Back in America...

It's been over a month since my last post, meaning its been a month back in good ol' America. The adjustment really hasn't been that bad, though coming back to Penn State was more weird than being back in America in general.

My flight back went smoothly, though it was long (10 hours, stupid jet stream). I watched three movies and an episode of Big Bang Theory because of course, I was having trouble sleeping on the flight since it was during the day. It was a pretty smooth flight though, so I have no complaints.
The Philadelphia airport was a bit of a nightmare, as I had to wait in an hour long line for customs. I busied myself by talking to another student who studied in the Netherlands and a couple from South Carolina. They all had connecting flights, which they missed because of the line. That's stressful. Customs wasn't actually that bad once we got through the line - I was able to get blood orange juice and wine into the country with no problems. I guess its just if I had a lot of it there may have been a problem. What was a problem was trying to get my three suitcases and backpack to where my dad was waiting with no help. That was interesting. I did finally make it, after probably making a fool of myself a few times. My first experience back in the United States was an Outback dinner with my dad. :)

I decided to update this with a U.S. post today because I went to the Global Programs rally earlier today. Penn State Global programs has a rally every semester for everyone who came back from studying abroad. It was really enlightening, even talking about how it can help us to get jobs and such. Rachel and I were talking to other students about their experiences and giving feedback to the new advisors (yes, again). I think I may consider getting involved in some of the stuff they offer. I would like to be able to tell students what its like, you know? I feel like it would be really helpful for some. We'll see.

So, yeah. It's been a little weird, and I've realized how much I've missed some American foods (steak, burgers, cheezits, etc.). I do miss how Italian food wasn't so salty and full of preservatives like it is here, but what can you do? The adjustment getting back wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it's different for everyone. Sometimes it feels completely normal to be back, and then sometimes its weird because I realize I haven't done something in a long time, or haven't been somewhere for a while, or something is new and I didn't realize it was there until now (Urban Outfitters downtown? what?). It's still a great experience, and I would recommend it to anyone.

Home at Last... Goodbye Rome?!

Villa Borghese - Allan's favorite fountain

This will most likely be my last blog post while I'm here in Rome. I'll be on a flight back to Philadelphia as of 11:50am Rome time tomorrow. The semester has truly flown by, which everyone said it would. The past few weeks really have, since we were finishing up the work for all of our classes. Our last cartography walk was in the Villa Borghese, which is essentially the only place in Rome that is actually green. Its actually quite peaceful there, and its one of Allan's favorite places to ride his bike and read. I'm glad he took us there, and he even showed us his favorite fountain, which I found pretty cool. I'm actually going to miss him and Ann; I really enjoyed their class as a whole. We also had a wine tasting for Italian Studies since we've been back. The wine tasted a whole lot better than the olive oil, which was a plus. It was interesting though, and I've always been curious about some of the terminology when it comes to wine. Now I know at least a little more than I did. I also learned that usually at home (USA) I drink really bad overpriced wine...

Piazza Navona Christmas market

 There has been a Christmas market here in Rome, right at Piazza Navona. Though its pretty touristy, some of the stuff is actually pretty cool. I bought a few ornaments there to add some Italian pizazz to the Christmas tree this year. It was also a lot cheaper than the Christmas market in Paris. I love seeing Rome finally decorated for Christmas. All of the streets finally have lights, and some of the piazzas have nativity scenes. Its just such a nice time of year. I'm glad I was able to see some European cities during Christmas - I've always been curious what its like and how different it is from us. Each country has its own traditions, I've realized, but the basic concept of Christmas is still there and is still the same.

