That Time We Went to Italy (Part 1) ... Rome

I'm the worst at writing travel blogs. I was going through some of my older ones thinking, damn I wrote a lot. The daunting prospect of writing a post or two or three about our five days travelling around Italy is probably why I put it off for over a month. But here we go! If you have any questions, feel free to write a comment :)


Day 1 - April 18th 

We started our five day voyage across the Boot, in Roma. (Cue the Lizzie McGuire Movie references). I heard some interesting things about Rome beforehand but the city was not at all what I expected. Well, actually I'm not sure what I expected but it certainly wasn't that. The beginning part of the trip was filled with a bit of transportation woes, starting back in Madrid but following us to Rome. The buses from Rome's Ciampino Airport to the city centre are a complete travesty and a scam - despite only costing 4 euros. It's not even worth it. After about an hour of waiting for the bus we gave up and got a taxi.

After checking in to our hostel (which was actually a guesthouse) we had a fabulous first Italian meal of gnocci served by a fabulous Italian waitress. From there we walked to Palentine Hill, which "is the centremost of the Seven Hills of Rome and one of the most ancient parts of the city," Wikipedia says.  Amazing is the best word that is coming to mind right now. The bright sun and really warm weather just enhanced the beauty of this ancient site, filled with stairs and gardens and ruins of once great homes, palaces and temples. In Ancient Roman mythology, these grounds hold the cave where the infant boys Romulus and Remus were found by the she-wolf that kept them alive before they were later raised by a human couple. It is from the story of these two boys and the eventually victory of Romulus over Remus, that Rome gets its name.



Gnocci (yummmm)



Palentine Hill

From there we went to the Forums (you can just walk straight to them - they are on the same grounds) and looked in amazement at the Roman Forum, the plaza that was once the centre of the entire Roman Empire.



The Roman Forum

The last was the famous Flavian Amphitheatre, a.k.a. the Colosseum, which I always have such a difficult time spelling. When I was in grade 9, I went to France and Switzerland with my high school and one of the first towns in France we visited was Nîmes. There, there is an amphitheatre called the Arena de Nîmes. To me the Colosseum was just a bigger version of that. It was still amazing though being in the theatre where those infamous gladiator fights were held. When you're standing inside, you can see down into what would have been a basement hidden underneath the arena floor. From the ruins it is easy to imagine cages where animals and slaves were kept, the hecticness that must have gone on below ground while emperors and subjects cheered on the bloody battles playing out above.




Inside the Colosseum

Day 2 - April 19th

Day number due started off late because we had to move from our first hostel to another, due to some random booking we did. The issue was that we could not find this hostel for the longest time. It took about 2 hours longer than we had originally planned, but once we found it we headed out to a whole new country: The Vatican City.

CPGrey has a fantastic video explaining all about Vatican City and how it is possible for such a tiny country to exist within another country, let alone within a city. Just so you know, there are no customs or passport control or anything of the like to enter. You just walk past a wall and say "Hey! I'm in Vatican City!" Then you turn around and walk a few more steps and say, "Hey! I'm back in Rome/Italy!". Then you turn around and do it all over again.

We toured the inside of the absolutely stunning St Peter's Basilica and stood in awe of the marble and gold and pure artistry that surrounded us. The extravagance was astounding and a tad off putting but brilliant nonetheless. Naturally, like the tourists we are, we went to the world's smallest postal service and send off some (expensive!) postcards, just for the heck of it.




The Basilica - we think the chairs are for a mass

The ceiling in St. Peter's

After pretending to escape from the tiny country, we hopped on the metro and made our way to the

trying to escape

to the Piazza del Popolo where there is the church of Santa Maria del Popolo and a giant obelisk in the plaza. We fell prey to the tourist trap of buying roses from those sketch guys who persistently try to sell you things and ended up taking cheesy pictures with them (the roses, not the sketch guys). We then went too the fanciest McDonald's EVER and watched the sun set on the Spanish Steps. The rest of the evening/ night was spent walking from one monument to the next, enjoying the outdoor night life. We saw the Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, ate some gelato and ended the night at the Trevi Fountain. I reminisced of days from my youth where I watched the Lizzie McGuire movie somewhat religiously and in tribute, I did a very inaccurate recreation of the film by singing (horribly) "What Dreams are Made Of" while Em filmed it. Some people nearby clapped and cheered me on. It was thoroughly embarrassing but had to be done. The only bad thing was that I never got mistaken for an Italian pop star, met a cute singer named Pablo or got handed a giant wheel of cheese. But what can you do?



