Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, and Dublin
Ciao! Ciao!
It has been one crazy week here in Europe! Last week was spring break for us, so you can only image all the crazy things we have done in the past week. Christina and I managed to visit 4 countries and walk 85 miles in the last seven days! It was nuts, but we did it and we lived to tell about it.
Warning, this is going to be really long.. so prepare yourself.
Sunday:
Our week of adventures started on Easter Sunday. Christina and I attended an Easter Mass service in one of the beautiful churches here in Reggio. It was really cool. We didn't know what was being said, since it was completely in Italian, but that's ok. They spoke very fast, and the only words we could pick out with our limited Italian was: "everyone", "Easter", and "Jesus". So that was cool! After mass, we stopped for a quick cappuccino to celebrate the Easter holiday before packing our bags and heading for the airport. That afternoon, we flew from Bologna to Edenhoven, Netherlands, where we got on a train to Amsterdam. One of the first things we noticed about the train stations in the Netherlands was how high-tech they were compared to the Italian stations. Each of our train tickets were little cards that had a chip in them that you scan to open the doors to the train platform. It was really cool. The Dutch are a hundred years ahead of the Italians. That's for sure! After getting on the train and leaving the platform, we heard an announcement in Dutch and watched everyone on the train roll their eyes and get a little annoyed. (Dutch is another weird language that we have no idea how to understand, and we are pretty sure uses made up words). Luckily there was a guy sitting close to us that was translating the message in English to his girlfriend. Apparently the announcement had something to do with the massive train strike that was going on in Paris, and had effected some of the trains in the Netherlands, and reported that all trains were stopped. Perfect! After an hour more than the train should have been, we made it to Amsterdam!
After checking into our hotel for the night, Christina and I went out for burgers. We were so hungry that we didn't mind that they used hoggie rolls for buns. And when they gave us extra fries because we were cute American girls, we didn't complain. After dinner, I had contacted my friend Adam from Boise State who is studying abroad in Spain, who happened to be in Amsterdam for the night with his brother. We ended up meeting up and grabbing a beer the 4 of us to catch up and get some ideas for our coming adventures.
Monday:
The next morning we got to experience the deliciousness of Dutch pancakes! Dutch pancakes are similar to crepes, however they are left flat, are bigger than my head, and of course covered in yummy toppings. I ordered a yogurt, strawberry, and honey pancake; Christina on the other hand ordered an "apples and creme" pancake and expected apples and whipped cream. Oh no, it was a pancake with a large piece of apple pie and a bowl of ice-cream. It was so good!
We ended up moving our belongings to a different hotel for our second night in Amsterdam. We booked a hotel boat that was super cool and in one of the canals in the city center. It was a teeny, tiny room, and there was about 18 inches between the top bunk and the bottom bunk, but it was a fun place to stay for a night. After we settled in on the house boat, we went out exploring. We visited the famous tulip festival, where the city of Amsterdam plants one tulip for each of the Dutch citizens, the flower market, saw the Anne Frank house, the Van Gogh museum, and the secret church in the attic. Apparently there was a period of time where catholicism was illegal in the Netherlands, so a small group of people built a secret church in the attic of one of the office buildings. From the outside you would have no idea that it was even there. We intended to go inside, but unfortunately the museum closed just before we got there. In the afternoon, we got to visit the Amsterdam Diamond museum. Apparently Amsterdam is known for having the largest diamond industry in the world. In the museum we got to see how they cut, shape, and polish diamonds that they receive from all around the world. It was really interesting.
We also got the chance to go to Amsterdam's famous Ice Bar. It was so cool inside. When you first walk in, there is a normal bar that served Heineken and a bunch of mixed drinks that are famous in Amsterdam such as the "Amsterdamned" and the "Arctic Ice Bar". So of course we had to try them! Then when it was our turn, we got to go into the "Ice Bar". It was like a Disneyland ride! They played a short video clip explaining how they were trying to find the best cold beer in the arctic and needed our help. They gave us extra coats and some gloves before we walked into the -9 degree Celsius (about 15 degrees Fahrenheit) bar. Each of our glasses were made completely out of ice and melted a little as we drank our beers. It was so cool! (Literally and figuratively;)) To end the night, we walked through the famous red light district before heading back to our houseboat.
