Wow

I'm done with my first week-long break.

And it was probably the greatest single week I have ever had in my life. We went to Rome, Florence, Venice, and Salzburg, Austria, and I had a total blast. I'll do my best in the following paragraphs to do the week justice, and many pictures will be sure to arrive shortly.

Friday the 18th we arrived in Rome (as evidenced by my last post), and checked into our hostel, the Yellow Hostel. Nice place, free breakfast and internet, good location near the train station. We had a 6 bed room with a private bathroom, so that was nice too. Saturday, we met up with Phil's friend Cindy who is studying in Rome, and we went to Vatican City. It was amazing. The Sistine Chapel is gorgeous, and climbing to the top of St Peter's offers a great view of the city. After touring the Vatican, we got more gelatto (its the theme of the trip, I swear) and went to a great restaurant for pasta dinner (the second theme of the trip). But not before we stopped at the Spanish Steps and the Trivi Fountain. I was sure to throw a two pence piece in. Those things are useless anyway.

Sunday Cindy took us to the Collosseum, the Pantheon, and the Roman Forum. Pretty sweet. That night, we ate in Cindy's apartment...nothing like a home cooked meal for the taste buds and the bank account. After we said our goodbyes, we stopped for Nutella filled donuts, which were only 35 euro-cents. And they were awesome.

I noticed a few things interesting about Rome though: lots of grafitti, and lots of gypsies. Also, their public transportation is terrible compared to London's. The Metro (subway) only has two lines! And the busses were very confusing, so we just stayed off of them for the most part. Overall, Rome gets an 9/10.

Next stop on our whirlwind tour was Florence. We stayed at the Hotel Sampiaoli, which was quite nice. Two seperate rooms, both with full bathrooms made showers in the morning much less hectic. We rolled into Florence by train (it was about an hour and a half ride) midday Monday. After checking in, we went to the Duomo, which is essentially a smaller (but older) version of St Peter's in Rome. The view was again, magnificent.

The next day, we lined up early for the Accedamia Museum which houses Michaelangelo's David. Wow. Words cannot describe the beauty and awe of this piece. It was one of, if not the, highlights of my trip. After that great exhibit, we headed over the Uffizi museum (p.s. for those playing, I just lost the game), where we stood in line for three hours to see an over rated collection. It was neat to see Botacelli's 'Birth of Venus,' but otherwise...and there were no explanations...it just wasn't worth it. Not to mention it was SNOWING in Florence. Argh..

Florence had quite a bit of grafitti too, which was quick becoming noticed throughout Italy. It was a pretty city, but the Duomo, while offering a great view, was not all that pretty to look at, and the lack of night life (we went to a pub one night...because we couldn't find anything else) hurts as well. Oh, and it SNOWED. Only the amazing gelatto (best in Italy, I thought) and the Accedamia saves this town. Maybe its more enjoyable in better weather. It scores a 6/10.

Wednesday we left by train again to Venice. When we got there, we walked out of the train station to an amazing view of the grand canal. After dropping a euro in the hat of a street performer playing the piano (gotta support my own...and think how many bridges that guy had to push it over!), we took a water bus down the canal to our hostel. Our hostel there was AWESOME. It was bascially an apartment, completely with a living room, kitchen, iron, and cable TV (Italian MTV is pretty crazy stuff). I had fallen pretty ill by this point as had one other person, so that night, instead of going out, we followed Rick Steves' advice (Rick Steves as in the author of several European travel guide books) and got take away from a local pizza place. It was cheap, fast, and deliciious. Up there with that one slice of pizza I got in New York that one time.

Thursday we wandered around Venice, near the Rialto Bridge (the main one over the grand canal) and shopped around for glasswares (Murano, a side island of Venice, is famous for its glass), and ate more gelatto. That night, we were going to out to a couple great bars we had heard about, but by that point, the plague that I was suffering had shut down my body and several of my travel mates' as well, so we stayed in and made dinner, and went to bed early.

Venice was absolutely gorgeous. The people were great, the canals fascinating, and there were no cars! Great hostel + great food + awesome environment + SUN = 10/10. Best city I saw.

