Leaving

Its hard to leave the friends and life you built up the past three months with the thought that you may not see them anytime soon o at all. However I do not regret making close friendships with them or going whatsoever because it is with them and with this experience that I stand as the person I am today and will carry this with me from now on in my life.

Food Stamps

I am a fan of food and these food stamps were genius because they gave us the chance to have hotel quality meals once a day five days a week. At first I was having trouble because I would use them all and have none halfway through the week, therefore I began saving them. That caused me to have an excess of food stamps at the end of the trip where I found myself eating twice a day at the Hotel.Whats even better s that I got to try the Sirloin steak at the hotel...it was sooo worth it. I was bug and tender, on a bed of mushrooms and onions with pepper sauce on the side cooked to perfection. I had steak for 3 night in a row using two tickets each time. Win.

Painting

Because the Dungarvan town has been so nice to us I decided I would paint them something to give them in return for their hospitality. I presented it to them on the evening of the 9th at Merrys pub in our goodbye party. I hope they liked it.

Camera Issues!

I have a big problem. For this trip I found myself buying a camera to replace my phone considering I would be travelling all over I wanted neat images. However cameras are sold without the memory card that you need to be able to take istures, so for the first few weeks with my camera i was loaned one. When the owner needed the slot card back  had to buy a new one. Little did I know you had to format the card before you use it and i went on to Italy and took 700 pictures with it. Somehow the camera all of the sudden decides to tell me that the card is not formatted and before i can keep using it i have to format it although in order to format the slot card i need to deleta all the pictures!!! I am looking for a way to access my pictures and make a copy of them before i need to delete them, if not i have to delete them...and have no images from my Italy trip. Ill keep you posted, wish me luck, if you have any information on how to fix this let me know!

Italy: Rome and Vatican

After Venice we headed of to Rome in a sleeper train which is the best way because you get a bed and you travel without taking up hours of the day therefore we were happy to find that train. We went and checked into our hostel and I can say it was great because we were just five minutes away from the Colosseum and had a nice not to busy street of restaurants and bakerys all around us. Rome brought us the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Scalinata, Piazza Navona, Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore, the Colosseum of course, the Roman Forum, many monuments to ancient Romans and the FOOD. I tried every form of pasta in Rome from cannelloni to tortellini from lasagna to fettuccine pizza and tiramisu all you can think of we had it. All of it was scrumptious. Gelatto again we took in in our doses of 5 per day, we had so much food at one restaurant the owner came out to us and bought us limoncello which is liquor with lemon flavor and later on took us out to the city and see the night life. It was fun.
The Vatican was a highlight in Rome because we got to skip all the lines with a tour we bought and got to see the Sistine Chapel, many frescoes and masterpieces by Raphael, Bernini, Michelangelo, and many other scultors and artists. We went into St Peters Basilica that is some church. The details in the sculptures and moldings and mosaics everywhere is heavenly i suppose. It is impressive and humbling. We got the chance to climb all the way to the top where we enjoyed of the best view of Rome then go to chill in the roof terrace of St Peters where we found a souvenir shop ran by nuns, which translated to better prices. I bouth atrons in that souvenir shop. By the time we got down there was mass going on and I got to join, have communion and have the blessing of the Lord bestowed on me in the Vatican. I felt in like a saint after that. n the way out  I dipped all the souvenirs I bought in the Roof top terrace in Holy Water to have them blessed, Im taking those back with me.

Italy: Venice

Of the places we visited, Milan we basically just flew into and then took a train to Venice
Disappointed however not distraught. Venice we came in and began our what would seem to be a neverending walk through alleys and more alleys and canals and then some more alleys. We saw the Grand Canal, Rialto Bridge, several Piazzas and quaint churches, Piazza de San Marco one of the most impressive,. We had our first italian pizza in Venice, it was amazing, nothing like it in America. We had gelatto about 5 times a day, not kidding, and we never seemed to be bored by it. Italian gelatto is unique in the sense that when it says it tastes like blackberries, that IS what it tastes like, hazelnuts, pistachio, dark chocolate, melon, strawberry, you name it, all of them were good. I got to see the famous venetian masks and venetian glass. Impressed. We also decided to take a gondola ride through the canals, and everyone who goes should go, even if the price may seem steep. The way Venice is layed out, it is very easy to get lost, however with a book I decided to check out from the library in Dungarvan we had a route layed out for us that we followed and got to see and know about many feats in Venice without getting lost once. I was proud of myself.