Tuesday:
We left Amsterdam early Tuesday morning and took a bus to Brussels, Belgium. The first thing we did, was stop for a Belgian waffle. Our waffles were huge and covered in fruit, chocolate, whipped cream, and marshmallows. It was more like a ton of sugar with a side of waffle, but it was so good! We then explored the city, saw the main palace, the famous cathedral where the Royal Family of Belgium got married. When we went inside, they were holding a funeral. We don't know who the funeral was for, but we guessed it must be someone famous or royal in order to have their funeral held at such a prestigious location. While wandering the streets we saw the famous Belgium Mamquine Pis statue. We aren't entirely sure why this statue of a little boy peeing into a public fountain is famous or important, but apparently it is. For as snack, we had another really nutritious meal, Belgian beer and fries. They weren't anything impressive or exceptional. Just your standard steak fry covered in ketchup, but the beer was pretty good. Also, a bird pooped on me while in Brussels.. so that was great. But I've heard its good luck, so we are going to go with that. Another side note about Belgium.. Brussels is the capital of Europe. There is a parliament building for each EU country. It was really cool to see each of the parliament buildings and explore the area a bit.
That evening we caught another bus to Paris. In order to reach our airbnb, we had to take the metro. It was the sketchiest metro I think I have ever seen. The windows of each of the cars was wide open. People were opening the doors of the cars before the train stopped moving. And the train stopped for about 2.5 seconds before taking off again. It was insane. We successfully made it to our stop, and got off the metro without killing ourselves, and exited the metro to see the top half of the Eiffel Tower. It was gorgeous! We made our way to the airbnb, dropped our stuff, and decided to go for a quick walk to visit the Eiffel Tower at night. I can't even express to you how excited and happy I was to finally see the Eiffel Tower in person. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. It was all lit up and even more beautiful close up. Christina and I sat on a park bench for awhile, just taking in the view. It was amazing! I didn't think it could get any better... and then it began to sparkle. I was over the moon. I fell completely in love with Paris!
Wednesday:
In the morning, we had a quick breakfast and walked to the Louvre. We wanted to be one of the first people there to avoid the long lines. When we got up to the front to buy tickets, we read a sign stating that if we were under the 26 and a current resident of the EU, we wouldn't have to pay for a ticket to get in. We were shocked! When we got up to the entrance to check our tickets, we showed them our Italian student ID and our passport, and they let us into the museum for free! Thank you USAC!! The Louvre was amazing! It was huge, and had such a large collection of paintings, sculptures, and artifacts. It was unreal. We were there for more than 3 hours and probably only saw a quarter of it. It was crazy! We did get to see all the famous "must see" art including the Mona Lisa, which was cool to see in person. After exploring the Louvre for awhile, and finally finding our way out (it's like a maze in there), we picked up some crepes for lunch and headed to Notre Dame. We went inside and got to explore the cathedral and see the famous stained glass rose windows. It was especially cool since I have heard and learned about French history and all of these monuments for so long, and to finally see it all in person was unreal!