Friday we left for Salzburg by way of Villach, Austria. It was a six hour trian ride, so once we got into our hostel, we just went to the hostel bar. It was pretty fun. The Austrian beer was a welcome vacation from the terrible Italian "beer" that still lingered on my taste buds, and the bar tender was a really cool guy. We also got to meet up with a couple other ND kids rounding out their trip as well.

Saturday we explored the city. We saw Mozart's birthplace and where he lived, and the Salzburg Fortress. The fortress was really neat. It was basically impenetrable during the time when penetrating castles was a cool thing to do. We also got a free (well, included in admission anyway) audio guide, and another really cool view from the top of the fortress (its on a really tall hill). After the tour, we wandered around some more, saw the main church in Salzburg (which was ornate like the Italian ones, but somewhat simpler and blander in color), and then went to a restaurant for some hearty Austrian food. And it was. I had roast pork with potatoes and sauerkraut. It was the best meal of the week, hand's down. After dinner, it was back to the hostel bar, where more and more ND kids were ending their trips, so we all chilled until bed time.

So Salzburg had one great site, great food, and pretty good beer. But after that, there wasn't all that much to do. Sound of Music was filmed there, and there's a whole tour that's offered that takes you to all the sites...for thirty euro. So we didn't do that. Also, it was COLD in Austria (duh...). So Salzburg scores a 8/10 on the scale-o-meter.

However, the overall rating of my trip isn't simply the average of the individual scores (which is an 8.25). Just having the opportunity to do this while still in college (with a little help from the 'rents from time to time...) adds at least 5 points. Add to that I feel holier for having visted the Vatican, and the fact that gelatto is the greatest thing on earth, and the trip scores a 22.675/10. Pretty impressive in my book.

Odds are I forgot some stuff. Check Phil's Blog once he updates to fill in pieces/verify my tales. If I realize a glaring error, I'll fix it. Once I feel like it.

But now, its great to be back where the national language is English, even if people do hate still hate me for my nationality. I've got laundry to catch up on though, so cheers!

I'm in Italy!

Just a quick one...

I'm in Rome right now!! Its pretty crazy. We had a great flight here, a really easy trip overall. We got in to our hostel at about 9 pm local time. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost my cell phone...

Fortunately, our hostel is awesome (with free internet access no less!), and tonight we just went to a little square recommended by the Australian guy at the front desk. The area was neat. We had amazing pizza and Gilato (basically ice cream) and actually ran into some ND Rome kids at a bar! Unfortuantely, the bar wasn't all that great, and it definately made me miss my British beer...

But now its bed time. Busy day tomorrow! Goodnight all.

Tuesdays with Adam

hmm...I like that.

Yesterday I had a paper-seminar instead of my full Philosophy of Law class. It was far more boring than it could have been. Basically, 7 of us (out of about 22 that are usually in the class) sat with our professor for an hour, and he interviewed us individually about our papers. We didn't even speak to one another! So much for a seminar, although apparently later groups actually did have discussions.

Last night we tried to go to Walkabout again, but we left way too late (we got there at around 11:00), and the line was probably like two hours. Being the impatient Americans we are, we decided to head to the Covent Garden area where we had heard about some clubs. Unfortunately, we headed in the completely wrong direction. God must have been smiling on us last night though, because our friend Scott stopped to ask one man, who was alone, where Covent Garden was. Lo and behold, that man was going there. What are the odds?

We ended up going to Los Locos club, which was really fun. It's a lot smaller than Walkabout, and the happy hour only runs till midnight (lesson learned...we got there around 11:30). But during said happy hour, the best deal is a pitcher of 6 mixed drinks (Mai Tai's, Long Island Iced Teas, etc) for 8 pounds. That, and no cover for students on Mondays and Wednesdays equals a potentially great Wednesday coming up, now that we know where the place is. Plus, the people in the club were decidely less sketch than at Walkabout, which seems to attract a lot of old, sweaty Italian men.

