Vienna

So, before I actually went to Vienna I met up with Hannah and Kelley in Copenhagen for one night, but I'll write about that later when I discuss Copenhagen with you. We arrived in Vienna around 4 on Thursday and went straight to Katrina's. She had class that day so she gave us detailed directions to get from the airport to her apartment. We arrived around 5 and then decided to go get some food, because we were all rather hungry. We went to a restaurant called Centimeter where you can buy sandwiches by the centimeter. It was a pretty cute place and we definitely enjoyed the dinner. Then we went to find our hostel that we were staying at for one night and were pretty pleasantly surprised with how nice Wombat Hostels are.

The next day Hannah, Kelley, and I went to meet Katrina at her room and then left to tour the city center. We walked towards the city center and saw the Museums Quartier, Parliament, the people's gardens, a lot of statues, and a lot more. Katrina knew a lot of the history of the city and it was great to hear all of it from her. I can't really remember it all, but it was great at the time:-) When we made it to the actual city center we saw some great royal palaces and Roman ruins. We then walked to a church that Katrina and Zeke had found a few weeks prior that was amazing from the inside. We also walked to St. Patrick's Cathedral (Stefansdom) and then enjoyed some great gelato on the street. After a couple of hours walking around Vienna we decided to meet up with Whitney, who is also studying in Vienna. We met up with her at Schönbrunn Palace. It was great to see her, because it had been a while and the palace was really pretty. As we went to the gardens we could see the Gloriette up on the top of the hill and we decided to walk up to the top of the hill so we could get a good view of the city. It looked like some rain was coming in, but we thought we'd take a chance. As soon as we made it to the top it started to really rain hard so we thought we'd wait it out. Unfortunately it didn't let up and we had to walk back in the heavy rain and we got quite wet. After getting drenched we thought a return to Katina's would be good so we could dry off. After a while we left to go to the Naschmart, fresh market. The market was amazing and it had so much fresh food. I am officially jealous that Katrina gets to live so close to it!

Our next stop was to get in line for Opera standing room tickets. The tickets are only 2 euro which is pretty dirt cheap to see a professional opera in Vienna if you ask me so we thought we'd try it out. Madame Butterfly was the Opera that was showing that weekend and I was really happy it was that opera. Madame Butterfly is a rather short Opera at around 2.5 hours and was pretty easy to follow and interesting to watch.

That night we spent some time hanging out and just had some really good times:-) The next morning we woke up pretty early to take an hour long train outside the city to Melk, Austria. In Melk there is an amazingly beautiful monastary and a great small town. We arrived there around noon after seeing some great scenery on the train. We decided to start walking around and climb up to the monastary. We found out an English tour was leaving around 3 so we went back down to the city center and ate lunch at a cafe. We also walked down to the Danube and got to see the river up close. Our tour of the monastary was pretty great and the tour guide spoke great English which really helped. I think it's safe to say our favorite part of the tour was the view from the top balcony which overlooked the city, the Danube, and the countryside. We also really liked the chapel which was very impressive. Overall, it was a great day trip and Katrina really picked a great city for us to visit. Upon our return to Vienna we were in the mood for some Wiener Schnitzel so we headed up to an area called Grinzing where there are tons of Heurigen's. These restaurants are really cool and the one we finally chose was really fun. There was live music to be listened to, great food to be ate, and it was very reasonably priced. That night Katrina and another American hosted a "traditional American frat party," so we all attended and just had a fun night together. Overall, our trip to Vienna was amazing! It was not only great to see 3 out of the 4 of my future roomies, but I also loved the city! Thanks Katrina for such a great weekend:-)

The Last Days in Dublin

As I finished multiple final papers, presentations, and tests I was excited to be done with school, but really sad to be leaving Dublin. I always heard that this semester would go so quickly, but I never believed it would actually be done. My last night in my apartment I went out to Devitt's with my roommates and some friends which was amazing! As usual there was great trad music to be listened to and the musicians were so fun to talk to. I talked to a fiddle player named Vincent who was really friendly and then just spent some time with friends and said goodbye.

