The final adventure...

Greece. Where do I even begin. If any of you have ever seen Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 or Mamma Mia, they were both filmed on the Grecian island Santorini where we stayed for the week. This vacation was our final one together and turned out to be relaxing and filled with some amazing memories. There's not too much to tell about this trip because our main focus was just relaxing and hanging out but we did climb a volcano, ride ATV's around the island, ride a donkey (can't say that was my favorite part), see the most beautiful sunset, and swam in hot springs. Breathtaking, mesmerizing, picturesque, unreal - all words to describe this island. Every picture I took it looks like a picture out of a magazine and we photoshopped the people in.

Amazing right? I almost didn't believe it when i saw it. We stayed in an apartment while in Greece that was really a hostel. Nicest hostel I've ever been to! We had our own kitchen, living room, and balcony. Stavros, the man that owned the hostel was a typical Greek man, plump, friendly, and all about hospitality. Over the week we saw the sunset over Oia, which claims to be the #1 spot for proposals, Fira, and many other cities of Santorini. All looked like this, and all of them took my breath away. If anyone is looking for a Greecian vacation, I would recommend Greece to anyone! Absolutly amazing trip to end this whole experience with!

Hola Barcelona

Barcelona, Spain, the land of flamingo dancing and bullfights. Well little did I know that both of these could not be further from the main events in this city. Though Barcelona is part of Spain, it is in fact the capital of Cataolonia, a separate community inside of Spain. This city refuses to have bull fight arenas and has very few places that perform the flamenco dance. Basically, Barcelona refutes any stereotypes that Spain has to offer (except for sangria). In fact, they even imported palm trees from Hawaii (and rented some too!) and bought sand from Egypt to make beaches. They used the Olymics as a cover story, but my opinion they just wanted to make their city remind them of vacation. The first day we got there we went on yet another walking tour learning about all these wonderful facts I just shared, along with many others.

Since I've heard that many of you enjoy my food pictures so I thought I'd throw on (of my 50) in of the food market we went to every single day. Imagine Saturday's Market, but filled with only fruits, vegetables, bread, and sweets. Literally at every turn there was a new stand filled with every and any fruit you can possibly imagine. Of course we all loved it and went back every day (sometimes twice) to get a little snack. Possibly my favorite part of Barcelona was this market; so colorful, so lively, so delicious!

We also went to the beach one day (and got incredibly burnt! that sun is no joke). Like I said the sand was all imported so it was very dense and hard to walk on. The only disappointing part of this beach was that literally every 3 minutes a vendor would come by asking if we were interested in massages, coconuts, or scarfs. But that didn't matter, because it was 75 degrees, we were on a beach and in Barcelona, we couldn't complain. 

Not really sure what this palace was, but it was so beautiful! There is a magic fountain in front which is apparently spectacular to see, but we were a month too early. After climbing about 5,000 steps we finally got to the top stairs of the palace, which was absolutely amazing. We then kept going up and found the Olympic stadium (pictured below)!

 Our next stop....the Sagrada Familia! This is by far the most breathtaking intracite church I have ever seen in my life. The whole outside tells the story of Jesus from birth till death, every nook and cranny with some type of symbolism. I was in awe of this church.

After the Sagrada Familia we went to Gaudi's park. Gaudi seemed to have a love of gingerbread houses and mosaics because this entire park was filled with them. Gaudi also designed many buildings around the city, each more famous than the next. One was right by our hostel and we fell in love with it. It was so subtle compared to his other work but still so so cool.

 Barcelona: beautiful sights, weather, friends, and city. Even though my hand was constantly on my purse (Barcelona has high petty crime rates) we saw so many sights and had such a fun relaxing vacation. Trip two was definitely a success!

And the traveling month begins....

