yay fun backgrounds as study breaks! :) 10/9 days left here in Ireland and I'm glad because I'm already sick of finals and I have only taken 2 of my 5 :(. But oh well fun things still to come like a haircut, book shopping, and chocolate shopping yum!
I'm running low on food(this is partially a good thing) and I already packed almost all of my stuff haha. I'm not in a hurry or anything;) But we are doing one more girls night before most people head out so we can enjoy being here one last time.
finals here are kind of odd. They are almost all essays. Which coming from a school that goes through scantrons like toilet paper this is a new concept! But they pile you in rooms of 400 plus people. All of you are from an assortment of classes but still in the same room. They have like 20 people walking around making sure you don't cheat...ps how on earth do you cheat on an essay test where u have no idea what the questions will be? *shrug* beats me. But they take it very seriously lol everyone is silent even after it is over and waiting to be dismissed. But what would you have to say to people you have never seen before who didn't take the same test as you sitting around you? hm no idea.
Oh well two more this week then one the day before I leave! Then back to the apartment to pack some stuff to donate to a local charity(i hate waste!) and then to the airport for a fun filled night of walking around the airport yay! but I'm making some tasty(healthy) trail mix to keep me from buying starbucks and subway(yum!) and then a long day of flying home to see all of you fabulous people! :) well most of you anyways!
off for more study time! see you soon!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Italy!
Well because I'm lazy and don't really feel like writing about EVERYTHING in both cities in Italy we will do the short hand version lol. We went to Florence(for 4-5 days ie wayyy too long) and Rome for 3 days.
Florence the first day was amazing so warm and sunny and great. We walked pretty much the entire city that morning haha and went to all of the outdoor markets. There was so much leather there I didn't realize how big it really was here! But the city is really beautiful on the sunny days just stunning. The afternoon we spent laying out on the terrace of our hostel bc we had to get some sun lol. It was amazing just to relax and take it easy. the next 3 days it rained and rained some more. lol the girls spent 2 of those 3 days in the hostel sitting around. I went out alone one of the days and explored and went into some of the sites. But sat inside with them the other day bc it was raining so hard i didn't feel like being out in it. We ate gelato pretty much every single day at least once a day haha. We ate more pb&j just so we could afford to keep getting gelato. We also had some amazing brick oven pizza that was to die for!
Rome was just as impressive as I had expected it to be. We ran into some girls from Holland in our hostel and one of them hung out with us most of the trip. We went and saw the colosseum, palatino(where rome was started!) the forum(old shopping district), vatican city, some random castle I don't remember the name of lol where i dropped my water bottle on some ladies head (but it was ok bc she was being a jerk to us ha karma baby),the pantheon(only my fav old building on earth!), the spanish steps, as well as a ton of other places we just came across on our walks. we thought the city would be a lot bigger than it was but we easily walked everywhere without any issues. We only ate out once here to save money and it was not a good experience. they tried to charge us for the bread they brought without asking. But the girl from holland argued with him and he made a big public fuss about it but finally took it off and we walked away angry. oh well the rest of rome was great! so we will just forget about that little incident haha. then we hung out in the airport for a while having far too much fun lol. The girls are still fascinated how i packed all my stuff in that backpack but i guess i have crazy childhood moving experiences to thank for that! hopefully my packing skills will help me get everything home again!
overall we laughed a ton, ate amazing food, ran into a surprising amount of people that we knew, spent way too much money, and had a blast! but honestly I have never been so happy to go back to Ireland haha.
but now 15 days away from coming back to the states(yay!). Finals start next monday for me. I have one monday, tuesday, thursday, and friday ick! then my last one on the 22nd and then I fly home on the 23rd! I'm going to be beat that day though because I'm going to be sleeping in the airport on the 22nd waiting for my early flight on the 23rd since no buses run before my flight sad day. So I'm taking one the night before and just chilling. It will be my last crazy European adventure!
Happy Spring!
Florence the first day was amazing so warm and sunny and great. We walked pretty much the entire city that morning haha and went to all of the outdoor markets. There was so much leather there I didn't realize how big it really was here! But the city is really beautiful on the sunny days just stunning. The afternoon we spent laying out on the terrace of our hostel bc we had to get some sun lol. It was amazing just to relax and take it easy. the next 3 days it rained and rained some more. lol the girls spent 2 of those 3 days in the hostel sitting around. I went out alone one of the days and explored and went into some of the sites. But sat inside with them the other day bc it was raining so hard i didn't feel like being out in it. We ate gelato pretty much every single day at least once a day haha. We ate more pb&j just so we could afford to keep getting gelato. We also had some amazing brick oven pizza that was to die for!
