Abort, Abort! (also I'm BAAAAAAAAACK)

Unfortunately I've re-he-he-heeaaallly gotten backed up on updating this sucker, and here I am, one month behind in cataloging my adventures. So, I'll back this up a little bit to talk about my last big trip-- Northern Ireland.

We left for Belfast early on a Thursday morning, and arrived in Northern Ireland before we knew it. Even though Northern Ireland is a different country from the Republic of Ireland, you'd never know it from the drive. There isn't a border, or signs, a union jack flag, a picture of Big Ben on a gaudy sign that tourists could take pictures in front of... nothing. When we got there our first stop was the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge in North Antrim, Northern Ireland. Our trusty bus driver, Bart(!), led us right up to the area where the path to the rope bridge began. After hiking the short path which gave us some gorgeous cliffside views, we arrived at the bridge. It's a narrow rope bridge, with wooden planks to step on, and it hangs some 80 ft. above the water below. Fishermen used to use the bridge to go out to the tiny island the bridge reaches to in order to catch salmon. Although I think some people were a little nervous about crossing, I'm pretty sure everyone made the journey across (and back) from the bridge, and some people even jumped up and down on their jaunt across the bridge, causing the entire bridge (and everyone else on it) to bob up and down. We definitely got some amazing views of the coast there, and it was an awesome introduction to the beauty of Northern Ireland.

Our next stop was probably the second most famous natural wonder of Ireland (and N. Ireland), behind the Cliffs of Moher, we went to The Giant's Causeway. Giant's Causeway is a large area along the coastline, and it's famous for the hexagonal rocks completely covering the area. Although the rocks were naturally formed into hexagons when an underground volcano erupted and the lava cooled, there are more supernatural explanations for their existence as well. The legend says that an Irish giant, Finn McCool, built the causeway to Scotland to challenge his rival, Benandonner. When Finn saw how big Benandonner was, he returned back the Ireland. Benandonner crossed the causeway to Ireland looking for Finn, and Finn had his wife dress him up in a blanket, pretending to be a child. When Benandonner saw the size of "Finn's child" (aka Finn), he ran back to Scotland, tearing up the causeway as he went so that Finn couldn't follow him. Anyway, the causeway was so cool to see, and walking down past the coastline cliffs, I've never felt so small. I'll post pictures on facebook when my computer comes back from the dead!

Our first night in Northern Ireland was spent in Derry (called Londonderry by Protestants). We arrived when it was already dark out, so our first fresh sight of the city was the following lovely (read: TORENTIALLY DOWNPOURING) morning for our Free Derry Tour. Our tour guide was an extremely knowledgeable man named Eugene, who had the distinctive feature of sounding uncannily like Shrek when he spoke. Now going on the Free Derry tour was like nothing I have ever done before. It literally put us right in the heart of religious tensions in Northern Ireland. We walked along the street where Bloody Sunday occurred-- when on January 30, 1972 British Paratroopers killed 14 innocent and unarmed Catholics (ranging in age from 17-mid 50's maybe?) were during a march protesting their lack of civil rights. It was strange to see the Bogside, where all the Catholics lived, just outside the walls of Derry. And it's crazy that all of this tension still exists, albeit to a lesser degree. The west side of Derry, to this day, is still about 97% Catholic nationalist, and the 3% of the people that live there that are Protestants have high fences built, segregating themselves from the Catholics. Definitely a very strange thing to be in a place so full of (and unapologetic about) religious divisions.

After our afternoon in Derry we made the bus trip about 2 hours away to Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. We had the pleasure of staying in a hotel just next door to the Europa Hotel, the most bombed hotel in Europe! Charming. Belfast reminded me a lot of London-- they have a Big Ben-esque clock tower (though it's much smaller) and a big ferris wheel. We didn't do that much touring around Belfast aside from an hour-long bus tour the following morning, but from what I did see Belfast has a delicious Subway (when we arrived in Belfast suddenly all I wanted in the world was Subway... therefore I had it twice in as many days), a really cool government building next to the ferris wheel, and a Tesco that rivals the taj mahal. There are also some cool political murals, which, I'd love to post pictures of but unfurtunately cannot on account of hard drive crashing.

I know this post is lame/overdue/doesn't do justice to all of the awesome things we saw on our trip to Northern Ireland, but I promise to try to update ASAP with what I've been up to since then (my family's visit, and various wanderings around Dublin)!

Cheers!

Frolicking in Firenze

Well another whirlwind weekend has come and gone, this one spent in Florence, Italy, for another tripod reunion. It began early last friday morning, when I hopped an Airlink to Dublin airport for the third Thursday/Friday in a row. It should be noted I wore the exact same outfit those three thurs/fri in a row... so I'm sure airport security has me pegged now ("Here comes that blue peasant-y dress wearing american chick with the miniature umbrella again. Man your stations." or something like that). LUCKILY, by a miracle of God, I was about to houdini myself past the Ryan Air women at the boarding gate, and not have to measure my suitcase in the bag size checker. I don't know how I did it (especially considering I saw one employee chase a woman down two flights of stairs and make her come back up and check her bag right before I went through the check-in), but I felt prettttty victorious getting on the plane with my unchecked orange nugget of a suitcase. And for the record, it fits perfectly in the overhead storage and I've become a pro at slinging it up there without knocking any old ladies in the head.

