5 Days in Berlin!

For the past five days, Pia and I have been enjoying Berlin, Germany! We arrived last Saturday afternoon, took the S Bahn to our hostel (which was a GREAT hostel!), and checked in. Pia may or may not have made a tiny lie that got us free breakfast in the mornings... let´s just say she saved us 4 euros every morning and we might have some bad karma coming our way. Hopefully it won't be on the cruise ship next week, otherwise we might be victims of the next Titanic.

Saturday night, we had a couple Berliners at the bar in our hostel. A couple guys from Mexico who work here sat by us. One of them was wearing a sombrero, which was a huge hit the rest of the night. I went out in the hallway to Skype my sister, who was not answering so I guess I looked a little sad because a guy came up to me and said (in the sassiest voice I ever heard... even sassier than my dear friend, Mindy Dickerson), "Girrrrl, why you look so sad?!" I explained to him that my sister wasn't answering my call, and he said I needed to come out for a drink with him because it was his birthday. So I went in to get Pia and the two guys from Mexico (and the sombrero) and we went to an Irish Pub (go figure) with a Puerto Rican, an Argentinian, and a guy from Finland. I practiced my Spanish, learned how to count in ten in German, and I learned the bachata. It was an interesting night to say the least!

On Sunday, Pia and I took our time getting ready in the morning, then went to the Sunday flea market in Berlin, which was so much more than a flea market! There were food vendors everywhere, street performers, karaoke, and a stage with live music. To all my Sioux Citians out there, it was something very similar to Saturday in the Park, times 100. We sat next to a very nice man from India while we ate lunch, then we went to the main stage to watch a very strange, but entertaining, German concert. While we were there, we ran into our friend from Finland!

That night, Pia and I decided to go for a run and burn off all those Berliners from the night before. We went to a nearby park and during our run, we heard some music nearby, so we went to check it out. The music was coming from an outdoor dancing area next to the river! The dance floor was packed with couples who were ballroom dancing. As Pia and I were standing there watching, these two very sweet guys (a German and a Hungarian) come up to us and ask if we want to dance. Of course we are all sweaty and smelly THE ONE TIME this happens to us. So we reluctantly said no, but had a nice conversation with them and exchanged emails. Pia and I returned to this adorable dancing venue the following two nights, drank wine on the hillside, and watched couples dance a new theme each night... swing dancing one night and the cha cha the next night.

On Monday, we went on a FOUR HOUR walking tour throughout the city of Berlin. We saw the Holocaust Memorial, The Book Burning Memorial, Charlie Checkpoint, a couple cathedrals, part of the Berlin Wall, the grounds where Hitler's bunker was, and many other memorials and famous sites.

We spent the majority of our day on Tuesday walking across the city to the Eastside Gallery, a large stretch of the Berlin Wall that contains some very interesting artwork Then we went to eat on this side of the city at a Mexican restaurant that was recommended to us by our new friends from Mexico the other night. I had been craving Mexican food for SO long so this was perfect.

Eastside Gallery

Yesterday, Pia and I split up for the first part of the day. She went to an art museum and I went to a couple cathedrals - Mariankirche and St. Hedwigs (unfortunately, the name has nothing to do with HP). But as I walked in to St. Hedwigs right at 2:55, I found out that there was a free organ concert that started at 3pm! Perfect timing. So I stayed for the concert, then met up with Pia and The Topography of Terror, a Holocaust museum which is on the same grounds as the Nazi Headquarters were many years ago. We spent a few hours at this museum and at the end of it, our brains were on information overload. So what cures this, you ask? Chocolate. Pia and I stopped at one of the famous Chocolatiers in Berlin, where they are constantly making large and interesting chocolate sculptures in the store. They also have fine dark chocolate in this store with 80% cacao... that is some bitter chocolate right there.

So much chocolate.

Today was our last full day in Berlin. We spent most of our day doing little errands - buying stamps for all my overdue postcards, getting some birthday accessories at H&M, etc. Then we went to our pre-scheduled tour of the Berlin Parliament, where we walked up to the top of the dome and took in some great views of the city. Afterwards, we went to another famous Chocolatier and then walked back towards our hostel where we picked up our last Currywursts (until we come back to Germany in a few weeks) and ate them in the park for dinner.

