So, first stop was Dublin. The first night, we checked into our hostel and immediately went out in the Temple Bar area. We had a few drinks and talked to some people. It was great being in a country where everyone speaks English. We didn't stay out too late the first night because we were getting up early the next day to go to Galway, which is on the west coast of Ireland (Dublin's on the east coast). So we got up the next day and took a bus to Galway. I definitely like Galway more than Dublin. It was a smaller city, there was much more grass, and the culture there was more traditional Irish. Dublin, we learned, has been taken over by just about every country in Western Europe at one time or another, and as a result has a lot of influence from others. Galway, on the other hand, is one of the only parts of Ireland that was rarely, if ever, conquered. When the country was invaded, people would typically invade on the east side, where Dublin is, so everyone tended to flee to the west coast. So, Galway historically was rarely influenced by foreign culture. Everyone there was so incredibly friendly, and we were talking to everyone just because we loved the fact that everyone spoke our language. The second day in Galway, we did a tour of Connemara, which was an area outside of the city along the coast to the north. It was a beautiful area, and we learned all about the history of Ireland and the region of Connemara. That night, after the all-day tour, we went back to Dublin for our last night. The following day, we did a walking tour of Dublin, got an amazing cheap lunch (Guinness stew), and packed our luggage to get on a plane to Barcelona at 10:50!
And this is where things began to get interesting. It turns out our flight didn't leave at 10:50, it left at 20:50... which is 8:50. Somehow, between the six of us, nobody caught our error. So we were stuck in an empty airport at 11pm in Dublin with no way to get to Barcelona that night. There were multiple options at that point, including staying in Dublin for another few days and finding a flight to Paris, or possibly going to another city if we could find a cheap flight. But for me, there was no other option but to go to Barcelona. It was 100 euro fee to take another flight the following day to Reus, which is about an hour outside of Barcelona, and considering it would have cost me 141 euros to buy a ticket for that flight, it wasn't such a bad deal. As it turned out, only Matt and I went to Barcelona, and the other four girls decided to stay in Ireland for a few days. So we all found a cheap hostel to stay in that night, and in the morning, Matt and I departed for Barcelona.
Barcelona didn't start off so well. The flight gave me some time to think, and I all of a sudden realized that I was running out of money. The 100 euros for the flight change, along with another night in a hostel, along with paying for a night in Barcelona that we didn't need, along with the unnecessary transportation to and from the Dublin airport the previous night... it all put a huge dent in my wallet, and I didn't stop and think about how little money I had until the flight to Barcelona. In addition to that, I hadn't eaten any quality food since the Guinness stew from the previous afternoon, I had been surviving on cheap stuff like bread, cereal, crackers, etc. So when I first arrived in Barcelona, I was in a horrible mood. Sort of depressed, really down, and worried about my money situation. I also couldn't get a hold of any of my family in the States because my phone ran out of minutes and I didn't have a computer. And since it was a weekend, nobody was answering my emails that I was able to send from the airport. Finally, once we checked into the hostel in Barcelona, I was able to use Matt's computer to call my mom on Skype and notify her of my money problem. And thanks to Gramps, I now had enough money to get me through Barcelona and Paris. And in addition, my dad finally answered his email and was able to help me out too. I don't know where I'd be without my family, thanks guys!