Piazza del Popolo

The Fancy Schmancy McDo's

The Spanish Steps

Fountain of Neptune

The Pantheon

Em and Vi with gelato and crepes

The 3 coins I tossed into the fountain

The Trevi Fountain

Italy Part 2 soon!

Dublin Part #2

Here's Part #1: Oh So Sunny Ireland

The last few days in Dublin were chilled and relaxed days. Saturday was our designated shopping day (the BEST sort of designation.) We went to some vintage stores in Temple Bar (including the great FanciSchmancy Vintage who was having an awesome sale). We also went to an Oxfam Charity Shop, Top Shop, Top Man, Penny's, A-Wear, TJ Maxx, New Look and a cool indoor flea market. The usual (if I happened to live in Ireland). My most expensive purchase? These black creepers. Em and Vi hate them but I love them. Next you shall see me wearing heavy black eyeliner and making random references to unknown indie bands.

That night we went on a pub crawl with the same group we did the walking tour with on Thursday. It was kinda meh. You pay a standard fee but if you want anything besides the one shot per bar, you have to pay again. And Dublin's a lot more expensive then Salamanca (but then again most places are). Salamanca has spoiled us. We didn't stay till the end but we had a good enough time while we were there.There was a Brazilian girl who was the life of the group and some really nice Swiss girls (the German part). I also talked a bunch with a German guy who spent 9 months in army, back when it was obligatory, and who is now a professor of computer science somewhere in the middle of Germany. After some late night fries at the fast food joint that is Eddie Rocket's, we headed back to the hostal.

Sunday was the day we intended to go to Belfast, but being tourist fails, we never really looked up how to get there. So we spent another day in Dublin with no real idea of what to do. We also forgot to look at suggestions Vi gave us before we left. We settled on going to the Archeological museum to see the famous bog bodies, which were creepy, leathery and completely fascinating. We left the museum to go to a cinema to watch "The Host" but lo and behold, the time the internet gave us was 30 mins later than the actual show time. Thus we had to wait two hours for the next one. Naturally, we went shopping again - our excuse is that the theatre was five minutes away from three different malls.  When we were finally able to see the film, we saw that whole back row was filled with those rowdy obnoxious teenagers, you know, the bunch that talk too loudy and storm out noisely in the middle of the film. Yea, those ones. But the film itself was actually pretty good. You'd never guess it was the twilight lady who wrote the book it is based on.

a bog body

really cool mural somewhere

failing at thosse machine games while waiting for the movie to start.
(Peppa Pig, you are too clever. And I want that 20 euros you're holding)

After that we just had another chill, unexciting night as we headed, once more, to bed early because a long trip back to Salamanca was upon us the next day.

(Cue the cliché ending:) And that was Dublin/Ireland! A beautiful, awesome couontry with fantastic people that I one day hope to visit again. :)

Timmy's!

The National Library (I'm pretty sure)

Sunny Ireland! - Dublin and West Ireland (Part #1)

Sun + sun + sun + a bit of clouds/sun + a threat of rain (on the very last day) can basically sum up the weather we had when Em and I spent 6-ish days in Ireland two weeks ago (April 3rd to 8th). It was the tail end of out lovely 10 day Easter Break and we were glad to go and get away from our lives of Chinese food and the television fantastic-ness that is Suits.

Let me first just state that Em and I are apparently horrible tourists, never doing enough research for a place before we go. We just tend to show up and be like "hit me!". Although this time we were a tad bit more prepared with the Trip Advisor Iphone app to guide us someways.