Annnnnyway, pulling into Florence was basically a culture shock for me, considering that I know approximately 3 words of italian, and they're all types of spaghetti. Following Kate's directions from Pisa airport to Firenze Santa Maria Novella train station was easy enough, but when I arrived there was the potential for me to have a minor panic attack considering:

a) I had no cell phone. My tiny POS nokia had a rough night after going for a swim on Wednesday, so I left it at home.

b) I speak no italian. 

c) No one around me appeared to speak english.

d) The pay phone was in italian, AND it was under the mistaken impression that it was actually some type of hi-tech cell phone with options like "leave a message", and "send SMS", and the option of "just place my call because i'm starting to freak out and can't find my friends" was nowhere to be seen.

e) There were tons of people milling around the station. And it's big. 

Luckily I figured out how to work the elusive payphone, and had just enough euro cents to tell Kate "I'M AT THE MCDONALDS COME FIND ME." And she did.

Once Kate, Lianna, and I were done jumping around, screaming, hugging, and calling attention to ourselves like typical American tourists, we hiked back to their apartment (stopping for pizza along the way... have I mentioned I've been jonesing for some pizza, since, oh I LEFT AMERICA? because I have). I left my stuff in their cute little anthropologie meets italian interior designer-furnished apartment, and we decided to go up to Piazza Michaelangelo for a great view of the city, just as nightfall came. Let me tell you, the view at the top of gorgeous: you can see Santa Croce, the Duomo, and the Bell Tower, but you definitely have to work to get up there. But sitting at the top, taking in the sights, and catching up with friends made it all worthwhile. After we were all sufficiently cold, we made our way back down and got ready for dinner.

We had dinner at this really cute little restaurant, whose name I can't remember. Considering my lack of italian knowledge, Kate, Lianna, and Berge took the lead when ordering a carafe of vino, delicious bruschetta, water (you have to pay for it there!), and then I ordered the pasta with wild boar sauce. I also had the best tiramisu i've ever tasted. Everything was delicious, and we all sampled each others dishes (a little frowned upon in italy... but we did it anyway), and headed home with full and satisfied. We decided to go out to a new club that night called Glamour. And let me tell you, the italian men are like no other men I've ever met. I'm not sure if I could handle an entire semester of "hey baby" and "bella bella" and kissing noises, but I think we all had a good night out. 

The next morning we woke up with a full day of activities ahead of us. Our first mission was hitting up San Lorenzo, the major market area in Florence. On the way, Kate and Lianna showed me their favorite pizza place, and I had 2 slices of the best margherita pizza I've ever eaten (and somehow managed not to get any of the dripping sauce on the white shirt i was wearing). Energized from the pizza, we were ready to brave the market. Going through San Lorenzo somewhat reminded me of going through markets in Mexico, when I went to Cancun in middle school. Its a flurry of different languages, overaggressive shopkeepers telling you they have the best [insert item here], and the same types of things over and over again. But since we were all in the market (heh, heh, literally... get it? yep. lame.) for some pashminas, Sara took us to her favorite pashmina vendor, and they had everything we wanted. The owners were extremely nice, and basically you could tell them what you wanted (example: "I want a dark purple scarf, with creme accents, and non-metallic") and they would look up and down their stacks of pashminas and pull out 3 different variations of what you asked for. After a solid 30 minutes, and about 30 pashminas purchased between the group of us (this is not an exaggeration), we all walked away with bags full of scarves and empty wallets. 

I also experienced my first italian gelato that afternoon-- and it was DELICIOUS. With Lianna and Flood as my translators/gelato conoussieurs, I settled upon a cup that was half nutella flavored, and half crema giotta, which is like a coconut/almond combination of awesome. Afterwards, we walked back towards one of the plazas (I forget the name, there are so many!) and we happened upon a wine tasting going on down a small side street. For €5 we were given a wine glass, a nifty little pouch that hung around our necks to store the glass in, and ticket stubs to try three types of wine and two italian foods. I started off with a rose wine, which was really good, and afterwards tried a red wine which I didn't like as much. Then I got to try an italian bread soup called ribollita, which was very good (minus the celery). The last wine I tasted was probably the best white wine I've ever tried, it was really sweet and almost tasted like dried pineapples. However no sooner had we finished scamming as much bread and olive oil as we could, that we had to take off for our real wine tasting outside the Pitti Palace.

Let me just say that I felt pretty darn classy strutting into the cute little wine bar facing the Pitti Palace. We were shown our table in the corner, and given some bottles of aqua minerale while we waited for the other 2 to join our tasting (there were just 6 of us). When the couple arrived, it was funny to hear that, of all places, they were from Wilmington, NC. They were probably in their mid/late 50's, and really nice. Our sommelier for the night was awesome. I didn't catch his name, but for the entire 2 hours, and 12 types of wine we got to try (we were only supposed to try 4! but none of us were complaining...) he was just full in interesting information about the different wineries in the Chianti region (where most of our wines came from), and about what distinguishes the different types of wine. He told us about modern wines versus traditional wines, and how small barrel wines are sweeter because of the way the wood that makes up the barrel is molded. We also learned that 2004 was a great year for wine, but that 2002 was not. I don't even remember all the types of wine we tasted, but after 10 types of red wines, I think I was better able to appreciate red wines. AND we got a plate of really delicious cheeses to eat with the wines, including an awesome pecorino cheese infused with onion and herbs. I think the highlights of the wine tasting were:

1- Lianna informed the sommelier that she was a "yellow-tail kindof girl" and he pretty much hung his head in shame.