In the afternoon we returned to the Eiffel Tower with macaroons in hand for a quick afternoon treat (If you can't tell, we have been eating really healthy all week). After our quick pitstop, we headed up the hill to the Arc d'Triumph. Unfortunately we couldn't go under the arc since there was a ton of construction happening, but we got to see it in the middle of the city square. The craziest part about the Arc d'Triumph is that tons of cars are driving in a circle around the arc at all times. Yet there are no lanes and it's a giant free-for-all. It was crazy to watch. I thought for sure we would see an accident while we were there, but no. After finishing our crazy tour of Paris, Christina and I went to a cute restaurant near our airbnb. I forced Christina to try les escargot with me. She was a little hesitant at first, but they ended up being so good and super fun to try. They were about the consistency of shrimp, with butter and some sort of garlic pesto sauce. It was delicious! Highly recommend if you're adventurous. ;)
When we applied to study abroad, we had to apply for a student visa as well, since we would be staying in the Schengen Region for more than 90 days. Most countries in Europe are within the Schengen Region, however there are a few that aren't, and in the case that we travel there, we have to go through customs and have our passports checked. We had received a notification earlier in the day about our flight to Dublin regarding the need for a printed boarding pass since we were leaving the Schengen Region, and our visas would be checked. And if we printed our boarding passes at the airport, it would have cost us 50 extra euros for not "checking in" before our flight. So we had to print them somehow, but we didn't have access to a printer, and its not like you can walk to Staples or Office Depot in Europe. So after much debate about what to do and how to print our boarding passes, we looked up a Holiday Inn close to our airbnb, knowing our parents were rewards members and hoping that they could point us in the right direction. So Christina and I show up to this Holiday Inn around 10:45 at night after walking all day, and asked them if they knew where we could go to print our passes. The first thing the guy behind the desk asked was "Well, do you have enough money?" Christina and I looked at each other and assumed that the combined 50 euro plus our credit cards would be enough. I think the guy behind the desk saw the confused expression on our face and started to laugh. I think we were so tired and worried about not getting our passes printed that we didn't realize he was 100% kidding. Thankfully the guy helped us out, printed our boarding passes, made sure that our airline would accept the quality of the pass, and sent us on our way. As we walked away we were so happy that we decided we wanted to write them a nice review about how they helped two poor college girls in need. After this experience we fell in love with Holiday Inns and pointed out every one we found for the remainder of our trip.
Also, Note to self: Don't try to visit everything in Paris in one day. It's not possible. Hotels will help you print your boarding passes. And Holiday Inns are the best!
Thursday:
After such a long day on Wednesday, we decided to sleep in a little bit on Thursday, before checking out of our Airbnb and deciding to shop through Paris. We had walked over 18.5 miles and 40,000 steps on Wednesday, that our new goal for the day was to get under 10,000 steps.
We did quite a bit of shopping in Paris, but little buying. Who knew that Christina and I could shop so much and buy so little. Especially in Paris of all places! We stopped at the Paris Baguette bakery for sandwiches and coffees for lunch before walking to the Place de la Bastille, a monument left from the French Revolution and the famous Storming of the Bastille. As we were on our way to the bus that would eventually take us to the airport, we decided to pick up a snack at the grocery store. We got a baguette, cheese, salami, and a small bottle of champagne to go. We ended up sitting along the Seine River eating our snack and drinking champagne and watching the sunset. We did only have about 20 minutes before we needed to be on the bus, so we chugged the bottle of champagne pretty fast, but it was the perfect end to our time in Paris!
After taking the shuttle to the airport, going through security, and getting new stamps in our passport (Yippee!), we started walking up towards our gate. There was a large group of loud middle schoolers laying on the floor of another gate and we looked at each other and said "thank goodness we aren't on that flight". When we reached our gate, no one was there. There was one little old lady and Christina and I. We thought we had missed the boarding to our flight. After waiting a few minutes other people began showing up. 20 minutes after we were suppose to start boarding, the airline staff finally started to show up. And behind them came a large group of people, including all the middle schoolers that were at the other gate. Great!! For this flight, I was sitting in first class (not really. I mean it was the first row of the cheapest airline Europe has to offer.. so not first class by any means, but you get the idea). Throughout the flight I watched this little girl probably 5 or 6 years old walk up to the fight attendants asking if she could go into the cockpit. It was hilarious. She would walk up and down the aisle of the plane ever 10-15 minutes asking them another question about how airplanes fly in the dark, if she could bring her camera to take pictures of the front of the plane, etc. Each time you could see the fight attendants getting slightly annoyed. It was so funny!
After landing in Dublin, we went through customs and got yet another stamp (yay!), we took a bus to get to our airbnb. Christina and I both about had a heart attack when the bus turned a corner on the street and a car was coming towards us and we were on the wrong side of the street. It didn't don on us that they could possibly drive on the opposite side of the street.. or that the steering wheel of the car was on the opposite side of the car... it was crazy! After that, figuring out which way to look when crossing the street was always interesting. We would look both ways 5 or 6 times before sprinting across the street. We safely made it to our airbnb, and Christina and I stayed up until almost 3am just hanging out and talking about life. It was so great! I am so happy that I have made such great friends here.
