Saying goodbye to Cork

Well friends and family, this is it!  This will be my last blog post from Cork.

I can't believe it.  Its hard to believe that it was five months ago that I moved into my apartment and I began to find my way around the city by myself.  Doesn't seem like it was that long ago!  I am officially ending my 21 weeks on the Emerald Isle in only a few days.

What to even say about my time here? My friends and I have been talking about what it will be like to be back in America.  I am sure many people will ask me, how was it? Did you like it?  and I am thinking how do I answer that question truthfully in one conversation?  How do I tell someone about the things I have experienced in the past five months?  I suppose the normal answer would be something like, "It was amazing, I loved it!"  Which is true, but there is so much more to my experience abroad than those 6 words that I can never fully explain to someone who hasn't also experienced it or been there with me along the way.

Really, you can't sum up 5 months in one conversation and it will probably drive me crazy that I can't give them an answer so they will truly understand everything that I have experienced!

Anyways, I have been making mental lists of things I am excited for in America and things I am sad to leave behind in Ireland and in Cork.

Here are the things I will miss most about Ireland and Cork:
-The people.  The people that I have had the opportunity to interact with here in Cork are some of the kindest, most excited about life people I have ever encountered.  The Irish outlook on life is just so easygoing and upbeat at the same time!  I feel like people smile more here.  Maybe I just haven't observed this closely enough in the states, but in general the Irish are just happy!
-Accents.  Words like 'grand' and 'thanks a million' or a new one I've been hearing, 'thats class' like thats so cool or awesome.  But really, it will be so strange to not hear these really nice accent in my everyday life.
-UCC.  My school here is incredible.  The campus is beautiful, the library… If I had the option to go here for four years I think I would take that into consideration.  Its a great school.
-Strangely, my apartment.  Although my apartment building is not in the best shape.  Megan and I got really lucky with our apartment.  Its clean, we have hot water, and things don't break like other apartments.  AND we have a beautiful view of the city and the river.  I think I will really miss my mornings eating oatmeal and seeing swans swim down the river.  Or my evenings, reading a book or drinking tea watching the sun set over the city and the river.  Or even rainy days where I look at the river and see all the droplets of water and know that I will have to bundle up that day.
-My favorite coffee shops and restaurants.  Most namely, the half door cafe.  I am so grateful that I stumbled upon this beauty while wandering alone and looking for a coffee.  Not only is the food, drinks and atmosphere amazing, the staff are so friendly and know my orders and my name.
-Walking!  Seriously, if I need to send a letter I can walk five minutes away and its done.  Need a loaf of bread? Same thing.  No wonder Americans are fat, we drive EVERYWHERE.  I can't believe that I used to drive to High school that was a 4 minute drive from my house.  I walked 35 minutes to one of my classes this semester and I really didn't mind it at all.  It will be a big transition to needing a car to really do anything.
-Last but not least (on this list) trad music in my favorite Irish pub.  As well as a few local brews that I have come to really enjoy.  This is just about as Irish as it gets people.  The atmosphere is so warm and homey and the music is always good.  Ah I will miss this pub so much.

The list of things I won't miss are short and sweet.  Dog poop, mangy cats, noisy streets at night and constant rain. If you haven't noticed I kinda like it here :)

So, America! Here are some things that I am looking forward to:
-My family.  I haven't seen most of my family for 5 months!  Each year I am realizing how lucky I am to have such a supportive and loving family.  I also get to meet my nephew when I get back! I can't wait.
-Jason.  Its been a long 22 weeks in this aspect of my time here.  It almost feels like I will actually never see him again, when I am going to see him in only a few days! AH.  I am so ready to not talk to him on a screen and actually talk to his face!
-The American dollar.  Ireland is great, but its expensive. I will be glad to make the change from the euro to the dollar.
-Although I really like walking everywhere, it will be nice to drive my car again.  Driving will feel so strange after not driving for so long! I am a little worried about driving on the wrong side of the road but I'm sure I'll be fine :)
-I am excited to not stand out like a sore thumb because of my accent or how I am dressed.  I won't be labeled as an American anymore because well, Ill be in America!  As much as I've tried to blend in, its pretty obvious that I am not from here especially when I open my mouth!
-We have all been talking about the food we are going to eat when we get back to the states.  My go to's will be Dairy Queen, Chipotle, Panera and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese :)  Yes, I am a nutrition major.  Oops?