2- We were asked what type of wine we drink at home, and we had to respond that none of us can legally drink in america yet.... but that we like whatevers on sale at Harris Teeter and/or Franzia.

3- The couple from Wilmington told us that the only reason the sommelier kept bringing out more and more glasses of wine, was because he was trying to impress us. And then when he asked us what type we wanted last the couple told him, "I think they just want the sommelier." Emmmmmbarassing. 

Anyway, it was a great way to spend two hours sipping different good wines (one was a €50 bottle!) with good friends, eating some great cheese, and getting a little bit of a vino edjumacation in the process. No complaints. 

That night was Halloween, and even though it supposedly wasn't a huge thing to celebrate in Florence, we decided to dress up as strege (witches) because all it required was black clothing and a €1 witch hat. We went out to a club called YAB for a little while, but I think the real highlights happened after we left the club. Since I was only in Italy for all of 80 hours, I wanted to hit up a secret bakery in that time. So with a little directional know-how, and by following our noses (and the sights of people with croissants) we found one! The concept of the secret bakeries in Italy is actually really cool. They are basically kitchens of bakeries, that only open up late at night (sometime around 1-4am). You have to find one either by word of mouth, or by just following the smell, and once there you knock, give you order, pay, and are given freshly made pastries. We chose chocolate croissants and they were all delicious. However afterwards, we were still not satisfied, so we went to Kate and Floody's favorite donor kebab place (what can I say? middle easterners provide the best late night grub! AND, to be fair, we hadn't had dinner so we were pretty hungry). So, it was late on Halloween night that we committed the good deed of a lifetime...

Basically we were just standing outside the donor kebab place when suddenly a bunch of italian guys about our age half dragged/half carried their friend and plopped him down into a chair near where we were standing. Now I have NEVER seen someone ever CLOSE to as drunk as this guy, whose name we later found out was Andre, was. He was falling off the chair, then he would pass out for a few moments until his friends slapped his face and yelled his name, then he'd snap wide awake for a few seconds, yelling unintelligible things while his eyes rolled everywhere, and thrashing away from his friends who were holding him to the chair. We heard/saw one of his friends coming out of a shop next to the kebab place with a cup of coffee and walking towards him. It took all of about .3289 seconds for Kate, Floody, and I to realize that giving him coffee was the LAST thing that needed to happen. We all immediately started telling the friends first in english, and then in italian, that this boy did not need coffee, that he needed water and an ambulance. His friends, in a mixture of italian and english, said he needed coffee and that they'd take him home to sleep it off. Just from looking at the guy, who was probably no more than 5'9" and 150lbs, that sleeping it off was probably a bad accident waiting to happen. We continued to insist that they call an ambulance, and eventually, they did. And 35 minutes of anxious (and cold) waiting later, an ambulance showed up. I'm not sure what happened to Andre, but I'm pretty sure it's better than what would've happened had we not been there. After that excitement, we couldn't get home fast enough to put on warm pj's and get some well-deserved shuteye.

The next morning we slept in, which was pretty wonderful. Then we headed straight for what is probably the closest thing Italy has to Colonnades brunch: The American Diner. If you want to know where every American studying in Florence is on a Saturday/Sunday between the hours of 11am-2pm, it's there. They've got every bit of Americana cuisine you could want while abroad: hamburgers, omelettes, bagels (which are pretty hard to come by in Europe), and FREE WATER. Needless to say, we all gorged, and it was awesome. Afterwards we but adieu to Lianna who had a paper to write, and set off to see the Pitti Palace-- Florence's major palace. While on the outside it looks more like a fortress than a palace, I was definitely impressed once we got into the Bogoli Gardens, which could be more accurately labeled as a park. The gardens we huge, and each area had a completely different atmosphere: one area looked like a secret garden with a long narrow gravel entryway shrouded in a ceiling of hanging tree branches, one area was more open and grassy with large marble stones you could lay on and just look at the clouds, another area had a beautiful fountain and elegant stairs leading right down to the palace. It was a great place to spend an afternoon exploring. After we'd had enough of the park, we went inside to see the costume gallery, which contained numerous dresses, coats, shoes, and accessories that were "all the rage" (their words) in the 18th century-now. 

That night, we took it easy, but my last great experience with italian foods with aperitivos, which are basically the best thing to hit Europe since tapas. Basically you go to a bar and order a cocktail, and then you are allowed to go up to this chic version of a buffet, and get all the food you want, rinse, and repeat (the food part, not the cocktail part... well unless you wanted to but we were mainly interested in the food). The coolestpart about aperitivos is that half the food you get is a mystery. Example: I got these red/maroon colored lumps that,from far away, kindof looked like chicken wings with ranch. They turned out to be some type of potato/vegetable dumping, but were delicious anyways. One spritz (pronounced spreeeeetz, some type of italian drink I can't even fathom a guess as to what it contained, but it was garnished with every possible garnish: olive, maraschino cherry, orange slice, AND lemon peel... and it was delicious), and 3 plates of aperitivos later (they were small plates. don't judge me.), we were more than full, and ready to head back to the apartment to relax after what was an amazing weekend.

