I'm leaving in about 45 minutes for my Fall Break Trip to Morocco! And for everyone that is concerned, don't worry, I'm going with two girls from Missouri State, Stacey and Sarah, and we're also going with a legitimate tour group as well, Snow or Sand. If you would like to read up an itinerary on what I'll actually be doing day to day, here's the link to the Snow or Sand website. They have a pretty detailed PDF called trip notes if you would like to open that!
http://snoworsand.com/init/default/trip_type?id=108
After I get back from Morocco, I'm pretty much heading straight to Munich, where I will be taking a day trip to see this: http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/tourist/index.htm
I'm so excited! I'll have so much to post and so many pictures when I get back but it will definitely be worth it!! I love you all :)
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Flowing Pints, Lush Countryside, and Beautiful Accents...that's right folks...it's Ireland!
Precisely 9 days ago I was arriving in the lovely Ireland town of Galway, after a long day of sitting on trains, planes, and buses, excited to finally be back in a place where people spoke English! I had been wanting to go to Ireland since I could remember (and not just because of Gerard Butler!) and could not believe I was finally there.
Minor segway>>I've started doing this thing in my head whenever I arrive at a new destination where I visualize the world map on my head and thing about where I grew up, where I'm currently living, and where I am at that moment. It's kindof mindblowing to think that all three of those places were so different this weekend, and yet all of them so spectacular in their own right.<<
First of all, what I realized I knew about Ireland once I got there, but hadn't really thought too much about ahead of time was the fact that everybody in Ireland is so nice! Not that people in Italy are overly unfriendly, but I think the whole lack of a language barrier really helped things out, never-the-less, from the very moment Stacey and I arrived in Ireland and chatted with the passport control man, we knew it was going to be a great trip.
After our three-ish hour bus ride across Ireland, we arrived in Galway, the college town of Ireland, to enjoy the locals, their pubs, and the countryside the next day. The guy at our hostel was also very friendly, he showed us where we could first grab a bite to eat and then the path we could take for our adventure out that night. I believe it went something like this, "First go here, grab a pint, they have good music...Then, walk to this bar, they also have good music, and you can grab another pint...Then, head to this bar, they stay open the latest, and you can get another pint there...then walk back this way and stumble through Eyre Square back to the hostel and go to sleep, just ring the bell, I'll be here all night." Stacey and I were cracking up!!! So we took his advice, stashed our stuff, and headed over to get a fast food dinner at Supermac's (the only place that was still serving food) before heading over to our first Irish Pub, Skfff's.
We walk in and are immediately greeted by a rousing Irish band and head straight to the bar to get our first pints of Irish Cider! Of course we have to get a picture, so we ask one of the many girls just standing around near boys at the bar (girls are always better at taking pictures) and come to find out the girl we asked name was Amy, she goes to school in Galway, and she really wants to show us around for the night so we can see what it's really like to be a student in Galway! We end up meeting a bunch of her friends, my favorite happened to be a girl named Kiera who (probably due to too much Jersey Shore) thought that all Americans walked around saying "Yeah buddy!" all the time and thought it was hilarious when we said it with American accents. We were quick to inform her that Americans definitely didn't say that all the time and then taught her how to say "For sure..." so then she kept walking around the whole night yelling "Yeah Buddy! For sure..." ya so it was probably one of those things you had to be there for, but still it was hilarious. We ended up going with the girls to a club called Karma and it was pretty much club music with an insane Irish mosh pit on the first dance floor (there were three) so we learned our lesson there pretty quick and headed up to meet the girls on the third floor, after a lot of dancing we headed back to the hostel. However, we did have to walk back by Supermac's (the place where we had eaten before) only to find that at around 2 in the morning it was insanely busy! We decided that it was definitely the Taco Bell of Galway...pretty much the only place to be after a night out. However, since we had already eaten there earlier that day, we decided to skip out on the excitement and just head back.
The next morning we got up at a decent time in order to make the day trip that we had booked to the Connemara Region with Lally Tours. This was not only supposed to show us some amazing Irish countryside, but also take us to Kylemore Abbey, a castle turned abbey so that Stacey would be able to visit a castle while she was in Europe! The tour started out with a brief drive through Galway City, showing us the nearby lake and the famous college. It then went on to drive through the small towns of Moycullen and Oughterard before stopping at "The Quiet Man" Bridge, a famous bridge where the movie The Quiet Man with John Wayne was filmed. This was the first movie to be shot on location ever, and while the director didn't think it would be that popular, the people in Ireland loved it so much that it was a huge success. Coincidentally, no one really knows what the bridge was called originally, everyone just calls it the "Quiet Man Bridge" now.
From here we moved on to Maam Cross, where the original Quiet Man cabin is, but since we were stopping there later, we just drove through and then stopped at the next town, Leenane, where I had my first Irish coffee! So good! It was a picturesque little town, but unfortunately we didn't get to stay that long as we left a couple of minutes later to make our way onto our main stop of the day, Kylemore Abbey. Kylemore Abbey was actually originally called Kylemore Castle and was built in 1867 by a rich politician from Manchester, England. It became a boarding school that was ran by nuns in 1920 and has technically been an abbey ever since then. The man from Manchester also built a gothic church on the grounds as well as Victorian Walled Gardens to appease his wife. The latter included 23 glass houses that sheltered the many tropical plants that his wife brought back from her travels around the world. Unfortunately, the castle and gardens fell into disrepair before they were turned into the abbey they are today, so only two of the glass houses have been restored for people to visit in the gardens. It was kindof funny when we visited the gardens however because there was a sign right at the beginning of the gardens that said "Please excuse the condition of the lawns. Essential seasonal lawn maintenance in progress." which I thought was hilarious because the lawn was the greenest I've seen since I've been in Ireland! It was also neat because when we were exploring the abbey, we got a chance to talk to some of the nuns that run the school, who told us that it was a school as soon as last year, although they haven't had boarders for the last three years. They seemed very sad that it was turning permanently into a museum.