Currywursts and fries!

 This blog post would not be complete if I did not mention two of our roommates in our hostel these past 5 days. There were two very cute boys from England, and as Pia would say, I am "smitten-kitten" with them. But wouldn't you be smitten-kitten with two boys who have British accents, sleep in boxers and eye masks, have stuffed animals, and speak to each other like this (make sure to read this with a British accent... it will make it 10 times better):


English boy 1: Cyrus, what time should I set the alarm?
English boy 2: Oh, I don't know, 9:30 or so?
English boy 1: Okay, see you in the morning, matey.

The English boys' stuffed animal!

Tonight we leave at 11pm on a 7 hour bus ride to Copenhagen, Denmark. We have all of tomorrow to see the city of Copenhagen, then tomorrow night we are meeting up with some new friends we met on the train to Austria a couple weeks back!

On Saturday, Pia and will be sailing out of Copenhagen on a 7 night cruise around Scandanavia (including Tallinn, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, and Stockholm), a birthday present from the greatest dad a girl could ask for! We won't have wifi on the ship, but we'll try to stop in cafes with wifi when we're on land. 

Salzburg and Prague

I think it's safe to say that both Salzburg and Prague were big hits on our European trip! I don't think you can go wrong in Salzburg: The Land of Sound of Music, or Prague: The Land of Cheap Beer (and impulse purchases). We enjoyed both cities so much!

Salzburg
When Pia and I left Budapest, the train to Salzburg was overbooked. We didn't make reservations because we learned from a guy we met in Venice that we don't need to if we have a Eurail Pass... although getting from city to city might take longer because we can only take certain trains (free, slow, cheap, overbooked trains). But that's what we've been doing ever since and it's worked out well for the most part!

For the first three hours of the train ride, we had to stand until a couple seats finally opened up. As we were standing, we talked with a couple guys from Kansas who were on their way to Copenhagen to study abroad for the semester. Pia and I kept looking for seats to open up and we saw there were two open at a four person table. The very handsome man sitting there told us his friends were at the bar and they wouldn't be coming back anytime soon, so we were welcome to sit there. As I'm listening to my music and reading my book, this guy quickly leans away from the window and nearly pushes me out of my seat. Then he starts saying, "Oh, why me, why me? Oh Dear God, help me!" Pia and I looked at each other, a little confused, then saw that there was a wasp on the window. I asked if he wanted me to let him out and he said he would be fine... then the wasp started moving and he yelled, "yes yes, let me out!" Then he grabbed his bags and never came back. I´ve never seen a man so afraid of a wasp before.

Once we got to Salzburg, we found our hostel quite easily. After checking in, we went to find dinner (a cheap burger place down the road) and walked around the beautiful city of Salzburg.

On Sunday morning, I went to a worship service at the Salzburg Cathedral. Even though it was all in German, it was still one of the highlights of my time in Salzburg. The cathedral was beautiful, and there was a choir, an organist, and instrumentalist. Then Pia and I met up at the catacombs and came back to the hostel to eat lunch. After lunch, we enjoyed Radlers and apple streudel in the beautiful Mirabell Gardens, where scenes from The Sound of Music were filmed.

Radlers. Can you guess which one is Pia's?

Apple strudel

 Our next stop was the Augustiner Beer Garden, Salzburg's biggest and most well-known beer garden. Here, we washed our own steins with water, then handed them to the man behind the counter who filled them with the fresh beer from the barrel. We sat in the beer garden for a couple hours and enjoyed our beers and brats. After the beer garden, we stopped in one of the main squares to watch a "free concert" that Pia saw advertised earlier that day. This concert ended up being a German opera (with no subtitles) that we watched on a big screen, until it started to downpour.

In the beer garden with our steins!