So... on to happier times. Barcelona turned out to be an awesome time. Before I forget, we found this amazing Japanese buffet the night we got in. Fifteen euros got us all you can eat, including just about every Japanese food you could imagine. That includes sushi, seafood, rice, noodles, dessert, and a whole bunch of stuff I couldn't identify. The best part, though, was the stir-fry guy. We could pick out any raw meat and vegetables we wanted from the huge selection and give it to the stir-fry guy behind the counter, and he would stir fry it in a sauce of our choice. I think I had three plates. Barcelona is a big city, but we pretty much saw everything we wanted to see in the two full days we had there. We bought 2-day bus tour tickets, which allowed us to see the whole city. It was way too big to walk to everything. The bus had two routes, which was perfect because we did one the first day and the other the second day. And we were also able to get off the bus whenever we wanted to walk around somewhere and get back on the next bus. The two highlights of Barcelona were definitely the Sagrada Familia and Park Guell. The Sagrada Familia was a cathedral designed by Gaudi (Gaudi designed many buildings in the city). But this was no ordinary cathedral. If anyone is familiar with Gaudi, any structure designed by him is a completely unique style, unlike anything I've ever seen. Google it to find pictures, or you could check out my Facebook pictures. Park Guell was a park on a mountainside, with a few buildings designed by Gaudi that looked like they belonged in Whoville. It was a fun hike and we were rewarded with a phenomenal view of the city. Once again... Facebook pictures. So that was our first day. On the second day, we toured the Olympic stadium used in the '92 Olympics, visited the soccer stadium that is home to FC Barcelona, among a few other things. That night, Chris and Catherine arrived in Barcelona; they were doing a different tour of Europe, in Paris, Barcelona, then Madrid. So we ate dinner with them at an amazing and cheap restaurant called Les Quinze Nits. The chefs preparing the food, we learned, were culinary students, so they were able to keep the prices very affordable. We had paella, squid, steak, etc., and a whole lot of sangria. The next morning, we checked our flight departure time 46,147 times and made it to the airport in plenty of time to catch a plane to Paris!
I didn't really have high hopes for Paris, probably because going to Paris is extremely cliche and I wanted to be different. But there really wasn't anything in particular I cared to see in Paris. Once we got there though, I was blown away. It ended up being my favorite place on the trip. The Eiffel Tower was amazing, the food was delicious and surprisingly affordable, the pastries and such were amazing, and most importantly, the girls there were better looking than anywhere I've ever been. When we arrived there, we immediately met up with our friends who had stayed in Dublin while we were in Barcelona. One of them had decided to go back to Florence, and another was now staying with a friend she had in Paris. So it was really only two of the girls that we were meeting. It turned out great though, because with only four of us, we could all get a room to ourselves in the hostel. It was nice to be able to keep my stuff out in the open and not worry about someone stealing it. The next morning, we began with the Eiffel Tower. I didn't realize how awesome the Eiffel Tower was until I saw it when we got off the metro. It seemed surreal to be so close to it. I had obviously seen pictures of it all my life, but I had never given it much thought; it was never one of my goals when I came to Europe to see the Eiffel Tower, or even visit Paris for that matter. We climbed up as far as we could using the stairs, which was about 2/3 of the way up, but the only way to get to the top was by elevator. The view was fantastic, we got plenty of pictures. After that, we took the metro to Versailles, which is a historical chateau where many of the important French royalty have lived. It was beautiful and boring at the same time. It reminded me of the mansions in Newport, RI; I felt like I had already seen it. The headset I wore told me about the details of the house, but I really wanted to learn more about the history of France as it relates to Versailles. My favorite part was the gigantic garden in the back of the chateau. It must have been at least a square mile in size. That night we found a cheap crepe stand in the city for dinner. It was my first crepe, I got the chicken and cheese. Lots of cheese. The French love cheese. The next day our first stop was the Louvre, which has to be the biggest museum on earth. It would take you at least 3 days to go through everything in that place. We decided to see the Mona Lisa and then stick to the ancient civilization section. We then walked by Notre Dame, which was nothing special in my opinion, then took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc de Triomphe was pretty cool, it's basically a giant arch in the middle of a roundabout, but it was nice to see. Then we walked down the Champs Elysees, which is the famous street with all of the places to spend all your money. The only place we stopped at was a famous pastry shop called Laduree. At first I didn't think I would get anything, but my friend Nicole convinced me to try a macaron. I didn't know what to expect, they look like little colorful cheeseburgers, and they were way overpriced at 1.60 per macaron. But I bought two anyway, and WOW were they good! I've never tasted anything like it, it was crunchy and chewy at the same time, just the right amount of sweet. I immediately wished I bought a dozen of them, and I would have gotten more if the line wasn't so long. That night, we had dinner a nice affordable restaurant, then Matt and I decided to buy a Pinot Noir and walk around the city. It was probably the best wine I've ever had in my short time drinking wine. We walked around the area where our hostel was, got a picture in front of the Moulin Rouge because that's the cool thing to do, and then crashed for the night. In the morning, we again checked our flight departure time 459,418 times and made it in time to get our plane back to Italy. It was a looong 10 days of traveling and at that point, I needed a couple of days to sleep well and eat healthy so I could stop feeling like crap. I only had 5 days before Matt and I went on another trip to Porto for a short weekend trip.
