merry christmas everyone!!!! i'm having an amazing time with eileen and mom and hope everyone had a very happy day :)
i've compiled a little xmas tribute! miss and love you all so much! hope the michigan festivities were as boisterous as usual :)
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
17 december 2010 - venezia
hello faithfuls :)
i hope that christmas preparations are going well! we've finally come to the last italy post!
venice was something out of a fairytale and pretty much a monument in itself. we arrived late tuesday evening by train and stepped out of the station to find a boat stop for the boatbus! we took the boat down the grand canal to our stop right near the rialto bridge. since it was already dark, we headed straight to our hostel which we again lucked out on! it had more of a hotel feel which was a bonus. we headed out for dinner and gelato before getting to sleep early.
on wednesday morning we woke up to walk around and see venice. it was so much fun to wander around the enclosed island city without worrying about getting too lost. the adorable bridges and quiet little canals, all without a single car were so beautiful. we went in countless shops with pretty glass and intricate (that's right, levs) masks. i wanted to buy/wear one all around the city but restrained myself.
unfortunately, our bad luck continued since dec. 8 was the feast of the assumption, a major holiday in italy, so st. mark's basilica and tower were closed. we did get to see the method of dealing with "high water" in venice which was fun!
at noon, my good friend, mattea, arrived by boat! she is studying in bologna for the year and was kind enough to come visit us for the day. i have missed her tremendously and we spent the evening catching up. the rain forced us indoors but we had fun nonetheless.
we went to an early dinner and sat in the outdoor section of a restaurant on the grand canal that had been flooded that morning. we again sacrificed our dignity to buy from the "tourist" menu. hard to beat a 3 course meal for 15euro!
we said goodbye to mattea, had more gelato and sleep and woke up to travel to lugano switzerland, our last journey of the trip!
lugano is right on the border between italy and switz and was absolutely beautiful. one of emily's friends goes there for school and let us stay in her apartment. we took an afternoon trip to como, italy as well where george clooney apparently has a home. we didn't see him, sadly.
saturday consisted of a series of train rides starting at the ungodly hour of 4am. we finally arrived back in galway, exhausted on saturday afternoon. it was an amazing trip and all week, emily and i have been reminiscing about our days of carefree pasta eating :)
miss you all! (countdown 2 days until eileen and mom are here!!!)
i hope that christmas preparations are going well! we've finally come to the last italy post!
on wednesday morning we woke up to walk around and see venice. it was so much fun to wander around the enclosed island city without worrying about getting too lost. the adorable bridges and quiet little canals, all without a single car were so beautiful. we went in countless shops with pretty glass and intricate (that's right, levs) masks. i wanted to buy/wear one all around the city but restrained myself.
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| so. cute. |
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| fun, right? |
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| isn't she adorable? |
we went to an early dinner and sat in the outdoor section of a restaurant on the grand canal that had been flooded that morning. we again sacrificed our dignity to buy from the "tourist" menu. hard to beat a 3 course meal for 15euro!
we said goodbye to mattea, had more gelato and sleep and woke up to travel to lugano switzerland, our last journey of the trip!
lugano is right on the border between italy and switz and was absolutely beautiful. one of emily's friends goes there for school and let us stay in her apartment. we took an afternoon trip to como, italy as well where george clooney apparently has a home. we didn't see him, sadly.
saturday consisted of a series of train rides starting at the ungodly hour of 4am. we finally arrived back in galway, exhausted on saturday afternoon. it was an amazing trip and all week, emily and i have been reminiscing about our days of carefree pasta eating :)
miss you all! (countdown 2 days until eileen and mom are here!!!)
