Greetings! I got back to London Sunday morning (March 29th) at around 10 a.m. and was greeted in South Kensington by my mom, Dianne, and Kathy! I was so excited to see them. Its going to be a great week with them visiting, but for now I'll tell you about my weekend in Ireland.
Thursday, March 26
After class, I ran to check my mail and to my surprise there was a huge package with my name on it. It was the best way to start my trip, combos, cheezits, and Cheetos! Yummmm. Once I finished opening my package, I waited for the girls to get back from class. I had packed the night before and was so glad for it! Once the other girls in the flat got back, we rushed along to the tube to catch the bus (gosh, I miss driving!). We got to the platform in the tube stop just to wait and wait and wait for our tube to arrive. We realized it was taking way longer than we thought, which as you may guess, was going to make us late for the bus. We arrived in Fulham Broadway about 7 minutes after our bus departed. We were slightly concerned, but knew that bus runs every thirty minutes. We patiently waited for the next one to arrive and crossed our fingers that it had open seats! When it arrived, there were plenty of seats and we were off to the airport! We got their in plenty of time and boarded our plane to Dublin! It was the shortest flight we've had yet. It felt like we had just gotten on the plane when they announced to turn off everything we were landing. We are yet to have a smooth landing, but as long as we land, I'm happy. We got a bus into the city and attempted to find our hostel. Needless to say, after countless directions and 20 minutes of walking, we got a cab that took us around the corner from where we were. I guess you could say we kind of got suckered out of 7 Euros, but oh well, we got there. We settled in for a bit, but went right back out to the Porter House for a porter and live music. (When in Rome, right?) It was a lot of fun and we settled in early for a full day in Dublin tomorrow!
Friday, March 25
Since we had preplanned a little bit for this trip, we knew we wanted to spend one day in the city and one day in the country, which meant we had one day to cram in all the sights in Dublin. Our first destination was the Dublin Castle. We showed up and got our tickets for the guided tour. We had some time to kill so we popped into the gift shop and definitely made a mental note to stop back in after the tour because they had some good stuff. The tour of the castle was a lot of fun and very interesting. The tour guide was very easy to understand. Sometimes people's accents are thick and hard to understand, but this guy was very well spoken and smart. The tour lasted about an hour and then we were off to find trinity College. It was a very pretty campus, but the reason we went was because some of the girls wanted to see the Book of Kells in the library. I didn't participate, but waited for them to finish up so we could grab some lunch. We all ended up eating Subway (very American of us). I've tried really hard to stay away from stuff I can eat in the states, but sometimes with our schedules its the most convenient. We walked to find a Hard Rock Cafe for a girl in our group that wanted to buy something, and then the Jameson Distillery. We walked in and got our ticket, but had about 20 minutes to kill before our tour started. Once again, he went to the gift shop and found some goodies. The smart thing would have been to wait until after the tour to buy something so I wouldn't have to walk around with a bag the whole time. I unfortunately didn't make that decision, but that was just a brain fart on my part. We had a guided tour that started with a ten minute video of John Jameson's story. It really caught my attention and our tour guide did too! We walked from room to room learning the process that the whiskey goes through to become Jameson. The rooms were set up to make you feel like you were really in the distillery many years ago. Some of the girls in the group even got to volunteer at the end of the tour to try different types of whiskey from around the world, including Jack Daniels. It was a fun tour and at the end we all got a mixed drink. We couldn't stay and relax for very long though because next was Guinness! All seven of us left and walked to find the Guinness plant. It was a slightly different experience than Jameson because it was a self guided tour through five floors of stuff! It started off with the ingredients and then the process and even the business side of Guinness. Every floor was fun, but my favorite was the very top level. It was the Galaxy Bar, but all the walls were made of class and gave a beautiful view of Dublin. It was super crowded though. We got to enjoy another drink, which was a pint of Guinness. The girls and I finally found a small space on the floor and crammed most of us into it so we could enjoy the view and the drink. A little relaxation was needed after a full day of sight seeing. Next, we were off to dinner. We stopped at a local pub and enjoyed a great dinner before we settled in for the night. It was a great day. We got to see so much! The city was very pretty, and we had awesome weather. It was a great day for walking and sighting seeing, and we did plenty of both!
Saturday, March 27
Saturday was our day in the country side! I knew if we were going to Ireland I had to see the country side because everyone talks about how beautiful it is. I can definitely say I wasn't disappointed. The tour bus we booked picked us up from our hostel around 9:45, and we were off to the Wicklow Mountains. Our tour guide would tell us stuff while he was driving, but he would also pull over on the side of the road and tell us even more about certain landmarks. Some of them were interesting and some were kind of creepy. He would also let us get out at the most beautiful places to take pictures. I must say that I was quite chilly up on the mountain, but thankfully it didn't rain. I can handle cold, but cold and rainy is a different story. Our first stop we made looked over the Ireland port. It was super foggy so we couldn't see it that great, but it was still gorgeous. Our bus driver had hot tea and coffee for us as a little pit stop. He was the nicest old man and knew his stuff, too. We all got back in to warm up and headed to a lake for another great view of Dublin's countryside. We stopped on the side of the road and walked about 20 yards through some rock and mud (didn't realize we would be off roading it). Once we got through that stuff you could see this beautiful lake in the valley of the mountains. It was an awesome sight to see. We spent some time soaking in the scenery and headed back to the bus for our next stop. We stopped at another lake, but this was the Guinness Lake. The Guinness family owns a lake house right beside it. It was an absolutely beautiful place. Probably the coldest too! It was sooooo windy! We took some pictures but headed back to the bus before the wind knocked us over! Our bus driver was pretty experienced at this so our next stop was a place with a bathroom and also happened to be the highest town in Ireland. There was also a church there so the girls and I decided that those church goers have to be the closest people to God in Ireland. We didn't stay there very long and loaded back into the bus and headed to a beautiful waterfall. Our bus driver let us out to walked along the side of the waterfall. It wasn't necessarily what I was expecting for a waterfall because it was so small, but a phenomenal view. There were sheep on the hill with a sheep farm below. It was very Dublin. We walked back to where our bus was and headed to one of our last stops which was LUNCH! It was definitely a monopoly though! They took us to this little town to eat and of course we are pretty tired and hungry. They tell us you can eat in this restaurant or you can have snacks at this coffee house. We definitely went in for the real stuff, but it was 15 Euros a plate! (like $20!) I mean don't get me wrong it was really good, but the price was so steep. We finished up eating and went to a little souvenir shop then back to the bus for our last stop in Glendalough.