I needed to move out of my apartment on April 19th and luckily my grandparents were in Dublin that day so I could move all of my belongings and myself into their hotel room. They had just gotten done with a tour of the Ring of Kerry and then I was going to show them around Dublin for 3 days. On that saturday we decided to get settled in and then tour around the Grafton Street area and see the Book of Kells in Trinity College. I hadn't seen the Book of Kells yet so I was really glad we decided to do it. I personally enjoyed the old library up on the second floor much more than the Book of Kells, because it was a 2 story room just filled with books from the 1800's. It was crazy how many books they had from such a long time ago and the room design was really original. After this we ate dinner and called it an early night. The next day Grandpa woke up with a cold that I probably gave him...ooops. He wasn't feeling very well so he decided to stay at the hotel while Grandma and I went to the National Museum and the National Gallery. We also went shopping for a few souvenirs and then saw that the weather was taking a turn for the worse so decided to see how Grandpa was doing at the hotel. We found him eating chocolate ice cream in the hotel bar and then decided to plan on going to Foley's pub for dinner, because the hotel staff had highly recommended it. The next day Grandpa was feeling a bit better so we got on the Dublin hop on- hop off tour to see all of Dublin. The bus really is a great way to see all the sights and get some good commentary from a Dubliner. We saw Phoenix Park, the River Liffey, Merrion Square, St. Stephen's Green, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, and the Guinness Storehouse. We got off the bus and took the tour of the storehouse which was pretty fun. We got seats up in the Gravity Bar and got to enjoy some great views of the city. We then returned on the bus and went back to the hotel to pack and organize, because they were leaving the next day and I was going to be leaving for Copenhagen shortly.

Overall, we had some great times in Dublin and it was great to see them and share my semester experience with them firsthand. It was unfortunate that Grandpa got sick and wasn't feeling well, but we did our best to have some fun and see all the sights!

Roma

On Thursday April 3rd, I left directly after Gaelic class to go to the airport. My flight out of Dublin was at 7:30 and I flew with my friends Mel and Jess to Ciampino airport. We arrived around 11:30 in Rome and immediately took a bus into the city center. Our hostel was in a good location and about a 5 minute walk from Termini Station. Termini Station is where busses, trains, and the metro all go so it was very good to be close. When we got to the hostel is was about 1 AM so we just checked in and went to bed with plans to wake up early and start touring.


On Friday morning we decided to go to the Vatican thinking that it may not be as busy on a weekday compared to the weekend. I'm not sure how great our logic was, but we only had to wait in line for about 20 minutes which I don't consider a long wait. Once inside the Vatican Museums we were bombarded with beautiful paintings, tapestries, and architecture everywhere. I seriously couldn't believe how beautiful everything was. We decided to head straight to the Sistine Chapel and the walk over there was through gorgeous hallways filled with paintings. We slowly made our way through the hallways with tons of other people and then were directed into the Sistine Chapel. I really wasn't expecting it to look like it did. First of all, there were so many intricate paintings that we had to search for the Creation of Adam. Once we finally found that painting it truly felt unreal. I have always seen that picture in books, online, etc, but you never thinking you'll actually be standing underneath it while in Rome. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel in order to preserve the paintings and they were very strict about it so I couldn't even sneak one without my flash on. Nonetheless, we stayed in the chapel for quite some time just looking at the art in awe.


After the Sistine Chapel we made our way back to the center of the Vatican Museums and then went outside to look at the beautiful grounds. There were huge buildings everywhere, tall trees, fountains, and sculptures and the weather was amazing. After walking around for a while we went through some of the exhibits in the museums and then left to find a place to eat. We found a cute Italian Cafe and got pizza and ate it outside the restaurant. The pizza was great and I wasn't let down when it came to Italian food!


After eating and regaining energy we walked back to the Vatican and made our way to St. Peter's Basilica. This was my favorite part of my trip to Rome and a mistake we made ended up being one of the best experiences. We walked up to the Basilica and got in line for what we thought was the main part of the Basilica, but it turned out to be a line for the cupola. When we finally figured this out we had waited so long that we didn't want to leave the line so we stuck it out. We took the elevator up three large flights and then got out prepared to climb over 350 stairs. The stairs ended up being ridiculously narrow and many of them were in tight spiral staircases.