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
15 december 2010 - firenze
happy wednesday!
in reference to opening subject of my last post... my criminal minds obsession has manifested in last night's nightmare in which i was kidnapped and forced into a foster home. has it stopped me from watching 5 episodes today? not even a little bit. i did do laundry though!
we boarded our train to florence and arrived ready to see the florence crew. unfortunately, they were at some sort of group soccer game so we decided to go see david! we arrived to the academia gallery only to be shocked at the sight of confused tourists wandering up to a large sign reading "today the gallery will be closed due to a strike." yes. the one day that we were in florence, the ticket booths were on strike. not to mention the fact that everything closes on monday... get over yourself, florence, seriously.
disappointment ensued but thankfully lauren, jenna, spencer and adair arrived to lighten the mood! i'm going to go ahead and share the christmas card that i just recieved from this bunch. i think it aptly describes them:
we walked over to the santa croce market, where there was a huge christmas market going on. on top of the adorable market, all of the streets were adorned with bright christmas lights! we went to an adorable little restaurant called zaza's for dinner and catching up and then headed back to our mansion of a hostel to chill and talk. i'm not kidding about this hostel. we walk in the room to a computer, huge flatscreen tv and huge bathroom, complete with towel warmer! and it was only 30euro per night! incredible. we woke up on monday to walk up to piazza michaelangelo, which overlooks all of florence. the florence crew was in class until one so we had to entertain ourselves until they got out. things we weren't expecting? the super intense walk up an extremely steep staircase to get to the piazza. i might be exaggerating, but i think i burned off at least half a bowl of pasta during that walk. we walked back down and crossed the ponte vecchio, which is a bridge lined with shops. it was adorable.
after reuniting with the group, we headed to one of their favorite pizza places, dantes. lunch was obviously followed by gelato, and we decided to walk over to see the duomo. this building is absolutely HUGE and is in the center of the city, so that i legitimately could not get a full shot of the thing! intricate details cover every inch of it and the inside of the dome is just as impressive.
we climbed this monster the next day and it was terrifying! the lack of an adequate barrier was insane... mom would not have approved! the climb up to the top was potentially even more terrifying. im not normally claustrophobic, but the tight winding spiral staircase wasn't doing much for me! i was glad to be free again afterward.
after the duomo, we headed back to the hostel to lay around until dinner. we also decided that lauren and adair would be sleeping over in our mansion. we had dinner at an all you can eat buffet and i ate way too much papa al pomodoro, which is like a bread soup... so delicious. thank you, lauren, for the introduction to this wonderful food. after dinner we had some mulled wine at the xmas market and then stayed up late talking again.
in case you couldn't tell, the main purpose of our florence trip was catching up with friends :) missed them so much! stay tuned for venice!
oh yeah, we never saw david. and didnt get to go the uffizi gallery either. i really don't understand the whole european striking mindset. other things that wouldn't fly in the u.s... but here is a pic of the fake david that we did see!
love you all!
in reference to opening subject of my last post... my criminal minds obsession has manifested in last night's nightmare in which i was kidnapped and forced into a foster home. has it stopped me from watching 5 episodes today? not even a little bit. i did do laundry though!
we boarded our train to florence and arrived ready to see the florence crew. unfortunately, they were at some sort of group soccer game so we decided to go see david! we arrived to the academia gallery only to be shocked at the sight of confused tourists wandering up to a large sign reading "today the gallery will be closed due to a strike." yes. the one day that we were in florence, the ticket booths were on strike. not to mention the fact that everything closes on monday... get over yourself, florence, seriously.
disappointment ensued but thankfully lauren, jenna, spencer and adair arrived to lighten the mood! i'm going to go ahead and share the christmas card that i just recieved from this bunch. i think it aptly describes them:
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| could they be cuter? |
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| view from the top |
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| the florentines' school. absurd. |
we climbed this monster the next day and it was terrifying! the lack of an adequate barrier was insane... mom would not have approved! the climb up to the top was potentially even more terrifying. im not normally claustrophobic, but the tight winding spiral staircase wasn't doing much for me! i was glad to be free again afterward.
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| actual height of only barrier between me... and death. |
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| didn't stop me from taking a solo tourist shot! |
in case you couldn't tell, the main purpose of our florence trip was catching up with friends :) missed them so much! stay tuned for venice!
oh yeah, we never saw david. and didnt get to go the uffizi gallery either. i really don't understand the whole european striking mindset. other things that wouldn't fly in the u.s... but here is a pic of the fake david that we did see!
love you all!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
14 december 2010 - roma
hello all! i am officially DONE with my first semester of junior year. i don't want to talk about the fact that i am officially closer to being done with college than i am with starting it...
