The Final Countdown... 2 Weeks

I am staring down the home stretch of my abroad experience. I am so excited to finally see my family and friends again, after these four months without them. There are so many different things I am excited for, from hot showers, to groceries that last longer than a day, and my big comfortable bed. In just two short weeks I will be back home and starting the everyday routine I have mastered so well over my life. Eventually I will start waking up, going to class, homework, going to bed, and then repeating. On the weekends I will have a great time with all of my friends, but then start the week again. I will have the same Loyola experience I have loved for two years. I will realize even more how fortunate I have been to have the experiences that I have had here in Ireland, and Europe in general. I can look back and see how on Sunday morning instead of staring up at Father Jack in mass, just a few short months ago I was listening to the Pope giving me a similar blessing. I was able to explore so much of Europe in four months, and learned endless amounts of life long information that will travel with me forever.

As much as I love home, I will forever have a soft spot for Ireland in my heart. The abroad experience coming to an end has reminded me even more of why I love Cork so much. In Ireland it simply all comes down to the people here, that truly is the charm of the country. The people here constantly surprise me with how kind and genuine they are. For example, the other day in Starbucks there was a blind woman in the coffee shop, one of the workers took time away from what she was doing to personally escort the woman from station to station so she could get her coffee with no issues. The worker was looking for nothing in return, just simply wanted to make getting coffee for this woman as easy as possible. Another situation that happened yesterday really reminded me why I love the Irish so much. We emailed a woman who worked at the Pro Shop at Old Head Golf Course and asked if the shop would be open because several of us wanted to buy our Dad's stuff from this legendary and beautiful course. The woman emailed us back and said the shop would be open until 5:30 on Friday, but just not on the weekend. So we hopped on the bus to Kinsale, then took a cab out to the golf course. (It was the most beautiful golf course I have ever seen. It sits on a peninsula so you are over looking cliffs into the Atlantic Ocean from every point on the course) We walk out of the cab, the driver very skeptical about the course being open. We make it around to the main office and the woman tells us that she will double check, but since the course is closed she doubts we will make it to the shop. Next thing we know we are led into the beautiful club house, and another woman, Rose, leads us right into the shop. There is little on the shelves, but she took out many different shirts in many different colors and sizes to show us. She helped each of us personally pick out the perfect shirts for our Dad's. Then when we were done she took us on a private tour of the whole club house, just because she wanted us to get to see as much as we could since the course was closed. This is one of the best experiences I have had in Ireland, we were given an opportunity to visit one of the best golf courses in the world, because the woman chose to help us out. Both of these people are why I am going to miss Ireland.

These two weeks come as a bitter sweet moment. I am so excited to be home, but I do not know if I am truly ready to say goodbye to Ireland. This place has taught me so much. With two weeks left I just don't know how I am going to come to terms with the phrase "Until We Meet Again." Luckily I do still have two weeks and instead of thinking about leaving, I will enjoy the time I have.

Climb up every staircase... ITALY!

It has been forever since I have update this blog, so I thought after my week long trip to Italy I should write a post about it. Italy was by far my favorite trip, for many reasons, but the fact that it was flawless really helped. We made every train, bus, and plane, effortlessly, which never happens. It took only 3 months and 7 trips to master this whole traveling without my parents situation, but I believe I finally got it. Ok back to the trip, so our first stop was Florence. We hit up all of the most beautiful parts of the city, except seeing the real David statue... the other two duplicates were free and near the leather markets. Florence is where I began to learn that our Italy trip transferred from "No Carb Left Behind" to "No Step Left Unstepped." We started off our first excursion in Florence to climb the 467 steep steps of the Duomo. We huffed and puffed up every stair then when we finally so light at the top, we stepped out and the beautiful panoramic view of the city took away my breath even more than the stairs. Once you looked past the beautiful overhead views of the city, you were taken back when the beautiful mountain seen scaled the sky. After the Duomo, we headed over to the Piazza de Michaelangelo just before sunset so we could sit on the stairs and watch the sunset over Florence. Yet again we walk and up see that we yet again face a huge hill/staircase. We climbed and climbed, and were yet again completely blown away by another beautiful view from the top of Florence. This time we had the gorgeous and vibrant sunset to make the setting even more perfect.

While in Florence we went on a day tour of Tuscany through the Chianti Vineyards. We happened to come during the only two weeks where the leaves change colors, so we were lucky to get a little taste of autumn with the bright reds, oranges, and yellows. Every mile driven was prettier then the next. I found myself constantly just taking more and more pictures to try and capture the full scene. I learned that no photograph can actually do the vineyard justice, but trust me I tried.

Our last day in Florence we decided to take a trip to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I can honestly say it is one of the coolest buildings I have ever seen. It does not seem physically possible for the building to still be standing with such a dramatic tilt. I am so happy I made it out here because it really blew my mind.