Glendalough in Irish means city between two lakes, and that's exactly what it was. It was founded by Saint Kevin as an early medieval monastery in the early 6th century. It was destroyed by English troops in 1398. There were a ton of grave stones everywhere with some remains of their churches and the only one completely still standing was Saint Kevin's Church. Our bus driver toured us through this area (on foot that is). Once he told us a little about it, he let us loose to go explore the area. He told us how to get to another water fall and a walking trail that would take us along the lakes. We took off and explored for a couple of hours. I just couldn't get over how incredible this place was. The beginning of the tour was a slight let down because everything was brown (still beautiful, but brown). I should have expected the brownness because that weekend was the first day of spring, but once I got to Glendalough, I got a dose of exactly what I was expecting. The weather was beautiful as well. We could have asked for better weather for that time of the year. It seemed to be very rare that we didn't get rain either. The bus driver was pretty much shocked. We told him it was because it was our friend Dawn's birthday. After exploring the area for a while, we headed back to the bus and went back to our hostel. I was going to try enjoy the scenery on the way back, but my eye's had different intentions. I definitely slept the entire way back (anyone who has traveled in a car with me, isn't surprised). We got back to the hostel at 5:45 and chilled out for a while. It was quite a long day in the mountains, but no complaints at all! I loved it. Since it was Dawn's birthday, we headed to dinner. We found out pretty quick though that if you don't have reservations, the restaurants won't seat you until like 9:00. We had worked up an appetite by that point so we decided to do the tourist thing and eat at Thunder Road Cafe (pretty much like a Hard Rock Cafe). The food was good, and we got them to sing happy birthday to Dawn. We all really enjoyed our entire day.
It was a great weekend in Dublin. I definitely wish it could have been a longer trip, but it was nice to be able to see it for the amount of time we did. I want to come back in the summer time though! I think it would be 10 times prettier in the summer, and I can't hardly imagine that because what we saw was so gorgeous. It would be unbelievable.
We packed up our stuff that next morning and headed to the airport. It was another short flight back, which I was thankful for becuase I was so anxious to see my mom, Dianne, and Kathy!
more to come later........
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Roma
Greetings! Once again I am still reporting on the same week in Italy. It was an intense week. We arrived late Monday, March 2 in Roma! We checked into our hostel and went to grab a bit to eat. We choose a really small mom and pop restaurant that was just around the corner. The food was great, but when it came time to pay, the language barrier became an issue. The waiter kept telling us we didn't pay enough, but we couldn't figure out why because he didn't speak English and we didn't speak Italian. We finally figured out we didn't include the service charge, but it was an honest mistake because the check he gave us was handwritten and illegible. We finally got it worked out and went back to the hostel and went to bed. It was a long day for all of us. I know I was starting to wonder if we crammed too much into a week. Regardless, Roma awaited us tomorrow!
Tuesday, March 3
We woke up and got ready for an exciting day in Roma. The hostel we were staying at didn't have breakfast, but gave us coupons for a place around the corner that served us cappuccino and a croissant. It was a good way to start off our day. Once we finished that, we broke out the maps and started exploring. Since all the girls had different departure days and times, we spilt up for the day. Some of us traveled to the Coliseum, Palatine Hill, and Pantheon.
The Coliseum was amazing. Three of us decided to do a guided tour of both the Coliseum and the Palatine Hill. It was well worth it. Being inside the Coliseum made you feel so small. It also made me think about how gross it must have been inside it many many years ago. The guide told us about how the high class women that sat on the top section would use the bathroom in bags and then drop it over the ledge behind them (talk about look out below). The guide also told us how many men and animals died as a result of the gladiator games held inside it. Roughly 500,000 men were killed and 1 million wild animals died. Even though the architecture of the building was amazing those numbers were disturbing. One thing that the tour guide told us that wasn't disturbing was that the reason part of the coliseum is missing was because of earthquakes. I found that pretty interesting because all the pictures you see of the Coliseum are with the the missing part.
Since the other three girls we were with decided not to do the tour with us, we waited for them after the tour to try and decide where to meet up after our tour of the Palatine Hill. While Ellie and I waited, we had a slight ordeal. These men outside the coliseum were dressed up as Gladiators and taking pictures with tourists. Without us even going up to them, they approached Ellie and I and put helmets on our head and insisted to take our picture with the other gladiators. He took my camera and proceeded to take pictures of us. Me and Ellie were just laughing and having a good time. Once he finished taking our picture, I went to get my camera back and he demanded 5 Euros. I thought he was joking so I laughed, but he wasn't. He just kept saying 5 Euros, 5 Euros, this is my job 5 Euros. I told him NO and for him to give me my camera back. He wouldn't give me my camera back until I deleted the pictures he just took. I was extremely angry at this point. I of course deleted the pictures and wanted so badly to say get a real job! I didn't, but wanted to very very badly. That ordeal could have easily put a damper on my day, but Ellie and I made sure we didn't let that happen. Next, was our guided tour of the Palatine Hill.
I enjoyed this tour thoroughly! We had a different tour guide than the Coliseum. He was a Scottish man that really knew his stuff. He took us around the ruins telling us about the history of the Romans. It was very interesting. The Palatine Hill was the center of the Seven Hills of Roman and one of the most ancient parts of Rome. From a mythological standpoint, it was the hill where the she-wolf found Romulus and Remus and kept them alive. The hill gave us a great view of the whole city of Rome. It was beautiful up there. It almost seemed like a tropical place because of all the green plants everywhere.
People have lived on the hill since 1000 B.C., but the palace wasn't built until later. The hill was the place where emperors of Rome would live. It was so amazing to see the ruins of a structure that was built around the birth of Christ! (can't remember an exact date, but sometime give or take around then). The tour guide even told us that more of the structure would exist if they hadn't removed stones to use on another structure in Rome. The people who built those palaces and buildings were brilliant. It was definitely a highlight of my trip I wasn't expecting.
