Adventures in Ireland

Though Ireland wasn't initially on my destination list for this semester, when a friend from school back in D.C. asked me to tag along it seemed like too great an offer to turn down. So, this past weekend I met two friends who are studying abroad in Madrid and one who is studying abroad in London for a weekend full of beautiful green grass and rain in Dublin, Ireland.

Though we were only there for 2 days, we managed to pack in lots of sightseeing and even travel outside of the city. Our first day in Dublin was filled by wandering around the town, starting with a tour at the Guinness Brewery. It's set up on this large industrial compound with tall brick buildings and lots of machinery. The tour was self guided and entirely worth doing, but it felt more like walking through a Guinness museum than taking a tour of the brewery. The exhibits were really well done though, and we learned everything we wanted and more about how Guinness is made.

Learning how to pour our own

Success

At the end of the tour, we also learned how to pour our own glass of Guinness, an entire 6 step process! The brewery has a beautiful sky deck that has wonderful views of the city so we were able to enjoy our glass of beer with a view (and though it was pretty early in the morning, it was still good).

Views from the top

Rainy Dublin

For the remainder of the day we wandered through Dublin taking in sights and trying (unsuccessfully) to stay dry. We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, Trinity College, ate corned beef and cabbage sandwiches, and wandered through the "Temple Bar" area of the city where we were staying. The city is charming and no one seemed bothered by the eternally wet state of their clothing and shoes.

Dublin Cookie!

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Rainy walk

Corned beef sandwich

City park

That evening we wandered around our neighborhood and stumbled into a wildly fun evening at an Irish pub playing live Celtic music. The venue was situated right above a bar and was packed to the brim with locals and unsuspecting tourists like ourselves. There were two guitarists and fiddler who all sang and introduced us to both modern and more traditional Celtic music. Everyone in the audience was so engaged and sang to every song (we started to catch on by the end of the evening) and best of all, everyone was dancing to the point that I thought the floor would give way under the small upstairs bar. Though it was clear nobody in there had any idea how to really do an Irish step-dance, it didn't keep anyone from trying their hardest the entire evening. We had the most incredible time.

Our second day in Ireland we took a tour outside the city to the opposite side of the island to visit the Cliffs of Moher and a small town called Galway. The day was filled with a lot of driving, however we were able to see beautiful Irish countryside and learned many fun facts. My favorite: there are more sheep than people in Ireland (it's true).

Sunrise on the bus

Castles/ fortresses everywhere

So green!

The cliffs were massive and intimidating and beautiful against the ocean. We had a couple of hours to explore the area so we hiked along the edge through lots of mud to see as much of the cliffs as possible.

After the cliffs we drove on to a small seaside town called Galway, a charming little area filled with incredibly nice locals and great fish and chips. We took a short walking tour around the city and then were left to our own devices to explore around the town and have a chance to eat before the long bus ride home. The area was small but lively and I certainly want to go back and explore more in the future.

Forgot to take more pictures oops

That evening we went to "the original" Temple Bar (who knows if it's really true since there are 5 or 6) for another evening full of wonderful live music. That night it was more of a Celtic-American fusion but incredibly fun nonetheless. I had no idea that Dublin was such a vibrant live music scene (every bar had performances every evening) but I'm so glad I got to experience a little bit of Ireland during my time in Europe this semester.

*disclaimer - not my picture (again I forgot)

Live music night 2!

Dublin river by night

More updates on my adventures throughout Rome soon!

Settling into Rome

Sunday afternoon walk along the river

In an attempt to be more consistent about blogging my day-to-day life this semester, I thought I would share a few pictures and brief updates on how things have been going since my first post.

Throughout the rest of last week, I continued exploring sights around Rome, particularly the area around my school. I came across a few more iconic sights (the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon) as well as several open air markets. As I had read/ heard that it is expected to bargain at most outside markets here in Rome, I figured I'd give it a try. It was pretty pathetic considering my Italian language skills are still very poor, however I did manage to get a small discount so I considered it a success.