On our last day in Salzburg, we got up really early to hike one of the mountains near the city. Pia's book said it would take about 3 hours to reach the peak. That's a lie. It took us a total of 45 minutes to climb the 300-some stairs and steep hills to the top of the mountain. I was expecting to see fields of grass, so I could be just like Julie Andrews and sing "The Hills Are Alive", but there were no meadows. Just lots of brown and dull-looking trees. But I didn't let this disappoint me... I still got my Julie Andrews picture. Which, unfortunately (maybe I should say, fortunately), I can't post using this computer.

Since it didn't take us that long to climb back down the mountain, we still had plenty of time in our day. Pia stayed in Salzburg and I went to St. Gilgen, a place where my Godmother used to vacation as a child when she lived in Germany. It was about a 50 minute bus ride away from the city, into the Bavarian Alps of Austria.

I walked around the town of St. Gilgen and then just sat by the water, ate a couple peaches, read my book, and did some people-watching. It was a perfect afternoon.

This one´s for you, GV!

When I got back to Salzburg, I took a nap, then woke up JUST IN TIME for our last chance to watch The Sound of Music in our hostel. Pia and I ran downstairs right as they were putting in the DVD. We watched my favorite movie of all time and ate some Wiener Schnitzel. Such Austrians.

I can definitely say that Salzburg was one of my favorite cities so far. The mountains around the city really add something that many other cities do not have!

Prague
This past Tuesday afternoon, we made it to Prague with no problems. As we were walking to our hostel, we were stopped at a crosswalk and we saw 3 Australians who were on our walking tour in Budapest last week. This was our conversation:

The 3 Aussies: "Hey..."
Me: "Hey! Weren't you guys on our walking tour in Budapest?!"
The 3 Aussies: "No... I don't think so..."
(This is when I looked at Pia to make sure I wasn't crazy)
Pia and me: "Yeah...you were..."
The 3 Aussies: (completely ignored the whole thing) "So what hostel are you looking for?"

Uhh...

I guess Pia and I weren't as big of legends in Budapest as we were in Dublin.

That night, Pia and I went to a restaurant a couple blocks away where we were able to get a 15% discount with our hostel. We each had a Pilsner and a potato pancake with sweet and sour cabbage and beef in the middle. Sounds interesting, but it was actually very good!

On Wednesday, we went on a free 3 hour walking tour around the city of Prague. The tour included the major sites in Prague - Old Town Square, The Spanish Synagogue and other areas of the Jewish Square, Municipal House Hall, The Astronomical Clock, and The National Theatre.

After the tour, Pia and I each wanted to find a cheap sweater because the weather is getting a little chillier. So we came across this store called "NewYorker", where they were playing American pop songs. When we entered this 3 story store of clothes cheaper than Forever 21, we both thought the same thing: we are going to be so happy here for the next 2 hours. And we were. (Impulse Buy Number 1)

On Wednesday night, Pia and I had plans to see a traditional Czech music concert, a gift given to us from my wonderful Godparents, Vera and Mark. Before the concert, we went to the Old Town Square for some cheap dinner and cheap beer. Then we walked to the Spanish Synagogue, where the concert was. The concert was absolutely beautiful! Thank you V&M!

dinner in the Square

inside the Spanish Synagogue

On our way back to the hostel, we came across another concert on the street. This concert consisted of a string quartet who played much more contemporary music, such as ACDC and Joan Jett. They were surprisingly good as well!

dinner in the Old Town square

On Thursday, Pia and I walked across the Chain Bridge, which is the most crowded bridge I've ever seen in my life. Then we walked up to the Prague Castle, stopping for some trdelnik, a delicious cylindrical pastry that is sold everywhere here, in Budapest as well. We spent our afternoon at a park near the castle, where we ate lunch and read for a while. We stopped in the Old Town Square (one of my favorite city squares!) for dinner again, and on the way back to our hostel, we passed the "Swan Lake" ballet advertisement that we had been passing for the past 4 days. We looked at each other and Pia said, "Let's just see how much they cost." So we walked into the ticket office, bought two tickets to Swan Lake (Impulse Buy Number 2) 45 minutes before the ballet started, ran back to our hostel (20 minutes away), quickly changed, and ran back. Unfortunately, I was changing in such a hurry that I forgot my phone was in my back pocket and it fell straight into the toilet. Yes, my Samsung Galaxy that is my only means of communication to the outside world (aside from random, free computers) fell in the toilet. And I would say that the ballet made it all worth it... but unfortunately, it did not. We most definitely saw the "budget version" of Swan Lake. And you ask, "What's the budget version?" The budget version includes a theatre that looks similar to my high school auditorium and cheap costumes that rip during the performance. One day, I will see the non-budget version of Swan Lake. One day.

