Passport Ready

The Carneval Ball; Lobster and Crying Drunk Princesses

By on Monday, October 7, 2013

 

Our big reason to go to Venice was to attend a Carneval Ball. The day of the ball we tried not to do anything to crazy, we wanted to be rested for our big night out on the town, in Venice Italy.
I was sharing a room at our hotel with two girls that I barely knew. I had gone on holiday with Dawn before and we got along great. I had just met Jess and I figured she seemed nice too. (These might come to be famous last words later)
While Dawn and Jess were showering I went down to the little corner market to find some wine and also gifts for friends back home.
Our hotel was right around the corner, and a few winding alleyways and bridges away from the tiny Italian market. I loved this little market! Shopping there I felt like living in a little Italian neighborhood! I bought most of my souvenirs there, buying friends fancy Italian coffees and chocolates. When I got back to our hotel room we had a great time sipping wine, listening to Italian dance music on the radio and getting girly for the ball.
When we finally waltzed across St Marks Square towards the hotel that hosted the ball, we all looked so great! Our costumes were amazing, and we were ready for a night of fun!  The ball would begin with appetizers and cocktails in the lobby. We sipped on Proscecco and just hung out, talking, laughing, taking pictures. All of a sudden, it was like someone had flipped a switch, and Jess was drunk, really drunk. As she tried, unsuccessfully to hit on every man in sight we enjoyed our gourmet appetizers and watched the shenanigans unfold.    Drunken girls don’t seem to care when man after man shuts them down, it was hilarious!
After about an hour of this amusement we made our way upstairs to the ball room. Our admission to the ball included dinner and all you can drink beverages, including champagne and wine. Did I say all you can drink beverages?
Poor Jess, it was going to be a long night.
At the ball

Our table ordered a few bottles of Pinot Grigio; I was just having a few sips when I saw it…
Lobster! Lobster everywhere!  
 Oh man, I was going to eat two hundred dollars worth, that was for sure.    This part of the night is a little bit of a blur for me. All I remember is tearing through three plates of lobster, while Jess just kept drinking wine. I don’t think she even went near the seafood buffet that was so incredible!
There was no way I was getting anywhere close to drunk; I was so full of lobster. This let me clearly watch the whole debacle of drunken Jess as she continued to hit on every man in sight, between fits of crying. John snapped a picture of her at one point, sitting on the steps of the hotel, makeup running down her face in her pretty dress, balling her eyes out. He said she looked like drunken Cinderella after the ball. So hitting on men wasn’t working for Jess, so then she decided she would try making out with Lindsey, the British girl friend of one of the pilots we were with.
At this point, John and Mimi walked her back to our hotel and put her to bed for the night before she could do anymore damage, and Dawn and I went to dance off some lobster!      We stopped briefly to reload on desserts of Tiramisu and various cakes. At one point Mimi made friends with a bunch of locals, who invited us to a party at a local’s only club. When the ball wrapped up we made our way through the streets to the club to dance some more. Stuffed full of lobster I didn’t make it very long at the club and Dawn and I headed back to the hotel.

When we walked in the door of the hotel something seemed weird. The very nice guy at the desk was trying to communicate with us in half Italian half English. We thought he was trying to convince us to get a drink with him at the hotel bar and we tried telling him
“Oh no, we just want to go back to our room, sorry”
Photo by John Cramer

As we were trying to get our room key out of him, Jess strolled over from the bar area in her pajamas. Yes, our little drunk roommate had wandered down in her PJ’s, and had moved on to hitting on the bartender/ night hotel staff. Dawn and I tried our best not to laugh. Then we tried to peel Jess’s drink out of her hand and get her away from the bartender and back up to her room. After this, Dawn needed another drink, so she headed back out to the club, and I started getting ready for bed. Then Jess realized she had lost her purse, her ID and her cell phone. When she couldn’t find her cell phone, she started drunk dialing from the hotel phone. Not only was she drunk dialing, she was drunk dialing internationally!
 I can only imagine how much those phone calls cost! I was in bed, sleep mask on, trying to sleep at this point, hoping she would quite literally pass out at some point. I was being pretty calm when I heard her put the radio on and say

“I’m going to give myself a pedicure!”
I had enough! I sat up in bed, ripped off my mask and yelled

“No! You’re not! It’s 3 a.m.! Calm the fuck down and go to sleep!”

I’m a little surprised she didn’t start crying again, actually. I was pissed at the time, but the next morning it was pretty hilarious, especially when I recounted the story for everyone with us, and Jess refused to speak to me the rest of the trip.

 

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