FALL BREAK: IRELAND DAY 3

Ireland day 3, we planned ahead of time to do Cork/Blarney Wednesday as it required us to take a 3 hour bus to Cork there and back in one day, but then also take a half hour bus from Cork to Blarney back and forth too, so needless to say there was a lot of napping in buses that day. I'm gonna get home and the next time I use the Stonehill shuttle will immediately fall asleep and miss whatever stop I choose to use... who am I kidding I rarely use the shuttle (That however will change seeing as I was to go to Boston FAR MORE, let's be real Stonehill weekends will not even remotely compare to Europe). 

Sunrise in Ireland, check.

Hours later we are here!

Saw my family crest all day errday. Buckley is the 99th most popular surname in Ireland. Yeah it means cow herder hence the 3 cows. 

Blarney Castle! The ground surrounding the castle were so beautiful and relaxing. I wandered away from the group and just enjoyed the peace and quiet of the area. I never realized how much I like nature until I got deprived of it here in Florence. 

The wishing steps in the grounds of the Castle, legend is if you walk down and back up with your eyes closed completely your wish that you think of when you do it will come true.

Yet another view from the top of the world. Blarney Castle edition

Me with the Blarney Stone in the background. So to kiss the Stone you get on your back and this old Irish man helps lift you down holding onto 2 bars to kiss it below. It's a really unusual experience cause you're upside down confused and can't seem to find it and then there it is, cold and stoney. (vommed in the mouth a little at that I just made a semi-Coldstone-esque pun...). Also, no I did not buy that shirt in Ireland, that is straight up from the Newbury Comics in Boston brought abroad solely for the purpose of Ireland. I did however buy an Ireland Guiness rugby shirt and an obnoxious Ireland flag scarf.

The river by the Blarney Castle. I threw in a 2 euro cent by the bridge for good luck.

Then we get back to Cork! We tried to meet up with our friend Mallory (aka MalPal... noticing a lot of my friends have nicknames..) but we unfortunately took a lot longer than expected at the Blarney Castle and she was at frisbee practice the hour and a half we spent in Cork before our 6 o'clock 3 hour bus ride back to Galway.

So we spent our time on St. Patrick's Street in Cork looking at shops and spending that dolla dolla bills on pre dinner. I wasn't feeling baked goods, or soup, and was craving McDonalds, so yeah I got it. Yet another crazy McDonalds (seriously American McDonalds STEP YOUR GAME UP). Judge away but you know what, I've said it before and will continue to say that I am an American, I love my stubborn American ways with my brands and options and processed foods, so yeah I got some chicken nugggets and french fries AND IT WAS WORTH THE EUROS.

Sunset in Cork. So when we got back to Galway our lovely/amazing/super ginger friend Mardo had ordered us Dominos. They have a frigging Dominos Pizza in Galway. DO NOT TALK TO ME ABOUT CULTURE SHOCK IF YOU STUDIED ABROAD IN IRELAND, you have super markets with at least 200 brands you know and aisles of options too, you have legitimate sidewalks, you have ENGLISH (so you got cheers and craic, slang is doable), you have nice natives/locals/fun accents, Ireland is very similar to America and it was incredibly relaxing and the perfect break I needed away from Italy, but c'mon culture shock in Italia was RUDE. I would have been all too comfortable if Ireland had any art classes and I actually went there (seeing as it was my second choice after Australia.. yeah Florence wasn't even my first two picks, and now I'm seriously regretting not looking into going to Paris more and more). Sidenote Rant over. So back to Jessica Mardo being amazing and Dominos Pizza... so damn good. I ate a whole pizza single handedly. We reminisced about Freshman/Sophomore year crazyness at dinner and it was nice, chill, I miss long drawn out dinners with friends at Stonehill.

Also, they don't have TJ Maxx in Ireland.. It's TK Maxx... Also Axe bodyspray is called Lynx in Ireland. Real weird.

