"And that's the Ireland Situation"

Driving on the left side of the road, and I love the Irish. That could basically sum up my weekend but I will give you a little more detail just to be nice.

We got to Dublin late Thursday night and hopped in a cab to our hostel. The hostel was so nice (at least compared to the others we had stayed in.... me and Ivanhoe which I raved about in my last post no longer have a good relationship). It was really late but the guy at the desk was super nice helping us check in. And we found out there was laundry service where they wash and dry! So I washed my jeans and was very excited about it. Anyone in Europe understands the rarity of dryers and the need to dry jeans sometimes. So anyway, we headed out to grab a drink (i mean we were in Ireland for the first time we had to!) and found a cool pub and I got my first Irish Guiness and Justin ordered a Coors Light and I am still very disappointed in him for that. When we got back to the hostel we met some of the people in our room and hung out for a bit, then went to bed so we could have some energy for the next day.

Friday we got up and explored Dublin city a bit while we waited for Alison to get to Dublin because she flew a day later. So Justin, Adrianne, and I saw Christ's Church, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle, Trinity College, and a few other monuments and cathedrals. When Alison got to town we grabbed lunch at a place called Bull & Castle then headed to the Guiness Factory. The factory was really cool, it showed you how they made the beer and about the history in a theatrical way and the building (on the inside) was shaped like a pint glass. We got to pour our own Guiness the drink it, and hang out in the famous Gravity Bar on top of the factory which has amazing views of the city. After Guiness we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the night.

We started Friday night at a Irish dance show at one of the hotels (while enjoying another Guiness), the went to the Temple Bar area where most tourists go and went pub hopping. We stopped for dinner at an American diner, which would be taboo but Ireland doesn't have the best quick food that is traditional Irish. Plus we miss that kind of food. We ended back up at the place we had lunch which was like a German beer hall almost and had the liter drinks. We met some fun Irish people there and had the flipping coasters game going. I flipped 17 on my first try. Not to brag though. After that place closed we went back to the place we were the first night and met a lot more interesting people and some Welsh ones too (there was a big rugby game the next day). Overall a successful night and made for some good stories.

Saturday morning we went on a tour of the countryside with an amazing guide Eamonn. There is not a whole lot of story to tell from the tour but the countryside was amazing and the green was just starting to peak through from the winter and we saw where the opening scenes of Braveheart were filmed and where some scene from P.S. I love you was filmed. There was a lake they called Guiness Lake because the Guiness family owns it and imported sand so the beach of the lake looks like the head of a Guiness beer. We stopped in a little town for lunch and most of us got this beef stew and mashed potatoes which was absolutely delicious, and I got an Irish Coffee to complete the meal. After lunch we walked around an old ruin of a monastery and I found a headstone that has McDonald on it (the other side of my fam). Later on the drive our guide Eamonn sang an old Irish folk song which was soo amazing and adorable.

After getting back we had decided to go on a pub crawl and headed out for that. I still don't know why we decided to do one in Dublin of all places but we did and it was a complete let down, but we did meet some cool people and had an overall fun night.

Sunday we had to fly back in the late afternoon so we made sure to take advantage of our time and we went to the Jameson Distillery right when it opened. Its amazing how much pride there is in Irish whisky. The tour was really cool and in the end there was a taste test that Justin and I got picked for so I got to basically start my day with 4 shots of whisky. After the distillery we grabbed some breakfast (I got a bagel and cream cheese! I swear they don't have bagels anywhere in spain), and headed to a St. Patrick's Day festival where there were rides and dancing and it was just a fun place to hang out. After doing a little souvenir shopping we had to head to the airport and back to Spain.

But in the week since then (it being St. Patrick's Day and all) we have held up the Irish sprit and spent the holiday in the Irish Pubs of Barcelona!

Side note: why I hate Ivahnoe (Rome hostel) so much is because apparently they have bed bugs and I have about 100 bites on my hands, arms, legs, and neck, and it is completely disgusting. I guess it was bound to happen soon with all the traveling I was doing, and its all part of the experience I suppose...

Did Ceasar live here?

ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME!

This past weekend we took a little pre-spring break break and had an amazing long weekend in Rome! Justin, Sarah, Alex, and I caught an early flight Thursday morning and landed in Italy less than two hours after! We got to our hostel (called Ivanhoe) just before the afternoon lockout (the time they clean our beds and stuff, most hostels close for a few hours during the day) dropped off our stuff grabbed a map and headed out to see the city!