Yesterday, we spent the majority of our day doing laundry. We walked all the way across town to one of the only laundromats in Prague. If you are looking for a good arm and leg workout, carry a full basket of laundry 2 kilometers uphill. That will definitely do it.

We spent our last night in Prague in the city center, listening to live music, sipping on Pilsner, and eating fried lard. (I promise we didn´t know it was fried lard before we ate it!)

Today, we arrived in Berlin! The first thing we did was eat a Currywurst. I swear, this whole trip revolves around food. 

Also, my phone survived!!!! I put it in a bag of rice for 48 hours (which seemed like an eternity) and aside from the fact that it thinks the current date it September 2nd (it completely skipped over my birthday) and one button not working, I think everything else works! So Snapchat me yall... :)

Vienna and Budapest

Again, I wasn't able to add pictures from my dslr, but I did manage to get a few on my phone (more in Budapest than Vienna).

Our time in Vienna was pretty uneventful. Probably because all of the craziness was waiting for us in Budapest. But we loved both cities... for the most part :)

Vienna
After a sleepless, eleven-hour, overnight train ride from Venice, we made it to Vienna, Austria! When we arrived at the train station, we walked a half hour to our hostel, which is more than enough with those big backpacks of ours... especially Pia's, whose backpack could fit three large bodies in it. It was a little confusing to find out hostel, since neither of us know any German and the streets there have ridiculous names.

Our hostel was a very small hostel, mostly made up of Austrians and Germans, who like to stare a lot. Since we couldn't check in until 2pm, we decided to take the U-bahn to the city center, get some breakfast/lunch, and nap in Volkgarten Park. We came back to the hostel in the afternoon and took another nap and a shower.

That night, we decided to go to a beer garden (which was beautiful!) then walked back towards our hostel, and decided to stop for some pizza. (Yes, we are still eating pizza even though we aren't in Italy anymore.) We both really had to use the restroom, so we went inside before we sat down. As we were washing our hands, there were two men just full on staring at us in the doorway. What is with everyone staring in Vienna?! They were talking to each other in German, but still kept staring at us. Eventually, they left and we went to find a table outside. We made sure to sit out of their view, but that did not stop them from joining us. Ralph and Adam were their names, and they shamelessly pulled up two chairs as Pia and I ate our pizza. They tried so hard to speak to us in English, but we spent the next half hour learning some Deutsche phrases.

The next day, we went to the city center and took a tour of the Vienna State Opera House, which was beautiful. Then Pia went to an art museum and I went to see Mozart's house. Pia and I met up at Stadt Park, where we ate Veinnese brats from a wurstel stand nearby. On the way back to the hostel, we picked up a piece of Sachertorte cake, a well-known Viennese dessert.

Sachertorte Cake

That night, we decided to cook meat, potatoes, and carrots for dinner in the hostel. We bought what we thought was butter from the store down the street and when we went to put it in the pan with the potatoes, we saw that it was NOT butter. We had no idea what it was, but it smelled badly. We asked one of the hostel workers to translate it for us, and he told us it was yeast. The whole not understanding the German language thing was starting to get annoying at that point. So if you're ever in a grocery store in Austria/Germany, and you see a package of what looks like butter, but says "GERM" on it, it's not butter.

The next day in Vienna, we went to Danube Island (not as cool as it sounds), which was completely deserted. For lunch, we went to the outdoor food market, which was a success! We found very cheap food - Donor kebabs and fruit. After eating and people-watching, we went back to the hostel to get our backpacks, and headed for the train station. Next stop: Budapest.