After our visit to the gardens and the museum, Stacey and I went to grab some lunch and look through the gift shop. We both had soup for lunch and mine was some kind of potato soup, it was amazing!!! Then when we went to the gift shop I decided I wanted to buy a Claddagh ring. For those of you who don't know the story of the Claddagh ring, it was made for a woman by a young Irish sailor who was madly in love with her but was sold into slavery. Upon his return to Ireland, years later, he gave her the ring, forged with the skills he learned during his imprisonment as a token of his enduring love. It is supposed to represent the ultimate expression of love (the hands with friendship, the heart for love, and the crown for loyalty). When you wear it with the heart point facing outwards on your right hand, it signifies that your heart is available to be taken. When you wear it on your right hand with the heart point facing inwards, it means that your heart is currently taken by somebody. And then when you switch it over to your left hand, it means you are engaged/married! I've always thought it would be a really cool piece of jewelry to own, and I figured what better place to get one than in the region it originated in!
From Kylemore Abbey, we drove through many beautiful landscapes as our tour guide told us about the history of farmers "working the bog." Apparently, farmers have been using a special tool for years to take pieces out of the bog so that they can then dry and be used as firewood. Unfortunately, last year the European Union outlawed this practice to preserve the Irish landscape. I have a feeling that since some of them have been doing it for generations, it probably still gets done (I also say this because we passed about 20 examples of it on our drive back to Galway). During our drive we went through the Gaeltacht region of Ireland, where Gaelic is the first language people learn and English is the second. While we were here we got to stop to see some world famous Connemara ponies and take some pictures at a beach on Galway Bay. Then we drove along the water as long as we could before finally getting back to Galway. This is where Stacey and I pretty much immediately got on the next bus back to Dublin so we wouldn't get there too late!
We got into Dublin about 9 pm and immediately found a pub to have dinner in. It was on the famous O'Connell St and I had bangers and mash, a traditional Irish dish with mashed potatoes and sausages. From there, we decided it was time to make our way to the girls house that we were supposed to be staying in as she lived about a 20 minute walk away. About 5 minutes away from her house, we stopped to get 2 6-packs to thank her for letting us stay with her. Unfortunately when we finally found her house, she was no where to be found! We tried calling the number she gave us but no one was picking up, so we just ended up sitting outside for an hour and a half drinking beer and waiting. At around 11:30, we finally decided to head back into the main part of town to try to find a hostel, luckily the first hotel we went to we decided to check their rates and he was able to give us a room with two beds for 40 euro! Which wasn't too bad since that's probably what we would have spent on a hostel anyways! We were a little concerned about the hotel since the front desk man who sold us the room appeared to have a blood stain on his shirt, but when we got up to the room it was surprisingly nice! We were glad to have our own bathroom as well as the first English TV we've had since we've been in Europe. Of course, twenty minutes after we checked in, I get a call from Aideen (the girl we were supposed to be staying with) who said she'd been waiting for us to call (I guess I was dialing the number wrong). She insisted we go try to go get our money back, but we told her we would just meet up with her in the morning.
On Saturday, Aideen took us on a walking tour of Dublin, which started with a traditional Irish breakfast of course! Bacon, sausage, eggs, black and white pudding, and brown bread; we found out afterwards why no one would tell us what was in black and white pudding until after we tried it...after we determined that it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, Aideen finally told us that there was sheep's blood in the black pudding. We then went on our walking tour, where we saw the Irish Memorial that the Queen of England visited when she was in Ireland, as well as the Dublin Spire, the General Post Office (that still had bullet holes in the columns from the riots that happened when Ireland was winning it's independence), the Ha'penny Bridge (it used to cost a penny to cross the bridge as it was the only one over the Liffey River), the Temple Bar area, the Christ Church Cathedral (where we saw the bridge that goes across the street so that the monks wouldn't have to go outside to visit the other buildings), Dublin Castle (which was actually City Hall), and finally the demonstrations at the Central Bank before making it to our first destination, the Guinness factory!!
Unfortunately, I am not going to tell you the entire process of Guinness because that would ruin your experience when you visit the Guinness factory for the first time, but I will tell you a couple of facts that I found interesting:
1) Guinness only uses the purest Irish water from the Kilkenny Mountains that are on the outskirts of Dublin.
2) It takes 119.5 seconds to pour the perfect Guinness.
3) In 2008 and 2009, Guinness launched a campaign in the United States to make St. Patrick's Day an official holiday.
4) Guinness has used a lot of different advertising campaigns, but my personal favorite is the "Guinness is good for you" campaign.
We learned all of this before heading up to the Gravity Bar on the top floor of the factory, where we got a great view of Dublin and our first pint of Guinness! I actually really enjoyed it, it had a very espresso taste and it definitely wasn't as heavy as I thought.
From here, we moved on to the Jameson Distillery, where we learned that the reason Irish whiskey is so much better than American whiskey or Scotch is because it is distilled three times as opposed to the American once or the Scotch twice. I also became an official whiskey taster! With a certificate and everything! Unfortunately they spelled my name wrong (Laura Pritz) but that's ok, it was really fun!
That night Stacey and I had a genuine Dublin night out that was supplied by three lovely Irishmen we met at our first Dublin Pub; Henry, Alan and Steve. It was a lot of fun and we got in so late that we pretty much had to leave for the airport right after we woke up at Aideen's house at like 2:30 in the afternoon haha.