After our amazing trip to Florence, we hopped back on a train and made it over to Rome. Every step you take in Rome is more historical then the next. The magnitude of the history is overwhelming in Rome. We would turn a corner and bump into the Colosseum which dates back to 80AD. Rome was the one city where I decided I would start spending the extra cash to take actual tours of the monuments instead of walking around and reading the signs that are given. My favorite tour was by far the one I took through the Vatican. Our tour guide explained every inch of the Museum, Sistine Chapel, and the actual Church. I enjoyed hearing all the ins and outs of the Vatican. (Fun Fact: the City has their own currency and one ATM that is only in Latin). At the end of our tour, the stairs came in again. In the Vatican you can walk to the top of the dome, which is about 550 stairs. The worst part of these stairs is that the higher you get, the more narrow the stairwell gets. All six of us climbed, hunched, and climbed some more until we eventually got to the top. We were rewarded by a full 360 degree view of Rome. It was honestly magical you could see everything.

Looking back on this whole Italy trip I realized that if I chose to skip out on walking up any of those stairs I would have missed my favorite parts of each city. I know now to never let my fear of heights stop me from climbing up every staircase I can.

Paris and Amsterdam!

Hi sorry for taking so long between this and my last post! I have been traveling so much recently, it is so great to see so many different countries and cultures. Last weekend I was in Paris with my Mom, her friend Annie Walsh, and my cousin Bridget. The four of us strolled around the beautiful streets of Paris and hit up all of the big stops in the city. Since we did so much I will just highlight my favorite parts of the trip. We popped into the Lourve and saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and other priceless and famous works of art. We went to Versailles for a whole day, and we walked around the beautiful palace and then walk through the massive gardens of the estate. Every aspect of these gardens were perfectly manicured and decked out with fountains and flowers. That night we went to the Eiffel Tower, and saw it all lit up and sparkle. We met a nice man named Roy who's wife accidently ordered too many tickets so we got to skip the long line, and got tickets from him. Two terrifying elevator rides later, we were at the top of the Eiffel Tower. The top with breathtaking for three main reasons 1. it was one of the prettiest views I have ever seen, 2. it was absolutely freezing and literally difficult to breath, 3. I am absolutely terrified of heights. Luckily the views from the top were so stunning I was able to forget about the reasons two and three very easily. The last night we went to a Cabaret show, which is not as cute as they make them seem in the United States. The four of us could not stop laughing at the many naked men and women that walked across the stage. Overall the night was so fun, and something I know I will never forget. The weekend was amazing, and gave me that perfect feeling of home that I needed halfway through my semester abroad.

Amsterdam is one of the most interesting cities I have been in. It has a different feel than most cities, and every block that we walked looked similar but had its own certain charm. The city connected through many different canals that are all so beautiful. There were not many tourist attractions that we took part of besides the Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank House, so for most of the weekend we just walked around. On our last day we took a Canal Cruise throughout the whole city, where we received a little history on each part of the city. The cruise was my favorite part because it was a peaceful ride where we were able to talk to each other while also enjoy the city. The most interesting part of our journey was probably our hostel. We staying a "Camping Hostel" which was thirty minutes outside of the city. I am not going to lie I was dreading this decision after it was made by several people that I was traveling with.  I have never really been the camping type, but much to my surprise I ended of really liking the place that we were in. We stayed in Chalet ten which had four bunk beds, and a table in the middle. It was a very peaceful place to come home to every night, and enabled all of us to spend a lot of time together. This trip was one of my favorites because I got to really enjoy my time there instead of rushing to places that I feel I need to see.We got to wander around the city and really pick up on the atmosphere of Amsterdam.

PROST!

Hellooo! Made it back from Oktoberfest safe and sound!! Oktoberfest was the coolest event I have ever been to in my entire life, I will start from the beginning and try and describe to the fullest. The first day we were there we had slight issues with the train systems, "so easy literally no one could mess it." Yup. You can mess it up. So we are trying to get on a train to City Center and we ask several people "every train stops in city center" was repeated to us several times. So we did exactly what people said, and got on a random train. We learned no one should wing it with the train system that is in another language. Moments after we sat down we realized we were on an express train to Austria. Yup, Austria. Luckily there was one stop before leaving Germany, and the man who was helping us told us we were only 15km from the Austrian border. Then he points to this beautiful set of mountains and tells us that we are all staring at the Swiss Alps. Our jaws dropped, because seven of us managed to mess up this easy train system within our first hour of the being in Munich.

We eventually dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then headed over to Oktoberfest. We take the escalators up and are immediately overwhelmed with mass amounts of people and carnival lights. At night the festival was so amazing. Our first activity, besides getting sausages, was going on the massive swings. I honestly was absolutely terrified, and was pretty much dragged on the swing. BUT I went on them and they were so cool. We were swinging above the whole festival so fast, and we were able to see all of the lights. I would have taken a picture, but my hands were paralyzed with fear, and to be honest I would definitely have dropped my camera while swinging.

