Finally made it to Paris!

Hello everybody! Can't believe I am already blogging about my last trip in Europe! I head back to the States 10 days from now! That is crazy!

Now, my trip to Paris was supposed to be 2 weeks ago. But the whole volcano thing happened and we had to push it back. It actually ended up working really well. I had 2 finals last week so was definitely ready for a break before finishing everything up. The trip was also fun because it was a GIRLS' WEEKEND! Just me and Ashley and Kaitlyn.

We got into Paris Friday morning. Ate crepes for lunch. Yum! And then we went on a free walking tour of the city. After the walking tour we went to Les Invalides and then the Eiffel Tower! That night after dinner we had wine and cheese while sitting by the Eiffel Tower.On Saturday morning we went to the Hotel de Ville, Notre Dame de Paris, and Montparnasse Tower. In the afternoon we went to Montmartre and Sacra Coeur. It was beautiful, on a hill overlooking the rest of the city.Sunday morning we got up early to get to the Louvre when it opened. The Louvre was a lot of fun and only a bit overwhelming. Museums are free the first Sunday of every month so we were fighting the crowds. But we managed to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. I didn't go up close to see the Mona Lisa. The large crowd of people around it scared me off. I liked the Louvre but it was too big to do only in a morning. My real favorite was the Musee d'Orsay which has works of people like Monet and Van Gogh. The paintings were lovely and it was much smaller than the Louvre.
Then it was time for us to leave. I was so glad we made it to Paris though. We ate lots of good food. The weather was lovely even though the forecast had said it was supposed to rain for 2 of our 3 days there.

Now it is back to studying and exams for me! Hopefully I can find the time for one more post before it's time for me to head home!

Florence: My Dream Trip

Those of you who know me well know that the one place I really wanted to travel to while I was here was Florence! I have a bit of an obsession with the Medici family, the ruling Florentine family during the Renaissance. So I was really really happy when I found a group of friends to travel with me to Florence for the first week of spring break!

Having our class trip the weekend before travelling to Italy made everything a little crazy. We got back from our class trip about 9:30 Sunday night and then I had to be up at 4 the next morning to get to the airport to fly to Italy!

We flew from Dublin to Bologna and then caught a train to Florence. We ended up getting into Florence around 3 that afternoon. Our hostel was nice and really close to everything! We decided to try to do a little bit of sightseeing that afternoon. We went to the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, walking by the Duomo on the way. And after that we went to the Palazzo Vecchio. Both were really cool. We also had a nice surprise because Italy was celebrating International Women's Day so we girls got into both palaces for free!

Dinner that night was AMAZING! We ate at a little trattoria. I had bruschetta as an appetizer, gorgonzola ravioli and then pork loin. (And of course some great Italian wine.) It was the best meal I have had in a long time! Afterwards we met up with one of Ryan's friends who is studying in Florence and had our first gelato! That may have been one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was awesome!Tuesday morning we headed out early to beat the crowds at the Galleria dell'Accademia. This is of course where Michelangelo's David is kept as well as a lot of other great Renaissance artwork. Then we headed to the Cappelle Medicee, the Medici Chapels, and browsed through the local markets where we got paninos for lunch (again YUM!). That afternoon we went into the Duomo and Baptistery. We managed to squeeze the Bargello in as well. This museum had some impressive sculpture and also Donatello's David, one of my favorites. After that museum we managed to sneak into the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo to see a few more church artefacts but by this time we were all pretty tired and all this religious art was kind of starting to look the same. We retreated to our hostel for a quick break and then headed out for dinner. (I'll admit it--I ate gelato for dinner that night.)

The next morning it was time for the Uffizi, the most visited museum in Italy. It is the site of Botticelli's Birth of Venus and La Primavera (love those) as well as a myriad of other paintings. I loved that museum and it took us all morning to get through!

Unfortunately, Ryan started to not feel so well so he just stayed in the hostel that afternoon.

