Venice The Menace

"Don't worry about getting wet-- you will."

-Rando Venetian

As you may or may not have noticed from the latest Bweaver Fever photosesh, Venice, Italy was this past weekend's destination, and a rad one it was. I traveled with one friend from down the hall named Pat. Pat and I flew RyanAir on Thursday night and after checking into our hostel decided to try to wander our way to the famous St. Mark's square. I say 'wander' because that's about all one can do when trying to navigate the absurdly unplanned city of Venice. Not to say that that's such a bad thing, in fact one website we referenced with the 'Top 10 Things to do in Venice' rated "getting lost in Venice" as the number one thing to do, and as silly as it sounds I don't really disagree. Some of the best times I had last weekend were just walking around trying to find various things. The city is so visually stimulating, so beautiful; just exploring the aged Venetian infrastructure was enough to make a fairly cloudy, drizzly, cold, and generally wet weekend still worthwhile and awesome.

But, I digress. That first night we saw St. Mark's square for the first time of many times in the weekend and shared not one, but two delicious pizzas. And some gelato. This past weekend was certainly one of the more tasty I've had thus far. Pat and I decided to have one nice, sit down meal when we were in Venice. And we did. We had a delicious three course meal at the Ristorante Marco Polo. Other than that, and I am not exaggerating about this, we ate nothing but pizza and gelato for the entire weekend. Do I regret this? Not in the slightest.

Friday morning we walked over to the Peggy Guggenheim collection, a modern art museum. Parts of it made me want to rock out. In the afternoon we took a kickass nap then unsuccessfully attempted to visit the church of the Salute. It was closed. But the building was nice. After eating a delicious dinner of pizza we made our way to the Venice Jazz Club where we saw an incredible tribute to Wes Montgomery and Charles Mingus. To the Becca Weavers and Matt Reismans of the world - I miss you. After the show the piano player informed us that it was high tide outside and that if we didn't have boots they had bags for our feet at the bar. Turns out this was not a joke. The canal outside the Jazz Club had flooded about half a foot! Alas, the rando Venetian referenced at the beginning of this post was more correct than I thought.

On Saturday we returned to St. Mark's, this time with an agenda. We visited the interior of St. Mark's Basilica. Although technically located much closer to Rome than ancient Constantinople, for one reason or another Venice always swore allegiance to the Eastern Empire ever since the divide. Because of this political (and literal) island much of the architecture in Venice, including St. Mark's Basilica, is much more akin to the architecture of Turkey than anywhere in Europe. Not to say that Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals are lame or uninteresting in the slightest, but it was a bit refreshing to see some different styles. We also visited the Doge's Palace, which is located right next to St. Mark's (The Doge is a royalty title apparently used exclusively in Venice, basically equivalent to a Duke). It was overwhelmingly ornate. It's pretty crazy to think that at one point in history (and I suppose still today [Queen of England, i'm talking to you]) people actually lived in the midst of such vast decadence. It was weirdly troubling.

After waiting through 2 cloudy days Sunday finally delivered some sunshine to the people of Venice. Pat and I took full advantage, returning once again to St. Mark's square to take an elevator to the top of the Campanile, a tall bell tower where we saw a view that I feel could be described as great. We then took a waterbus to a nearby island called Murano and explored around there a bit, mostly just enjoying the sun. And some more gelato.

Overall, a great weekend despite the shitty weather. Europe, I've seen one of the more beautiful sides of you and I thank you. You're score has officially hit 67. David B. Weaver, looks like you're clocking in at about... 68 (?!?!?!?!?!)

Photosesh: Venice Jazz Club

(Real Venice entry to come soon.)

Limburg, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down

This weekend was spent castle-side as it was the start of a 3-day festival that happens every year at around this time in the Southern part of the Netherlands called CARNIVAL. Celebrationally speaking, it can be closely compared to the French/American Mardi Gras, but much longer and with less enjoyable music. There is much celebrating in the streets, each day and night moving the crowd to a different major city in Limburg and nearby areas. There is a "Prince of Carnival" elected every year who gets to be the champ and wear a sick hat with a bunch of really long feathers. Most local Limburgers close their businesses, wear green, yellow and red, and get wholly hammered in the middle of the day, for three days. Needless to say, this festival is fairly overwhelming.