Rome was just as impressive as I had expected it to be. We ran into some girls from Holland in our hostel and one of them hung out with us most of the trip. We went and saw the colosseum, palatino(where rome was started!) the forum(old shopping district), vatican city, some random castle I don't remember the name of lol where i dropped my water bottle on some ladies head (but it was ok bc she was being a jerk to us ha karma baby),the pantheon(only my fav old building on earth!), the spanish steps, as well as a ton of other places we just came across on our walks. we thought the city would be a lot bigger than it was but we easily walked everywhere without any issues. We only ate out once here to save money and it was not a good experience. they tried to charge us for the bread they brought without asking. But the girl from holland argued with him and he made a big public fuss about it but finally took it off and we walked away angry. oh well the rest of rome was great! so we will just forget about that little incident haha. then we hung out in the airport for a while having far too much fun lol. The girls are still fascinated how i packed all my stuff in that backpack but i guess i have crazy childhood moving experiences to thank for that! hopefully my packing skills will help me get everything home again!
overall we laughed a ton, ate amazing food, ran into a surprising amount of people that we knew, spent way too much money, and had a blast! but honestly I have never been so happy to go back to Ireland haha.
but now 15 days away from coming back to the states(yay!). Finals start next monday for me. I have one monday, tuesday, thursday, and friday ick! then my last one on the 22nd and then I fly home on the 23rd! I'm going to be beat that day though because I'm going to be sleeping in the airport on the 22nd waiting for my early flight on the 23rd since no buses run before my flight sad day. So I'm taking one the night before and just chilling. It will be my last crazy European adventure!
Happy Spring!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Munich!
sooo a bit delayed but I have gotten caught up in some random things this week, but more on that later. Munich! It was supposed to be Berlin but hey whats a euro trip without some random adventure and homelessness! We got into the Paris train station a bit after dinner time so we were tired hungry and a bit irritable already. We finally figured out where the ticket booth was just to learn that the night train(we had planned on booking it in spain but bc of our troubles we didn't end up doing that) was full. As were the trains to Berlin for the next 3 days or so because it was easter weekend. Sooooo, bummed we got out of line and sat down opened up the map and tried to find a new place. We settled on Munich bc we still wanted to see Germany. So we asked about a night train there but again were told that it was booked. But there was one the next night so we jumped at that one and booked it. However that left us stranded in Paris with no where to stay. We walked outside and found a McDonalds, which normally I would turn my nose up at but it was familiar and there and I was starving, so we went in. It was the first fast food I had had in over 4 months! needless to say not all that amazing lol. We decided to save money and sleep in the train station, which wasnt thrilling but it seemed decent. But then around 1am we learned that it closed lol. sooo out on the streets at 1am we went to the first hotel we could find booked their only room(two twin beds for 3 ppl...we pushed the beds together and i slept on the crack oh boy!) and slept there till check out the next day lol. Then we spent our day in Paris at Notre Dame by our fav crepe station of course! and after about 4 hours there we moved to the train station to sit for 4 more glorious hours on a tile floor haha.
Finally on the train we found out Suzanne and Allisons good friend was in the cabin right next to us! go figure so we spent most our trip in Munich with Jessica and Amber. Sleeping on a night train in a chair is about as comfortable as sleeping on an airplane with bad turbulents. but i was excited to be in germany so all of that was forgotten! We bought easter candy in the train station to celebrate easter lol. Then we took an amazing walking tour of the city. The same company was putting on a pub crawl that night so we decided to do that as well after going to the hostel to shower and change. The pubcrawl was soooo much fun. I gave most of my drinks away since I'm not a beer fan. But I did split a stein with allison just to say ive done it lol. we went to Hofbrauhaus as well as 2 beer gardens and a hostel bar.
The next day we went to see Neuschwanstein castle. Which is by far my fav castle in all of europe. I saw it when i was younger but didn't remember much of it so I didn't mind seeing it again. We spent the whole day out there. I got sweet bavarian snow balls and they were soooooo good! Even tho i dropped the last few on the ground :( and allison yelled "oh no she dropped her balls!" and everyone turned and looked at us lol good times. then we took it easy this night since it had been a long day.
day three was spent at the dauchau(sp?) concentration camp. I won't go into details but it was very depressing yet informative. There was one girl that was driving us crazy she took pics of everything and i do mean everything. It just felt wrong somehow. but that was a fun day too!
that concluded our trip to munich. I think it was better than Berlin even could have been. Our weather was perfect and everything we saw was great!
