Back to America

With only a few more days in Cork, Ireland, I am feeling so many different emotions. As it is finals week, I am trying to ignore the feeling of stress and focus on making the most of my last two weeks. It has been a life changing experience and I am so thankful that I was able to come to Ireland and travel Europe. I have learned so much about myself and have had numerous once-in-a-lifetime  experiences.  Adjusting to a different culture was a great experience in itself, and I'm going to truly miss hearing that wonderful Irish accent everyday and interacting with the friendliest people in the world.

Life in Ireland is much more relaxed than in America. Everything is about having a "good craic" or a good time. Cork has become home and the thought of leaving makes me very sad, however, I have missed my real home since I got here. I am anxious to see my family and friends and share my stories with them over some delicious home cooked meals. I'm sure I will one day return to this incredible place since it has become a second home and I can't wait for that day. Until then, it's time to live it up in Cork and celebrate the these last four months with all of my new friends.

A visitor :)

Two days after getting back from Paris, I anxiously awaited the arrival of my boyfriend, Jason. I had been so jealous of all of my friends on the trip as their boyfriends and families had come for visits, I was so happy to have Jason coming. After a long trip from Newark, he was exhausted and spent most of the first day napping. But I forced a tour of my new campus and city. We got hot chocolate at one of my favorite places before heading back home for dinner. After dinner we ventured over to my favorite Irish pub, The Franciscan Well. The Well is like the apex of Irish pubs, it doesn’t get more traditional than this. We sat outside under the heat lamps with our beers before meeting up with the rest of the group at Reardon’s, our usual late night bar. 

The next day, we headed over to Middleton, which is the location of the Jameson Whiskey Factory. We went on the tour of the distillery and even participated in the whiskey tasting at the end.  We had a lot of fun. Since it was Thanksgiving, we headed home to cook! Being our first time attempting to cook a thanksgiving meal and without our families in America, it consisted of chicken instead of turkey, potatoes, corn, stuffing and an apple pie! 

We woke up very early the next day to catch our six-thirty a.m. flight to Rome. I slept on the plane but woke up as we were flying over the Alps. It was an amazing view. When we got to Rome we found our beautiful hotel in the perfect location. Jason and I got ready for dinner in Campo di Fiori, a square in the middle of Rome with all outdoor restaurants and musicians. The food was amazing! Afterwards we went off to find the Trevi fountain and Pantheon.

On our second day in Rome, we decided to take a guided tour of the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. All of the ancient ruins were incredible to see and what I think makes Rome the city it is. We learned so much on the tours. I was excited to show Jason my favorite part of Rome for dinner, Trastevere. He loved it just as much as I did and we had another delicious meal followed by gelato. 

Our third day in Rome was a Sunday, so we made our way over to the Vatican to hear the Pope’s blessing at noon. The square was filled with enthusiastic people ready to see the Pope. After he spoke, Jason and I headed for the line into St. Peter’s Basilica, which gets long very quick. We luckily got into the breath-taking church pretty fast and were able to take some stunning pictures and say a prayer. Afterwards, we headed back over to Campo di Fiori for a late lunch.  When it was time for dinner, we opted out, still being full from lunch and decided to just get gelato and a bottle of wine. We celebrated our last night in Rome drinking vino on the rooftop terrace of the beautiful hotel. 

We woke up, finished packing up our things, and headed back to Cork! Back in rainy Ireland, we relaxed for the rest of the day until dinnertime. I planned to take Jason to my favorite restaurant in Cork, Bodega. It did not disappoint. It was all decorated for the holidays and the food was delicious. We then headed over The Well, where we listened to a live band. It was a great night in Ireland. 

The next day we ventured over to Blarney. You can’t come to Cork and not kiss the Blarney Stone! So on Jason’s last full day I made sure this was in the plans. We spent a lot of our time there wandering around the beautiful property. Once it began to rain, we headed inside the castle where we both kissed the stone. We got hot chocolate and coffee in a nearby café to warm up and then did some shopping at the gift shop. After the long day, we came home and started packing up all of Jason’s things for his return to the States in the morning. We ended the night with one last trip to The Well.

In the morning, Jason said goodbye to the rain and grey skies as he left Cork on the bus to Shannon airport. It was a great trip and I’m so happy and thankful he was able to come to Ireland!

The City of Light

There’s nothing better than free and there is no place like Paris so when I found out that my program was paying for a trip to Paris which included a four-star hotel right in city center I could not be happier. After budgeting every other trip down to the last euro and staying in some pretty questionable hostels, it was a very welcomed change of pace. More importantly, I could not wait to see the famous city!

We unfortunately had a very short amount of time in Paris, but we made the most of it! When we checked in Friday evening, I wasn’t feeling well and unhappily had to stay in for the night. However, on Saturday, our thirty-person group divided and conquered the big city! My friends Kelley, Merrie, and I began the day at the Louvre. We headed straight for the Mono Lisa, who of course had a huge crowd of people staring at her. We snapped our pictures of Da Vinci's painting and went over to Venus. It was early in the morning, but I tried to remind myself just how incredible and historical the things I was seeing are. 

Next, after a quick stroll through an interesting fashion museum, we wandered through a gorgeous park until we ended up at the Christmas markets. It was there that I decided I would one day return to Paris at Christmas time. It was amazing! Christmas music playing and street vendors for miles with gorgeous little gifts and food! We picked up some souvenirs for ourselves and families then moved on to the world-famous shopping street, Champs Elysees. 