We stayed in the hostel Sky Backpackers - The Liffey, which was nice enough, and the location if great, right next to O'Donnell St which has a bunch of restaurants and stores, it's 10 minutes from two malls, some movie theatres, Temple Bar and Trinity - basically walking distance to most major Dublin attractions. The downside? The frustratingly squeaky floors and and the giant sun roof (is that what you call a giant window in a ceiling?). I slept on the top bunk and between 7:42 and 7:45 every morning I was awake because there was so much sun.

Sinead O'Connor in the hostel

We didn't do much the first night we arrived in the city. When we got off the shuttle from the airport, we were right outside the movie theatre where Tom Cruise was for the Dublin premiere of his new movie Oblivion. Unfortunately we missed him by about 3 hours, what a shame.

The next morning we started with a "free" walking tour (you know I love those things), and it was good. We actually ended up seeing most of the places we had wanted to - places like Trinity College, Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, Temple Bar, the Dublin usual. The Dublinia Gardens and another location that slips my mind were unfortunately closed when we went. From our tour guide we heard about a tour to Galway and the Cliffs of Moher in West Ireland the next morning so we bought tickets for that.

We spent the rest of the afternoon with some awesome Brazilians who are studying in Italy. Let it be said that Brazilians are great fun people and I vow to one day visit that country!

We went to the Natural History Museum where we saw some dead hedgehogs and creepy rabbits, St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre, St. Patrick's Cathedral, that park where the Oscar Wilde statue is, and we watched the sun start to set over the lake in St Stephen's Green the Park. It was so beautiful and people were lounging about, soaking up this rare fabled Irish sun while watching swans try to mate.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

 
We went to bed early because we had to be up before the crack of dawn to get on a bus to head out west. The tour group we were with put us on an express commuter coach to the city of Galway and there we were picked u by our tour bus complete with authentic Irish tour guide who drove us to our destinations.

The first stop was the Connelly Family Farm where we gotto see a traditional working Irish family farm, climb the rocky "mountains", see the sea, and breathe in the fresh air on a clear sunny day. We ended the farm portion as all things should be ended, with cake. Award winning ckesto be precise. I had the peach and white chocolate cheesecake and it was  delicous and scrumptious and tasty and all things good in the world.

Em, Me and a girl named Jen on the "mountain". Canadians unite!

From there we drove through some small towns and villages, seeing ruins of castles and churches, farms and hills. Gorgeous. We went up a really windy hill, aptly named Corkscrew Hill. I found it marvelously windy, but it did not agree with Em at all. Most of the bus ride didn't.

Eventually we reached the stunning Cliffs of Moher. Our bus driver kept telling us how fortunate we ere to have clear skies for the farm and no rain or fog for the cliffs.

The Cliffs of Moher

a castle

After almost two hours there we made our way to the town of Doolin to have lunch. I had a seafood chowder, because, well, we were by the sea and I love chowder.

We headed back to Galway, traveling along the coast, looking at the Arran Islands on the other side of the bay and pausing to see some castle ruins. The whole time I thought the bus driver was saying the "Iron Islands", à la Game of Thrones.


In Galway we said goodbye to our great tour guide/bus driver and had an hour and a half free to explore the centre before we took a bus back  to Dublin. And by explore I mean do souvenir shopping (postcards, pins, magnets, the works). We then sat in square admiring flags and people watching, waiting to head back.

That's the end of Part #1, Part #2 soon!

A Weekend in Paris

It has been about a month and a half now since Em and I went to Paris for a weekend, right before second semester started (Feb 7th to 10th). This was my second time in Paris. I had 6 years ago with my high school during a trip to France and Switzerland. This trip was more or less accidental due to my failed abilities to book proper plane tickets to visit my friend Cayda, who I thought was studying near Paris but lo and behold is not.

Em and I flew different companies and met up in Paris at our hostel in Montmatre, an artsy district. That flight from Madrid to Paris-Beauvais was actually my first time flying alone. Wasn't so bad. The hardest part of the whole trip by bus to plane to bus to metro which figuring out which was the right metro stop to get into. But I found my way around the Paris subway easy enough.

Em came an hour after I arrived and we went to a nearby restaurant for a late dinner of chicken and fries - so French. We spent the night in the hostel lobby talking with one of the guys from our room (an Argentinian optometrist) and other people who were there (a recent high school grad from New Jersey and a college grad from Maine). There was good conversation about sports teams, meeting f.u.n. and Janelle Monae and where we were on 9/11.