Pics are up already on photobucket under Munich, Germany.
More on Italy later!
incase you are still pondering what it is that has kept me so preoccupied it would be my crazy nutrition interest! I found a site called spark people and its amazing! I can put in everything I eat and all my exercises and it runs tons of charts, graphs etc and makes u really realize how you are eating! Also it tracks my work outs and has tonnnnnnnnns of articles to read and I promise I have read almost all of them haha. and also the blogs i keep on keep me busy!
I am making these when i get home! all who are around are going to be recruited to try them! :) http://www.loveandoliveoil.com/2009/01/strawberry-lemonade-cupcakes.html
Finally on the train we found out Suzanne and Allisons good friend was in the cabin right next to us! go figure so we spent most our trip in Munich with Jessica and Amber. Sleeping on a night train in a chair is about as comfortable as sleeping on an airplane with bad turbulents. but i was excited to be in germany so all of that was forgotten! We bought easter candy in the train station to celebrate easter lol. Then we took an amazing walking tour of the city. The same company was putting on a pub crawl that night so we decided to do that as well after going to the hostel to shower and change. The pubcrawl was soooo much fun. I gave most of my drinks away since I'm not a beer fan. But I did split a stein with allison just to say ive done it lol. we went to Hofbrauhaus as well as 2 beer gardens and a hostel bar.
The next day we went to see Neuschwanstein castle. Which is by far my fav castle in all of europe. I saw it when i was younger but didn't remember much of it so I didn't mind seeing it again. We spent the whole day out there. I got sweet bavarian snow balls and they were soooooo good! Even tho i dropped the last few on the ground :( and allison yelled "oh no she dropped her balls!" and everyone turned and looked at us lol good times. then we took it easy this night since it had been a long day.
day three was spent at the dauchau(sp?) concentration camp. I won't go into details but it was very depressing yet informative. There was one girl that was driving us crazy she took pics of everything and i do mean everything. It just felt wrong somehow. but that was a fun day too!
that concluded our trip to munich. I think it was better than Berlin even could have been. Our weather was perfect and everything we saw was great!
Pics are up already on photobucket under Munich, Germany.
More on Italy later!
incase you are still pondering what it is that has kept me so preoccupied it would be my crazy nutrition interest! I found a site called spark people and its amazing! I can put in everything I eat and all my exercises and it runs tons of charts, graphs etc and makes u really realize how you are eating! Also it tracks my work outs and has tonnnnnnnnns of articles to read and I promise I have read almost all of them haha. and also the blogs i keep on keep me busy!
I am making these when i get home! all who are around are going to be recruited to try them! :) http://www.loveandoliveoil.com/2009/01/strawberry-lemonade-cupcakes.html
Friday, April 24, 2009
Barcelona!!!!!!!
The first stop on our Euro trip! We took a bus up to Dublin and flew to Barcelona. Rain rain rain. We brought the Ireland weather with us to Spain. Our beds at the hostel were terrible. I had a huge sink hole in the middle of mine. I folded my blanket up and put it in the hole and it made me level with the rest of the bed(yes the mental picture is right lol). We got up the next day and walked to Las Ramblas(the main street) and saw a market so we walked through it. It had so many types of fruits,veggies,meats etc I have never even seen some of them before. We all got big cases of fresh strawberries to eat with lunch. After that we walked along Las Ramblas and looked at the shops etc. It was raining so hard so we went to Suzanne's hostel to eat lunch(pb&j the first of many) and we spent the next 4 hours there waiting for the rain to let up even just a little. But no such luck so we went back out and Suzanne's friend showed us around the city a bit. We saw the buildings designed by Gaudi(look at the pics they are really cool). We walked until I was so wet i said I wanted to go back to the hostel. We went back and waited till dinner. We ate at a little Italian place just around the corner so we wouldn't have to walk far. It was really frikin good lol.