Well, this seems to be the end of my semester abroad. I don't regret any of it, despite some of my insecurities at the beginning of the semester. Living in another country has really put a lot in perspective for me. In America, we have so much available to us at so little. We can buy a camera for $80 when in Italy its 130 euros. Everything in our country is so fast-paced, and in Italy, they take it slow. There isn't really a right or wrong way to do things, but its really quite the learning experience when you realize that all cultures do things differently. Personally, there are things about Rome I didn't enjoy, but I will never regret living here. I just wouldn't live here again long term. It doesn't mean I won't come back to visit, though.
It was just so strange today, giving in our (crappy) cellphones, handing in our documentation discs, seeing studio, the Pantheon, all of these things one last time. It doesn't seem like it will be the last time, until all of a sudden I'm in the Fiumicino airport for the last time, and then I'll be back in America, where as much as I'll appreciate being home, it'll take a lot of adjusting. People speaking English - first weird thing that's really gonna weird me out for a while. Also will probably binge on some American food. Its still been fun though, and there will be plenty of things from here that I'll miss.

A presto, perhaps I'll blog again in America? We'll see. Its been fun, Rome. We'll meet again soon.

Paris: A Whirlwind Weekend

Eiffel Tower

 My last weekend trip while being here in Rome was to Paris, and of course it was the weekend before our major deadline week. Becca and I set off on our adventure on Friday night, after a crit that never happened. Our flight went smoothly, and we ended up landing in Paris around 8pm. After bus and metro rides to our hotel (with heavy suitcases thanks to our laptops), it was around 10pm. We're hungry. What is our first French meal? McDonald's. Don't judge quite yet - it was literally the only restaurant open within a mile or so of where we were staying. I did notice that they had "Les Big Macs" on the menu, which is so stereotypical and sounds as if someone is making fun of the French. We also got Magnum McFlurry's, which is apparently a big thing in Paris. They seem to be just a combination of chocolate and caramel. The first night we really didn't do too much, except try to watch NCIS in French on our TV. We had a pretty ghetto looking room, and it was painted pink everywhere. It worked well for what we needed it for, though. The next morning we set off for our first major Paris landmark - the Eiffel Tower (of course). We got bombarded from nice street vendors, and then we decided to go underneath and then try to find someplace to eat. Of course the weather is awful, and the wind and rain are blowing everywhere to the point where its really unpleasant to be underneath the Eiffel Tower. This weather also broke my umbrella... though I feel this can be attributed to the fact that Italians seem to just really suck at constructing umbrellas.

Champs-Élysées

 We found a little cafe near the Eiffel Tower for lunch. I ended up having eggs with bacon (which is essentially ham in most European countries), chocolat chaud (hot chocolate), and crème brûlée. All was delicious, and I've discovered I have a slight obsession with crème brûlée. We headed to the Champs-Élysées after lunch, which is the large shopping street in Paris. We mostly browsed, and looked mostly at the Christmas market that was further down. The Arc de Triomphe is also in this area, though it seems a bit randomly placed in the middle of a really busy intersection. Becca and I decided that we wanted to see the new Twilight movie (don't judge) as it was a terrible day outside and most of the other movies were in French. While waiting for the next showing, we wondered down to the Musée d'Orsay to see if we could go inside the museum. The line was soooo long. We didn't even have nearly enough time to wait, so we really just saw it from the outside. We also saw the Ferris Wheel that's at the end of the Champs-Élysées, which is about 10 euros to ride. Not worth it.

 We went into the movie, which really was decent given what its predecessors were like. It was also interesting seeing the French subtitles, not to mention the audiences finding a lot of things funny that really weren't meant to be. By the time we got out, it was dark outside and the entire Christmas market and street were lit up with Christmas lights. It was really pretty, not to mention it made it look a lot more like an actual Christmas market. You could even go ice skating in parts of it, and they also had warm food and drinks in it as well. Though the market was a bit touristy and crowded, it was still really cool. I enjoy seeing Christmas decorations everywhere, so that might have something to do with it.

Eiffel Tower at night

 Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower at night. It really is pretty, and it occasionally sparkles as well. We decided we wanted to go up at night to see all of the lights of the city. We waited in a line to get tickets for about an hour and a half. I guess the Tower really is that popular. There are two tiers in the Eiffel Tower if you take the elevator, one halfway through and another at the very top. Its kinda nerve racking, as you feel there may be a chance you'll fly off the edge. All of the Tower had a pretty yellowish tint to it which made it look breath-taking. There's also a cafe someplace in the middle, but its outrageously expensive (but you're in the Eiffel Tower!). We went to both tiers, and at the top the wind was especially hard to deal with. It was well worth the wait, and the city was gorgeous at night. For the rest of the night, we were just back in our rooms doing studio work and watching movies. I actually got more work than I thought I would done while on this trip, and inevitably, all of my work was finished eventually.

