Our first moments in Dublin, Ireland! 

This past weekend, the weather in Ireland was incredibly beautiful.... except for the two hours we spent up at the Cliffs of Moher, when fog decided to descend over the cliffs.....

In the words of Alex "I was expecting a little more, out of this experience" hahahah

BUT, that's okay! You win some, you lose some! The rest of our weekend was incredible and Ireland was as beautiful as they say it is, and the people are as kind and light hearted as has been told! We were still able to see so many beautiful sights as the rest of the weekend we had clear skies and no rain! 

check out the video... it's pretty funny! 

xoxoxo

Here's a sneak peak of some of the amazing fun we had in Ireland this past weekend!! Ice Skating in Dublin, Ireland! Enjoy!!!

Yesterday afternoon, Alex, Brandon, Conner and I, had quite the experience getting to Ireland. Our train departed from Florence at 8:55 am and arrived in Milano Centrale at 10:40. From there, we had to catch an hour long bus ride from the train station to the airport in Bergamo, Italy. (Mind you, our flight was departing at 1:30 which meant the door were closing at 1:00 and our bus didn't leave the station until 11:30, so we were all a little anxious that we were possibly going to miss our flight!) 
ANDDD on top of that, today and tomorrow in Italy (November 29/30) there are transportation strikes going on, so there would be no outgoing buses, trains OR flights...so basically, if we missed our flight we would have been out of luck!
Once we got to the airport, we had to run around to find the spot where non EU residents have to go to get their passport stamped
and of course, just our luck that some guy was causing a fuss because his luggage was too big and heavy and they were going to fine him almost 100 euro for him to get it on the flight
So, after he held up the line another ten minutes, we finally all got our passports stamped and rushed to the security line!! After getting through security, we finally managed to make it to our gate...and ON TIME! go us!! Naturally, our flight was a little delayed as well, so that was lucky for us!! Our flight went pretty smoothly!
Although, I found it pretty funny that it rains so often in Ireland and yet, as we were leaving Italy, it was down pouring, but by the time we reached Ireland, we had beautiful blue skies and relatively nice weather!
it was so great! 

After touching down, we got our bus from the airport into the City Center. After a short pit stop at Burger King...yes, Burger King... we finally got on the right path towards our hostel.  Ireland is already so decorated and ready for Christmas, it was beautiful to see all of the lights and the Christmas trees everywhere! We made it to our hostel in great time. Our hostel is literally the most amazing hostel ever! It's so new, modern, inviting, and has so many wonderful things for us to do!  After dropping off our stuff and getting settled, we headed out to explore a little of the city! Not too far from our hostel there is this cute little pub where the four of us stopped in for a bit. The boys all got their first Irish Guinness's, which they loved! And I tried a sip of Alex's and have to admit, it was pretty smooth, and good, although I'm just not a beer drinker. After talking and relaxing for a bit and enjoying the nice night, we set out in search for a good restaurant for dinner. Walking along the streets, Dublin was even beautiful at night! Everyone is truly as genuinely kind and helpful as you hear about!  We were pointed in the direction of a nice little restaurant just over the bridge from where we were staying. We went there for a wonderful dinner and some hot chocolate! It was such a nice night and a great welcome into Dublin! We didn't stay out too late as we were all exhausted from a long day of traveling!
      This morning, we woke, feeling (at least in my opinion), well rested and ready to see more of Dublin!
After getting ready, we headed out to this little place we had passed on the way to our hostel last night, called The Coffee Bean, where they serve traditional Irish Breakfast. Apparently, traditional Irish Breakfast consists of: sausage, bacon, eggs, beans and this thing called pudding, which is really like a rice ball, and toast!
the boys all got the traditional breakfast and I opted for some eggs on a bagel, which was very good! I also got a coffee, and I'm not lying when I say, the mug was the size of my head!  We were all full and woken up by the time we left The Coffee Bean and headed back to our Hostel to take the FREE, (yup, I just said FREE) walking tour of Dublin. It was the BEST, most AMAZING tour that I have ever been on in my life!  Our tour guide Robbie, was so charismatic, fun, intelligent and engaging and he made the four hour tour a wonderful experience!  We got to see so much of Dublin and all of its beauty!
Some of the things we saw:
Dublin Castle
Dubh Linn
Dublin’s Medieval Walls
Viking Remains
Norman Dublin
Georgian Dublin
Christ Church Cathedral
Adam and Eve Church
The National Library
Famous Writers
Temple Bar
U2 – Origins of the rock legend
Trinity College
Leinster House
Chester Beatty Library
St. Stephen’s Green
1916 Easter Rising

Well, it's off the the Emerald Isle today!!! 

