St. Paddy's in Dublin

All I can say about Dublin on St. Patricks day is that it was "the cat's pajamas", also known as the "dog's ballacks", or in layman terms - I had a lot of fun. I'm starting to pick up this British Lingo. I even started saying I need to take a "Jimmy Riddle", which is the same as taking a piddle, or going to the loo, - going to the bathroom.

Anyways it was a quick and easy 45 min flight. The seat belt light went off and 5 minutes later was back on for landing. I guess that's why round trip was less then 30 quid (pounds).

I went with one of my roommates essentially just for the day. We flew out late Tuesday and came back early Thursday. Luckily we found a really cheap room at a nice hotel on hotels.com, it was amazing after becoming a routine hostel user. They even provided towels for us, crazy. We started the day off with a Full Irish Breakfast. This included both Black and White Pudding, which I really liked, despite being informed what they're made from. Not at all what I expected it to be like.

After breakfast we headed to the parade. Soooo many people everywhere all the time. We could barely walk on the street from 11am until we went back to the hotel at night. Long story short my day went something like this..

food, parade, Guiness, Guiness, food, Guiness, start to feel sick, Guiness, Food, Sleep, queesy flight home.

Everything was kindof a Blur, sorry I don't have many interesting stories, it was only a day trip. They were offering free samples of Vodka at the Dublin airport, but I was in no mood to try at 8am this morning. Anyways the pictures will do the parade and crowds more justice than my words. I also am putting my pictures from Verona/Venice that I didn't have before.

Check back in a week to see how Spain goes.

Ireland Pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27735608@N07/sets/72157623521537965/detail/

Verona & Venice:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27735608@N07/sets/72157623644627592/detail/

Verona / Venice

I just got back yesterday from my trip to Verona and Venice. I stayed with my friend Erin who is studying with a group of 50 University of Illinois students. They have an awesome program. They take classes in Italian history, art (they draw and paint), and food (they cook). Yes it is official I think they have the easiest curriculum ever. They also have a program director named Claudio and he plans weekend trips for all of them. Everywhere we went people knew him, and his trips are awesome, I was lucky enough to attend his trip to Venice.

The entire group has two motto's that I kept hearing everyone say. First that "this is not real life". All this means is "this is so surreal". The second motto is "my life is a series of miscommunications". I would have to say that I completely lived both these mottos for the 3 days I was there.

I found myself saying "this is not real life" when the following happened...

- Erin's crazy landlord put all my belongings in a cardboard box, remade both our beds differently, and she threw away the ziplock back my tolitries were inside of, leaving its contents on the counter. I also woke up in the middle of the night, at 4am, with her standing in the dark in our room, she was presumably sleepwalking (hopefully).

- At our lunch for the Venice trip we had a 4 course meal, Compliments of Claudio the program director. The first dish was a pasta with three choices, lasagna, pesto, and black squid. Expecting spaghetti with squid I ordered the black squid. 3 bites in I was informed the sauce that makes it black is simply the ink from the squid. After getting over my initial disgust I ate the rest and actually liked it (kindof).

- When we went to catch the bus boat going back to the train station in Venice we were running a bit late. Claudio informed us on the way we'd need to run once we docked. so as soon as the doors opened 54 American Students were running and weaving down the streets of Venice to catch our train. It was hilarious to hear people yelling at us in Italian as we all went flying by. One of the girls took a video of it, I'll try and get it up on here.

- After celebrating one of Erin's roommates 21st birthdays my first night there, I woke up (with a slight headache) to the option of either having a mimosa or Baileys and Coffee for breakfast. This was the beginning of Verona's version of Unofficial St. Patricks day (a mimick of a holiday celebrated at U of I). It was a long day.

- I took a train to Bergamo, the city I flew back out of, where I needed to catch a bus to the airport. I walked out of the station only to see that there was a parade in the city that day and the entire street was closed off. There were 50-60 floats that I could see all setting up right where the bus I needed to take was supposed to come. They included but was not limited to Spiderman, Alladin, Wild West with a cow, and clowns on bicycles. They were all setting up their floats, and grilling out and drinking as they did so, apparently drinking and driving floats is not illegal. They were also all pumping music so I was rocking out to Lady Gaga and Akon as I was trying to read the map to find the next bust stop. This would have been a really cool experience if I wasn't alone and worried about catching my flight.

The next motto, "my life is a series of miscommunications"

-After landing I had to take a train to Verona. I knew the one at 12:05 was going to be 18 euro whereas the one at 12:25 was only 8. So when I ordered and he gave me the 18 euro ticket I tried to explain and get it changed. Eventually I just gave up and gave him a 20.

-At McDonalds I ordered a number "three", asked for it to be supersided or "grandi", and then asked for a coke with it. I then got "3, Large, Cokes" for 7.20 Euro. I tried explaining that wasn't what I wanted but eventually gave up and sat down, drinking 3 cokes for lunch, alone.

- Attempting to talk to Erin's Landlord, who knew I didn't speak Italian, but continued to try to talk to me without slowing down or dumbing her conversation down was just one big failure.

-Eventually I learned my lesson and heavily relied on Erin's friends to order and communicate for me. However, I'm sure there will be plenty more "miscommuncations" when the Rooks hit Italy in 2 weeks.

It was a great weekend, I owe Erin Leahy a big Gratzie

Paris

SO, I am going to try and start a new method in writing these blogs. I am going to try and keep them a little more short and sweet. That way they are easier to read and write, and I'll be able to do them quicker and on the run.

A week and a half ago I went to Paris.

Despite being extremely expensive it was well worth it. Here is a list of everything I saw and how cool it was.

Eiffel Tower - lived up to all expectations. When it lights up at night it is awesome. Only draw back is there is these guys selling you stuff and harassing you everywhere. Avoiding eye contact is a must, because if they sense a slight interest they will tail you for at least 5 minutes. One guy from U of I with us got in a fight with one, but he scattered when the cops came running over.

Louvre - Most amazing museum ever. The building itself and it's history may have been my favorite part, but seeing Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, and Nike were sweet too.

Mount Mart, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe - Were all sweet. We walked into the Notre Dame and they were in the middle of a service which was interesting since there are tourists and gift shops surrounding the pews.

Despite all the sight seeing my favorite part of Paris by far was just walking down the street, grabbing a baguette or a crepe and attempting to mingle. Its pretty wild when your just walking around and you stumble upon things like Notre Dame or the Pompidue.

Despite all the fun we had there was one thing that stood above the rest, Nutella and Banana Crepe. Better than the Eiffel Tower on top of Mount Mart.

While baguettes are all good, after about 3 your jaw starts to hurt and eating becomes painful.

While there were a lot of beggars and people trying to sell you stuff on the street, some of the street performers were fun to watch. You'll see some of them in my pictures, but my favorite was definitely this guy who juggled a soccer ball while doing acrobatics, and even climbed a lamp post on mount mart while keeping the soccer ball on his head.

I owe a big thanks to Korey White, Maggie Stremmel, and Adam Goldblatt for showing us around and housing us. Based on Paris pricing I probably owe u all about 350 euro.

Since then I've just been bumming around Leeds a bit. I'm getting ready for my 4 week spring break and my big trip to Italy which is a week from today. I took a weekend trip to Nottingham where my friends Haley and Arianna are, and we had a great time. It's another fun city in the UK. However, I am so excited to go somewhere there is sun! Verona and Venice here I come.

Here is the link to my Paris pictures...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27735608@N07/sets/72157623546892500/detail/

Until next time.