At top of the Eiffel Tower

Louvre

 During our next (also gloomy) day we set off to the Louvre. We waited in a really long line here too, but it was because we were there on the first Sunday of the month, which meant the Louvre was free. Score! Saving ten euros... for an hour long wait. I did get to see the pyramid outside of the Louvre, and to my knowledge, Mary Magdalene's tomb is not underneath it (nerdly Dan Brown reference...). Once we got inside, we mostly just saw the more famous pieces of art, the last of which was of course, the Mona Lisa. The room where the Mona Lisa was hanging was absolutely packed with people, all radiating around the painting (which was encased in glass and set back about 10 feet from where people were allowed to be). I pushed and shoved my way through people to be able to snap a picture. It is really cool being able to see things for real that you've learned about your entire life and have seem in movies.

Mona Lisa

Notre Dame

 Our next stop after the Louvre was Notre-Dame, which I have been looking forward to. I love Gothic architecture and stained glass. The interior was beautiful, and we were there during a Christmas service. Everything in those churches are so ornate, yet just the nave itself is so tall, and is just plain huge. We also saw a nativity scene and several other Christmas decorations (not forgetting the lovely tree outside, of course) throughout the church as well. The stained glass was not disappointing, and many of the windows were beautiful, not to mention large. It boggles my mind that people go to church there as if its any old boring church.
The rest of the day we mostly wandered, and ended up at our room somewhat early to do some more work. We did eat at a nice French cafe for dinner that night, which included a steak for me and a chocolate pot for dessert. The rest of the night we were just chilling, making sure we didn't fail out of our Rome studio. Our plan for the next - and last - day of our adventure was going to Montmartre, to see the Moulin Rouge and the Montmartre cemetary where a lot of famous people are buried. We also had to make sure we were back to the airport on time, since missing flights really isn't that much fun.

Moulin Rouge

The cemetary was interesting, and we saw the graves of some of the people who served Napoleon, not to mention a lot of barons, baronesses, etc. I was looking for Degas' grave (as I like his art) but couldn't find it anywhere. They actually had a map of the more famous graves there, which is a little morbid if you ask me. We couldn't find his grave anywhere though, despite how hard we looked.
We ate in a cafe that was literally across the street from the Moulin Rouge. We couldn't actually go in as its still a functioning (expensive) dinner show, but seeing it from the outside is still fun. I got to have a nice omelette for lunch, and we spent most of the rest of the time we had getting the souvenirs we wanted, and relaxed a bit until we had to head to the airport. After yet another 1-2 hour transport to the airport and finally reached the gate, they forced us to check our bags because of a shortage of overhead space on the flight. We did get to board first, but it was still annoying that they think they can just tell people to do that.  At least it was free. We tried to do some work on the flight, and I promptly fell asleep. We did get to see the Eiffel Tower from above. Usually I can't see any interesting landmarks from a plane, but we did see the Tower.

Paris was a really fun trip, and I'm glad I went despite the amount of work we had. It was great to see all of the things we learned about in French class, and it was a great last weekend trip.
Alright, one last blog post while I'm still in Rome. I'm leaving for the airport tomorrow morning! I don't know how I'm already going home. The time has gone by so fast.
Ciao for now.

Euro Drama: Is the Euro Going to Last?

While we were in Ireland, we saw newspapers and flyers asying it was a "dark day for the euro." We were wondering what this meant, as it seemed a bit ominous. The European Union, particularly the eurozone, the seventeen European countries that are currently using the euro, are struggling to stay together as a political and economic union. Five countries in the eurozone, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Italy (go us!), and Portugal are currently in bankruptcy or are very close to it, causing the euro as a currency to fluctuate too much. A lot of European banks are going bankrupt, and many European governments are also struggling. Italy has just recently changed prime ministers, from Berlusconi to Mario Monti, and Monti is trying to instill economic reform.