In my head, I think I am ready to leave.  But I am sure that once I leave I will experience a much worse reverse culture shock than I experienced coming here.  Study abroad has taught me more than ever how to be independent and embrace the things that are different about me from others around me.  I have learned that its hard to be away from my close family and friends for so long, but also that a group of 15 students from CSB/SJU with extremely different personalities can become like a second family.  The people on this trip with me have defined many of my experiences.  I have learned that when family is not there to comfort someone with a loss or a hard time, there are people with such kind hearts that will step up and be there for that person.  We have all learned to lean on each other and support each other even though we are all SO different.  Its such a hodgepodge of people and personalities that I never would have guessed I would be friends with.  Life is cool like that.

Here are some photos from my last week in Cork.

River walk

One of my favorite views in Cork

Soccer game!

Me and some friends at the soccer game.

It was Megan's birthday!  We celebrated accordingly with crepes.

Birthday crepe crew

My lovely roommate

Done with finals!

One last look at my beautiful campus. 

Saying farewell to the half door cafe with one last chai latte.  The owner gave me a free lunch today for it being my last day.  She also gave me some extra chai powder to take home and make my own chais.  I will miss that place. 

I know you are all dying to know what comes next in life for me.  I am going to be living in Forest, Virginia for the summer.  This is where my boyfriend, Jason lives and goes to school so I am going to spend a summer on the east coast to be near him after 5 months apart.  Yes, I am that girl.  No shame.  And since I know you are all dying to know what I am going to be doing over in VA, I have decided to start another blog for my adventures and life stuff that happens over there.  You'll all have another way to creep on me all summer long! Horray!

In 24 hours I will be somewhere over the atlantic on my way to America.  A piece of my heart will always remain here in Cork and I am so thankful that I have had the opportunity to call Cork my home for 5 months.  Its been real Ireland, until next time my sweet sweet greeeeeeen country.

Scotland! Kilts and bagpipes and bagpipes and kilts..

Here I am again in Cork! Still can't believe how much this apartment feels like home.  I am trying to run it through my head that its really not home, but my heart is having a hard time going along with it!

There are 8 days until I fly home and 9 days until I see Jason and the rest of my family! I can't even express how excited I am for those things but I also can't even begin to describe how hard it will be to say goodbye to Ireland.  So many conflicting feelings that are making me leak from my eyes a lot!

Anyways, Scotland.  I am sure you are sick of hearing about my travels and I hope it doesn't sound like I am bragging or anything, I just want you all to see what I have experienced through my eyes and to tell you a little bit about what these places have to offer.  This will also be a nice sort of journal to look back and read down the road!

So a friend and I decided to take a trip to Scotland mid exams to break up the time a little and to make the most of being on this side of the pond! I went with a girl named Juliet who I met through my roommates at St. Ben's.  She actually goes to the U of M but happened to be studying in Cork this semester as well.

We flew into Edinburgh out of Dublin and had some time to explore before it got dark.  I knew I would like that city right away.  It was like a combination of London and the small villages I had seen in the English countryside.  I could definitely tell that I was back in the UK, not sure why but there is just a vibe I guess! We grabbed dinner and continued exploring down the Royal Mile which was literally 10 steps from our hostel.  We were in a perfect location for just about everything. Although, I am not too sad to say that it was my last hostel for awhile or maybe even ever!  We also stumbled upon many bagpipers throughout the city, just playing with a hat out for money but they were all dressed up in their whole bagpiper outfit which was fun to see! All of the shops were advertising for kilts and lambs wool scarves and hats as well.