i've been spending my time watching a thrilling crime drama called criminal minds. roommate kristen used to watch this show every wednesday and i never gave it the chance it deserved. i am now wholly invested in the lives and careers of quantico, virginia's behavioral analysis unit. side effects include: constantly being on the alert for possible random serial killers. as if i wasn't an anxious person before... thankfully i have just 4 short seasons left!
but on to roma :) we arrived a day later as a result of the dublin airport fiasco and went straight to a subpar dinner and back to our hostel, were we fell asleep at the casual hour of 8 pm. i was awoken in the middle of the night by people being rowdy in the halls. emily and i were acting all annoyed until i checked the clock and it was merely 10 pm... when normal college students might be leaving to go clubbing or something? we're really cool. woke up bright and early on friday to take our guided tour to capri! unfortunately this tour was canceled and we ended up going to naples and pompeii instead. the trip should have been called just "pompeii" since we only did a quick driveby of naples... disappointing since i can't seem to keep my eyes open for more than 5 minutes in a bus. even when the guy was narrating, i was headbobbing all over the place.
but what i did see, pompeii, was incredible... for those who don't know, this roman city was completely buried in ash in 79AD. walking through the streets of this once-flourishing town was fascinating but disturbing. it was surreal to look at the plaster casts of people who had been suffocated by ash and casts of doors that were still ajar, just as they were left in a hurry 2 centuries ago. on a lighter note, we learned that pompeiian prostitutes were called "lupa" aka "she-wolves" which is i guess how shakira was inspired? and when pompeiians had dinner parties it involved a 16 hour feast, naps included. just off the main dining area was a room reserved for vomiting so that one could continue eating...
the best part of pompeii was our guide. we don't know his name but he was an adorable old man who left us with the parting comment: "we are approaching sunset, stay as you are." he was probably just commenting on the time of day, but i think he was metaphorically commenting on how fast life flies by. english major much?
friday night we found an adorable little restaurant near the trevi fountain. we took it as a good sign that there were natives in there! we had the best gnocchi in the world and shared wine while planning out the rest of the trip. after dinner? gelato time right next to the trevi fountain. coffee and hazelnut (ahem, spence) was on the menu and we were surprised with free entertainment when a drunk man climbed to the top of the trevi fountain! the gelato shop owner assured us that this was not a regular occurrence and we watched in awe as police roped off the area and tried to figure out how to get the guy down! funniest part was when they pulled out all the stops and brought in a fire truck with ladder to try and reach the guy... ladder was too short and they had to retract it in shame.
on saturday, our first real day in rome, we bought a hop on hop off bus pass (if i've learned one thing this year its to sacrifice my dignity and throw myself wholeheartedly into being a tourist) to take us to the vatican. st. peter's basilica was the most beautiful and ornate church i have ever seen. it was brighter and more marble-y than notre dame and therefore it was easier to see how high the ceilings were and how every inch of it is intricately carved. after walking around with our mouths agape for about 30 minutes, we made our way to the sistine chapel. words cannot even describe how incredible the vatican museum is, let alone the chapel itself! i'm not a huge art person (see amsterdam post) but i could have stayed in there for hours. i think that i was most amazed by the vibrancy of the colors and the intricate details in every scene.
after a lunch of perfect pizza, we walked to piazza navona and campo de fiori to peruse some christmas markets. the market at piazza navona had a strange carnival atmosphere. there were also a lot of witch dolls around? no idea. next was the pantheon which was sadly under construction. inside, however, was a life- size nativity set that was gorgeous. we left the pantheon and walked along the tiber river towards the colosseum and roman forum. the colosseum was yet again, incredible to behold (pretty redundant here, aren't i?). i've decided that i'm pretty glad that i won't ever have to be a gladiator, but it must have been insane to stand in the middle of that ring.
exhausted, we returned to our hostel where we fell asleep watching cadet kelly in italian. thankfully i knew the plot so well that i could understand what was happening. i truly miss hilary duff's glory days. sunday morning we woke up to walk the spanish steps and proceeded to wander all over the place until our train to florence was set to leave. note: walking the spanish steps does not indeed require 3 hours.
i can honestly say that rome is now at the top of my favorite cities list. the food and abundance of monuments is really all i could ever ask for :) next up? florence!!!