Friday:
Friday morning we set out to explore Dublin. Christina and I shared breakfast at a local diner. It was our first "American" breakfast in 4 months. It was so good to have eggs and bacon again! One of the weirdest things for us, was the fact that everyone spoke English. It was so weird. For the last 4 months, we have constantly been trying to understand what people are trying to say to us, but for once, we didn't have to think too hard to communicate. It was really strange! In Dublin, we visited the Dublin Castle, Chester Beatty Library, Christ Church Cathedral, Temple Bar, Ha Penny Bridge, and Trinity College. We had famous Irish fish and chips (didn't know the Irish were known for their fish and chips) and "mushy peas" for lunch before going to the Guinness Storehouse. We got to walk through the storehouse and learned about how Guinness started and is made today. We also learned a bunch of random facts about Guinness and the Guinness family. Some fun facts include: the yeast that Mr. Guinness used in his first batch of beer is the same yeast that is used today. It continues to grow and they don't want to change the yeast for fear of ruining future batches of Guinness. Mr. Guinness also signed a 9000 year contract with the city of Dublin in order to continue the production of Guinness within the city limits. Also, Mr. and Mrs. Guinness had 21 children! Mrs. Guinness was pregnant for a total of 16 years of her life. Unfortunately many children didn't survive the early years of their life in that time, so they lost 11 of their 21 children to disease and other factors. But 21 children? That's crazy! Our final stop in the Guinness Storehouse was the "Gravity Bar" they have on the 7th floor of the storehouse. It is an all glass open bar with a 365 degree view of the city of Dublin. There, Christina and I had our first Guinness'. To be honest, I was surprised that I enjoyed drinking it since it was so dark and I'm not usually a dark beer kind of girl. But we had so much fun looking out over Dublin and drinking our Guinness'. We even stole our glasses... ;).
That night we decided to buy food at the grocery store and cook for dinner. After finishing our meal and cleaning up, we waited to Christina's sister and her roommate (who are studying abroad in Florence, Italy) to join us. The four of us shared the airbnb and had so much fun staying up and talking about our travels and the cool places we have visited.
Saturday:
On Saturday morning we had a quick breakfast at home before heading to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We got to explore the inside of the cathedral which was mostly dedicated to the Irish soldiers that lost their lives in WWI, WWII, and the Irish Revolution. It was pretty cool! Then we stopped for lunch at a local bar where we ate corned beef sandwiches and drank another Guinness.. you know, when in Ireland.. After lunch we stopped at the Dublin Cookie Shop to pick up some delicious homemade cookies before catching the DART train to the city of Bray.
Bray is a small coastal town about 15 km south of Dublin. After we got there, we went to the beach and walked along the water. We got to touch the Sea of Ireland, so we get to add that to our list ;). After awhile, we decided to take the cliff walk, which was about a 5km walk along the cliffs of the Irish Sea. It was beautiful. It was exactly what I pictured the cliffs of Ireland to look like.
To finish off our trip to Ireland, we made dinner at our airbnb. We had steak which wasn't as great as it could have been, but it was the first steak that any of us has had since leaving the US, so it was amazing!! After dinner, we hung out the four of us, drinking wine and having a grand time.
Sunday:
Christina and I got up super early to catch a 6am flight back to Italy. We were so tired that we both fell asleep on the plane home and don't really remember much about the flight. While in line for customs, we met a nice older couple from Seattle that had moved to Ireland a few years ago. They were going to visit Italy in hopes of moving there in the next few years. They were very sweet and wished us well in school and in our travels.
After a bus and a train ride, we made it back home to Reggio. We had the most amazing trip and we saw and experienced so many cool things that many people will never get the chance to see. It was great!
I'm sorry this was a really long post, and if you managed to make it to this point, good for you! Haha
The time here is flying by and I only have 5 weeks of school left (where did the time go?), but there are still many adventures to be had!
Ciao!
It has been one crazy week here in Europe! Last week was spring break for us, so you can only image all the crazy things we have done in the past week. Christina and I managed to visit 4 countries and walk 85 miles in the last seven days! It was nuts, but we did it and we lived to tell about it.
