Euro2k14

As Caroline would say, this is going to be a long one "kids". For the past week, Caroline, Ben, Dennis, and I have been traveling around Europe, exploring five cities in France and Italy. We saw and experienced so much so I have a lot to write about! First and for most I would like everyone to take a moment to acknowledge the fact that I did not fall at all on the week long trip. It's quite an accomplishment for me. A lot of it is because Abby left me a pair of boots when she left which had much better traction than the ones I was wearing before but I still like to think it was mostly because of my awesomeness.

To start it off, I'll begin with the stress we faced less than 12 hours before departure. On Sunday the four of us went to the library to print out all the necessary paperwork for our travels: boarding passes, museum tickets, train tickets, hotel confirmations, etc. Though NUIG is a University of over 18,000 students, for some reason they don't feel the need to have even one functioning printer at any given time. After two hours of struggling, a library worker gained us access to his personal account and allowed us to print our some 50 pages of documents free of charge. The kindness of the Irish never fails to impress me! Without his help we would have spent Euro2k14 on the library floor.

Day 1: Fast forward a few hours and after completing everything on our checklist including crying and not sleeping, Caroline and I headed downtown with the guys to the GoBus stop. Keep in mind it was 1:45am at this point and we were just starting our long day of travel. We arrived at the Dublin Airport at about 4:30 and headed to our gate for our 6:30 departure to Paris Beauvais Airport. I was thoroughly frisked for who knows what because I don't even own anything dangerous never mind would I bring it to an airport. It's not like I had any extra room in my backpack anyways! A quick flight over to France, and Euro2k14 was officially underway.

Paris
We arrived in Paris only to find that it was about as cold as the weather in New York that we thought we'd escaped for the semester. Since we flew RyanAir the airport was a decent bus ride outside the city. Dennis's friend Burt, who has been living in Paris for a few years, met us at the bus stop and showed us back to his apartment where the guys planned to stay for the next three nights. He then showed us how to use the metro, found a place to get lunch, and helped Caroline and I find our hotel. Still running on about two hours of noncontinuous sleep, we were all slow moving and barely functioning. My friend Wilder from high school is studying in Paris this semester so we planned to meet at the Eiffel Tower that evening. We were both walking around the area for an hour searching for each other. Despite Ben's calling for "Robbie", "Hunter", and "Bob" (Wilder was evidently too difficult of a name for him), we had no luck and no wifi so we were unable to find each other. Caroline and I grabbed a quick bite and then hit the hay early to sleep off the exhaustion and be ready for our first full day in Paris while the guys did the same at Burt's.

Day 2: The next morning, after a full nights sleep for us, and a rough nights sleep for the guys on the kitchen floor of Burt's apartment, Caroline and I grabbed breakfast at a cute cafe before meeting up with the guys. I had a traditional Parisian breakfast of fruit juice, espresso, a croissant, and baguette. I know I said I became a tea drinker since living in Ireland but when a good, strong cup of coffee is placed in front of me it would be rude not to drink it, right? Croissants have also become my new favorite thing so by the time I get home, Northampton better have some good ones waiting for me. We were so excited to be in Paris and so enthralled by our breakfast that Caroline and I couldn't stop exclaiming how excited we were. We even thought their tap water was amazing that's how happy we were. The restaurant workers were less happy since we speak zero French and I literally had to point at what I wanted on the menu rather than trying to pronounce it and epically failing. That didn't stop us from returning the next morning with the guys for the same breakfast, however.

We had a full day in Paris led by Burt, our expert navigator. He has picked up French since moving to Paris so we didn't have to rely on Ben's high school French skills the whole time. Though Ben's French is far better than mine (I can say hi and thank you and that's about it), most people responded to his French in English, knowing he was American in an instant. Still though, when we weren't with Burt his French was extremely helpful and his pronunciation was on point. Although I don't really know what it's supposed to sound like, it still sounded good to me! The French have a reputation of being rude and disliking Americans and although I didn't feel like this statement was entirely true, they've got nothing on the Irish.

Burt brought us down the Champs de Elysee which was also where we found a Christmas Market to poke around in.

The famous avenue brought us to the Arc de Triomphe, which we climbed free of charge thanks to our Irish immigration cards.

The view from the top was like no other. I knew Paris was formed in the shape of circle but I had no idea how that looked until I saw it from the top.

After some quick snapshots we climbed back down and found a cute bistro for lunch and some wifi (gotta send those snapchats). We crossed the lock bridge and went to the Sacred Heart Cathedral with another gorgeous view of the city before parting ways with Burt.

