Out till Fall

As of today at 3:07, I have completed the "studying" part in studying abroad. That's right! I am now a junior in college (weird!) and have finished my semester at the University of Ulster. It was definitely an experience and I am so glad I had the chance to see what college was like "across the pond." While I appreciated the relaxed, small school environment here I am very excited to go back to school at ASU this August and know I will appreciate it so much more.

Now that school is out, I am also excited for the rest of my time abroad! Next week I'll be in Paris and just a week after that my mom comes to visit me! Some people say "Home is where your mom is," and I am so excited to see her and travel around the U.K. together before the end of my Irish adventure.

And now for a long overdue addition to my list of funny sayings and weird words of the Irish:

• craic: night life, As in, "Hey, how was the craic at the Anchor last night?"
  
• buggy: a stroller
• nappy: a diaper
• hob: stove
• game: match
  
• Nill - nill: This is the appropriate response when the pizza delivery man asks you what's the score for football match. If you respond "zero - zero," you WILL get made fun of. By a pizza delivery man.
  

* Check back tomorrow for my second post on my Spring Break adventures! I have uploaded all my picturea and am hoping to finish writing about it tomorrow. :-)

Spring Break Pt. 2: Wien

We arrived in Vienna at 8:30 in the morning, after one very long and uncomfortable overnight train ride. It probably wouldn't have been so bad and we all may have even managed to sleep some if we had discovered that our seat folded down and out into beds before 7:45 am. But even though were were sleep deprived we were in Vienna, so it was hard to complain! We found our hostel, checked in and started to explore!

While the other walked around a bit, Kelly and I decided to visit the Hofburg Imperial Palace. This palace has been home to some of Austria's most powerful citizens including the Hofburg Dynasty which ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire and currently serves as the official residence of Austria's President, Heinz Fischer. My favorite fun fact about this palace is in 1755 Marie Antoinette was born here.


The Hofburg Palace is also home to an armory, historical musical instruments, and a classical statuary from ancient Ephesus.


This picture made me want to watch one of my favorite movies, A Knight's Tale...

" You have been weighed. You have been measured. And you have been found wanting."

When we ventured into the historical musical instruments gallery I had to get a picture in front of same very very old flutes...out of respect for my glory days in band and orchestra! Yes, its safe to say I will always be a band geek at heart. And I am completely okay with that. :-)

Later that same day we took the metro out to visited Schonbrunn Palace which had an absolutey magnificent garden!


A festival at the palace's entrance for the Easter Holiday the day before...


One of the garden's many fountains.


A cute shot of Katie with a great view of the palace and garden.


For dinner that night our hostel told us we had to try weinerschnitzel, Vienna's most famous dish. We found the best little restaurant just around the corner form where we were staying called the Mozart Cafe. Let me tell you, they cooked a mean weinerschnitzel! And as Sydney, my Southern friend, observed it tasted exacktly like "chicken fried pork." Yum.

The next day we explored the city some more...

Apple Love, its a powerful thing.


The first stop we made was the beautiful St. Stephen's Cathedral in the heart of the city. I loved the Gothic Architecture and the pictures below definitely do not do it justice. It stands on the ruins of two other churches, the first being a parish consecrated in 1147. Its one of the oldest structures in Vienna and has become one of the cities most recognizable structures. And not that I'm an architecure expert or anything, it was my favorite cathedral of the entire trip.






Views like this made me expect Quasimodo to peer out over the church's balcony. (It's quite possible I watch too many movies...)


After our cathedral fun, and on the recomendation of a souvenir shop owner, we tasted Vienna's most famous dessert, Sacer-Torte.


It may only look like a square of chocolate cake, BUT it is so much more than that! I'm not sure what exaclty is in this little chocalate-y cube of goodness but it is Divine, with a capital D.

After we came down from our sugar high, we made out way to Belvedere Palace, also home to a museum and beautiful garden. I wa most excited for this particular palace though because it houses paintings from some of my favorite artists like Klimt, Monet and Renoir.


Here are some of the paintings I was able to see in real life...

Klimt's The Kiss...

Part of Monet's Giverny Garden collection...


After I had my fair share of culture for the day, I went out to the garden's to meet up with the rest of my non-art-loving group. ;-)




We had decided earlier that morning that we would try and snag some standing tickets to the Royal Opera company for the performance that night. But before we waited in line for tow and a half hours we stopped at a Bratwurst stand for dinner. Again, YUM!

We really LOVE Bratwursts. All of the German-esque food was very much appreciated after our previous eight days of pasta, pasta, pasta!