No more flights to Venice? Ill just take one to Milan then...

Well the last week after finals all of us Mercyhurst students decided to scurry around Europe. Some decided to go to London, Paris, Barcelona, Switzerland, The Netherlands, but I wanted to go to Italy.  I had been looking forward for this tri since we planned it, then D- Day comes along and we make it all the way to Dublin and surprise, our flight was at 6 AM...not PM!! I was lucky to be travelling with as i call them now, young adults because instead of freaking out we solved the problem. We weighed our options and decided that booking another flight into Italy was the best. This is where i felt like a billionaire or something because we were supposed to fly into Venice but it happened that there were no more flights going there, so we all just went, "Oh, well just take the one to Milan" carefree and as cool as you can imagine. The funny part as that inside we were hurting a bit as well as our savings, but nothing would stop us fom getting to Italy. After that the rest is history

Aran Islands Revisited

Here are some promised pictures

Cliffs Of Moher

WI FI!!!

Its interesting how in our basic needs we have come to include WI FI. Take Egypt for instance, they tried shutting down the use of internet in egypt and everybody thought it was outrageous. I can understand and sympathize now. We have become so accustomed to be able to be on-line whether it is skyping or on social networks that we no longer see a life without the convenience. During our Ireland trip and all the other side trips around Europe its funny how one of the decisive factors on where to eat or book a hostel was....Does it have Wi Fi? Back in America we are spoiled puppys because we have wi fi everywhere :)! No more excuses, no more trips, MAY 10, Im back on line , let me show you what you have missed.

Aran Islands

Some cool facts to start,
The population is of 820 people
The Island is 9 miles in length and 2 miles in width
There are endlesss stone walls dividing the countryside
There are cows, horses and goats everywhere and a couple of sels here and there
The hand knitt coture sweaters are something expensive yet worth it (110 euro) (35 on sale, got that one)
Cliffs that will blow your mind
A blue Flag that in european standars means that its is clean and swimmable
We got to the island on a ferry ride that was about 45 minutes long
Our tour guide pointed out: a round house , a square house, the bggest horse in the island, the only house with a basement, the smallest church, the chickens in front of a bar that has been closed for 16 years to give you the idea on how virgn these islands are that these were some of the intereting facts, oh and Leap Year, the movie, was filmed here on the islands.
We had great photoshoots and our bus tour was definitely the way to see the island because the guide knew the fact the stops and it was the warm and fast way to do it for the reasonable price of 8 euro for 3 1/2 hours. In my pinion better than the bike rental that was 10 euro. Photos to be attatched!

I Salute You

Through first had experience I know how hard it is to plan out a trip. Imagine planning out a trip for 40 people, and staying on schedule. Galway is just another wonderful example of it. We left April 26 2013 at 7:45 am from the Park Hotel headed to Galway. However we made a couple of stops before actually getting there, the Cliffs of Mohor among them. I wante d to dedicate this post as a thank you to everyone who made this trip possible, not once in my lifetie I thought I would be where I was today and in the best way possible. Trips can sometimes be exhausting but the way we carried through was pleasant and exciting because everything we saw was unique and grand. I'll make a post for each place, and let you see for yourself, however I wanted to first of all give credit to our benefactors, The Kieths, Steven our bus driver and the Dubgarvan Council.

London

I have found a city I would live in, I only have to make sure I get paid in pounds because it is expensive one. London is a big enough city to have all kinds of people meaning all kinds of interests are present. It is a city you could never be bored since there is always something to do and it is pleasant i thought. I liked walking around and seeing everybody dressed as if they were going somewhere in the sense that they were wearing clothes and not sweats, because it made you wonder what were they off to. Maybe ill be wondered about too. I also got to see my friend from high school. National Gallerie is a must...Van Gogh and Klimt and James Van Eyck and Monet and Da Vinci...and many others

