Carnivale and discoteca

So Carnivale was this weekend! Actually, it ran from Thursday, Feb. 19th and continues through tonight, Feb. 24th. SOO much Carnivale! Every day there are celebrations in the Piazza del Popolo (our main piazza) and also in Piazza Roma. There are massive markets everyday (clothing markets) and just soo many things going on all at once!! I guess I'll start from the top.....

Last Thursday was the start of the festivities. The girls and I didn't really do much Thursday and Friday night. We just stayed around our favorite hangout.... Murphy's bar ...haha. They were having a different party every night depending on the day of Carnivale, so there was always something new to do there.

We also took those two nights easy in preparation for the big event... DISCOTECA on Saturday night. Saturday morning we were all rushing around trying to decide what we were going to wear to the discoteca that night. Eventually, I ended up borrowing this amazing dress from my friend...sooo cute. My roommate Christine and I were walking around with three other girls when we passed a hair salon. This was the first time that I really noticed a salon in Ascoli aside from the one that is inside our CRAZYILY SUAVE gym. We walked in so that I could buy some shampoo and my roommate (who has hair that is even more curly than mine....yes, it's possible) noticed that they did a really good job straightening hair. Needless to say, we were back at the salon four hours later getting our hair washed and prepped for some intense straightening.

We boarded the bus to San Benedetto in our finest (with our straight hair) and with four other girls. Unfortunately, at the next stop these four boys got on the bus. When I say boys, I mean 16 or 17 year olds that were completely enthralled with the fact that we were American. When I say enthralled, I mean they wouldn't leave us alone for the whole hour long bus ride to San Benedetto. Did I mention that they smelled like they hadn't taken a shower in....well.....their whole entire lives? My friend was actually starting to feel physically sick about half an hour into the epic journey that was our ride on l'autobus.

We arrived in San Benedetto and called our friend to come pick us up at the train station so that the sketchy boys wouldn't follow us....good times in Italy. After hanging out at his house for a little bit, we caught word that l'autobus di festa (PARTY BUS) was ready to go. We rode the bus (with 25 of our friend's other friends) for another hour to the discoteca. I have no idea where the discoteca was, I just know that it was called Lola, and that I was happy to finally arrive because there was just tooooo much italian yelling on the bus for me to handle at 1:30am. When the bus dropped us off, they said "OK! We'll be back to pick you up at 5am". I can't even describe my emotions in that moment...all I can say is that I am not made to stay up past 11pm....

We walked into the discoteca and were immediately blinded by the stobe lights. I literally thought that at LEAST one person in our group of 35ish people would go down with a seizure and I would have to whip out my lifesaving skills (but it's ok Kristin because I'm a lifeguard). Luckily there were no casualties to the discoteca lights. We danced forever...and ever...and ever...and eventually an hour went by....hahah only two to go. I made it until 5am and when we went to leave the discoteca some of the girls weren't allowed out. When you enter the discoteca, they give you an exit card that you have to present to the bouncer when you leave. If you don't show the card, you can't get out.

We finally snuck the two girls past the body guard and ran out of the discoteca. Ohhh the excitement of my life....Just when I thought the night was over, we realized that we had no CLUE where the bus was parked. At this point I just started running up and down the parking lot with two other guys looking for the stupid party bus that went missing. I was soooo happy I had been hitting up Tonic (the gym).

Finally we found the bus, and luckily it was bringing us back to Ascoli so that we wouldn't have to switch busses in San Benedetto, we would just have to stop to drop off a couple people...ok like 25 people...

We didn't get back to Ascoli until 7am......I WAS SOOOO EXHAUSTED! I had to was past a church on my way back to my apartment and this little old man was just staring at me in my party clothes...I felt like such an idiot! haha

Needless to say, I took a shower and went to sleep. I slept until two, did a massive cleaning of my apartment and went out with the girls to grab some pizza. That was honestly the best ending to an endless night...Teatro pizza....delicious.