After our tour, we ate lunch outside. It was a beautiful day with only a couple drizzles of rain every now and again. We weren't able to meet up with the other girls we were with earlier because our tour lasted so long. We finished lunch and then headed to the Pantheon. It was pretty funny though because when we showed up, we actually ran into our friends! Rome is such a huge city, and we still managed to find each other without using a cell phone or anything. Its a small world sometimes. We didn't spend much time in the Pantheon. It was just nice to go inside and see because its a very pretty structure. It was built in 125 A.D. and was originally a temple built to all the gods of Ancient Rome. Now, it is used as a church. The building is huge and has a huge hole in the ceiling. It was very interesting. We had a quick look around and left to head back to our hostel. It was quite a full day of activities.
We didn't do anything exciting the rest of the day. We ate dinner and called it a night. Italy was wearing us out!
Wednesday, March 4
We woke up and had a repeat of the previous morning. Cappuccino and croissant for breakfast and then headed out for another full day in Rome. We headed to Saint Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum. It was too far to walk so we headed to the Metro station to catch a train out there. (This was the only time we used public transportation in Italy, quite an accomplishment. I've got the holes in my shoes to prove it. ha) The metro in Rome was awful compared to London's underground. I was glad we only had to use it once. We got off the train and started walking to St. Peter's, but not without a hundred people offering us tours and tickets to beat the line that was ahead. We all realized once we got to the Basilica that they were all just trying to scam you. Luckily, we didn't trust them and got into St. Peters without a line or any trouble. It was a very big and beautiful. St. Paul's has the largest interior of any church in the world and holds 60,000 people. Tradition says that St. Peter was buried below the alter and now many Popes after him have been buried there as well. We got an audio guide for the basilica and learned a lot while we were walk through . I can't say I remember a lot of it now, but it was interesting to listen to all that history while taking in the beauty of the basilica. We spent a couple hours in there, and then headed to lunch just a little bit down the street. Next, was the Vatican Museum.
We got into the museum, and I made sure to get an audio guide there also so I would know what I was looking at. There were many different museums within the Vatican museum. It was HUGE! We definitely didn't allow ourselves enough time in there. I won't bore you with everything I saw in there but I will let you about the Sistine Chapel!
It was so breath taking to see it for the first time. I couldn't tell you what the floor looked like because I was staring at the ceiling the entire time. I was so glad I got the audio guide too because looking at the painting was great, but hearing the explanation of everything was even more moving. Michelangelo was commissioned in 1509 to repaint the ceiling. He finished in 1512. Next, he painted the last judgement over the alter between 1535 and 1541. I'm surprised that it didn't take him longer to paint them because of how amazing they were! Its hard to put it into words and describe it.
We stayed in the museum as long as we could before it closed down for the night. We left and went to grab a bit to eat before heading back to the hostel. The girls and I just stayed in the rest of the night chatting it up in the common room of our hostel. It nice getting to know the girls more and more especially when we travel.
Thursday, March 5
We started off our day with another Italian breakfast of cappuccino and croissant. It really grew on me and I found the best croissant! It was filled with a marmalade and goodness! Today was a chill day so we just walked around Rome exploring the city. We had to take one of the girls to the train station so she could catch her bus to her plane. The rest of day we took it upon ourselves to relax and enjoy. The large amount we did in a short amount of time was quite exhausting. We had a nice relaxing day that was much needed. We also tried to find some shopping. We followed our guidebook's advice to go to this great "department" store. We ended up finding it, but it was NOT what we were expecting. It was quite a hilarious experience. It was almost as old at the coliseum and had nothing to our liking. We had fun walking around and making fun of some stuff we found inside, but left very soon after arriving and began to roam around again. We were very good at finding gelato places and thoroughly enjoyed another very large cone of it with whipped cream on top!
Friday, March 6
This was mine and Ellie's last day in Rome, and we definitely took it upon ourselves to have a relaxing day. I think by this point we were pretty done with traveling and ready to be back "home" in London. Don't get me wrong, we definitely realize what an amazing opportunity we had in front of us, but we are also human and eventually get tired. We tried to take complete advantage of our trip and did SO much but also wanted to take some time to relax because it was our vacation from school. I think we had a good balance of both. Our last day started off again with another Italian breakfast. We made sure to enjoy it because it would be our last one. Our first destination was Trevi Fountain. We all took our pictures and made our wish! It was a very beautiful fountain. Some background of the fountain. The construction of it started in 1732 and completed in 1762. There is a coin throwing tradition too! I found a detailed description of it on Wikipedia. I copy and pasted it below.
"A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. A reported current version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.
Approximately 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain."
I didn't know this whole tradition prior to throwing my coins in, but hopefully it will still bring me good luck! After the fountain we walked around and found a small market and more gelato! (we successfully ate gelato everyday while we were in Italy, ha.) We ate our gelato at another fountain, but I'm not sure what the name of it was. Once we did these things, we slowly made our way back to the hostel for me and Ellie to get our stuff and head to the airport. It was a great trip to say the least!
More to come later......
Tuesday, March 3
We woke up and got ready for an exciting day in Roma. The hostel we were staying at didn't have breakfast, but gave us coupons for a place around the corner that served us cappuccino and a croissant. It was a good way to start off our day. Once we finished that, we broke out the maps and started exploring. Since all the girls had different departure days and times, we spilt up for the day. Some of us traveled to the Coliseum, Palatine Hill, and Pantheon.
The Coliseum was amazing. Three of us decided to do a guided tour of both the Coliseum and the Palatine Hill. It was well worth it. Being inside the Coliseum made you feel so small. It also made me think about how gross it must have been inside it many many years ago. The guide told us about how the high class women that sat on the top section would use the bathroom in bags and then drop it over the ledge behind them (talk about look out below). The guide also told us how many men and animals died as a result of the gladiator games held inside it. Roughly 500,000 men were killed and 1 million wild animals died. Even though the architecture of the building was amazing those numbers were disturbing. One thing that the tour guide told us that wasn't disturbing was that the reason part of the coliseum is missing was because of earthquakes. I found that pretty interesting because all the pictures you see of the Coliseum are with the the missing part.
