June 2012
6 posts
Amsterdam and Final (possibly) Post
Wow, what a great city to end my trip on! This city is great, so exciting but also so relaxed. I got a train into the city and decided to take the metro to near my hostel. Kind of wasted my money, it was only one metro stop away and I could have easily walked. The metro trains were really trippy though, I bet the high people riding them have a blast. The inside was this huge black and white...
Rome
So I’m a little late on posting this one, but I wrote it yesterday I promise.
I have never been to a city with so much history and so many monuments! Its wild to think this city has been around for thousands of years and still is around. I took the train from Florence to Rome which was a nice fast train that got me there in about an hour and a half. My hostel was close to the train station,...
Florence
Leaving Florence, I’m very glad I decided to come here. It was one of the places I was thinking about taking off the list if I didn’t have enough time or money, but I’m glad I kept it. I had a little stressful time getting here, my first train from Nice was 15 minutes late, which caused me to miss my second train. I got a new route from the information desk in the station, but it extended my trip...
Nice
There is no better name to give this city than that. The French Rivera is beautiful, I can definitely see why the rich and famous come vacation here. It’s coastline is so beautiful! I got here on the plane from Barcelona and when I got to the airport, it started to storm really hard. I was hoping a) that my luggage didn’t get soaked like some guys in Madrid who came from the US during that massive...
Barcelona
Wow. I’ve heard great things about Barcelona, but I really was blown away by this city. I had the time of my life, met some awesome people, saw some awesome things, and didn’t want to leave. Everyone in Barcelona witnessed a miracle, I didn’t get lost trying to find my hostel! I took the train to the metro and then the metro to my street. I arrived at Hostel One Parallelo and was greeted by...
Madrid
¡Madrid! I love this city! I arrived two days ago and took the bus into city central to catch the Metro. The Metro is amazing here, they are very up to date and clean and prompt, I really enjoyed using them. I got to my Metro stop at Argüelles and inevitably got lost (just like I do in every city when I’m looking for my hostel), but I was a little more comfortable than in France because I knew...
May 2012
12 posts
Paris
Well I’m just heading out of Paris. It was my first time in a country with a different language than my own, so I was a little uncomfortable at first, but then I got used to it and had a good time. On my train ride over from London, I tried to learn a little French, but to no avail. I only had down the easy ones (“oui, non, moussoir, madame, je voudrais, s’il vous plait, excusez-moi, and merci”)....
London
I arrived in London Gatwick and found I was a good ways from the city at that airport. After a, hour long train ride and some underground stops, I got to my hostel. It was a really nice place, looked like it was pretty new, and the atmosphere was great. The lobby was full of bright colors and they were playing Mumford and Sons over the speakers. I knew I was going to like this place.
I ended up...
Dublin, Cork, and tons of Blarney
On our first day in Dublin, we headed out to the Irish Army Base to meet with the brother-in-law of the Irish Studies Center director. He spoke to us about the work of the Irish army with the UN, in places such as Liberia, Bosnia, and Colombia. It was interesting to hear from a member of a fairly small military who is generally thought of as neutral. Being from the US, we rarely enter a conflict...
Catching Up
It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this, and a lot has gone on. Friday was a super powerful day. First, we went to the Police Service of Northern Ireland and heard from a policeman there about policework in the Troubles and today. The police are trained on everything here, from traffic stops to customs, pepper spray to automatic rifles. They don’t have police cars, they go...
Pubs Crawls and Plays, Forts and Follies
Yesterday was very cool. We went into Derry and walked around a little, went to the Tower Museum and learned about The Spanish Armada wreck nearby, the history of Derry, and a local ghost story. We went and saw a play about the ghost story, which was kind of interesting, but kind of boring.
Then we went out to the pubs with all the JMU girls and the UMASS kids (they got here a couple days ago)...
Lectures and Derry
So I have a little catching up to do, not like the past few days which have been multi-post days. Yesterday was a day full of lectures, hearing from the director of the Irish Studies Center, a history professor from University of Ulster, and two community workers who gave Protestant and Catholic perspectives of the Troubles. Both men were from Derry, which was a hotbed for conflict and fighting....
P.S.
Forgot to mention, I was also in Drogdah and the driver said the President of Ireland was in town to commemorate the anniversary of the famine, but we probably wouldn’t see him. He was wrong. That’s the President on the bridge. Celebrities
Inch Island
That is what I see from the front yard. Holy crap, this is awesome! Since my last post, we have met up with all of our classmates, met the people from the Irish Studies Center, and taken the long drive up to Inch Island. I had a massive burger at the airport, which I unfortunately didn’t take a picture of it, but this thing was great! Everyone else was feeling the time difference like I...
Meeting the group
So I survived my first night in Europe. I met two guys from Madrid, Danny and Danny, and we went out pub hopping. We went down to the Temple Bar area of Dublin and found some of the more popular pubs. We were attempting to have a different beer in each pub (New bar, new beer), but we eventually just got back to Guinness again. The pubs are very cool, and a lot of places have live music (i.e. every...
Dublin, Round 1
So I did get lost. Hiking up and down the streets of Dublin looking for my hostel. The roads are not very easily marked, some have an old sign about 15 feet up the side of a building telling you what street it is, but some don’t and you just have to guess. Stopped in a few stores to ask directions, and I eventually got here fine.
The hostel is in this old Christian schoolhouse:
After I...
Made it!!!
I’m in Ireland!!!! I’m in a very weird awakeness right now, I haven’t slept in 21 hours, but it’s 11 am here, so Dublin’s day is just starting! I’m about to head to the hostel via bus, we’ll see how lost I get haha.
The plane ride was real nice. Ended up in the middle row of my Virgin Atlantic flight, but I was next to this skinny Indian woman and a...
Setting off
So I’m about to embark on something I’ve never done before. Well, a few things. 1) Plane travel. Made it through security without any uncomfortable searches or accusations of treason. Check that off the list. Waiting for boarding, going to be a long flight across the pond. 2) Going out of the country. So Canada when I was 5 technically counts I guess, but Niagra Falls is just glorified...