Sorry I can't write more for this post, but unfortunately I put it off until the last minute and I just realized I only have 50 minutes left until I have to leave for Morocco!! If you want a more detailed description of the Jameson factory/our night out, just go to my facebook and there is a caption on every picture :) I promise I'll add in more info when I get back!
Minor segway>>I've started doing this thing in my head whenever I arrive at a new destination where I visualize the world map on my head and thing about where I grew up, where I'm currently living, and where I am at that moment. It's kindof mindblowing to think that all three of those places were so different this weekend, and yet all of them so spectacular in their own right.<<
First of all, what I realized I knew about Ireland once I got there, but hadn't really thought too much about ahead of time was the fact that everybody in Ireland is so nice! Not that people in Italy are overly unfriendly, but I think the whole lack of a language barrier really helped things out, never-the-less, from the very moment Stacey and I arrived in Ireland and chatted with the passport control man, we knew it was going to be a great trip.
After our three-ish hour bus ride across Ireland, we arrived in Galway, the college town of Ireland, to enjoy the locals, their pubs, and the countryside the next day. The guy at our hostel was also very friendly, he showed us where we could first grab a bite to eat and then the path we could take for our adventure out that night. I believe it went something like this, "First go here, grab a pint, they have good music...Then, walk to this bar, they also have good music, and you can grab another pint...Then, head to this bar, they stay open the latest, and you can get another pint there...then walk back this way and stumble through Eyre Square back to the hostel and go to sleep, just ring the bell, I'll be here all night." Stacey and I were cracking up!!! So we took his advice, stashed our stuff, and headed over to get a fast food dinner at Supermac's (the only place that was still serving food) before heading over to our first Irish Pub, Skfff's.
We walk in and are immediately greeted by a rousing Irish band and head straight to the bar to get our first pints of Irish Cider! Of course we have to get a picture, so we ask one of the many girls just standing around near boys at the bar (girls are always better at taking pictures) and come to find out the girl we asked name was Amy, she goes to school in Galway, and she really wants to show us around for the night so we can see what it's really like to be a student in Galway! We end up meeting a bunch of her friends, my favorite happened to be a girl named Kiera who (probably due to too much Jersey Shore) thought that all Americans walked around saying "Yeah buddy!" all the time and thought it was hilarious when we said it with American accents. We were quick to inform her that Americans definitely didn't say that all the time and then taught her how to say "For sure..." so then she kept walking around the whole night yelling "Yeah Buddy! For sure..." ya so it was probably one of those things you had to be there for, but still it was hilarious. We ended up going with the girls to a club called Karma and it was pretty much club music with an insane Irish mosh pit on the first dance floor (there were three) so we learned our lesson there pretty quick and headed up to meet the girls on the third floor, after a lot of dancing we headed back to the hostel. However, we did have to walk back by Supermac's (the place where we had eaten before) only to find that at around 2 in the morning it was insanely busy! We decided that it was definitely the Taco Bell of Galway...pretty much the only place to be after a night out. However, since we had already eaten there earlier that day, we decided to skip out on the excitement and just head back.
The next morning we got up at a decent time in order to make the day trip that we had booked to the Connemara Region with Lally Tours. This was not only supposed to show us some amazing Irish countryside, but also take us to Kylemore Abbey, a castle turned abbey so that Stacey would be able to visit a castle while she was in Europe! The tour started out with a brief drive through Galway City, showing us the nearby lake and the famous college. It then went on to drive through the small towns of Moycullen and Oughterard before stopping at "The Quiet Man" Bridge, a famous bridge where the movie The Quiet Man with John Wayne was filmed. This was the first movie to be shot on location ever, and while the director didn't think it would be that popular, the people in Ireland loved it so much that it was a huge success. Coincidentally, no one really knows what the bridge was called originally, everyone just calls it the "Quiet Man Bridge" now.
From here we moved on to Maam Cross, where the original Quiet Man cabin is, but since we were stopping there later, we just drove through and then stopped at the next town, Leenane, where I had my first Irish coffee! So good! It was a picturesque little town, but unfortunately we didn't get to stay that long as we left a couple of minutes later to make our way onto our main stop of the day, Kylemore Abbey. Kylemore Abbey was actually originally called Kylemore Castle and was built in 1867 by a rich politician from Manchester, England. It became a boarding school that was ran by nuns in 1920 and has technically been an abbey ever since then. The man from Manchester also built a gothic church on the grounds as well as Victorian Walled Gardens to appease his wife. The latter included 23 glass houses that sheltered the many tropical plants that his wife brought back from her travels around the world. Unfortunately, the castle and gardens fell into disrepair before they were turned into the abbey they are today, so only two of the glass houses have been restored for people to visit in the gardens. It was kindof funny when we visited the gardens however because there was a sign right at the beginning of the gardens that said "Please excuse the condition of the lawns. Essential seasonal lawn maintenance in progress." which I thought was hilarious because the lawn was the greenest I've seen since I've been in Ireland! It was also neat because when we were exploring the abbey, we got a chance to talk to some of the nuns that run the school, who told us that it was a school as soon as last year, although they haven't had boarders for the last three years. They seemed very sad that it was turning permanently into a museum.
After our visit to the gardens and the museum, Stacey and I went to grab some lunch and look through the gift shop. We both had soup for lunch and mine was some kind of potato soup, it was amazing!!! Then when we went to the gift shop I decided I wanted to buy a Claddagh ring. For those of you who don't know the story of the Claddagh ring, it was made for a woman by a young Irish sailor who was madly in love with her but was sold into slavery. Upon his return to Ireland, years later, he gave her the ring, forged with the skills he learned during his imprisonment as a token of his enduring love. It is supposed to represent the ultimate expression of love (the hands with friendship, the heart for love, and the crown for loyalty). When you wear it with the heart point facing outwards on your right hand, it signifies that your heart is available to be taken. When you wear it on your right hand with the heart point facing inwards, it means that your heart is currently taken by somebody. And then when you switch it over to your left hand, it means you are engaged/married! I've always thought it would be a really cool piece of jewelry to own, and I figured what better place to get one than in the region it originated in!