 Our first day, we explored a bit one stumbled upon many bagpipers throughout the city, just playing with a hat out for money but they were all dressed up in their whole bagpiper outfit which was fun to see! The castle is huge and it sits on this mountainy cliff sort of thing that overlooks the whole city.  Pretty cool if you ask me.  We met up with some of my friends from Cork who also happened to be in Edinburgh for the day and headed to climb arthurs seat together.  Arthurs seat is the top of a mountain/hillside that took us about 30-40 minutes to walk up.  It was nothing compared to my hike in switzerland! It is named for King Arthur and is often mentioned in mythology as one of the possible locations for Camelot.  It was also formed on an extinct volcano system and was eroded by a glacier which exposed rocky crags and surfaces which happened about 2 million years ago.

It was a nice day out and it was fun to do this with so many of my Cork friends to add to all of the memories made with them! After this, Juliet and I were wiped so we headed back to the hostel to make some dinner.  The next morning we got our full Scottish breakfast.  This included things similar to an Irish breakfast, eggs, toast, baked beans, sausage and bacon but with the addition of haggis and a tattie scone.  Haggis is a mixture of sheep heart, lungs and liver, onion and spices stuffed into a sheep stomach and boiled.  It sounds really nasty, but it tasted ok I just couldn't get past more than a few bites.  A tattie scone is a potato based flatbread sort of thing.  At least that was what mine was! The traditional scottish meal is haggis with neeps and tatties which is turnips and potatoes.  It is usually also served with a whiskey gravy on top.  Sadly I did not try this dish but I am proud of myself for even trying haggis at all!

We did a free walking tour after that which took up most of the morning.  It was really informative and our guide was really entertaining and friendly.  The best walking tour I have had yet!  In the afternoon, Juliet and I went to check out the Elephant house which is one of the many coffee shops that J.K. Rowling would frequent in her early writing days.  We were told that she wrote most of the first Harry Potter book in one of the back rooms of that coffee shop.  As a Harry Potter fan, this was pretty cool.  Our tour guide told us that she was too poor to pay for heating so she would buy a cup of tea and sit in here and write all day.  Now they have drawers in some of the tables with pencils and paper and a note that says something like, now you can write your own bestseller! Clever, I think.

We also explored a graveyard that J.K Rowling would have explored and looked out upon while writing.  Many of the names in the graveyard are names of characters found in the books.  Some of the most well known names we saw were McGonogall, Moodie, and Tom Riddell.  As you may have noticed, the actual names are spelled differently than she spelled them in the book.  We figured this may have been out of respect for these actual individuals and their families.  Our guide also told us that many people come from all over the world to see the grave of Tom Riddell and leave really strange gifts and trinkets at the gravesite.  The world is sure full of very interesting people.  I had no idea these things even existed before I went to Edinburgh! It was a nice surprise to get a little bit more of Harry in Scotland though :) That night we went out and tried some of the national drink, whiskey.  Neither of us were a huge fan but since we were in Scotland we figured it was a must.

Our last full day was a bus tour of the highlands! Our guide again, was so great.  He was friendly and informative but didn't talk the whole time either which was nice.  We stopped at Blair Castle where we wandered the grounds and saw the forest and gardens.  The castle was surrounded by green rolling hills and mountains.  It was an incredible location!  The landscape is a bit different than that in Ireland in that it is actually greener! There were more pine trees covering the mountains rather than a browner sort of look of the mountains in Ireland.  I also felt like it was just hillier in general, but granted I only saw a small part of Scotland so I might not actually know best.

We made a few other short stops to a whiskey distillery and a small iron age hut called a crannog.  Our last stop was the hermitage.  It is where a wealthy man and his friends used to smoke opium in the days when it was not illegal.  There is more to the story, but I can't really remember. There was a small hut overlooking a pretty impressive waterfall and incredible green forest surrounding it.  This may have been my favorite of the day.  It was just so green and I love waterfalls and the sound and the smell that they make.  We also stopped to see the famous Forth Bridge on the way back into the city.  This is famous because it was made by one of the same engineers that built the Eiffel Tower.  I thought that was pretty neat!

View of the street our hostel is on at sunset.  Look at those clouds!

