We're back! We landed at Dulles International last night around 7:15 after a bit of a delay in New York. I guess it's what you would call "bitter-sweet." We had such a great time in Europe, and want to go back as soon as we can, but it was also nice to see some familiar faces and not have to live out of a backpack any more.
In the next week I plan on writing a detailed account of our entire trip. Day 1 to day 15 should be covered very throroughly. I probably won't put it up here as a blog post, unless a bunch of you want me to. As of now I plan on just writing it as a word document and e-mailing it to the family, and the main purpose is to keep it for my records. My dad's side of the family has a bit of a tradition of keeping journals (and now blogs) when they travel, and it's always interesting to go back 20 years after the fact and read about all the fond memories.
So, that's about it for now with the travel blog.
However, I am enjoying this whole blogging thing. And, from what I can tell, everybody else seems to be enjoying as well. So, I think I'm going to start another little sports blog just to mess around with and talk about various sports topics. I have no idea if anybody will actually read it or not, but I'm gonna try it out. It's not going to be anything too extensive...maybe 3 posts a week for a while and see how it goes from there.
I'll provide a link to the sports blog on facebook once I get it up and running, and if anybody wants that detailed account of the trip (other than my family, I know you guys do) please let me know.
Welp, see ya later!
Mind the gap,
Mark
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Old Stuff is Cool
So, as most of you know, I tend to procrastinate a bit. Obviously, I didn't write anything yesterday on the 6 to 8 hours of plane and train rides that I had. I will write a bit about what we did today, and after I get done with that I'll get on Meg's computer and post some more of our pictures from Sorrento, Capri, and today.
So, today I started out arguing with Marriott (it all got resolved by this evening though, so it's all good). After that we got on our hour long subway ride (we made sure to mind the gap) to St. Paul's Cathedral. You may remember this name from the first time we were here. We actually toured around the outside last time, but we were recommended by some cool old dude on the plane last night to go in.
It was welllll worth it. They had a very modern guided tour on i-touches that led you all around the cathedral. We went every where and listened to every section we could about all of the history...it was quite enjoyable. We also made our way up some 600 stairs to the very top of the famous dome on St. Paul's Cathedral, and got some great pictures from up there. This was definitely one of my top 5 favorite things we did on the trip.
After that we walked outside and saw a policeman and a policewoman on horses. So, we went over and Megan started up a long conversation with the lady cop about all kinds of horse stuff (it sounded cool, but I understand Italian better then what they were saying). What I did notice, when the horse wasn't trying to bite me, was the other police officers standing beside the mounted officers. They were literally looking for tourists that seemed lost and asking if they needed directions around the city. If that wasn't enough, they also had about 15 cases of water in their van, and were handing them out to the tourists as the walked by. I'm not sure if this happens regularly, or if it was a one time thing, either way it was really cool to see.
After that we got back on the underground (we made sure to mind the gap, again) to get to the British Museum. It was cool. We got to see the actual Rosetta Stone, which had a lot of stuff on it I didn't understand. I'm not sure how you can learn like 15 different languages from it (I know I'm funny, no need for compliments later). Other then that though, nothing really stood out. Basically, it was okay, but nothing special.
We then went to an "English Pub." I put it in parenthesis because Megan and I have now been to 4 different "English Pubs" in London that were all quite a long distance apart, and they all had the same menu. I'm not sure why...I'm assuming they have the same owner, but the one we ate at today was probably 25 miles away from one of the ones we ate at last time with the same menu. They all have different names, and different historical plaques hanging outside telling the history of the pub. Basically, they all seem like authentic English Pub's from the outside, but then when you walk in they have a very similar beer selection and the exact same Menu. Anyway, we ate some good fish and chips and left it at that.
After visiting a couple of tourist shops we got back on the underground (carefully minding the gap, of course) and sat for about an hour in a car that was approximately 1,394,197 degrees...Celsius.
We then hopped on a bus back to the Marriott. We are now getting ready to grab our last dinner (tear) in Europe, and pack a bit before we head to bed. We'll then catch our flight early tomorrow morning and head back towards Amurica.
I'll save the "points of interest" section for a later date.
