This picture was taken on Sunday, September 1st, after we missed the train to the beach (which explains why I’m holding a pink towel). The disappointments of the day were cast aside after visiting this stunning landmark!
Thinking back, the first three full days in Rome are a complete blur. Each day we had an orientation of some sort, often times with other study abroad students that were studying through the same university (CEA Rome). Each morning that week was madness because we needed to find our way through the city to get to our respective meeting place (which changed daily, of course). Since no one knew where we were going, we thought it would be best to stick together. It was a great idea in theory (and we were able to put our heads together to find our destination…most of the time), but it ended up being awful. Thirty lost students on the streets of Rome is not something that the locals see everyday, so we were openly stared at. Don’t worry, I got used to it really quickly.
One we found our way to the daily meeting spot, we had to go through all of the orientation exercises. These included: lectures on safety in Rome, our academic schedule, housing rules and regulations, disciplinary policies, a walking tour of our neighborhood, a walking tour of the city center, a basic guide of how to shop for groceries in Rome, and an SOS Italian cram session. Looking back, a lot of the information we were given was really helpful (especially the walking tours), but at the time I was extremely overwhelmed. Cramming all of that essential information in three days was just too much – and I was more confused than ever at the end of that week.
Needless to say, after those three days we were all ready for the weekend. This first weekend in Rome was filled with craziness: I had to get organized for classes to start the next week, I needed to figure out how to get to the campus, I needed to buy groceries and notebooks, I needed to get started on this blog, and, most importantly, I needed to catch up on some sleep! Overall, I spent a lot of time hanging out with the group and getting to know all of them, which was probably my favorite part of the weekend. Together we had so much fun exploring the city and going out at night to check out the nightlife. We played games together and cooked all of our meals together – we even made a massive group dinner for all thirty of us (we made stir fry – all on our own!).
With all of the fun aspects of the weekend, we had many struggles. For one thing, it took us two hours to buy basic groceries because we literally had no idea how to read the packages. We also got lost in the city multiple times, which slowed us down immensely. Our biggest fail happened on Sunday, September 1st. As a group, all 24 girls decided that we wanted to hit the beach on Sunday. We planned to meet at 10:30am to begin the trek. Since we went out the night before, six of us chose to sleep in a little the next morning and just meet the rest of the girls at the beach at a later time. So we left around noon and leisurely made our way to the beach. Of course we had no idea where we were going, so getting there was a huge challenge. We took a tram to the Piazza Venezia in the middle of the city, then took a bus to Termini, the International train station (we found out later that we only needed a smaller, national station to go a little way out of Rome). At the train station, it took us a long time to figure out which train could get us to the beach at Santa Marinella. Because that took so long, we were literally running through the station, trying to make the next train before it left. Of course, we missed it. Not wanting to wait an hour for the next train just to ride it for another hour to get to the beach, we left. The day wasn’t completely wasted, though. Sarah, Renee and I went to the Coliseum and walked around the Roman Forum for a while.
Overall, my first week in Rome was filled with so many challenges and very few successes. It was extremely stressful at the time, but looking back I laugh at all of the memories I have of all of us messing up – particularly missing the train. It was a difficult time in my adventure, but it was absolutely crucial that it was so difficult because I was forced to learn about navigating Rome extremely quickly. It was a wonderful experience… but I’m so glad it’s over and I’m finally settled in 🙂
On Tuesday, August 27th we made it to Rome! Words cannot adequately express my excitement at finally arriving here. For the first time in two weeks, I was able to unpack my suitcase and settle in, which, after crashing in hostels, was a huge blessing. I was also really excited to be here because of how much everyone has built up the magnificence of this city. Throughout my pre-travel, locals would ask all about my trip and where I was headed and so I ended up explaining about my study abroad plans quite often. Every single person from every country I visited (even the French!!!), told me that I’ve haven’t experienced true beauty and perfection until I’ve been to Rome. Needless to say, if all Europeans love the city, I knew I would too.