Trevi fountain

Spanish Steps 

Outside the Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon - temple converted into a church

Outdoor markets

A note on Italian coffee and coffee culture - it's wonderful. But the coffee culture itself is very different. There are small bars/ cafes everywhere that sell inexpensive but delicious coffee (usually in cappuccino, espresso, or latte form), but it is more common to stand at the bar and drink your small coffee very quickly and then leave than to sit down and sip slowly over a drawn out conversation. It's very different from the Starbucks/ cafe culture in the US. You can certainly sit down and enjoy your drink and many places will serve it to go, but that's not as true to the "the Italian way."

Not having coffee the Italian way

This week I did start classes and its certainly nice to go back to lectures and class discussions in English (though I really do miss getting to practice my Spanish 24/7). I am taking one Italian class though, and it's mostly practical phrases and structures meant to help us through our semester abroad. I'll take back what I said in the last post about not catching on to Italian quickly, I think I just needed a few more days to acclimate as well as some structure. It really is very close to Spanish though, so that continues to be helpful. I think I certainly have my work cut out for me with my course load this semester, but so far all of my classes have been very interesting so I'm really looking forward to them.

Aside from all of this, we have had a little time to explore Rome's nightlife, especially in our neighborhood which is full of incredible restaurants, cafes, and bars. The city is beautiful and I feel so fortunate daily that I get to spend an entire semester here! I will be travelling pretty frequently, as I am hoping to see as much of Italy (and Europe) as possible.  That being said, stay tuned for a post to come after this weekend when I will be meeting up with other friends studying abroad throughout Europe in Dublin, Ireland!

I won't tell you how much gelato I've had

Street art around school

Non Parlo Italiano

Colosseum cheesin'

Subtitle of the new semester's first post: I Have No Idea What I'm Doing and Italian Isn't as Close to Spanish as I Thought it Would Be but So Far Things are Great

The past 48 hours or so in Rome have certainly been a whirlwind of new experiences and attempted Italian phrases. I am living in a beautiful apartment close to the Tiber River with wonderful views in a part of town that is vibrant with student life and plenty of activities to keep us busy. The cobble stoned streets and little alleyways seem too precious and perfect to be real, and hole-in-the-wall pizza and pasta eateries are everywhere to be found. It feels like a dream.

Views from our apartment balcony

Delicious pasta to celebrate our first evening in Rome

I've spent the last couple of days exploring the area around my host school, the American University of Rome, as well as some of Rome's most iconic sights. It is a lot to take in, but knowing that I get to spend a whole semester in this incredible city is a wonderful feeling and I can't wait to see as much as possible during the next four months. 

Courtyard at AUR - the school is small and charming!

A note on Italian - I memorized a few key phrases from my Italian book but so far when I've tried to say anything at most places they will respond to me in English. The good news is they know what I'm trying to say so I must be doing something right. I guess I also expected it to be much closer to Spanish, and many words are very similar, but I'm not catching on to things as easily as I'd hoped. I know more time combined with Italian classes will help, though, because I would really like to try and speak the language whenever I can. Side note, today I ordered a cappuccino and when they asked me if I wanted it "for here" or "to go" in English, I asked how to say "for here" in Italian which landed me with an incredibly long string of words in Italian that I didn't understand. So back to square 1. But at least the baristas have a sense of humor:

I love this coffee shop

Today I walked around the Colosseum, the Palatino, and the Foro Romano (Roman Forum). The sensation I had walking through these places was similar to the sensation I felt last semester at Machu Picchu - pictures don't even come close to showing what these places are really like - they are more expansive, beautiful, and intriguing than any previous idea I held in my mind. 

Colosseum!

The Roman Forum - original city center

More of the forum - it's huge!

Can't wait to take in so much more of what this incredible city has to offer!

This was funnier when it was happening