Today I had class with O'Boyle...and we had a pop test. An hour long, unannounced, mid-term exam, with eight essay questions. Who does that? After that major surprise, we had an interesting discussion about adultery and marriage, and then called it a day.

I'm now in the classroom computer cluster, waiting to go to MacBeth (put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company) tonight. I had a sweet chicken samosa for dinner, and then decided to chill. But now...I'm out.

Back again!

Whew...I'm actually updating this thing within a week's time. I'm so awesome.

Friday night we tried to go to Zoo Bar as planned, since Jess's friend had apparently weaseled her way on the guest list. Unfortunately, apparently 'weasel' to her means 'to not get on the guest list at all,' because we sure didn't have free cover. We ended up at another bar in frustration, Digress, near Regent Street. It was ok, but drinks were still a little expensive, and the music was very strange...I'm really starting to think that '80's music is brand new over here or something.

Saturday we woke up bright and early and 12 of us went to Warwick Castle [pictures up when I get around to it. Get off my back already!]. It was an hour and a half train ride north, but it was gorgeous. Its a very large castle that has Victorian decorations in the great hall, actors portraying characters, a small dungeon and museum to look at, a peakcock garden (with real peacocks!) and some great photo ops.

Saturday night I stayed in to work on my paper, but ended up only getting part of it done because a whole bunch of us decided to play games. We played Taboo, which was fun, and we played a fabulous game called 'family.' Its essentially a party/ice breaker game, but its still a blast.

Sunday I intended to go to the Duke to watch the Manchester United - Manchester City match (which Man U won 2-0...yay!), but instead I had to go to the classroom building and pick up/work on some piano music for my Concert Life presentation on Thursday. I'm playing Gershwin's Summertime and Emily is singing. After that, I came back to the flat to work on more of my paper, and then helped make dinner for our flat and the girls next door. We had a penne/spinich bake with Marscapone and blue cheese, along with salad, baked brie, and cookies and ice cream. It was awesome. After dinner, we played more games (which were a hit with the newbies as well), and then I finished up my paper...at 4am. Whoops. Oh well, I got plenty of sleep. I love not having class until 2pm!

Which leads me to my next point...its time to go. Cheers!

Some pictures for your viewing enjoyment...

The Prime Meridian...of the World!!



The Greenwich Maritime Museum



The Greenwich Royal Observatory



Westminster Abbey

Another Week, Another Post

Let's see...

Last Saturday night we went to Zoo Bar, a club in Leicester Square. It was a little pricey, but not nearly as bad as we thought. Still trying to decide on the fun scale though. There was a ground floor and a basement. The ground floor was packed but at least had decent music, while the basement was more managable, but placed all house and trance music. Ugh.

Sunday we went to Greenwich to see the prime meridian and learned about longitude. It was interesting, but in the end, pretty much just a line and a bunch of clocks. Neat part of London though. Sunday night was of course the Super Bowl! A whole bunch of us went over to the Duke of York to watch, but we only stayed till the 3rd quarter. Pretty boring game, and we didn't get all the fun commercials over here.

Monday brought class again, but that demon was fought off. That night we had Charles Ramirez, a classical guitarist, play for our concert life class. He was excellent, and we were able to speak with him afterwards as well. Very interesting person and a talented musician.

Tuesday we went to the London Museum for O'Boyle's class. Meh. It's the largest museum chronicling a single city in the world, but it wasn't all that interesting. Something to see once I suppose. That night, a few of us wanted to go to Ronnie Scott's, a jazz bar, but the line was an hour long. So we bit the bullet and went back to SportsCafe...for an hour. We forgot how much we've come to hate that place. On the plus side, Notre Dame beat Boston College!! Whoo!!

Wednesday was another boring Finance class. That night AJ and I grabbed some food for dinner, but we ended up having seven for dinner. Bloody freeloaders. Kidding, kidding. It was really nice, and everone made food, so we had a ton of pasta, salad, garlic bread, even desert! That night I stayed in again (two nights in a week! Weird...) and watched Mallrats. One of my favorites.

