Brooke and I went to Dublin the other weekend, and I could definitely live in Dublin! Our flight left at 6 in the morning so we woke up at 2 am to catch the bus to Pisa airport, meaning that we only got a couple of hours of sleep. I decided that this whole traveling business requires people that can run on little to no sleep. So this is my practice. This trip everything went according to plan; the flight left on time, we arrived on time, we didn't get lost. We probably didn't get lost because we took a taxi to our hostel. We stayed in the Temple Bar area of Dublin, which as you might guess from the name is a really large night life and pub area. It was amazing. Dublin probably has the most traditional culture I have seen yet in Europe. I walked down the street and could see old Irish dancers, and hear traditional Irish music, green, orange and shamrocks were everywhere! I loved it. The Irish people are so proud of their heritage and their history. Which I learned quite a bit about their history while I was there, it is very interesting. But back to the friendliest people thing, our taxi driver immediately starts talking our ear off (something I noticed is a trend with people) he is asking us where we are from where we have been, telling us old Irish stories, good places to go to, places not worth the trip, and along with the history of it all. We get to our hostel and they tell us directions to places, answers around 5 questions for us. Then we head off to the Bus station to get tickets to a couple Bus tours. The first was the Coastal and Castle tour which we took as soon as we got there at 10 am. We went through the city, learning quite a bit about U2, like where they went to school, some of the original pubs they played, etc. Then we arrived at the Malahide Castle, which was quite pretty. On the way back we went along the coast and learned a little bit about their history with Britain and the Napoleon thing. We then grabbed some lunch at a local pub, which was filled with tons of people wearing yellow and blue and screaming and drinking in preparation for the rugby game that night, it was only noon by the way. This was closer to American culture than I was used to, drinking midday before a big game, sounds a lot like tailgating to me. :) We grabbed an Irish coffee, which after one drink quickly learned was not the same as Bailey's coffee. Irish coffee used whiskey instead, and it quickly welcomed us into the Irish culture. We then went back to the hostel got our rooms, where we quickly learned we were rooming with two guys for the weekend. It turned out okay. We took a little cat nap and headed out for dinner and beer at a local pub, where we were treated to some traditional Irish music. After dinner we dropped by another pub, had a cider beer (which is amazing by the way) and watched the rugby game. We didn't know it was rugby until Sunday when we made a friend that enlightened us.
The next day we went to the Jameson Distillery, where I became a certified whiskey taster, then we went to the Kilmainham jail, where we learned a lot more about Ireland's history. It was really interesting though. Then we went to the Guinness factory and had a tour. We then went to dinner and took a Ghost bus tour. This tour was quite entertaining. First the old ghost stories and haunted areas of Dublin were fun, but we made some friend with a large group of Irish women on the tour. They were have a great time and all of them had mix drinks with them, in what seems to be true Irish style. At one of the stops I got creeped out and I think it may really be haunted, because our guide had is own recent incidents with the place and it used to be an old church that has had a lot of random fires associated with it since the burning of a priest. But the altar is where most of the things seemed to start and when I tried to take a photo of the altar my camera would take the photo, but then it wouldn't save, no pictures had been used on my card, and then I changed my camera settings and it took the picture finally after three tries. Then when we got back on the bus I went to look at the photos and all my photos were gone! I checked my card slot and my card had been ejected, I put it back in and luckily my pictures were still there. Then the next day when my card ran out of memory, I went to delete photos that didn't turn out well and the three pictures I had tried to take of the altar that wouldn't take were there on my camera nearly all black in the order I tried to take them. Now tell me that isn't a little creepy.