Bagpiper on the street!

On top of Arthurs seat!

Juliet and I.  It was a little windy :)

Drinking tea in the Elephant House.  Wishing I was hanging out with J.K. Rowling!

Edinburgh Castle at sunset

Forest on our tour of the highlands

Me at the hermitage/waterfall in the highlands of Scotland!

Forth Bridge

I also had a chance to do some exploring alone, which was something new for me in all of my traveling.  I may sound a bit dramatic here but walking a new city alone a few times was the best way to end my exploration throughout Europe.  I had time to think and reflect on everything I have seen and done, even though I can't really comprehend it now I know that its more than SO many people in the world will ever see in their lifetime.  Like, A LOT more.  What a blessing this has all been!  Scotland was the perfect last adventure.

The countdown for re entry into America has started, and although I am dreading saying my goodbyes I am beyond excited to say some hellos.  Thanks everyone for reading and staying interested in my life :)

Also, I didn't put my last post on Facebook and I checked how many views it had, which was only one.  The one view I know was from my most loyal reader, my dad.  Thanks for being my biggest fan and supporting me dad!

The Mork's and the Bellanti's take on Ireland!

One final down, one to go! I still can't believe how quickly the time is going by! Its almost exactly two weeks until I fly back to the States.  So many things to see and so before then!

For those of you who don't know, I am heading to Scotland today.  Just going to casually bop over to Scotland for a few days you know… My life is so cool! Even though Scotland is literally going to clean my bank account out I am pretty excited for my last European adventure for 2014.

Also, for those of you who don't know my grandparents and my great aunt and uncle were in Cork for about a week.  They stayed at a B&B right next to my school which was a pretty good location for me to walk to and pretty close to the city centre.  The B&B was awesome.  Their breakfast, which they treated me to a few times, was unbelievable.  They had a buffet of fruits and yogurt and little scones and bread, then the first course was porridge any way you want it, second course was a cooked dish like eggs benedict or an omelet or full Irish breakfast and then the staff came and asked if we wanted pancakes! I have not been that full for awhile. So that was good!

Some of the main things I did with them were:

1. Showing them around Cork.  I brought them to UCC and showed them a bit around my campus.  We went and checked out the English Market, then headed over to some O'conaills hot chocolate of course.  They wanted to see St. Finbarr's cathedral so we went there and stayed long enough to hear the organist practice a bit! My grandma really thought that was a treat because she is an organist herself! So, glad we were able to hear him play grandma :)  Last but not least we had a late lunch at the Farmgate cafe which is overlooking the English Market.

2. Visiting the Ballynatray Estate.  This was where my grandfathers great grandfather was born.  So, a distant relative for me, but the blood still flows through me! I had no idea I had any ancestors from Ireland when I picked this program so I was very happy to hear that I am a wee bit Irish after all :) Anyways, his great grandfather was probably born in a workers home because his own father and mother were employed by the people who owned the estate.  He and his father and sister emigrated to the U.S. around the time of the famine when he was about 10 years old.
This was a really special thing for my grandfather and I to share together.  We got to spend some time walking and talking together and I will cherish those moments for the rest of my life!

3. Listening to trad music at my favorite pub, An Spalpain Fanach.  John, my great uncle, told me many times after that night that it was the highlight of the trip for him! So I think they liked it :) They all got to try some real Irish beer in a real local Irish pub.  The people you will find at a place like this don't get any more Irish! At the end of the night a man got up and began to play the bagpipes.  The music literally filled the room and you could just feel that everyone was listening and appreciating his skill and the beauty of the music.  It was a real treat for me as that was the first time I have heard a bagpiper at An Spalpain!

Grandpa and Carlolyn at Ballynatray

Ballynatray Estate.  I thought that little rope swing made for a nice picture!

Dinner out

Aren't they cute? 50+ years of marriage here people. They are some incredible people!

Got to see the Atlantic Ocean!

