The Ring of Kerry

The other Sunday me and some friends went on a trip around the Ring of Kerry. Kerry and Dingle are really breathtaking areas, and in a perfect world we would have our own car and entire weekend to explore, but we made the best of it and went for the day (which would be better than just not going!)


The views were incredible, so so gorgeous. I guess Dingle is supposed to be even more amazing so if I ever come back to Ireland I will have to go there.  We had really great sunny weather and just enjoyed an awesome day. I even got to hold a little baby lamb!

Then this Friday we had UCD ball, which is this outdoor music festival type thing, similar to how back home we have "Fall Fest" and "Spring Fest" the main difference being in Ireland they have beer tents... it was quite the cultural experience.Lets just say I knew it was going to be a good time when we passed people on our way TO the ball at 4 pm who were already receiving services from the ambulance for having too good of a time.

Rome!!!

What an amazing weekend. Rome during Easter was a crazy whirlwind, and I loved every second of it. Some highlights: Botanical Gardens, Gelato, Pizza, Pasta, Wine, the Colleseum, Nero's Palace, Trestevre area, Gelato, The Vatican Museums, The Sistine Chapel!!, the Trevi Fountain, Gelato, people watching on the Spanish Steps, the nightlife. Pizza.

It was just such a great weekend, it was amazing to walk places from BC! Ahhh. So cool. We ate a lot, and Katie and I made friends with these girls Marisa, Kelly, and Carly who are all from downstate NY and studying abroad in Cork (parallel lives!) so we had a great weekend together.

At Easter mass we were in the SIXTH ROW. So if you look at pictures of the thousands of people gathered, we are right in front. So awesome!

St. Paddy's Day!

St. Patrick's Day was great craic!

Cliffs Of Moher (revisited)

Earlier in my adventures I went to Galway and to the Cliffs of Moher. While the trip overall was amazing, unfortunately the Cliffs of Moher were so foggy that I could barely see five feet in front of me let alone bask in the natural beauty.  Katie really wanted to see them while she was in Ireland, so after our long touristy day in Dubin we decided to do some last minute booking of the tour.  Of course since every tourist ever was in Dublin that weekend for St. Patty's day and we waited until 11 pm the night before we wanted to go on the tour, we had to be creative in our booking, but thanks to google and multiple tabs open on chrome we were able to plan the trip, and bright and early the next morning we were off!


We woke up, and took a 6:20 am bus into city center, where we then hopped on a city link bus that took us straight to Galway.  We passed out right away and slept the bus ride, arriving in Galway a little after 9.  Katie couldn't believe it that in less than 3 hours we travelled from the east coast to the west coast of Ireland. We got a coffee and woke up a little bit before hopping on our Galway Tour Company bus.  


Our bus driver was this little old man named Desmonde who was a tour professional, he has been with the company for over 18 years and I think he said he has taken over 250,000 people on his tour. He was very funny and slightly pervy in an endearing way. For example he let us out at this secluded woods path area over looking some farm land which was really cool, and told us to look out for leprechauns and fairies which were known to hide in the area, and that they climb up your pants. Well, he actually hid a leprechaun in a tree and when some girls were taking a picture he tickled their leg, and they screamed and he burst out laughing. Oh Desmonde.  The tour was great, but at some points I was nervous because it was cloudy/rainy the entire time.


We saw a castle, some rock formation thing, and very very cute little lambs and calfs running around the fields and just general gorgeous Ireland countryside.  It was exciting going with Katie because she hadn't seen any of it yet so it was like I was seeing it all for the first time too.  Then we took a break for lunch, and the sun came out in full force.  We went to the Cliffs of Moher, and oh. my. goodness. it was so breathtaking.  Words really cannot describe what it was like in person.


After marveling at the Cliffs, we started driving back towards Galway, where we stopped at the Burren, which is a rocky place, and we were able to walk out onto the rocks which kind of form a "mini cliffs" and it was really pretty to be so close to the ocean and have the greenery and the rocky cliffs around.


Then we took the bus back to Dublin, where we met up with Chelsey and Alexis. We had an early night though, as Katie had to fly away back to America at 4 am (yikes!).  It was such a great day and I am so happy that my best friend was able to experience it with me :)  

Dublin Pass

When I got home to Dublin,the tables turned and I went from being a tourist to being a local leading friends from out of town around (kind of). Katie and I started off bright and early (we had very little sleep because I had taken her out to my favorite club in Dublin the night before) and bought the Dublin Pass which allowed us to see a lot of touristy things at a set price.


We started off by going to St. Patrick's Cathedral which was very beautiful.  Then we went to Dublinia which was kind of like a children's museum but it was about Viking and Medieval Dublin.  It was pretty awesome especially the parts where we got to try on "clothing"from the eras.  We had a lot of fun (probably too much fun) although a middle school field trip was there and they kept cramping our style and making us have to share!


After we went to Christ Church Cathedral, which any devoted blog readers would remember I visited one of my first weekends in Dublin (but I was too cheap to pay to go inside the cathedral part). We were able to walk around inside, and went down to the basement where we thought there was a crypt, but then we realized that the crypt was just the name of a cafe (or so we think).  Our trip to the crypt cafe was not in vain though because we saw costumes from the tv show The Tudors (which I haven't actually ever seen but it was still awesome!).  


At this point we had lunch at one of my favorite places in Dublin, Nandos, which admittedly is not at all even close to Irish and is very American of me to like. We had delicious sandwiches and chips (fries) and the best part our unlimited refill pop was free with our student card. Love Nandos.


We had to head back to UCD, because we were picking up our friend Chelsey who is studying abroad, and her friend Alexis.  They hopped off the aircoach and got settled, and then it was back to the city center to go to the Guinness storehouse.