From Kylemore Abbey, we drove through many beautiful landscapes as our tour guide told us about the history of farmers "working the bog." Apparently, farmers have been using a special tool for years to take pieces out of the bog so that they can then dry and be used as firewood. Unfortunately, last year the European Union outlawed this practice to preserve the Irish landscape. I have a feeling that since some of them have been doing it for generations, it probably still gets done (I also say this because we passed about 20 examples of it on our drive back to Galway). During our drive we went through the Gaeltacht region of Ireland, where Gaelic is the first language people learn and English is the second. While we were here we got to stop to see some world famous Connemara ponies and take some pictures at a beach on Galway Bay. Then we drove along the water as long as we could before finally getting back to Galway. This is where Stacey and I pretty much immediately got on the next bus back to Dublin so we wouldn't get there too late!
We got into Dublin about 9 pm and immediately found a pub to have dinner in. It was on the famous O'Connell St and I had bangers and mash, a traditional Irish dish with mashed potatoes and sausages. From there, we decided it was time to make our way to the girls house that we were supposed to be staying in as she lived about a 20 minute walk away. About 5 minutes away from her house, we stopped to get 2 6-packs to thank her for letting us stay with her. Unfortunately when we finally found her house, she was no where to be found! We tried calling the number she gave us but no one was picking up, so we just ended up sitting outside for an hour and a half drinking beer and waiting. At around 11:30, we finally decided to head back into the main part of town to try to find a hostel, luckily the first hotel we went to we decided to check their rates and he was able to give us a room with two beds for 40 euro! Which wasn't too bad since that's probably what we would have spent on a hostel anyways! We were a little concerned about the hotel since the front desk man who sold us the room appeared to have a blood stain on his shirt, but when we got up to the room it was surprisingly nice! We were glad to have our own bathroom as well as the first English TV we've had since we've been in Europe. Of course, twenty minutes after we checked in, I get a call from Aideen (the girl we were supposed to be staying with) who said she'd been waiting for us to call (I guess I was dialing the number wrong). She insisted we go try to go get our money back, but we told her we would just meet up with her in the morning.
On Saturday, Aideen took us on a walking tour of Dublin, which started with a traditional Irish breakfast of course! Bacon, sausage, eggs, black and white pudding, and brown bread; we found out afterwards why no one would tell us what was in black and white pudding until after we tried it...after we determined that it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, Aideen finally told us that there was sheep's blood in the black pudding. We then went on our walking tour, where we saw the Irish Memorial that the Queen of England visited when she was in Ireland, as well as the Dublin Spire, the General Post Office (that still had bullet holes in the columns from the riots that happened when Ireland was winning it's independence), the Ha'penny Bridge (it used to cost a penny to cross the bridge as it was the only one over the Liffey River), the Temple Bar area, the Christ Church Cathedral (where we saw the bridge that goes across the street so that the monks wouldn't have to go outside to visit the other buildings), Dublin Castle (which was actually City Hall), and finally the demonstrations at the Central Bank before making it to our first destination, the Guinness factory!!
Unfortunately, I am not going to tell you the entire process of Guinness because that would ruin your experience when you visit the Guinness factory for the first time, but I will tell you a couple of facts that I found interesting:
1) Guinness only uses the purest Irish water from the Kilkenny Mountains that are on the outskirts of Dublin.
2) It takes 119.5 seconds to pour the perfect Guinness.
3) In 2008 and 2009, Guinness launched a campaign in the United States to make St. Patrick's Day an official holiday.
4) Guinness has used a lot of different advertising campaigns, but my personal favorite is the "Guinness is good for you" campaign.
We learned all of this before heading up to the Gravity Bar on the top floor of the factory, where we got a great view of Dublin and our first pint of Guinness! I actually really enjoyed it, it had a very espresso taste and it definitely wasn't as heavy as I thought.
From here, we moved on to the Jameson Distillery, where we learned that the reason Irish whiskey is so much better than American whiskey or Scotch is because it is distilled three times as opposed to the American once or the Scotch twice. I also became an official whiskey taster! With a certificate and everything! Unfortunately they spelled my name wrong (Laura Pritz) but that's ok, it was really fun!
That night Stacey and I had a genuine Dublin night out that was supplied by three lovely Irishmen we met at our first Dublin Pub; Henry, Alan and Steve. It was a lot of fun and we got in so late that we pretty much had to leave for the airport right after we woke up at Aideen's house at like 2:30 in the afternoon haha.
Sorry I can't write more for this post, but unfortunately I put it off until the last minute and I just realized I only have 50 minutes left until I have to leave for Morocco!! If you want a more detailed description of the Jameson factory/our night out, just go to my facebook and there is a caption on every picture :) I promise I'll add in more info when I get back!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
My New Favorite Piece of Clothing!
Exactly one week ago I was overjoyed by the fact that not even 36 hours before I had made probably the most significant purchase since my arrival in Florence, well maybe my fall break trip was an exception to that, but still, while that will present many memories, I'm hoping my wonderful new leather jacket will last with me for just as long.
The thought to buy a leather jacket entered my head a few weeks ago when I was skyping with Ma and Da and they pretty much told me that I would be wasting my time buying a cheap pea coat from H&M when I was in a city that has one of the best leather markets in Italy!! So granted I did spend a lot more, but it was definitely worth it.