IN BERLIN! Honestly Germany was never my number one European country to visit, but I have to say it turned out to be one of my favorite places we went. After a daunting trip to Berlin (we had an overnight layover in London) we we so tired and just wanted to sleep for a few hours before seeing the sights. Unfortunetly the hostel closes for a good 5 hours in the middle of the day and we came just after they closed up. So Amy and I, delierious from being so tired, found a table at the park right next to the hostel and killed some time playing cards, rocking out to Taylor Swift, and eating M&M's, some of my favorite things to to. If I have learned nothing else from the trips I've taken, cards are always a good way to kill some time. After we got into our room at the hostel we went exploring.

On our second day in Berlin we finally mastered the metro system, called the S-ban and U-ban. We went on a tour throughout the city which started at the Brandenburg Gate, pictured above. This tour was full of information about Berlin and the different struggles they went through to unify their city. Another stop on the tour was a hotel (I forget the name) that Michael Jackson hung his baby from the third floor balcony!

We ended up seeing all of the famous sights in Berlin but there is too many to put up all the pictures. This city was so rich with history it seemed that there was something to see at every corner!

Above is a picture of one of the museams on Museam Island, a trio of museams surrounded by rivers. The next day we took a day trip to a nearby concentration camp. Something I did not know was in World War two there were two types of camps; concentration and extermination camps. Concentration camps, like the one we went to was meant for the sole purpose of working the prisioners to death. On top of building planes and moving cement there was also the "death run" where prisioners were required to run from one end of camp to the other for 10 hours. The excuse of running people to death was they were testing what boots were the most sturdy for soldiers to wear. This was one of the most sobering experiences I have ever experienced. There were personal stories about the survivors and the thousands that were killed in very place we were standing. The concentration camp we went to held experiments on children and we saw the horrific building they were kept in then later executed. The camp now serves as a memorial to the thousands that died at this concentration camp.

After that highly depressing day we decided to end Berlin on a high note and visited the nearby town of Potsdam. I have almost no idea the history of this town except it used to be the home of Prussian kings. So obviously, there were so many things to see. We ended up renting bikes throughout the town and let me tell you, it was the best decision. Bikes were so efficient and it was so much fun! This city was my top two favorite places I've gone to abroad. This town was full of castles and gorgeous buildings literally right next to each other.

One final note about Germany, the sausages there were unbelievable. Europe has this love for baguettes (that my family soon learned after they came) so of course their sausages were on baguettes. For some reason, this made the sausages 20 times better than any I've ever had. Bottom line, if you go to Germany make sure that sausages are in your diet every single day. Getting back on track, the night after spending the day in Potsdam,  we had to sleep in the airport again. So we decided to catch a late train to the airport (that's about 20 minutes away). However, as precedent would tell us, nothing is that easy. The train to the airport was canceled that night for track maintenance. After may changed trains and a few run-ins with the drunken locals we finally found the airport and made our way to BARCELONA!!!!!!

Edinburgh, Scotland

Scotland - kilts, plaid, and a castle is all I think of when I imagine Scotland. Well, it didn't dissapoint when we went there for a quick two day jaunt. The town in relativly small, so we saw all the sights in just a day including the castle, the famous Royal Mile, and numerous other sights. Luckily for us, the two people I went with had friends studying abroad there so they showed us all around the town! Even though there wasn't a ton to see, it was one of my favorite cities, looked like it came straight out of a movie.

 One of the last bars on this street is called Last Drop. This was the last drink that people who were about to be hung had before the final deed was executed. The square where the public hangings were performed is just to the right of this picture. Despite its dreary history, this square is now one of the most beautiful spots (in my opinion) in Edinburgh!

The Edinburgh Castle, the landmark that all the locals use for directions. The castle is perched high up on a mountain and can be seen from almost all the city.  Any time we asked for directions, the first step was "Walk towards the castle...." The castle itself was humongous and mesmerizing. Being in Ireland we have seen a lot of castles, but this one took the cake. Amazing.

Scotland was also full of views. Everywhere we went seemed to be up a steep hill with the best view of the city. I especially like it because there were mountains right next to the city! So cool to see such opposites so close together.