After dinner the four of us embarked on the most touristy thing there is to do in Paris: going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We took the elevator obviously because why would we torture ourselves by walking? We barely made it up the Arc de Triomphe. The view from the top at night gave me goosebumps. Caroline and I had to keep saying "we're in Paris on top of the Eiffel Tower" because it didn't feel real. We took a few, okay, a ton of pictures to prove it actually was real and headed back down.

To relieve one of the guys of the kitchen floor bed misery, Ben stayed at the hotel with Caroline and I that night. After checking out a local spot for a fun drink, we all headed to bed.

Day 3: For our final day in Paris we were on our own to hit the intellectual highlights of the city. We did pretty well on our own if I do say so myself. After getting a hang of using the metro system, the large city wasn't hard to navigate especially because our hotel was located in a pretty central part of the city (thanks mom). Starting at the Louvre, we avoided the line by buying our tickets in advance.

A huge museum filled with so many incredible masterpieces, we spent several hours making our way around the numerous exhibits. Though the crowd in front of the Mona Lisa and the pushing involved in getting to the front reminded me of a frat party, seeing the Mona Lisa in real life was still pretty cool.

One of the things I was most amazed at was the presence of living artists creating their own masterpieces as they worked off the ones hanging on the prestigious walls of the Louvre. I've never been much of an artist but I have so much respect for these people and the time and talent that goes into each piece of art they create.

There were a few paintings in the Louvre that I recognized from an Art History class I took in high school. I love learning about something like that and then getting to actually stand in front of it in admiration. It doesn't happen often but it's pretty incredible when it does. Leaving the Louvre in awe we found a place to grab lunch before heading to the Musee d'Orsay. Out of the four art museums we visited during the trip I would have to say the Musee d'Orsay was my favorite. Again, I was able to experience the incredible sensation of standing in front of a masterpiece I had learned so much about. Among others, Claude Monet's Milestones, late summer and The Water Lily Pond and Vincent Van Gogh's Portrait of the Artist and Van Gogh's bedroom in Arles were the most extraordinary for me.

We then trekked through the frigid Paris weather to the other side of the city to Notre Dame. Unfortunately, we weren't able to climb the towers but walking through it was gorgeous regardless. I realized that over the course of this semester I've seen a lot of cathedrals in the many cities I've had the privilege of visiting. Each one seems to top the last and Notre Dame did just that.

We celebrated our last night in Paris with champagne and an unbelievably delicious meal at Bistro d'Henri, a small French restaurant near our hotel. I've learned that the best way to tell you're eating authentic cuisine of the country you're in is if they don't have an English menu. While it makes ordering pretty difficult since Ben can only translate half of the dish, it's worth it. Caroline and I both got fish and scallops with pesto and potatoes. Couldn't have asked for a better last meal in France. Great food and even better company.

After dinner we walked a few blocks over to a cool wine bar where we met my friend Alex, a friend from Williston studying abroad in Paris for the semester. We hung out there for a few hours. After a little dancing, some wine, and some life since high school recap, Alex headed home and the squad headed back to the hotel. Saving another one of the lads from the misery of the kitchen floor bed, Dennis enjoyed our hotel room floor that night. At least that one was carpeted!

Bologna
Day 4: With a map in hand and metro directions from Alex, we began our adventure to the Charles de Gaulle Airport. Still not entirely sure how we made it there, but we did. After getting frisked and searched yet again, we were en route to Bologna, Italy. Phil met us at the bus stop in Bologna and took us straight to get some real Italian food. Again, no English menu means you know the food is going to be good. It also means you don't know what to order but that's what Phil is for. Phil goes to Cornell but is studying abroad in Bologna for the semester and speaks Italian. In other words, he was quite literally our life savior throughout Italy. He ordered me a delicious pizza so I'm not complaining! I had just started getting used to saying merci when we left Paris so for the first few days in Italy I continued to do so. I also had the automatic desire to respond in Spanish to anyone who spoke to me in Italian. That didn't usually go over well.

After Ben, Dennis, and I checked into our hotel that didn't have electricity at the time (it came back on an hour later but still a strange way to start our stay), we headed to a tower located in the center of the city. We climbed to the top to get a full view of the city and of course to take pictures. Our knees were shaking by that time but it was worth the hike to the top. If I was to fall anywhere it would have been on those stairs (sorry, Caroline). Bologna is not a city that was ever really on my list but it was definitely a great city to visit. The city itself is very old so every inch is gorgeous, even the sidewalks with their marble floors and giant archways.