I was slightly putting off buying the jacket because I was a bit nervous that I was somehow going to get one that wasn't worth it or that I would end up getting ripped off or something...I even looked up a personal shopping website online and tried to convince my roommates to go in on a four hour shopping excursion with me for 75 euro haha. But finally, after nearly freezing to death in rainy Venice, I made the decision on Monday, October 10 to head out to the leather market at San Lorenzo and purchase my first leather jacket.
I researched online before I went how exactly to spot a fake leather jacket, and with all my newfound knowledge, I set out for the market around 10 am. I walked around the whole market and looked for a style that I had in mind, also keeping watch out for what leather stands seemed to be run by creepy men that yelled out at me as I walked by. On my second go around, I stopped at a stand where the man working it didn't yell at me, but simply asked me what jacked I liked when I walked up. I pointed at a tan jacket with a belt and he immediately showed me back to his store to find my size.
Needless to say, I loved it right away! And I'm loving it more and more every day it gets more worn in; I have a feeling I am going to treasure this article of clothing for a long time. Although, I must say, it did come with the strings attached of a dinner invite from the man who sold it to me as well as a slightly inappropriate peck on the lips right before I left the shop, but hey, guess that's just Italy for ya!
Thanks for convincing me to get it Ma and Da, you're the best parents ever, even when you're halfway around the world!!! :)
The thought to buy a leather jacket entered my head a few weeks ago when I was skyping with Ma and Da and they pretty much told me that I would be wasting my time buying a cheap pea coat from H&M when I was in a city that has one of the best leather markets in Italy!! So granted I did spend a lot more, but it was definitely worth it.
I was slightly putting off buying the jacket because I was a bit nervous that I was somehow going to get one that wasn't worth it or that I would end up getting ripped off or something...I even looked up a personal shopping website online and tried to convince my roommates to go in on a four hour shopping excursion with me for 75 euro haha. But finally, after nearly freezing to death in rainy Venice, I made the decision on Monday, October 10 to head out to the leather market at San Lorenzo and purchase my first leather jacket.
I researched online before I went how exactly to spot a fake leather jacket, and with all my newfound knowledge, I set out for the market around 10 am. I walked around the whole market and looked for a style that I had in mind, also keeping watch out for what leather stands seemed to be run by creepy men that yelled out at me as I walked by. On my second go around, I stopped at a stand where the man working it didn't yell at me, but simply asked me what jacked I liked when I walked up. I pointed at a tan jacket with a belt and he immediately showed me back to his store to find my size.
Needless to say, I loved it right away! And I'm loving it more and more every day it gets more worn in; I have a feeling I am going to treasure this article of clothing for a long time. Although, I must say, it did come with the strings attached of a dinner invite from the man who sold it to me as well as a slightly inappropriate peck on the lips right before I left the shop, but hey, guess that's just Italy for ya!
Thanks for convincing me to get it Ma and Da, you're the best parents ever, even when you're halfway around the world!!! :)
Monday, October 17, 2011
Best of Tuscany--Wine and Cheese!
Backstory: The first week of classes, my Organizational Behavior professor told me and the one other student in my class that he was having a field trip for one of his other classes in October and that we were allowed to attend if we wanted to, we just had to pay the 65 euro fee for the trip. He called it the "Wine Producer" field trip and explained that we would be going to two different wine tastings as well as seeing how cheese is made. Little did I know that when I signed up for the field trip at the school's office that I was actually going to be going on a trip put on by a tour group called Florence for Fun that my professor is actually a tour leader for! I'm a little glad that he didn't tell me this ahead of time though as I probably wouldn't have been as inclined to go on the trip if I knew it was with a tour group but I'm definitely glad I went! 
The trip started out with a bus ride to Montepulcino, a town that is known for it's wine as well as being the town that the final scenes of the Twilight movie New Moon was shot in. We visited the piazza where the scenes were shot and learned that apparently they had to build a fountain especially for the movie since the piazza didn't have a fountain, but the book called for one. Apparently this is a common trend in American movies shot in Italy as they also had to do this in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. We also visited a coffee shop that had been serving coffee since 1868 and had a wonderful view of the Tuscan countryside! This was before heading to our first wine tasting at the Cantina Crociani. We tried three different wines there, but I think my favorite would probably have to be the second, my professor called it a "Meditation Wine" which I would definitely have to agree with!
After we left Montepulcino, we headed to a farm where we were served different kinds of Pecorino cheese and got to watch how they make Pecorino and Ricotta cheese. We were also served the Ricotta cheese fresh after it had been made, it was delicious!
From there we headed over to Pienza, a town that I had been excited about visiting every since I first tried Pecorino cheese! You see, Pienza was the first town to every produce Pecorino cheese and is still the home of the best Pecorino cheese in Italy. Pienza was a very small town until it was built up by Pope Pius II because that was where he grew up. He is responsible for the construction of all of the major buildings in Pienza. However, when he left Pienza in the 1400's he told them to "Not change anything until I get back," which immediately proceeded his death in 1464, nothing about Pienza has changed from his original plans. Unfortunately we didn't get to spend too much time there as it was raining and dreary, I did have enough time to get some Pecorino cheese though!
Our next stop was Bagno Vignoni, a spa town near Pienza that housed Pope Pius II's private pool that he had built for whenever he was fancying a swim. Apparently back then Popes were more like government officials and celebrities than just a religious figurehead. While here we got to take a look at the thermal springs and wash our hands in them which was so nice cause it was so warm on the cold, dreary day!