Cheers,
Mark
So, today I started out arguing with Marriott (it all got resolved by this evening though, so it's all good). After that we got on our hour long subway ride (we made sure to mind the gap) to St. Paul's Cathedral. You may remember this name from the first time we were here. We actually toured around the outside last time, but we were recommended by some cool old dude on the plane last night to go in.
It was welllll worth it. They had a very modern guided tour on i-touches that led you all around the cathedral. We went every where and listened to every section we could about all of the history...it was quite enjoyable. We also made our way up some 600 stairs to the very top of the famous dome on St. Paul's Cathedral, and got some great pictures from up there. This was definitely one of my top 5 favorite things we did on the trip.
After that we walked outside and saw a policeman and a policewoman on horses. So, we went over and Megan started up a long conversation with the lady cop about all kinds of horse stuff (it sounded cool, but I understand Italian better then what they were saying). What I did notice, when the horse wasn't trying to bite me, was the other police officers standing beside the mounted officers. They were literally looking for tourists that seemed lost and asking if they needed directions around the city. If that wasn't enough, they also had about 15 cases of water in their van, and were handing them out to the tourists as the walked by. I'm not sure if this happens regularly, or if it was a one time thing, either way it was really cool to see.
After that we got back on the underground (we made sure to mind the gap, again) to get to the British Museum. It was cool. We got to see the actual Rosetta Stone, which had a lot of stuff on it I didn't understand. I'm not sure how you can learn like 15 different languages from it (I know I'm funny, no need for compliments later). Other then that though, nothing really stood out. Basically, it was okay, but nothing special.
We then went to an "English Pub." I put it in parenthesis because Megan and I have now been to 4 different "English Pubs" in London that were all quite a long distance apart, and they all had the same menu. I'm not sure why...I'm assuming they have the same owner, but the one we ate at today was probably 25 miles away from one of the ones we ate at last time with the same menu. They all have different names, and different historical plaques hanging outside telling the history of the pub. Basically, they all seem like authentic English Pub's from the outside, but then when you walk in they have a very similar beer selection and the exact same Menu. Anyway, we ate some good fish and chips and left it at that.
After visiting a couple of tourist shops we got back on the underground (carefully minding the gap, of course) and sat for about an hour in a car that was approximately 1,394,197 degrees...Celsius.
We then hopped on a bus back to the Marriott. We are now getting ready to grab our last dinner (tear) in Europe, and pack a bit before we head to bed. We'll then catch our flight early tomorrow morning and head back towards Amurica.
I'll save the "points of interest" section for a later date.
Cheers,
Mark
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
We're not dead, I promise.
Hey Everybody!
Since the last time I posted we’ve been to Venice, Napoli, Sorrento, and Capri. That’s about all you’re going to get for now because we have to pay for wi-fi here, and we have a lot of packing/planning to do tonight. Yeah, there’s only 2 ½ days left and we still don’t have it completely planned out.
I will however continue my points of interest section quickly…
1) Capri is beautiful. Everybody needs to do a day trip like we did.
2) We thought Sorrento had the craziest streets in the world…until we got to Capri. Capri had straight U-turns all the way up the side of a cliff...not the side of a mountain…the side of a cliff. Not to mention the roads were about 7 feet wide and 2 full size buses were passing at the same time…on the side of a cliff.
3) We’ve lived in a trailer for the past 2 days.
4) Dudes wear half speedo, half thong bathing suits here. Gross.
5) Weiner dogs are the dog of choice in Venice (I hope somebody from the Cooper family is reading).
6) Don’t ever get directly off a train in Venice and say (I must admit, I said it), “Ohh, water! I want to eat on the water…let’s get something to eat on the water, 12 feet from the only place tourists come to Venice!” It will cost you 50 Euro (~$75) for an 8 inch pizza, a small bowl of clams/mussels, and 2 waters.
7) I’ll give you my entire life savings of $24 if you can map your walk from one end of Venice to the other, and not make a wrong turn while getting there.
8) You can get lemons the size of a large cantaloupe in Sorrento. Not exaggerating at all.