Fun fact about Scotland for all you Harry Potter fans- J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book in a pub called "The Elephant House" in the heart of Edinburgh. The picture above is of a church surrounded by a huge cemetery. This cemetery is where she got ideas for numerous names used in Harry Potter including Tom Riddle and McGonagall (not sure if that's the right spelling).

Scotland was a great trip. It was definetly my favotire city of all the places we've been as far as a quaint, cute, little town that was filled with sights and a historic feel, but homey at the same town. If I had to pick a second place to study abroad it would be Edinburgh (I have to say though, I am not regretting being in Ireland one bit, I LOVE LOVE LOVE it here!)

the month of march...

wow! I can't believe its been so long since I last posted on here. March has been a truly busy month not only with just schoolwork but it also marked the beginning of families starting to visit Ireland!!! Leigh and Amy (two friends that went to Mary Washington but we met in Ireland) had four of their friends come visit for a week and we all ended up going to Dublin together! We saw the infamous Temple Bar area and went sightseeing for a weekend before saying goodbye. While the rest of the group went on a bus tour all day Saturday, two of my friends from Cork and I went souvenir shopping! I've been in Ireland for three months already and had yet to shop! (A fact I'm pretty proud of by the way!) While we were shopping we saw so many street performers, some sand artists, the people that stand really still (don't know what they're called), and musicians! Dublin was such a fun city to make a quick weekend getaway.

Unfortunately, after the Dublin weekend came two weeks of non-stop schoolwork. I lived in the library franticly trying to finish my 3 papers, marketing project and study for my three tests. March seems to be the month where everything for all of my classes are due! Thankfully I got it all finished (except for one paper due Friday)! Ireland has a very interesting way of scheduling schoolwork. There is usually only two grades for an entire corse. One is the final which is generally worth 70-80% of the total grade. The other part is call "continuous assessment" which I naively took to be homework assignments and tests throughout the semester. But Ireland likes having its own unique way of doing things. This continuous assessment really mean a 2,000 word research paper for each and every class. So, needless to say I've had my hands full the past two weeks getting all my schoolwork done. I can't really complain though because January and February equated to literally no work except looking over notes, so I guess it was time to put in a little elbow grease and knock out a few papers and study.


Another exciting event that happened in March to make this busy month even more chaotic (but still even more fun!) was............

ST. PATRICKS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I still can't believe I spent St. Patty's Day in Ireland. Not only was every single person decked out head to toe in green there was such a sense of pride in everyone in the streets. Of course, supporting my Irish heritage (i am kelly o'dolan :)  ) i was decked out in green along with the rest of my friends and even wore some Kanye shamrock shades, had a shamrock milkshakes and some green food! It was a day where everyone was each other's best friend and the city transformed itself into a manifestation of all things stereotypical Irish!  Here's some pictures of St. Patty's!

After these past two weeks of nothing but library time, I realized that this means traveling month is ALMOST HERE!!!! My friend's aunt just got Taylor Swift tickets in Dublin this Sunday. For those of you who don't know, Taylor Swift is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE singer and I've wanted to go to one of her concerts for years! Another dream of mine is coming true! So Sunday I'm off to Dublin with some friends to see Taylor Swift then heading off to Scotland Tuesday for our 5 day trip to Edinburgh! After Edinburgh starts the month of April which is a "studying month" in UCC. Students take all their finals from fall and spring semesters in May here, so many people have up to 12 finals in May. Luckily for study abroad students this means a month to travel Europe! And that is exactly what I'm planning on doing! After Scotland we have a two week trip planned to Germany and Spain. The day after we get home from Barcelona my parents, sister, and two cousins are coming to spend 9 days in Ireland and see all the gorgeous sights that I can't stop talking about. After the family trip the six of us "traveling buddies" will end our trips together by going to Greece! First we're going to Athens then Santorini (where Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 was shot!)! I can't even describe how excited I am for the next 5 weeks. This whole experience of living in Europe has literally been a dream come true, wish it would never end! Hopefully I'll be better about posting things more frequently, but I'll only be home a few days in April so bear with me!