Our last stop of the tour was at a winery in Montalcino that is known for having the best wine in 2010, as determined by the French! So you know it must be good if the French were willing to say it was better than a French wine! We had a wonderful tour of the winery by the most wonderful old Italian man, Mario, he was such a ladies man! Everytime we walked anywhere on the tour he would hook the arm of a different girl on the tour, he was so cute. We also got to see the personal collection of wine at the winery which includes Brunello wines dating back to 1947!! It was incredible. I was asking my professor how much he thought a wine like that would sell for, and while he said that if someone owned a wine like that they would probably never sell it, that if they did it would be worth thousands of euros. I bought two bottles while I was at the winery because they gave them to us for a discount and I wanted to bring some back to share with Taran and Maureen, my wonderful wine appreciating cousins! I also had my first taste of Grappa (a very strong version of Italian wine--almost even like vodka) and Vin Santo (a stronger dessert wine). After this we all headed back to Florence after a very fun and fulfilling day of wine, cheese, and beauty!
I've got this...I'm a gondola man and I've got guns...VENICE!!
Sorry it took so long to get this post up, enjoy!!!
Two weekends ago, I went to Venice with my roommate Maria and it was spectacular. For the first time since I've been here, I literally stepped out of the train station and felt like I was somewhere iconic. Not that every single city I've been to hasn't been beautiful don't get me wrong, but there's just something about Venice that captures you the minute you set foot into the City of Rivers. I had heard from many people that when you go to Venice, you either love it or you hate it. You love it because it's beautiful or you hate it because it's depressing (the whole city is sinking into the ocean thing). And while I tried to look at Venice from both point of views, it was overwhelming leaning towards the beautiful side, it truly is a one of a kind city. A beautiful disaster. :)
The weekend of magic started not so magically when we arrived to find that it was raining!! Both of us were equally unprepared (well that's technically true because Maria was smart enough to bring an umbrella!) and headed to the nearest gift shop in the train station to buy something that we assumed would resemble a poncho. Luckily we found these plastic button up coat thingys that weren't all the horrible looking. When we finally got out of the train station and got over our first sights of Venice, we found out hostel (only five minutes away!!) and then set out to enjoy the city in the rain!!
We decided to take the Number 1 Waterbus down the Grand Canal so that we could get off at all the main museums and churches that we wanted to see. After taking a million pictures of the Grand Canal we stopped at the Galleria Dell'Accademia to see the gallery, walked a bit over to the Peggy Guggenheim gallery/sculpture garden, stopped at a really odd Chinese Futuristic Gallery (it was free) before making our way to this huge church right before we got back on the Waterbus...at this point the sun was finally coming out!!! But it was soooo windy. I'd have to say that of the three galleries I think I enjoyed the Peggy Guggenheim one the most, a lot of the artwork was her personal collection from when she lived in the palace in Venice. Obviously they've added in some new installations since then but I still have to say that Peggy definitely had good taste in art, I love her style!
After we got back on the bus, the next stop was Piazza San Marco! The largest square in Venice and definitely a Venetian Icon. However, before we could even properly enter the square, we were greeted by whom?? Asians and pigeons!! They pretty much were right in the middle of everything and before we could even start to realize that we were about to play with pigeons, Maria and I had pigeon food (disguised as Fruit Loops haha) shoved in our hands and were feeding the birds! It was so much fun haha, gotta hand it to those Asians, they know how to have a good time! haha
After that we headed into the square and decided to go into the Basilica before it closed. It was free to get in and of course it was beautiful. The Basilica San Marco is a mosaic church (basically meaning that all the walls and ceilings are done in mosaics of biblical scenes and people) and while it was my second one of this semester I wasn't as in awe as I was in Sicily, but it was still definitely a sight to behold. I think that mosaic churches are quickly becoming my favorite type of church to go visit. Luckily it was free to get in, but there were a couple of different parts that you could pay to go see. Maria and I decided to spring for the 5 euro to go to the second floor balcony so we could have a look out over Piazza San Marco for some good picture opportunities. It was definitely worth it! Not only did we get the view but there was also a museum on the second floor that told us a little bit more about how mosaics are made and gave us a great view of the original four horses that looked out over the Piazza for over 300 years.
Soon enough, Maria and I realized that we were unfortunately about to be out of money, so we headed off to the bancomat and then grabbed a quick bite at a restaurant right near the Piazza, in retrospect, probably a mistake since I definitely got ripped off for my half a bottle of wine. Since it was around 5 then, we decided to head back to the hostel and get situated in our room before heading out for a late dinner and drinks in the college region of Venice. That night, we headed out with a couple of Canadian guys we met at the hostel and wandered around the beautiful streets of Venice (almost got lost haha) but eventually made it back to the hostel after enjoying a view of the city at night!
The next day Maria and I started early and got a gondola ride on the Grand Canal!! I've heard you can't go to Venice without doing one and since we couldn't afford a 40 minute gondola ride with just the two of us (80 euro!) we decided to take the economical approach and joined 12 other tourists on the 30 second gondola ride (50 cents! haha). We decided that men who row gondolas probably have the best guns in Italy because it looks so hard to do!! (where the title of the blog came from haha). The gondola took us straight to the Rialto Fish market where we looked around a bit before taking a walk over the Rialto Bridge, where we each got a real Venetian mask (Venice is famous for it's masks because of the Carnivale festival that's held there every February).
Then we headed out to the Glass island of Murano where we looked around at a bunch of the glass shops before heading over to the glass museum and a real glass blowing demonstration. The museum was really neat, it showed the progression of glass styles throughout the centuries and had some incredible pieces. It could only be topped by the demonstration! It took the glass master about a 90 seconds to make a small vase and about three minutes to make a small glass horse, it was so cool! We found out that the keep the furnace at about 3000 degrees and that after the pieces are finished the have to sit in a different furnace that is kept at a lower temperature so that when the glass is bought, it's not as easy to break. We also learned that there a few different ways to spot real Murano glass as opposed to fake glass that is meant to be sold to tourists:
1) If there are only three colors or so of an item, it's probably fake. Most Murano glass pieces are made with a bunch of different colors.