Budapest
We arrived in Budapest about 3 hours later and as soon as we got of the train, everything was weird. The train station was sketchy, a man asked us if we needed a place to stay, and there were men hanging out in the women's restroom. When we walked out of the station, it was raining (of course), so we decided to take the metro to our hostel. Even the metro was sketchier than usual. We found out the next day, that Budapest has the second oldest electrified underground railway system in the world (London being the first). And let me tell you, it hasn't changed a bit since it began in 1896.

sketchy-looking metro

more metro sketchiness

We got off at our stop, which consisted of very dim lights and lots of homeless people. After some trouble with finding our hostel, we made it. When we were checking in, the receptionist (who spoke zero English) told us we only owed 23 euros, when in fact, I knew we owed 46. So we questioned him and he said, no just 23 euros. Then he showed us the hostel and our room and Pia and I began unpacking. We thought we had hit the jackpot; a super cheap hostel (approx. 4 euros per person/per night), free laundry (that NEVER happens), computers, wifi, a kitchen, and free beer. FREE BEER. A few minutes later, he came back into our room and asked how many nights we were staying. We said three and he looked reeeaally confused and said "one moment" and went back to the desk. He came back and said "I'm so sorry, but I have to take you to our other hostel." Apparently, their calendar wasn't working and they didn't have our reservation. So we said that was fine and he said he would walk us to the other "hostel".

welcome to the "Pinky Puppy"

We walk down the street, turn into an apartment building that says "Pinky Puppy" on the outside and walk in. Then he leads us through that building, out the backdoor, to a dark, deserted alleyway, and up three flights on a spiral staircase. Then he opens an unlocked door to an abandoned apartment and says, "this okay?" Pia and I looked at each other and were speechless. He left and Pia and I just stood there in complete silence, not knowing what to do or say. The Pia says what we were both thinking, "we're gonna get killed." So we decided to go get food because it was already 10pm and we hadn't eaten dinner yet. On our way out of the apartment building, we could not for the life of us, figure out how to open the gate. We tried all of our keys, pressed buttons, everything. At this point, I was looking up in the corners thinking there were hidden cameras with people watching us on this setup for Taken 3. We were literally locked in this apartment complex! And conveniently, there was no WiFi at this other "hostel". We finally found the button to open the gate (which was not in a logical place at all) and headed towards the first cheap restaurant we saw... and behold, KFC was right in front of us. After devouring what we thought would be our last meal ever, we made a plan to go back to the original hostel, use their wifi, book another hotel, get our money back, and SAVE OURSELVES. Which is exactly what we did. So now we are staying at a 3 star hotel down the street, and we are loving every second of it.

After some much-needed sleep, we woke up yesterday ready to take on Budapest. We took a 3 hour free walking tour (where we met a guy from Waterloo, IA!) and learned a lot about the history of Buda and Pest. After the tour, we came back to eat dinner at a pub right below our hotel. How convenient, right? We tried Hungary's famous Goulash Soup, some Hungarian beer, and shared some nachos.

enjoying some Hungarian Goulash!

loving our big windows

We went back upstairs after dinner and sat in our three big beautiful windows in our hotel room. We spent the next hour drinking wine and taking pictures. Then we started acting like 12 year old girls and saying "hello" to the people walking by on the sidewalk below us and cracking up when they would turn behind them, only to find no one was there. Yes, we were being those girls. Then one guy saw us and started asking us for directions to a club. Well, that conversation turned into Pia and I joining him and his 7 other friends from England downstairs at the pub for his friend's bachelor party. The night was full of "jumping rope" to live music, singing/karaoke, dancing with the bachelor, Palinka, and Hungarian beer. And we are now invited to a wedding in the UK in October.

the only photo I got of the night... Pia and the bachelor boys

Today, Pia and I walked to Heroes' Square, then Pia went to an art gallery and I went to the park. When we met back up, we walked to find some "Hungarian pancakes" (aka crepes) and ice cream coffee, then went to see the inside of the Basilica. Afterwards, we walked along the Danube river and saw the "Shoes on the Danube". On our way back to our hostel tonight, we stopped by to listen to some live music and eat some corn on the cob (I guess part of me is missing Iowa).