On Friday (the day before Carnival) I joined about 30 of my peers for a day trip to the town of Maastricht, the southernmost major city in the Netherlands, guided by an Art Historian/professor here at the Castle: Rob Duckers. "The Duke," as he is informally known, turned out to be the man. Here's why: after an uneasy wake up call of 8:30 and having a surprisingly short bus ride to Maastricht, Rob Duckers stated that the most important thing we needed to do was to get some coffee and pastries for ouselves, then proceeded to take us to what he believed to be the best coffee house in Maastricht and covered everyone's bill. It was awesome. Rob then took us into the historical city of Maastricht, a city which claims to be the second oldest in the Netherlands (younger than Nijmagan, an ancient roman city). We spent most of our time in two churches within the city, the first of which was kind of cool, the second of which had a large reliquary and art collection that is currently curated by none other than Rob Duckers. The Duke gave us a very special tour of the place, not only going into great detail about the art and architectural design of the building itself but (literally) unlocking several locked doors to show us special crypts, towers, and emperor's rooms that I imagine the typical Maastrichtian passerby would not be able to see.

And of course, in true Duke fashion, Rob bought us all a beer at the end of his tour. After that we were free to roam around the city and explore it for ourselves. Even in the awful weather that the Netherlands has been stricken with as of late, Maastricht was still a great town and certainly a place I plan to visit again before my trip is up.

Saturday I traveled with a group of castle peers to the nearby city of Venlo to partake in the Carnival festivities taking place there. This day is pretty much a blur. As I mentioned above, patrons of this crazy festival enjoy to get incredibly drunk in the middle of the day, so... when in Rome. There were a lot of people in the streets dressed up in crazy costumes and having a great time. At one point we stumbled upon some more of that awful Carnival music, this time being played by a live band, so that was kind of cool (but only kind of). Unfortunately I have no pictures from that day, I brought the ol' film camera out there, so perhaps I'll scan some and put them up in a few weeks.

Carnival was very interesting indeed, however when it came down to it I was just another uninformed American barging in on (presumably) hundreds of years of tradition. Yes, it's a good time to get hammered in the middle of the day, but it's not like I or any of my peers had any idea what we were celebrating or how one was expected to go about doing so. One in a situation such as this can do one of two things: either look on and observe as an uninformed bystander (which can be awkward for the locals) or pretend to participate by dancing around and singing gibberish (which I imagine could be perceived as offensive). In the end, I did a little of both. Neither felt very fulfilling. This weekend certainly provided the most culture shock I've experienced thus far in my trip.

After a riled and drunken weekend, Sunday became a day for recuperation and meditation. And more illicit substances.

Europe, you kind of freaked me out this weekend. I think you're score's at about 40. David B. Weaver, however, is at... 41 (?!?!?!?!)

Bruged and Brusseled

This past weekend my travels brought me to Belgium by way of train and bus with a group of my neighbors here at the castle. We left thursday night and five hours later found ourselves at Brussels Centraal with some faulty directions but we made it to our hostel well enough. Brussels had a lot to offer us in terms of sightseeing. On Friday we visited the Atomium, a building that somewhat resembles the structure of a molecule that gives anyone willing to pay 7€00 a panoramic view of the city. It was a bit cloudy, but it was still a neat experience being inside such a unique structure.

I'm finding out that good way to see some classic artworks without paying an admission fee is just to visit giant old churches. The Basilicas and Cathedrals seem to always have a solid collection of renaissance era paintings and, being the 'welcoming' organization that is the Catholic Church, never charge a fee. We visited two churches whilst in Brussels, neither of which I remember the name of, both of which were beautiful buildings with stunning collections. At one of these churches we visited we somewhat miraculously ran into a group of friends from the castle who also happen to also be visiting Belgium. So, that's awesome.