9) If you hit the back roads of Italy you can find bottles of wine for 1 Euro. We’re not cheap though, so we sprung for the 3 Euro bottle instead.
10) We live in a trailer.
Hope you’re all doing well in your homes that are connected to the ground, have air conditioning, and don’t have approximately 400 mosquitoes in them.
…I’m just kidding, we’re having the time of our lives! We wouldn’t trade any of this (including the trailer) for the world!
I’ll be writing my detailed blogs about each place we visited tomorrow on our trains/plane back to London.
Mind the gap,
Mark
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Austrailians are cool
Last night when we got back to the room we met our suite mates for the night. They were 4 Australians (2 guys and 2 girls) who were traveling for 10 months straight. Apparently that's pretty common practice in Australia after you graduate college. Anyway, we immediately hit it off and enjoyed a few drinks together and talked for a couple hours about the differences of Australia and America...it was really cool.
Then today we got up kind of late and got a quick lunch, but my stomach was hurting so we went back to the hostel for a few hours to take some stomach meds and hopefully start feeling better. I did around 5...so that's when we started touring Florence. It actually worked out really well because the city is fairly small (compared to London and Rome) so we were able to walk to everything we wanted to see, eat dinner, and make it back to the hostel by 10. I guess we're also able to do that because we don't actually go in to any of the places we're at for the most part. It's not that we don't want to, but when you only have a day to tour an entire city you have to move pretty quickly if you want to see everything.
My favorite part of it was as the sun was setting we went up to "Piazzale Michelangelo," which is on a big hill that overlooks the city. The view was awesome, and it was nice to just relax and take in the entire city while the sun was setting. I'll try to post the pictures on here, but sometimes it's hard to get them on here. Either way I should get some of them up on Facebook, so check there tonight or tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning we catch a train at 10:30 for Venice. We arrive at 12:30 and have exactly 11 hours to see everything we can in Venice, because the plan from there is to catch a night train down to the Amalfi coast that leaves tomorrow night at 11:30.
Interesting points from today:
-Footlocker is another company (like Pringles) who seems to be more popular over here then they are in the US. On our 5 hour journey today we saw 3 different Footlocker stores.
-Everybody loves McDonalds. In every city we've been to there have been McDonald's everywhere and lines bursting out of every one of their doors.
-German Shepherds are the dog of choice over here. I'm not sure if it's for personal protection or what, but it seems like about 50% of the dogs we see are big ol German Shepherds.
-Sodas are expensive over here. I haven't seen a sprite yet for under 2.50 Euro's...and when I order a sprite when we're out eating they're usually 3 Euro's a piece and they bring it to you in a can. Haven't seen fountain drinks here yet, which is kind of weird to me.
-The pizza is good here, but the biggest improvement in food is their ice cream or "gelato" as they call it. Megan and I have had it a couple times, and it is wayyyyyy better then anything in America. I got peach flavored tonight, and it tasted like I was eating a peach. Megan had some berry blend, and there were little bits of actual berries in the ice cream. It was awesome.
-We've seen like 2 SUV's the whole time we've been here. The most popular form of transportation is mopeds. It's actually pretty funny to see all the different types of people driving them (ladies in dresses and heels, 2 guys practically sitting in each others laps to fit on it together, people holding dogs, etc.). If they aren't driving a moped then they definitely have a little tiny car that gets really good gas mileage.
Well, that's about all I have for ya. Hope everybody's enjoying it, and once again, I'm not going to take the time to proof-read it...so I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors.
Ciao,
Mark
Then today we got up kind of late and got a quick lunch, but my stomach was hurting so we went back to the hostel for a few hours to take some stomach meds and hopefully start feeling better. I did around 5...so that's when we started touring Florence. It actually worked out really well because the city is fairly small (compared to London and Rome) so we were able to walk to everything we wanted to see, eat dinner, and make it back to the hostel by 10. I guess we're also able to do that because we don't actually go in to any of the places we're at for the most part. It's not that we don't want to, but when you only have a day to tour an entire city you have to move pretty quickly if you want to see everything.
