Luck O' The Irish!

So, this past weekend (March 24-27) Jenna, Marsha, Casey and I made our way to Dublin. Our flight was at 7 am on Thursday from Pisa (don't ask why we did that), which meant that no trains were running at that time. This means, we had to find a bus, which we did...... but it left at 3:35 in the morning. THIS meant, I woke up at 2 am to leave at 3, to catch a taxi to the train station to catch the bus. To my surprise, it was a full bus, and a lot of people went there without tickets just hoping to get on. Ballsy if I do say so myself. Bus ride was about an hour and plane ride was about 2.5 hours. So, with the hour time different, this got us into Dublin around 8:30. (By the way, most PAINFUL flight I have ever been on. And by that I mean I was in LITERAL pain. I don't know what they DON'T do properly, but with the change in pressure, I got like shooting pains and so did some of my friends- just ridiculous!) When we got to the hostel, we found out that check in time was at 3 pm. This means we could not take our much needed naps like we so desperately wanted to. So instead, we locked up our stuff and went to go find nourishment.

We happened upon a local diner and had traditional Irish breakfasts. And by we, I mean Jenna and Marsha haha; Casey and I just had eggs and toast. After we scarfed down our food and coffee, we decided to go exploring. We, after a bit of confusion, figured out how to read our map and found a cute little park. There were a bunch of little kids playing there with their faces all painted. The grass was wet and there were no benches, so we sat on these benches outside of the park and figured out our next move. We decided to go along one of the main streets to go find this area called Temple Bar that supposedly had cute little shops and markets all around it. On our way there, we found ourselves on a cute little shopping street. We decided to go into this mall that was there and shop around a little bit. Nothing was really open (since it was still really early), but Casey and Marsha each got a pair of flats. We trudged along a bit more, got food here and there, just finding ways to make the time go by so we could go back to our hostel and pass out. Marsha and I sat by the river and talked while Jenna and Casey went across the river to Temple Bar to find food (Jenna got fish and chips).

Finally, 3 pm rolls around and we make our way back to the hostel. Unfortunately, we were in an 8 person MIXED room. Casey and I were not too pleased about this, but it didn't end up being too bad minus one awkward morning at the end (I'll get to that later). After our naps, we met our tour guide for the weekend (Angi!) who was taking us out to our introductory dinner. We went for a traditional Irish meal and I got beef and Guinness stew with mash (potatoes). We then all shared sticky toffee pudding (sounds weird but it was pretty good, and not a pudding haha) and a strawberry ruhbar (amazingggg). After dinner, we went to a nice pub called Cobblestone where locals come to play their instruments for fun with other locals. There were about 10-15 people playing when we got there, and we all got a drink. I got a pint of Bulmers Apple Cider (I love my cider :P), and everyone else got Bulmers minus Marsha who got a pint of an actual beer. We were all tired after, so we called it an early night.

Friday morning I wake up and decide I want to shower. Now, as I haven't written my spring break post yet (and probably will post this before I write that...) the St. Christopher's Hostels Jenna and I stayed at in Paris and Bruges had showers in which the water lasted for 20 seconds. I laughed at first, and it sucked, but 20 seconds was decent. At THIS hostel, they decide they either want to play a cruel joke on their guests, or they really don't have a lot of water. I'm going to go with the first one because it's hard to believe they can only give us 5 SECONDS of water at a time. The faucet in the sink lasted longer than that!!! (::mumbles angrily::) ANYWAYS, I somehow manage to actually take a shower (it was a miracle haha), and after our shitty (but free) breakfast, we all meet up with Angi.