Right next to the Bratwurst stand was this statue and park dedicated to one of Vienna's most famous musicians, Mozart. It's hard to make out in this picture, but the yellow flowers in fron of the statue are in the shape of a treble clef.


Emma and me being cute.

After our photo shoot with Mozart we continued our walk to the Opera house and on the way we passed a Steinway & Sons piano shop. Steinways are to pianos what Bentlys are to cars, so it was neat to peer into the window and see some of the world's finest pianos.


Finally we made it to the Royal Opera House. We had taken a tour the preivous day and were so excited to be back to see a show.

The following two pictures were taken from our tour the day before. The opera house has a rule that they never perform the same show two nights in a row, which means a lot of work for the stage crew who are constantly setting up and tearing down some very complex sets.



Here we are in out "standing room only" section, not bad four 4 euros! The show we saw was Wagner's Barber of Seville and it was fabulous! Being a former vocal performance major made me love it that much more and I am so glad we went.


The next day we hopped on a train to the last city on our European tour -- Munchen!!

The final installment to my Spring Break '09 blogging saga will be posted tomorrow! :-)

Spring Break Pt. 1: Italia!!

*Warning* This blog is extremely long BUT very well illustrated. :-) Enjoy!!

ROMA

On Friday, April 3rd our little group landed in Rome at 10:30pm. Our flight had been delayed by about two hours, putting us into the city later than we had originally planned. Instead of taking the train to our hostel from the airport like we had originally planned, an extremely "persistent" (that's code for annoying) taxi driver finally lowered his prices enough to talk 7 college students on a budget to hop into his 9 passenger van. We had been driving for a while when he told all of us to close our eyes. I whispered to Sydney that I'm pretty sure closing your eyes for a stranger in a foreign country tops the list of things white, American college students are NOT supposed to do...but we did anywaysn (Sorry mom and dad!) About thirty seconds later he told us to open our eyes and we we looked out the window to realize we were driving by the Colosseum at night. It looked absolutely magnificent all lit up and it was a great introduction to Roma! Even though it was late, we decided to go exploring anyways and after some delicious pizza from a restaurant across the street from our hostel, we began a lovely night time stroll through Rome!

After walking around for a bit we finally found the Trevei Fountain. It was absolutely gorgeous and my pictures definitely do not do it justice.


The next morning, on our way to the Vatican, we noticed what appeared to be some sort of street fair with ballons and music a little ways away from our hostel. Interested in "soaking up the culture" (that one is code for free food) we decided to take a detour and partake in the festiviites. Walking through the "fair" we noticed some strange looking symbols and a whole lot of red shirts and realized our "street fair" was acutally a full blown communist rally. Whoops.

Once we veered away from all the political activity, we saw some more of the city on our way to the Vatican.

One of many piazzas...(incidentally, I think "piazza" might be one of my new favorite words.)

By far the most creative human statue I've seen!
We were in Rome at just the right time and those purple blossoms were everywhere!

Entering Vatican City!
The Vatican!

St. Peter's Basilica was gorgeous and I did manage to get some decent photos!




After visiting the Basilica, we headed over to the Vatican Museum where the Sistine Chapel is located. Here are some pictures from the museum...



I couldn't believe how intricate the paintings and tapestries decorating this coridoor were. Definitely a sensory overload!
Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the Sistine Chapel. BUT I still managed to sneak one, albeit blurry, photo of the Chapel's most famous work of art. Look familiar?!


After our Vatican fun and lunch, we headed back to visit the Trevei Fountain during daylight. I still liked it better at night though.

Two coins thrown with your right hand over your left shoulder is supposed to bring you good luck. We shall see!
The next day after walking around the city some more we climbed the steps of some kind of "capitol building" for some views of the city AND the Colosseum!!



I know it is a tad bit cliche to go to Rome and gush about the Colosseum but I absolutely LOVED it. I could not get over how old this amazing building is and all of the history surrounding it!




A little historical irony for kicks. ;-) Peace!


For you dad! Some remains of the Colosseum's causalities of the animal kind. Yikes!

I'm no photographer, but I still think I desserve some props for this photo!

After we pryed ourselves aways from the Colosseum, we walked through the Forum, also known as Palatine Hill. The Forum was where all the buisiness and politics took place back in Rome's glory days. There were also gardens and palaces on the outskirts of the main area.



Can you imagin living here?! (Er...circa Ancient Rome, not circa now).



I was a little shocked - and delighted - to find a cactus in the middle of this beautiful Roman garden.