the next day it was still raining but a bit lighter. We went shopping on one of the streets and I found the "Claire" skirt that I have been looking for. We shopped until lunch and went to Suzanne's again for more pb&j. After lunch we went to see the Sagrada Familia. Its a church that has been under construction for over a hundred years and is still not done. But its really awesome(see pics). For dinner we didnt want more pb&j so we went to the store and all went in on ham and cheese and bread for sandwiches. We also got more stuff to make more pb&j since we were starting to run low lol. There was another shop we walked by the had the coolest clothes ever I wish we had them back in the states. But I got another skirt lol its really cute and was worth it.
day 3 beach day! Today was sunny and really stinkin hot! We walked to the park designed by Gaudi. We had to take the metro to it and then saw the hill we had to climb. It was seriously the biggest hill i have ever seen. It was so steep they had to put in escalators at the top to help ppl get up the hill! But once we got up there we walked around the park taking pics. Then we saw this cross up on a hill with ppl standing around it and wanted to get there soooo we found how ppl did it and we climbed through the fence just like them lol and ate lunch looking over the city(more pb&j). then we got kicked out by the cops haha and went back into town. Then we spent our last afternoon at the beach! we have so many funny stories from this trip that i have not put in here so maybe ill get to share those with everyone soon. For dinner we got traditional tapas which are basically appetizers only u order a few of them and its dinner. It was def not good but it was a fun experience and suzanne and allison had way to much sangria haha and were very entertaining.
travel day: getting on the trains to paris from barcelona was a huge ordeal and the people were mean and unhelpful. they tried to make us pay almost 200 euro for a train even tho we had our eurail passes which means they should be almost free. but eventually 3 trains later we managed to make it to paris around dinner time 12 hours after the journey started lol.
Barcelona pics are up!
http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a212/accidentallynlove05/Cork/Barcelona%20Spain/
Munich to come tomorrow!
the next day it was still raining but a bit lighter. We went shopping on one of the streets and I found the "Claire" skirt that I have been looking for. We shopped until lunch and went to Suzanne's again for more pb&j. After lunch we went to see the Sagrada Familia. Its a church that has been under construction for over a hundred years and is still not done. But its really awesome(see pics). For dinner we didnt want more pb&j so we went to the store and all went in on ham and cheese and bread for sandwiches. We also got more stuff to make more pb&j since we were starting to run low lol. There was another shop we walked by the had the coolest clothes ever I wish we had them back in the states. But I got another skirt lol its really cute and was worth it.
day 3 beach day! Today was sunny and really stinkin hot! We walked to the park designed by Gaudi. We had to take the metro to it and then saw the hill we had to climb. It was seriously the biggest hill i have ever seen. It was so steep they had to put in escalators at the top to help ppl get up the hill! But once we got up there we walked around the park taking pics. Then we saw this cross up on a hill with ppl standing around it and wanted to get there soooo we found how ppl did it and we climbed through the fence just like them lol and ate lunch looking over the city(more pb&j). then we got kicked out by the cops haha and went back into town. Then we spent our last afternoon at the beach! we have so many funny stories from this trip that i have not put in here so maybe ill get to share those with everyone soon. For dinner we got traditional tapas which are basically appetizers only u order a few of them and its dinner. It was def not good but it was a fun experience and suzanne and allison had way to much sangria haha and were very entertaining.
travel day: getting on the trains to paris from barcelona was a huge ordeal and the people were mean and unhelpful. they tried to make us pay almost 200 euro for a train even tho we had our eurail passes which means they should be almost free. but eventually 3 trains later we managed to make it to paris around dinner time 12 hours after the journey started lol.
Barcelona pics are up!
http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a212/accidentallynlove05/Cork/Barcelona%20Spain/
Munich to come tomorrow!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Europe Trip
Well I am officially back home in Cork! Ireland is showing us how much it missed us and giving us rain for the next 7 days straight oh boy! I was trying to figure out how exactly to post about all of the cities so that everyone can hear all about it but still have time to read them considering I expect each to be fairly long. So I think I will do it a city at a time. Meaning one post per city and I will try to put up about one city a day for the next few days. I will add pictures as fast as my computer will let me but doing 4 at a time when I took somewhere around 700-800 takes a while as you can imagine lol. But a few exciting things to note at the moment.
-we celebrated being in cork the entire walk home by screaming laughing and being random
-i have never been so happy to see dirty dishes in the sink and rain outside when i got home
-I'm pretty sure if i walk any more my feet will go on strike and remove themselves from my body
-I spent way too much money...but it was totally worth every cent spent!