They weren’t wrong. Rome is exhilarating, terrifying, spectacular, ancient, modern, breathtaking, and loud all at the same time. I definitely experienced (and continue to experience) beauty every day, but my first encounter with the city was different than I expected it would be. We arrived at the airport at around 4:00pm, right after one of the biggest rainstorms that Rome has seen in a long time. When got off the plane, my first glimpse in the airport was of massive puddles of standing water everywhere – clearly the airport wasn’t built to withstand much rain. Then, everyone on our flight was crowded around the tiny baggage claim with all the passengers from literally seven other flights. This was my first experience with Italian people. There was yelling, laughing, singing, swearing, and very prominent hand-gesturing going on everywhere – and at a VERY loud volume. People aren’t kidding when they describe Italians as passionate.
Thankfully, we got our bags quickly and were able to break free of the crowds… or so we thought. As soon as we left the baggage claim area, we headed to the curb outside, where we could catch a taxi to take us to our apartment in the center of Rome. Those 20 minutes of trying to figure out our taxi situation were the most terrifying 20 minutes I had experienced throughout my entire pre-travel experience. As soon as we stepped outside with our suitcases, taxi drivers literally swarmed around us within seconds, each telling us that we should hire him for our journey. Of course we had to spend precious time discussing which taxi to take: our school advised us to take taxis that were clearly marked with the neon signs above the car and not the black vans that could fit about eight people. Denying the van drivers was such a process. They were so mad at us by the end of it and I’m quite certain that they called us foul names in Italian. Finally we found the right taxis, but we had to split up because there were six of us and each with a massive suitcase. We separated into two groups of three and then spent even more time trying to shove our stuff into the trunks. I’m sure we really irritated our drivers. They just looked at us like “Geez, dumb Americans, why do you need all this crap!?” Believe me, I had been asking myself that same question for two weeks.
The taxi ride was the most terrifying ride of my life. My driver was typing on his GPS and reading it the whole time, with one hand on the wheel and his eyes on his lap. I learned on that cab ride that lanes on roads are more of a guideline than anything, because cars paid absolutely no attention to them. He was zipping in and out of cars so quickly that I thought we were going to get into an accident three separate times. Another thing I learned about Italian drivers: they are NOT afraid to use their horns, and they will honk them as many times as it takes for them to be heard. The giant puddles all over the road from the earlier rain weren’t helping my nerves much either.
One extremely wild ride later, we made it to our apartments. Just to put our drive into perspective, it was supposed to take us about an hour to get from the airport to our location – we got there in 20 minutes. Those first few minutes in the apartment were some of my favorite so far. We all walked in not knowing what we would see and not knowing what on earth to expect, and so, naturally, I was a bit apprehensive. My first reaction to my new location was overwhelming relief at seeing my fellow classmates all waiting for us. I didn’t know any of these girls coming into the trip, but we instantly connected because we are all Bennies. Having a connection that simple was so comforting because it meant that these girls knew where we came from. That first night was filled with complete joy and relief. We spent it talking and laughing, and sharing all of our crazy stories from pre-travel. It didn’t matter what sort of friends we had or what kind of life we led back at St. Ben’s – the only thing that mattered was that we were surrounded by people whom we knew had our backs at all times. Since that night, the dynamic hasn’t changed. We come from all different walks of life, have completely different interests and different friends, but we always stick together and look out for each other. This was my first encounter of beauty in Rome.
After both a harrowing and joyful day, my bed felt so welcoming. I don’t think I’ve ever had a more complete night’s sleep.
Barcelona was the final stop of my pre-travel adventure. I had heard many amazing things about Spain, so I was rather excited for this portion of the trip. The second we landed in the Barcelona airport, it was like a veil had been lifted and my eyes had been opened – I could understand the language! After three days in Paris, where I couldn’t understand literally anything, reading and hearing and actually understanding the Spanish was better than I could have ever imagined. Being able to use my Spanish knowledge and communicate with the locals was my favorite thing about Spain.