Back to Galway!

This weekend we took a two day trip to Galway to see the Cliffs of Moher. Not only did we see some beautiful sights, we also learned that the six of us seem to have a curse traveling together. We decided to catch a 2pm bus on Friday after everyone's classes so we were all packed up and waiting at the station when we saw that our bus was boarding. We went out to our terminal and it was PACKED. The Cork bus station is usually filled with maybe 50 people (and its a big station), so to see more than fifty people all trying to get on the same bus was a little out of the norm. Turns out by the time we got to the front of the line there were only 5 spots left on the bus, just one short of how many we needed because we were traveling as a group of 6. Luckily they called an extra bus that came thirty minutes later. Just our luck that bus broke down about halfway into our ride. After an hour pit stop on the side of the road and two mechanics the bus finally started running again! By the time we got to Limerick (an hour and half later than we expected) everyone needed a bathroom break, but by doing that we missed our connecting bus to Galway. We finally got to Galway seven hours after we left Cork which should be at max a three and half hour ride. It was all worth it though as we got ready for a night in our favorite town in Ireland.

The next day we did a bus tour (luckily no break downs this time) of the Barren and Cliffs of Moher. We did a walking tour up a mountain and got to see stereotypical Ireland, the green landscape with stone walls dividing the properties. We were amazed by the stone walls because it literally looked like if you touched them they would fall over because the rocks seem simply placed on top of each other like a balancing act. The tour guide said that the walls were erected in the famine era (to give the poor jobs) and therefore have been standing for years.

 

We then had one hour at the Cliffs of Moher and I totally understood what all the fuss is about. Its so goregous there you could spen all day just looking out at it. You have probably seen the Cliffs before in movies and not even know it. They're in Harry Potter, Ryan's Daughter, the Princess Bride and a few other movies too. The Cliffs are also a finalist for the 7 Natural Wonders of the World!

 This is O'Brian's tower

 One of my favorite pictures of the Cliffs (still can't figure out how to switch the pictures so they're rightside up -- sorry!)

It was a great weekend, and luckily our trip home was bus-drama free! :)

London calling...

London was the weekend trip this week and let me just say it was a much needed getaway from Cork. London is a city that I have always wanted to see ever since many of my favorite movies that take place there (what a girl wants, winning london, etc.)  but I actually knew very little about the actual city. Our trip started late Wednesday night (thankfully because there was a fatal plane crash at the Cork airport the very next morning). Our trip to get to actual London was, lets just say not the easiest few hours. We got off the plane at about eleven and were about to go through customs when my friend Amy realized she forgot her passport on the flight. After about an hour of trying to retrieve it (couldn't because the flight was already "secured" and no one was allowed on) we finally got to the bus to take us into the city. As we were walking to the bus stop we realized our bus was just leaving and started freaking out because we thought it was the last one. Thankfully there was one more bus coming yet that night. When the bus finally came half an hour later we were about to get on when the ticket person said we had the wrong dates for the tickets. So, after 5 minutes of Amy running around trying to get the dates changed we finally made it onto the last bus of the night just in the nick of time. After the bus ride we grabbed a cute taxi to get to our hostel but of course it wasn't that easy. The name of our street which we thought was Westbourne Road was actually Westbourne Terrace. After walking around the city at 1:30am not entirely sure where we were going, we finally called the US to get someone to googlemaps where we were. Luckily we found out the area we should have been walking in before the phone ran out of minutes. So after another two hours of walking around London and a few stops asking for directions later we finally made it to the hostel at 3:30am.

The next day we woke up to find the rain followed us to London. After a quick breakfast we made our way to town to see it in the daytime and visit a few inside places to get out of the rain. We went to the National Galley of Art and the V&A museum and saw Trafalgar Square and platform 9 and 3/4 at King's Cross from Harry Potter!

 national gallery

Day two started out with again a quick breakfast then off to see Big Ben, House of Parliament, and the London eye

 london eye!

 then the tower of london...