First on the list was seeing a monument dedicated to the Irish potato famine, which was very moving (pictures currently being uploaded to facebook). Then we walked along one of the shopping streets Trinity College, which apparently is the best college in Dublin. Along the way, we saw posters saying it was Daffodil Day, and if you bought a daffodil it would be donated to the Irish Cancer Society. When we stopped at the statue of Molly Malone (aka the Tart with the Cart), Angi bought us each a daffodil :). We then made our way over to Trinity College, which houses the Book of Kells and apparently gorgeous rugby players, of which we sadly saw neither haha (Victoria I thought of you :P). After we made our way over to a GORGEOUS park called St. Stephens Green Park and admired the gorgeous flowers. I also saw another swan! We then saw 2 models doing a photoshoot on lottery balls and looking completely retarded ::smh:: We then bathed in the glorious (and apparently extremely rare) sun until it was time to find lunch. We got our lunch to go, while some others went to a famous fish and chips place and got that. On the side of the place they have a wall of fame of famous people who have eaten there. People are on it like Tom Cruise, Cher, Mr. and Mrs. Timberlake, U2 and other people I can't remember off the top of my head. We then took our food and ate it in St. Patrick's Park on a blanket. It was such a cute picnic! :)

After that, Angi had told us earlier that week she had found a crypt with some really cool dead bodies in it that she wanted to take us to. So, she did. It was actually decently cool. What really stood out is I saw the skeleton of a Crusader and "shook hands with him" (which means I rubbed his finger) for good luck. Skeved me out a little bit, but it was kind of cool. We also saw the area where 2 rebel brothers were buried after a brutal death of being hung, being taken down while still alive, being disemboweled, watched their own insides being burned, beheaded? and then quartered. Really quite disgusting.

After recovering a bit after that, we made our way over to the Guinness storehouse! It was so cool because the inner part of the factory was shaped like a pint glass! We walked all throughout seeing how it was made, had a little taste of it, and then made our way to the top to the gravity bar where we got a free pint.

Cheers!

From there, you were able to get a great view of all of Dublin :). Sadly, Jenna and I were incapable of finishing our Guinnesses (not my type of beer) and we made our way to the gift shop :P. Then it was time for dinner, so Angi took us to one of her favorite places. Being that she was a vegetarian, she took us to an AMAZING (and cheap!) vegetarian place called Cornucopia (if anyone is planning on going to Dublin and wants great food that's not fried and is super fresh, go there). I got a veggie burrito type thing with quinoa, mushrooms, squash and probably some other things in it. It was beyond delicious. After dinner, we went to a place where we could watch Irish step dancing for free (:D) and Angi bought us 2 pitchers of some local beer. The beer was okay, the dancing was awesome! Jenna, Angi and I went up there as volunteers and got to dance a bit :) We also had some weird drunk guy trying eavesdropping and trying to cut into our conversations/ make conversation with us, but Angi got him to go away after volunteering him to go dance hehe.

Saturday we woke up early because we had to catch a train to head out of the city! OUr first stop was Howth. When we got there it was FREEZING, and stupid me, I forgot my gloves and scarf :-\ But it was okay because Marsha kindly lent me her second scarf that she had with her. We first went to the beach and walked around a bit in the sand. Marsha and Angi put their feet into the water for a photoshoot type thing with the Snow or Sand poster. (Back story: Angi told us the first day that we had a mini competition during our time there She had a Snow or Sand sign and whoever took the best picture with it would win a prize at the end). While they were doing that, Jenna and I found the Lochness monster and took pictures of us running and jumping in the sand :)

After we were all good and cold, we went to the pier where we found some sea lions! There were 3 or 4 of them and they kept on looking at us with their puppy dog/ (sea lion?) eyes but we weren't allowed to feed them anymore :( After being sufficiently more cold, we went into their fair trade store and bought scones (i bought a chocolate chip one) and then headed up towards a cliff. Along the way, we passed a house painted ENTIRELY orange with blue on the edges. Syracuse pride much!? It was painful to look at haha We continued to make our way towards the cliff and it was a gorgeous view when we got there. I started singing Sound of Music and we all got it stuck in our heads haha. We didn't go all along the cliffs because Angi says it takes 2 hours and then we would not have been able to go to our second place afterwards. So we head down and go to a place for lunch. IT was a cozy place with very large chairs and a fireplace... with no fire. Most of us got sanwich and soup combos; mine was a chipotle sandwich with lettuce and cheese on brown bread and minestrone soup om nom nom.

