Erin Go Bragh!!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

E BUON COMPLEANNO ITALIA!!!

**Please take a moment of silence for Japan and remember them in your prayers**

God Save the Queen (London Pt. 2)

*Friday March 4*

After a restless night we woke up the next morning got dressed quickly and headed down to the bar for the complimentary breakfast. We had toast, peanut butter (a hot commodity coming from Italy) and instant coffee (not complaining). We all tried to eat as much as we could so we didn’t have to spend much money on food throughout the day.  We had decided to meet James at Buckingham Palace, he couldn’t stay at the same hostel as us because it was over booked, and so we made our way across the street to the Hammersmith Underground station….which, by the way, has a Starbuck in it, and, like I said, the hostel only had instant coffee available (and had a system where you had to ask the bartender for hot water and I felt really bad going up there more than once) so we hit that up right away. A side note: London has a gazillion Starbucks. They are everywhere. I forgot what that’s like but it’s really strange, it’s almost as if no matter where you are standing you will always be able to see a Starbucks. We only went there once (I think) and the cappuccino was under-par compared to what Italy has to offer. Just sayin’.

Anyway, our main system of transportation was the Underground, and it is expensive (£4 PER ride= $6.40!!...crazy) so we decided to get day passes which were £6.60 each and paid for themselves with all the traveling we did. So Buckingham Palace was our first stop, where we caught up with James. It was a beautiful building with a very pretty iron and gold fence, very fancy and complete with a few guards with those fuzzy hats. After Buckingham we headed towards Big Ben and Westminster Abbey and decided to walk through a little park on our way there. It was soo nice to see the ducks and other little creatures and we went absolutely crazy with the pictures so sorry about that. The bridge we crossed was dedicated to Princess Diana which I thought was very nice. Westminster Abbey was gorgeous like usual and good ole Benny (which is actually the bell, not the tower) was still standing tall for us. Once we got our pics in we headed across the Thames and purchased tickets for the London Eye (the ferris wheel). Although the tickets were pretty expensive (£17 each, $27) we knew if we didn’t go we would regret it later so we just sucked it up and I’m so glad we did because it was absolutely beautiful. Even being afraid of heights (which all three of us girls were) the view was just amazing, every few minutes, as you got higher and higher up, you could see a different view of London. After we got off the Eye we were all starving and decided to head over to Covent Garden and try to find Chipotle, the only international Chipotle!! On our way we ran into the Sherlock Holmes restaurant and had to get a pic (for old times sake) so we could put it next to the one we took when we were 13. Ahh memories J I love London. Anyway, Chipotle was sooo good and I know what you’re thinking, but seriously we appreciate anything that isn’t Italian food much, much more now, and it was a nice little Mexican (if you can call it that) fix for us (you know how I like my cilantro). After Chipotle we mosied on over to the Covent Garden market to check out the scene and ran into a street performer with a big crowd around him. He was doing acrobatic tricks so we stopped and watched him for awhile. We then went to Ben’s cookie shop and had some wonderful triple chocolate cookies with milk and hot chocolate, it was delicious!

We then dropped James off at his hostel, which gave us the chance to see London properly at night. What a beautiful city. We had to stop multiple times to take photos of the lit up London Eye, the golden reflection of the Parliament building and Big Ben in the Thames and just the lights of the city in general. I am in love with London. This is the city that made me want to live in a city, which is why I go to school in Chicago. No city that I have visited thus far has been able to make me feel the way London does. Anyway, enough with the sappy stuff. So we headed back to our lovely hostel and had a little fun in Belushi’s Bar (located under the hostel). We went to bed pretty early that night since none of us had really gotten much sleep the night before.

London Calling

A little music to get you in the mood: Across the Universe

So as the days ticked by before our big Spring Break trip people started to get really antsy here and you could feel the excitement in the air like electricity. It’s really hard to justify a spring break when you’ve been living in Italy for the past two months but let me tell you, it was amazing, and a breath of fresh air. So for the next few days I’ll be posting our adventure in a few segments, that way I can make them nice and detailed.

Let me just get a few things untangled here. When I say that going to English speaking countries is a breath of fresh air I don’t mean to sound like a spoiled American, but to be able to have conversations with strangers you meet on the street or in a pub is one of the things I really miss about home. I’m naturally a very sarcastic person and I love to joke around but it’s nearly impossible to do that when you’re constantly struggling with the language. I love learning new languages (hence French, Spanish and now Italian) and I love to learn about different cultures and food (hence all the Travel Channel and Food Network). I could sit in a pub and talk for hours about the cultural differences between the US, Spain, Germany, the UK, Ireland and Italy (and Canada! We met a ton of Canadians in Ireland and had some great conversations)… at least those that I have observed. I think it’s great how people can identify with each other even when they are from such different backgrounds.