Of course, as things always go here, returning to Dublin allowed no rest for the weary. Upon my arrival back in the Dirty Dub, I had approximately 48 hours to kick my butt into essay mode (no easy task), and crank out an essay about  Antigone. After two days of painstaking procrastination, I finished it, just in time to visit Meaghan's family in the apartment they're staying in while they visit this week. They invited us over for dinner tonight, and everything was awesome (thanks Britains!). And as I write this, it's 1:29am, and I'm waiting for my laundry to dry so I can pack for our trip to Belfast this weekend,since we depart in... 7 hours. But I'm sure it will be, as the dubliners say, "just grahhnd, yah!"

Cheers!

Estoy Enamorado de Espana

DISCLAIMER: The post is a novel. Hopefully an entertaining one, but I wrote a lot porque yo estoy enamorada de Espana (because I’m in love with Spain). Enjoy!

I think it’s safe to say I just had one of the best weekends of my life. Never have I been as enamored with a city, people, the culture, the food, the language, and the sights, and I was this past weekend in Madrid, Spain. Viva la Espana!

Allie, Ally, Kelsey, Anna, Meaghan, and I woke up Thursday morning at 2:30am (which is usually my bedtime), to catch a cab to the airport for our flight at 6am. Although I had a less-than-pleasant snafu with the *delightful* Ryan Air attendants at the gate, who decided that my carry-on was just too cool to be a carry-on (are you sensing some sarcasm here?)… I tried to put that behind me during the 2-hour ride to Madrid.    

We arrived in the city, and the first stop was our hostel. The Madrid Metro, though it was a loooong walk from the terminal we flew into, was extremely easy to navigate—even for us. Our stop was “Tirso de Molina”, which I think is generally translated to mean “The Heart of the City”. After a little bit of navigation troubles (we really need to learn to get maps before getting to the hostel), we found out hostel. I really can’t say enough good things about our hostel—The Ways Hostel. Every person we encountered at the front desk was really friendly, and more than happy to recommend an activity, restaurant, or place to go, and the hostel itself was really clean and had more features than any other hostel I’ve stayed in (free internet, AND free computers to use!).

After checking into the hostel, we set out, maps in hand, to find the Plaza Mayor. I was really excited to see that it was only a few blocks from our hostel. The Plaza Mayor is basically a large cobblestone square, enclosed by tall somewhat-gothic-looking buildings, which I think are now apartments. There’s a big horse stature in the middle of the plaza, and basically, if you’re a tourist, it’s the place to be. So, being tourists, we took a lot of pictures, and observed (mostly from afar) some of the street performers. There has to be at least a dozen performers that entertain in the plaza throughout the day, including, but not limited to: someone in a Winnie the Pooh costume, 2 different people in Mickey Mouse costumes, someone in a Minnie Mouse costume, a rotund man in a skin-tight Spiderman outfit, and a woman entirely covered in different fruits. And those are the most normal performers there, no joke.

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon wandering around main areas of the city. The Puerto del Sol, the Botanical Gardens, and more. After a quick refresher-session at the hostel, we made our way to a bar that the guy at the hostel claimed was “really popular, really authentic, and really cheap.” The bar was called El Tigre, and we had been told the tapas (small appetizers) there were delicious, and, even better, that they came free once you ordered a drink. Tapas are huuuuge in Spain, most likely because the progression of the day there is a lot different than America (or the rest of Europe for that matter). From what I know, breakfast is eaten around 8-9am, lunch is eaten during siesta around 2-4pm, then many Spainards will have tapas around 7-9pm, and dinner between 10pm-midnight. That’s definitely a schedule I could get used to. We took turns ordering drinks at El Tigre, a task in itself with the language barrier, and then triumphantly returned to the table bearing plates of mostly-unknown foods. From what I could decipher, we were given some type of cheese, slices of bread with jamon (ham/bacon) and morcillo (blood sausage), tortilla espanola (basically a potato and egg quiche-type thing), and patatas fritas (french fries with a spicy sauce). And El Tigre definitely delivered—the food was delicious, and it was so nice to get a lot of bang for our buck compared to in Dublin, where you would never find a 3.50 beer, let alone one that came with piles of food. We washed the food down with some churros from another restaurant (so great! And I’d never had them before), and then headed to a Flamenco show. The Flamenco show was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I was expecting something a lot more like the tango- graceful sweeping movements across a large dance floor- but instead it was more like the dancers and musicians choreographed and conducted an entire musical with all the sounds of their voices, feet, and guitar. It really was very impressive to watch.

Friday was packed from start to finish. Allie and I woke up around 9am to grab breakfast at the hostel, and then we set off to find La Palicia Real (the royal palace). On the way we saw a huge cathedral, which we stopped in to take a lot of pictures. I’ve never been in a cathedral so big- it had so many different statues and paintings and areas, I feel like if I ever went to a mass there I wouldn’t be able to pay much attention with so many different things to look at. The palace didn’t disappoint either. It definitely wasn’t anything like Buckingham Palace, especially because it felt a lot more authentic, rather than refurbished. But between the amazingly ornate ceiling carvings, and beautiful woven silk wall-coverings, it definitely had its own character and beauty. Afterwards Meaghan, Meaghan’s friend Marisa who was visiting Madrid for the day, Allie, and I set off for the Prado, a massive art museum on the opposite side of the city. The Prado contains over 20,000 paintings from artists like El Greco, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, and more. Because Marisa is taking an art history class, she played tour guide and took us through many of the Spanish art galleries while explaining the significance of the paintings she recognized. It was awesome to be in the presence of the works of so many predominant artists of the Renaissance, Baroque, and Enlightenment periods. We capped off our afternoon with sandwiches in the Parque del Retiro (the park of retreat, it used to be a king’s hunting grounds but was later turned into a park), and then we huffed it back across the city just in time to catch the gorgeous sunset at The Temple.