FALL BREAK: IRELAND DAY 2

Day 2 in the homeland we went to the Aran Islands. A bus and a ferry ride away we were there. Sidenote: Best sleep ever occurs on a ferry, definitely the best transportation for power naps, planes.. not so much. We get to Inis Mor  the biggest island and hop off the ferry, Melaugh and I were planning on biking around but the weather didn't look promising upon arrival so we all took a guided bus tour with our guide Steven, who has lived on the island his whole life, mind you there's 800ish inhabitants.. so he inevitably probably married a 3rd cousin or something. Anyways, he was great and so was the Aran Islands.

Typical Irish houses

What do I get for lunch? oh yeah vegetable soup and bread again, shocking.

The whole place was just rocked earth, strangely serene.

The cliffs on the island. We ironically enough ran into this family from Quincy here, the wife was rocking Patriots rain boots and a Patriots hat... plus the harsh Boston accent it really did long for me to ask if they were from Boston. Chatted with them for a few, super nice family.

#nottheplacetoslip

Then two minutes after I say definitely not the place to slip, Lengel eats it on the side of the hill next to the ruins. Beyond funny.

Rock walls everywhere on the island, to clean up the land and create work for the Irish they made pretty much mundane fences that had no actual purpose.

Hey Atlantic Ocean, funny seeing you from this side.

Yeah that's real. Saw 3 rainbows in Ireland. This one was definitely the best

Stevennnnn (cue the Kristen Cavallari STEPHENNN scream from Laguna)

epic photo of Jessica getting a cramp mid attempt at being funny in a photo, this result was so much better. Pre going to casually enjoying a night at the Front Door in Galway.

The Aran Islands were beyond relaxing, so glad we did the bus tour even though the weather was on our side and I could have biked, I got to see the whole island and get interesting info from someone who has lived there his whole life. It was a good day.

FALL BREAK: IRELAND DAY 1

So I arrived in Ireland officially on Sunday.

Yeah, it's green. EVERYWHERE. I was absolutely loving it.

So after yet another rush to a bus, Melaugh and I go with our Galway friends Mardo, Jcrane, and Casey from Dublin to Galway, a casual 3 hour bus ride. I clearly want to sleep seeing as I haven't in a day and a half, but it's Ireland I clearly want to see as much as humanly possible, but inevitably I have been conditioned at this point to fall asleep on buses. We arrive in Galway finally, and Ireland is beyond similar to America, it's refreshing since I've been living in a country for 2 months that doesn't want a single thing changed since its creation.

Arriving atour Galway friends' apartment complex! And it is only mildly raining. We relax in Galway the first night, Melaugh is not feeling good by any means, it takes a lot for her to be sick and not be down for adventures, so Casey and I met up with our other friend Pat who is also studying in Galway and we went to the Skeff a did the Irish thing and got a Guiness. 

So then next day while they were starting college for the week (college is the Irish way of saying going to class) Melaugh and I went on our day trip date to Connemara. Our bus driver tour guide Michael O'Malley (woah Irish name) was hilarious. There was a bunch of old Irish people on the bus who were cracking jokes back and forth with Michael, it was too cute. So we are literally driving into the Irish countryside with lakes and mountains and countless sheep, gotta love some sheep.

So we stop at this old church (kind of a theme going abroad, visitng really old beautiful churches).

We drive around get to see more Irish countryside, have a short break in a town called Cong, get to walk around and see more of Ireland. Nature, oh how I have missed you thanks to Italy.

We arrive at Kylemore Abbey with is this castle/house/church/victorian gardens place. Stop in for a quick lunch, starting off my week of vegetable soup and bread. Connemara was a really nice first day trip, relaxing, not a ton to see but just enough to still enjoy it all and our tour guide definitely kept things interesting for us. Even played soft music for us to fall asleep to on our bus drive back and hour and a half, but I didn't need it with travel comes a lot of power napping on moving vehicles.

Well played Ireland, way to be safe. 