Anyway back to Spring Break…we spent 3 days (4 nights) in London and 5 days in Dublin. It consisted of a ton of walking, beer and meat pies. Not bad eh?

*Thursday, March 3*

Classes over, bags packed, off to London town!!! So there we were, Katie, Spencer, James, Caitlin and I, in the lobby of the JFRC waiting for the 5 person cab we had called. We were all sooo excited we couldn’t stand it. Once the cab came we headed to the Fumincino airport at about 5:30 pm to catch our 8 o’clock flight to London (!!). We made it to the airport in plenty of time and everything went surprisingly smoothly. It took about 2 hours to get London Gatwick from Rome and so by the time we touched down it was already about 10:30. We took the EasyBus to Earl’s Court, which took about an hour and twenty minutes, and then took a cab to our Hostel which was only about a five minute drive. The cab ride was such a relief compared to Rome. Here we could actually talk to the driver and make sure he didn’t take advantage of us (as much as Rome at least, it seems like all taxi drivers try to take advantage of you). Split by four people the fare was nothing and a lot better than walking around London at 1 in the morning with a bunch of luggage. So yeah, we made it to our hostel, St. Christopher’s of Hammersmith, at about 1 am and about twenty minutes later we found the entrance (it was inside a bar…so we couldn’t find it haha) and checked in. We made our way up to the room we were supposed to be in, unlocked the door and attempted to go in as quietly as possible so as not to wake everyone else up in the room. The room was small and there were 8 beds in all (4 pairs of bunk beds) and only 3 out of the 8 were available, and there were 4 of us…so we had to go back down to the manager, who was also the bartender, and tell him that we were a bed short. He went upstairs to the room, turned the light on (it’s like 2 am at this point), woke everyone up and asked to see their conformation number. Everyone had one and 20 minutes later we find out that the place had overbooked for that night. One of us had to go sleep in the “pod room” (a room with like 20 other people) and because he was the only guy, Spencer being the perfect gentleman, offered himself up to be the odd man out. Looking back at that night, he probably ended up with the best deal out of all of us because the girls had to go into a room full of sleepy, crabby strangers whom had all just been questioned because of us. We got some angry looks that’s for sure.

So that was our first night in London! I love it. 

Mind those Ps and Qs!!

Well hello there!

I'm back from Spring Break and we had the most incredible time!! We are soo blessed to be able to do this stuff. I'll never forget that, I am so grateful. You'll have to give me some time to get all of the pics and posts up, there's just so much to say! There are a few new pics up on my flickr, but I have a lot to do tomorrow (like laundry and homework!) so all I can do is promise you to do as much as I can as fast as I can.

I love you and hope you are all doing well!!
Cheers!!

Guten Tag, Deutschland!!

*Last weekend, il fine settimana scorsa*

See pics here: Click!

We woke up early once again this past weekend in order to get to the airport in time for our flight to Germania. The flight took about an hour and a half which still amazes me. You can get to a totally different country in less than two hours!! Living in Europe is fantastic. We flew over the Swiss Alps and the view was incredible. As we descended into the clouds we couldn’t see anything for awhile and then all of the sudden the clouds cleared and we looked out the window to see that we were only a few feet from the runway!! It fascinates me how pilots can fly like that. Our first view of Germany was a grey runway surrounded by big black pine trees. It was really cool to note the difference between this landscape and that of Italy. Spain’s landscape was relatively similar to what we had grown accustomed to, palm trees and sunny skies. Germany, however, was the complete opposite. It was snowing and although Cait and Christina were happy about this, I was not so thrilled. We stepped off the plane and headed towards the Frankfurt Hahn airport.

Once we got inside and made our way to the bus ticket desk I became even more aware of the fact that we were now in Germany…away from everything I was used to. The signs and advertisements were all in German (obviously) and I could not even begin to understand what they said. In Italy, France (when we went a few years ago) and even Spain I could get the gist of the language because they are all so similar, being romance languages. German is nothing like any of these languages, however, the longer you look at it you can start to see some similarities between it and English, which is cool. You can tell it’s had an influence over our language. So we purchased tickets for a shuttle bus that would take us to Frankfurt International Airport, since that was where we needed to catch our train to Rothenburg, met up with two other Loyola students who were headed somewhere else (don’t ask me where) but taking the same bus and sat down to wait for the shuttle. One of the students bought us “Berlins” (I think that was the name), little powdered donuts with jam in the middle, they were very good and a very good start to our German food education!