After lunch, we got back on the train to head to Malahide. We walked through what Angi called the "Twilight Forest" and took some interesting pictures :P and then headed over to this castle that was only vacated in the 1970s. It was GORGEOUS! (see below)

And there were cherry trees which are my favoriteeeee :) So I was heaven. We then saw a couple getting married, and it was hilarious because the ride was legit about a foot taller than the groom and wasnt even wearing heels that were that high. And then, we went to the playground!! This place is epic! Did I mention we were all 5 years old? Haha it was great. We climbed a giant rope contraption, went down a giant slide and did a mini zip line!

We then walked around the town for a bit, got coffee, and headed home.

After freshening up a little bit, we headed out to get dinner. We went to this place that was essentially like Chipotle in the States. Then we went out on our own pub crawl :) (poor student style :P) We went to the Porterhouse, The Bank, Pub I forgot the name of, tried getting into The Church, but got denied because we were under 21(???? LOL I thought we were in Europe!), and then another one that I don't remember the name of either. At the Porterhouse we got a banana beer, which was surprisingly good! and then one of the beers that they make at the place. At The Bank we had Bulmers Berry Cider and Becks. At the other bar, we had a beer I dont remember, and another one I dont remember, i guess nothing too memorable. However, there was a guy who told Angi she had siren eyes and bought her a drink. He asked her, what brings you to Ireland? She replies, My husband. (hahahahahaha so perfect!) There then was a Swedish guy who approached Angi and wanted to accompany her to the bathroom cause he was too drunk and didn't think we'd talk to him when she left. So naturally, we all had to go to the bathroom, those who actually had to went, and then we all escaped. We got rejected from The Church because there was something going on downstairs or something and I guess they didn't want younger people in there at night (oh well). The last place was great! There were 2 people in there having a break-dancing off. They put coasters on the floor and did headstands on them among other things. It was great! And then, this really old creep guy was sketching on Marsha, and a really old man told Angi to have some Moonshine. We tried some beer and then Bulmer Pear Cider. The pear was really good and so was the other beer, but I don't remember the name of it. We decided to leave when we saw it was 1:30 (because of daylight savings time) and because Marsha's man was coming back from the bathroom.

The next morning, we wake up, and find 2 people in bed together. Back story: We had taken the 2 bunkbeds in the back of the room so we would all be together. We were assigned beds 1, 2, 3 and 4, but took beds 1, 2, 5 and 6. We figured we would just switch with whoever's beds we took instead. However, these people decided they would have none of that and threw Casey's and Jenna's stuff off of their beds and threw their suitcases all over it. They just ended up switching pillows and stuff, but the next morning we wake up to find the culprits in Jenna's original bed spooning. AWKWARDDDD. They seriously needed to get a room, their OWN room if they were going to be all couplely. Either way, we checked out and made the best of our last day.

We started off by going to the the jail where they held a bunch of the rebels during the rebellion. We learned about the history of the revolution, saw where they held the rebels and where they executed a bunch of them. Then, on a more positive note, we went to Queen of Tarts, which was an amazing bakery. Jenna and I split a piece of warm blackberry and apple pie, which was soooo good. :) However, before we ate that as our dessert, we had lunch at Cornucopia again! I got 2 salad things that were AMAZING. It was this bean sprout salad with lentils and other things in a lime cilantro dressing and chickpeas in a Mediterranean dressing. It was so good that I got some to go for dinner :) After that, we went shopping! When we got to the street with the shops, we saw a puppeteer making the puppet dance to The Time (Dirty Bit) by Black Eyed Peas. He was SOOO good and it was hilarious! Angi then brought us to this store called Penny's which has the CHEAPEST stuff ever! I got a belt for 1.5 euros! I also got this dress sort of thing for 14, which was normal, but everything there was so cheap!