We went to Phil's apartment that night for dinner. He made tortellini in broth and we also tried a local cheese and believe it or not, horse! I couldn't get past the thought of eating a horse to actually be able to tell you what it tasted like or if I liked it. Let's just say it won't be on my next grocery list. We finished off the night with the first of many gelatos. It took about an hour for me and the guys to find our way back to the hotel but we eventually made it. I have no sense of direction so I'm not much help but Dennis discovered a map reading talent he didn't know he had over the course of the week which came in handy when we were without Phil.

Florence
Day 5: Friday morning the five of us departed for Florence. It was a quick train ride and then a long walk to our hostel. The directions on the website told us to turn on streets that didn't exist. Luckily we had our expert guide, Phil, to find our way. After dropping our bags off, we headed to the Galleria dell'Accademia which houses Renaissance paintings and Michelangelo's sculpture David.

On our way to lunch we passed the Duomo and the Baptistry.

We walked through the Palazzo Vecchio on our way to the Ufizzi Gallery where we spent the next few hours looking at the works of Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Carvaggio. By the end we were all art-museum-ed-out.

Florence is one of my mom's favorite cities in the world and these two museums are two of her favorites as well. I can see why. I wish I had at least one more day to get to see more of Florence.

We ended the night with the best meal I've ever had at a small restaurant in the city. It was one of those meals where the food is amazing and so is the conversation and company. We concluded the night at a local bar before turning in for the night.

Spinach and ricotta ravioli with a sage butter sauce 

Pisa
Day 6: Bright and early, the five of us headed back to the train station on our way to the next Italian city. With the exception of Phil, we had all booked our train tickets ahead of time but had to print them at the station. None of the machines were working with the information we had and by the time the ticket office figured it out, we had missed our train to Pisa. Luckily, there was another train heading to Pisa twenty minutes later. Because of the type of ticket we had, we were able to use those for the next train and didn't end up having to buy another. A huge thank you to Phil not just in this situation, but for the entirety of our stay in Italy. He was able to navigate and translate our way through places that even he wasn't familiar with. We definitely wouldn't have been able to do all that we did without him and we were all glad he joined us for part of Euro2k14.

We took a quick stop in Pisa to take the infamous Leaning Tower of Pisa pictures. We got a little creative with ours by kicking, licking, kissing, and punching it instead of the traditional pushing it over picture. We raced back to the train station for our train to Rome. I used the four hour train ride to study for my upcoming exam while getting some great views of the Mediterranean and Italian countryside. Once in Rome we found our hotel and settled in.

Rome
That night, as an early birthday present for me, Caroline and I did a food and wine tour. The guys walked us to the first stop of the tour and then went off on their own for some guy time, or as they like to call it, "dad time." I don't even remember how it started but the three of them were referring to themselves as dad and making dad jokes the entire week. Their dynamic was hilarious. As weird as it is, the three of them had so much fun "dad-ing out" that Caroline and I had to accept the fact that with Phil as an honorary member of Euro2k14, we were outnumbered. Needless to say, we were looking forward to some dad free time as we enjoyed the food and wine tour through Rome. Our tour guide, Marta, brought us to 7 different stops: 4 savory and 3 sweet. She incorporated a lot of Rome's history as well as history about the foods we were eating. It was absolutely a highlight of the trip and I'm still full from so much good food. Despite how much fun we were having, about two hours into the tour Caroline and I both realized that as annoying as the dad stuff is, we missed our guys. After nearly a week with Ben and Dennis and several days with Phil, even a few hours of separation was weird enough to make us miss their craziness.

The start of the tour!

Stop 1: bread with mozzarella and artichoke, parma ham, ricotta with honey, two types of polenta, and wine.

Stop 2: fried artichokes in the Jewish Ghetto

Stop 3: margherita pizza, pizza bianca (similar to focaccia), pesto pizza, and beer. The pesto was unreal.

Stop 4: pasta, soup, fried vegetables, mussels, and more wine.

I tried mussels for the first time!

Stop 5: lots of sweets!

Strawberry granita

Stop 6: espresso and macchiatos 

Stop 7: gelato of course! I had chocolate and coconut. Sorry for torturing you with this mom!

At the end of the tour, the "dads" picked us up. No, not from school, though it felt that way with the use of the word dad. We hit an Irish pub because we were in need of a little Ireland in our lives after a week without it and then headed back to the hotel.

Day 7: For our first full day in Rome we had a three hour private sightseeing tour of the city. We met our guide, Luca, by the Spanish Steps and spent the morning walking through the streets of Rome visiting some of the most important sights including Piazza Navona, Largo Argentina, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain which unfortunately is under reconstruction until 2015 as are a lot of other sights in Rome right now.