That evening we met up with the other group in the Markt square (the main center of Brussels) for some dinner. I had one of the best dinners i've ever had that night: shawarma with spicy sauce and frites and a 7€00 litre of beer. I mean, the only reason I describe this meal to you is because despite its "cheap food" facade it was for some reason literally that good. I don't know why I loved it so much. But I did. You're just going to have to deal with reading about it.

Anyway, after dinner we wandered around the lively Brussels, visiting the famous fountain of a little boy urinating, hilariously titled Mannekin Pis, and eating our fare share of delicious and genuinely BelgianWaffles.

After a somewhat disappointing visit to the Museum of Chocolate and Cocoa on Saturday morning we eventually made our way back to the train station and caught an afternoon train to Bruges. Bruges also had some pretty shitty weather but proved itself to be a very pretty, quaint town. A place I'm fairly confident Francine Weaver would consider rather "cutesie". There we stayed at a very cool hostel called Snuffel Backpacker, the bar of which proved to be the center of night life for the youth of Bruges. In Bruges we mostly indulged in the scenery and, well, food of the area.

After all the traveling it was very relieving to arrive home at the Castle where i've been getting some good rest. And going to class- I do that too.

All in all it was an exceptional weekend for at least 2 of my senses. Well done, Europe. You're score's rounding out to be just about 33. And I, David B. Weaver... 34(?!?!?!)

Rembrandts, Intoxicating Plants and Women with no Pants: A Weekend in Amsterdam

This past weekend was the first of two "academic excursions" to the infamous capital of the Netherlands. "Academic Excursion" means that the entire Castle of 85 goes to the city together and the activities that we do each day depend on the classes we are registered for. We were led to many different museums and sights and guided by our teachers while there. Most of the days were fairly structured, leaving little time to explore the city for ourselves but each night was left free for us to get lost on our own.

Upon arrival we were split into arbitrary groups and led around the city for a general walking tour to get some kind of a bearing. My group went to some pretty churches and then went ahead and dove right into the red light district. It's true what they tell you- there are some prostitutes there. On Friday afternoon we went as a big group to the Rijksmuseum and saw a lot of great paintings including Rembrandt's epic Nightwatch, of which I tried not to "talk shit" about (a recommendation I got from my Art History teacher Carrie Anderson last year while studying it). On Saturday I saw the Van Gogh Museum in the morning and in the evening went to the Amsterdam Hermitage (as it turns out, there is only one satellite branch of the epic Russian collection and it happens to be in Amsterdam. Who knew?). Seeing so many masterworks last weekend really made me rerealize the importance of seeing paintings in person. The experience is so much more fulfilling than seeing the same paintings on a Powerpoint presentation. Nightwatch was overwhelmingly enormous and Vermeer's Milkmaid was a little disappointingly small. But you know, now I know.

The night life was a different story all together. I suppose it was what I expected- really great. For some reason I had an idea of Amsterdam in my head of being this scary, ratty place with an abundant number sketchy (scuzzy?) people. Not so! I mean, there were scuzzdogs, sure, but the ages of history and culture pulse through its streets and canals like nothing I can describe. And I mean, yes, sometimes people pay money to have sex with other people, and yes, minds are altered and perspectives are changed here, but how different is that from any other major city? These people just don't have the shame to sweep it all under the rug. Bottom line- Amsterdam is amazing and I'll definitely be going back there soon.

On Sunday I was required (because of my screenwriting class) to take the train to Rotterdam and visit the International Film Festival Rotterdam to speak with an Emerson professor who was screening a film there. Rotterdam was interesting to visit; apparently it was nearly completely destroyed from bombings in World War II and so every building is built post-1945. Lots of skyscrapers in Rotterdam, a stark contrast to Amsterdam. John Gianvito (the Emerson filmmaker we talked to) was surprisingly interesting. He made a 4 1/2 hour documentary about the side effects of an unclean and abandoned US military base in the Philippines called Vapor Trail (Clark) (and yes, it is only part 1). We didn't actually watch the thing, we just talked to him when he slipped out of his own screening. He told us about his film and, more broadly, independent filmmaking in general. It was great.

All in all, a fantastic weekend in a couple of fantastic cities. Europe, I think you've brought up your game a couple points- Europe: 17, David B. Weaver... 18 (?!?!)

DBW