Around 5, we headed back to the hostel to catch our bus to the airport so we wouldn't miss our flight (never again- damn you Ryanair). At the hostel, some guy comes up to us and asks us if we are from Florence. We say yes and he says that he thinks he sat behind us on the airplane and wanted to catch the bus with us to the airport because he was on the same flight with us again. We then make friends with him and we find out he's from Miami and is here through Florida State and speaks French, Italian, Spanish, and some other language I can't remember. He starts speaking french, italian and spanish to me all at once that I get so confused with my languages and literally cannot speak one sentence solely in one language. Talk about a mind fuck haha.

::phew:: that was a long post ! More on my other trips later :) Ciao!

I Hate You RyanAir; Madrid

So, this will be an interesting story. Madrid did NOT go as planned at all. We had it all planned out very nicely, we were going to get into Madrid around 10:30 pm and go out for St. Patrick's Day with Lisa (Jenna's and my apartmentmate for next year). However, this of course, did not work out. It starts with Thursday being the 150th anniversary of Italy's Unification, which of course is awesome. There were many festivities Wednesday night (which I sadly could not attend because I was starting to get sick with what would turn into laryngitis) and then no classes on Thursday because of the holiday. However, Thursday, March 17th, was also conveniently known as another holiday: St. Patrick's Day. So this weekend looked it was going to be one of the best ones ever. Oh, and did I mention that all the museums/ churches were free on Thursday as part of the celebration?

So, Thursday I wake up and get some errands done. Jenna and I planned on leaving around 330 to catch a bus to the train station to head over to Rome to catch our flight. I ended up not having enough time to head all the way out to Santa Croce, back, and then catch our bus, so I just relaxed until it was time. I then remembered that it was a holiday, which meant the buses were not running on regular schedule, but instead on holiday schedule. THANKFULLY (the one thing that did go right) there was a bus around when we wanted to leave anyways, so we just caught that one. We got to the train station, used our Eurail tickets one last time to get cheap train tickets to Rome, and hopped on a train that would get us to Rome with about an hour before our flight was to take off. We get to Rome and look for our train to the airport. Now, there's 2 airports in Rome: Fiumicino and Ciampino. We found the train to the Fiumicino and for whatever reason thought it would also bring us to Ciampino and hopped on. As we sat down, Jenna went to go ask if we were in 1st or 2nd class and if we were on the right train. She comes back, but couldn't find anyone to ask if we were on the right train, so we ask the people next to us, to which they reply: No.

So we quickly gather our things and run to the exit, the doors are shut, but we push the button to open the door. It doesn't open. About 5 seconds later the train starts moving. There is no way to get off now. So, we ask someone how long it takes to get to the train station: half an hour. That means half hour there, half our back. That would give us about 15 minutes before the gate closes for our flight, and 45 minutes before it leaves. However, I ask the conductor and he says the next train leaving for the Ciampino train station leaves at 7:30, which is 15 minutes before our flight leaves AND it takes 15 minutes to get there. A nice gentleman with his family on their way from the train station suggests that maybe the plane would be late. As we pull into the train station where the airport is, we see a RyanAir plane taxiing away from the airport. RyanAir planes ALWAYS taxi out either right at or right before their departure time, so we were pretty sure that was ours. We get out and find out that we have to take a bus/taxi to get to the actual airport, so I guess there was never really any chance of us making it anyways.

We get to the airport and find out we need to pay 100 euro to get a new flight, and thats the DISCOUNTED price for turning in our old boarding passes. Jenna and I talk it over and decide to pay for a new ticket and then head promptly to the bar to drown our sorrows and 'celebrate'. The bartender is nice enough to give us nice mixed drinks and we go promptly find a corner in the arrivals section and set up camp. WORST.SLEEP.EVER. I woke up around every hour and kept on tossing and turing because it was SO uncomfortable. Pretty sure I woke up and had some black and blue marks on me. Anyways, we got up around 4:30 am and headed over to the departure area for our 6:30 am flight.