All of the other days we spent a lot of the time in the tents. Everyone who attends this festival is so friendly. Within ten minutes I already had friends from Germany, Italy, and Spain. Everyone is just looking to have a lot fun and experience every part of the festival they can. The beer was really good and really strong. The mugs were massive and I had to use two hands to lift them half of the time. Overall the trip was the most fun I have ever had and I think everyone is already looking into how we can get back there next year!

Swiss Alps from the train station

View of the swings from the bottom.

First Week of Classes and My 3 Minutes of Fame

Okay so the first week of classes has officially ended, I am feeling pretty confident about the classes. My History for International Students I am very happy with because over half of the class speaks English as their second language. I am starting to think maybe this class is used to help people speak English along with History, and that sounds perfect. I spent two hours taking notes on everything there is to know about the Potato Famine. On Wednesday I went to my Moral Responsibility class at 10am, obviously the 20 Americans that were sitting in the class, myself included, did not get the memo that the class magically changed to 11am. We have noticed that the Americans seem to miss this Irish memo that class times can change just a day before you have the class. Now I hope I have this class down, and I will get to sleep for another hour on Wednesday mornings, so it's all good. Thursday I have Celtic Saints, which is definitely going to be a little rough. The teacher seems nice, and we almost found the classroom flawlessly (which never happens), except for the fact that room 10 was in between room 14 and 26 (still trying to work out how that works in my head).

After class on Thursday we started our Arthur Guinness Day festivities, which is basically a full day honoring the man who start Guinness. It makes you wonder why there is not a Bud Light Day or something that in America. Well basically at 5:59 there was a big toast on the Court House steps where we all had to keep on drinking Guinness, which I am still not the biggest fan of. The best part of the day is that the 5 of us magically ended up in the front row, dead center of the steps while the camera men were filming (obviously happened completely by accident). Luckily this "accident" worked in our favor and now we are on Youtube toasting to Arthur Guinness. Overall it was a great day and so much fun to see the mass amount of people singing on the steps. Here is the video of us from Arthur Guinness Day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV593dayQgY

London Baby!

I forgot that I never blogged about my trip to London so I figured I would do it today! We landed in London late on Thursday night, then when we arrived at our hostel we were shocked to walk into Karaoke night at Belushi's Bar. Yes, we lived in a hostel that was on top of a bar for 3 nights. Besides the difficult start to trip, it was very fun and clean. For our first day we did a tour of Buckingham Palace, it was absolutely beautiful. Every inch of the palace was decorated beautifully, and the tour ended with us being able to see Kate's dress, shoes, earrings, cake, and bouquet. The tour was by far my favorite thing I did in London. After that we did a bus tour and a tour of Westminister Abbey. They were both a lot of fun, and we were able to see the whole city in a day. On Saturday we went and walked around the area near the London Eye and there happened to be this big cultural festival, so we were able to hang out there for a bit. Then my favorite part of London was Notting Hill, it was a cute area with a bunch of different stores that we went into. Sunday was the funniest experience I have had here yet. We went to Abbey Road trying to capture the Beatles picture, just like every other tourist in London. None of us realized how busy of a street it was, and that there was no street lights or anything. There were just about 20 people when we got there crossing a busy street. Luckily we captured the picture with no casualties! Overall the trip was a lot of fun, but I am definitely excited to start going to countries that I have not been to yet!

Big Ben

London Eye and Big Ben

Buckingham Palace

Tower Bridge

Out attempt at the Abbey Road Picture!!

Dublin

Here I am back in Cork, and very happy about it! I loved Dublin so much. The city was a lot bigger than Cork, but everything was still walking distance from our hotel. Dublin reminded me more of an American city than what I have become accustom to in Cork. The first day we arrived around 6pm and had the whole night to ourselves. We walked around the city and went to dinner at Elephant and Castle, which had the best buffalo wings in Ireland! At night first we went to the oldest pub in Ireland, called "The Brazen Head Inn," actually our bus driver, Liam, brought us all there. Kathleen actually had an American Dollar on her so we were able to put a dollar with all of our names written on it up on the wall in the pub! After the Brazen head we went to the Temple Bar area, which is an area that is all cobblestone and filled with many different pubs and clubs. Temple Bar was a lot of fun and I definitely want to go back.

The second day we walked the steps of James Joyce's "Ulysses" throughout Dublin. It was very interesting to see that Joyce made a fictional story be so factual at the same time. Even though the character of Bloom is fictional, where he is walking around is a perfect description of the city of Dublin. We also went to the James Joyce Museum which had really great murals describing the chapters of "Ulysses." Later that afternoon we went to Guiness Factory, Dublin's number one attraction. The factory was really cool and the views from the Gravity Bar were unreal. You could see the whole city of Dublin from an all glass bar. I loved everything about the trip to the factory, except the Guiness. I only drank about 3 sips of it, I just do not understand the attraction to it. The next day we went to visit Trinity which is a University in Dublin. The campus was absolutely beautiful and I could not believe people could actually go to school at a place so beautiful. I felt like I needed to be dressed up just to be walking on the quad. Overall the trip was great and I definitely want to try and visit Dublin again if I have time!