We girls were fine on our own and got to do some more girly things that afternoon. We browsed the jewelry shops on Ponte Vecchio on our way out to the Palazzo Pitti. At the palace we went through the Galleria Palatina and the Royal Apartments. The Galleria Palatina was nice if a little ostentatious. Imagine a lavishly decorated room. Then put priceless artwork on top. It was a little overwhelming. We also went into the Boboli Gardens, the gardens of the palace. The weather had been pretty bad but thankfully there was no precipitation that afternoon. The gardens were beautiful but the real highlight for me was that there were cats! Apparently the guards there feed some of the strays and they're really friendly because of all the tourists. I've missed my cats so much so it was nice to get to have one around for a bit. After the gardens we headed back into the Palazzo Pitti (there are like 5 museums in it). Since it was only us girls we went through the Costume Gallery which was basically a small fashion museum. We also went into the modern art museum. Now the Florentine idea of modern art is much different than ours. Basically modern art for them is anything after the Renaissance. It was not quite what we expected but we really enjoyed it!

For dinner that night we had bruschetta and pasta again. Another wonderful Italian meal! And gelato for dessert, of course.

The next morning Ryan was feeling a little bit better but decided to stay in for the morning. While he rested, we went to 2 churches: Santissima Annunziata and San Marco. Then we did a little more shopping in the markets. Before lunch we also went to the Anthropology museum since my friend Melissa is an Anthro major. After lunch, we went to 3 more churches: Orsanmichele, San Lorenzo, and Santa Croce. All three were beautiful. We finished up the day with a stop at the Museo di Storia della Scienza (for Marita and Ryan, the science majors of the group). That night ended with pizza for dinner and gelato at our favorite place called Perhce No! (Why Not!).
Basically the time in Florence was amazing and we packed a lot into our days! Friday our group parted ways. Ryan and Melissa were heading down to Naples, Marita to Geneva, and me back to Dublin. I was a little nervous about flying back by myself because I had to take a train to Bologna, get to the airport, and then fly back all alone. But it's funny how the day ended up working out. First, when we got to the train station, Marita and I figured out that we were on the same train. I just had to get off the stop before hers. I got to the airport in Bologna around 9:30 but when I got to the airport saw that my 11:15 flight was delayed till 3:15. This made me a little nervous. I was flying Ryanair which is not always known for its reliability. They were checking baggage, though, so I figured the flight was official. I headed through passport control even though I had a really long wait ahead of me. I sat near my gate and tried not to worry about whether or not I'd actually make it back to Dublin. A girl about my age was sitting near me and after a little bit we got to talking. We figured out we were both American and both heading to Dublin. She was studying for the semester in Bologna. Of course imagine our surprise when we figured out that we were both Notre Dame students!! She (her name was Bianca) was flying in for the weekend to see one of the ND girls. Needless to say, that connection made us instant friends and we spent the next 5 hours just chatting. She was able to tell me that the flight was delayed because the Italians were on strike from 11-2. We finally got into Dublin around 6 and I took Bianca to meet her friend.

It's such a small world, isn't it? I was so glad to run into Bianca and we're hoping to hang out again when we are both in Rome for Easter.

Still need to do one more post till I am up-to-date on everything! Hopefully can get that done before the weekend!

Dingle

Let me just start this off by saying that I have now been in Ireland for a whole month! Wow. It is going by way too quickly already!

I had been anticipating spending this past weekend in Dublin since I haven't done that in a few weeks. But when my friend Kaitlyn suggested we head out to Tralee and Dingle, I couldn't say no. It was so worth the trip.

We planned to stay in Tralee 2 nights and go to Dingle for just a day. When we got to Tralee, though, we decided to go to Dingle that day and spend the night. It was the best decision. Dingle was an hour-long bus ride away but the drive was beautiful! It's the prettiest part of Ireland I have seen so far.We found a hostel to stay in and then headed out for a short walk. The scenery was so beautiful! And we had sunshine!
That night we headed to a few pubs. It was nice because since it's the off season there weren't many tourists so it was basically us and the locals in the pubs. We stopped at this pub called O'Flaherty's and ended up spending most of the night there. Our friend Sam got to talking with a local guy. Later in the night the bartender/owner and a few other guys played started playing some Irish music. We also found out from the owner that the local Sam had been talking to was a great Irish dancer and he ended up dancing a bit for us. All in all it was good craic.

What wasn't very fun was the hostel we stayed in. It was fine for sleeping but sometime during the night, the heater must have turned off. It was freezing when we woke up!! To top it all off, the hostel had no hot water! Because of that all of us could not warm up for the rest of the day.

We took the bus back to Tralee that afternoon and were planning to catch the rugby match and stay the night. But when we got to Tralee we collectively decided we all just wanted to get back to Dublin that night.