The Guinness Storehouse was very cool, definitely worth a visit. I learned that the Guinness Book of Records is the same Guinness. Who knew? (not me.)  I am also now an expert at brewing Guinness, and can taste the hops and barely in every sip.


We had dinner at this great cafe on Grafton Street in the middle of city center called Bewleys where I had this delicious salad that was somewhat game changing. Apparently this is turning into a food blog. 


We had an early night, as Chelsey and Alexis were exhausted from travelling, and Katie and I had a very early morning.

Winning London

The last stop on my eurotrip was the lovely city of London. What made London extra special though, was that my best friend since the age of 3 Katie flew across the pond on her spring break from UB to come visit/go adventuring through Europe with me!  London was a very cool city, it reminded me of NYC kind of or maybe Washington DC, because it is a big city with a few touristy/landmark things to do, and then there are just a lot of cool neighborhoods and areas to explore.


Things we did in London:


New Europe Walking Tour: Yes again. The tour was great because we really got to see everything! Including Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, and other castles etc. We also learned cool things about the history of London, and I have always been interested in the Tudors so it was cool to see things in real life.


The London Eye:  Beautiful view of London! Plus we got to do this really cool 4D experience which obviously we are all big children and loved!


Tower of London: I didn't realize how big the Tower of London was, I always pictured it just being a small tower where soon to be beheaded people hung out.  Instead it was this huge castle and they had all sorts of armor and other stuff from back in the day on display.


National Gallery: Classy. Actually it is really awesome to check out some Van Gogh and Monet casually before dinner.


The Phantom of the Opera: We got to see my favorite show at the West End. It was so amazing. We were in the last possible seats but the show was still awesome. I loved it!


Covent Garden Market: We took in some professional street performers and explored the area.


Changing of the Guard: We got to Buckingham Palace and got probably the best spot possible to watch the changing of the guard. I feel like I can sum it up in one word..."excessive." At first we were so into it with the uniforms and the marching and the band...but then a second group of guards and a marching band came up. And then they had like a marching band duel where they each played a song. It was just too much. But it obviously was still awesome.


Platform 9 3/4.


I really liked London, and if I went back I would like to explore more neighborhoods and markets.

Paris

Our next stop on our journey was Paris. I am now officially obsessed with Paris.  Words can't really explain how much I loved it there.  Paris didn't get off to that great of a start though, we walked around with our bags in the cold rain without a map trying to find our hostel for awhile, and we were exhausted when we finally settled in, so we just had dinner and got organized for our remaining days.


Things we did in Paris:


New Europe Walking Tour: These things are seriously awesome, they are free and you walk around the city for over 3 hours seeing everything there is to see and learning cool facts.  I love history, so hearing stories behind bridges and buildings was pretty awesome.


The Louvre: We went to The Louvre Friday night because it was open late, and it was free! Winning. People say they could spend multiple days in the Louvre, but I feel like that might be a little too much.  The over three hours that we were in there seemed like the perfect amount of time. We got to see the Mona Lisa, which was pretty cool. Also I'm taking an art history class here at Dublin, and I was able to see some paintings that we discussed in class.  What is really cool about the louvre is that the museum itself is a piece of art, the architecture and decorations are so amazing (after all it was a palace).


The Eiffel Tower: Every time we saw the Eiffel tower in the distance we would get super excited.  When we finally reached the tower it was amazing.  We climbed to the second floor and had some amazing views of the city.  I honestly think it is way better to climb the steps instead of taking the elevator to the top. Then at night we came back to the tower (twice) to see it all light up. It was so beautiful and I will remember it forever.


Notre Dame:  I was super excited to see the gargoyles and the bell tower, since I did have a Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame backpack when I was in first grade that had a holographic dancing Esmerelda. (Thanks Mom and Dad for sending me to school in style.)  The views were beautiful from the tower, and the inside of the church was also very beautiful.


Montmarte:  We spent a day exploring this more artsy side of Paris.  The streets are still winding instead of the boulevards of the city closer to the river.  The city was really cool, and we got to see the Moulin Rogue as well as a street artists circle where we checked out some awesome artwork and paintings.


River Cruise: At night we went on a cruise of the Seine and got to see all the beautiful buildings lit up. It was so pretty! I think the young Italian couple sitting in front of us summed it up perfectly.  They turned to me and Katie and asked us if the structure we were passing was the Notre Dame, which we replied yes.  The guy then said "Mama mia" while gazing at in in admiration.


Versailles:  When we arrived at Versailles, which came across some sort of military celebration taking place in the square.  Obviously we stood around to check it out, and all of a sudden a parade and some old tanks and a bunch of people walking behind flags came up to the square.  It was all in French so I'm not sure what was taking place.  At one point this little nugget old lady was standing somewhat in front of me and I moved so she could get a better view, she turned to me and said something in French and I smiled and said I didn't speak French and she just said something else and pinched my cheek. Precious. Then we got into Versailles which was so amazing.  It was perfect because with our visas from Ireland we got in for free (winning!) we saved like 20 euros.  The palace was breathtaking, and the Hall of Mirrors was awesome.  It was just so cool to be in Marie Antoinnette's room and have them point out the door in the wall that she escaped the mob through.  We also spent a lot of time walking around the gorgeous gardens and went to Marie Antoinnette's apartment (aka a large house).  We had some of our snacks that we had packed in a gazebo looking out at the scenery. It was lovely.


The Pantheon: I'm still not really sure what the Pantheon was, but it was pretty cool.


Arc De Triumph: We didn't pay to go to the top, but we did take jumping pictures in front of it and walk under it to the...


Champs Elysees:  My shopping heaven. The Sephora was so big. No wonder why I loved Paris.

Ate delicious food:I went a little bit crazy on the crepes. Soooo good.