So when we get back to Galway we have dinner at Jcrane and Casey's place, the rest of the Florence abroaders get to Galway and we get ready for our first real night out in Ireland!

Mardo is the greatest, best host, hilarious as Chelsea Handler mixed with an episode of Modern Family

lmao Jcrane

Insta-friends photo with Kelly!

Mardo would like us to believe she did this on purpose.. I don't buy it

FALL BREAK: LONDON

So after almost 2 weeks of traveling I am back in Firenze so here's my fall break update:

Starting with the usual train to Pisa to fly out, we jet off to the Stansted Airport (about an hour outside of London, cause flying to the actual city would be too easy). Post Ryan Air flight running through the airport to rush through customs to not miss our bus, we hit customs and realize yeah we are most definitely not catch our midnight bus out, but we were glad to have rushed and not be at the end of the massive line. 

Sidenote: while we were waiting there was this girl who had her friends bags and had to catch up and this middle aged man by himself refused to let this girl meet up with her friend and obnoxiously told her to go to the back of the line. It's people like that man that frustrate me to no end, we're all trying to get somewhere, being an ass isn't going to make his travels any easier. Where is Cillian Murphy from Red Eye when you need him. 

We get stamped, move on our traveling ways and on the way to the bus see a casual book vending machine. I'm a firm believer in whatever is in a vending machine is a true reflection of that country. Italy has every form of coffee, America has anything and everything with sugar and processed foods, okay U.K. i'll give you your intellectual books. We arrive at London Victoria and head to our hostel for the night, which throughout my whole study abroad experience is and will be the only night I stay in a hostel since I'm staying with friends everywhere I go (Alex and I met up with our friend Matt the next day). I was loving the hostel we were in. It had such a I'm a college student but I'm an adult who wants things out of life type of vibe. Not to mention the weirdest thing occurred when Alex and I went downstairs so she could get wifi. We're down there for ten minutes and I don't even realize that there is a couple spooning on the common room couch, and the chick is rocking a full monkey suit onesie (tail and ears included) and then 5 minutes after their roommate another chick stumbles in asking for help turning the TV on to "watch porn or whatever"... in a monkey onesie as well. Not real life.

London Underground: Mind the Gap. laughed every time.

I'M IN AN ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY! CHEERS

We start off London by going to the London Tower. On our way we HAD to go to the first Starbucks we saw, I am deprived of my need for American coffee (#firstworldproblems). See the London Bridge (oh shit). Alex, Dev, and I do our usual travel trying to see as much as possible, walk a bit, take the metro, do our thing. The pictures kind of speak for themselves on what I saw, but overall I loved London (then again who wouldn't). I saw Olympic gear everywhere and I LOVE THE OLYMPICS so I was a kid in an expensive only can pay with the pound candy store. The accents were hilarious, I've grown up hating the British accent but actually being there I couldn't handle it, it is just too funny an accent to deny.

A quick ride on the Underground and we get off and there's Big Ben, no big deal. It did seem smaller in real life (not that it's even remotely small) but it was far more ornate that I expected too. We see Westminster Abbey which is so beautiful, Kate Middleton's stomping grounds whattup. Then after we walk and grab lunch he happen to walk to Buckingham Palace, but it took us a good 10 minutes to figure out of it actually was the Palace, debating no this can't be it, maybe, no way, oh there's a sign that says it is, awkward... Most anticlimactic national monument I have seen ever in my life. There weren't even the guards in red with the hats, disappointing to say the least. At least the white house has some distance and some grass between (and I've been in the White House, boom roasted.)

Casual typical London photobooth photo later and we go to Harrods... unreal how massive that store is. Easily could get lost for hours. So then we meet up with Matt finally, relax and then head out for some dinner (Not pasta or pizza chicka chicka yeahhh). I don't recall the name of the place Matt brought us too but it was bomb. French fries, oh how I missed you. Before the night we grab some prenight necessities from a grocery store and while waiting in line we talk to this British woman who was hilarious talking to us about the "posh" water Alex was buying, I don't know just even with that 5 minute encounter talking to this London stranger it's people like that that make a city so much better. Then for the night festivities we get ready to go out and Alex and Dev are determined to go to a gay club for me, only to get there at 12:04 and not be let in cause apparently London is inconvenient to actual night people and doesn't let people in past midnight, and the underground closes then too. Yet another reason to add to the list of why I love being an American.