Sharing a meals and conversations with the four of them is something I will not forget! My grandfathers sister and her husband, Carolyn and John, are really great people and it was fun to get to know them a bit better and hopefully it was fun for them to get to know me! Sharing my life in Cork and Ireland with them all was also very special.  I am glad they had a good excuse to come to Ireland and experience the culture and the people that I love so dearly.

The days I have left in Cork I can count on two hands.  I never thought this would come so quickly or would have guessed how much I would fall in love with Cork, but its here and Cork has such a hold on my heart that will make it incredibly hard to say goodbye.  BUT I have Scotland to think about for the time being and then I have to think about my last final and saying goodbye.

Next post will be Scotland! Maybe I'll see some kilts? (dad)

Belgian waffles and P.S. I love you

My last two stops on my European adventure were Belgium and Dublin.  I have already been to Dublin yes, but I figured since we were flying in there anyways I could see some of the last things on my Ireland to see list.  This included Newgrange and Wicklow National Park.  I will explain later for those who don't know what these things are :)

So Belgium! The land of waffles, chocolate and french fries.  Did you know that the french fry was invented in Belgium? Neither did we! We really only had one full day in Belgium of which we spent exploring the streets of Brussels.  We stayed in Charleroi and rented a room via airbnb which is a website that has become my best friend.  Staying with this middle aged man (sounds sketchy but its not) was the best decision we made for that whole trip! He picked us up from the airport then drove us around the whole time we were there, helping us get to the train station and buy our train tickets as well as serving us tea and cookies in his beautiful backyard garden.  We loved talking to him at night and sharing stories of our travels and our lives in Cork and in America.  He was so kind and didn't charge us anything extra for driving us around or anything.  We will not forget our Belgiun friend, Nono :)

So our day in Brussels began with a nice steady rain.  Not that we aren't used to rain it was just a bit of a bummer to have our only day there be rainy!  We pretty much just grabbed a map and went to all of the big things on it and where they were labeled to be major attractions.  There was a main square called Grand Place where there were really beautiful buildings and shops all around.  There were waffle stands everywhere. The plain waffles were only 1 euro!

We saw many things in Brussels and I will just name them rather than tell you every detail of our day:
Grand Place,  Town Hall, the Royal Palace (where the King lives), Manneken Pis, Cathedral of Saints Michel and Gudule, the Atomnium from a distance and Pace du Petit Sablon which was a really nice garden with fountains and beautiful flowers.  The locals in Brussels all speak French which was not something we were really prepared for.  We learned how to say thank you (merci) which was about all we could manage but again, most people we interacted with could speak enough English.

The food and the gardens were my favorite part, naturally.  We tended to look for green patches on the map and seek them out in almost every city we were in.  Small town country lovers I guess can't be in the city for too long or we will go crazy! But the food in Belgium was real good.  A few waffles here and there, some french fries with really bad for you sauce all over them and don't forget the chocolate! We did eat some real food while we were there but really, the waffles, or gaufres were so so good.  We tried them with toppings and plain and honestly my plain one was my favorite.  So sugary and warm.

Grand Place

We saw others rubbing this mans mustache so we figured we better do it too!

Royal Palace 

Belgian frites

Not sure what this was called, but its beautiful!

Belgian waffle!

Of course I took a picture with my waffle :)

So sadly, we had to leave Belgium and head back to Ireland.  Although by this time we were all feeling pretty tired out and ready not to be living out of a suitcase anymore.  Cameron left Tierney and I and went to London for a few days while we spent a few days in Dublin seeing some of the last things we had wanted to see in Ireland.  Going back to Ireland was really comforting and hearing the Irish accents was SO nice.  Also, coming back to a place where everyone speaks English helped us to relax a little I think.

So Tierney and I saw Newgrange on the first day.  Newgrange is a Neolithic passage tomb that is older than the pyramids.  We have talked about this time period in our archaeology class so much that it made us want to see this amazing thing that has defined Irelands prehistoric past.  It was a little unbelievable to actually see it in person.  It felt old, but you just can't comprehend how old 3500 BC is.  The inside was just like I had imagined it to be but someone could have made that 10 years ago and just lied about the date you know? Anyways, I guess that means the Neolithic people had very advanced technology as the main chamber of the tomb remains exactly as it was in 3500 BC.  Pretty cool, I think.