About halfway up the climb we stopped to look at the inside of the Basilica from the dome. I'm not terrified of heights, but this did make me feel uneasy. Despite the uneasy feeling I was able to take some pictures and looked over the edge a couple of times. We then continued on our way to the top and when we finally got there it was amazing. The view from the top of the dome let us see all of Rome. We stayed up there just looking at the ruins, River Tiber, and the buildings for quite some time. After this we walked down and then entered the inside of the Basilica which was more beautiful than I could imagine. This Basilica is by far the most beautiful church I have ever been in. There were so many areas to see in the Basilica and each one had great paintings, sculptures, and the domes were frequent and beautifully painted.

Continuing on we took the metro to the Spanish Steps. The steps were packed with tourists and we climbed them and got to look at the Trinta dei Monti which was very pretty. Due to all the tourists we didn't stay long, but as we were leaving we stopped in Gucci and Prada. I have to say I felt very out of place and didn't even see anything I would want even if I could afford it. In Prada there were these hedious bags I think I could have woven in elementary summer school so needless to say I didn't purchase anything. We then walked to what we thought was the Trevi Fountain, but was really the Fontana de Tritone. I was pretty surprised to see how unimpressive the fountain was and eventually figured out later that night that the reason it was unimpressive was because it's not the famous fountain. After this we took the Metro back to our hostel and rested for about an hour. We then asked our roommates about restaurants and they recommended a restaurant near the hostel. We had a long dinner with breadsticks, a cheese platter, wine, lasagna, and dessert. It was a great atmosphere and it was fun to have such a prolonged and relaxed dinner. After this we were pretty exhausted and we headed back to the hostel and called it an early night.


The next morning we got up early again and went straight to the Colosseum. This was also so crazy to actually see- it's such a famous sight that it feels so weird to really be visiting it. I can't really explain the shock of turning the corner and seeing the huge Colosseum right in front of you with the Palatino next to it. Anyway, the Colosseum was pretty packed so we decided to spring for a tour. Our tour guide was Italian and pretty hard to understand and I think she was a bit off her rocker. She brought us in the Colosseum and to the top tier where we overlooked the entire Colosseum. She told us some history, some of which I understood and other parts that were not very clear. We then spent about a half an hour walking around the Colosseum by ourselves and were shocked to see how impressive it truly is. The stage area no longer has the floor so you can look down and see the rooms where animals were held and pushed up through trap doors. It was insane to think about how many men were killed in the Colosseum- our tour guide estimated over a million men were killed in total (but I'm not sure how accurate her word is). As we were leaving the Colosseum we were a bit pissed at how crappy her tour was and that we paid so much for it. Then we met for the free 2nd tour of the Palatino and were pleasantly surprised at how great it was. Our tour guide was American so it was easy to understand and he gave us a mythological and historical tour of the Palatino. We walked around the ruins of the palaces of the Roman Empire, looked out over the Circus Maximus (which is where the chariot races took place), saw aqueducts, gardens, and so much more. We also learned about various rulers that I can't really remember- there was just too much history and names to remember!

After our tour we were really hot and tired so we stopped for Gelato which was delicious. We then continued walking by the river which was really pretty as well. As we were walking we passed through the Jewish Ghetto which was recommended by our hostel as an interesting walking area. As we left the Jewish Ghetto we saw the sight where Caesar was killed and I was very creeped out by the number of stray cats in the area. There were seriously 20 cats just wandering in the ruins which made me feel uneasy- cats are creepy. We then left the site and made our way to the real Trevi Fountain which was so much better than the fake one we saw the day before. There were tons of tourists and the fountain was absolutely beautiful. After the fountain we went down to the Pantheon which was a very different experience than I expected. For some reason I thought the Pantheon was in ruins which it totally isn't. There was also a huge political rally right outside the Pantheon complete with a rock band, posters, balloons, and lots of enthusiastic Italians. Due to the huge crowds we didn't spend a long time at the Pantheon, but it was still very pretty. Nothing can really compare to St. Peter's Basilica so I wasn't as impressed by the Pantheon- maybe I should have saved the Basilica for last so I didn't have such high standards...