 St. Paul's Cathedral..

 Then souvineer shopping! we went into this huge shop at Picadilly's Circus and found this car and a man all decked out in the England flag!

Right after we went to the London Bar that is completely made out of ice! We walked in all decked out in our igloo suits and gloves and got a drink (in a cup made out of ice of course!) It was the coolest bar I've ever been in!

The next day was sunny and warm so we woke up early and started sigtseeing on our last day in London. First we went to the Portabello market (for those that have seen Notting Hill, we even found the bookshop that Hugh Grant worked in!!!). It was full of clothes, food, trinkets, and street performers. It made me wish we had a market like that in Cork! It was one of my favorite parts of the trip, getting to see all the amazing food and just "window" shopping at the street vendors. After the market, we met up with Sarah's friend and saw Westminster Abbey (where Prince William and Kate will get married at the end of April) and then went to Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, the guards were behind the gates, so we didn't get to try and make them laugh. The palace and the grounds surrounding it were gorgeous though, and there was so much of it that we didn't even see!

 After seeing the palace, we went to Herrods, basically a place where all the prominent designers have a massive mall. This Herrods was five floors with every designer purse, jewelry, furniture, and toy you can imagine. Then came the best part. I walked into a little bit of heaven. We went into a massive room filled with only chocolate and tea, my two favorite things! Amy and I (the other chocolate lover of the group) went to buy on of the truffles and they kept giving them to us for free! Like I said, heaven!

 As our final thing to see in London, we went and saw Big Ben and the House of Parliment at night which was amazing! Then we went back to the hostel, grabbed our bags, then went to the airport to sleep for the night and catch our 6:20 flight! It was such an amazing trip, my favorite to date! For next week, we're going to Galway again to see the Cliffs of Moore!

Our first trip -- PARIS!!!!

We left for Paris very early on the morning on Thursday, our first international trip! When I say we left early, I mean early. We went to Dublin the night before (our flight was out of the airport there) and met up with some people then woke up at 6am. After check in and boarding we got chocolate muffins and hot tea to put us in the mood for Paris! My friend Carole who studied abroad at UMW last year lives in the city so we stayed with her during our three days in her stomping ground. She met us at the airport and we caught up on the hour ride from the airport to her apartment. As always we were all starving so we went to Carole's favorite crepe resteraunte and got dinner (salty) crepes and dessert crepes which mean ham, cheese, and egg dinner crepe and a chocolate with whipped cream dessert crepe for me. While we were waiting for a table at the resteraunt Carole took us to a palace that was nearby. Kings lived there until Louis the 16th moved to Versialles.

 After lunch we went to the Centre Pompidou museum that has modern art and a really unique outside of the building (above). The view from the top of the building was amazing. We pointed out excitedly all the sights we were going to see on our trip. The art in here was not my style, but the next museum we went to, d'Orsay was full of famous painter's works including Monet, Manet, Van Gough and many more. We even found some of my friend Leigh's friends grandfathers (yeah see if you can follow that) paintings. It made me appreciate my art history class that Monique forced me to take. Almost all of the artists we studied were in this museum.

After the museums we were starving again so we stopped at a restaurant and had the most amazing bruschetta (yours is still better though mom) and pizza and some dessert! ONe of the best parts of our trip was all the food we ate. Everything was so good, I can see why Paris is one of the food capitals of the world. )My favorite thing we ate there would have to be the nutella crepes, but more about them later...)  Then we walked to the ferris wheel where we got yet another amazing view of the city.


I should also just mention that the three days we were in Paris were freezing. I know I shouldn't be complaining because at home its below freezing and snowing, but Paris is a big city and we were walking everywhere. So after the first day where we literally walked the lengths of Paris, we decided that the metro was the way to go.

this was my artsy picture of the ferris wheel :)