Dublin!

So this weekend I actually made it to Ireland! After all of the volcanic ash issues I thought for sure my flight Thursday night would be cancelled. But, as the winds shifted things looked like they were getting back on track…which posed me with the tough decision of whether to go and chance getting stuck in Ireland for the week of our final exams or stay in Riva and eat the costs of my plane ticket. After a lot of research and an early morning wake-up call to my parents Thursday we came to the decision that it was defintely worth the risk :-)

I left with no problems at all Thursday night and got to Dublin airport around 10:30pm. I took a bus to a specific stop and met Lauren Dillon, a girl I swam with at VT that is living/studying in Dublin. She was a year older than me and left last August to go to Ireland so I hadn’t seen her in so long! We headed back to her apartment where I met her Irish roommate and saw her cute little place! We had welcome drinks and headed to a local bar called The Bleeding Horse (cool name huh?) I was pretty sleepy from the long day so we didn’t stay out too too late.

Friday morning Lauren and I slept in – which was really nice – and then had a day about the city. We walked through the downtown area and then visited the two main churches in Dublin: Christ Cathedral and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. After, we grabbed some lunch at a nearby Pub where I had two of the necessary Ireland drinks: Guinnes and a drink called Bulmers, which is a famous Irish cider. We stopped by Brazenhead Bar, the oldest pub in Dublin, to check it out and then we toured the Jameson Irish Whisky brewing plant! We learned about how it began, the choice of the ingredients, and the distilling aging processes. At the end of the tour, I volunteered to do the Whiskey tasting where me and 5 others compared Jameson to Johnny Walker Black and Jack Daniels…It was quite obvious that the differences in prices were for a reason! Jameson was easily the best. I also got a diploma for graduating the whiskey tasting test…an accomplishment that will surely be added to my resume :-) We made it home and relaxed for a bit before grabbing a quick dinner and going to the Temple Bar area, a huge grouping of pubs in Dublin. We did our own “pub crawl” and checked them all out! There was live music in all of them and the Irish are so much fun!!!

Saturday morning there was no time to complain about a late night because we had the Races to go to!! We went to Punchestown, a horserace track in the Irish countryside about 45 minutes outside of Dublin. It was ‘Ladies Day’ so we were dressed to the nines…heels and hats included! (Pictured above was the corse they presented the horses in before they went onto the track) We spent the day there but unfortunately, my bets for the favorite never panned out. But hey, I had to give it a chance! We spent the day there and left on our bus around 7pm. After a ride of constant singing with a group of Irish men, we immediately went to get some dinner. We were thinking about just staying out earlier in the day but after a whole day on our feet (in heels) it was necessary to go home and change. We spent a little bit of time at the apartment and then went to a huge bar that was holding a concert that night. But, we didn’t stay out too long since we were pretty pooped .

Sunday morning we slept in and just hung out in the living room watching AMERICAN TELEVISION SHOWS. For anyone who has lived with me, I love my television and I have been away from in since I got here (no TV’s in the apartments or villa). Needless to say, I was pretty content.We walked around another part of Dublin and saw the huge new rugby stadium that is opening this summer, AVIVA Stadium. On the way home we stopped for an Irish burger and then it was, unfortunately, time for me to leave. No problems with my flight home and I made it back in time for the LAST week of classes in my college career!!!!!

Cinque Terre

On Wednesday we split from the group that was headed back to Riva and 5 of us (Me, Kate, Kelly, Aubrey and Cloey) took a train to Cinque Terre. It is 5 towns built into the hillside of the Italian Riviera that you can hike between. We stayed in Manarola and it was absolutely beautiful! The trip there was not long at all and we got there around 3. We checked into our hostel (which we quickly dubbed the "rules hostel" since we were allotted only one 5 min shower token and their was a curfew with lights out at 12pm haha) We got lunch down by the water and then spent the evening drinking wine on the rocks and watching the sunset!

Thursday morning we woke up early since it was our only full day in Cinque and set our to hike all 5 cities, a projected 4 hours journey. We took the train to the first town, Riomaggiore, and then got on the path that led us through all 5. It was really amazing and although the hike was harder than I expected, it was definitely worth it! We hiked towards the beach (in the last town) so we had some good incentive to keep it moving. We got to the beach around 1 and layed out/played in the freezing cold water until we ate dinner around 6. We trained back to our town and after some gellato fell asleep really early.

We left around 10 Friday morning and got back to Riva mid afternoon. Since our classes are coming to an end, we have a lot of work due these next two weeks so it was nice to have the weekend to get a head start and relax from our 11 days of traveling. This weekend I am supposed to go to Dublin to visit Lauren Dillon, a friend of mine from VT, BUT if this stupid volcano doesn't stop, I wont be going :-( SO keep your fingers crossed for me!