We began Saturday morning with a market-seeking failure. Although I had read in two separate guidebooks about a market called El Rastro from 9am-2pm on Saturday, it hadn’t even begun to be set up when we arrive at La Plaza Cascorro around 10am. So instead we wandered over to El Parque del Retiro and spent most of the morning just sitting on some steps that overlooked a large lake. The park itself is huge, and probably the greenest area we saw during our entire weekend in Spain. We found a cute little bar/café for lunch, and the woman who worked there was so nice. Between her broken English, and my broken Spanish, we were actually able to perfectly communicate in order to get some delicious tortilla Espanola bocadillas (sandwiches). After lunch we went to the Reina Sophia, a large contemporary art museum with many works by Miro, Salvador Dali, and Picasso, the most famous of which is Picasso’s “La Guernica”. Guernica was HUGE! Much bigger than I expected, and of course there were dozens of tourists crowding around it as close as they could get to the tape-line on the ground. After we had our afternoon fill of art, Allie and I went and found her dream pair of black leather boots, we ate a really good Napolitano jamon y queso (ham and cheese napoleon- a stuff croissant basically), and then met up with the rest of the girls at a cave bar for dinner.

I’m not really sure the significance of the cave bars, but whatever it is, it was really cool. There are a few of them around the outside of one corner of the Plaza Mayor, and you enter the cave bar from the street. The one we went to had a drawbridge-style entry, with chains attached from the walls to the fake drawbridge below. Then you take a couple short flights of stairs below ground, and our table was tucked into a little room with stone walls and small red velvet benches to sit on. We ordered a smorgasbord of tapas: pan (bread), chorizo (red pepper spicy sausage), tortilla espanola (spanish tortilla), patatas fritas (fried potatoes/French fries with 6 different sauces), and of course a few vasos de sangria (glasses of sangria) to go with it. Everything was delicious, the camareras (waiters) were muy simpatico (very nice), and we spent a few hours down there just enjoying life. It was a great end to our day.

On Sunday, Anna, Ally, and Kelsey were leaving, so Allie and I decided to take a day trip to Segovia. We debated between Segovia and Toledo, and though the guy at the hostel recommended Toledo, we eventually chose Segovia because we heard the palace there was the inspiration behind Cinderella’s castle at Disneyland. On our way to the bus station we crossed through the Plaza Mayor, and then stumbled upon the start of a large parade. So immediately we knew it was going to be a good day. The parade was full of people dancing, groups of kids carrying really tall flagpoles (and then trying to either climb the poles or balance them on their chins), men who thought we were Spanish-speaking Germans/Bulgarians and wanted to take lots of pictures with us and were even more excited when they found out we were actually Americanos, carts being pulled by oxen, and dozens of men riding horses while drinking cervezas or eating sandwiches. By stopping in a souvenir shop right along the road where the parade was, we found out that the parade is held annually to celebrate the treatment of animals. We made it to the end of the parade, and then hopped a bus to head to Segovia.

Segovia is the epitome of a traditional quaint spanish town, and one of the most charming places I’ve ever seen. The cobblestone streets are full of children and families, and tables of restaurants spill out onto the streets. I don’t think I heard hardly anyone speaking English the entire afternoon we were there, and it definitely was a test of my spanish skills to do something as simple as find a place for lunch. The first thing we saw in Segovia was el aqueducto (the aquaduct). It’s a large picturesque aqueduct, left over from the roman empire, though it was actually in use until the mid-1900s. We climbed up the steps at the end of the aquaduct to see some great views of Segovia, and then headed towards la catedral (the cathedral). The cathedral almost looks like something out of Aladdin, or the Taj Mahal, and though I’m not sure, my guess is because it was probably built by the Muslims, and then made into a Catholic Cathedral after the reconquista. It was huuuuuge, but unfortunately we couldn’t go in because it’s under reconstruction.

Finally, we made it to the alcazar—the castle. The castle itself is at the edge of Segovia, overlooking miles of countryside and smaller towns below. And it does look a lot like Cinderella’s castle. The entire time we were there I was just thinking about how cool it must be to live in one of the smaller towns outside Segovia and below the castle, and to wake up with that beautiful castle in your skyline every morning. Once we climbed to the top of the castle’s torre (tower) we had even better views of Segovia behind us, and we especially could see how large and prominent the cathedral was in Segovia’s skyline. Although the views were nothing like Dublin—instead of wide kelly-green grassy countryside we saw terracotta roofs and brown sandy landscape—they were very much beautiful in their own way. We returned from Segovia and finished off our day with bocadillas (calamari for Allie and pork loin for me), and jamon rotos (“broken eggs and ham” which turned out to be French fries with eggs and ham on top… and very delicious). It was the perfect end to the perfect trip.

All in all, I loved every minute of Spain. I loved the people, their culture, the food and drinks, their way of life (it was so strange to see how busy the city still was even at 11pm on a Sunday night!), their language, and everything about it. I even decided to take a Spanish class back at Elon next semester to brush up on my Spanish-speaking skills. But going to places as amazing as Spain makes me want to do nothing but travel—Europe, Central America, Asia, everywhere. I think it would be incredible to work overseas after I graduate, and I’ve found multiple places where I would love to live. I love being in Europe so much and, though I miss my family and friends, I don’t want to leave. Especially now that my adventure has surpassed the halfway-point, I feel like it’s a race to do everything I want to do here. Onto Italy next weekend!