Since the other three girls we were with decided not to do the tour with us, we waited for them after the tour to try and decide where to meet up after our tour of the Palatine Hill. While Ellie and I waited, we had a slight ordeal. These men outside the coliseum were dressed up as Gladiators and taking pictures with tourists. Without us even going up to them, they approached Ellie and I and put helmets on our head and insisted to take our picture with the other gladiators. He took my camera and proceeded to take pictures of us. Me and Ellie were just laughing and having a good time. Once he finished taking our picture, I went to get my camera back and he demanded 5 Euros. I thought he was joking so I laughed, but he wasn't. He just kept saying 5 Euros, 5 Euros, this is my job 5 Euros. I told him NO and for him to give me my camera back. He wouldn't give me my camera back until I deleted the pictures he just took. I was extremely angry at this point. I of course deleted the pictures and wanted so badly to say get a real job! I didn't, but wanted to very very badly. That ordeal could have easily put a damper on my day, but Ellie and I made sure we didn't let that happen. Next, was our guided tour of the Palatine Hill.
I enjoyed this tour thoroughly! We had a different tour guide than the Coliseum. He was a Scottish man that really knew his stuff. He took us around the ruins telling us about the history of the Romans. It was very interesting. The Palatine Hill was the center of the Seven Hills of Roman and one of the most ancient parts of Rome. From a mythological standpoint, it was the hill where the she-wolf found Romulus and Remus and kept them alive. The hill gave us a great view of the whole city of Rome. It was beautiful up there. It almost seemed like a tropical place because of all the green plants everywhere.
People have lived on the hill since 1000 B.C., but the palace wasn't built until later. The hill was the place where emperors of Rome would live. It was so amazing to see the ruins of a structure that was built around the birth of Christ! (can't remember an exact date, but sometime give or take around then). The tour guide even told us that more of the structure would exist if they hadn't removed stones to use on another structure in Rome. The people who built those palaces and buildings were brilliant. It was definitely a highlight of my trip I wasn't expecting.
After our tour, we ate lunch outside. It was a beautiful day with only a couple drizzles of rain every now and again. We weren't able to meet up with the other girls we were with earlier because our tour lasted so long. We finished lunch and then headed to the Pantheon. It was pretty funny though because when we showed up, we actually ran into our friends! Rome is such a huge city, and we still managed to find each other without using a cell phone or anything. Its a small world sometimes. We didn't spend much time in the Pantheon. It was just nice to go inside and see because its a very pretty structure. It was built in 125 A.D. and was originally a temple built to all the gods of Ancient Rome. Now, it is used as a church. The building is huge and has a huge hole in the ceiling. It was very interesting. We had a quick look around and left to head back to our hostel. It was quite a full day of activities.
We didn't do anything exciting the rest of the day. We ate dinner and called it a night. Italy was wearing us out!
Wednesday, March 4
We woke up and had a repeat of the previous morning. Cappuccino and croissant for breakfast and then headed out for another full day in Rome. We headed to Saint Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum. It was too far to walk so we headed to the Metro station to catch a train out there. (This was the only time we used public transportation in Italy, quite an accomplishment. I've got the holes in my shoes to prove it. ha) The metro in Rome was awful compared to London's underground. I was glad we only had to use it once. We got off the train and started walking to St. Peter's, but not without a hundred people offering us tours and tickets to beat the line that was ahead. We all realized once we got to the Basilica that they were all just trying to scam you. Luckily, we didn't trust them and got into St. Peters without a line or any trouble. It was a very big and beautiful. St. Paul's has the largest interior of any church in the world and holds 60,000 people. Tradition says that St. Peter was buried below the alter and now many Popes after him have been buried there as well. We got an audio guide for the basilica and learned a lot while we were walk through . I can't say I remember a lot of it now, but it was interesting to listen to all that history while taking in the beauty of the basilica. We spent a couple hours in there, and then headed to lunch just a little bit down the street. Next, was the Vatican Museum.
We got into the museum, and I made sure to get an audio guide there also so I would know what I was looking at. There were many different museums within the Vatican museum. It was HUGE! We definitely didn't allow ourselves enough time in there. I won't bore you with everything I saw in there but I will let you about the Sistine Chapel!
It was so breath taking to see it for the first time. I couldn't tell you what the floor looked like because I was staring at the ceiling the entire time. I was so glad I got the audio guide too because looking at the painting was great, but hearing the explanation of everything was even more moving. Michelangelo was commissioned in 1509 to repaint the ceiling. He finished in 1512. Next, he painted the last judgement over the alter between 1535 and 1541. I'm surprised that it didn't take him longer to paint them because of how amazing they were! Its hard to put it into words and describe it.
We stayed in the museum as long as we could before it closed down for the night. We left and went to grab a bit to eat before heading back to the hostel. The girls and I just stayed in the rest of the night chatting it up in the common room of our hostel. It nice getting to know the girls more and more especially when we travel.
Thursday, March 5
We started off our day with another Italian breakfast of cappuccino and croissant. It really grew on me and I found the best croissant! It was filled with a marmalade and goodness! Today was a chill day so we just walked around Rome exploring the city. We had to take one of the girls to the train station so she could catch her bus to her plane. The rest of day we took it upon ourselves to relax and enjoy. The large amount we did in a short amount of time was quite exhausting. We had a nice relaxing day that was much needed. We also tried to find some shopping. We followed our guidebook's advice to go to this great "department" store. We ended up finding it, but it was NOT what we were expecting. It was quite a hilarious experience. It was almost as old at the coliseum and had nothing to our liking. We had fun walking around and making fun of some stuff we found inside, but left very soon after arriving and began to roam around again. We were very good at finding gelato places and thoroughly enjoyed another very large cone of it with whipped cream on top!
Friday, March 6
This was mine and Ellie's last day in Rome, and we definitely took it upon ourselves to have a relaxing day. I think by this point we were pretty done with traveling and ready to be back "home" in London. Don't get me wrong, we definitely realize what an amazing opportunity we had in front of us, but we are also human and eventually get tired. We tried to take complete advantage of our trip and did SO much but also wanted to take some time to relax because it was our vacation from school. I think we had a good balance of both. Our last day started off again with another Italian breakfast. We made sure to enjoy it because it would be our last one. Our first destination was Trevi Fountain. We all took our pictures and made our wish! It was a very beautiful fountain. Some background of the fountain. The construction of it started in 1732 and completed in 1762. There is a coin throwing tradition too! I found a detailed description of it on Wikipedia. I copy and pasted it below.