IRELAND, here I come!!!

Over the next few days, I will be visiting Dublin, Ireland, Galway, Ireland, and of course seeing the famous Cliffs of Moher. It should be an unforgettable experience! 

I will be going completely off the maps: no phone, no internet, the whole nine yards! I will be back on Sunday evening and promise at that point to update you all on my Rome adventures as well as my Ireland adventures!! 

I've heard nothing but great things about Ireland and can't wait to see a little of my own heritage! 

And just as a side note: I'm home in 17 days!!! Where has the time gone?!?! This will be my last big trip! Once I'm back, it's buckling down for final exams, projects and papers before I hop that plane back home to see my wonderful family! 

Here's a little further reading you can all do on Ireland, if you'd like!!

The Cliffs
The Cliffs of Moher are one of Ireland's top Visitor attractions and are a designated UNESCO Geo Park. The Cliffs are 214m high at the highest point and range for 8 kilometres over the Atlantic Ocean on the western seaboard of County Clare. O'Brien's Tower stands proudly on a headland of the majestic Cliffs. From the Cliffs one can see the Aran Islands, Galway Bay, as well as The Twelve Pins, the Maum Turk Mountains in Connemara and Loop Head to the South. The Cliffs of Moher take their name from a ruined promontory fort “Mothar” which was demolished during the Napoleonic wars to make room for a signal tower.

The Cliffs of Moher are home to one of the major colonies of cliff nesting seabirds in Ireland. The area was designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA) for Birds under the EU Birds Directive in 1986 and as a Refuge for Fauna in 1988. Included within the designated site are the cliffs, the cliff-top maritime grassland and heath, and a 200 metre zone of open water, directly in front of the cliffs to protect part of the birds' feeding area. The designation covers 200 hectares and highlights the area's importance for wildlife. Details of the SPA including a map can be downloaded here.

Today's a busy, busy day!! But I thought I would satisfy you all a little bit by posting some photos from our Rome trip that we took this past weekend!!! 

Check out the photos and be sure to check back tomorrow, I PROMISE I'll get a good, long post up for you all!!! 

Hope everyone is doing well!! 

xoxoxox

la vita e bella! 

Ciao!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!! 

Today, (and always) I am thankful for.......
1) My wonderful family
2) My amazing friends
3) Alex
4) The opportunity to spend these three and a half months in Italy 
5) being healthy
6) Having such a wonderful support network
7) Panda bears 
8) A great education
9) All the laughter in my life
10) Harry Potter




I hope that everyone has a wonderful day! Take this day to spend with your family and to appreciate all that you have. Remind all those you love today, how much they mean to you and how much you appreciate them. Eat lots of food and enjoy yourselves! 

This weekend I will be in Rome, so you won't hear from me until Monday at least! 

LOVE TO ALL

Also, as a vegetarian, I wanted to share this funny photo my friend posted on my wall: 

Soooo, how much do you all hate me for not being a faithful blog updater and keeping you posted on my adventures the past week or so?! 

Well....Please don't hate me too much!!! 

As the days are winding down, the work load and craziness has certainly increased! With only 23 days left in beautiful Florence, there are still papers to be written, exams to study for, trips to take, sights to see, people to meet and food to be eaten! 

Let's take it back to last Friday morning.... 

At 8:00, Alex and I got ready for our 1 year anniversary weekend trip to Bologna and Venice! We caught our first train which took us into the city of Bologna, where we planned to spend the day exploring before we headed off to our concert. It was a beautiful, crisp day in Bologna with the sun shining and lots of wonderful things to see! 

When we got to Bologna, we walked around for a few hours before getting checked into our hotel, which by the way, was BEAUTIFUL! We still had a few hours to kill before we set off for the MUSE concert at the Unipol arena, so we got a nice, long lunch, then explored some of the nearby churches and sights, including the street where there is a plaque commemorating the Jews that were held in Nuovo Ghetto 9 during the years leading up to the Holocaust.  

Luckily for us, by chance, we happened to be walking behind two Americans who overheard us talking and were so kind as to introduce themselves to us. We chatted for a bit and they informed us that there was a huge chocolate festival going on in the main square just down the street from where we were, so naturally, we felt compelled to go check it out! The festival was AMAZING!! There were chocolate shoes, t-shirts, tennis rackets and balls, dentist kits, doctor kits, school kits... all made from chocolate!!! It was fun to walk around, and of course, get a little hot chocolate! Let me just tell you, they don't mess around with hot chocolate! It's not like a powder packet mixed with some water... it's literally melted down chocolate!! It was so rich I couldn't finish my little cup, but it was just the perfect thing to warm me up! 