The next day we went to Dublina, a Viking museum and learned all about Viking Dublin, quite entertaining. After that we went in search of lunch and came across this coat and arms store which I wanted to stop in because my surname is originally English yet I saw it on a rack of things that said Traditional Irish names. So I found out I was right and my surname is English, yet they moved to Ireland some 400 years ago or something. Besides that we made friends with the owner, John. We talked to him for about a half hour and learned that he feels Irish people truly live up to all their stereotypes and that some stereotypes they have about Americans are that we hate the French(funny because Americans think the French hate us, where did all the hate come from? I liked them) that we are arrogant because we think we won World War II, and I forget the others or even if he mentioned others. He then told us some pubs to go to for lunch and we just asked if just wanted to come along, so he did. Unfortunately all the places he recommended were closed so he just went back and opened his shop while Brooke and I had lunch. We then stopped in at a local pub, grabbed a beer before we left. We were chatting at the bar when this old man came in and began talking to us. We ended up chatting with him about the most random things for the next couple hours and drinking beers(Irish cider of course.) Before we knew it, it was 4 pm and we had to leave for the airport, so we bid a farewell to our new friend and went on our way home to Italy.
After visiting Ireland I decided I definitely wanted to go back. It is much more similar to American culture than Italy is of course, but yet so vastly different. I have really never met friendlier people as a whole as I did in Ireland, and just the atmosphere of the town was enticing. I don't really know how to describe it, but I would definitely recommend going to Ireland.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Paris--where I didn't understand the language
Okay I am terrible at keeping this updated because I went to Paris on Spring break about 3 weeks ago, but here's a rundown of my trip and little of what I learned. Probably not my best work, but when so much happens in the meantime it's hard to keep track. It is better to be busy living life than just writing about it all the time. Enjoy :)
You know those day's where everything that could go wrong does go wrong? Well, that is basically how this trip started out. We arrived at the airport four hours before our flight was scheduled to depart because we forgot that we already figured the time and just wrote that down. Upon arrival at the airport we learned our flight was no longer at 7:00 pm but at 9:00 pm. On the bright side we met our new friend Todd in the airport because he heard we spoke English. He happened to be an intern in Paris since January so he told us some things close to our hostel and we talked to him for about two hours in the airport and another hour and a half on the flight. Luckily, after landing in Paris at 11:30 pm he showed us how to get the right bus to the metro and further taught us how the metro worked (yeah neither Brooke or I knew how those worked since we had no need for them) and then he told us what stops we needed to take for all the important things, namely our hostel. After finally getting off the metro, we had no map of the city and it was well after midnight, and we walked around Paris looking for our street. We found some French women and Brooke used her French skills to ask them where our street was, they had never heard of it. So we proceeded to walk around unable to find our hostel, starving as the last time we ate was at 3 pm. Just when we thought maybe we will just be stuck walking until daylight, we walked past this Hotel and the doorman asked if we were lost. We said yes and he immediately offered us help. We went inside told him the name of our hostel and it's address. He proceeded to google the Hostel, got us a map and their phone number. He then called our hostel and they told us we did not respect our reservation (yeah it was for 9pm, the time we were supposed to get there) and could not stay there tonight. The doorman got on the phone spoke some French then hung up. He then told us you go there at 9 am and they will give you a room for the rest of your stay, and then he offered for us to stay in that Hotel for FREE. I might add this was a very nice hotel in a very nice location, costing minimum of 200 euro per night. He then walked us to a market about 7 blocks away so we could get some food. He basically saved our lives. So after everything went wrong we became the luckiest people in the world, and people said that French people were rude. So untrue!
The next morning, running on two hours of sleep, we got a free breakfast, went on a mad hunt for Starbucks (we miss the little things over here) which we didn't find, and then went to the Louvre. We went through every exhibit in the Louvre in less than 2 hours because we were so tired, and we may have glazed over a lot of the Roman and Greek art stuff since we see it all over the place in Florence. After the Louvre we tracked down Starbucks after stopping a woman in the street carrying their cup. This was the best part of our day at that point, caffeine was exactly what we needed. We then had lunch and went back to the hostel (after getting lost again) where we cleaned up a bit then went to see the Notre Dame, this cool underground crypt, and finally the Eiffel Tower. Waiting in line for the tower I made friends with the security guy, but I did not go see him after got done with my visit like he requested. Instead, we met up with Becca and had dinner with her at this little Italian restaurant we found (I know I should eat French food in Paris, but it was hard to find and we were hungry.) Our waiter/host befriended us and just loved that we were Americans that lived in Italy. He was born in Canada, but lived in Paris, or something like that. After dinner, we had crepes which are delicious and should be tried in France, they do them the best. We then wandered around the city on the way back to the hostel, and got caught in a bit of a rainstorm.