"A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. A reported current version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.
Approximately 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain."
I didn't know this whole tradition prior to throwing my coins in, but hopefully it will still bring me good luck! After the fountain we walked around and found a small market and more gelato! (we successfully ate gelato everyday while we were in Italy, ha.) We ate our gelato at another fountain, but I'm not sure what the name of it was. Once we did these things, we slowly made our way back to the hostel for me and Ellie to get our stuff and head to the airport. It was a great trip to say the least!
More to come later......
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Florence and Pisa
Greetings! I know it’s taking me a while to write about my trip, but we did so much in a week! I have also been busy with a visitor last week. My friend Amber came to visit! It was so nice to have a piece of home here in London. I can't wait for my other visitors in one weeks!
I'm picking up on my trip in Florence...
Saturday, February 28
The train ride to Florence was awesome. The trains were very nice with outlets to plug up things to charge. It was so nice. I think it was only about a two-hour train ride, but I could be mistaken. We arrived in Florence and went to find out hostel for the night. We booked one before we left Venice to save ourselves the worry once we got there. The guy in charge of the hostels name was Marco. He was very helpful and carried our bag to our room. There was a restaurant down the street that has a connection with the hostel and we got free water (yes, b/c you have to pay for water everywhere) and no service charge. The people at this restaurant loved us! We went there twice while we were there and got free stuff both times. It was wonderful. We finished up with dinner and settled in for the night and prepared for our day tomorrow.
Sunday, March 1
We woke up the next morning around 9 and got ready to head out. We gathered all 9 of us girls up and left the hostel for the day. We had a market right next to our hostel so of course we went there first. It was such a change from the Venice markets. In Venice there were glass trinkets everywhere, but in Florence there was leather all over the place. It immediately gave me a different vibe than Venice, and I wanted to go back! We walked around and figured out a game plan. We ended up splitting up into 7 and 2. Two girls in our group wanted to experience a Catholic worship service in Italy. The other part of our group was not as interested and went to explore.
We found a church (of course) and went inside to look around. It was very impressive on the inside, but very plan from the outside. That was definitely something we weren't used to. The city wasn’t impress us very much, and then we found out we were on the wrong side of the bridge. Apparently, one side of the river is like the city part and the other side is the old Florence part. It was much prettier and more of what I was expecting. (It still wasn't Venice though!)
The day was very dreary and a little cold. There was an overcast as well. It doesn't help when we just came from perfect weather in Venice, but we still enjoyed our day. We left the church and made our way to the other side of the bridge. It had more of that Tuscan feel.
On the other side we found a palace that was too expensive to go into and walked up this huge hill to get a nice view of the city. The walk was pretty intense, but it was worth it because of the view we got to see. Even on a cloudy day, the view was pretty. We never actually got to where our planned destination because we couldn't find it and the locals only spoke a little English, but we still got to see a lot on our literal scenic route.
After the intense walk, we made our way down to have lunch. It was another great meal in Italy. Have I mentioned how amazing the food is? Because, if I haven't, its amazing! I wasn't disappointed at all. The next thing on our agenda was another intense walk, but instead of a mountain, there were 414 stairs awaiting us! The Duomo is the biggest Cathedral in Florence and the fourth largest in the world. We went inside cathedral first and then climbed the 414 stairs. As we are walking up there are different levels to stop and take pictures. Me and Kenny are stopped at the second highest level taking pictures while the other girls already went up to the top. All of a sudden, these bells starting ringing! It was so startling that I screamed. Kenny and I immediately covered our ears and started hysterically laughed because we were so caught off guard! Not only did it startle us, but it continued for at least 5 minutes, which doesn't sound long, but it is a lifetime with these huge bells are ringing right above your head. It finally stopped, and with our ears still ringing, we made it to the top and took pictures of the beautiful view. The rooftops were pretty cool from up high. The Tuscan feel was truly apparent. We were absolutely exhausted and made our way back to ground level. It was quite an exhausting day. We wanted to make it to see Michelangelo’s David in the Uffizi Museum, but our budgets won out. A bunch of college girls weren't too quick to drop 15 euros to see it. We called it a night. Went back to the hostel to rest up for dinner and pack up for our next day of travel!
Monday, March 2
The next morning consisted of me waking up before everyone else because I needed a new suitcase since my was broken. Dad would have really come in handy since he's so handy, but I was at least able to talk the guy at the market down to a good price. Once I had my new suitcase, I went back to the hostel to pack up and check out. Pisa and Roma were awaiting us!
We arrived at the train state without any major concerns. The only thing was that when we arrived, we literally had minutes to make it to the train. Nine of us girls running through the train station was quite a hilarious sight. The thing that almost pushed us over the edge was that we weren't aware that we had to validate our tickets in this machine that punches a whole in your ticket. We realized this almost too late, but a couple of grabbed everybody's tickets and went and did them all at once. We hopped on the train and it started moving about two minutes after we got on. It was a close call. I know some of you are probably thinking, "That Lynnsey is always late" but actually it wasn't my fault because our tickets had open times and a train comes about every hour. We just weren't sure which part of the hour though. Regardless, we made it and were on our way to Pisa.
Once we arrived, we found a place to store out luggage for the day, which was so nice! We walked out of the station and immediately went to find a map to find our way to the tower. It was literally a straight shot off the train. We walked straight through the town to find it. It was incredibly easy to find, which was a great change from the other Italian cities we visited. I’m glad we only stayed an afternoon in Pisa though. There is nothing besides the tower to do there, but the tower was pretty cool. We took the typical holding up the tower or pushing the tower over pictures. It was a lot of fun because there was a lot of creative people there doing their own interpretation. We spent a couple hours just taking pictures and hanging out in Pisa. Once everyone got their pics and souvenirs, we went back to the train station gathered our luggage from storage and once again ran to our platform. Little did we know though, we were getting on the wrong train. Not the wrong train as in the wrong direction, but apparently there are different speeds of trains (go figure) that no one cared to fill us in on. The gentleman in Pisa told us we had an open ticket that we could get on any train two hours before and two hours after our scheduled time, but not once did he mention which kind of train. Once we are on and finally relaxing, the conductor came around to punch our tickets and gave us the bad news. All nine of us owned 20 more pounds b/c of our mistake! To say the least, we were upset. We finally got the conductor to go down on the price because we were such a large group and ended up paying 12 extra pounds. This was yet another bump in the road, but we managed and ended up making friends with a guy from Arizona because the same thing happened to him. We decided that they could pretty much make bank off us if they wanted to because we don't know if what they are telling us is legit or not. Either way we were still on our way to Roma!