The following photos are where all the action happened!

The Arch of Titus...


Where Ceasar died/was buried. (The plaque was in Italian and we could only make out certain words--Ceasar and death).



Just outside the Forum is Peter and Paul's jail cell. Visiting this site was definitely a little sobering and demonstrated the crueler side of Ancient Rome.



The very narrow stairs leading down to the cell...

The cell. I couldn't stand to be in this room for more than a few minutes, as it turns out I'm a little claustrophobic. I can't begin to imagine what it was like being imprisoned in this dungeon.

After Peter and Paul's cell, I took a page out of Audrey Hepburn's book and visited "La Bocca della Verità" or the Mouth of Truth. This is the site of one of Roman Holiday's most famous scenes and I made sure to visit it, as promised to my wonderful roommate Beth. :-) The Lion was originally used with legal documents. Before a contract was signed, it was tradition for it to be placed inside the lion's mouth. If the document was dishonest the lion would bite down on the document and the dishonest arm holding it. ;-)


After I was done pretending to be Miss Hepburn, we visited the Pantheon. This temple was originally built in 126 A.d. to serve all the gods of Ancient Rome. It is the oldest standing domed structure in Rome and one of the best preserved buildings in the world. Another fun fact about this bulding is that today's architectural engineers are unable to recreate the dome design and have no idea how the struture stands.


Overall we had a blast in Rome, and it was definitely my favorite city of the entire trip. After spending 3 days there we hopped on a train to Florence with our handy EURail passes. :-)

FIRENZE

One of the first things we saw on our first day in Florence, or Firenze, was the Duomo. Construction of this gigantic Cathedral began in 1296 in the Gothic style and was completed finally in 1436.

Katie and me being cute!

The amazing dome!

The painted ceiling depicts hell, earth and heaven.
We were able to climb 483 steps to the top of the dome for some spectacular views of the city, Unfortunately, my camera died. But take my word for it, the view was awesome. :-)

The next day we took the bus into a town called Fiesole, right in the heart of Tuscany. It was beautiful and I wish we could have spent more time in this quaint little town.



We ate dinner at this restaurant. So cute!



After dinner we watched the sun set.

The next day we spent back in Florence. That morning I woke up early to beat the lines and see the David. I was a little skeptical at just how much I would appreciate this giant marble statue but I loved it. And though I wasn't brave enough to attempt at snapping a forbidden picture, my photography skills wouldn't have done the statue justice anyways.

Later that morning Sydney and I visited the Basilica of Santa Croce where some of Italy's most famous Italians are buried like Michelangelo, Galileo, Da Vinci and basically the entire cast of the Ninja Turtles.


Leonardo Da Vinci's tomb.
Michelangelo's tomb.
Syndey being cute. :-)
And nerdy me showing some Dante love! Dante's Inferno was one of my favorite readings in highschool so I was very excited to see his tomb.
Later we walked around the city some more and of course, stopped for some yummy gelato along the river.

Later that afternoon Katie and I visited Piza. It was only an hour train ride away and I'm so glad we made the trip!

The classic Piza Pic...
Isn't it just the cutest?! Apparently it leans a full cenitmeter more each year but massive renovation projects are currently under way to preserve the world's most comical tower.


The next morning all of us hopped on another train to Cinqu Terre, or Five Cities. This region is one of Italy's top tourist spots and it was absolutely breathtaking!

CINQUE TERRE

The first day we visited Monterosso visiting the beach and just relaxing.

The next day we put on our hiking shoes and hiked the five villages, the popular tourist thing to do. We started in Rio Maggiore and ended back up in Monterosso. The hike was over 11 miles long and took us all day, but the views were amazing and so worth the work out!







I wish we could have spent more time in Cinqu Terre exploring each of the villages, but after two nights there we hopped on another train to Venice!

VENEZIA

Venice, apart from being very touristy, was beautiful. The travel books said that to really experience Venice, or Venezia, you just had to get lost and walk around, which we did. All two days. The canals and unmarked street made it nearly impossible to navigate where we were exactly on the map, but we still had a great time!

Gondola rides were going for about 50 Euros, so we didn't ride in any gondolas, but we sure took a lot pf pictures!

St. Marc's Basilica at the famous Piazza San Marco.


The delicious restaurant, with some very cute waiters, where we had our last meal of pasta and wine.


The Jewish ghetto.
Later that night we hopped on an overnight another train to Vienna, and yes. The ride was just as uncomfortable as it sounds.
Stay tuned for part 2! I promise, it is not nearly as long as part 1! :-)