Spring Break!

We woke up at 4 am friday morning to take the train from Florence to Rome. Our roommate Kat was going to Dublin as well so we had another travel buddy. We flew from Rome to Dublin on aer lingus and experienced one of the weirdest flights of our lives. Every time the fasten seat belt sign would go off people would get up and act like we were at cocktail hour. They would walk up and down the aisles, get in everyone's way, and sit up and turn around to talk to each other. I have never seen anything so ridiculous on a plane before.

Once it Dublin we were totally amazed by how modern the city is. I was totally expecting cliffs, hills, and pubs and that's it. Its so much cleaner and newer looking than all the cities we have been too. We also loved that everyone spoke english, and we took full advantage of that. Me, Tiff, and Kat first went to Grangier's pub to get lunch and a pint. Of course we all got Coors light instead of dark beer since we were so excited to see "frat party beer".
I was extra excited to go to dublin because I was going to meet up with about 12 of my clemson friends who were all studying abroad in different parts of Europe. Megan (my roommate from the fall semester at clemson) and Heather are both studying abroad in Barcelona and we are all living together next year along with Nikki who is studying abroad in Florence with me. Once we were all together we took about a thousand pictures of the 4 of us to decorate our apartment for next year.

That night, me and Tiff and all the clemson people went out to the temple bar area. It was the cutest strip of bars and wasn't  that overcrowded from st Patrick's day. We ended up going to a club with everyone because it was the only place we could all comfortably hang out. In Ireland they actually check your id which was another reason why it reminded me so much of America.

Tiffany and I called saturday "the perfect day". We woke up and walked around Dublin's shopping areas. We raided their gift shops, and then we found mecca, (a 3 story forever 21). We were in forever 21 for about 2 hours, after going 2 months of not liking or not being able to afford the clothes in Italy. We then had loaded baked potatoes for lunch which made the day even better.

Everyone was wearing jerseys throughout the day for the huge Ireland vs England rugby game that night. We all went to O'sheas pub and watched the game in our Ireland gear. Luckily Ireland won or I think the city would of been turned upside down.


On sunday, me, Tiff, Megan, and Nikki went to the Guinness factory tour. It was cool to see how everything was made and the best part was the view from the gravity bar at the end. You could see all of Dublin. With your tour you could get a free Guinness or a free fountain soda. Since soda is so expensive in Europe we all debated on getting one. We went with the Guinness, and tried to guess how many calories were in a pint. Only 190, we thought it was like 500.

On monday all the clemson people went back to their different study abroad destinations, but Tiff and I still had one more day in Dublin. We did the viking splash tour of Dublin. It started on the street in a duck boat where we all wore viking helmets and learned the viking calls. We knew that Dublin was more similar to America because only in the US would you have a tour where you screamed and wore viking hats. Tiff and I had a fabulous time especially since we were able to see the main attractions of Dublin in one hour and fifteen minutes. On the tour I saw the accenture building which is right next to U2's massive recording studio/compound. Ashley should totally transfer to Dublin.
After the tour we shopped a little more and just walked around Dublin. They had massive movie theaters there so we decided to go see a movie that night. We saw the adjustment bureau which falls into top 5 worst movies I've ever seen but it was still fun to see a movie in english.

Tiff and Kat in Dublin

Kat, Tiff, and I on the Dublin waterfront 

Me, Nikki, and Meg (all clemson roommates)

At the temple bar area

Some of the Clemson people at a club

Me, Laura, and Danielle in Dublin (Clemson)

Me and Tiff with some leperchauns

Nikki and I

Megan and I during the rugby game

Heather, Meg, and Nikki 

Me, Megan, Nikki, Heather, Roomies 2011!

you can't see tiffs green bow for the game

Nikki, Me, Tiff, and Meg before the Guinness tour

inside the factory

some of the famous ads

at the Guinness sky lounge pretending to enjoy their Guinness

Me and Tiff infront of the Temple Bar

again

the duck boat for our tour

with our viking hats

the sassy black lady taking our picture told us to pose like we were on america's next top model...so we did

A really bad picture of St Patrick's Cathedral

The boat part of the tour

U2's recording studio

Accenture!

Tuesday morning we woke up at 4 am and flew into Barcelona to meet up with Megan, Heather, and Nikki. Barcelona was absolutely beautiful with lots of sun and palm trees everywhere. Megan and Heather had class so we took a nap at our hostel and then met up with them for tapas. Two other clemson girls from Ashley's sorority were also visiting Barcelona for their spring break so we all went together. After tapas we went back to Megan and Heather's apartment to get ready. After seeing both Barcelona and Dublin you realize that Italy is a good ten years behind everyone else. You never see  flat screen tvs, dish washers, or microwaves in Italy and they were everywhere in Dublin and Barcelona. All the transportation systems in Dublin and Barcelona are also so much more advanced and newer. Tiff, Nikki, and I were all very jealous of how much more modern Heather and Megan's apartment was compared to our Florence apartments.

