetian was hungover, so we had the place to ourself. If you've seen one part of Venice, then you've pretty much seen all of it. It's small walkways in between buildings, random bridges, and lots of water. Many people in my group became bored easily, but I loved it more and more. I wanted to pull out an easel and my paint and sit for days. So beautiful. We went on a gondola at night. I went with Jess and Brandon then another couple, Sarah and Eric. Before you feel bad for me having to be the fifth wheel on a romantic starlit gondola ride in Venice just keep in mind the gondolier was hot! Sarah tried to say something to me during it and I said "ssh...I'm pretending you guys aren't here ha."


The gondolier told us about how Venice used to have only one bridge. Everyone had to use boats for transportation. Within the last twenty years or so, they've built more--somewhere around 400+ bridges. The one original bridge, the Rialto, is said to be a magical bridge. When you cross under it, if you kiss, you will marry the one you kissed. I kissed the gondolier. Just kidding! ha

We left Venice for Israel with a random stop in Latvia, but hey now I can say I've been to Riga, Latvia and seen the frozen Baltic Sea. I can't wait to tell you all about my adventures in Israel..every step I took...from the tops of mountains to the bottoms of the valleys, the Dead Sea to the Galilee and everything in between.