2) If all the pieces look exactly the same, it's not real.
3) If the price is too cheap, it's not real.
Since we still had about 6 hours until our train that night, we decided to take the water bus over to the Burano Island that is known for it's lace. What we also didn't realize is that Burano is the island of colors! Every single one of the buildings was painted a different color, it was so beautiful. Again, there were a bunch of shops that could potentially have fake lace in the, but we ended up finding one that had a lacemaker making lace right in the shop, so we ended up having a look around there, and even though I had bought a lot of souvenirs on the glass island, I ended up getting a scarf anyways because it was so cute!
The waterbus ride back to the main island was really long, but eventually we made it and ended up taking a couple of pics with our masks on over the Grand Canal right before we caught out train back to Florence. It was an amazing two days, honestly Venice is such a dream city, I definitely would love to go back someday!
Two weekends ago, I went to Venice with my roommate Maria and it was spectacular. For the first time since I've been here, I literally stepped out of the train station and felt like I was somewhere iconic. Not that every single city I've been to hasn't been beautiful don't get me wrong, but there's just something about Venice that captures you the minute you set foot into the City of Rivers. I had heard from many people that when you go to Venice, you either love it or you hate it. You love it because it's beautiful or you hate it because it's depressing (the whole city is sinking into the ocean thing). And while I tried to look at Venice from both point of views, it was overwhelming leaning towards the beautiful side, it truly is a one of a kind city. A beautiful disaster. :)
The weekend of magic started not so magically when we arrived to find that it was raining!! Both of us were equally unprepared (well that's technically true because Maria was smart enough to bring an umbrella!) and headed to the nearest gift shop in the train station to buy something that we assumed would resemble a poncho. Luckily we found these plastic button up coat thingys that weren't all the horrible looking. When we finally got out of the train station and got over our first sights of Venice, we found out hostel (only five minutes away!!) and then set out to enjoy the city in the rain!!
We decided to take the Number 1 Waterbus down the Grand Canal so that we could get off at all the main museums and churches that we wanted to see. After taking a million pictures of the Grand Canal we stopped at the Galleria Dell'Accademia to see the gallery, walked a bit over to the Peggy Guggenheim gallery/sculpture garden, stopped at a really odd Chinese Futuristic Gallery (it was free) before making our way to this huge church right before we got back on the Waterbus...at this point the sun was finally coming out!!! But it was soooo windy. I'd have to say that of the three galleries I think I enjoyed the Peggy Guggenheim one the most, a lot of the artwork was her personal collection from when she lived in the palace in Venice. Obviously they've added in some new installations since then but I still have to say that Peggy definitely had good taste in art, I love her style!
After we got back on the bus, the next stop was Piazza San Marco! The largest square in Venice and definitely a Venetian Icon. However, before we could even properly enter the square, we were greeted by whom?? Asians and pigeons!! They pretty much were right in the middle of everything and before we could even start to realize that we were about to play with pigeons, Maria and I had pigeon food (disguised as Fruit Loops haha) shoved in our hands and were feeding the birds! It was so much fun haha, gotta hand it to those Asians, they know how to have a good time! haha
After that we headed into the square and decided to go into the Basilica before it closed. It was free to get in and of course it was beautiful. The Basilica San Marco is a mosaic church (basically meaning that all the walls and ceilings are done in mosaics of biblical scenes and people) and while it was my second one of this semester I wasn't as in awe as I was in Sicily, but it was still definitely a sight to behold. I think that mosaic churches are quickly becoming my favorite type of church to go visit. Luckily it was free to get in, but there were a couple of different parts that you could pay to go see. Maria and I decided to spring for the 5 euro to go to the second floor balcony so we could have a look out over Piazza San Marco for some good picture opportunities. It was definitely worth it! Not only did we get the view but there was also a museum on the second floor that told us a little bit more about how mosaics are made and gave us a great view of the original four horses that looked out over the Piazza for over 300 years.
Soon enough, Maria and I realized that we were unfortunately about to be out of money, so we headed off to the bancomat and then grabbed a quick bite at a restaurant right near the Piazza, in retrospect, probably a mistake since I definitely got ripped off for my half a bottle of wine. Since it was around 5 then, we decided to head back to the hostel and get situated in our room before heading out for a late dinner and drinks in the college region of Venice. That night, we headed out with a couple of Canadian guys we met at the hostel and wandered around the beautiful streets of Venice (almost got lost haha) but eventually made it back to the hostel after enjoying a view of the city at night! 
1) If there are only three colors or so of an item, it's probably fake. Most Murano glass pieces are made with a bunch of different colors.
2) If all the pieces look exactly the same, it's not real.
3) If the price is too cheap, it's not real.
The waterbus ride back to the main island was really long, but eventually we made it and ended up taking a couple of pics with our masks on over the Grand Canal right before we caught out train back to Florence. It was an amazing two days, honestly Venice is such a dream city, I definitely would love to go back someday!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
More posts to come I swear!!!!
So here's the thing...I've been putting off updating the blog all week long and now that I'm finally getting around to doing it I'm sooooo tired and all I want to do is sleep!
I have so much to fill you in on and I promise I will write all of it down but it's definitely going to have to wait for next week. Stacey and I are leaving for Ireland tomorrow and I just don't have enough time!!!
Here is a list of things I promise to post about:
-Venice!!!
-Best of Tuscany day trip
-leather jacket!!
-Dublin/Galway, Ireland
-midterms!!
That is all...but seriously you should enjoy this short post because come next week you're gonna have so much to read :)
I have so much to fill you in on and I promise I will write all of it down but it's definitely going to have to wait for next week. Stacey and I are leaving for Ireland tomorrow and I just don't have enough time!!!