More to come later........
I'm picking up on my trip in Florence...
Saturday, February 28
The train ride to Florence was awesome. The trains were very nice with outlets to plug up things to charge. It was so nice. I think it was only about a two-hour train ride, but I could be mistaken. We arrived in Florence and went to find out hostel for the night. We booked one before we left Venice to save ourselves the worry once we got there. The guy in charge of the hostels name was Marco. He was very helpful and carried our bag to our room. There was a restaurant down the street that has a connection with the hostel and we got free water (yes, b/c you have to pay for water everywhere) and no service charge. The people at this restaurant loved us! We went there twice while we were there and got free stuff both times. It was wonderful. We finished up with dinner and settled in for the night and prepared for our day tomorrow.
Sunday, March 1
We woke up the next morning around 9 and got ready to head out. We gathered all 9 of us girls up and left the hostel for the day. We had a market right next to our hostel so of course we went there first. It was such a change from the Venice markets. In Venice there were glass trinkets everywhere, but in Florence there was leather all over the place. It immediately gave me a different vibe than Venice, and I wanted to go back! We walked around and figured out a game plan. We ended up splitting up into 7 and 2. Two girls in our group wanted to experience a Catholic worship service in Italy. The other part of our group was not as interested and went to explore.
We found a church (of course) and went inside to look around. It was very impressive on the inside, but very plan from the outside. That was definitely something we weren't used to. The city wasn’t impress us very much, and then we found out we were on the wrong side of the bridge. Apparently, one side of the river is like the city part and the other side is the old Florence part. It was much prettier and more of what I was expecting. (It still wasn't Venice though!)
The day was very dreary and a little cold. There was an overcast as well. It doesn't help when we just came from perfect weather in Venice, but we still enjoyed our day. We left the church and made our way to the other side of the bridge. It had more of that Tuscan feel.
On the other side we found a palace that was too expensive to go into and walked up this huge hill to get a nice view of the city. The walk was pretty intense, but it was worth it because of the view we got to see. Even on a cloudy day, the view was pretty. We never actually got to where our planned destination because we couldn't find it and the locals only spoke a little English, but we still got to see a lot on our literal scenic route.
After the intense walk, we made our way down to have lunch. It was another great meal in Italy. Have I mentioned how amazing the food is? Because, if I haven't, its amazing! I wasn't disappointed at all. The next thing on our agenda was another intense walk, but instead of a mountain, there were 414 stairs awaiting us! The Duomo is the biggest Cathedral in Florence and the fourth largest in the world. We went inside cathedral first and then climbed the 414 stairs. As we are walking up there are different levels to stop and take pictures. Me and Kenny are stopped at the second highest level taking pictures while the other girls already went up to the top. All of a sudden, these bells starting ringing! It was so startling that I screamed. Kenny and I immediately covered our ears and started hysterically laughed because we were so caught off guard! Not only did it startle us, but it continued for at least 5 minutes, which doesn't sound long, but it is a lifetime with these huge bells are ringing right above your head. It finally stopped, and with our ears still ringing, we made it to the top and took pictures of the beautiful view. The rooftops were pretty cool from up high. The Tuscan feel was truly apparent. We were absolutely exhausted and made our way back to ground level. It was quite an exhausting day. We wanted to make it to see Michelangelo’s David in the Uffizi Museum, but our budgets won out. A bunch of college girls weren't too quick to drop 15 euros to see it. We called it a night. Went back to the hostel to rest up for dinner and pack up for our next day of travel!
Monday, March 2
The next morning consisted of me waking up before everyone else because I needed a new suitcase since my was broken. Dad would have really come in handy since he's so handy, but I was at least able to talk the guy at the market down to a good price. Once I had my new suitcase, I went back to the hostel to pack up and check out. Pisa and Roma were awaiting us!
We arrived at the train state without any major concerns. The only thing was that when we arrived, we literally had minutes to make it to the train. Nine of us girls running through the train station was quite a hilarious sight. The thing that almost pushed us over the edge was that we weren't aware that we had to validate our tickets in this machine that punches a whole in your ticket. We realized this almost too late, but a couple of grabbed everybody's tickets and went and did them all at once. We hopped on the train and it started moving about two minutes after we got on. It was a close call. I know some of you are probably thinking, "That Lynnsey is always late" but actually it wasn't my fault because our tickets had open times and a train comes about every hour. We just weren't sure which part of the hour though. Regardless, we made it and were on our way to Pisa.
Once we arrived, we found a place to store out luggage for the day, which was so nice! We walked out of the station and immediately went to find a map to find our way to the tower. It was literally a straight shot off the train. We walked straight through the town to find it. It was incredibly easy to find, which was a great change from the other Italian cities we visited. I’m glad we only stayed an afternoon in Pisa though. There is nothing besides the tower to do there, but the tower was pretty cool. We took the typical holding up the tower or pushing the tower over pictures. It was a lot of fun because there was a lot of creative people there doing their own interpretation. We spent a couple hours just taking pictures and hanging out in Pisa. Once everyone got their pics and souvenirs, we went back to the train station gathered our luggage from storage and once again ran to our platform. Little did we know though, we were getting on the wrong train. Not the wrong train as in the wrong direction, but apparently there are different speeds of trains (go figure) that no one cared to fill us in on. The gentleman in Pisa told us we had an open ticket that we could get on any train two hours before and two hours after our scheduled time, but not once did he mention which kind of train. Once we are on and finally relaxing, the conductor came around to punch our tickets and gave us the bad news. All nine of us owned 20 more pounds b/c of our mistake! To say the least, we were upset. We finally got the conductor to go down on the price because we were such a large group and ended up paying 12 extra pounds. This was yet another bump in the road, but we managed and ended up making friends with a guy from Arizona because the same thing happened to him. We decided that they could pretty much make bank off us if they wanted to because we don't know if what they are telling us is legit or not. Either way we were still on our way to Roma!