-Today I got my mail and a big box from the Colorado gang and it was amazing! the first real Dr.pepper I have had in 111 days!
-Last night we missed the last bus from the airport and had to pay for a taxi and it was the first car/non bus vehicle i have been in in 111 days how crazy is that!?
-I have been out of the US for 111 days! and i only have 29 more left here!
And this was what I lived out of for the last 2 and a half weeks, i gotta say I impress myself sometimes...
Details and pictures on Barcelona Spain coming tonight or tomorrow!
-we celebrated being in cork the entire walk home by screaming laughing and being random
-i have never been so happy to see dirty dishes in the sink and rain outside when i got home
-I'm pretty sure if i walk any more my feet will go on strike and remove themselves from my body
-I spent way too much money...but it was totally worth every cent spent!
-Today I got my mail and a big box from the Colorado gang and it was amazing! the first real Dr.pepper I have had in 111 days!
-Last night we missed the last bus from the airport and had to pay for a taxi and it was the first car/non bus vehicle i have been in in 111 days how crazy is that!?
-I have been out of the US for 111 days! and i only have 29 more left here!
And this was what I lived out of for the last 2 and a half weeks, i gotta say I impress myself sometimes...
Details and pictures on Barcelona Spain coming tonight or tomorrow!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
life update...
So life is about to get very interesting! I leave tomorrow morning for Spain Germany and Italy!!! I can't believe it. But I am ready to head out because I have no eaten a decent meal since before I left for Dublin. I didn't want to go to the store when I got back on monday so I have been cleaning out the fridge. I officially have eaten easy mac like 6 times since monday bleh no more! But I have almost nothing left in my fridge now...just some cheese and butter yummy. I am all packed and I can't believe I managed to get enough stuff for 16 days of traveling in one backpack. I'm also packing like an entire loaf of bread worth of pb&j for the trip to save money. After this I won't ever want to see pb&j or easy mac ever again haha.
I'm meeting up with a friend(Rocky) from home in Germany and I'm very excited to see people from home! :) I'm a little worried about getting run over by cars though because apparently only the UK drives on the "wrong" side of the road, which I have become accustomed to. I have a feeling I will look the wrong way before crossing the street. But hopefully I don't forget!
I am some how managing to fit my computer also in my backpack so I will try to update as much as I can while I'm gone. We have free wifi at most of the hostels. I will try to pull myself away from the beach long enough to post ;) I have a feeling I will need to invest in some sunscreen while gone though because the lack of sun my skin has seen here in Ireland.
Oh and get this now we are out of the rainy season here and things are turning brown lol. I guess I can't have it both ways..oh well my allergies sure don't care if its green or brown. I am hoping to run away from those as well on this trip because I can't find allergy meds here to save my life, but they will be gone before some from home could be sent.
I only have 47 more days here in Ireland and that does not count the next few weeks that I won't even be IN Ireland. wow.
and last but not least shout out to Cole for turning in my stats papers while I am gone because my teacher sucks and changed the due date from after I get back to before I get back. lame. but thanks Cole I owe you some beer or food or something!
ps I realize the descriptions on the dublin pictures are not showing up...I'll work on figuring that out!
I'm meeting up with a friend(Rocky) from home in Germany and I'm very excited to see people from home! :) I'm a little worried about getting run over by cars though because apparently only the UK drives on the "wrong" side of the road, which I have become accustomed to. I have a feeling I will look the wrong way before crossing the street. But hopefully I don't forget!
I am some how managing to fit my computer also in my backpack so I will try to update as much as I can while I'm gone. We have free wifi at most of the hostels. I will try to pull myself away from the beach long enough to post ;) I have a feeling I will need to invest in some sunscreen while gone though because the lack of sun my skin has seen here in Ireland.
Oh and get this now we are out of the rainy season here and things are turning brown lol. I guess I can't have it both ways..oh well my allergies sure don't care if its green or brown. I am hoping to run away from those as well on this trip because I can't find allergy meds here to save my life, but they will be gone before some from home could be sent.
I only have 47 more days here in Ireland and that does not count the next few weeks that I won't even be IN Ireland. wow.
and last but not least shout out to Cole for turning in my stats papers while I am gone because my teacher sucks and changed the due date from after I get back to before I get back. lame. but thanks Cole I owe you some beer or food or something!
ps I realize the descriptions on the dublin pictures are not showing up...I'll work on figuring that out!
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