On the day of our arrival, the wheels of my suitcase burst open while I was pulling it across the cobblestones of the city to my hostel. Needless to say, that was an expensive problem to correct. Once we arrived at our hostel, however, everything got better. Our hostel (360 Barcelona) was unbelievable, especially in comparison to the Dublin and London hostels. For the first time, we had a room in which we could actually fit our suitcases and plenty of showers with consistently warm water. After we got settled in, we headed out to a nearby restaurant for dinner. The dinner was really good – I had chicken and rice with fresh vegetables. I also had my first glass of Sangria with that meal, which was delicious. We ended our night at the beach on the eastern coast of the city. It was a beautiful night and the water was so warm!
On our first full day in Spain, Saturday, August 24th, was a blast. Again we decided to do the same New Europe tour that we did in Dublin, London, and Paris. As usual, the tour was a huge success. Our guide, Leon, was so energetic and knew so much about Spanish history. We visited some old castles, cathedrals, ruins, and parks. At the end of the tour, he delivered a poem he wrote that reviewed all of the information we covered together. After the tour, we went to a big department store, El Corte Ingles, and Paige and I bought new suitcases. As soon as our suitcases were purchased, we headed back to the hostel, transferred all of our stuff into our new suitcases, and got ready to hit the town and check out the nightlife.
Trying to find a restaurant that night was interesting. We were all exhausted and none of us knew what we want, so we walked down the coast looking for something good. Apparently it’s common in Barcelona to display dead fish on a platter at the front of the restaurant – the smell was so bad and I literally almost ran into a giant swordfish because I looked away for a split second. Finally we settled on a Mexican restaurant, which was mediocre (they didn’t have fajitas!!! What kind of Mexican restaurant doesn’t have fajitas?). After a long relaxing dinner, we hit the clubs! We arrived at the clubs around 10:30 that night and there was literally no one out (the people in Spain don’t go out until 2:00am). We weren’t ashamed though, we started the party. We danced for a couple hours and a few guys joined us – Thor, from Denmark, and Mark and Brandon from the Netherlands. We had a lot of fun talking to them with their broken English and listening to them rap all of the American songs better than we could. Paige wasn’t feeling too well after the Mexican food, so unfortunately our night ended early. We still had tons of fun though.
The next day we went to visit La Sagrada Familia. The church was absolutely stunning even though it hasn’t been completed yet. It is massive and the square was crowded, but the atmosphere was very peaceful. After visiting the cathedral, we hiked a few miles up a hill to visit another Gaudi masterpiece: Park Guell. We didn’t account for how large this park would be. There were layers upon layers of different levels and areas and plazas that we couldn’t have seen the whole place even if we had one week to explore. The park really nice, though, despite the size. We all bought souvenirs from the vendors and we listened to a few different bands playing throughout the park. It was a happy, fun, family-centered environment, which I enjoyed very much.
After we finished looking around Park Guell, we decided to head up to Castle Montjuic, which is located on a large mountain on the other side of the city. Figuring out how to get there using the Barcelona metro system was pretty easy – after conquering both the London and Paris metro systems, we were professionals. Of course we couldn’t take the train all the way up the mountain, so we caught a special bus that drove us the rest of the way. The bus ride was terrifying to say the least. We sped around tons of curves so fast that I thought we were going to tip over. We made it to the top a little dizzy, but otherwise unhurt. The view from the top of the castle was stunning – we could see the entire city as well as the Mediterranean Sea. Though we got completely lost coming back down the Mountain, the trip to Castle Montjuic was well worth our time. On the metro heading back to the hostel, I had an entire conversation in Spanish with two soccer players from Bilbao. This was probably the coolest cultural experience I had throughout my entire pre-travel – the boys were so excited to help me with my Spanish and I was really impressed with everything that I remembered from my high school Spanish days.