Even though Budapest had a strange beginning to it, we ended up really enjoying this city! The sites are amazing along the Danube - the Basilica, the Parliament, the Buda hills. But tomorrow we are taking a 6 hour train to Salzburg - where I will fulfill my dream of being Julie Andrews and falling in love with Captain Von Trapp.

this will be me tomorrow

10 Days in Italy

So I'm having trouble with uploading photos from my camera onto the computer that I'm using... so this post will only contain photos from my phone!

Pia and I have spent the past ten days in Italy, starting in Rome and ending in Venice. The past ten days have been full of good things (food, family, scenery) and some not so good things (extreme heat, bugs, and more bugs).

Rome
Our first stop in Italy was Rome, a place both Pia and I have been before. We stayed far from the city center, at the very last metro stop. On our first day there, we took a Vatican City walking tour. This is where we were told where to find the best gelato in all of Rome. So you can only imagine where Pia and I headed next.

That night, Pia and I went out for our first (and only) nice dinner out. We ate dinner at a very nice restaurant with outdoor seating, near Trevi Fountain. We ordered a bottle of the best Shiraz I've ever had, shared the Rigatoni pasta, and shared dessert as well. I don't remember what the dessert was called, but I will describe it as freshly baked creme puffs covered in the richest, most delicious chocolate I've ever tasted. We made friends with the waiters, who wanted pictures taken with us and then wanted to take us dancing when they got off work. Our waiter, Andreas, also told us he had a big place in the middle of the city where we could stay, too! (Don't worry, Mom, Dad, Joe, and Linda, we didn't go.)

the most amazing dessert

our watier, Andreas

After dinner, Pia and I went to throw coins and make wishes in Trevi Fountain. It was a wonderful day!

making wishes in Trevi Fountain

The next morning, Pia and I woke up at 6am because we were going to take a 4 hour train to Pescara, where Pia's family would pick us up and take us to San Valentino. Our train was supposed to leave from one of the two train stations in Rome, connect to the other train station in Rome, then leave for Pescara. Well, we missed our first train by about 3 minutes, so as Pia stood in line to wait to talk to someone, I found the taxis and asked them how long it would take to get to the other train station in Rome (in hopes of catching it in 20 minutes). When I found Pia again, she told me we had to catch a train that was leaving at that exact moment, so we ran to the platform, only to find that it had already left. So then we ran to the taxis and the taxi driver told us he could make it in ten minutes. (We now had about 13 minutes before our train would leave from this other station.) Once we got there, we ran so fast through 3 long hallways to our platform, which of course HAD to be the very last platform. As we turned the corner to run up the ramp in the last hallway, the train started blowing the whistle and they announced that the train was leaving. However, we kept running (we could not even breathe at this point), made it on the train drenched in sweat, and it left just seconds later.

Pescara and San Valentino

After a calm (and very beautiful) train ride through the mountains, we made it to Pescara, where Pia's family greeted us. We drove about 45 minutes to their lovely home in the mountains in San Valentino. When we arrived, there was homemade lasagna in the oven. We sat down to eat and I was already full after the lasagna. Then they brought out chicken cutlets and salad, then fruit, then dessert, then espresso. After lunch, Pia and I walked around the small town of San Valentino. (I wish I could post pictures of this beautiful little town!)

That evening, Pia's cousin, Diana, and Diana's boyfriend (who has a very nice Audi convertible), took us back down to Pescara to walk along the boardwalk and eat pizza and sorbetto. Then we drove back to San Valentino with the hood down (the best way to see the stars in the countryside), averaging a speed of 160 kph. It was such a fun night!

riding in the backseat of the Audi

 Cinque Terre
The next day, Pia and I headed for Cinque Terre, aka the Italian Riviera. We arrived in La Spezia, then took another train to the small village of Manarola. After checking in, we headed straight for the water. We spent the evening eating more pizza and gelato, and walking along the hiking trails in Manarola.

enjoying the Italian Riviera on a hot day

Manarola

The next morning, we got up early to hike the trails between the villages of Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. We spent about four hours hiking, with a lunch break in Vernazza. The views from the cliffs and mountains were breathtaking! We spent the afternoon on the beach in Monterosso.