So the next morning we wake up to go on our hop on / hop off bus tour around London. Before that we stumble past a McDonalds, so of course I haven't had breakfast and decide to get some Mickey D's lunch instead. MOST INSANE MCDONALDS I'VE EVER BEEN IN. America step your game up this McDonalds was ballin' it had the atmosphere of a club, and I didn't hate it. Then we head to Trafalgar Square to start off our tour but before we get on there's a huge NFL festival in the square... so strange. Got to see the Vince Lombardi trophy, casually saw the entire Buccaneers team walk past me, if I only cared about football I would have been freaking out a bit, but alas to each their own. In Trafalgar Square is the Olympic countdown.... now that I freaked out over. So then we get on our double decker bus tour and our tour guy Eddie leads us around with his half assed but still slightly comical jokes.

So post tour we get some food and head for the London Eye. As we are figuring out getting in line we run into our other Stonehill friends who were visiting London that weekend (and who I'd be going back with to Ireland) Jessica (aka Mardo), Lauren (aka Melaugh/Shmelaugh), Julia (aka JCrane), and Casey. Mardo dives out of line running over to us in excitement, now that's a damn good friend if I ever encountered one. She didn't care about lines and waiting for the London Eye, she just runs over to greet friends. Honeybadger don't give a shit. Then life goal completed, I go on the London Eye. It went surprisingly so much quicker than I expected, but it was so surreal.

Next night, get dinner in a London pub, stumble upon a soccer game being shown, damn I wish watching soccer was like that back in America cause it brought me back to World Cup days of two summers ago and how exciting it was. Oh and I got a real burger. I've never realized how much I like certain foods until I can't get them (Chinese food and Dunkin better watch out when I'm back). Another failed attempt at getting inside the club when going out, not the best ending of London, but I went not sleeping seeing as I had to take a bus out London at 4 AM. So I'm flagging down a London taxi at 3 AM by myself and I felt like an adult, I'm so much older than I can take, when did I become an adult? The fact that when I arrive back to America I'll be turning 21 the day after, I've always felt more mature than my age but to feel like a real adult traveling all around Europe it's wicked weird.

Big Ben, surprisingly not as big as I imagined

Westminster Abbey

I'm obsessed with the Olympics, CANNOT wait for this summer

Ironic timing of an NFL festival in Trafalgar Square

ABROAD SONGS OF MY PAST 2 WEEKS

So finally getting to London totally felt a Parent Trap this isn't real life moment
Sixpence None The Richer - There She Goes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj3vXkhqszE

Then it's Ireland, thank you Hole in the Wall for these two new songs
Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC3y9llDXuM&ob=av3e

One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJO3ROT-A4E&ob=av2e

Back To Firenze, Halloween in Red Garter, once this was dropped my night was official made.
Queen - We Will Rock You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJYN-eG1zk&ob=av3e

Oh and this one too.
Don Omar - Danza Kuduro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fjYYEhAffk

Young enough to say this has gotta be the good life.

detailed post later in the week. Back in Firenze after a week and a half of travel and life completing experiences. Halloween in Florence with SURPRISE Julie Mills and Lauren O'Halloran (who conspired with Courtney to surprise me in Italia, I literally freaked out because I hate surprises but this was the best one ever no doubt).

ABROAD CATCHPHRASE

Casually.

Everything is casual while abroad. Casually went to Paris for a weekend. Casually going wine tasting in the hills of Tuscany. Casually eating gelato next to the Duomo. You get the picture, things are real cas in Europe.

And I'm casually heading to London and Ireland for a week. Get at me.