The next day (Monday, August 26th) was our final day in Barcelona and our last full day of pre-travel. Our original plan was to spend the day at the beach and relax before our semester in Rome began, but when we woke up that morning to the pouring rain outside our window, we had to reevaluate. Instead of hitting the beach, we hit La Rambla, which is the most famous street in Barcelona. It is known for its incredible shopping and massive market. The shopping was fun – I didn’t buy anything because it was all too expensive, but I enjoyed seeing the European fashion in its purest form. The market we visited was amazing. It was so large and there were so many different types of goods being sold. The fresh fruit was so cheap and so was the bulk candy – I, of course, sampled both 🙂
We ended our last night by going out for a nice dinner. We looked around the streets by our hostel for something good and cheap and, just our luck, we found a really cute pasta restaurant. Even though we were leaving for Italy the next day, we caved and ate there. The pasta was delicious and I enjoyed the time we spent together that night – for once we weren’t worried about which sites we would see the next day and what time we were going to wake up because we knew exactly what lay ahead: Roma.
Overall, pre-travelling was exhausting, it was difficult, it was stressful and it was extremely expensive. Most importantly, though, pre-travelling was a blessing. I had an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience throughout those 15 days. I learned something new about four extremely different cultures and lifestyles, I learned how to relax and take every challenge in stride, I learned how to navigate my way around large cities using the metro, buses and trains, and I especially learned to be grateful of the extremely privileged life I have in America.
My next posts will vary in content. I expect that I will primarily comment on interesting aspects of European life and highlight my most memorable experiences. Stay tuned!
Paris was the stop on mypre-travel that I was dreading. I had heard too many horror stories about how rude the French are and how dirty Paris is to really get excited about visiting. Because of these grim preconceptions, I was shocked at how quickly I fell so utterly in love with Paris. The city is absolutely stunning and I enjoyed each day immensely.
Though I loved my experience in Paris, the day we travelled from London to Paris was a complete disaster. We woke up at about 6:00am in London and got onto the Chunnel, which is a high-speed train that takes us from England, under the English Channel, to Paris. We chose to take the train to the airport insteadof the city center because we planned on meeting the sixth member of our group,Katelyn, as soon as she landed. The ride itself went rather well – I slept almost the whole way (about 2.5 hours). When we arrived at the airport, things went sour. The Paris airport was a huge mess: there were literally six different terminals and no bathrooms anywhere. We wandered through the airport for about a half hour (dragging all of our luggage, of course) searching frantically for a bathroom. Once we found it, our next goal was to try and find Katelyn. We designated a spot where a couple members of the group would sit with everyone’s luggage while a few others would try to find her, but while we were getting organized at our spot, Paige noticed that she lost her wallet. That’s when chaos took over. Paige was freaking out (understandably) and half of us were trying to help her while the other half were trying to look for Katelyn. We spent the next two hours going from Customer Service stations in the airport and in the train station trying to locate her wallet. Meanwhile, Paige is the only one that can speak French, but is too beside herself to do it, so Racheal and I are making fools of ourselves trying to communicate with our hands and little French words. Thank God Hannah was able to find Katelyn in the midst of that craziness. After all of our efforts, we left the airport about seven hours later (6:00pm) completely starving, exhausted, and without Paige’s wallet.
Just like in London, figuring out where our hostel was and how to get there took forever. We finally asked a nice French man who gave us good directions, and we hopped on the metro and headed to our Paris home. When wewere booking hostels back in March, we chose to rent an apartment for 3 nights instead of staying in a hostel because it was a lot cheaper. So when we found our apartment in Saint Maurice, France (just outside of the city center of Paris), we were relieved that the place even existed. Not staying in a hostel was amazing. We had two rooms with three people in each. We had an actual bed instead of a bunk bed, we had our own bathroom and shower, a microwave and refrigerator, and we had so much space to set our suitcases! By the time we settled in, it was close to 9:00pm. Hannah decided to stay back at the apartment, but the rest of us were starving so we set off to find a decent restaurant. We walked right up the street to this adorable little pizzeria, where we had a great time relaxing and catching up with Katelyn.
The next day (Wednesday, August 21st) was our first full day in Paris. We got up nice and early so that we could pick up advance tickets for the Louvre at one of the train stations. Of course we got lost in the actual train station and couldn’t find the store we were looking for. When we finally found it, we had a lot of trouble communicating with the employee and it took us about 20 minutes to fully explain what we needed from him. By the time we had gotten the tickets, we had spent about two hours in the train station and had missed our 11:00am tour.