The next day, I woke up to a backpacker's worst nightmare: bed bugs. I found them in my bed that morning along with 17 bites all over my arms and legs. Pia and I got 50 euros back from the hostel, which we used to wash and dry everything we own. We spent the whole day doing laundry, then switched rooms. We had about 16 euros left after laundry, so we put that towards a nice(r) meal, which consisted of bread, pasta, lemoncino cake, and wine.

Last Thursday morning, while we waited for our train, we spent a couple hours in the main square of Manarola, doing one of our favorite things: people-watching. Then we took a train to Venice, with a very short connection in Florence. Since we have Global Eurail passes, 1st class and 2nd class were the same price, so obviously we chose 1st class. We definitely did not belong there. The train car was full of businessmen and women, and here come two sweaty and smelly backpackers. Then the conductor comes through 15 minutes later, and ONLY checks our tickets. They wanted so badly to put us back in second class.

Venice
Pia and I are currently in Venice and we have spent the past 3 days here (which is more than enough.) We enjoyed walking throughout Venice; it is a very charming and romantic city with beautiful views. We saw the Guggenheim and St. Mark's square (where you aren't even allowed to sit!), but there really isn't much else to do here. The city consists only of tourists, which is a little disappointing. And navigating is sooo very confusing. We tried using a map the first day, but just gave up because the streets go in whichevr way, there are dead-ends everywhere, and it really sucks when you can see your destination across a river, but can't find a bridge to get to it.

Now that we have gotten rid of the bed bugs, we have had mosquitos haunting us for the past 3 nights. I've never seen so many in my life.

can you count them all?

Tonight, we leave Venice at 9pm on an overnight train, for another country which we are very excited for - Austria! We arrive in Vienna at 8am tomorrow morning!

Ciao!

Shea

A Week in Ireland

Pia and I arrived in Rome this morning and I currently miss Ireland with all of my being. To say that the people of Ireland are friendly is an understatement. Pia and I met so many wonderful people during our time in Dublin, Bantry, and Cork. When we got to the airport this morning (at 4am), we heard the song, "Galway Girl", which has been our favorite song while in Ireland... and we seriously considered staying in Ireland for another week. The Temple Bar area in Dublin reminded me of Welch Ave in Ames (only a little bit bigger)... which is why I think I loved it so much. Get ready for some good stories...

The Swan Whisperer

When we first arrived in Dublin at 9am, we couldn't check in until five hours later, so we decided to go to a park and rest, since we had been running on about 3 hours of sleep since waking up in Glasgow. We went to St. Stephen's Green, where we ate breakfast, then walked around and found a deserted spot next to the lake to sit and possibly take a nap. After about five minutes, a bunch of birds - ravens, ducks, seagulls, pigeons, and a family of swans started gathering around us, which also attracted a bunch of people. After about 30 minutes of this entertainment, a man comes walking over and sits down right next to the father swan and starts talking to it. Then he starts feeding the him, the mother, and the babies. Pia and I have named this man, "The Swan Whisperer". He visits this family of swans every single day and just chills with the father swan as if they're best friends. I've never seen anything like it. Especially given the fact that swans aren't the friendliest of animals.

The next day, Pia and I went on a free walking tour, where we learned so much about Irish history! We learned a lot about their relationship with the UK, which we thought was interesting. At the end of our tour, we stopped in St. Stephen's Green, where we saw the Swan Whisperer again! We made sure to wave to him as we passed by.

After the tour, Pia and I decided to visit the National Museum, where they have a Bog Exhibit, which we learned about on the walking tour. When we go to the information desk, we told the man that we wanted to see the Bog preservatives. He said, "That's how you like your men, eh?"