Porto was definitely a much anticipated trip. Matt is Portuguese, his dad was born there, so he was really excited about going. And I was excited myself, just because Portugal isn't somewhere a lot of people go on vacation, and I thought it was cool to go somewhere that's not really a tourist hot spot. Porto ended up being my second favorite city, just behind Paris. The forecast had looked gloomy all week. We checked it every day leading up to the trip and every time we checked the forecast for Friday and Saturday was Heavy Rain / Windy. Not exactly what you want when you'll be walking around the city all day. We arrived there Friday night, we only had Saturday to tour the city, and then we left around noon on Sunday. It wasn't raining too bad when we got there, so went out to dinner at what was considered an "expensive restaurant." As we quickly learned, an expensive restaurant in Porto is MUCH cheaper than an expensive restaurant in Italy or the United States. We ordered soups, sardines for an appetizer, a big order of bacalhau (cod) and potatoes, desserts, and a bottle of wine... the total for both of us was 36 euros, and it's not customary to tip! The food was really great too, I would say it was up there with the best meals I've had in Europe, and that's saying a lot. That night, we went out to a bar and met these nursing students who were out celebrating their graduation... which isn't until June. I'm pretty sure they just wanted a reason to party. But they spoke good English, so we hung out with them for a while before hitting the hay for the night. The next day was our only day to see the city, and we lucked out with the weather. In the morning it was just sprinkling, and that turned into mid 60's and sunny for about 4 hours in the middle of the day. During that time, we saw some of the local churches (I've seen enough churches by now, thank you), visited a famous bookstore, had an authentic Portuguese lunch, then made our way down to the Douro River. The sun really came out when we were down by the river, which was perfect timing because it's absolutely gorgeous down there. We enjoyed the nice weather for a minute, but we were on a tight schedule if we wanted to see all we wanted to see in just one day, so we headed over the bridge to the wine cellars. There are countless wine cellars to tour, and we had time to do two of them. They each gave us a tour of the facility and then gave us some wine to taste afterward. Port wine is different from normal wine. The fermentation of the grapes, which turns the sugar into alcohol, is stopped prematurely by the addition of wine brandy. As a result, the wine contains more sugar and is sweeter, but it also contains more alcohol because of the brandy that was added. This adds up to a wonderful combination of deliciousness. I loved it. After the tours, we were planning on taking a tram to the coast, about a half hour ride, to see the ocean. That was really my number one thing to do (I think I secretly wanted to see home on the other side), but when we stepped outside the wine cellar it was like stepping into a hurricane. Heavy rain and windy had arrived in a big way. We could barely get out of the building to walk around, let alone make it to the coast for sunset, which now would have been significantly less awesome with the clouds. We gradually made it back up the hill to our hostel over the course of the next hour and a half, stopping in shops periodically to look for souvenirs and to dry off. We ate dinner again at the same restaurant, I had veal and Matt got octopus, but we shared them. Oh, and I forgot to mention before the amazing dessert that I had. They had a dessert called Hidden Apple Pie that gives Gram's apple pie a run for its money. It was a pie crust, with a layer of apples, and then on top was a layer of tiramisu-like creamy goodness, with cinnamon on top. If I could only figure out how to make it... So that night Matt wasn't feeling so good, and I was just tired and wanted to drink some wine, so we watched Pulp Fiction at the hostel and called it a night. The next day, we checked our flight departure time about 20 times, a significant reduction from before, and made it safely back to Italy.
The END. That was a long letter. This week we don't have classes, we are doing day trips to farms and other places. I will probably write about that later this week, then I'm meeting Paul and Peter in Rome Friday night until Sunday, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. I still have A's in all my classes, looks like this semester will boost my GPA a bit, and I'm learning a ton too. Coming to Italy was definitely the best idea I've ever had. Ciao tutti!
Connemara in Ireland
John Wayne impersonation on the Connemara tour.
From the Eiffel Tower
The garden at Versailles
Sagrada Familia
Park Guell's Whoville structures by Gaudi
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