After this we went back to the Hostel and the walk was killer. Our feet were killing us because of all the cobblestones so we laid in bed for about an hour and then found the energy to leave on the way to our pub crawl. Along the way we stopped in a jazz club for dinner and accidentally ordered an eggplant dish that was not great. The club itself was really cool and I wish we would have found it the night before for some jazz music and relaxation- but what can you do? We finally made it to our pub crawl and were a little let down by the turnout. We were the first one's to arrive and finally some other people showed up and some of them were really fun. The advertisement had said that there was an open bar from 9-10, but apparently they meant one drink from the bar and then unlimited Splürgen...which was a crappy german beer. This angered me because we had paid for the pub crawl, but we persevered and ended up having a pretty good time with some Americans, Australians, and Germans!

The next day Mel took an early flight out of Ciampino and Jess and I stayed in Rome until later that day. We checked out of the hostel and went back to the Vatican and watched the crowds of people gathered for mass at St. Peter's Basilica which was interesting to watch. I've never seen so many priests and nuns in one location! After this we shopped around for some souvenirs and then ate lunch at a small cafe. We then had to take the Metro back to Termini and get our bags. Our trip back to Dublin was long and our plane was delayed which made me miss the bus in Dublin...so I had to take a very expensive cab back to Dundrum which was unpleasant. Other than that the Rome trip was a complete success. Unfortunately the weather in Dublin was awful when we returned- it was snowing/raining and freezing cold. Rome just spoiled us with the 70's, sun, and no wind!

Catch Up!

So it seems that I have somehow gotten behind in my blog. Maybe it's the ridiculous amount of homework looming over my head or the traveling i have taken part in, but either way i need to catch up! Well, last weekend after my family left I got to have a visit from my friends Zeke and Katrina, which was amazing. It was great to have to have them come right when my family left because all of my roommates were in Rome and I probably would have gotten really lonely without them here in Dublin!

We started out their short visit by meeting down in Temple Bar after they went to the Guinness Storehouse. I didn't want to take the tour with them because I've already done it twice and am most likely going to do it again in 2 weeks with my grandparents. Well, we met and decided to start by walking around the city center and seeing some main Dublin sights. I don't exactly remember the order of our touring, but I'll do my best to get it somewhat right. We went to the National Museum to get an overall history of Ireland and to see the bog bodies- which has turned out to be quite the popular sight! We spent some time there and enjoyed the building as well as the exhibits. We then made our way to St. Stephen's Green and got some nice weather in between rain storms. We walked around the green for a while and enjoyed the fact that spring is officially here- all the flowers were in bloom and the trees are finally starting to bud. We also walked around Temple Bar and Grafton Street and eventually were hungry and tired and took the Luas down to Dundrum to make some dinner and relax.

That night we decided to go down to Devitt's, a pub near the city center. This pub has trad music sessions nightly and really is a great place to see some Irish culture. When we first got there it was pretty empty and I was worried I had made a mistake in pub choice, but as we drank our first pints of guinness and bulmers the place started to fill up with younger people and the music session got going. Musicians just kept adding in and towards the end of the night there were about 7 or 8 people playing the fiddle, concertina, guitar, and uilleann pipes. I really enjoyed the music and it turned out to be a really relaxed pub. I hope that Katrina and Zeke liked it and enjoyed the trad music as much as me!

The next day we got a later start and left the apartment around 11 or noon. Katrina and Zeke showed interest in having a DART adventure so we decided to head down to Dun Laoghaire to see the ocean and a smaller Irish city. Luckily, the weather cooperated while we were down in Dun Laoghaire and we got to walk around without getting wet- which is always a plus. We walked around the city, got some ice cream, and ate lunch on some rocks down by the water. Then we walked up and down the pier looking at sail boats and the coastline. We then walked farther into the city center and looked at some old churches and buildings. Then it looked like the weather was taking a turn for the worse so we got on the DART and went back into the city center of Dublin. As soon as we arrived at Tara Station the rain started and we waited in the station for about 15 minutes until it slowed down. As soon as the weather perked up we headed for O'Connell Street so they could see the GPO and the spire. After we saw those sights we back tracked to the Temple Bar area along the River Liffey and went over to St. Patrick's Cathedral. I was glad we decided to do this, because I had actually only driven past the Cathedral once and it is really pretty. Unfortunately, part of the exterior is under construction so that takes away from the beauty of the building. After we walked around the grounds for a little while we decided to make our way back to the National Gallery so Katrina could see some art. After making the long walk up to the Gallery we were disappointed to see it was closed. We couldn't figure out why it would be closed when it was supposed to be open for at least another 45 minutes, but nonetheless we moved on and walked over to Merrion Square to take in some more green:-) Merrion square was beautiful and then we went back to Dundrum on the Luas. Before going back to my apartment we stopped at the Dundrum Town Center and Katrina found the Build a Bear store. She was lucky enough to get a free bear from them- which was so nice! After the excitement of building her bear we went to my apartment and we made some pizza and garlic bread and had a relaxing night because their flight left at 6:40 the next day.