Dublin Castle on our walking tour

The streets of Dublin... Temple Bar

Bog Exhibit at National Museum

That night, Pia and I decided to see what the nightlife was like in Dublin. We are so glad we did! That was the night we fell in love with Irish folk music, how to dance to it, and the night we made legends of ourselves without even realizing it. (I'll get to this later.)

The next day, we visited the Chester Beatty Library, which contains some of the oldest manuscripts, miniature paintings, prints, drawings, rare books and some decorative arts from the Islamic, East Asian, and Western collections. It had St. Paul's letters, and gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John dating back to 150 AD. It was definitely worth the visit!

That night, Pia and I went out with some of my teacher friends from the school I did my student teaching at in Caceres this past spring. They had been in Dublin for two weeks, taking an English course at Trinity College. Our time in Dublin overlapped about 2 days, so it worked out perfectly! We all went for drinks on Grafton Street, then we spent the rest of the night at Temple Bar. It was so great seeing my Spanish friends and speaking in Spanglish all night!

Teachers from student teaching!

A Splanglish night out!

We ended up going to Fitzsimmons, one of the same bars that Pia and I went to the night before. A guy came up to us and told us he remembered us from last night and asked if we were going to perform again. We were really confused by the word, "perform", but the night before, Pia and I were the only ones dancing to the band at that bar, and within 20 minutes there were about 20 more people dancing with us! I guess you could say we are trend setters in Ireland :) This happened on our last night in Dublin as well. We were walking by a lonely street performer, who was not that good, but we started dancing anyway, and at one point, there were about 30 people dancing in the street with us... Spaniards, Brazilians, Canadians, Germans, people from all over. It was definitely a highlight of our time in Dublin!

Last weekend, Pia and I took a break from the city life and took two buses to Bantry, Ireland, to meet up with my friend Amy, who I know from ISU! She studied abroad here a couple years ago and met a cute Irish boy, got married, and now lives here with him in the countryside of Ireland! We spent two nights with Amy and Rob at their beautiful home in the countryside. It was so nice to relax, sleep in a real bed, use a shower that has water pressure, and spend time away from all the tourists. Rob and Amy were so gracious! They cooked us some wonderful home-cooked meals and we had a movie night (where Pia watched the movie "Taken" for the first time... bad idea). On Sunday, they invited about 20 of their friends over and we had a barbeque and played Pictionary, which was so much fun! Pia and I were talking with one of their friends, Bobby, who offered to take us for a drive to see the best view of Bantry Bay. It was wonderful! Thank you Amy and Rob for a wonderful weekend!!!

Rob and Amy's home in the countryside!

Driving into town... on the 'wrong' side of the road!

Amy, Pia, and I overlooking Bantry

On our way back to Dublin, Pia and I stopped in Cork and Blarney. We enjoyed both places, but we felt Cork was more industrial and there wasn't much to do there other than shop... which we can't do much of these days given our budget... but it was fun to see the city of Cork, as well as visit the Blarney Castle and of course, kiss the Blarney Stone.

Kissing the Blarney Stone

On our last day in Dublin, Pia and I visited the Guinness Storehouse with our new friend, Rachel, from Colorado! We spent about three hours touring the brewery, and enjoyed a free pint of Guinness from the Gravity Bar.

with Rachel at the Guinness Storehouse

Enjoying our Guinness pints at the top of the brewery in Gravity Bar

Our time in Ireland was incredible. Pia and I both know that we will return one day to Dublin, and to see more of Ireland. We met so many wonderful people there... a shout out to Con, Carlos, Rachel, and our favorite hostel worker (never figured out his name... but he called us his two beauties, so we like him).

Pia and I woke up at 3am this morning, and headed for the airport to catch our flight (OUR LAST RYANAIR FLIGHT OF THIS TRIP THANK GOODNESS) to Rome. We will be spending the entire day in Rome tomorrow, mostly eating pizza and gelato, then Pia and I will spend the weekend in San Valentino visiting her family! On Monday, we head to Cinque Terre.

Sending my love to everyone back home! I promise postcards are on their way!

Shea