More to come later........
Sunday, March 8, 2009
To Italy and Back- Venice
Greetings! Or as the Italians would say, CIAO! My trip was a trip of a lifetime! The things I got to see and do kept me in awe all week long. I'm so excited to finally get to write and tell everyone about it. Warning though- a week in Italy will probably require several long blogs! So prepare yourself. I want to thank everyone for their prayers because I could definitely tell they were with us!
Thursday, February 26
I actually started off my travel day with a midterm test in my Winston Churchill class. I spent the previous day in the library preparing myself and think it paid off. Once the stress of that test was over, the stress of traveling began. I got home and packed immediately, made sure to charge my camera, and hoped I didn't leave anything behind! There were 5 of us traveling that day. We met up at the bus stop and headed to the airport. The airport was very crowded. It must have been a popular day to travel. We got our boarding passes and through security with relatively no problems. The next stop VENICE! We arrived at the Venice airport pretty late and got a bus to the city. Once inside the city, I was blown away. It was dark, but everything was still BEAUTIFUL. It was everything I expected it to be and more. We took a water bus from the bus station to the stop where our hostel was suppose to be. One of the cool things about Venice is that inside the city there are no cars. Instead of having buses for public transport, they have water buses, which are just boats on the water that take people from stop to stop. It was so cool. The girls and I are trying to take pictures of everything, but of course they weren't coming out because it was pitch black, but it was so beautiful that we had to try. The water bus dropped us off at our stop, and we walked to our stop. Three girls had gotten there the day before and already reserved us a hostel. We walk up to our hostel and buzz, and no one answers. We start to get a little nervous, but continue to buzz with hopes that someone would answer the door. No one does. We all begin to look at each other worried, and then immediately start thinking about a plan B. As we are pondering, the nicest old Italian man walks by with his dog and asks us if we need help in very broken English. He tried to call our hostel and other hostel numbers we had, and then he told us to buzz our hostel one more time. We did and someone finally answered! The desk is 24 hours, but the guy working it had fallen asleep and finally woke up to the buzz. We were so grateful! We went straight to our rooms and crashed for the night. Tomorrow was going to be our first day in Venice and I almost couldn't sleep b/c I was so excited!
Friday, February 27
I woke up Friday morning a little tired from the day before, but once I remembered where I was, I jumped and looked out my window to a beautiful view of Venice! I mean we could see the city or anything, but it was a beautiful ally way! We got up and went down for complimentary breakfast, which I soon learned that all Italians eat a croissant and coffee. The croissant was amazing though! I really enjoyed my breakfast, well actually all my food in Italy. A much better change from London food. The morning began with finding a map and figuring out where we wanted to go. There aren't that many tourist attractions in Venice, but just walking along the streets and canals is way better than tourist things. We walked to a church (I know its terrible, but I can't remember its name. There have been many churches in the last two months). As usual, the church was gorgeous inside and out. The effort that went into making those churches is amazing. After that church,, we finally made it to our destination, Piazza San Marco(1). This Piazza has a ton of pigeons in it and people feed them to try and get them to sit on their arms or head. Its quite gross and needless to say I didn't participate in that. Although a girl in our group did, it didn't last long. Also in that area there is Basilica di San Marco. It is an amazing church. We walked all the way through and went up on the balcony to take pictures of view. The church inside had intricate mosaics. I have never seen so many mosaics in one church. The whole ceiling is covered in them! The light reflects and makes the church sparkle. We spent a large amount of time in the church and on the roof top. After the church, we walked along the water and tried to find some lunch. Real Italian food! I was stoked to say the least. We actually ended up walking around and doing a Gondola ride. There were five of us that day, and we all split the price. It was great. We rode around for about thirty minutes and got to see the city from a different angle. Not to mention it was so peaceful! I would say romantic, but I was in there with five girls. That wasn't necessarily the case for us, but any couple out there I am telling you now to GO TO VENICE! Its amazing and soooo worth it! So go ahead and mark your calendars for a trip.
After the ride, FOOD! We found a place near our hostel that was a good price and got to sit outside. The weather was that day was perfect. The sunshine and no rain was a great change! I ordered spaghetti and meat sauce, my favorite! I thought that would an appropriate first meal in Italy. It was so good!
We spent the entire day walking along the canals and roads. It doesn't sound like we did much, but we also had to figure out our hostel situation for that night because we had to switch to a sister hostel from the one from the night before. Regardless of that, we still got to see some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen! I just kept pinching myself because it didn't seem real. I was really in Italy!
Saturday, February 28
We woke up in time for breakfast and checked out of our hostel. That hostel we stayed in was very nice! We had a balcony and bidet! We only used one of the two. The hostel we stayed in let us leave our luggage there so we could continue to explore Venice one more day before we left for Florence. We went to the Rialto Market. It was a lot of souvenir and tourist stuff. Of course, we all stocked up. There glass items there were so beautiful. We stayed at the market for a while then walked up and down one of the canals and sat along the edge. It was so awesome. The locals will bring their lunch and sit and eat. Its so beautiful I could have sat there all day. Not to mention how entertaining the birds are! Once our time was up in Venice, we headed back to the hostel to get our bags and made our way to the train station. Not without some drama though. Another girl and myself had a wheel break off our luggage. It was a very long walk to the train station, needless to say, we both struggled with our bags. We got to the train station and got on our train to Florence.
More to come later...
1. Piazza San Marco is Venice's most famous piazza. What appears to be a rectangle is actually a trapezium, and when you look up at the basilica, the piazza seems enormous, although it is only 175 meters long. On both sides of the piazza are the Procuratie, which housed the procurators of San Marco. The centerpiece of the piazza is the Basilica di San Marco The oldest of these (probably built by Codussi) are on your left when you face the basilica; Longhena built the ones on the right later, in 1640. The most recent buildings, commissioned by Napoleon in 1810, lie behind.