Because we decided to do the same tour that we did in both Dublin and London, we knew that the company offered the same tour at 1:00pm. We made our way to the meeting place, did some souvenir shopping, and then metfor the tour. Just like in Dublin and London, the tour was spectacular. When the tour ended, we went to explore the Louvre. The building of the Louvre is massive: it has three separate sections and each section has four different floors and multiple wings. I got completely lost after I saw The Mona Lisa (it wasn’t that impressive, really. Plus I couldn’t get very close to it) and could not find my way out of the ancient Egypt section. I was really impressed by all of the pieces I saw there, but what was most impressive was the building itself. The ceilings were covered in gold leaf paintings and the walls were marble with beautiful edging. Since we decided to split up in the Louvre and meet out in the Tuileries Gardens an hour later, I left the museum a bit early to explore the gardens. This was possibly my favorite part of my experience in Paris because I roamed by myself and saw all of the beautiful sculptures and flowers in the gardens.Looking at the outside of the Louvre was marvelous too because the building itself is a work of art.
After the Louvre, we hiked down to the Seine River and electedto do a boat tour of Paris at night. This part of the night was absolutely breathtaking. While we were walking to the dock, the Eiffel Towerlit up, which meant that we had to stop and take pictures. Then we crowded on the boat and, for the first time all day, actually got to sit down. The temperature was perfect by that point too, thankfully – it had been an extremely hot day and I could feel a sunburn coming on. The boat cruise was really fun because we got to see all of Paris lit up, which only seems appropriate – it isn’t called the City of Lights for nothing! We started at the base of the Eiffel Tower, went under the bridge Pont Neuf andthen coasted up past theLouvre and L’arc de triomphe. We finished at the Notre Dame cathedral and looped back to the Eiffel Tower. After the cruise we were exhausted so we chose to head back to the apartment. The walk to the metro was a bit confusing and we got turned around a couple times, but we made it there eventually. We also noticed about halfway through our walk that we were being followed by some extremely drunk Spanish boys whowere yelling obscene things at us. That was really creepy, but we ditched themon the metro and escaped without their notice.
The next day (Thursday, August 22nd) was our last full day in Paris, which was a huge bummer because, with our airport dilemmas, we only had two full days to explore. This last day was incredible, though. It was nice primarily because we split up into two groups of three instead of one group of six so there was just less craziness in general. Katelyn, Paige, and I left earlier in the morning and brought some fruit along so that we could eat breakfast beneath the Eiffel Tower. It was really crowded at the Eiffel Tower that morning so we didn’t spend too much time there. Because of the crowds, we were paranoid about our purses being stolen so we clutched them all morning. It’s a good thing we did, too, because I watched a man snatch a distracted woman’s purse. He disappeared before I even realized what happened.
Initially, we planned to meet up with the rest of our group at Notre Dame, but we got completely turned around using the metro system. By the time we made it to Notre Dame, we were an hour and a half late and the rest of the group were gone. We ate lunch at a small cafe near the Notre Dame because the apple that we ate five hours earlier at the Eiffel Tower did not tide us over. Paige got a cheese omelette and I got a ham omelette and we combined them for a ham and cheese omelette – it was literally 10 Euros cheaper than getting one ham and cheese omelette.
After our lunch stop, we headed to the northern district of Paris, Montmarte. This is the ritzy part of Paris that used to be home to the artists in the 1800’s. We hiked up this big hill and found the Sacred Heart Cathedral, which was even more stunning than Notre Dame. There was live music all over the plaza on the hill and we could see all of Paris spread out beneath us. Our afternoonat Montmarte a perfect relaxing trip.