Overall, the trip was short, but we had a great time. Their original plan was to fly out on Tuesday, but Aer Lingus moved their flight back a day and shortened their trip. I wish we could have had one more day, but I was glad to have that day and half with them! I think it's definitely possible to see all the big sights in Dublin in 2 days, but there are some extra things that can be fun if you have more time. We fit a lot of stuff into a little time and now I'm excited for Katrina to show me around Vienna is about 2 weeks!!

Family Vacation

These past 2 weeks I have had a steady stream of visitors and it's been so fun showing people around the country! On Friday, the 21st, my family arrived to spend a little over a week traveling Ireland. I met them at the airport pretty early in the morning and we were off on our adventure soon after that. We rented a beautiful Toyota corolla which barely fit all of our luggage and bodies. Nerves were running high as we pulled out from the airport with our Garmin shouting directions about traffic circles and me reminding my dad to stay on the left hand side of the road. Eventually we made our way out of busy Dublin on the M50 divided highway (that's a big deal around here) and we headed down south to County Wicklow. I planned on us driving through

the Wicklow Mountain National Park and then stopping at Glendalough, an ancient monastery, where we visited on our IES orientation. In true Ireland style it was raining when we arrived at our destination, but we braved it and walked around the ruins, cemeteries, churches, and roundtowers and then also headed down to the lower lake. After a while we had enough of the rain and decided to take a break and get some lunch before we continued driving to Kilkenny for the night. Lunch was tasty and we were on our way across the National Park looking at mountains and various other interesting vistas.

Kilkenny turned out to be a larger city than I first thought it would be and we had a pretty good time there. Everyone was tired from jetlag and traveling so we called it an early night and then planned on doing some touring downtown in the morning after a full Irish breakfast. That morning we ate a ton at breakfast and then went around downtown. There was Kilkenny Castle which was quite impressive, but unfortunately our timing was off for taking a tour and we had to pass. After looking around the huge grounds for a while we just walked around the city center looking at cute pubs and shops.

We then made our way back to the car and started on the nervous journey to Killarney. Our Garmin, which ended up being a life saver and a curse all at the same time, decided to take us on some rather sketchy roads and there was some definite panic in the car more than once. The backroads were pretty much just one lane dirt roads that were curvy and very dangerous. Progress was slow, but eventually after multiple hours of travel we successful and safely made it to Killarney National Park. This was one sight that I really wanted to see on our vacation and it proved to be absolutely beautiful! I would strongly recommend the National Park to anyone who enjoys hiking, because the trails around the mountains and lakes were fantastic. We pretty much stayed close to the travel center and looked at the gardens:

the Muckross House:

and took one hike to a Torc Waterfall: The grounds were impressive and we all really enjoyed the stop.

Later that night we headed into the city center and chose a random pub to eat dinner in. By chance it turned out to be the self proclaimed 'most famous pub in all of Ireland.' I'm not sure how true the title is, but we did like the Danny Mann pub a lot. First of all, the fish and chips were to die for and secondly, the live music was great. The Molly Malone's were playing that night and they are a trad band from Cork. We loved their music and ended up staying a while as we enjoyed Guinness and Bulmers. The next morning we woke up and went to church for Easter in a Cathedral in the city center. It turned out to be a beautiful church and after the mass we headed out for the Ring of Kerry. If you aren't familiar with the Ring of Kerry, it is a famous drive along the lower peninsula in County Kerry. Luckily, we did the tour on Easter Sunday and the tour busses must have had the day off, because we didn't see a single coach bus the entire time which made the thin roads a bit more bearable. Along the way we stopped at seaside towns, beaches, and lookout points.