This doesn't seem to be helping. Angela Merkel of Germany and Sarkozy of France are the forerunners for trying to help keep the European Union while still keeping the euro. Other countries, like the United States and especially the United Kingdom are voting for the European Union to no longer use the euro, as in the long run, the world economy would function better with more currencies and it would be easier to help the bankrupt countries, especially Greece and Italy. The United States has its own share of problems too, given our national debt has increased to scary numbers in the past year or so, and the dollar continues to inflate. America and Europe are both not in a great place at the moment, and some economists are saying that we could experience a second Great Depression if our leaders don't step it up a notch. Maybe the Mayans predicting the end of an era at the end of 2012 wasn't so far off...

Ireland, Part 2, Back to Dublin and into the West

Trinity College

 So, we're going to pretend that all of these blog posts weren't within a few days of each other. I'm determined to keep this blog somewhat up to date. After we got back from our whirlwind trip to London, we went back to Dublin and met up with Julie and Ed again. We didn't do much on Wednesday night other than go to a pub for dinner and some drinks. The next day, Thursday, we went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. We couldn't take pictures, but the books were cool. They also showed you how they were made and inked, which was awesome. I think it would be fun to bind books that way, but I guess it's not if that's the only method you have of doing it. It was also kinda strange walking on a college campus again. Rome has nothing even closely resembling a college campus like Penn State. I miss it.

Thanksgiving dinner

 Thursday night was Thanksgiving, which was totally weird since it didn't seem like Thanksgiving to me at all. Probably because I haven't been in America for quite some time now. We went to a pub for dinner (Fitzgerald's, our fav) and had shepherd's pie and cider. Not exactly traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but it was still good. Thursday night we went kinda crazy at the bars and were definitely enjoying ourselves at our "usual" bar, Busker's, with our seven deathly sins drinks and the breathalyzer. Yes, they had a breathalyzer at a bar. No, I don't think anyone should know what any of our BACs were that night. It was a good night, even if the club we went to was basically empty and Eric and I may have made fools of ourselves. Its all good. We were doing all of this when we should have been sleeping, honestly. We decided to go on the Cliffs of Moher tour on Friday morning... at 6:40am. It was an... interesting morning. Its a good thing we could sleep on most of the bus ride to Galway.

Fairy fort

 The bus trip started with taking us to Galway, one of the cities in Western Ireland. Our tour started from there, essentially going down the coast, stopping periodically, to the Cliffs and Moher and then back up again. On the way down, we stopped at some Irish ruins, which were essentially out in the middle of nowhere. We stopped at a "Fairy Fort" (essentially leprechauns), and we also stopped at a pub in Doolin for lunch. I had Beef and Guinness stew, which was delicious. I never liked Guinness until I came to Europe, really. I wonder if its just because I've had it on tap or if it just tastes better here...
We also saw tons of sheep just grazing in fields. A lot of Western Ireland doesn't seem to be too built up.  A lot of it was fields and mountains, which honestly is kinda refreshing. Its nice to know at least some parts of the world are green. I do see why most people associate the color green with Ireland, though. It seems that everything is green, even their passport stamp. Its kinda funny. It really is a beautiful country though, even when its cloudy.

 Once we got to our final destination - the Cliffs of Moher - it was absolutely breathtaking. It was so peaceful looking at the water rushing up against the cliffs... until you get pelted with wind or water. Some of the water coming off the cliffs would be going up because of the direction of the rain. It was so strange. Walking past certain parts of the cliffs felt like one of the worst rainstorms. We snuck past a "do not climb" sign to get farther into the cliffs (smart? probably not. was it a really short wall that even I could climb over? yes.). The wind was stronger here, and there was no real railing at all, which really kinda made me a bit nervous. All of us survived, and we watched the light hit the clouds and the water crashing up against the cliffs. We explored the visitor's center a bit too, which was built inside a mountain. Our way back mostly involved sleeping as it gets dark in Ireland around 4:45pm in November, and we were all tired anyway. We got back to Dublin in early evening, but unfortunately spent most of the night packing. Yay for early morning flights. It was nice to relax a bit before getting on a plane (again) and going back to Rome for two weeks of hellish work.