Our last big adventure in Paris was the dinner that we ate after Montmarte. While we were visiting the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, we were chatting with an American family who lived in Paris for three years. They told us about this little restaurant that had amazing steak that is served in this really different green sauce. Well we were determined to find it. After we hiked across Paris, we asked some locals about the restaurant. Thanks to my navigation skills, we were heading in the right direction and the restaurant was just a block ahead. When we got there, a line of locals were outside waiting for it to open. As soon as it opened, we dashed upstairs for a table and our salads were already sitting at our table. The waitress came up, handed us a drink menu, and asked us how we liked our meat cooked. We didn’t realize that the steak in the funny green sauce was the only meal that they served. They were famous for it for a good reason – it was the best steak I’ve ever had. The sauce was a perfect mix of butter, garlic, and pesto and halfway through the meal, our waitress brought around a whole second helping of both steak and fries. I had the best dessert of my pre-travel experience after the steak as we sipped our wine. To end the perfect meal, we befriended some elderly British women who were sitting beside us – they took a picture of us and helped us figure out the bill. Overall, it was one of the most memorable experiences of this past month.
Of the four cities we planned to visit for our pre-travel, London was the one I looked forward to the most. I had so many things in mind that I needed to see and I couldn’t wait to explore the city. Here’s what happened: London kicked my butt. Coming from the beautiful, calm, walkable city of Dublin, London was a rude awakening. When I flew into Heathrow Airport on Friday, August 16th, I knew right away that London would be different. The airport itself was extremely confusing and it was difficult to orient myself quickly. Once we got our bags, we headed down to the metro stop beneath the terminal. I was in line for about 20 minutes trying to figure out which sort of metro pass would be the cheapest and most effective. We settled on a standard pass that we could reload with money whenever we ran out (which we ended up changing almost an hour later, at the advice of our hostel attendant).
The metro ride to our hostel was interesting. We all had so much stuff and thus we became those annoying people that had to push through everyone on the train. With a 50-pound suitcase and a 30-pound backpack, the hour and a half that we spent on the metro was absolutely terrible. The second I opened my mouth to speak, the British folks openly stared at me. Apparently, I stood out quite a bit – and I didn’t get much better at blending in as my stay went on.
When we got to our hostel, we faced a whole new battle: trying to figure out what we wanted to do and when. Because London is such a massive city and no monument is close to another, this proved to be a very difficult task. But we settled on something of a game plan and headed out. That first night, we visited the Tate Modern, which is a renowned museum of modern art. Since I don’t quite have the intellectual capacity to fully understand modern art, I’m ashamed to say that I was hopelessly bored in about 30 seconds. After wandering around for a while, Hannah and I decided that we would leave the museum and take a walk down the Thames River and then meet the others back in the lobby about a half hour later. We all agreed on the meeting place and time and so Hannah and I left. When we got back to our meeting place at the designated time, the others weren’t there. Apparently we just missed each other, because we waited for almost and hour and a half before giving up and deciding to get something to eat. We ate some awesome chicken at Nando’s on the Thames, which was so fun. But it was only the first night and we had already been separated from one another.
The next morning (Saturday, August 17th) we rose nice and early. We took the metro to Leicester Square, a famous shopping district in the city center, and went to adiscounted ticket stand to buy tickets to a show. We scored some cheap tickets (about 35 pounds) to the 2:00pm matinee show of The Phantom of the Opera that night. Since we dressed up for the show, we didn’t want to hike around the city searching for monuments, so we stayed in Leicester Square and explored the shops. The gigantic four story M&M World was our favorite stop. Then we found a fancy restaurant close to Her Majesty’s Theatre (where the show was to take place) and had a cheap lunch. It was the first time we could legally order a glass of wine – and they didn’t even card us! Then we went to the show. Words cannot describe how amazing the production was. Since I’ve been dying to see The Phantom of the Opera on stage for about seven years, being able to see it in London at Her Majesty’s Theatre was a dream come true. It was my favorite outing in London by far, and one of the best experiences throughout all of my pre-travel. After the play we took the metro to King’s Cross Station and took a picture at Platform 9 3/4 – another dream come true! We proceeded to get lost in the streets of London immediately after that and spent the rest of the night trying to find our way back to the hostel. Once we found it, we went to this little Greek restaurant right across the street and I had the best pork and rice of my life.