On Champs Elysees, we continued our shopping and tried on a few things but most of all we just admired the city and it’s out-of-this-world shopping. We stopped for a quick lunch on a sidewalk bistro. I ate one of the most amazing baguette BLT’s I have ever had. We thought we had seen it all with the shopping but we were about to stumble upon Franklin D. Roosevelt Street. This is where the highest end stores are: Louis Vuitton, Prada, Jimmy Choo, Gucci, Chanel. You name it, it's there! My friends and I almost felt uncomfortable on the ritzy street. But of course, we stayed and wandered into a few of the museum-like stores.

 Once we were shopped out, we made our way to the Arc Triumph. Where we met up with Merrie’s friends who are studying abroad in Paris. They were able to direct us to a great little bistro by the Eiffel Tower. After dinner, we ran over to the tower and were just in time to see it sparkle. The tower sparkles every hour on the hour for five minutes, and it is a breath-taking sight. As we got closer and closer, I realized just how massive the building actually was. I snapped more pictures than I thought was humanly possible. We got crepes by the Seine River and admired the Eiffel Tower until we were all complaining about how tired we were from our long day. 

The next morning we only had enough time to snap a few pictures of the Notre Dame church before we were back on a plane to Ireland. It was a wonderful trip and I hope to return to Paris one day.

Italia!

As I arrived in Italy, it was like an out of body experience. That moment was something I had been waiting for my entire life. We had an insanely long travel day that involved two bus rides, a plane, and a train, but we finally made it to Florence around 3 a.m. The next morning we were all anxious to see the city and of course eat the food! As we made our way into center city, we stumbled upon one of the most famous leather markets, San Lorenzo. It was amazing; tent after tent of leather goods and vendors trying to bargain with you to get their items sold. 

A few purchases later, we found The Dumo, Florence’s main attraction. The huge terracotta dome that sits on top a gorgeous church just radiates Italian culture and beauty. Although some of my friends climbed to the top of the Dumo, I enjoyed going to Michelangelo Piazza, where we got an incredible view of the entire city including the Dumo. 

 We headed to a wonderful dinner where I stuffed myself full of delicious pasta and then of course ended with gelato. The next day we were fortunate enough to find a tour to Tuscany. We took a five-hour long bus-tour that eventually ended at the Chianti vineyard and we were able to do some wine tasting. Tuscany is so beautiful that it doesn’t look real. Even in the off-season, the colors were so vivid it was breathtaking. The wine tasting was a lot of fun. I completely felt the Italian culture as we sat in a dimly lit room with a table of various wines and prosciutto and brushetta to snack on. 

Our last day in Florence was spent just wandering the cobble stone streets, and of course making some last minute leather purchases. One of my favorite parts of Florence was the Ponte Vecchio river. Each picture I took truly looked like a painting. I didn’t know if Rome could top Florence but I was about to find out. 

Getting to Rome was much easier as we only had a quick hour and a half train ride. However, we did arrive late so we went right to sleep. The next day was a Sunday so we headed straight to the Vatican. We waited for a while and then finally the Pope came out of his window and blessed us in many different languages. It was quite an experience! Not to mention the extraordinary grandeur of the Vatican itself.  

Afterwards, we headed to my favorite part of the trip, the Coliseum! I will never forget getting off the subway and seeing it for the first time. It is something so strange to see huge ancient ruins next to modern buildings. As we toured the inside, my amazement continued and I imagined all that used to go on in the building so many years ago. We then got dinner in the beautiful Piazza Novona and then headed to the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon.

Our second day in Rome, consisted of some aimless wandering which led us to my favorite place in the city, Trastevere. Trastevere could not be more of an authentic Italian area with the narrow cobblestone streets, sidewalk cafes with red-checkered table clothes and clothes hanging outside to dry. It was wonderful. Afterwards we ventured to a market piazza called Campo di Fiori and then to the Spanish Steps. 

On the last day I began to feel a little sick and run-down from all the traveling. We took it easy and just explored the beautiful Italian streets and enjoyed the amazing food until our flight in the afternoon. My trip to Italy was something I will remember forever.  

Barcelona & Madrid!

Spain was my favorite trip by far. I truly felt the dramatic culture shock that I was hoping for. My weeklong excursion was divided into two cities, Barcelona & Madrid. As our plane from cold, rainy Ireland touched down in Barcelona, I was immediately in utter excitement as I saw the beach to my left and palm trees all around. Making our way to our hostel was a little bit of a challenge, as English is rarely spoken. My friends and I had finally appreciated all the years of foreign language classes we were forced to take in school. 

After getting settled, our first day consisted of going the Barcelona football (soccer) game. It was really cool to experience a soccer game like this, as it is such an important sport to the rest of the world. It seems as though Spain’s soccer is like America’s baseball or football. It was even more exciting since Barcelona won the game!

The next day, following the exciting win by Barcelona, I was ready to explore the city. We saw it all, from La Sagrada Familia, Las Ramblas, The Gothic Quarter and of course the gorgeous beaches and architecture. Seeing the beaches of Barcelona is where the city won me over. I loved the contrast of the hustle and bustle of the city and the serenity of the beautiful beaches. The bluish-green of the water was a peaceful tone that met the white puffy cloud-filled sky all against the rugged tan sand.

Getting to Madrid was quite a challenge. We had to sleep in the airport until our 6am flight on hard benches. When we made it to Madrid, I was a ghost. Getting off the plane and to the hostel all seems like a dream because I was so tired from our rough night’s sleep. But we pulled ourselves together and explored the majestic city. Madrid was a much older Spanish-feeling city. There were many different plazas with outdoor restaurants and street vendors. The architecture was breath-taking. 

Spain was an extremely exhausting trip, but nonetheless, amazing! I loved getting to see the differences of the two cities. Barcelona, a younger, more modern, beachy city, however still true to its Spanish culture, whereas Madrid embodies the old Spanish culture. Both wonderful cities that I hope I will be able to return to one day.