The shuttle bus took about an hour and a half and although it might seem like an inconvenience, for those of us who have never been to Germany it was a very nice way to get to see the German countryside. It really is a beautiful country. We drove through huge green fields with cows, horses and sheep. Saw farmers walking up and down their plots with their big dogs running happily ahead of them, and many, many little clusters of beautiful colorful cottages and high steepled churches. We even drove along the outskirts of the Black Forest! How cool is that!?

Once we arrived to the Frankfurt International Airport we scurried to find the train so we could make our way to Rothenburg (it’s a HUGE airport so I’m really impressed at how fast we found the station). Luckily we only had to wait about 15 min. for the train and then we were off to the lovely little town of Rothenburg!! The trip took about 2 hours with 4 transfers onto different trains. The trains in Germany are like clockwork, they arrive at the exact time they are supposed to and leave at the exact time they’re supposed to. It blew my mind. Again, it was nice to be able to relax and see the beautiful landscape. Once we finally reached Rothenburg, at about 6:30, it was sleeting and freezing (ok, it was like 40 degrees, but that’s cold to us Mediterranean woman!!). I would just like to say how proud I am of us for being able to navigate throughout the countryside of Germany knowing only a few phrases of the language (we made sure to know the important ones like “thank you” so as to not be rude; always attempt to learn a little bit of the language before you go to a foreign country, it just makes people more willing to help you, especially in Europe). We found our hotel, after a lot of map reading, and checked in. We were told where to go and I have to say that walking up the steps to our room was hilarious. Our hotel was in a little cottage that seemed like it had been built in medieval times (and probably was!), the staircase was tiny! I felt like I had to duck and I’m not exactly the tallest person on the peninsula if you know what I mean! (Italy is a peninsula…) We got to our room, opened the door and were so relieved to see a cute little room with three tiny beds. The place was adorable, like everything else in Rothenburg. Once we had settled in we went out in search of a restaurant. Most of the restaurants in little villages like this one are in the first floor of hotels and most are very very good. The first one we went to was called Brӓustüfle…I think…and it was tiny! When we went in there were 2 tables of Japanese people and a table of young Irish boys and of course us Americans (although we like to call ourselves American/Italians now); 4 tables in all and the place looked packed. It was almost strange to see that diverse of a crowd in such a small little village, but it was very cool. The owners were adorable and we had a delicious meal of wurst (sausage, pronounced “verst”), schnitzel (breaded meat mmm), kraut and herb potatoes…along with plenty of beer, of course J…we had to, it brings out the flavor of the food. Speaking of the food, it was amazing. The kraut is nothing like what we have in the States, the cabbage is cooked in coriander and other spices and tastes great. The bartender liked us a lot and gave all three of us a shot of amaretto, because we’re Italian, of course! The food was the perfect antidote to the cold winter night and we all flopped into our tiny beds warm, full and slightly drunk. It was a great start to our German adventures.

The next morning we got ready for a day of shopping around Rothenburg. Our first priority was to find a bakery/café to get some coffee and breakfast. We found a cute one called Bӓckerei Striffler which had a large assortment of pastries and an Italian espresso machine, marvelous. I had a cappuccino (you can take the girl out of Italy…) and another form of a “Berlin”, a jam filled donut, along with a poppyseed pastry (hey, when in Germany, and when freezing, you need to eat a lot! Bend to the cultural norms!). We then went around to all the little shops and bought souvenirs and trinkets. The Christmas shop was very impressive, and is apparently what the thing in Chicago is modeled after (Rothenburg is called the Christmas town because of its huge festivities around that time of year and all their little Christmas shops, they just love that holiday year round). We checked out the coo-coo clocks, which are so intricate and beautiful, but very expensive, same goes for the Steins. Later, we came across a wood engraving shop owned by an old man who painted and engraved everything he made by hand. Lunch was another meal of wurst, kraut and beer (seriously couldn’t get enough of it, my kind of food) and the afternoon was filled with more shopping and Schneeballen. Schneeballs are big, round, fried cookies dipped in an assortment of toppings like powdered sugar, cinnamon or chocolate, and can also have a delicious filling. That night we skipped dinner, we had a lot for lunch, and went to a big bar outside the town walls and had a few nice dark brews to cap off our final night in Germany.