The next day, we tried to go to the Orsay Museum, which was closed on Monday's apparently. So we decided we would go to the Palace of Versailles, which was also closed, except for the gardens. The free gardens were definitely worth the train ride out there. They were gorgeous and huge! We returned to Paris to take a stroll down the Champs Elysees (main shopping street) where we saw the Louis Vuitton headquarters, from the outside at least, and the Arch of Triumph. We then took a walk through the city and went back tot he hostel to get ready to go home the next morning.
I absolutely loved Paris! I don't know if I would want to live there forever, but I wouldn't mind staying for a few weeks or months. It was quite and interesting trip, and showed me that in some of the stickiest situations everything turns out fine in the end. I didn't have to sleep on the streets or miss my flight. We may have gotten lost on the way there and on the way home(forgot to mention that) but we got home. In stressful situations, like those, I can always figure my out and how to fix it. It is kind of like life. Things go wrong and off plan ALL the time, it just matters how you deal with them and how you react greatly determines the outcome. I never had a nervous breakdown or freaked out about being lost a million times, you just have to walk around until you find the right turn sometimes, or maybe you will get lucky enough to meet some very friendly and helpful people.
You know those day's where everything that could go wrong does go wrong? Well, that is basically how this trip started out. We arrived at the airport four hours before our flight was scheduled to depart because we forgot that we already figured the time and just wrote that down. Upon arrival at the airport we learned our flight was no longer at 7:00 pm but at 9:00 pm. On the bright side we met our new friend Todd in the airport because he heard we spoke English. He happened to be an intern in Paris since January so he told us some things close to our hostel and we talked to him for about two hours in the airport and another hour and a half on the flight. Luckily, after landing in Paris at 11:30 pm he showed us how to get the right bus to the metro and further taught us how the metro worked (yeah neither Brooke or I knew how those worked since we had no need for them) and then he told us what stops we needed to take for all the important things, namely our hostel. After finally getting off the metro, we had no map of the city and it was well after midnight, and we walked around Paris looking for our street. We found some French women and Brooke used her French skills to ask them where our street was, they had never heard of it. So we proceeded to walk around unable to find our hostel, starving as the last time we ate was at 3 pm. Just when we thought maybe we will just be stuck walking until daylight, we walked past this Hotel and the doorman asked if we were lost. We said yes and he immediately offered us help. We went inside told him the name of our hostel and it's address. He proceeded to google the Hostel, got us a map and their phone number. He then called our hostel and they told us we did not respect our reservation (yeah it was for 9pm, the time we were supposed to get there) and could not stay there tonight. The doorman got on the phone spoke some French then hung up. He then told us you go there at 9 am and they will give you a room for the rest of your stay, and then he offered for us to stay in that Hotel for FREE. I might add this was a very nice hotel in a very nice location, costing minimum of 200 euro per night. He then walked us to a market about 7 blocks away so we could get some food. He basically saved our lives. So after everything went wrong we became the luckiest people in the world, and people said that French people were rude. So untrue!
The next morning, running on two hours of sleep, we got a free breakfast, went on a mad hunt for Starbucks (we miss the little things over here) which we didn't find, and then went to the Louvre. We went through every exhibit in the Louvre in less than 2 hours because we were so tired, and we may have glazed over a lot of the Roman and Greek art stuff since we see it all over the place in Florence. After the Louvre we tracked down Starbucks after stopping a woman in the street carrying their cup. This was the best part of our day at that point, caffeine was exactly what we needed. We then had lunch and went back to the hostel (after getting lost again) where we cleaned up a bit then went to see the Notre Dame, this cool underground crypt, and finally the Eiffel Tower. Waiting in line for the tower I made friends with the security guy, but I did not go see him after got done with my visit like he requested. Instead, we met up with Becca and had dinner with her at this little Italian restaurant we found (I know I should eat French food in Paris, but it was hard to find and we were hungry.) Our waiter/host befriended us and just loved that we were Americans that lived in Italy. He was born in Canada, but lived in Paris, or something like that. After dinner, we had crepes which are delicious and should be tried in France, they do them the best. We then wandered around the city on the way back to the hostel, and got caught in a bit of a rainstorm.