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| reasons i love criminal minds... |
but on to roma :) we arrived a day later as a result of the dublin airport fiasco and went straight to a subpar dinner and back to our hostel, were we fell asleep at the casual hour of 8 pm. i was awoken in the middle of the night by people being rowdy in the halls. emily and i were acting all annoyed until i checked the clock and it was merely 10 pm... when normal college students might be leaving to go clubbing or something? we're really cool. woke up bright and early on friday to take our guided tour to capri! unfortunately this tour was canceled and we ended up going to naples and pompeii instead. the trip should have been called just "pompeii" since we only did a quick driveby of naples... disappointing since i can't seem to keep my eyes open for more than 5 minutes in a bus. even when the guy was narrating, i was headbobbing all over the place.
but what i did see, pompeii, was incredible... for those who don't know, this roman city was completely buried in ash in 79AD. walking through the streets of this once-flourishing town was fascinating but disturbing. it was surreal to look at the plaster casts of people who had been suffocated by ash and casts of doors that were still ajar, just as they were left in a hurry 2 centuries ago. on a lighter note, we learned that pompeiian prostitutes were called "lupa" aka "she-wolves" which is i guess how shakira was inspired? and when pompeiians had dinner parties it involved a 16 hour feast, naps included. just off the main dining area was a room reserved for vomiting so that one could continue eating...
the best part of pompeii was our guide. we don't know his name but he was an adorable old man who left us with the parting comment: "we are approaching sunset, stay as you are." he was probably just commenting on the time of day, but i think he was metaphorically commenting on how fast life flies by. english major much?
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| our guy is in the middle :) |
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| just like lizzie :) |
on saturday, our first real day in rome, we bought a hop on hop off bus pass (if i've learned one thing this year its to sacrifice my dignity and throw myself wholeheartedly into being a tourist) to take us to the vatican. st. peter's basilica was the most beautiful and ornate church i have ever seen. it was brighter and more marble-y than notre dame and therefore it was easier to see how high the ceilings were and how every inch of it is intricately carved. after walking around with our mouths agape for about 30 minutes, we made our way to the sistine chapel. words cannot even describe how incredible the vatican museum is, let alone the chapel itself! i'm not a huge art person (see amsterdam post) but i could have stayed in there for hours. i think that i was most amazed by the vibrancy of the colors and the intricate details in every scene.
after a lunch of perfect pizza, we walked to piazza navona and campo de fiori to peruse some christmas markets. the market at piazza navona had a strange carnival atmosphere. there were also a lot of witch dolls around? no idea. next was the pantheon which was sadly under construction. inside, however, was a life- size nativity set that was gorgeous. we left the pantheon and walked along the tiber river towards the colosseum and roman forum. the colosseum was yet again, incredible to behold (pretty redundant here, aren't i?). i've decided that i'm pretty glad that i won't ever have to be a gladiator, but it must have been insane to stand in the middle of that ring.
i can honestly say that rome is now at the top of my favorite cities list. the food and abundance of monuments is really all i could ever ask for :) next up? florence!!!
Sunday, December 12, 2010
12 december 2010 - so much love
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| first sip of alcohol ever ;) |
i have been completely overwhelmed with all of the lovely cards, packages and fbook messages. i'm talking choked up, teary-eyed overwhelmed here. thank you for reminding me how lucky i am to have all of you! i miss you all every single day and love you all so so much.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
11 december 2010 - in love with italy
hello faithful readers!
hope you didn't miss me too much in my absence ;) i can officially say that i am in LOVE with italy, but that will all be explained later. this trip is much too long to fit in one post soooo i will be updating in multiple posts throughout the next couple of days....
first up, i will explain our first destination: the dublin airport. emily and i woke on wednesday the first to a snowy forecast but remained optimistic since our bus was on time... we arrived at the airport, checked in, went through security and chilled until our flight was casually canceled. CANCELED. we had no idea what to do and i'll admit that i called my dad hoping he would somehow miraculously fix it. instead, we stood in line for 5 (yes, 5) hours only to be told that the next flight to rome would not occur until saturday. this was unacceptable and we instead decided to take a 6 am flight to milan and train it down to rome.
at this point, we began the long wait... my first time sleeping in an airport. woooo. the night went as follows:
1. we found a table, settled in, and visited the 24 hour mcdonalds. i got a burger that did not taste as deliciously filled with preservative as those in the u.s. mcdonalds was also passing out coloring pages. these pages featured a ronald mcdonald-esque clown who was not actually ronald, but pretty close. the coloring led to comments throughout the night from an adorable old spanish man who couldn't speak english but did manage to say "beautiful" over and over.