It was Christmas in Dublin when we were there. I loved seeing all of the Christmas decorations. They just started putting up decorations in Rome when we got back from Ireland. 'Bout time. Ireland & London was an amazing way to spend Thanksgiving break. I was very sad when it was over. It was also great to see Julie, Eric and Ed. I plan to go back to the UK + Ireland whenever I get the money to be able to.

Well, its three days until I return to America. I'm glad, but I think it'll be weird too. It'll be weird that people can actually understand me. Studio is officially over as of today. My goal is to blog about everything Europe-related before I leave. Hm.. we'll see about that. Ciao for now!

Being Breh-ish in London Town

London Bridge

 After we were in Dublin for a few days, Clarissa, Eric, and I decided to go to London for a day and a half. We took an early flight, around 6:30am, meaning we'd be landing in London from Dublin around 7:30am. We had planned to have the entire day, but an unexpected 1.5 hour bus ride from London Standsted Airport to Central London delayed our plans slightly. After finally getting to the area of London located near our hostel, we took the better part of an hour looking for our hostel. We did finally find it - Phoenix Hostel - near the Edgware Road Underground Station. After we finally got on our way, we tried to go to King's Cross to be huge Harry Potter nerds. We totally failed at this too. First, we went to platforms nine and ten, and a random worker tells us that its on platform one. Ah, our dreams are ruined. Then we can't even get to platform one because our tickets don't work. Dreams ruined again. Fail.
After that, we found ourselves at the Tower of London, where the crowned jewels are held. We also had lunch here - an English specialty, fish and chips. It was cool to see, though I'll definitely have to go back to London to go inside all of these places. The day overall was pretty gloomy and foggy, which is probably pretty standard for London.

Big Ben

 After we visited the Tower, we walked along the Thames River heading toward the Globe Theater, Millennium Bridge, and eventually, Big Ben and Parliament. We also made a stop at St. Paul's Cathedral, where there was a dance group dressed in Santa costumes. They were pretty good, and they were dancing right next to an Occupy London camp. It truly is all over the world. At the end of their performance, they were photobombed by two guys in Guy Fawkes masks... pretty awesome if you ask me.
The next thing we decided to do was to see the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. We walked there, though it took us a lot longer than we thought it would. We ended up unknowingly going through the back entrance, so we ended up bypassing the Rosetta Stone (which was smack in the center of the museum) and looking all over the entire museum for it. We did eventually get to see it, and it was pretty awesome to look at. We also saw some Egyptian sarcophagi and the London 2012 Olympic medals. Wasting tons of time looking for the Rosetta Stone wasn't all bad. Next on our power trip through London was finally Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. As I said before, next trip to London I'll be going inside at least Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Tower of London. This time we just didn't have the time or money. British pounds really screw over the American dollar.

Red telephone box

We decided to grab some dinner after this. We stopped back at the hostel and eventually found a bar down the road (about 20 blocks) that had actual English food. We happened to be in the area of London that mainly had hookah bars and kebab places. Fail. I had bangers and mash with a Strongbow for dinner, which was pretty delicious. We ended up calling it a night pretty early, but we were ready to go the next morning. Our first stop was the Doctor Who store that Eric had found, which was all the way out past the new Olympic stadiums that are being constructed. We were able to see them from a distance, along with one of the observation towers. Before stopping at the store, we had some English breakfast, which included eggs, ham, chips (fries), and beans (essentially baked beans) with of course, tea. It was a good way to start the day. Then Eric and I were total nerds in the Doctor Who store, while Clarissa pretended to know what we were talking about. It was interesting to see parts of London that aren't the main tourist areas, however unintentional many of these excursions may have been. Our next stop was looking for the Tardis, from Doctor Who, which is essentially an old 1950's police box still left in London. We got off at the Earl's Court Underground station, and the website I looked at said it was right by the Underground station. We couldn't find it anywhere. It was King's Cross all over again. London just didn't want us to be nerds this trip, I guess.