We arrive at our hostel and take a shower and nap. We decide we want to get some food, so we get a quick espresso at a cafe and then head over to this great market in the center of the city. There I had my first sangria of the trip as well as a seafood croquet and some cheese and bread. Jenna and Lisa wanted some olives, and while we were eatting, 2 spanish guys come up to us and start talking to us. They're from the south of Spain and start talking to us about why we're in Spain, what we are studying, and how we need to try sherry because it's from their part of Spain. While we are talking to them, 2 of Lisa's friends find us and join up with us. Eventually, we decide we don't want to talk them anymore, and we all head out. We head over to this park in the middle of the city that is GORGEOUS and has a GORGEOUS lake in the middle where you can rent a boat and row around for a bit.

We rowed around for an hour, returned the boat, and then decided to get tortillas. It was essentially a sub sandwich with 4 triangular pieces of and egg/potato/onion patty inside served hot. T'was very yummy. Then we headed over to the Royal Palace and watched the sunset by The Egyptian Temple of Debod. It was gorgeous!

Egyptian Temple of Debod

After that we decided we were hungry again and went to go find some good tapas. We started out at this place where we split a plate of fried calamari, which was delicious! Then we went to this place that served their own beer from tap on your own table! It was awesome! I ended up having a dark beer and we got a couple of plates of food. After dinner, we go to this place called Kapital which is a disco with 7 floors! We get in and this lace already seems crazy. We get vodka red bulls to wake up and head out to the dance floor where there are 2 female pirates dancing on their own balcony things and a male and female pirate dancing on the stage. We decide to explore the other floors and find one with a private bar, other ones with seats overlooking the main dance floor. Finally we settle on this floor that is playing hip hop type music and everyone is dancing. I end up dancing with the asian guy from Brazil and he is spinning and dipping me on the dance floor. He was fun for awhile, but we then realized how late it was and decided to head out for cioccolata con churros at 6 am. What is it is essentially dipping churros in spanish hot chocolate. It was decent. Finally, we went to bed probably around 7 am.

Next day, we woke up late got coffee and headed over to this vegetarian buffet place for brunch. After we went to Reina Sofia which was a Modern Art Museum. I really don't get modern art that well... Freaks me out a little to be honest haha. However, we did see works of art by Dali and Picasso, which I could appreciate. We also saw the famous Guernica by Picasso:

After the museum, we headed over to Sol, which is a really big open area. We saw a street performer there who was crazy! He was climbing up lamp posts and riding a unicycle while juggling. It was funny because at the time, (since the weather was BEAUTIFUL both days) Jenna was wearing sunglasses where you can't see the person's eyes, so he kept on "checking his hair" in the reflection of her sunglasses. After that, Jenna and and I went shopping for a little on our street since there was a bunch of cute shops while Lisa went home to freshen up. For dinner this time, we were getting apertivo. We went to this place called El Tigre where for 5 euros each, we each got a huge mug of (watered down) sangria and 2 plates of food on bread. I didn't eat much of it, but I DID try a small piece of prosciutto...... and hated it. Totally not worth me eating in the future, although Anna and Jenna claim Italian prosciutto is better. We'll see. After dinner, we took a taxi over to a place to see flamenco dancing! A bit expensive, but we got a free glass of (good) sangria with it and an awesome show :)

When it was done we were beat so we called it a night, especially since we had to wake up very early to catch our flight back.

So after all the hassle, it was worth it to see Spain and Madrid, but Thursday sucked more than I can say. I will NEVER EVER AGAIN sleep in an airport. That is a promise.

PS. Kind of funny, the Wednesday after I got back, I went to an art exhibit with my photo class to a gallery with the early works of Picasso, Dali and Miro. (loved Miro's work!) Good timing eh? haha

Woops..

So... I went to go post a new blog, and noticed I haven't blogged in a month. ...My bad. Every since my parents left things have been a little hectic, not to mention I've been traveling every weekend. But don't worry, I've written everything down about my trips in a little notebook I carry with me, so I haven't forgotten anything (I hope). I'll try to write at least Madrid and Dublin by the end of the week before I go to Sicily for the weekend (SO EXCITED!). Spring break will probably take awhile (like Rome did), but only because Jenna and I did so much and it was about 10 days worth of stuff.

So sit tight and the posts will be on their way :)