2. at first, we were cheered by the christmas music that dublin airport provided. 5 hours later... this music became pure torture and i fear that i might never be able to listen to it again. not only did they insist on playing it, but it was VERY loud and made sleep pretty much impossible.
3. we were joined in our wing by some very interesting characters including 2 guys who wandered up to the table next to us where someone had left food behind. they asked the current table sitters if the food was theirs and if they could eat it. they then proceeded to EAT the cold fries and chicken that were left on this plate. we watched in horror as they continued through the cafeteria picking at other peoples' leftovers.
4. at around 2:30 am, a dublin airport employee decided it was time to wax the floors. did this machine emit an ear-shattering beeping noise? obviously.
5. we finally went down to check in for our flight... bitter, tired and so ready for pasta.
our flight took off an hour late and we were lucky to get out since there was a blizzard happening. we were so so happy to get to italy!!!
more to come tomorrow probably. love you all!
hope you didn't miss me too much in my absence ;) i can officially say that i am in LOVE with italy, but that will all be explained later. this trip is much too long to fit in one post soooo i will be updating in multiple posts throughout the next couple of days....
first up, i will explain our first destination: the dublin airport. emily and i woke on wednesday the first to a snowy forecast but remained optimistic since our bus was on time... we arrived at the airport, checked in, went through security and chilled until our flight was casually canceled. CANCELED. we had no idea what to do and i'll admit that i called my dad hoping he would somehow miraculously fix it. instead, we stood in line for 5 (yes, 5) hours only to be told that the next flight to rome would not occur until saturday. this was unacceptable and we instead decided to take a 6 am flight to milan and train it down to rome.
at this point, we began the long wait... my first time sleeping in an airport. woooo. the night went as follows:
1. we found a table, settled in, and visited the 24 hour mcdonalds. i got a burger that did not taste as deliciously filled with preservative as those in the u.s. mcdonalds was also passing out coloring pages. these pages featured a ronald mcdonald-esque clown who was not actually ronald, but pretty close. the coloring led to comments throughout the night from an adorable old spanish man who couldn't speak english but did manage to say "beautiful" over and over.
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| pure desperation |
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| our spanish friend |
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| play one more christmas song dublin airport, i dare you. |
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| hour 7 |
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| the floors looked sooo much cleaner after. not. |
our flight took off an hour late and we were lucky to get out since there was a blizzard happening. we were so so happy to get to italy!!!
more to come tomorrow probably. love you all!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
30 november 2010
introducing...
my new stuffed animal / hot water bottle, which has been keeping me toasty all afternoon! since ireland has been taken over by snow, ice and freezing temperatures, i spend most of my time curled up at my desk, heater on full blast. this guy has allowed me the flexibility of going into the frigid family room or even over to my bed (which is currently not visible under the amount of clothing i have piled on top of it)! he is possibly the most practical purchase i have made this semester. it took a lot of self-control to leave the apartment without him to pick up laundry.
in other news, i turned in 6 papers today! just one more to go and i don't have to worry about it until after italy! which is TOMORROW. i can't believe it's already here. i have a long night of packing ahead!
other random note: i have a way of checking where my blog has been accessed from throughout the world. good job, united states, you're in the lead. interestingly, someone in costa rica and someone in sweden have also been keeping up to date on my irish endeavor...
italy itinerary is as follows:
dec 1 - 4: rome (dec 3: day trip to capri) - most excited for roman forum, vatican, possible pope scouting!
dec 4-7: florence to visit levs, jlars, spence and adair - most excited to see what this ridiculous bunch does on a daily basis
dec 7-9: venice (ms. mattea from bologna will be joining) - most excited to hug mattea
dec 9 - 11: lugano, switzerland - just excited
then i arrive home in time for the big 21 and a week of waiting for mom and eileen :) i most likely will not be able to post until the 11th so don't hold your breath!
love you all!