The next morning we got up early and reluctantly made our way back to the train station. Since the station was locked (I honestly don’t think it’s ever open) we went into a little café next to the tracks and had some coffee. There was a group of older men in their drinking beer, it was a little past nine in the morning, they instantly got my nod of approval. So back to Frankfurt we went, it began snowing again on the way, and then we set off towards Italy. When we arrived into the Ciampino airport it was late so the trains weren’t operating (ohhh Italy) and it was pouring down rain, by the time we got home to the JFRC we were all soaked. We ordered €4 margherita pizzas and changed into our PJs. Ahh home sweet home.

Da Roma, con amore.

BARCELOONNNAA!!!!

*Friday, February 11*

Sooo last Friday morning we woke up at 4:30 again and headed to Campino to catch our 8 am flight to BARCELONA!!!! We made it to the airport rather smoothly but we weren’t allowed to board the plane until about 9…a good hour after the plane was supposed to take off. And that was still considered on time. God I love this country, nothing is ever on time in Italy. The whole flight was like being at a zoo, people kept getting up and walking around and downing dozens of little bottles of wine. Take-off and landing were the only times people sat down and even then the stewardesses had trouble getting people to sit. When the plane landed everyone of course applauded…twice actually, once when we landed and then again when the plane had stopped moving. Europe is hilarious.

When we arrived in Barcelona we had to figure out the public transportation system in order to get to our hostel. Once you get used to it, it’s very easy and it’s much better (and by that I mean much more reliable) than Italy’s PT. So we arrived at our hostel around noon and the place is great. Since there were 8 of us we had a room to ourselves and everything was surprisingly very clean. We locked our stuff up in the little lockers they gave us and went to look for some lunch. We stopped at this little café near the hostel and immediately spotted the differences between Spain and Italy. When we walked into the restaurant the owners weren’t immediately put off by our group size but very accommodating. They pulled three little tables together and even though they could tell we were English speakers the little Spanish woman talked to us in Spanish (with a Cataluña dialect of course) and we could actually understand her! It was great. I ordered a tuna sandwich which tasted extremely fresh, it was probably canned but I psyched myself into believing that the tuna was straight out of the sea (hey we’re in SPAIN!!). So after a nice pick-me-up we went shopping around town. Barcelona has a lot more American companies than Rome, they have Starbucks, KFC, and DUNKIN DONUTS. I love it.

We went to a ton of little boutiques with very cute clothes, some were extremely expensive and others not so bad so we didn’t feel too guilty looking around. On our way back to our hostel we ran into some very drunk English boys who said they were having a “stag-do” (bachelor party) or something and asked us to join them in their celebration. We thought that could be fun so we gave them one of our numbers so we could keep in contact.  We had decided to get Paella that night for dinner and so we went on a hunt (odyssey is probably a better word) for a good restaurant. The seafood was amazing. Complete with mussels, clams and HUGE prawns, absolutely delicious.

The next day we got up early and began our self-guided tour of Barcelona. First, we headed to the Gaudi Casa which was very cool; it’s a building with mosaics build into the façade and very curvy architecture like most of Gaudi’s designs. The colors around Barcelona are unbelievable; everything is filled with color, from the buildings to the food and all the markets, everything here is stunning. The people are great too. On the train we saw a woman get pick-pocketed (it’s very common here so you have to be really careful), the thief was trying to jump into our car just as the doors were closing but a man standing near the door literally shoved her back onto the platform where a security guard grabbed her. It was amazing, everyone applauded the man, it was quite a show!

After we saw the amazing Gaudi casa we went in search for hot chocolate and churros for breakfast, we went to this little café and I swear have never eaten anything so good for breakfast before. The churros were so fresh they were glistening with oil, it was beautiful J .We dipped them into the hot chocolate…please just go and get it, it’s heavenly.

After breakfast we went to the Sagrada Familia Basilica, which, to me, looks like dripping wax but it’s very cool and very famous. After we got our fill and plenty of pictures of the church we split up and Christina, Catlin and I went shopping while everyone else headed for the Picasso museum (we didn’t want to spend the money). I bought a very cute dress and belt and Cait got a very cute top. It was a very successful day! We went back to the hostel for a bit of rest and a few minutes later everyone came to re-group. Emily, Sienna, Cait and I decided to go out that night so we met up with the Brits at a place called the Joker Bar on the pier. The bar was playing a great collection of Beach Boys, Michael Jackson and Rihanna and we all had a great time. We got back to the hostel at about 2 and had to leave at 3:45 to make it to the airport for our 6 am flight. I love Barcelona.