Our last stop was Buckingham Palace, which was right near Victoria Station where we had to catch our bus to the airport. The queen was at the castle, as the flag was up. We missed the changing of the guard, so we didn't see the guards with the fuzzy hats. We did see some of the guards patrolling, though. The guards with the fuzzy hats are no longer stationed outside the main gates of Buckingham Palace, probably because people kept tormenting them. So, after we went to Buckingham Palace, we made our way to the bus we needed to take to the airport. We wound our way through the train station and through all of these different bus depots. By the time we got to the bus, we realized we were really cutting it close for our flight. Of course, as luck would have it, we missed it by about fifteen minutes (I know, right? Figures.). Luckily, there was a flight about 2-3 hours later, so we jumped on that one (for a fee, of course. thanks, RyanAir.) We at least got to relax a bit, get some food, and do a little bit of souvenir shopping. The most interesting store I saw was for the Olympics. If only I could get to London for the Olympics...
We did finally make our second flight, and made it back to Dublin in an hour. We totally bombarded Julie and Ed when we got back with our misfortunes. Despite our bad luck, I really enjoyed London and really want to return. It was interesting comparing it to America, as they're both English-speaking countries and one kinda exists because of the other. The English say "Way Out" instead of exit, first of all, which is a bit odd. They use both the Imperial and metric systems. They use the Imperial for length and metric for temperature, mass, and most other things. It seemed to have a lot of quirks and was just a really interesting place to be in. You could probably spend a year there if you wanted to, and I probably really would have considered studying abroad there had I had a choice.

Next blog post will be more of Dublin and Ireland. Paris, and the rest of Rome are coming soon too.
Stay tuned. A presto!

Second Stop: Dublin, Ireland, Part 1

The traveling continues. After our Northern Field Trip, our next stop was Dublin, Ireland for the week of Thanksgiving. However, first, we had to get from Venice to Dublin. We ended up with a flight out of Bergamo, which is a small town about thirty minutes outside of Milan, because Clarissa and I were cheap and used RyanAir. After we wandered around Venice waiting for our 8pm train, we arrived in Bergamo by midnight or so, leaving us 10 hours until our flight took off for Dublin. Fortunately for us, there was a 24-hour cafe in the Bergamo airport, and there were plenty of people already there doing the same thing: sleeping in the airport. At first Clarissa and I were taking shifts sleeping, while we both fiddled with all of our bags to make sure they made weight and size requirements. We were forced to move around 4-5am, where we essentially just sat and watched the screens until we were able to check in. I took a small nap on the floor because I really couldn't stay awake, and with all of our bags, Clarissa got the impression most people walking past thought we were homeless. Not one of our better moments. After a few more hours, we finally were able to get on our two-hour flight to Dublin, arriving there around noon. After waiting for a while in the Dublin airport, Clarissa, Eric, Julie, Ed and I all set off for our hotel, the Lynams Hotel, right on O'Connell Street in the city center of Dublin.

Our first night in Dublin was a short one. Once we got to the hotel, we had some issues with the room where Clarissa ended up not having a bed. Once we had worked that out, we decided to go to a pub called Fitzgerald's and had some shepherd's pie and Guinness. However, because Clarissa and I were up all night in the airport and Julie, Eric, and Ed had an overnight flight, we all ended up in bed pretty early. We were all rested for the next day when we went to the Guinness storehouse. The Guinness storehouse was the only part that tourists are able to tour. The actual brewery, St. Jame's Gate, is closed, probably because they want to keep their exact processes and recipes a secret. The storehouse essentially takes you through a step-by-step process of how the beer is brewed, from ingredients to packaging. They showed us the malt, barley, hops, yeast, and water. The water they only get from the surrounding mountains in Dublin, and the yeast is kept locked away in a safe somewhere as its apparently the key to the taste of Guinness.