in other news, i turned in 6 papers today! just one more to go and i don't have to worry about it until after italy! which is TOMORROW. i can't believe it's already here. i have a long night of packing ahead!
other random note: i have a way of checking where my blog has been accessed from throughout the world. good job, united states, you're in the lead. interestingly, someone in costa rica and someone in sweden have also been keeping up to date on my irish endeavor...
italy itinerary is as follows:
dec 1 - 4: rome (dec 3: day trip to capri) - most excited for roman forum, vatican, possible pope scouting!
dec 4-7: florence to visit levs, jlars, spence and adair - most excited to see what this ridiculous bunch does on a daily basis
dec 7-9: venice (ms. mattea from bologna will be joining) - most excited to hug mattea
dec 9 - 11: lugano, switzerland - just excited
then i arrive home in time for the big 21 and a week of waiting for mom and eileen :) i most likely will not be able to post until the 11th so don't hold your breath!
love you all!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
28 november 2010 - amsterdam!
happy belated thanksgiving everyone! i hope that you all had a lovely day! i'm back at my desk after a busy weekend in amsterdam! the city was absolutely beautiful and apart from the absolutely freezing temperatures, we had a lovely 2 day vacation away from rain and paper writing!
FRIDAY
mary and i started our trip bright and early on friday morning when we woke up at 4 to make our 6 am flight! we arrived in amsterdam exhausted but ready for a day of sightseeing. we were immediately met with our first obstacle: the train from the airport was on "fire" so we were forced to pick between a bus or a taxi. both lines were too long for comfort but we ended up picking a taxi and were dropped off at our hostel, the flying pig.
we immediately set out to the anne frank house where we had a 12 pm appointment to tour the museum. it was so moving to walk around the annex and fully realize how it must have felt to live in the dark, silent, for two whole years. even more moving was the fact that anne's father, otto, survived auschwitz and published anne's diary since she had dreams of being a famous writer. he returned to the annex and encouraged it as a museum. it was an amazing experience which we followed up with a hot chocolate and walk to find our fellow holy cross kids.
navigating the streets proved quite difficult since the street names were all incredibly long, complicated and seemed to use letter combinations that were absolutely impossible to pronounce (ie. keizersgracht, leidseplein and nieuwezijds voorburgwal). we spent most of the weekend in usual tourist fashion, walking around with our maps proudly unfurled, laughing at our butchering of the dutch language while constantly snapping pictures.
one of the most incredible things about amsterdam is the bike culture! they were EVERYWHERE. i have never seen so many bikes in my life. they were locked to bridges, fences, anything and there were even huge bike parking lots! there was a bike lane on every sidewalk and we were almost run down by more bikes than cars. apparently it costs 3000 euro just to register to get a license so everyone just bikes instead! there is also a weird market of bike products such as patterned seat covers, bells and bike baskets!
we ended up finding roommate, kristen and fellow spaniards in front of the "vinter vonderland" that provided us with more food than i'd like to admit. this little market complete with christmas lights, trees and garlands was so pretty and got all of us in the christmas spirit! there was also a skating rink that we got to observe for a while. the wonderland happened to be right on our way to and from our hostel... chocolate covered strawberries happened. brats happened. not pretty.
after a visit to a little pizzeria (foreshadowing italy) we made our way to the heineken brewery where we participated in "the heineken experience." this experience involved history, tasting of barley (and hops... before being told we aren't supposed to eat the hops. oops!), a tour of the brewery, heineken horses, and a simulation/ride in which you were "brewed" into beer (note: they sprayed water on us. not pleasant!).
SATURDAY
we woke up relatively early (mary and i slept like rocks. so tired.) and were pleasantly surprised with snow!!! it was my first sighting of the year and was very welcome since i had been told it doesn't really snow in galway.** we made our way to the van gogh museum next! to be honest (and this sounds absolutely horrible), kristen and i were a little bit bored with the dozens of still life portraits that were present in the museum (there are only so many pictures of vegetables one can take). we found ourselves hysterically laughing on a bench in the middle of the museum over some fun facts about van gogh: namely, that after years of unemployment, van gogh decided to become an artist. he had no idea if he had any talent, but just started painting... we decided this might be a good fallback if the job market doesn't get better by next year...