On Sunday (August 18th), we did the same walking tour that we did in Dublin. This was really fun because we got to see some of themore touristy things, like Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben. The most beautiful landmark we saw on that tour was the Houses of Parliament. I really enjoyed the tour and it was a great way to get our bearings in the city. Just like in Dublin, we ended the tour at an authentic pub, called The Old Munk, where we spent about two hours chatting with our tour guide, Andrew, and some of the other group members. Valerie, a girl from Quebec who we met on the tour, walked around with us after our lunch. We walked to the Tower of London and the Tower bridge on the Thames. We found a nice restaurant on the river and had some dessert together before we said our goodbyes to Valerie.
Monday, August 19th was our last full day in London. We decided that it would best to split up and spend some time ensuring that we saw what we each wanted to see before we had to leave the city. Paige and I originally wanted to go on the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour in Watford, England, but we didn’t search for tickets early enough and they were all sold out. Missing the tour, especially after reading reviews of how awesome it is, was the biggest disappointment I experienced during my pre-travel. But, in order to assuage our sadness, we decided to see another show. Paige and I went back to Leicester Square and bought tickets for A Chorus Line, which is an original London musical. We spent the time before the show at the Tower of London, exploring the medieval castle and seeing the Crown Jewels. We grabbed dinner and dessert at a mediocre restaurant named Garfunkel’s and then headed to the show. A Chorus Line ended up being much different than I expected and it certainly didn’t have the wow factor that The Phantom of the Opera had, but I still had a lot of fun. It was a great end to the craziness that was London. We turned in earlybecause we had to be up by 4:00am to catch the early train to Paris the next morning.
Dublin is an incredible city, and it was the perfect place to start my crazy pre-travel. The minute I landed in the Dublin airport, I knew that I would love the city. All of the staff were so incredibly nice and genuinely interested in helping us find our way around. We got great advice from the employee at the Touristbooth and he gave us perfect directions for getting to our hostel. We spent about 15 extra minutes at the booth just chatting with him and telling him about our trip – he just kept asking questions! Because of that conversation, my new favorite word is “cheers” 🙂
After we got to our hostel, we met up with our other group members and set off on foot to explore the city. I had an awesome time wandering through the little back streets of Dublin. In those two hours, I saw so many musicians playing on the sidewalks and so many people – both tourists and locals alike – dancing all around them. Laughter and fun were the universal components of the night.
The next day (Wednesday, August 14th) was packed with sightseeing. We saw Oscar Wilde’s house and office on Merrion Street and I got a picture in front of his memorial. Then we went on a free walking tour of the city, which was fantastic. Our guide was hilarious and the tour company gave us a discounted lunch after the tour. We went to O’Neills pub with some of the remaining members of our tour (as well as the guide) and had a traditional Irish meal. I had beef and Guinness stew, which was my first official meal since I left Minneapolis. It was delicious and the company of other travelers was excellent.
That night, three of us went on a pub crawl with two of the people we met on the tour. The pub crawl was run by the same company that gave us the free tour – it took us to five separate authentic Irish pubs and we ended at a nightclub on the Liffey river. The pub crawl was the highlight of my trip in Dublin because Iexperienced so many new things. I had my first (and hopefully last) pint of Guinness beer and I saw four amazing Irish bands perform. I also tried traditional Irish cider, Bulmer’s, which was actually quite good (especially in comparison to the Guinness), and I sampled some home-brewed strawberry beer. Ending at the nightclub was great too, because we danced the night away with young adults from all over the world.
The next day (Thursday, August 15th), was our last full day in Dublin. We spent it wandering down O’Connell Street looking in all of the local, high-end shops. I bought some fancy chocolate at a cute Irish chocolate shop and I finally bought an authentic Irish Claddagh ring, which I had been eyeing for a while. Then, it rained. Hard. But, with time running out, we pushed on to the Guinness factory. It took us about an hour to walk to the factory and, by the time we made it, we were soaked. My shoes were wet for the next three days and I had to throw my socks away because they didn’t dry at all. After spending time at the factory, we went back and ate a late dinner at O’Shea’s Restaurant, where we watched Irish dancing and listened to another Irish band. It was the perfect way to wrap up our splendid stay in Ireland.