The next day, we tried to go to the Orsay Museum, which was closed on Monday's apparently. So we decided we would go to the Palace of Versailles, which was also closed, except for the gardens. The free gardens were definitely worth the train ride out there. They were gorgeous and huge! We returned to Paris to take a stroll down the Champs Elysees (main shopping street) where we saw the Louis Vuitton headquarters, from the outside at least, and the Arch of Triumph. We then took a walk through the city and went back tot he hostel to get ready to go home the next morning.
I absolutely loved Paris! I don't know if I would want to live there forever, but I wouldn't mind staying for a few weeks or months. It was quite and interesting trip, and showed me that in some of the stickiest situations everything turns out fine in the end. I didn't have to sleep on the streets or miss my flight. We may have gotten lost on the way there and on the way home(forgot to mention that) but we got home. In stressful situations, like those, I can always figure my out and how to fix it. It is kind of like life. Things go wrong and off plan ALL the time, it just matters how you deal with them and how you react greatly determines the outcome. I never had a nervous breakdown or freaked out about being lost a million times, you just have to walk around until you find the right turn sometimes, or maybe you will get lucky enough to meet some very friendly and helpful people.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Reflection
I was walking to a friend's apartment the other night, taking the same route I have taken about a thousand times, and just as I was in the middle of the Uffizi's Piazza it hit me. I was in Italy and felt entirely at home and oriented in my new city. Two months before that night, the first night I had ever walked around Florence I walked through that exact same Piazza and I remember feeling as if my world had flipped upside down. I couldn't have told you up from down or left from right that night, in fact, I got lost that night as I remember. But that night, two months after arriving in Florence, everything was in place. I was well oriented and I could tell anyone who asked directions to the major points in Florence. I knew the Duomo was North of me just down the street on the left and that the Ponte Vecchio was just down the street to the right, I could go on but I won't, you get the point. But, most importantly I felt at home. I just realized in that moment I had a second place in the world I can call home.
For the past month I have been growing a lot more comfortable navigating the winding confusing streets of Florence and feeling feeling that my life before Italy is just a faint memory of someone else. On that brief five minute walk, everything just sank in, before Italy I was, in many ways, someone else. I haven't done a complete 180 on myself, but the experiences I have had in Italy have already changed me. I am beginning to see the world from and different perspective (and culture), I have grown quite a bit personally, and the day-to-day tasks of living in Italy have brought out more of my personality that I don't always express (including strengths and weaknesses.) I am still very much the person I was before I came to Italy, but I feel like I have improved myself. I still haven't entirely figured myself out, but really who does that in their teens or early 20's, most people aren't even figured out in their middle age so I feel okay about that.
As I continued walking, I began thinking about how quickly life can change and how subtly life can change you. In just two months I feel like a different person, and in reality I am. Then I realized I am more of the person I have always seen myself as becoming and I am on the right track to really being that person. But how did that happen? Wasn't I always waiting for it to happen someday? Yes, I had been waiting for it to just happen, expecting some major life event to make it happen, that one morning I would wake up and just be the person I wanted to be. Life doesn't work like that, I made it happen. I didn't just sit back and let life happen around me, I took the initiative and made it happen. I am living out my dream of studying abroad in Italy and becoming who I want to be all on my own, and it all started the day I walked into the study abroad office on campus and said "I want to study abroad, but I'm not sure where." Saying those words out loud to strangers made it real, and before I knew it 10 minutes later I was walking out of the office with about 20 brochures on 3 different countries and I had a conversation with a stranger about dutch people. That short statement started my journey. (By the way thanks Tasha for nagging me about wanting to study abroad, but never actually taking the time to go ask about it.) Studying in another country wasn't just going to fall into my lap my any means, I had to take the initiative to make it happen. Boy was it a lot of work to get here too, mostly paperwork. After being in Italy, I realized that me growing into the person I want to be wasn't just going to happen either, I had to take the initiative to make it happen. I had to step outside my comfort zone, and luckily being in a foreign country where I didn't know anyone made it quite easy to do that. I think I lived constantly outside of my comfort zone for the first month I was here. It wasn't going to be one big sudden transformation, but it was going to be a very gradual one. Even if when you realize it's happened it seems to hit you on the head, it didn't it had been happening for quite some time, it was just never realized. It can start with saying yes to an invitation from a potential new friend, or trying a new food, or in my case getting on an airplane for the first time in my life alone. I went half-way across the world by myself at 19 to live with strangers in a country where I couldn't speak the language. Doing all of that has made me more independent and self-confident, not to mention outgoing.