Frankfurt

Well, before we made it back from Berlin and Prague, we stopped by Frankfurt for we got the best flight out from there. It was a happy mistake since there is a  great old town square that looks as Gabbi described it, "a Switzerland town". I thought that was funny since we were in Germany. However I learned Frankfurt is the home of apple wine and they have a typical pitcher to pour it in, shown below. Here is where we found out the airport was 2 hours away and since two of our friends were coming on the late night train we were in trouble, because our flight was first thing in the morning and the first bus in the morning wouldnt cut it to get us on time, therefore we had to take the last bus however outr friends coming on the train might not make it. Therefore we planned ahead their train came at 11:10 and the last bus left at 11:20 therefore we had 10 minutes to get them get their tickets and get them at the bus int he bus station. We did trial runs before they came to get time and routes right depending on what side of the train they were and we spread out on the platform to find them as quick as we could since we had no way of communicating with them. In the nd we made it but it was a hassle of a day planning that. The bright side we got back home and we also had a story to tell when we came back.

Catching up to Prague

I can see why Prague is called the Golden city, it felt like you are in an old luxury own where it seems that either everyone was well off or everybody had good taste in architecture cause all the buildings were impressive or peculiar. Exploring by ourselves was I feel the best because we were truly exploring the world and everything and everywhere we went was new. It reminded me of being a child again, and enjoyed it.  Here are some images of the city. We dd have some rough patches like the traveling back was quite interesting since we planned a time schedule however since it turned out an airport was 2 hours away from the city it got us hustling through Europe for our lives. The fact we got back after all was an accomplishment. Taught me to research lil bit more before we travel.

Berlin Time

Of the things i did in Berlin these are my Highlights:

Berlin Dom

Sachsenhausen

Matrix Club 

East Side Gallery

Holocaust Memorial 

Bradenburgh Gate

Third Reich

Potsdam Platz

And definitely have to eat Curry Wurst it is one of those street gems, plus college budget friendly.

A guilty pleasure was THE TRAIN STATION PASTRY. Pretzels, and all the desserts i dont know how to spell or write. I will do some research. 

Oh Seamus....

It is funny that yesterday I was talking about Yeats and how he does not have the need to use fancy words to express a thought in an interesting way because our reading assignment for this week was poetry by Seamus Heaney. Taking sides with Yeats when he wrote about the 'stitching and unstitching' of a poem where it should be hard when the poet writes it but when someone reads it it should be just a moments thought, in order to be considered good poetry in his opinion of course, well.....Seamus kinda dropped the ball on that one. He clearly put a lot of thought into his words but when I read them, it does not matter if I read sideways, backwards, from start to end, middle to edges or upside down, it takes me a while to get it...after talking about it with Dr. Reed, my professor, he cleared things out on how Seamus builds on one topic, you just have to find that one topic to begin with. I can understand how he is a celebrated poet, but he got me lost for a while in terms of poetry again. Find that topic and ou shall be set free!

rchiuz

Yeats, he deserves it

So I wrote about Yeats and I am just not done with this guy ...yet. I wanted to comment on his clear obsession with Maude. Although I feel a guy should never be that hung over a girl, maybe it is one of those things I won't understand til it happens to me...or maybe he is...special. What I can relate about his obsession is how throughout his poems you can see how he some days feels good about loving her, some days he is frustrated and some days he just is. For instance, "Aedh wishes His Beloved were Dead" compared to "Aedh wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" speak differently to me. In one he wishes for them to be submissive and his but at the same time frustrated if it ere that way because then she wouldn't be what he loves. On the other hand he wishes for what he has not to give to her, so you can see how Yeats was human through this obsession, and sometime came to reason and saw it could not work but then his heart guided other days or moments. Never thought I would get into poems like this...

rchiuz

Flashing back to Yeats

I guess I am either finally getting the hang of reading or Yeats has a way with words because poetry in general was...a dark room for me where I would basically stumble upon everything that came my way. I could see how the poems had a sequence or a train of thought even though sometimes the themes or topics were unrelated. The way he is able to talk without the abuse of fancy words and still paint a 'colorful' picture I can appreciate since it proves that you do not need to have a vast vocabulary to write a good poem.

Out of them all one of the most outstanding to me is "The Fiddler of Dooney" because it encourages you to be joyful or good tempered above anything else.

rchiuz