The beginning of my trip – Monday, August 12th – was a bit rocky. Saying goodbye to my family and loved ones wasn’t easy, but at least I expected that challenge. What I didn’t expect was to miss my international connecting flight to Dublin. My flight from Minneapolis to Chicago was on time when I arrived at the airport and it remained on time throughout the check-in and security processes. When I got to my gate, however, one of the employees came over the P.A. system and announced that our flight was to be delayed about an hour due to a groundstop at the Chicago O’Hare airport. This sent me into immediate panic mode because, if everything went as planned, I was only going to have about 25 minutes from when my flight landed in Chicago to when I needed to be on the plane headed to Dublin. And, of course, nothing was going as planned. The woman over the P.A. explained that a groundstop meant that no flights were coming in to or leaving the Chicago airport. I thought this meant I was in the clear: If no flights were allowed to leave, then surely I would make my international flight. But the employee sent me over the edge when she continued to say that all international flights were still operating on schedule despite the groundstop.
Upon hearing this unwelcome news, I immediately headed up to the counter to ask the employee what the heck I was supposed to do about missing my flight. I must have looked extremely concerned, because as soon as I started asking for her help, her face softened and she assured me that she could work everything out. She remained true to her word by putting me on a much later flight out of Chicago that was going to London and then booking an additional flight from London to Dublin for me.
Fortunately, I was flying with another girl in my group so I wasn’t alone for the elongated layovers. We kept each other company (and calm) throughout the following 24 hours as we made our way to Dublin. After the hiccough of getting to Chicago, everything went smoothly. Our international flight was actually rather comfortable. I slept for most of the 8-hour flight (which really helped lessen the jet lag!) and we were sitting next to the cutest little baby, so at least we had something to look at when we were awake. We made it to Dublin safely and with all of our luggage, but instead of arriving at 8:00am, we arrived at around 6:00pm. I’m so thankful that everything worked out, but it was a real shame that we missed out on 10 precious hours in Dublin.
Hello! I would like to preface this blog by explaining how I plan to proceed with future posts. Since I’m getting a bit of a late start, I hope to write multiple posts in a short span of time, which will include my observations, highlights, and low points of my pre-travel experience. When I finish commenting on those two weeks, I will dive into my adventures in Rome and Athens!
I’m going to give you brief explanation of the logistics of my trip (where I went and when) so this blog is a bit easier to follow. For those of you that don’t know, the program I am participating in is the Roman-Greco program, operated by the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University. Essentially, this means that I am going to spend about 6.5 weeks in Rome, Italy, and another 6.5 weeks in Athens, Greece. This equates to one full semester abroad. I am studying art history, the history of the Western and Eastern Church, Italian and Greek literature, and the Italian and Greek languages. This program and these courses compliment and enhance my English major and Communications minor.
The beginning of this blog will focus on my pre-travel experience. I left for my semester abroad 15 days before I needed to be in Rome with a group consisting of 5 other girls. Together we chose to pre-travel, knowing that it would be easier (and cheaper) to visit as much of Europe as possible in one big sitting. I left the U.S. on Monday, August 12th and spent three days in Dublin, Ireland. From there, I went to London, England for four days. The next stop was to Paris, France, where I spent another three days. We passed the final four days of our pre-travel in Barcelona, Spain, before we flew to Rome on Tuesday, August 27th.
Just a warning: In this blog, I am NOT going to be focusing on perfecting my writing. For that reason, I apologize for my potential grammar slippages! Also, I tend to ramble, which I regret. I’ll do my best to keep it short, but I know I’ll end up writing much more than is necessary. You don’t have to read all of it – I will most likely bore the socks off of you 🙂 With that being said, I’ll just get started. Happy reading!
Losing Myself in Europe... Literally 