We spend some time wandering around Dublin after our short tour.  We treated ourselves to some long awaited fish and chips and then walked around St. Stephens Green.  It was fun because I saw more parts of Dublin that I hadn't seen yet, even though it was my third time there! We also went to a pub called Whelans, that was used in the filming of P.S. I love you.  Hence the movie in the title of this blog.  It was pretty cool to go there as there were posters on the walls of the main stars of the movie that were signed and dated (Gerard Butler, Hillary Swank and Jeffery Dean Morgan).

The next day we went on a bus tour of the Wicklow National Park and Glendalough, which is an old monastic site.  We stopped at the bridge that was also used in the film P.S. I love you when Gerry and Holly first met.  Seeing these things made me want to watch the movie again! Anyways, we wound through the beautiful Wicklow mountains to Glendalough where we had a bit of time to explore the area and walk to some nearby lakes.  It was fun to see this site because we also talked about it in our archaeology class.  We talked about many of the structures that were at this specific site and that was fun to feel like we kinda knew about it all already.

On our final morning in Dublin, we went and explored a small fishing village called Howth.  I began to reflect on how that would probably be my last excursion in Ireland and it made me very sad.  The end of the month snuck up on me and I knew it would go by fast but wow! It flew.

Newgrange

At the entrance of Newgrange! Sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

Whelans pub!

Sitting on the P.S. I love you bridge

Glendalough monastic site

One of the lakes in Glendalough

Arriving in Cork that night was surreal.  Tierney and I remembered our first time walking to Leeside and how we had no idea where we were going.  This time it felt like we were going home.  And so my month of travel has ended and I can't believe it! After all of those hours planning and booking flights.. It is a month that I will not forget for the rest of my life! The good and the bad :)

My grandparents have been in Cork for the past week and my next post will be a little about their time here and about how I only have 18 days left until I go home.  WHAT?  Not sure I am ready yet, but I suppose I need to start preparing for re entry into real life in America :)

Italia: Rome, Florence and Pisa

Alright sooo Italian food is actually the best.  I think I ate straight carbs and dairy for the whole time I was there.  Not complaining.

So. Italy.  I don't even know where to start.  Maybe with the part where I saw the Pope? Or the time when my phone got stolen on the metro… maybe eating gelato everyday? and spending a day with one of my best friends in Rome? Or maybe when the polcia in Florence decided to give us a fine for not validating our bus tickets? This one might be a little long...

As you can see the stories and memories are endless and incredible in the best ways and the worst.

I will start with getting my phone stolen because that happened with in the first 20 minutes of being in Rome.  So it wasn't the best start to Italy! I was a little sour as might be expected towards Rome but I got over it quickly with some healthy doses of gelato and pasta.  So my phone.  My friends and I took a night train from Milan which was interesting to say the least.  There was a baby in our carriage.. Enough said.  We got off the train and went to find where to get on the metro and lugging all our stuff around too.  We bought our metro tickets and attempted to squeeze onto the metro with a million other Italians.  We were squeezed into the car literally as tight as possible, I don't think I've ever been in a more trapped position.  My phone was in my purse inside another bag that was over my shoulder.  I honestly didn't think twice about it.  Maybe I was just distracted and tired and confused about taking the metro for the first time but when we got off at our first stop and reached for my phone it was not there.  I had a sinking feeling and I knew right away that it was gone.  Too angry and sad and tired for words, I followed my friends onto the next metro like a zombie.

Our first event of the day was to go to the Vatican to see the Pope.  As excited as I was for this, I am sad that I was so distracted from losing my phone and thinking about that because I think it distracted me from having a more moving experience of seeing the Pope.  I am not a practicing catholic, but I attend a catholic school and appreciate the catholic religion and I really enjoy Pope Francis and what he has made of the church in his time of being Pope.  All of that said, I did my best to take in the moment and enjoy the ceremony.  He holds a free ceremony for the public every wednesday where he will drive around the crowd in his popemobile and then say a few words in front of the crowd.  It was very cool because he greeted each different nationality and you could hear the cheers from each different country as he greeted them.  Everything he said was also said in a translation of many different languages.  It was cool to be somewhere with so many different cultures and nationalities but all there for the same purpose.