They also showcased several advertising campaigns for Guinness throughout the years. The entire museum was centered around a pint-shaped atrium that was several stories high. It was a really interesting space. The last part of the tour was a complimentary Guinness, which we drank in the Gravity Bar at the top of the storehouse. You could see all of Dublin from above. It was breathtaking. After drinking our Guinnesses, we walked around Dublin making stops at St. Patrick's Cathedral and Christchurch. We had to wait until Monday to actually go in because of their visiting hours, but we were able to spend some time in the surrounding parks. Dublin is an interesting city. Its mainly a mixture of traditional Ireland with a more modern global culture. They had a ton of Italian restaurants for example - which Clarissa and I made a point to avoid. That night we decided to head to some pubs. We had our first experience in Dublin's Temple Bar district, and we ended up finding a "regular" bar to go to while we were in Dublin - Busker's. We certainly gave them enough of our money during our stay in Dublin. It was a good night, despite the fact that we ended up at McDonald's at 2am just as if we were back in State College. Fail.

We started off the next day at the Jameson distillery. We also had a tour there, showing us how Jameson brews their whiskey, particularly in comparison to other types of whiskey. Jameson distills their whiskey three times, which is why it is so much smoother (and more expensive) than Scotch or American whiskey. They took us through the process of harvesting, mashing, distilling, and vatting. The five of us, Eric, Clarissa, Julie, Ed and I, all ended up volunteering to be whiskey tasters at the end of the tour, so we ended up being able to compare Johnny Walker (scotch), Jameson, and Jack Daniel's (American). I'm not a huge fan of whiskey, so I will say I liked the Jameson the most. We also got a complimentary drink here too, and I chose the cranberry and Jameson combination - Dublin's specialty.

Christchurch altar

After our trip to the distillery (and our being tipsy at 11 in the morning), we ended over to the two churches - St. Patrick's and Christchurch. Christchurch was a huge cathedral, and it also included a crypt, baptistery, and altar. The crypt was pretty fascinating, and it had a mini museum about the church and its books. They also had costumes from the Tudors (Showtime tv show) down there, as most of that show apparently was filmed in Ireland and within the church. We also went to St. Patrick's, which wasn't as impressive as Christchurch. The main nave of any cathedral is very pretty, but it just wasn't as amazing as we were all expecting it to be. After visiting the churches, we ended up going back for a bit so Julie could finish her paper (I know, she's so irresponsible, hah). Later that night, after we were all rested and homework assignments (somewhat) finished, we decided to go on a ghost tour which we weren't sure exactly how serious it was when it came to believing in ghosts and whatnot. The woman who was leading it was very interesting to listen to. For the first half, we mainly walked around parts of Dublin and listened to ghost stories and the woman's humor. When we were near Christchurch during the tour, there was a dog that was crazily running all over the place while she was trying to tell a story. It was pretty adorable, though.

St. Patrick's

The second half of the tour she took us to a church called St. Audeon's, which we had actually walked through earlier in the day. We were in this really creepy passageway, and she kept telling us all of these stories of things that people had seen, felt or experienced while on the tour. I wasn't really scared (though Eric was trying really hard otherwise), but it definitely was creepy when we were wandered around a deserted church at night. I mostly just felt uncomfortable, and every branch crunching or every branch rustling would freak me out a bit. All in all, it was an entertaining tour. For the rest of the night, we searched for a place to eat and a place to get a beer or two. We ended up with hot dogs and kebabs for dinner. Kebabs are pretty amazing, and I don't even enjoy that type of food usually. We ended up at a bar called the Mezz, which essentially was a little State College tucked in the heart of Dublin. It was crowded in there, and I essentially felt like I was in an American bar or club. We didn't stay there too long though; Eric, Clarissa and I had a 6:30am flight to London the next morning, and we had to make sure we were awake.

Next blog post will be our adventures in London, England for Tuesday and most of Wednesday. I'm falling a bit behind on the blog posting, but we have lots of work to do and I will be in Paris, France this weekend. More to come later. A presto.

It's less than two weeks until I'm back in the United States. This semester really has flown by...