My favorite part of it was as the sun was setting we went up to "Piazzale Michelangelo," which is on a big hill that overlooks the city. The view was awesome, and it was nice to just relax and take in the entire city while the sun was setting. I'll try to post the pictures on here, but sometimes it's hard to get them on here. Either way I should get some of them up on Facebook, so check there tonight or tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning we catch a train at 10:30 for Venice. We arrive at 12:30 and have exactly 11 hours to see everything we can in Venice, because the plan from there is to catch a night train down to the Amalfi coast that leaves tomorrow night at 11:30.
Interesting points from today:
-Footlocker is another company (like Pringles) who seems to be more popular over here then they are in the US. On our 5 hour journey today we saw 3 different Footlocker stores.
-Everybody loves McDonalds. In every city we've been to there have been McDonald's everywhere and lines bursting out of every one of their doors.
-German Shepherds are the dog of choice over here. I'm not sure if it's for personal protection or what, but it seems like about 50% of the dogs we see are big ol German Shepherds.
-Sodas are expensive over here. I haven't seen a sprite yet for under 2.50 Euro's...and when I order a sprite when we're out eating they're usually 3 Euro's a piece and they bring it to you in a can. Haven't seen fountain drinks here yet, which is kind of weird to me.
-The pizza is good here, but the biggest improvement in food is their ice cream or "gelato" as they call it. Megan and I have had it a couple times, and it is wayyyyyy better then anything in America. I got peach flavored tonight, and it tasted like I was eating a peach. Megan had some berry blend, and there were little bits of actual berries in the ice cream. It was awesome.
-We've seen like 2 SUV's the whole time we've been here. The most popular form of transportation is mopeds. It's actually pretty funny to see all the different types of people driving them (ladies in dresses and heels, 2 guys practically sitting in each others laps to fit on it together, people holding dogs, etc.). If they aren't driving a moped then they definitely have a little tiny car that gets really good gas mileage.
Well, that's about all I have for ya. Hope everybody's enjoying it, and once again, I'm not going to take the time to proof-read it...so I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors.
Ciao,
Mark
Friday, June 24, 2011
Plus Ferenzi!
I promise I'm not just blogging the whole day away, but we're sitting up at the terrace bar enjoying a glass of wine and making plans for tomorrow, so I thought I would take a quick second and tell you about our awesome hostel.
Plus Florence is where it's at. It's a hostel designed for backpackers on a budget, but they have all kinds of perks and accommodations that we just never saw coming. I mentioned already that we're out on their rooftop terrace bar, which is huge and has awesome 360 degree views of Florence, and above us is another area that's even higher up that's used for sun bathing, firework viewing (apparently that happens fairly frequently here), and even star gazing if you so choose.
They also offer all kinds of services for cheap...we're considering doing a 5 hour self-guided bike tour with an audio guide...so you bike to a bunch of different locations in and around the city, stop, and listen to a bit of history about what you're viewing. All of this only costs 8 Euro. Tonight we've got reservations for an open buffet with fish, pasta, bruschetta, and a free glass of wine for 8 Euro/person. After all the money we've spent the last 2 days in Rome, this is exactly what we were looking for.
They also have the "Basement Club" which is local club that is located in the basement of the hostel that is open from 11PM to 3AM every night. They have pool tables, dart boards, and and assortment of other bar-type video games.
If you walk past the club you enter the heated indoor swimming pool they have, yeah--indoor heated swimming pool. If you walk past the pool you can enjoy your choice of sauna or steam room as well. All of this just blew us away, especially considering we're only paying 44 Euro per night to stay here.
Anyway, just thought I would let everybody know how awesome this place was.
As for what we did today--not a whole lot. We walked around for about an hour and stopped for 20 minutes at a local park. It was quite relaxing to just sit down and watch the big fountain they had in the middle of the park for a while.
I'll continue my trend from last night and list some things that you might want to know, or just find interesting...
-Everybody here drinks in public. When we were walking around the streets and in the park today it seemed like every person we passed had a beer or a little plastic cup with wine in it. It's legal to drink in public until 2AM.
-Everybody told me Paris was expensive, but Rome about broke the bank account for us the last 2 days. It was a lot of fun, but super expensive.