Cheers!

Je Ne Pas Parle Francais

From the (possibly misspelled) title of the blog, you get a little hint of what it was like on my first visit to a non-english-speaking country. Although I've been to the Dominican Republic and Mexico, the only places I went were tourist destinations where everyone speaks english. So waltzing into the Brussels, Belgium airport at around 9am on Friday, and seeing that english was not only NOT the first language (and only) language on signs, but it was often the 3rd or 4th language... that was a new (and exciting!) experience.

We arrived in Brussels, and had our first rendezvous (french!) with the language barrier when trying to figure out which bus to take to our hostel. Luckily after about an hour of wandering around, we finally located the bus. Getting to our hostel was also a little bit of an adventure, but between Allie's memory of the

directions she'd forgotten in Dublin, and my map-reading skills, we eventually got there. When we arrived at the hostel we were given the KEY to our magical/exciting/frugal/fun-filled/touristy weekend in Brussels- this great map made by a company called Use-It. I'd strongly suggest that anyone traveling try to find a Use-It map for their destination, because seriously, the map was awesome. It 

was written for young people, had lots of tips about cheap attractions, and lots of funny comments about trying to blend in with the "Brusseliers" too. After dumping our stuff in the cute little room, we headed, map-in-hand, towards the city center to see the sights. 

We saw Mannekin Pis, which is one of the most famous sights in Brussels-basically it's a statue of a little boy peeing (it's a fountain), and it used to provide water for the people of Brussels. Now it's just a tourist attraction. Also, for all the tourists Mannekin Pis attracts, and all the souvenir statues commemorating that little boy peeing, the statue itself is pretty underwhelming, so underwhelming that it's actually really funny. After following signs and signs pointing us towards the statue, we 

all finally got there, took one look at it, and laughed. It was still something really cool to see, though. We also had our first Belgian waffles (SO GOOOOOOD), and saw The Grand Place, which basically looks like a plaza out of old-world Germany, or a movie set. The Grand Plaza is a large cobblestone "quad", surrounded by huge gothic-looking buildings. Afterwards we wanted to find Mannekin's sister, Janneke Pis, and so we wove our way through narrow cobblestone streets of restaurants to get to the small alley where Janneke was. And let me tell you, there is nothing more ladylike than the position in which Janneke Pis, well, pisses. I think we were all thoroughly entertained by that. After that, we looked in some gift shops, and had a really great dinner. I had an appetizer of escargot (yes, SNAILS. and they were delicious!), a huge pot of mussels, some type of custard/panna cotta for dessert, and a beer. all for €12.50- unheard of in Dublin!!  we followed the map to a great Irish pub (of course we leave Dublin and end up at an Irish pub) for €1 drinks, and sampled some new Belgian beers- Mae's, Blanche de Bruges, and a really delicious fruity beer called Kriek. We were all pretty exhausted by that point, so we called it an early night around 11.

Friday we woke up early-ish to catch a train to Bruge, a city about an hour outside of Brussels that we heard from friends was really cool. Bruge was really cute, and pretty much what you would picture a little Belgian town to look like in your head. Small cottage-esque houses line the streets, and there are beautiful cathedrals towards the city center. Since it's fairly small, and people there mostly speak dutch or flemish, it was a little more difficult to navigate than Brussels, but we climbed up this huge bell tower and had some great views of the town. We also ate amazing French fries (invented in Belgium. NOT france!), that were seriously the best fries I've eaten in my life.

Sunday was spent going to lots of markets in brussels. A flea market, another crafts market, and lots of cute little stores in the city. We also stopped on the street and saw this Spanish play performed by a Colombian acting troupe, which was pretty funny, even though I could only understand every few words they said. We went to the top of a parking garage in the middle of Brussels (a suggestion from this really cool backpacker's map our hostel provided), and had a great panoramic (and free!) view of the city and its outskirts. Thenwe chose to forgo our hostel Sat. night (our flight left at 7am Sunday. And we had to catch a 4am bus to get to the airport), and instead we just went to a pub and danced until it closed, and then hit up late night McDonalds before heading to the bus station. Definitely a long night, but a lot of fun, and we saved the 18 euro from our hostel instead of paying that just to sleep for 3 hours. We took the early flight home, and went to sleep promptly upon arriving home, in Dublin, at 10am.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Definitely an awesome trip, just a little bit off the beaten path. 

Two Weekends of Updates!

As always, another 2 weekends have flown by here, and I don't know where the time has gone.

Last weekend was one of my favorite weekends in Dublin. On Saturday morning, our apartment woke up and decided to go exploring some areas and attractions of Dublin we had yet to see. We heard of a market called Cow Lane Market, and so we set off to find it. Once we got there, we saw that it was a great little clothing/jewelry/accessories market, and we each ended up getting really cute dresses. Afterwards, we left and decided to walk through Temple Bar en route to our next destination... which ended up being our best idea all day. In Temple Bar there is an amazing fresh foods market on Saturday afternoons, and we were just in time! There were vendors and carts selling everything from fancy olive oil and cheeses, to crepes and fajitas. Of course, even though we'd already eaten lunch, we all had to get a little something. Meaghan and I had awesome crepes, and Allie got a really good spicy vegetarian ... something, I'm not sure what, but it was good. We also sampled a lot, like some really good homemade chutney sauces and apples. Needless to say, we will definitely be heading there on a Saturday in the near future.