Warning, this is going to be really long.. so prepare yourself.
Sunday:
Our week of adventures started on Easter Sunday. Christina and I attended an Easter Mass service in one of the beautiful churches here in Reggio. It was really cool. We didn't know what was being said, since it was completely in Italian, but that's ok. They spoke very fast, and the only words we could pick out with our limited Italian was: "everyone", "Easter", and "Jesus". So that was cool! After mass, we stopped for a quick cappuccino to celebrate the Easter holiday before packing our bags and heading for the airport. That afternoon, we flew from Bologna to Edenhoven, Netherlands, where we got on a train to Amsterdam. One of the first things we noticed about the train stations in the Netherlands was how high-tech they were compared to the Italian stations. Each of our train tickets were little cards that had a chip in them that you scan to open the doors to the train platform. It was really cool. The Dutch are a hundred years ahead of the Italians. That's for sure! After getting on the train and leaving the platform, we heard an announcement in Dutch and watched everyone on the train roll their eyes and get a little annoyed. (Dutch is another weird language that we have no idea how to understand, and we are pretty sure uses made up words). Luckily there was a guy sitting close to us that was translating the message in English to his girlfriend. Apparently the announcement had something to do with the massive train strike that was going on in Paris, and had effected some of the trains in the Netherlands, and reported that all trains were stopped. Perfect! After an hour more than the train should have been, we made it to Amsterdam!
After checking into our hotel for the night, Christina and I went out for burgers. We were so hungry that we didn't mind that they used hoggie rolls for buns. And when they gave us extra fries because we were cute American girls, we didn't complain. After dinner, I had contacted my friend Adam from Boise State who is studying abroad in Spain, who happened to be in Amsterdam for the night with his brother. We ended up meeting up and grabbing a beer the 4 of us to catch up and get some ideas for our coming adventures.
Monday:
The next morning we got to experience the deliciousness of Dutch pancakes! Dutch pancakes are similar to crepes, however they are left flat, are bigger than my head, and of course covered in yummy toppings. I ordered a yogurt, strawberry, and honey pancake; Christina on the other hand ordered an "apples and creme" pancake and expected apples and whipped cream. Oh no, it was a pancake with a large piece of apple pie and a bowl of ice-cream. It was so good!
We ended up moving our belongings to a different hotel for our second night in Amsterdam. We booked a hotel boat that was super cool and in one of the canals in the city center. It was a teeny, tiny room, and there was about 18 inches between the top bunk and the bottom bunk, but it was a fun place to stay for a night. After we settled in on the house boat, we went out exploring. We visited the famous tulip festival, where the city of Amsterdam plants one tulip for each of the Dutch citizens, the flower market, saw the Anne Frank house, the Van Gogh museum, and the secret church in the attic. Apparently there was a period of time where catholicism was illegal in the Netherlands, so a small group of people built a secret church in the attic of one of the office buildings. From the outside you would have no idea that it was even there. We intended to go inside, but unfortunately the museum closed just before we got there. In the afternoon, we got to visit the Amsterdam Diamond museum. Apparently Amsterdam is known for having the largest diamond industry in the world. In the museum we got to see how they cut, shape, and polish diamonds that they receive from all around the world. It was really interesting.
We also got the chance to go to Amsterdam's famous Ice Bar. It was so cool inside. When you first walk in, there is a normal bar that served Heineken and a bunch of mixed drinks that are famous in Amsterdam such as the "Amsterdamned" and the "Arctic Ice Bar". So of course we had to try them! Then when it was our turn, we got to go into the "Ice Bar". It was like a Disneyland ride! They played a short video clip explaining how they were trying to find the best cold beer in the arctic and needed our help. They gave us extra coats and some gloves before we walked into the -9 degree Celsius (about 15 degrees Fahrenheit) bar. Each of our glasses were made completely out of ice and melted a little as we drank our beers. It was so cool! (Literally and figuratively;)) To end the night, we walked through the famous red light district before heading back to our houseboat.