Sorrento

Sunday we left for Sorrento (which was a long bus ride). It is absolutely gorgeous and built into the side of clifts, making the views amazing. We were given a free day once we got there so we grabed a quick lunch and went up to our hotel's rooftop deck to lay out and relax. We had a group dinner at the hotel and afterwards went out to the one bar in this little town.

Monday morning we left for Naples. Note to all you reading...Don't go to Naples. We went for some Roman museum but it was not a good idea. It was the equivilent of taking a tour group to East Compton, LA. We saw what we needed to see, got a pizza (what Naples is known for- best I have had all trip!) and got out of there! We took the train to Pompeii. I had been there before when I went on a highschool trip, but again, I liked it a lot more because Ive learned so much about it. We spent the afternoon there and didn't get back to Sorrento until around 8pm. It was a guy in our groups 22nd birthday -making me not the only 22 year old here anymore :-), so we all went out. It was a pretty late night for all of us but still a blast.

Rome - Roma

Thursday morning we left for Rome. We stopped mid-morning in Montepulciano, a Tuscan town in Italy famous for its wine. Since another class we are in is Geography of Wine, this stop worked into our schedule for a wine tasting, even though it was barely 10am haha The town was so cute though and EVEN COOLER is that it is where some of Twlight's New Moon was filmed! For those who have read it (Sara) this was the Italian town that the Voltori live; where Edward goes to sacrifice himself, thinking Bella is dead. I saw the piazza that she runs through to the clock tower to stop him from getting in the sun! So cool! They had pictures in all of the restaurants of the filming and the actors around the town. After lunch we got back on the bus and got to Rome late afternoon. We didn't do much besides shower and settle in before dinner at the Hotel. After we ate, a big group went to the Trevy Fountain for gellato and to throw a coin in to ensure we make it back to Rome again one day!

Friday was a loooong day. We woke up early and had a tone of "site reports" throughout the city (each of us were assigned a monument that we research and prepare a report about it for the group). We started with a tour of the Colosseum. I have been there before but it still is really amazing to get to go and walk around inside. We went to the Palatine Hill (one of the 7 hills Rome is constructed around), the Forum, the Imperial Forum, Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. As nerdy as it sounds I really enjoyed seeing all the sites this time around since we had been studying Roman history and the monuments this past semester...it was much more relevant and interesting. After what seemed like endless sightseeing we finally were let go for lunch and after I headed towards Vatican City. We waited in line to get into St. Peters Basilica, the largest Christian church in the world, and it was pretty amazing to see. We went to the top to get great views of the city but I opted to skip the Sistine Chapel since it was expensive to get in and I have seen the Michelangelo painting before (really the only reason you go inside anyways). We made it back to hotel around 6:30 and decided to go out in the Campo di Fiori (a square surrounded by a ton of bars) The bars were a ton of fun but the late night did not help with our trip to MORE Roman ruins Saturday morning.

Our bus took us to Osteia, a past Roman city, Saturday morning which I was far from thrilled about. We were there for close to 2 hours and thankfully got back to Rome around noon. I took a nap and spent most of the day by myself, which was pretty nice. I went to run along the Tiber River and then stopped by the Spanish Steps to hang out and people watch for a bit. As you can see, they were packed! That night 8 girls got together and had a nice dinner out and then went back for some sleep, this trip was pretty exhausting.

Florence - Firenze

Tuesday began the first day of our second class trip (the first was to Venice in January – AH so long ago) around Southern Italy. I had an early start when a few of us woke up at 4am to watch the National Championship game, Go Duke! We had breakfast and left on the bus around 6am for Florence. Since we were on a class trip we got to actually stay in hotels and not hostels. It was really nice and right next to the Duomo! We had lunch when we got there and then followed our teacher around for a while learning about the historical sites nearby. Luckily that didn't take too long and we were allowed free time the rest of the afternoon. I walked across the Ponte Vecchio bridge (which is famous for amazing jewelry) and around the main Piazza. Late afternoon was spent at the Leather Market = rows and rows of stands with leather products all made in Firenze, they are very famous for their leather. We had a group dinner that night at a really good restaurant and then went to an Irish Pub FILLED with American students- apparently, they are all over Florence.

Wednesday we had another early morning to get to Siena, a close by town that relates to the Romans…what one of our classes is about. We mostly just milled around their on our own and then left to head back to Florence around 1pm. We had a free day the rest of the day and Kate and I went on a run by the Arno river, which runs through Florence. We met up with a few others around 7 and rushed to the Piazza Michelangelo which is on top of a hill with live music and amazing views of the city. We just missed the sunset but it was gorgeous regardless. Afterwards we had dinner near to the hotel and turned in fairly early.