after the museum, we stopped by the "i amsterdam" sign for some fun pictures before making our way back towards the christmas market and "Pancakes!" which is, as the name implies, a restaurant of just pancakes! kristen and i couldn't resist and ended up getting american pancakes with maple syrup and bacon. so. good. mary got a dutch pancake that could barely be seen under the ridiculous amount of chocolate syrup and nuts that were slathered on top.
this first restaurant led to a string of bad food decisions and made up the most ridiculous combination of food that we have ever eaten in one day: dry cereal, pancakes, dim sum (chinese), bratwurst, thai for dinner, chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. it sickens me too, believe me, but it was a delicious day.
between pancakes and dim sum we briskly (i was almost running) walked through the red light district... it was the strangest experience of my life and i was very uncomfortable. i was very glad to be out of there!
we also found an american/british food store in amsterdam and wandered through it with our mouths watering at various american boxed food (ie poptarts, kraft mac n cheese, sugary cereal, betty crocker, funfetti, teddy grahams, etc.). unfortunately a single box of cereal was 10 euro... hint hint for birthday presents in the picture below!
mary and i woke up bright and early to take a tram to a train to the airport, where we walked through customs and then got to our gate before realizing that we had not gone through security... we were extremely confused to find out that the amsterdam airport has a tiny security check at every gate. surreal. we made it back to galway in record time and were surprised to see that ** ireland was also dusted with fresh snow! christmas is in full swing :) and paper #6 is currently at 1300/3500 so we're getting there!!!
love you all!!!
FRIDAY
mary and i started our trip bright and early on friday morning when we woke up at 4 to make our 6 am flight! we arrived in amsterdam exhausted but ready for a day of sightseeing. we were immediately met with our first obstacle: the train from the airport was on "fire" so we were forced to pick between a bus or a taxi. both lines were too long for comfort but we ended up picking a taxi and were dropped off at our hostel, the flying pig.
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| casual clog |
navigating the streets proved quite difficult since the street names were all incredibly long, complicated and seemed to use letter combinations that were absolutely impossible to pronounce (ie. keizersgracht, leidseplein and nieuwezijds voorburgwal). we spent most of the weekend in usual tourist fashion, walking around with our maps proudly unfurled, laughing at our butchering of the dutch language while constantly snapping pictures.one of the most incredible things about amsterdam is the bike culture! they were EVERYWHERE. i have never seen so many bikes in my life. they were locked to bridges, fences, anything and there were even huge bike parking lots! there was a bike lane on every sidewalk and we were almost run down by more bikes than cars. apparently it costs 3000 euro just to register to get a license so everyone just bikes instead! there is also a weird market of bike products such as patterned seat covers, bells and bike baskets!
after a visit to a little pizzeria (foreshadowing italy) we made our way to the heineken brewery where we participated in "the heineken experience." this experience involved history, tasting of barley (and hops... before being told we aren't supposed to eat the hops. oops!), a tour of the brewery, heineken horses, and a simulation/ride in which you were "brewed" into beer (note: they sprayed water on us. not pleasant!).
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| all about perspective |
we woke up relatively early (mary and i slept like rocks. so tired.) and were pleasantly surprised with snow!!! it was my first sighting of the year and was very welcome since i had been told it doesn't really snow in galway.** we made our way to the van gogh museum next! to be honest (and this sounds absolutely horrible), kristen and i were a little bit bored with the dozens of still life portraits that were present in the museum (there are only so many pictures of vegetables one can take). we found ourselves hysterically laughing on a bench in the middle of the museum over some fun facts about van gogh: namely, that after years of unemployment, van gogh decided to become an artist. he had no idea if he had any talent, but just started painting... we decided this might be a good fallback if the job market doesn't get better by next year...
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| a for audrey, m for mary! |
between pancakes and dim sum we briskly (i was almost running) walked through the red light district... it was the strangest experience of my life and i was very uncomfortable. i was very glad to be out of there!
we also found an american/british food store in amsterdam and wandered through it with our mouths watering at various american boxed food (ie poptarts, kraft mac n cheese, sugary cereal, betty crocker, funfetti, teddy grahams, etc.). unfortunately a single box of cereal was 10 euro... hint hint for birthday presents in the picture below!
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| so. good. |
love you all!!!
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| love these two :) |
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