Tuesday:
We left Amsterdam early Tuesday morning and took a bus to Brussels, Belgium. The first thing we did, was stop for a Belgian waffle. Our waffles were huge and covered in fruit, chocolate, whipped cream, and marshmallows. It was more like a ton of sugar with a side of waffle, but it was so good! We then explored the city, saw the main palace, the famous cathedral where the Royal Family of Belgium got married. When we went inside, they were holding a funeral. We don't know who the funeral was for, but we guessed it must be someone famous or royal in order to have their funeral held at such a prestigious location. While wandering the streets we saw the famous Belgium Mamquine Pis statue. We aren't entirely sure why this statue of a little boy peeing into a public fountain is famous or important, but apparently it is. For as snack, we had another really nutritious meal, Belgian beer and fries. They weren't anything impressive or exceptional. Just your standard steak fry covered in ketchup, but the beer was pretty good. Also, a bird pooped on me while in Brussels.. so that was great. But I've heard its good luck, so we are going to go with that. Another side note about Belgium.. Brussels is the capital of Europe. There is a parliament building for each EU country. It was really cool to see each of the parliament buildings and explore the area a bit.
That evening we caught another bus to Paris. In order to reach our airbnb, we had to take the metro. It was the sketchiest metro I think I have ever seen. The windows of each of the cars was wide open. People were opening the doors of the cars before the train stopped moving. And the train stopped for about 2.5 seconds before taking off again. It was insane. We successfully made it to our stop, and got off the metro without killing ourselves, and exited the metro to see the top half of the Eiffel Tower. It was gorgeous! We made our way to the airbnb, dropped our stuff, and decided to go for a quick walk to visit the Eiffel Tower at night. I can't even express to you how excited and happy I was to finally see the Eiffel Tower in person. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. It was all lit up and even more beautiful close up. Christina and I sat on a park bench for awhile, just taking in the view. It was amazing! I didn't think it could get any better... and then it began to sparkle. I was over the moon. I fell completely in love with Paris!
Wednesday:
In the morning, we had a quick breakfast and walked to the Louvre. We wanted to be one of the first people there to avoid the long lines. When we got up to the front to buy tickets, we read a sign stating that if we were under the 26 and a current resident of the EU, we wouldn't have to pay for a ticket to get in. We were shocked! When we got up to the entrance to check our tickets, we showed them our Italian student ID and our passport, and they let us into the museum for free! Thank you USAC!! The Louvre was amazing! It was huge, and had such a large collection of paintings, sculptures, and artifacts. It was unreal. We were there for more than 3 hours and probably only saw a quarter of it. It was crazy! We did get to see all the famous "must see" art including the Mona Lisa, which was cool to see in person. After exploring the Louvre for awhile, and finally finding our way out (it's like a maze in there), we picked up some crepes for lunch and headed to Notre Dame. We went inside and got to explore the cathedral and see the famous stained glass rose windows. It was especially cool since I have heard and learned about French history and all of these monuments for so long, and to finally see it all in person was unreal!