After the ceremony was over, we met up with a friend of Megan and Tierney who was hosting us while we were there.  We headed to her place to drop our bags and relax a little.  The first thing we did was get pizza.  I was ok with that.  We eventually made it over to the Pantheon and to a large piazza next to it that I can't seem to remember the name of.  We were able to explore a bit of that side of the city and then find a place for dinner (pasta and bread) and then go to a place for gelato that our host suggested to us.  Even though the day started out the worst way possible, I found myself really enjoying what Rome has to offer.

The second day I planned to meet up with my friend Sarah, who I know from Trout (she also visited me in Cork).  She has been studying in Rome this semester so it was really fun to hang out with her and have her show me around a bit.  She also happened to have an extra camera that she let me borrow for the rest of the trip.  Soo grateful for that.  We met at the Vatican (casual) and roamed around the city for awhile. She took me to the Spanish Steps and an overlook of a nice piazza and the Trevi fountain.  She impressed me with her very fluent spanish and broken italian when talking to all of the Italians cause I felt like an idiot when trying to order anything try to talk to anyone! She also showed me where she lives and one of her favorite places in Rome, which is another overlook, where we got some gelato :) We finished the day with the best meal I had in Italy at a family owned restaurant in her neighborhood. The pasta, pizza, bruschetta and house wine were all absolutely amazing.  AND to share it with the best date was so much fun.  Sarah, you're awesome.

Our last full day in Rome was the Colosseum and Roman Forum.  This day is one of the highlights from my whole trip.  It was just such a good overall day! The sun was shining, we were seeing some really cool Roman ish things, we ate really good pastries, pizza, bruschetta, prosciutto and wine.  And of course gelato :) This day is when it finally hit me that I was actually in Italy.  At the end of the night I threw my coin into the Trevi and said arrivederci (goodbye) to Rome (for now!).

Pope Francis (Photo by Tierney Chlan)

Sarah and I at the Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps.  Look at that bluuuee sky!

This pasta was sooo good….

Colosseum

My travel mates: Me, Tierney, Megan and Cameron

Best gelato in the world

Trevi fountain at night

We headed to Florence the next day after indulging one last time on our favorite bakery's pastries.  We took the train and it was actually a really nice train and the scenery that we went through was classic tuscan countryside.  It was so beautiful with the tall skinny trees and colors and hills and mountains in the distance.  It made me want to take a trip to Tuscany and go to a vineyard and take cooking classes someday!

Anyways, Florence gave us a few more adventures.  There were three of us now, myself, Tierney and Cameron.  We got off the train and figured the best way to get to our rented apartment was to take the bus.  So we went and bought bus tickets and went to find our correct bus.  We got on and were feeling pretty good for finding the right one, then we see some police officers get on. They came right over to us and asked to see our tickets so I handed them to the officer.  She immediately started jabbering away in Italian in an angry voice and we were like uh no italiano! So she brought another guy over who spoke english who pulled out a big legal pad and began telling us that because we didn't validate our tickets right away when we got on the bus we were going to have to pay a 50 euro fine each.  Right away we started arguing and saying that we literally just bought the tickets and just got on the bus and we had no idea that you needed to validate your tickets because we didn't see anyone else doing it.  That just made him more mad and they got off at our stop with us and began asking for our passports and kept saying that this is the law in Florence.  He said 'I give you a deal, you pay now for 2 fines otherwise you pay 3 fines at the box office.'  He even pulled out a badge to prove that he was legit.  WAH we were so confused and in disbelief and kept arguing which made him more mad and so he goes 'FINE you pay 3 fines at the box office.' We had no idea where the box office was so I said wait, ok we will pay for 2 fines right now and pulled out 100 euro and shoved it into his hand.  It was so sketchy and we knew we were definitely targeted with our luggage and probably confused looks.