It has only been two months and I already feel like a such a different person. I can barely remember my lifestyle before I got to Italy, and what people speaking English sounds like. I will be curious to see how home feels when I return, but for now I am enjoying my time in the relaxed culture Italy has to offer me.
For the past month I have been growing a lot more comfortable navigating the winding confusing streets of Florence and feeling feeling that my life before Italy is just a faint memory of someone else. On that brief five minute walk, everything just sank in, before Italy I was, in many ways, someone else. I haven't done a complete 180 on myself, but the experiences I have had in Italy have already changed me. I am beginning to see the world from and different perspective (and culture), I have grown quite a bit personally, and the day-to-day tasks of living in Italy have brought out more of my personality that I don't always express (including strengths and weaknesses.) I am still very much the person I was before I came to Italy, but I feel like I have improved myself. I still haven't entirely figured myself out, but really who does that in their teens or early 20's, most people aren't even figured out in their middle age so I feel okay about that.
As I continued walking, I began thinking about how quickly life can change and how subtly life can change you. In just two months I feel like a different person, and in reality I am. Then I realized I am more of the person I have always seen myself as becoming and I am on the right track to really being that person. But how did that happen? Wasn't I always waiting for it to happen someday? Yes, I had been waiting for it to just happen, expecting some major life event to make it happen, that one morning I would wake up and just be the person I wanted to be. Life doesn't work like that, I made it happen. I didn't just sit back and let life happen around me, I took the initiative and made it happen. I am living out my dream of studying abroad in Italy and becoming who I want to be all on my own, and it all started the day I walked into the study abroad office on campus and said "I want to study abroad, but I'm not sure where." Saying those words out loud to strangers made it real, and before I knew it 10 minutes later I was walking out of the office with about 20 brochures on 3 different countries and I had a conversation with a stranger about dutch people. That short statement started my journey. (By the way thanks Tasha for nagging me about wanting to study abroad, but never actually taking the time to go ask about it.) Studying in another country wasn't just going to fall into my lap my any means, I had to take the initiative to make it happen. Boy was it a lot of work to get here too, mostly paperwork. After being in Italy, I realized that me growing into the person I want to be wasn't just going to happen either, I had to take the initiative to make it happen. I had to step outside my comfort zone, and luckily being in a foreign country where I didn't know anyone made it quite easy to do that. I think I lived constantly outside of my comfort zone for the first month I was here. It wasn't going to be one big sudden transformation, but it was going to be a very gradual one. Even if when you realize it's happened it seems to hit you on the head, it didn't it had been happening for quite some time, it was just never realized. It can start with saying yes to an invitation from a potential new friend, or trying a new food, or in my case getting on an airplane for the first time in my life alone. I went half-way across the world by myself at 19 to live with strangers in a country where I couldn't speak the language. Doing all of that has made me more independent and self-confident, not to mention outgoing.
It has only been two months and I already feel like a such a different person. I can barely remember my lifestyle before I got to Italy, and what people speaking English sounds like. I will be curious to see how home feels when I return, but for now I am enjoying my time in the relaxed culture Italy has to offer me.
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