The afternoon passed quickly and before we knew it, it was time to find our bus that would take us to the concert! The concert was one of the best I have ever been to! The band is just so phenomenal! They put on a great show and it didn't drag on! Within two hours, it was already over, sadly! 

After getting back to our hotel, it was straight to bed after such a long day, it didn't take longer than fifteen seconds for us to pass out! 

The next morning, after a great breakfast at the hotel, we took the quick fifteen minute walk to the train station to await our train that would take us into Venice! 

Upon arriving in Venice, we were so happy to see that it was another beautiful day! The sun was shining and all the waters from the flooding the previous weekend had receded! 

We spent the day exploring parts of the island we didn't get to see the first time around. We had a wonderful late lunch of calamari, spaghetti with an olive oil and hot pepper sauce and a cappuccino!  It was such a wonderful, long lunch, spent overlooking one of the many Venice canals! 

After walking around the island and shopping around for some last minute souvenirs for family and friends, we headed over to a small concert hall where a string quartet was putting on a performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons! It was a great performance and the musicians played so wonderfully! It was just a quick hour long performance, which was good for both me and Alex because we were starting to get tired from the lack the sleep the previous night! After the concert, we walked around St. Marco for a bit, which, in my opinion is far more beautiful at night time than during the day! 

After another great night of sleep, waking up Sunday morning, we were sad to realize it would be our last day in Venice! We got up early so that we could make the most out of our full day! After another wonderful breakfast, we decided to climb the tower in St. Marco's which allows you to see pretty much the entire island of Venice, as well as the surrounding islands! Unfortunately, you can't actually CLIMB the tower, you have to be lazy and take an elevator ride up to the top, but it was still breathtakingly beautiful at the top and you could see so much of the island! Unfortunately, Alex and I failed to realize the time in which we were going up to the top of the tower AND the fact that the tower had about 8 HUGE bells which ring every half hour...... I think you can see where I'm going with this..... Almost the minute we got to the top, the HUGE bells started tolling..... lucky for the guy working in the small, heated souvenir box, he had huge airport style ear plugs which allowed him to block out much of the loud tolling sound! It was the longest two minutes of my life hearing those bells go, blaring so loudly! It was pretty funny though, because I'm almost positive it caught every single person in the tower off guard! 

After descending the tower, Alex and I decided that since we didn't have the time during our last visit to Venice, we wanted to try and go to Murano Island to one of the Glass Blowing factories to see just how the glass blowers make all the amazing pieces! 

Luckily for us, since the factories aren't open to just anyone, our hotel was able to set us up with a private boat that took me, Alex and two other hotel guests directly to a glass blowing factory for a tour! How awesome?!! I love when things just fall into place so perfectly!  

Our boat ride over to Murano Island was short, and upon arriving, we were greeted by the kindest man! Marco was our guide for the factory and he was so jovial, kind, and fun! Our first stop was to actually see a demonstration of how the glass blowers actually make objects. The man doing our demonstration first made a glass horse which came out AMAZING, and then he made a glass vase which was also beautiful! We were all mesmerized by how quickly the glass blower worked and how he manipulated the glass to make the shapes he wanted! Marco also told us that ALL of the chandeliers in Buckingham palace in England were made in his factory.... HOW COOL IS THAT?! 

After our tour, Alex and I walked around the Island of Murano for a few hours, just seeing some of its beauty! We got a nice late lunch before taking a boat back to the main island and navigating our way back to the hotel to pick up our luggage before finally making our way over to the train station. 

On our way to the train station, we had a good hour before we really needed to be there, so we stopped and picked up some YUMMY Macaroons (Thanks Mathilde for introducing them to us in Paris.... we now LOVE them!) for the train ride home. Just outside of the train station, there is a beautiful church! We realized that we still had plenty of time before we needed to catch our train and decided we would go in and check it out. Since it was Sunday, there was actually a mass going on and we decided that it would be cool to stay for the mass! The church and the service were both beautiful! By the time mass was over, it was the perfect time to head to the train station and await our train home. 

The train ride home was just under two hours. After getting back in Florence, after an amazing weekend, we were both ready to unpack, shower and get a good night's rest. Sad as we were that the weekend had to come to an end, we knew we would forever remember the places we saw, the things we ate and the good memories we made. 

On Monday, it was back to real (well, semi-real) life. I'm really proud of myself for actually working diligently and getting one of my final papers done already!! 11 pages and my first paper -- the one for my Holocaust class -- is officially done and ready to be sent to the printer! It feels great to have one down! Now... only three to go!!! 