In the afternoon we returned to the Eiffel Tower with macaroons in hand for a quick afternoon treat (If you can't tell, we have been eating really healthy all week). After our quick pitstop, we headed up the hill to the Arc d'Triumph. Unfortunately we couldn't go under the arc since there was a ton of construction happening, but we got to see it in the middle of the city square. The craziest part about the Arc d'Triumph is that tons of cars are driving in a circle around the arc at all times. Yet there are no lanes and it's a giant free-for-all. It was crazy to watch. I thought for sure we would see an accident while we were there, but no. After finishing our crazy tour of Paris, Christina and I went to a cute restaurant near our airbnb. I forced Christina to try les escargot with me. She was a little hesitant at first, but they ended up being so good and super fun to try. They were about the consistency of shrimp, with butter and some sort of garlic pesto sauce. It was delicious! Highly recommend if you're adventurous. ;)
When we applied to study abroad, we had to apply for a student visa as well, since we would be staying in the Schengen Region for more than 90 days. Most countries in Europe are within the Schengen Region, however there are a few that aren't, and in the case that we travel there, we have to go through customs and have our passports checked. We had received a notification earlier in the day about our flight to Dublin regarding the need for a printed boarding pass since we were leaving the Schengen Region, and our visas would be checked. And if we printed our boarding passes at the airport, it would have cost us 50 extra euros for not "checking in" before our flight. So we had to print them somehow, but we didn't have access to a printer, and its not like you can walk to Staples or Office Depot in Europe. So after much debate about what to do and how to print our boarding passes, we looked up a Holiday Inn close to our airbnb, knowing our parents were rewards members and hoping that they could point us in the right direction. So Christina and I show up to this Holiday Inn around 10:45 at night after walking all day, and asked them if they knew where we could go to print our passes. The first thing the guy behind the desk asked was "Well, do you have enough money?" Christina and I looked at each other and assumed that the combined 50 euro plus our credit cards would be enough. I think the guy behind the desk saw the confused expression on our face and started to laugh. I think we were so tired and worried about not getting our passes printed that we didn't realize he was 100% kidding. Thankfully the guy helped us out, printed our boarding passes, made sure that our airline would accept the quality of the pass, and sent us on our way. As we walked away we were so happy that we decided we wanted to write them a nice review about how they helped two poor college girls in need. After this experience we fell in love with Holiday Inns and pointed out every one we found for the remainder of our trip.
Also, Note to self: Don't try to visit everything in Paris in one day. It's not possible. Hotels will help you print your boarding passes. And Holiday Inns are the best!
Thursday:
After such a long day on Wednesday, we decided to sleep in a little bit on Thursday, before checking out of our Airbnb and deciding to shop through Paris. We had walked over 18.5 miles and 40,000 steps on Wednesday, that our new goal for the day was to get under 10,000 steps.
We did quite a bit of shopping in Paris, but little buying. Who knew that Christina and I could shop so much and buy so little. Especially in Paris of all places! We stopped at the Paris Baguette bakery for sandwiches and coffees for lunch before walking to the Place de la Bastille, a monument left from the French Revolution and the famous Storming of the Bastille. As we were on our way to the bus that would eventually take us to the airport, we decided to pick up a snack at the grocery store. We got a baguette, cheese, salami, and a small bottle of champagne to go. We ended up sitting along the Seine River eating our snack and drinking champagne and watching the sunset. We did only have about 20 minutes before we needed to be on the bus, so we chugged the bottle of champagne pretty fast, but it was the perfect end to our time in Paris!
After taking the shuttle to the airport, going through security, and getting new stamps in our passport (Yippee!), we started walking up towards our gate. There was a large group of loud middle schoolers laying on the floor of another gate and we looked at each other and said "thank goodness we aren't on that flight". When we reached our gate, no one was there. There was one little old lady and Christina and I. We thought we had missed the boarding to our flight. After waiting a few minutes other people began showing up. 20 minutes after we were suppose to start boarding, the airline staff finally started to show up. And behind them came a large group of people, including all the middle schoolers that were at the other gate. Great!! For this flight, I was sitting in first class (not really. I mean it was the first row of the cheapest airline Europe has to offer.. so not first class by any means, but you get the idea). Throughout the flight I watched this little girl probably 5 or 6 years old walk up to the fight attendants asking if she could go into the cockpit. It was hilarious. She would walk up and down the aisle of the plane ever 10-15 minutes asking them another question about how airplanes fly in the dark, if she could bring her camera to take pictures of the front of the plane, etc. Each time you could see the fight attendants getting slightly annoyed. It was so funny!
After landing in Dublin, we went through customs and got yet another stamp (yay!), we took a bus to get to our airbnb. Christina and I both about had a heart attack when the bus turned a corner on the street and a car was coming towards us and we were on the wrong side of the street. It didn't don on us that they could possibly drive on the opposite side of the street.. or that the steering wheel of the car was on the opposite side of the car... it was crazy! After that, figuring out which way to look when crossing the street was always interesting. We would look both ways 5 or 6 times before sprinting across the street. We safely made it to our airbnb, and Christina and I stayed up until almost 3am just hanging out and talking about life. It was so great! I am so happy that I have made such great friends here.