The next morning we did a "free" tour of Paris. Can I please just state how much I LOVE "free" tours!! I write "free" because they aren't really - you tip at the end between 10-15 euros really, but if you really want to be a jerk you don't have to tip at all (but that's like at a kidnapping kittens and selling them for meat level of jerkiness).

(I would also like to mention that I am writing this blog post on a train to Lyon, France from Geneva, Switzerland listening to Biffy Clyro while going past the Alps. I think this is the best place I've ever written a blog from.)

Any who, our tour guide was awesome. His name was Onno, which coincidently is the name of our internet provider (Ono)...hmmm… He showed us around lots of touristy parts of Paris, including the outside of Notre Dame, other things on the Île de Cité, the Louvre, the street of the fishing cat, Fontaine St. Michel and more. It was 3 hours long and despite the bitter cold, it was fun. We met another Canadian (from Belleville for all you Ontarians) and a reallllllly chill guy from Alaska. After the tour the group went to a restaurant we ate a really good French onion soup.

Em and I decided to walk to the Arc de Triomphe from there. On the way we encountered a Ferris wheel. The following conversation happened: 

"Have you ever been on a Ferris wheel?"
"Not that I can remember."

"Wanna go on?"
"Sure!"

 

And on we went. You could see everywhere. And lucky for us it started hailing/raining but by time we got out like7 minutes later it had stopped! There was a cotton candy thing nearby and we got a "small" (it was huge). We spent the next hour or so making our way to the Arc de Triomphe via the Champs D'Elysée, the big shopping street. We found the arch but couldn't figure out how to cross the roundabout so we never actually went up close and personal.

Later that night, we headed back to the hostel to meet up with New Jersey girl from the night before to go to the Louvre together - it I free on Friday evening for people under 26 - but she had left early. When we were in our room we found that we had a new roommate, a lovely Brazilian by the name of Paula. She joined us and we explored the Egyptian and Islamic art parts of the museum - AND the Mona Lisa - before hitting a McD's for some sandwiches. Em and I then headed to a movie theatre on the Champs which we had seen earlier. We decided to embrace the opportunity to see a movie in English (only dubbed Spanish ones play in Salamanca). A minute into Django Unchained " directed by Quentin Tarentino" popped up on screen and then I remembered my dislike for him (inglorious Bastards anyone? Horrible film). But it was actually pretty good nonetheless.

 

The next morning the three of us headed to the Catacombs of Paris, the underground graves where 6 million bodies have been buried. It was a bit creepy, cool, and amazing. After being below ground for 2 hours we treated ourselves with crepes (nutella and banana) before heading to the Eiffel Tower. We took the stereotypical photos and acted like tourists, but ultimately didn't go up. Back near the hostel we had a great Chinese wok meal and then chilled at the hostel until Em and I went on a tour of Montmatre that evening.

Entrance to the graves part of the Catacombs

 

Montmatre is where the Moulin Rouge and Sacre Coeur are. The tour was good, with the same company as before, although it was freeeeeeezing outside. We ended in the café where they filmed the movie Amélie and had a glass of wine. Some day I'll watch that movie. 

Our last day in Paris was spent with Paula and her boyfriend (who came the day before). We went back to Notre Dame and went inside this time. This is also the point that the amazing Trip Advisor app that Paula/Tiago had on their phones came in handy, providing us with information and useful facts. From there we walked to the Pantheon and Em left soon after to head to the airport. I spent the next three hours with them walking through the Luxembourg Gardens, which would be a lot prettier in the spring, and making our way to Les Invalides, the museum where Napoleon. Unfortunately I didn't have time to actually go in so I said goodbye to our new Brazilian friends and escaped the cold (only to be greeted by the stench that is the Paris Metro) and headed back to the hostel.

  
Paris is a little higher in my books now, but after all the things I learned about Brazil and the nice Brazilians we met, it's definitely on my radar. I don't know how to end this so I will just post  French artist Yelle's new song, more photos and bid y'all adieu.