Here is a list of things I promise to post about:
-Venice!!!
-Best of Tuscany day trip
-leather jacket!!
-Dublin/Galway, Ireland
-midterms!!
That is all...but seriously you should enjoy this short post because come next week you're gonna have so much to read :)
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Day Three of the Lizard Watch!!!
So before I delve into the excitingness that is my life I suppose I must explain the title...for those of you who haven't read the beginning of this blog and aren't really up to date on the location of my apartment I am on the 5th floor of my building and we DO NOT have an elevator. That means I have to walk up approximately 80 stairs every time I come back to my apartment. Well, the past three days there has been quite the stir on the staircase (that sounds like a book title :) ), on the ceiling on the stairs before you reach the third floor landing there is a lizard just sitting there and it has been there for the past THREE DAYS!!! Granted there has been slight movement (it moved a couple of inches to the left) but other than that it has been in the same general spot...alas the lizard watch.
In other news, I had my first day of community service on Wednesday and it went really well! I got to the church 30 minutes before my shift was supposed to start at 10 but then found out that the church doesn't even open until 10 so I had to wait outside haha. Once I got in I was a little intimidated because there was no one else from my organization there, but I signed in like I was told to and put up the "Free Tours in English" sign and next thing I know two ladies from New York were asking me for a tour! I was sure to tell everyone that I gave a tour to that day that I was a student studying in Florence and was volunteering so I might not know answers to all of the questions they asked, and it worked out because I only had to look at my information papers 4 times! I gave tours the two ladies from New York, an older couple from Houston, a couple from Lebanon, a woman from Albany, NY, a woman from Bath, England and a couple from Northern Ireland! Plus, the woman from Albany and the Irish couple both gave me 2 euro so I got 4 euro out of it! So I bought a panini from Gusta :)
This weekend I am going to Venice with Maria on Friday and Saturday and then have a field trip with my Organizational Behavior class on Sunday. I am super excited about Venice because everyone I've talked to says that it's beautiful! Also Maria and I are planning on taking a ferry to the Murano Glass factory on Murano Island to see some authentic Venetian glass blowing! Also planning on maybe picking up a Carnivale mask while I'm there as well, just a little nervous because I heard that Venice is really expensive :/ Guess we'll see! My professor was talking about our field trip today in class and the more he said the more excited I got! Not only are we going to get to have two wine tastings at two different Tuscan wineries, but also have lunch and dinner included, with a demonstration of how Pecorino and Ricotta cheese is made, with an opportunity to have the fresh ricotta cheese right after it is done! Also we're going to Penzia, the small town where pecorino cheese was originally made; I've been wanting to go there ever since I first tried pecorino in my festivals class, but it's super difficult to get to unless you have a car. So ya...this should be a great weekend :)
Last night Stacey and I were making plans for our trip to Dublin next weekend and we found this great day tour that shows you a ton of the Irish countryside as well as has a visit to a castle so Stacey can visit one while she's here! Other than that just planning on exploring Galway and Dublin. Luckily we will have a sortof guide in Dublin because we are staying with a friend of the Irish girl, Clare, that I met last weekend in Palermo...I love having international friends :)
About to head out to aperitivo with the roomies + Natalie!! It's all the way over by Santa Croce but apparently it's really good so it should be worth it! I'll post after the weekend is over, ta ta for now!
In other news, I had my first day of community service on Wednesday and it went really well! I got to the church 30 minutes before my shift was supposed to start at 10 but then found out that the church doesn't even open until 10 so I had to wait outside haha. Once I got in I was a little intimidated because there was no one else from my organization there, but I signed in like I was told to and put up the "Free Tours in English" sign and next thing I know two ladies from New York were asking me for a tour! I was sure to tell everyone that I gave a tour to that day that I was a student studying in Florence and was volunteering so I might not know answers to all of the questions they asked, and it worked out because I only had to look at my information papers 4 times! I gave tours the two ladies from New York, an older couple from Houston, a couple from Lebanon, a woman from Albany, NY, a woman from Bath, England and a couple from Northern Ireland! Plus, the woman from Albany and the Irish couple both gave me 2 euro so I got 4 euro out of it! So I bought a panini from Gusta :)
This weekend I am going to Venice with Maria on Friday and Saturday and then have a field trip with my Organizational Behavior class on Sunday. I am super excited about Venice because everyone I've talked to says that it's beautiful! Also Maria and I are planning on taking a ferry to the Murano Glass factory on Murano Island to see some authentic Venetian glass blowing! Also planning on maybe picking up a Carnivale mask while I'm there as well, just a little nervous because I heard that Venice is really expensive :/ Guess we'll see! My professor was talking about our field trip today in class and the more he said the more excited I got! Not only are we going to get to have two wine tastings at two different Tuscan wineries, but also have lunch and dinner included, with a demonstration of how Pecorino and Ricotta cheese is made, with an opportunity to have the fresh ricotta cheese right after it is done! Also we're going to Penzia, the small town where pecorino cheese was originally made; I've been wanting to go there ever since I first tried pecorino in my festivals class, but it's super difficult to get to unless you have a car. So ya...this should be a great weekend :)
Last night Stacey and I were making plans for our trip to Dublin next weekend and we found this great day tour that shows you a ton of the Irish countryside as well as has a visit to a castle so Stacey can visit one while she's here! Other than that just planning on exploring Galway and Dublin. Luckily we will have a sortof guide in Dublin because we are staying with a friend of the Irish girl, Clare, that I met last weekend in Palermo...I love having international friends :)
About to head out to aperitivo with the roomies + Natalie!! It's all the way over by Santa Croce but apparently it's really good so it should be worth it! I'll post after the weekend is over, ta ta for now!
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