-We still celebrate every time we see a street sign or a map in a subway/train station. Speaking of which, we missed one train this morning, and almost missed another one 30 minutes later because there were about 10 trains sitting at the station with absolutely no way of knowing where they were going or when they were leaving.
-Bring comfy shoes if you come to tour Europe. I'd say a conservative estimate is that we've averaged about 8 or 9 miles walking per day. Some are more, we've had at least 2 days where we've probably walked some where around 12. Some are less, today was an "easy day" because we've probably only walked 5 or 6 miles.
-Nike Dry Fit (sorry, still can't support under armour...but it's the same thing, haha) clothing will come in handy. Especially if you sweat as much as I do...cotton just doesn't cut it when you're walking long distances, carrying luggage, and trying not to lose 7 pounds in straight water weight.
Well gang, I'm gonna enjoy this view and continue planning tomorrow with Megan out here on the terrace. Hope you've enjoyed the post!
Mind The Gap,
Mark
Plus Florence is where it's at. It's a hostel designed for backpackers on a budget, but they have all kinds of perks and accommodations that we just never saw coming. I mentioned already that we're out on their rooftop terrace bar, which is huge and has awesome 360 degree views of Florence, and above us is another area that's even higher up that's used for sun bathing, firework viewing (apparently that happens fairly frequently here), and even star gazing if you so choose.
They also offer all kinds of services for cheap...we're considering doing a 5 hour self-guided bike tour with an audio guide...so you bike to a bunch of different locations in and around the city, stop, and listen to a bit of history about what you're viewing. All of this only costs 8 Euro. Tonight we've got reservations for an open buffet with fish, pasta, bruschetta, and a free glass of wine for 8 Euro/person. After all the money we've spent the last 2 days in Rome, this is exactly what we were looking for.
They also have the "Basement Club" which is local club that is located in the basement of the hostel that is open from 11PM to 3AM every night. They have pool tables, dart boards, and and assortment of other bar-type video games.
If you walk past the club you enter the heated indoor swimming pool they have, yeah--indoor heated swimming pool. If you walk past the pool you can enjoy your choice of sauna or steam room as well. All of this just blew us away, especially considering we're only paying 44 Euro per night to stay here.
Anyway, just thought I would let everybody know how awesome this place was.
As for what we did today--not a whole lot. We walked around for about an hour and stopped for 20 minutes at a local park. It was quite relaxing to just sit down and watch the big fountain they had in the middle of the park for a while.
I'll continue my trend from last night and list some things that you might want to know, or just find interesting...
-Everybody here drinks in public. When we were walking around the streets and in the park today it seemed like every person we passed had a beer or a little plastic cup with wine in it. It's legal to drink in public until 2AM.
-Everybody told me Paris was expensive, but Rome about broke the bank account for us the last 2 days. It was a lot of fun, but super expensive.
-We still celebrate every time we see a street sign or a map in a subway/train station. Speaking of which, we missed one train this morning, and almost missed another one 30 minutes later because there were about 10 trains sitting at the station with absolutely no way of knowing where they were going or when they were leaving.
-Bring comfy shoes if you come to tour Europe. I'd say a conservative estimate is that we've averaged about 8 or 9 miles walking per day. Some are more, we've had at least 2 days where we've probably walked some where around 12. Some are less, today was an "easy day" because we've probably only walked 5 or 6 miles.
-Nike Dry Fit (sorry, still can't support under armour...but it's the same thing, haha) clothing will come in handy. Especially if you sweat as much as I do...cotton just doesn't cut it when you're walking long distances, carrying luggage, and trying not to lose 7 pounds in straight water weight.
Well gang, I'm gonna enjoy this view and continue planning tomorrow with Megan out here on the terrace. Hope you've enjoyed the post!
Mind The Gap,
Mark
Florence!
Hello, again!
We just got to Florence and checked into our hostel. This is the first time we're actually in a true hostel setting. There will be 4 other people in the room with us tonight.
I guess we came on a good night, because this hostel's "birthday" is today (it's 4 years old) so they're having a big party. Also, there are fireworks about a mile from the hostel, and they have a great roof-top terrace type thing to watch them from. Once again, life is good!
