Oh right, Venice

My new cell phone, a gift from some Austrian friends, sang with a new text message, "Hy jonathan! how are u? we'll pic u up tomorrow at 7:30am! take some money with u! lots of blessings, jasmin" Let's see, it was Friday the 1st, what could be going on that early the next day? Another song, "Don't forget your passport." Oh yeah, I remembered, the day after my arrival here somebody offered to take me to Venice with them for the big carnival, I'd already even paid. It's amazing what you forget when you act in a jetlagged state.

Each year in Venice an absurd amount of people gather and dress up in crazy costumes and put on masks - nearly everybody has a mask. There are bands marching through the tiny streets and tourists flashing pictures in every direction.

We traveled by bus and had around 7 or 8 hours actually in Venice. Instead of the common drive into Venice via the causeway we bussed to a small port and took a boat directly to St. Mark's Square. The place was hopping busy, there was hardly room for the annoying birds that infest that historic courtyard.

We enjoyed some authentic Italian pizza from some allyside cafe before meandering nearly all of Venice in search of nothing. Most of my time was spent people watching and trying to communicate with my hosts.

I went with three girls, two Austrians and an Argentinean. Jasmin had spent one year in Argentina and her friend is now returning the visit (miss Argentina and the other Austrian girl spoke no English). It was an interesting day of Spanish, Corinthian German and broken English. Frankly, it was good for me to be stuck with a poor translator, it forces me to really focus on the German.

In all, it was a very enjoyable day. We did not get home until nearly 2:00am. Though I'd been to Venice before I think that I'm still quite intrigued by Italy. It is a place that you can visit repeatedly and find new things, especially when they throw a carnival.

As a note, during lunch I couldn't help but notice the restaurant filled with touring visitors, many wearing Nikes and speaking English. It inspired me because on a trip as long as mine I feel as if I need to pace myself, but really I don't. The journey is much of the reason I'm here and there are many little things I can do along my way to really enjoy the gift of time that I have here.

With my plans temporarily derailed by a lack of precipitation (still less than 20 inches of snow on any mountain in the region) I can only laugh because it does ring true that a bad day skiing, or even a bad weathered vacation, is better than a good day at work. It's my inclination, too, that given the length of my stay here, I should outlast any ill weather.