We got ready at their apartment and left for our first bar at 12:30. We didn't go to the actual club until 2:30 which was so packed and on the beach. Tiff and I couldn't make it to when the metro opened back up at 5 am so we got a taxi back to our hostel at 4:30. They definitely party hard in Barcelona.

Wednesday we still woke up at 10 am and met at Heather's apartment. She took us to a paella place on the waterfront that was awesome, and it was a classic 2 hour spanish lunch.  We then went to the open air market which was definitely a lot cleaner than the Florence market. After that, me Nikki, and Tiff walked to Parc Guell which had the most amazing views of Barcelona and we got to see the famous mosaic sculptures. Tiff and I did some shopping and dinner on our own (subway) and then we went back to Meg and Heather's around 11 to start getting ready for the night. Megan took me, Tiff, and Nikki to the famous Razz Ma Tazz club which is five open levels around a stage. It was mostly locals but it was definitely fun to see. 

On thursday we woke up and struggled to find the beach so we ended up pacing around the massive port for a while. All of the locals were laying in the sun around the harbor so we decided to do as the locals do and took a cat nap under the palm trees around the port. We took the metro to Segrada familia which is the famous basilica in Barcelona that looks somewhat like a cave. We saw part of the olympic grounds and then decided to find another paella place for lunch. This time I tried the seafood paella which was honestly disgusting because there were about 15 different kinds of sea creatures  on one plate. We walked around las ramblas for the rest of the day and tried to get some sun without scaring everyone away with our extreme paleness. We didn't go out on thursday night even though Megan and Heather said it was the best night because we had to wake up at 5 again for our flight to Madrid.

Clemson Roomies in Barcelona!

Tapas with some new Clemson people (Katie and Hannah)

Nikki, Heather, and I at the Barcelona port

Chicken paella for lunch!

the harbor

Nikki, Heather, and Tiff (Megan was napping)

The Christopher Columbus statue

Nikki, me, and Heather at the port

Me Nikki and Tiff climbing up Parc Guell

At the top

Again

The famous mosaic lizard

on the way to razz ma tazz

Waiting outside

Nikki, Meg and I

Tiff and the olympic rings

Tiff and I outside of Sagrada Familia Basilica

Sagrada Familia

At the beach!

We woke up early again on friday super excited to get to Madrid because we had a hotel instead of a hostel. After 7 nights of shared rooms and bathrooms and constant paranoia of our stuff being taken we were ready for a hotel. We checked into Hotel Macarena which was in a perfect location next to the center of the city. Ham is famous in Madrid because during the Spanish inquisition jews and muslims would put a ham leg in any business to prove that they were christian. So we went to the famous museo de jamon for lunch. After that we walked around plaza mayor and plaza sol shopping for gifts and soccer apparel for Tiff's family. Madrid isn't as cool as Barcelona but it was still very lively until the wee hours like the rest of Spain. That night we went to a flamenco show by our hotel that was entertaining, but it was definitely amateur hour.
We had a tv with a CNN english channel in our hotel room so we watched it on loop throughout the trip and decided the world is ending.

On saturday we slept in for the first time on our trip. Once awake we decided to start our "spring break is over diet" and got a bottle of water for breakfast. We then took the metro to Plaza de torros, the famous bull fighting rink. Unfortunately bull fights are only on Sunday nights at 7 so we weren't able to see one. We then met up with a tour group to do a free tour of Madrid. When we were getting ready to start the tour, two euro trash girls started pushing their way throughout our tour group. A woman across the crowd pointed to them and screamed pickpocketer. One of the women had her hand in a woman's purse. We had been warned that theft is the worst in Spain but this was the first time we had seen it. Tiff and I were occupied for about two hours talking about what we would have done if they had tried to steal from us.

On the tour we got to see the Royal Palace which is the largest palace in Europe. We also got to see the world's oldest restaurant which has been in business since the 1700's. After the tour our exhaustion of 10 days of traveling had caught up to us. We got a quick dinner and then tried to pack all of our souvenirs into our carry on size bags.

The trip turned out to be amazing but exhausting. We have definitely become better tourists with our travel experience while studying abroad. After 10 days, we definitely missed Firenze, even if Italy has yet to enter the 21st century.

In Tiff's travel book it always rates the top experiences of each city, so I did the top 5 experiences of our trip.

1. Walking around the Temple Bar area in Dublin
2. Staying out til 5 am in Barcelona with my future Clemson roomates and Tiff
3. View of Barcelona from Parc Guell
4. Watching the Dublin vs Ireland rugby game at O'sheas pub
5. Seeing Plaza de Torros in Madrid

In Plaza Mayor, Madrid

Aggiungi didascalia

Famous statue in Plaza Mayor

Our cute hotel

flamenco=amateur night

Plaza de toros

In front of the famous statue at Plaza de Toros

In front of Palacio Real, The royal palace of Madrid

again