Eating croissants of course

Still gotta take the classic picture

Luca was a lively tour guide who gave us an in depth history of the ancient city as well as helped us learn to navigate such a large city. When the tour concluded, the five of us walked to the Vatican where we were able to see St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel but unable to go inside because it was Sunday. We heard the Pope over the speakers as the crowd grew around noon.

After a late lunch, an afternoon nap, and a sad goodbye to Phil as he headed back to Bologna that night, the four of us had one last dinner together to celebrate the conclusion of the trip. The next day was a long one so we headed to bed early to rest up for our last day in Rome.

Shrimp risotto 

Day 8: We met Luca again on Monday morning outside the Colosseum for a tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. I love this kind of stuff so I loved getting to see the ancient Roman remains of the great architectural masterpieces. The Colosseum was obviously incredible. It's a sight I have wanted to visit for a long time but nothing could have prepared me for the incredible sight that sat before me. Structures that seem so ahead of their time prove the magnificence of the Roman people.

After another meal of pizza and wine, the four of us headed back to the hotel to grab our belongings and then to the train station where our airport shuttle bus departed.

We sat on the floor in the Rome Ciampino Airport for 4 hours (the entire airport only had about 50 seats for some reason) before finding out that our flight to Dublin had been delayed a half hour.

That's when the panic set in. Originally our flight was scheduled to leave at 9:00pm Italy time and land at 11:15 Ireland time. Our bus from Dublin to Galway was scheduled for 11:55pm, giving us sufficient time to go through immigration and get to the bus stop. With a final the following day at 4:30, I got anxious about not making it back to Galway in time since the 11:55pm bus was the last GoBus for the night. Of course, with our luck, Caroline, Ben, and I were all in row 18 which was smack dab in the middle of the plane (Ryanair planes usually let passengers on and off in the front and back of the plane). So basically we were in the worst possible spot to get off the plane quickly. We hit the ground in Dublin at 11:42 and got off the plane at 11:51. Once our feet hit the ground the three of us took off full speed (no idea where Dennis was at this point but he knew we were ending Euro2k14 with a sprint). The Ryanair gates are displaced from the rest of the airport so we had a long way to go to even get to customs and immigration. We were all sprinting through a giant airport, running through people left and right, up and down escalators. When I got to the immigration desk the guy had just stamped Ben so he didn't even ask me any questions. He heard me panting, stamped my passport, and sent me back running through the airport to the bus stop outside. I was about 20 feet behind Ben at this point and knew as soon as he stopped by the usual GoBus stop that we had missed it. We looked at our phones: 11:58. So close, but not close enough. Caroline was close behind and we eventually found Dennis after discovering another bus going to Galway a half hour later. We paid another twenty euro and made it back to Galway around 3:45am, pulling in right behind the GoBus that we had missed. For an 8 day trip, I guess one fumble isn't too bad.

I'm still recovering from exhaustion and have one more paper to write before I'm completely done with the semester but other than that I couldn't be happier. People have asked me what my favorite part of the trip was and what my favorite city was and I honestly just can't answer them. I loved every city and everything I did in them for many different reasons. The one thing I can tell them is that it was one of the best weeks of my life. I know it's a week that I'm going to remember forever as it holds some of the best memories of traveling abroad. I saw so much, tried so many new things, had so many incredible experiences, visited so many breathtaking sights, ate so much delicious food, and had SO much fun. I couldn't have asked for a better way to conclude my semester abroad or a better group of people to do it with. I was concerned that we would all be totally sick of each other by the end but it's the complete opposite. Now it feels wrong spending time apart. It was so fun exploring Europe together and all the other travel I got to do earlier in the semester. We got really lucky having connections in each city to help us navigate and translate (my brother in Spain, Annie in Prague, Burt in Paris, and Phil in Italy). I'm so grateful that I had so many opportunities to travel throughout Europe this semester and I'm also happy to have the next week and half to enjoy Galway even more without the pressure of school work (minus that one paper...) My mom and Grandma arrive a week from today for three days in Galway before heading to London to meet up with my brother for the holidays. I can't believe the semester is coming to close. In my head we had another 3 weeks in Galway after we got back but it's coming much sooner. I'm not ready to accept the fact that the semester is almost over so I'm gonna save the sentimental "this was an amazing semester" speech for the next post when I know I'll be crying. Until then, I'm going to spend the next week and half enjoying every second I have left in Galway with some pretty awesome people.