2. Started in the 9th Century, this church's architecture shows an eastern and Byzantine influence: note the golden altarpiece and the 13th and 14th-century mosaics that illustrate the cycles of the Bible. The magnificent domes date from the 12th Century. The Basilica houses the Marciano Museum, which contains the original bronze horses, copies of which are now on the terrace. Other great artworks are located in the Pala d'Oro , along with masterpieces of Gothic goldsmithing, located just behind the altar.
Thursday, February 26
I actually started off my travel day with a midterm test in my Winston Churchill class. I spent the previous day in the library preparing myself and think it paid off. Once the stress of that test was over, the stress of traveling began. I got home and packed immediately, made sure to charge my camera, and hoped I didn't leave anything behind! There were 5 of us traveling that day. We met up at the bus stop and headed to the airport. The airport was very crowded. It must have been a popular day to travel. We got our boarding passes and through security with relatively no problems. The next stop VENICE! We arrived at the Venice airport pretty late and got a bus to the city. Once inside the city, I was blown away. It was dark, but everything was still BEAUTIFUL. It was everything I expected it to be and more. We took a water bus from the bus station to the stop where our hostel was suppose to be. One of the cool things about Venice is that inside the city there are no cars. Instead of having buses for public transport, they have water buses, which are just boats on the water that take people from stop to stop. It was so cool. The girls and I are trying to take pictures of everything, but of course they weren't coming out because it was pitch black, but it was so beautiful that we had to try. The water bus dropped us off at our stop, and we walked to our stop. Three girls had gotten there the day before and already reserved us a hostel. We walk up to our hostel and buzz, and no one answers. We start to get a little nervous, but continue to buzz with hopes that someone would answer the door. No one does. We all begin to look at each other worried, and then immediately start thinking about a plan B. As we are pondering, the nicest old Italian man walks by with his dog and asks us if we need help in very broken English. He tried to call our hostel and other hostel numbers we had, and then he told us to buzz our hostel one more time. We did and someone finally answered! The desk is 24 hours, but the guy working it had fallen asleep and finally woke up to the buzz. We were so grateful! We went straight to our rooms and crashed for the night. Tomorrow was going to be our first day in Venice and I almost couldn't sleep b/c I was so excited!
Friday, February 27
I woke up Friday morning a little tired from the day before, but once I remembered where I was, I jumped and looked out my window to a beautiful view of Venice! I mean we could see the city or anything, but it was a beautiful ally way! We got up and went down for complimentary breakfast, which I soon learned that all Italians eat a croissant and coffee. The croissant was amazing though! I really enjoyed my breakfast, well actually all my food in Italy. A much better change from London food. The morning began with finding a map and figuring out where we wanted to go. There aren't that many tourist attractions in Venice, but just walking along the streets and canals is way better than tourist things. We walked to a church (I know its terrible, but I can't remember its name. There have been many churches in the last two months). As usual, the church was gorgeous inside and out. The effort that went into making those churches is amazing. After that church,, we finally made it to our destination, Piazza San Marco(1). This Piazza has a ton of pigeons in it and people feed them to try and get them to sit on their arms or head. Its quite gross and needless to say I didn't participate in that. Although a girl in our group did, it didn't last long. Also in that area there is Basilica di San Marco. It is an amazing church. We walked all the way through and went up on the balcony to take pictures of view. The church inside had intricate mosaics. I have never seen so many mosaics in one church. The whole ceiling is covered in them! The light reflects and makes the church sparkle. We spent a large amount of time in the church and on the roof top. After the church, we walked along the water and tried to find some lunch. Real Italian food! I was stoked to say the least. We actually ended up walking around and doing a Gondola ride. There were five of us that day, and we all split the price. It was great. We rode around for about thirty minutes and got to see the city from a different angle. Not to mention it was so peaceful! I would say romantic, but I was in there with five girls. That wasn't necessarily the case for us, but any couple out there I am telling you now to GO TO VENICE! Its amazing and soooo worth it! So go ahead and mark your calendars for a trip.
After the ride, FOOD! We found a place near our hostel that was a good price and got to sit outside. The weather was that day was perfect. The sunshine and no rain was a great change! I ordered spaghetti and meat sauce, my favorite! I thought that would an appropriate first meal in Italy. It was so good!
We spent the entire day walking along the canals and roads. It doesn't sound like we did much, but we also had to figure out our hostel situation for that night because we had to switch to a sister hostel from the one from the night before. Regardless of that, we still got to see some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen! I just kept pinching myself because it didn't seem real. I was really in Italy!
Saturday, February 28
We woke up in time for breakfast and checked out of our hostel. That hostel we stayed in was very nice! We had a balcony and bidet! We only used one of the two. The hostel we stayed in let us leave our luggage there so we could continue to explore Venice one more day before we left for Florence. We went to the Rialto Market. It was a lot of souvenir and tourist stuff. Of course, we all stocked up. There glass items there were so beautiful. We stayed at the market for a while then walked up and down one of the canals and sat along the edge. It was so awesome. The locals will bring their lunch and sit and eat. Its so beautiful I could have sat there all day. Not to mention how entertaining the birds are! Once our time was up in Venice, we headed back to the hostel to get our bags and made our way to the train station. Not without some drama though. Another girl and myself had a wheel break off our luggage. It was a very long walk to the train station, needless to say, we both struggled with our bags. We got to the train station and got on our train to Florence.
More to come later...
1. Piazza San Marco is Venice's most famous piazza. What appears to be a rectangle is actually a trapezium, and when you look up at the basilica, the piazza seems enormous, although it is only 175 meters long. On both sides of the piazza are the Procuratie, which housed the procurators of San Marco. The centerpiece of the piazza is the Basilica di San Marco The oldest of these (probably built by Codussi) are on your left when you face the basilica; Longhena built the ones on the right later, in 1640. The most recent buildings, commissioned by Napoleon in 1810, lie behind.
2. Started in the 9th Century, this church's architecture shows an eastern and Byzantine influence: note the golden altarpiece and the 13th and 14th-century mosaics that illustrate the cycles of the Bible. The magnificent domes date from the 12th Century. The Basilica houses the Marciano Museum, which contains the original bronze horses, copies of which are now on the terrace. Other great artworks are located in the Pala d'Oro , along with masterpieces of Gothic goldsmithing, located just behind the altar.
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