So. Our first impression of Florence was pretty bad too.  After losing my phone though, this was pretty small :) Just really frustrating that we were targeted and they were not understanding that we had no idea to validate our tickets! That evening it also rained on us.  So to lift our moods we set off to find one of our friends who was in Florence at the same time, Emily.  We sat down with her at a nice restaurant for a few hours and exchanged stories of our travels so far.  The food was amazing also.  The lasagna, wine and tiramisu that I had… mhmmm.  We enjoyed getting to relax and eat good food to make us feel better after losing 33 euros to those mean policia.

The next day was Easter! We began the day with a ceremony that involved an exploding cart.  It was in the middle of the main square with the Duomo and there were sooo many people there! The ceremony was in Italian and we couldn't really see what was going on but when the cart started going off it was really cool.  There were fireworks and little firecrackers coming from it and it was really an experience I will not forget.  The fireworks went on for at least 7 or 8 minutes too.  A successful explosion of the cart means good luck for the new year and I would say it was a successful explosion! The afternoon was spent exploring the city and having a picnic in a park.  We met up with our friends, Emily and Gina to cook an easter dinner of sorts.  It was fun to do something a little more special for the holiday as we were all missing our families and our traditions from home.

We stayed and relaxed for awhile then we went to find an overlook that we had been told about to watch the sunset from.  We had a nice walk along the river and thankfully the sun was shining all day and it was a beautiful evening.  The sunset is one that I will not forget.  The clouds were absolutely stunning when the sun was going behind them and the view of the city from the over look was really nice.  Sigh… That was another one of my favorite days from my trip.  The sunset was a good reminder of the meaning of the Easter holiday and how the beauty of creation is pretty incredible.

Our last day in Florence was spent wandering some more streets and spending some time (and money..) at the leather market.  We really enjoyed just looking at everything and listening to the vendors try to sell us things we didn't want.  But of course, when in Italy I guess, buy all of the things and spend all of the moneys… The three of us found ourselves using those phrases more than once and those phrases kinda became a joke for the rest of the trip.  We got one last canoli and sat by the river before catching our bus to Pisa.

Exploding Easter cart!

Duomo

Easter sunset.  Incredible.

MN nice on the streets of Florence :)

Tierney, myself and Cameron

Yummy canoli by the river

Our hostel in Pisa was kind of like an oasis for us.  We walked in and the man who greeted us asked if we wanted some fruit juice while filling out our paperwork.  Why yes I would like some FREE fruit juice! There was a really nice lounge area where they also served coffee and dinner on some nights and compared to our apartment in Florence, this was paradise.  May I add that the showers in both Florence and Pisa were teeny tiny and barely had curtains and we ended up getting water all over the floor.. oops! Those will be some memorable showers!

Our one day in Pisa and last day in Italy was better than I could have imagined.  When people say there isn't much to see in Pisa they were right but I didn't mind! We spent a little time walking around but eventually made our way to the leaning tower.  I was impressed by how much it actually does lean!  No wonder why it is famous.  We had a lazy day napping in a park, picnicking in the square with the leaning tower and ending with our last italian meal.  Pizza, pasta, wine and tiramisu to say our goodbyes to Italy was nice to sit and relax and enjoy our last night in Italy.  We ended up sitting under the leaning tower after dinner, eating snacks and chatting for a few hours while the sun went down.  It was such a great way to end the day and when will I ever be able to say again that I sat looking at the leaning tower for a few hours at sunset?

Classic tourist picture

Sunset while sitting under the leaning tower.

The colors!

As you can see, Italy was truly the best of the best and the worst of the worst for me and my travel mates.  BUT as a whole, I absolutely loved it there. The good things most definitely outweighed the bad and yes I will remember those bad things but now they just make for good stories :)

Phew! I hope you enjoyed hearing about my italian adventures as much as I enjoyed the adventuring.  For now, arrivederci Italy! I hope to be back someday.