On Sunday we woke up early to visit Powerscourt. Powerscourt is a large estate outside of Bray (which is outside of Dublin), and our friend Kaiti told us it had a great waterfall and beautiful gardens. We caught a DART to Bray, and then a bus to Powerscourt, where we walked up a huuuge hill to get to the estates. The views there were unbelieveable. There's a really pretty gold course right on the property, and all you can see are mountains to the other side. Once we were in the manor/mansion, we got our first glimpses of the gardens, which are like nothing I've ever seen before. The gardens are just full of the greenest grass, and the landscaping is really cool. We forked over the 7 euro entrance fee, and plopped down on the garden stairs to eat our packed sandwiches and "crisps". Afterwards we explored the gardens for awhile, and pictures really can't do justice to the views there. By the time it just about started to rain, we were ready to begin the walk back to the bus stop. Unfortunately we found out the bus wasn't coming for about an hour, so a few of us had a pint in the pub next door while we waited for the bus. After a 30 minute bus ride, 40 minute DART, and 30 minute walk, we were all home and exhausted.

Our last week of classes was full of activities. On top of regular classes, it was Fresher's Week, which is kiiiindof like Orientation Week at Elon with an organization fair, and performers, and food... except not as organized and classes had already started. On tuesday after class, Meaghan and Allie and I went to the comedian's show, which was a lot of fun. It was especially funny when Meaghan got pegged as being an American by one of the comics, and they made fun of a lot of the other audience members too. They were all hilarious, and it was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon (one of the few truly gloomy days we've had here!). 

On Wednesday there was a Freshers BBQ dinner a few blocks from DBS, and for only 2 euro (for the dinner) we all decided it was worthwhile. Little did we know that the BBQ was at a huge (and swanky!) outdoor beer garden/pub... and that it was being held on 2 euro drink night. For the record, 2 euro drinks in Dublin are UNHEARD OF. Typically pints are at least 4-5 euro, and mixed drinks are even more expensive. So we got to the dinner around 5pm, and ended up staying until 2am, eating burgers and fries, sampling different pints, and just having a good time with all the people there, and then afterwards some of us went to Mezza for a late night chip buttie. It was definitely one of my favorite nights in Dublin.

On Saturday we woke up bright and early (not kidding, 6am... woof) to catch a bus to Cork for an overnight trip there. The Cork weekend shall be known as the weekend where everything cost more than we expected it to, but I guess for some things it was a learning experience. Unfortunately the ticket windows weren't open at the ungodly hour we arrived at the station, so we ended up not being able to use our discount coupons. But we hopped on the bus, and were at Cork around noon. Cork is a really pretty city, that actually looks a lot like Dublin. There is a river that runs through the center of the city, and two of the main roads line the river. On one side of Cork there is a large hill, that half of the city is built onto, which is definitely different than Dublin, which is entirely flat. Climbing the hill to get to different sights, though, gave us great views of the city and the surrounding area. We laid in a small park in the city center for a little while, and then did a walking tour to see a few churches and a butter museum. Yes, we went to a butter museum in Cork, and it was actually really interesting to see how much of an impact the butter-making industry has had on the local and national economies of Ireland. After watching a 30 minute video about butter and cheese-making, we were all starving, so we headed back to the hostel to freshen up, and then out to dinner.

I think I speak for everyone when I say I was happy to see that restaurant prices in Cork were definitely cheaper than restaurants in Dublin. Aside from when DBS has taken us out to dinner, we really haven't eaten dinner at any restaurants in Dublin. We chose a restaurant in Cork called "Amicus", recommended to us by a woman from the butter museum. It was really nice inside, and I had delicious seafood pasta with salmon, mussels, and some white fish I couldn't place. After we finished, we decided to head to a pub to watch the World Cup Qualifier between Italy and Ireland. We found a quaint little pub near our hostel, each had a pint, and enjoyed the game. It was so close! And Ireland ALMOST had it, until Italy tied up the game in the last few minutes. The atmosphere was great, and the night was a lot of fun. Hopefully I'll get to see more matches this week, even just at a pub, which will definitely be exciting to do in Dublin since Croake Park (where the matches are played) is right in the city. After the match we called it a night since we were all exhausted, and still had more touring to do on Sunday.

We headed to Blarney on Sunday, to kiss the famous Blarney Stone, and to do some shopping at the Blarney Woolen Mills. Although bus prices and admission to Blarney Castle were a lot, it was really cool to see the inside of the castle and read all the tidbits about famous people who have kissed the stone to receive its magical gift of eloquence. The top of the castle had a beautiful panorama of the surrounding towns and countryside, too. And also at the top of the castle was the stone. Although my Mom told me not to actually kiss it ("People pee on it when they're drunk, Car, just pretend!"), of course I had to actually do it. And so far, I'm still alive... though I'm not sure how the magic of eloquence is working for me :) After doing a little more touring around the grounds, Allie, Casey, and I broke off from Meaghan and Teri because we were starving and wanted to grab some lunch in town.