Friday:
Friday morning we set out to explore Dublin. Christina and I shared breakfast at a local diner. It was our first "American" breakfast in 4 months. It was so good to have eggs and bacon again! One of the weirdest things for us, was the fact that everyone spoke English. It was so weird. For the last 4 months, we have constantly been trying to understand what people are trying to say to us, but for once, we didn't have to think too hard to communicate. It was really strange! In Dublin, we visited the Dublin Castle, Chester Beatty Library, Christ Church Cathedral, Temple Bar, Ha Penny Bridge, and Trinity College. We had famous Irish fish and chips (didn't know the Irish were known for their fish and chips) and "mushy peas" for lunch before going to the Guinness Storehouse. We got to walk through the storehouse and learned about how Guinness started and is made today. We also learned a bunch of random facts about Guinness and the Guinness family. Some fun facts include: the yeast that Mr. Guinness used in his first batch of beer is the same yeast that is used today. It continues to grow and they don't want to change the yeast for fear of ruining future batches of Guinness. Mr. Guinness also signed a 9000 year contract with the city of Dublin in order to continue the production of Guinness within the city limits. Also, Mr. and Mrs. Guinness had 21 children! Mrs. Guinness was pregnant for a total of 16 years of her life. Unfortunately many children didn't survive the early years of their life in that time, so they lost 11 of their 21 children to disease and other factors. But 21 children? That's crazy! Our final stop in the Guinness Storehouse was the "Gravity Bar" they have on the 7th floor of the storehouse. It is an all glass open bar with a 365 degree view of the city of Dublin. There, Christina and I had our first Guinness'. To be honest, I was surprised that I enjoyed drinking it since it was so dark and I'm not usually a dark beer kind of girl. But we had so much fun looking out over Dublin and drinking our Guinness'. We even stole our glasses... ;).
That night we decided to buy food at the grocery store and cook for dinner. After finishing our meal and cleaning up, we waited to Christina's sister and her roommate (who are studying abroad in Florence, Italy) to join us. The four of us shared the airbnb and had so much fun staying up and talking about our travels and the cool places we have visited.
Saturday:
On Saturday morning we had a quick breakfast at home before heading to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We got to explore the inside of the cathedral which was mostly dedicated to the Irish soldiers that lost their lives in WWI, WWII, and the Irish Revolution. It was pretty cool! Then we stopped for lunch at a local bar where we ate corned beef sandwiches and drank another Guinness.. you know, when in Ireland.. After lunch we stopped at the Dublin Cookie Shop to pick up some delicious homemade cookies before catching the DART train to the city of Bray.
Bray is a small coastal town about 15 km south of Dublin. After we got there, we went to the beach and walked along the water. We got to touch the Sea of Ireland, so we get to add that to our list ;). After awhile, we decided to take the cliff walk, which was about a 5km walk along the cliffs of the Irish Sea. It was beautiful. It was exactly what I pictured the cliffs of Ireland to look like.
To finish off our trip to Ireland, we made dinner at our airbnb. We had steak which wasn't as great as it could have been, but it was the first steak that any of us has had since leaving the US, so it was amazing!! After dinner, we hung out the four of us, drinking wine and having a grand time.
Sunday:
Christina and I got up super early to catch a 6am flight back to Italy. We were so tired that we both fell asleep on the plane home and don't really remember much about the flight. While in line for customs, we met a nice older couple from Seattle that had moved to Ireland a few years ago. They were going to visit Italy in hopes of moving there in the next few years. They were very sweet and wished us well in school and in our travels.
After a bus and a train ride, we made it back home to Reggio. We had the most amazing trip and we saw and experienced so many cool things that many people will never get the chance to see. It was great!
I'm sorry this was a really long post, and if you managed to make it to this point, good for you! Haha
The time here is flying by and I only have 5 weeks of school left (where did the time go?), but there are still many adventures to be had!
Ciao!
Wow, wow, wow!!! What an amazing spring break. I love that you are getting out and about and touring around as much as you are. This is what study abroad is all about. It is even cooler that you are taking the time to share your stories and adventures. You are a great storyteller and I have enjoyed reading your updates. Keep having fun Ashley Shell! Lots more great adventures ahead! xoxo
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