My favorite part of the Ring of Kerry was our split second decision to take a ferry to Valentia Island. The ferry that took us to the island held about 12 cars and the Island turned out to be nearly deserted.

We drove around the Ring of Valentia and stopped at the top at Fogher Cliffs, which was like a mini Cliffs of Moher, with absolutely no one else there. The views from the top of Valentia Island were fantastic and it was a great addition to the Ring of Kerry.

On our way back to Killarney we stopped in many small towns and saw a beach where numerous people were surfing...which was crazy. The Ring ended up taking us about 6 hours and it was a great tour.

The next day we woke up early and before weleft for Galway we stopped at Ross Castle near Killarney National Park. The castle was also pretty impressive and reminded me of a mini Blarney Castle. We looked around the grounds and also missed the tour and would have to wait for a long time to get the next one. I guess castle touring was not working for us on this trip. After finishing at the castle, we decided to take the coastal route to Galway which was a bit longer and had another ferry ride across the mouth of the River Shannon (more like the ocean though). We spent the day driving across the base of the Dingle Peninsula and across County Clare. The ferry ended up taking about 20 minutes and was a pretty unique experience. As we made our way closer to Galway we drove through the Burren and I had another chance to see the Cliffs of Moher. I was hoping that this time the weather would be better and maybe the sun would be shining, but I was let down. As soon as we arrived a huge cloud bank blew in and at times the Cliffs weren't even visible. My dad and I hiked up to the lookout tower and got stuck in some rain with no shelter to be found except the door way to the tower that was closed. We waited out the rain and then made our way back to the visitor's center where we enjoyed some hot chocolate and ice cream. Eventually the clouds cleared enough to actually see the Cliffs and we continued to make our way back up to Galway. We checked into the Galway Bay Hotel, which turned out to be a great location to stay. It was right by the promenade and had a great view of Galway Bay. Unfortunately, the hotel ran out of pillows and those of you who know my mom and sister know what a tragedy that must have been. Luckily, there was some creative use of fleece sweaters, towels, and coats and we survived the night. The next morning I had to leave quite early on a train to get back to Dublin for class. I left around 9 o'clock and my family went on a tour of Connemara, which made me pretty jealous. They said is was fantastic and they were able to see Kylemore Abbey, now a international girls boarding school, enter into a gaeltacht, and see some beautiful parts of County Galway.

We spent one night apart as they continued to tour Galway and I attended classes. On Wednesday night, I met up with the fam at the Harcourt Hotel, which was just south of St. Stephen's Green, and we went out to dinner. The next day I had film and culture class while they toured Dublin. I had them go to St. Stephen's Green, Dublin Castle, Grafton Street, Trinity College, and the National Museum. It turned out to be the only day where they didn't get rained on and seriously one of the nicest days I have seen here in Ireland. Later that night we ate a great dinner at the Barge Pub near my IES center and then headed down to Dundrum to meet some of my roommates and see my apartment which turned out to be a full night. The next day we toured Kilmainham Gaol, which turned out to be interesting and historically educational, but depressing as expected. In Kilmainham Gaol the members of the 1916 were all held and executed one by one and this action by the British eventually led to the Civil War of 1921 and the freedom of the Republic of Ireland. Many of the prisoners were executed under harsh and tragic circumstances like one man who married his sweetheart in the jail the night before his execution. After learning about this history we headed over to the much more lighthearted atmosphere of the Guinness Storehouse. We ended up finding some seats in the Gravity Bar and enjoyed some Guinness up there while looking at the great view of Dublin. After this tour my mom had done too much walking and it had started to rain so we took a taxi back to the hotel and rested until dinner. We then ate dinner at a great Irish Pub at the top of Grafton Street called O’Neil’s that also had some great fish and chips and Irish atmosphere.

Here we called it a night and the vacation had come to an end. Sadly, I had to say goodbye to the family early Saturday morning and head back to Dundrum alone. Luckily, I didn't get too depressed because I had a visit from my friends, Zeke and Katrina, to look forward to in a mere 5 hours. I'll tackle our weekend together in a later post, because this one was epically long. Cheers!