Our first goal we had was to get some food! (this happens a lot this weekend as you will read) We found a small little place and all ordered some bruschetta and wine with our various

plates of pasta. It was all delicious. After this we headed to the Colosseum which was about a 5 minute walk from our hostel. Outside the Colosseum we got bombarded with pub crawl promoters and people trying to sell us things as well as guys in gladiator costumes or others trying to give tours. We had planned to go into the Colosseum another day so after a few minutes hanging out outside and taking pictures we headed to the Trevy Fountain. Had to stop to grab some gelato on the way there though!

The next morning we were up pretty early for a full day of touring. We started the day at the Colosseum. It was so amazing and the weather was amazing as well! We opted out of taking a guided tour so we had fun making up our own little facts about the history of the place. After that we

explored the Roman Forum which was right next door. It was basically a large park like area you could walk around with a lot of ancient Roman ruins. At this point the rain started to come and we were ready for food so we headed to a small restaurant and got some pizza and wine. Then

back to the hostel for a nap! (usually on these trips I am nap nazi as many of you know that have read my other posts but with all the walking we did there was no way we could of skipped the naps). When we got up we got ready to go out but with so many new arrivals of different groups of people in the hostel we kept getting distracted and ended up hanging out in the hostel the entire night. It was so much fun though. We met a cool group of people from Ireland, and a big group of boys from Scotland who were basically celebrating a bachelor party. Because of them I now respond to "Glasgow Rangers" with "Champions!" and know that the Celtic fans are "soap dodgers". The fountain was amazing, and because it was only Thursday the place wasn't extreemly crowded and we got some good pictures taken. We did some more wandering and took some more pictures then eventually headed back to the hostel for a nap

before the pub crawl we were going to go on that night. We woke up to a full hostel complete with plenty of young kids and some more pub crawl promotors pouring drinks in the common area!

We eventually headed to the pub crawl which made for an interesting night. And thats all of the story that needs to be told. That probably makes it sound worse than it was but it was pretty much your run of the mill pub crawl.

The next morning we headed to see the Vatican, we walked there and saw some cool sights on the way. We spent some time in the Basilica (basically like the chapel and where the pope comes out of on sundays). Then went to the Vatican Museums where we saw a lot of really cool art and other various pope/catholic related things, then saw the Sistine Chapel. Which was amazing but we weren't allowed to take pictures. So for those of you who don't know its the picture on the ceiling of the fingers touching. After this we searched for a pizza place that had been recommended to us from a few sources but failed horribly and ended up settling for a completely overpriced (but still delic

ious) restaurant outside the Vatican. Then we got gelato by a lady who was apparently in the worst mood and almost screamed at Sarah for asking a simple question. So rude but actually quite entertaining.

After this we walked through the city and did a little shopping and more sight seeing before heading back to the hostel. The party continued in the hostel and we ended the night with a wild game of never have I ever and would you rather going on with about 2o strangers. Such an amazing way to get to know the craziest side of people right away.

The last day we slept in a bit and then headed out to walk the city and see everything else we could. We walked around for a few hours then ended up in a park with an amazing look out of the city. Up at the park we saw people on these bikes (its hard to explain but they basically look like flinstone cars but with bike pedals) so we rented on for an hour and made fools of ourselves having so much fun riding around this park. After the park we saw the Spanish Steps and a few other places then had lunch by the Pantheon. This was my favorite meal by far! And finished the meal wish tiramisu for desert that was absolutely amazing!!!!!

After dinner Justin and I shopped like mad men and got a lot of cool souvenirs. Nothing I regret buying so far so I think we are all good. I mean who doesn't need a sexy priests of rome calendar? After grabbing dinner back at the hostel we headed back to see the Trevy Fountain at night and hung out there for a bit. That was really cool because the place was practically empty. We headed to bed early that night because we had to fly out the next day and did not want to miss a flight or anything.... little did we know getting up wasn't going to be the problem.

So yes, I missed the first flight I have ever missed in my life of my many years of extensive traveling. Why you say? Were we late? No. Did we get lost? No. Oooohh we were just at the completely wrong air port. Ok something we could have avoided had we double checked our sources of information but still not 100% our fault. So a 60 euro cab ride later and rushing and hoping our flight was delayed an hour or something like that we get to the correct air port and head to the ticket counter. Ok so the flight had already left. duh. But they easily got us another flight for only a penalty fare, which was still a lot of money but way less than it would of been to buy a completely new ticket.