We just had a delicious and nutritious lunch from a very fancy vending machine at the train station...so first thing on the list here is to find a good place for an early dinner while we explore the city a bit. This is also when we'll formulate our game plan for all of tomorrow's sightseeing activities.
Welp, we're off to wander this city aimlessly for a while.
Mind The Gap,
Mark
P.S.- Megan is feeling much better today, so she's got that going for her...which is nice.
We just got to Florence and checked into our hostel. This is the first time we're actually in a true hostel setting. There will be 4 other people in the room with us tonight.
I guess we came on a good night, because this hostel's "birthday" is today (it's 4 years old) so they're having a big party. Also, there are fireworks about a mile from the hostel, and they have a great roof-top terrace type thing to watch them from. Once again, life is good!
We just had a delicious and nutritious lunch from a very fancy vending machine at the train station...so first thing on the list here is to find a good place for an early dinner while we explore the city a bit. This is also when we'll formulate our game plan for all of tomorrow's sightseeing activities.
Welp, we're off to wander this city aimlessly for a while.
Mind The Gap,
Mark
P.S.- Megan is feeling much better today, so she's got that going for her...which is nice.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Wine makes everything feel Fine!
Bonjouno!
We planned on waking at about 9 this morning to start exploring Rome. Of course we both woke up around 11 and had to start from there.
We started out by going to a bar right beside the Colliseo and having a panini and sprite (okay, Megan had a panini and a sprite...I had 2 panini's and 3 sprite's. You get the picture, though)
After that we went to the Colliseo and took a audio tour. This worked out perfectly for us because we got to do our own thing and at the same time get a lot of information on what we were looking at. As I mentioned yesterday, thinking about the events that took place at the Colliseo thousands of years ago just blows my mind. To say I was a little giddy, and in complete awe at the same time is an understatement. I felt like I was walking into an NFL game...except when people saw what I did thousands of years ago, the winner lived, and the loser died.
After that we hopped on the subway to get to the Vatican. I'm telling you though, they hate subway maps more then they hate street signs here in Rome. We wandered around aimlessly for about 20 minutes before just guessing a line. Once we got to the platform they had a map there. Seems like the most logical place, right?
Anyway, we got to the Vatican and were immediately stopped by a promoter for a tourist group. This was the best thing that could have ever happened to us--mainly because there was a really long line to get in and we showed up about 20 minutes before they stopped letting guests in.
We ended up with a really knowledgeable tour guide who was raised in California, and has lived in Italy for over 15 years studying European art. It was good because we could understand him, and it was even better because of all his knowledge of all the sculptures, paintings, and the overall layout of the Vatican.
After that we guessed a subway line and made our way to the "Fontana de Trevi" or the "Trevi Fountain" for those of you who don't speak Romanese as good as I do. It was very pretty, but once again there were no signs (go figure), so we took a couple pictures and headed on to dinner.
We ate at an authentic Italia restaurante, and I spoke perfect (terrible) Spanish to the waitress most of the night. It was very good though--we sat outside at this nice little Italiano restaurante on an old cobblestone road and enjoyed some pizza, pasta, and wine.
...I'll take a second to tell you how the title of this post got started. After we got to the restaurante Megan was talking about how much better her sinus infection felt. This occurred after a couple of glasses of wine, and you all know how funny I am...(figure it out, and if you don't I'm not sure we can be friends anymore).
Anyhow, after that we got a bit of Gelato (Megan) and a Peroni (myself) and guessed a subway line to make it back to our awesome hotel.
Now we're sitting on our terrace enjoying a 5 Euro bottle of wine that tastes like a $50 bottle of wine in Amurica.
Just a couple of side notes from Rome:
1) If you still have your student ID and you're under the age of 26...bring your student ID.
2) Pringles are what you eat in Europe. I saw Pringles vending machines in London and Dublin bars...and then in Rome I saw street vendors with massive amounts of Pringles...which made me realize how much European's love Pringles.