Let me just say that if you have never had a full irish breakfast, it is a MUST DO. At a cute little bistro in Blarney, we each ordered the full irish breakfast, and it was a 9 euro well spent. The meal is: coffee or tea, 2 pieces of toast, 2 sausages, 2 slices of "bacon" (more like ham because of the way it's cooked), an egg, black pudding (a little bigger than a silver dollar-sized nugget of I-don't-even-know-what... but it was good), white pudding (same thing... but maybe turkey sausage? delicious), baked beans of some sort, sauteed mushrooms, and homefries. And we ATE IT ALL. Disclaimer: probably don't attempt to eat the entire thing unless you either A) don't plan on eating for 10+ hours afterwards (like us), or B) have the stomach capacity of Kobayaski (the hot dog champ). Let me tell you, despite the fact that I was mad that morning our hostel didn't have breakfast, my spirits made a complete turnaround after that awesome breakfast. 

After breakfast we went to the Blarney Woolen Mills, a large indoor shopping center with every piece of irish memorabilia you could ever hope to collect. Yellow skull cap with viking horns on top of it? Yep. Tall leprechaun hat with a red attached beard? Got it. Sweaters and scarves of every knit and fabric you can dream of? It's there. And, I was really excited to finally find the perfect rugby shirt. I've been wanting a long-sleeved rugby polo ever since we got here, and I finally found the perfect one. I also got a beautiful little clover necklace-- also a major souvenir I've been wanting to take back to the states. With full stomachs and empty wallets we headed home from Blarney to Cork, and Cork to Dublin, arriving back to the apartments around 9pm.

It has certainly been a busy and adventurous few weeks, and nothing is slowing in the coming weeks. On thursday, Allie, Kaiti, Anna, and I are off to Brussels, Belgium for a weekend of waffles and beer (kidding parents, we will also be diligent tourists and hit up anything Fodor's tells us is cool). The weekend after, our whole "family" (Allie, Ally, Kelsey, Meaghan, Anna, and I) are going to Madrid, and the weekend after that I'm visiting Lianna and Kate in Firenze (Florence, Italy). 

With the halfway point of this semester rapidly approaching, I don't even want to think about all that I still have left to do and see here, but I'm definitely trying to do it all. Also, check out all the pictures I've posted in the entry below, of my last few weeks here! 

Cheers!

Ireland: In Pictures (and a few words)

Kelsey and Ally's awesome taco night for Ally's 20th birthday

All of the girls before going out on Ally's birthday! (from L: Anna, Kaiti, Kelsey, Ally, Meaghan, Me, and Allie)

View from the top of the Guinness Storehouse (Gravity Bar). 

Tripod in Dublin! (me, Kate, and Lianna)

Our gorgeous afternoon in Howth.

View at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara

Allie at Powerscourt Gardens

Powerscourt Gardens (yes, they really are that green)

View towards Powerscourt Mansion from the bottom of the Gardens

A bee on a flower in Powerscourt

Annnnd Classes Begin-- Back to Reality

Two posts in two days? This is probably the one and only time that will happen throughout the semester. Relish it.

Now that classes have begun, I actually really enjoy my walks to and from class. The weather has been nice, and the hour-round trip walk makes me feel better about the lack of exercise (and abundance of less-than-healthy food/drink) in my life. But I'm starting to really feel adjusted here. I can wake up, make coffee (which I drink out of a pint glass, because both of our mugs have not-so-mysteriously gone missing/been broken), turn on my iPod, and rock out on the trek to class. It's nice to have just a little bit of alone time on the walk, and I definitely feel more independent now that I don't have to travel in packs wherever I go... although, to be fair, aside from walking to class, I'm still generally walking in packs.

I'm convinced, though, after about a month of walking to/from DBS from our apartments, that I could probably manage to do the walk with a blindfold on-- following only the smells and sounds of the journey. There are the pedestrian walk lights, that always remind me of a Duck Hunt-esque video game sound effect when they signal the time to walk. The sound of hunter green vest-wearing volunteers, who stand in the middle of sidewalks, always asking for a minute of your time to campaign about the latest issue. There are the ever-present keg loaders/unloaders-- and the sound of men gruffly talking to each other as the shuffle dozens of kegs out of "trapdoors" in the sidewalks in front of bars, and then chuck new, full kegs down ramps to satisfy all the pub-patrons in the coming days.  There are the numerous Lebanese restaurants I pass, and the smell of roasting lamb and toasted pita bread that wafts out open doors. And there's the "All-American Laundrette", right before DBS, which has the most distinct warm-laundromat/dryer sheet smell, that I always know I'm passing it before I even look at the sign. And then I always know when I've reached DBS, because there are throngs of students from all different cultures (French, Irish, Indian, Chinese, etc.) smoking/talking/drinking coffee at the doors of the school's entrance. 

It also kindof hit me today, that Dublin, this semester, is full of experiences I'll likely never have again. I will probably never again have to wander past 30-odd restaurants/cafes on the way to class (which really is the reason that Meaghan, Allie, and I find ourselves talking about food so often... it's kindof a running joke here). I'll probably never again help lost American (or maybe Canadian?) tourists find the Dublin Castle, even though the sign for it is right in front of their faces. And I'll probably never again almost be hit by a Dublin city bus, because the driver decided that even though the walk signal was still yellow that they had the right-of-way and nearly railed an innocent American student just trying to get home from school and make some grilled cheese (who am I kidding? that'll probably be at least a weekly occurrence. bus drivers here are maniacs). 

So I'm taking it all in, as much as I possibly can. Breathing in the stale-beer and laundromat-scented air, and loving every minute of it. 

Cheers!