Yesterday for Bradshaw's class we watched 'A Man for All Seasons,' which is a 1966 film about Sir Thomas More, a statesman who was executed for speaking out against King Henry VIII (the one with like 3 dozen wives). Very good, surprisingly, and we got out early. After a nice long break, I had concert life, which was good. Four group presentations, so that passed the time nicely.

Last night we went back to Callaghans for Karaoke. Except this time, Notre Dame students took over nearly the entire pub. Oh well, it was all fun. Tons of people I know sang, some good, some hilarious. We had to leave a little earlier than expected, however, because one Jamaican guy kept hitting on one of our friends, even after she told him to get lost, and the guy even got all in Phil's face when Phil tried to step in. Some people are just jerks I guess.

Today is maid day (yay!) so I'm in the computer lab as they clean my flat. No idea what I'm doing today though. Apparently Zoo Bar again tonight or something, and I need to work on a paper that's due Monday, but otherwise...where ever the wind (or rain in this city) may take me...

Where does the time go?

I'm still here I swear.

Its been a LONG time since I last updated, I know. I'm really bad at this apparently. Anyway, let's see...I last updated...Sunday?! Oh man, I have some work to do.

Monday was class first, and we actually got into a decent class discussion in Philosophy. That night was Walkabout again. Unfortunately, we had to leave at midnight b/c a certain lady friend of ours had a wee bit too much to drink (i.e. we dragged her home 3 miles). Bleh.

Tuesday was O'Boyle's Crime and Punishment class. During the second half of the class, we took a walking tour to the Foundling Hospital Museum. The Foundling Hospital is where abandoned infants during the Victorian period in London would be dropped off. The museum is very interesting, and even features much of the composer Handel's original scores, since he was a large donor to the original hospital. After the tour, O'Boyle took us out drinking at 'The Rocket,' a pub nearby the museum. It was good...good beer prices (7 pounds for 5 pints of Carling...I split it, don't worry) and I had a tasty burger.

After the pub, I met up with my Concert Life class for a Tchaikovsky concert. Solid, but not as good as the previous concert. We then went to SportsCafe following the concert. I keep swearing that place off, but its just so cheap!

Wednesday was Finance (wow, this class just gets more and more boring). Wednesday night we didn't do much. Duke of York followed by hostel booking for our first trip. Nice to get all that out of the way.

Thursday's classes first brought Bradshaw's Theology class. After another 100% on the quiz (yay!), we watched a video and then took a tour down to Westminster Abbey [pictures up later]. That place is awesome. And, since Bradshaw is an Anglican priest, we got to go to a lot of the places the general public doesn't get to go anymore, like the shrine of King Edward the Confessor. We also saw poet's corner, the tombs of Henry VII and Elizabeth I, and for those of you who have read The Da Vinci Code, we saw the Newton-planet memorial thing. Yeah.

Concert life wasn't too bad on Thursday either. A couple of good group presentations, and we're getting into my favorite parts of music history.

Today Pat and I had lunch at Tiger Tiger and then checked out the National Gallery. Very cool. I saw lots of art by Monet, Manet, Leonardo, Raphael, and tons more. We were there an hour and a half and didn't even make it out the first wing!

When we got home, Phil, Pat, Mike, and I cooked a great chicken-alfredo dinner. Then, Pat, Mike, and I went to St Martins-in-the-field church in Trafalgar Square for a Vivaldi concert. We heard two violin concertos by Vivaldi, Pachabel's Canon, Mozart's three Salzburg Symphonies, and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. All amazing. Great acoustics in the church too.

After the concert, we decided to just wander. We ended up at a pub in SoHo, of all places, which was really cool. After a couple pints, we made our way back to the Landward and called it an evening. Well, after lots of talking and TV (as you can probably tell by the time of this message...if you can't, its very late), we decided to go to bed.

So that was my week. Paper writing and Zoo Bar planned for tomorrow, and a trip to Greenwich (to see the meridian) Sunday, plus the Super Bowl at the Duke of York! I can't believe this, but I think I'm actually going to cheer for the Pats. Ugh.