Four hours in the airport a small nap and enjoying my first European McDonalds we got on our flight and were ready to go home. About an hour and thirty minutes into the flight (one that is only supposed to take an hour fifteen), they finally prepare us for landing.... 20 minutes later no landing... 30 minutes no landing... o but outside the windows its completely dark gray. Lovely. Then the turbulence hits and I'm not going to like I was legitimately scared for my life and I fly a lot. People were holding hands and white knuckle gripping the seats. About 5 seconds before touch down was the first we saw any land because the clouds were that thick and the first thing we see out the window was snow! Feet of snow. I thought we had to make an emergency landing in Sweden or something. Nope. Barcelona was in the middle of a snow storm and the city had no idea how to deal with it. Keep in mind Italy had great weather so we were not dressed for the occasion. We stepped out of the bus to out house into half a foot of slush! It was absolutely crazy. But a completely appropriate ending to the day we had.

So back to school for the rest of the week. And 3 short days later I am packing for Dublin! Leaving tomorrow night for the weekend before St. Patrick's Day and it should make for a good time. So check back next week for updates on that trip!

Team Valencia!

Been doing a lot of exciting things this past week! (and have many more coming soon so check for updates! but here is the deats about this weekend)

This weekend was the ISA (group I am studying with) trip to Valencia. I realized only the day before the trip that it was only a one night trip so that was disappointing but we had to make the best of it! We took a 4.5 hour bus ride from Barcelona to Valencia early early morning on Friday. Surprisingly quite a fun ride. The majority of our group was running of just an hour or two of sleep or some none at all. For me I understand the value of sleep. I do it often and quite enjoy it so I was having a good bus ride. My friend Alex and I kept ourselves entertained by dubbing over the spanish movie we were watching. So much fun. The movie was made from a classic spanish comic that was very slapstick and had a really odd plot. So we had no idea what was going on, but we had a good story line of our own. We soon found there was a sequel and plan on renting it as soon as we can.

Once we got to Valencia we got treated to a lunch of classic spanish paella. It is like a rice chicken (or seafood) vegetables dish that is all mixed together with spices. I believe it came from when the chefs used to throw together all of the extra food at the end of the week to make one dish. It was pretty good. After that we had a quick bus tour of Valencia then headed to the old part of town for a walking tour. There we saw old churches and marketplaces and some cute streets. After that we checked into our hotel. Always nice to stay in a hotel rather than a hostel, plus they give you breakfast as well and it was delicious. I'm pretty sure most hotels in Europe do this. I hear hostels do too but usually its just something like toast and coffee.

That night we headed out early to see the town and night life. Even though usually anything worth going to see doesn't start until later, we didn't feel like wasting time just chilling in the hotel. Also at this point I became the nap nazi again (despite the fact if I was at home I would of been napping for sure). We grabbed a kebab and started aimlessly walking around town looking for a place to go. The town was kind of dead so we ended up finding an Irish bar and settling down there. We met some other ISA Valencia kids and talked to them for a bit but ended up calling it a pretty early night.

But not too early. We did enjoy a few Paulaner beers. Had to get them due to the name and they were actually quite delicious. It was a german beer. Then Justin, Alex and I decided to wander a little on our way home. We were a good 30-45 minute walk from our hotel but we ended up walking the way back. (I also had a dead iphone at this point so we did it all on our own!). The walk was actually really nice, and we got to walk along this park that used to be a river that they drained to make a park that runs through the city. Then we found a club we thought we would check out until we realized it was a 30 and up club and to the dirtiest stares from everyone as we walked up to it. Good times.

The next morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Oceanografic. One of the nicest aquariums in Spain. It was really cool and they even had an exhibit on Hawaii that made me a little nostalgic for that! They also had a really cool dolphin show which was fun. After we walked around the area outside the aquarium and got lunch, then headed back to the busses for the long ride home. Super sort trip but it was cool getting to see another part of Spain!

Since we have been back the weather has been absolutely amazing!!! (besides the fact it is currently raining outside, probably a sign I should be doing homework) I went to the beach yesterday for a run, which I haven't done in way too long but I was amazing and I am sore now so feeling good! I just paid for the Morocco trip today (amazing how money flies) and printed the boarding passes for Rome and Dublin! Its going to be an amazing next couple of weeks. So stay close to the blog and you can hear all about them!