My goal is to start working on my next one today, after I get out of class at 2:30 and hopefully have it finished by tomorrow night! Then I will have two done before I go on my trip to Rome this weekend! Then next Monday and Tuesday I can do my third paper before setting off for my final adventure of the semester to Ireland!!!

So, you can see, there's so much to be done, so much to see and to do and only so little time left! 

I'm glad that I was able to bring you all up to date finally! I hate that I haven't had as much time to devote to keeping you all informed of my adventures! Especially since I have gotten to see and do so many incredible things over the past week or so! 

Below I have posted a video from the Muse concert! And below that, I have posted some photos from our weekend in Bologna and Venice! 

Today and tomorrow I will, unfortunately, be slaving over another 10 page paper before we set off, bright and early Friday morning (7 am) for our weekend trip to Rome! 

The only thing motivating me to get another 10 page paper done within a two day span from the first 10 page paper I had to write, is that I get to go to Rome this weekend and Ireland next weekend and I don't want to be stressed out while I'm trying to enjoy the trips! 

Anyways, I hope that everyone is having an enjoyable holiday season! Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I wish everyone a wonderful, happy, healthy, relaxing thanksgiving day! Eat a little extra for me and enjoy being with your families! Turn off the phones and computers and just enjoy each other's company!! 

Sending all my love and warm thoughts back to everyone in the states! Be safe and enjoy Thanksgiving!!

I'll hopefully be able to post before I leave for Rome, or at the latest, Monday when I return from Rome!!! 

xoxoxoox

La vita e bella!!

Ciao!! 

Ciao a tutti!!!

How is everyone doing today? 

HAPPY TUESDAY!!

I have to apologize profusely for being so terrible keeping up with the blog lately! Truthfully, as the semester is winding down, a lot of time has been spent working on final papers, getting everything organized for the last few weeks of school. Over the next few weeks leading up to final exams, I have 4 10+ page papers to be working on, finals to begin preparing for, a HUGE final project for my Event Planning class, all in between weekend trips that are scheduled for pretty much every weekend until I leave to go home next month! So, I think you can understand why I have been a bit absentminded lately! hahah

Buttttttt, I still love that everyone has been following my posts! It's been so encouraging and motivational to know that people are reading, and (I think?) liking my blogs! It's a funny thing, but in a few short weeks, all of these moments that I'm living and blogging about will just be a whispers of memories. I can honestly say, that although I will miss Italy more than I can even begin to imagine right now, I think I'm going to be glad to be back with my family :) 

Anyway, this past weekend Alex and I had a good friend of ours come to Florence to visit. Matt is currently spending the semester studying in Seville, Spain and he had a free weekend, so we were able to take him around Florence and show him where we've been living and studying for the past few months. The weekend went by too quickly, as seems to be customary now! We took Matt to Lucca for the day on Sturday, and did the necessary things like see the Duomo, see The David, get bagels at Anna's cafe, and of course we had to send him off on a full stomach of American Breakfast! We had a great weekend, but Monday morning still came as sure as the sun rises each morning, and now, it's back to the grind for a few days! 

Last night (Monday), after a long day of classes, I went to the cinema to see the new James Bond movie, "Skyfall" with two of the girls I live with. It was quite an experience. The cinema didn't have stadium seating (didn't the Romans invent the amphitheater? .....), and there was an intermission about an hour and twenty minutes into the showing! hahah! Needless to say, although the movie was great (I'd recommend seeing it!), it was quite an experience! 

This morning I allowed myself to sleep in until 8:15 (woah!) before getting up, having breakfast, getting ready, running some errands, and now blogging before I begin working on my outlines for my final papers and getting homework done :) 

This semester, Kelsey, Alex, Brandon and I have been trying to do "Family Dinners" every Tuesday night which has been so fun! We've made some great meals! Including fish, pasta, asparagus, sauteed spinach etc! So, I think tonight we are going to  do our weekly Family Dinner and then have a movie night! Christmas is just around the corner, so we've already begun watching some Christmas movies! 

Aside from the large amount of work, and busy, busy weekends filled with fun trips, life is carrying on in its normal, Italian fashion :) 

Sorry this blog isn't the best one I've done! Please forgive me! 

This weekend Alex and I will be going to Bologna for a concert and then we're going to head back to Venice for a few days, so I'm sure I'll have some great stories to blog about when I'm back! Until then, you will have to put up with my updates on the progress of my research papers! yaya! How fun! 

Anyway, I hope that all is well with everyone! 

32 days until I'm home!  Can't believe how fast the time has gone! 

Sending my love and warm wishes to everyone! 

Ciao!