Even though we left early it was still a really good weekend. Here is the real highlight of the weekend though! Dingle has this famous friendly dolphin, Fungie. He's been around since the mid-80s. They have tour boats that go out to see him and everything. We were all joking around about seeing him. If any of us saw something in the water, we'd yell, "FUNGIE!!" Unfortunately on our walk we did not spot him. But as our bus was leaving Dingle, I looked back and saw one of the tour boats that goes out to find Fungie and THERE HE WAS! So I woke my friend Ashley up and we both got to see him!So I am traveling again this coming weekend and then hopefully just staying in Dublin the next weekend! I really need a weekend here especially since I have essays due soon! So after going to Stockholm this weekend I will get to work!

London Calling

So I am fresh back from a weekend trip to London! The trip was amazing and busy and tiring. We did London in about 2 days if that says anything at all about the pace of our trip. But it was a good experience and we are proud of ourselves for getting ourselves to and from London and navigating in the city.

First a few highlights from the week before we went to London:
1. Tour of the Irish Parliament Building, Leinster House. The tour was given to our Notre Dame group by one of the Irish senators, Mark Daly. The building was beautiful and had a lot of history in it. Though, I have to say, the highlight of the night was having drinks in the bar (Yes, they have a bar in their Parliament Building. It's Ireland after all.) Senator Daly (all of us girls in the group have a little bit of a crush on him) did a great job with the tour and made time to chat with everyone in our group before the end of the night. He's invited our group to his hometown, Kenmare, the first weekend of March which should be a fun trip.

2. Finding Phoenix Park with my friend Ashley. Neither of us had class on Thursday so we decided to ride the 10 bus as far as it would take us which is to Phoenix Park. Phoenix Park is on the north side of the river so it was nice to explore a new part of the city. We found the zoo and a really cute spot for a cup of tea.
3. Irish Literature Class. Yes, I am going to class while I'm here. I'm taking this class at O'Connell House with some other Notre Dame students. It's a highlight because our professor for the class is absolutely brilliant. His name is Seamus Deane (here's his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_Deane). He is a famous Irish poet and as Kevin Whelan, the director of our programme who is brilliant in his own right, says, "Seamus Deane is probably the smartest man in Ireland." We're really lucky to have him teaching the course because he hasn't been able to teach it since last year because of health issues. When I say he is brilliant, I mean that in Wednesday's lecture I barely understood what he was talking about (neither did my English major friends). I'm excited to continue learning from him and am hoping I can manage to keep up with the class.

Now on to London. Our trip to London was a whirlwind. Here's what we did.

Day One:
We left for the airport at 5 in the morning and got into the city around 11. We went to King's Cross and took pictures at Platform 9 3/4. At noon we met up at the Natural History Museum with one of Ashley's friends from ND who is studying in London for the semester and one of Ryan's friends who is studying at Oxford. From the Natural History museum we headed out to attempt to get tickets for a show that night. We were on a mission! So we trucked our way through part of Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace, and finally made it to Trafalgar Square. Ashley and her friend headed out alone to see if they could get us tickets while the rest of us went into the National Gallery. We were pretty wiped out at this point but it was worth it because we got tickets (half-priced) to see Avenue Q that night! It was a great musical with a great cast and we had awesome tickets in the middle of the 4th row!

Day Two:
We got up early and after breakfast at our hostel headed out to see London! We rode the tube right to central London. When you walked out of the station, you immediately saw Big Ben! Next we went to Westminster Abbey and then walked along the river before heading to Covent Gardens for a bit. Then we met my friend Jen who has been studying at Oxford and who I have not seen since September! We did Globe Theatre, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and then the British Museum. The night ended with Thai food and drinks at a pub after.

If you can't tell from this, we did a ton of stuff in barely two days. I could have spent a week there easily and know that someday I will have to return! I was proud of our group for having the energy to fit everything in that we wanted to see, getting around the city easily (a special thanks to my friend Ashley who was basically our guide for the trip) and just having so much fun even when we were really tired from all the traveling and walking.

This coming week I actually need to be productive: homework, laundry, grocery shopping and all that fun stuff. But we might do a daytrip or overnight trip somewhere in Ireland this weekend and on Sunday we're having a Super Bowl watch at the O'Connell House!

Also I've now been in Ireland for three weeks which is crazy! It's going by quickly already!