Da Roma, con amore.

a brief summary of Pisa and Florence...

*Friday February 4*

Last, last weekend…sorry I’ve been slackin’…

Our alarm clock went off at 4:25 this morning. We got up, threw clothes on and headed downstairs to meet everyone in the lobby at 4:50. The Porter called two taxis for us (we couldn’t get a 6-person cab that early) and a few minutes later we were off to Termini Station. We found our train without a problem, got seats together and set off for Pisa at 6:13 on the dot. Everything went rather smoothly (for Italy I mean) and the car we were in was pretty empty. Throughout the train ride we had a beautiful view of the Italian landscape; mountains, the sea, and many fabulous ancient homes scattered about. I had signed us all up for sack lunches on Wednesday night; this is a really nice option Mensa (our dining hall) gives us. You pick your bagged lunch up on Thursday night, since we have Fridays off, and you can take it with you on your trips! It’s a very good way to save a few bucks, so we all ate those on the train as a makeshift breakfast/lunch, (it consisted of an Italian bologna sandwich (which is a shit ton better than American bologna, no offence) an apple, blood red orange juice, a cheese sandwich (for the veggies at school, we just took the cheese off and put it on the bologna sandie) and an apricot tart, it was a splendid little meal!) and in about 4 hours we arrived in the quaint little town of Pisa. We walked out of the Pisa Centrale train station and realized that we were completely unprepared. We had no map and no idea which direction to head in, but we had a good 3 hours until our train left for Florence and so decided to make the best of it! We found a map a few minutes of out the train station and began our trek to the other side of the city (where the tower is located), which took about 15 to 20 min tops. When we told people that we were going to Pisa before Florence almost everyone told us to just skip it, there was nothing to see except for the Tower, and that’s swarming with tourists. Well, this is what I have to say to those people: we had a FREAKIN BLAST in Pisa, it was the cutest little city I have ever seen. Totally worth the trip!!

When we finally got to the Tower we, of course, had to take that picture, you know that one that every tourist takes when they are in Pisa, the one where you’re holding up the tower. We had a blast trying to get these pictures and with a group of 6 it took a lot longer than we thought it would. It was so funny to see everyone hanging around that tower. We thought it would be an American tourist thing but tons of people from all over the world were trying to get the same picture. It was hilarious, everyone was laughing and doing the same pose with their hands in the air trying to hold a building that is, in reality, about a football field away. The whole experience was quite amusing.

Our train to Florence left Pisa around 1:30 in the afternoon and got in around 3. We decided to head to the hotel first so we could put all of our stuff down but since I had COMPLETELY forgot to bring our printed conformation information (I know, I’m an idiot, completely worthless) we had no idea where our hotel was…but thankfully we did know its name and found someone who could look up the address for us. The women who googled it for us said that it was a long way away, in fact her exact words were “It’s in another district completely. Not even in Florence!!” So we started freaking out…a lot (I would like to take this time and let it be known that I did not book the hotel). However, after looking at a map and chatting to a few Loyola students we had run into we decided that it wasn’t too far away. When we got into the cab we told the driver the name of the hotel and he knew exactly where it was…so no worries :)!! It was about a 20 min walk from downtown Florence, totally do-able for 6 Romans.

Needless to say, the hotel was amazing, it was a 2 bedroom apartment with 5 beds and it even had a kitchen! It was fabulous and was only 18 Euro for each of us! A very good find! That night we went out for pizza and beer at a local place, it was great stuff. We woke up early the next morning and made breakfast in our little kitchen! We had nutella, bread and eggs (breakfast of champions!!) it was so nice to have a real breakfast. We then walked downtown went shopping for a bit at the awesome markets and then met up with Father Al at the Duomo. He gave us a nice little tour of the churches and streets of Florence, it’s a great place to visit and has amazing architecture. We went through the Santa Croce Cathedral which houses the tombs of some of Italy’s best, including Galileo, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and Dante…among others. The leather shop connected to this church was amazing as well, although extremely expensive. I would recommend this tour to everyone who goes to Florence.

Because our train left at 7 we had to eat an early dinner (we had pizza again because nothing else was open…most restaurants close for a siesta after lunch from like 4-7:30). We then got on our train and headed back to Rome. It was sad to leave but felt nice to be back in Rome.

Da Roma, con amore.