Been Busy

Hi! Sorry for the delay in updating but I have been all over Southern Italy on our second class trip. We started in Florence then went to Rome, Sorrento, Pompeii, Naples and Arezzo then a small group of us continued on to Cinque Terre on the Italian coast. Needless to say, it was a long 11 days of traveling! But, I am back in Riva now and attempting to catch up on work and sleep over the weekend. I can't promise all of the posts of my adventures to be up at once but I will work on having them posted by Monday. Love you guys!

Munich Day 2

Saturday morning we woke up around 8 to make sure we had enough time to get things done since things were actually open! Three of us, Lindsay, Marty and me, all went to the local market to walk around. We spent time at a nearby store and ended up buying Dirndl - the traditional Bavarian dress...more likely known as a beer girl's outfiit! I tried it on and just couldn't not buy it!! SO cute and now I have my Halloween costume for a few years :-) We met up with everyone else after that and went to the beer garden near the market for lunch --> Check out that pretzel, huge! I literally lived off of pretzels and beer for the weekend...really healthy I know.

1pm we met in the Marienplatz to meet a tour group that we were told we had to go on. The guides were awesome and I learned so much about Munich! I had no idea how involved it was in Hitler's rise in Germany. It was where he attempted his 'Beer Hall Putsch' where he tried to militarily begin a revolution but failed and was put in jail (where he wrote Mein Kampf- his book outlining his extreme viewpoints). Once out, he gained power politically. We saw the room he threw a party in as soon as he got word that a Jewish man killed a member of his political team, giving Hilter a reason to attack. A few days later, Kristallnacht occurred in Munich as well as close by Austria. Some interesting stuff!! Our tour lasted around 3 hours and we visited the main sites around the city and learning a ton! We ended at the famous Hofbrauhaus for a few beers and saw an Oompha Band! (sooo cool)

We left to get back to the hostel, shower and get my drinking dress on for the night. We did a "Beer Challenge" with the same tour company that did our day tour. About 60 people met at the designated meeting spot, signed up and began our tour at a popular beer garden. We stayed there for an hour before going to the next beer hall, Augustiner, where they brew the Pope's Beer - the only beer that the Pope will drink. Next stop was the Lowenbrau beer hall and finally a club that (luckily) was really close to our hostel. It was a late/really fun night :-)

Sunday morning/10 am checkout came too soon but we packed up and left our luggage behind the front desk since our train didn't leave until 4pm...another idea that would have been great had it not been Easter and everything closed. We ended up splitting up for lunch and Lindsay, Ryan and I decided to have our Easter Brunch at the Hofbrauhaus. We got there around 11am but by 12:30 (no doubt when church began to let out) it was packed! There was drinking, singing (I know a few German beer songs now) and music...it was a blast! We stayed there for most of the day and stopped by the Englisher Garten on our way back. Inside there is a river that pitches a wave and a ton of surfers hang out there. Check out the video, pretty random in the middle of Germany! We got our train back and didn't get to Riva until past midnight but I had such a good time!

Munich Day 1

This weekend I went to Munich and I absolutely loved it! Our train left around 6am Friday morning and after a late Thursday night in Riva, we were ready for some sleep on the train. However, the Swiss Army had a slightly different plan for our train ride. 30 minutes into our trip, roughly 40 members of the Swiss Army poured into our train cart to begin their (apparently highly anticipated) four day Easter break. As soon as they got on we heard cans opening and music. We quickly realized we were not going to be able to sleep... so we decided to join in the festivities :-) We talked/drank/played games from about 6:30 AM to 8 AM until our connection in Zurich, Switzerland. The next train was much more uneventful but we got some sleep in and arrived in Munich around 2 PM.

Our hostel was really close to the train station so we dropped our stuff off and began wondering around the city…which was DEAD. We didn’t take into account that it was Good Friday (and Easter is a pretty bug deal in Europe) so pretty much everything was closed. We stumbled upon the area that Munich holds Oktoberfest which is a massive, concrete area that is packed with local brewrey tents during the festival. We then made our way to Marienplatz, the main square in Munich to window shop (our only option). Friday night, a friend of a girl in our group met up with us and took us to a local place for really great German food and Bavarian Beer. Beer in Munich is such a big deal, it is actually considered a food group. We were told that anywhere you can eat an apple, you can drink a beer (a train, the streets, a bank...anywhere). It is also a written law that everyone working in Munich is allotted one beer during their workday…which is surprising because the drinks are not small! (Only offered in ½ or full liters) That night we went to a few bars and beerhalls around the city and turned in somewhat early after a long day of traveling.