3) Apparently people over here hate baseball...I was in Rome and asked to check the Braves score...and I got the response, "Oh, you like the sissy sport then, do ya?"...so for all you "futbol" fans, life is good
4) After that we saw a lot...Life is good!
Anyway, I hope everybody enjoys it! Bonjourno!
We planned on waking at about 9 this morning to start exploring Rome. Of course we both woke up around 11 and had to start from there.
We started out by going to a bar right beside the Colliseo and having a panini and sprite (okay, Megan had a panini and a sprite...I had 2 panini's and 3 sprite's. You get the picture, though)
After that we went to the Colliseo and took a audio tour. This worked out perfectly for us because we got to do our own thing and at the same time get a lot of information on what we were looking at. As I mentioned yesterday, thinking about the events that took place at the Colliseo thousands of years ago just blows my mind. To say I was a little giddy, and in complete awe at the same time is an understatement. I felt like I was walking into an NFL game...except when people saw what I did thousands of years ago, the winner lived, and the loser died.
After that we hopped on the subway to get to the Vatican. I'm telling you though, they hate subway maps more then they hate street signs here in Rome. We wandered around aimlessly for about 20 minutes before just guessing a line. Once we got to the platform they had a map there. Seems like the most logical place, right?
Anyway, we got to the Vatican and were immediately stopped by a promoter for a tourist group. This was the best thing that could have ever happened to us--mainly because there was a really long line to get in and we showed up about 20 minutes before they stopped letting guests in.
We ended up with a really knowledgeable tour guide who was raised in California, and has lived in Italy for over 15 years studying European art. It was good because we could understand him, and it was even better because of all his knowledge of all the sculptures, paintings, and the overall layout of the Vatican.
After that we guessed a subway line and made our way to the "Fontana de Trevi" or the "Trevi Fountain" for those of you who don't speak Romanese as good as I do. It was very pretty, but once again there were no signs (go figure), so we took a couple pictures and headed on to dinner.
We ate at an authentic Italia restaurante, and I spoke perfect (terrible) Spanish to the waitress most of the night. It was very good though--we sat outside at this nice little Italiano restaurante on an old cobblestone road and enjoyed some pizza, pasta, and wine.
...I'll take a second to tell you how the title of this post got started. After we got to the restaurante Megan was talking about how much better her sinus infection felt. This occurred after a couple of glasses of wine, and you all know how funny I am...(figure it out, and if you don't I'm not sure we can be friends anymore).
Anyhow, after that we got a bit of Gelato (Megan) and a Peroni (myself) and guessed a subway line to make it back to our awesome hotel.
Now we're sitting on our terrace enjoying a 5 Euro bottle of wine that tastes like a $50 bottle of wine in Amurica.
Just a couple of side notes from Rome:
1) If you still have your student ID and you're under the age of 26...bring your student ID.
2) Pringles are what you eat in Europe. I saw Pringles vending machines in London and Dublin bars...and then in Rome I saw street vendors with massive amounts of Pringles...which made me realize how much European's love Pringles.
3) Apparently people over here hate baseball...I was in Rome and asked to check the Braves score...and I got the response, "Oh, you like the sissy sport then, do ya?"...so for all you "futbol" fans, life is good
4) After that we saw a lot...Life is good!
Anyway, I hope everybody enjoys it! Bonjourno!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Gratzi, Ferrari, Pizzaria, and Peroni!
Welp, those four words have manged to get myself and Megan around Rome for about 14 hours.
It all started in Dublin with a shuttle driver (who looked like he was terribly hungover) that drove us to the airport at roughly the speed of sound. It's supposed to take 30-45 minutes depending on traffic--we made it in just under 3 1/2 minutes.
We got to Rome on time and walked about a mile to get to the train that takes you to Rome. When we got to the station we were delighted because we flew in to the Rome Airport (the main one), and figured it would cost some where between 2 and 5 Euro's to get to the center city. However, after about a million years of living here the Romans decided to put their airport approximately 7,000 miles from the city center (okay it was about 20 miles, but still...who does that?)...and it cost 15 Euro's per person to get to the city center.
Anyway, we got to the city center train station and walked about 2 miles to get to the subway. This was frustrating because 1) Megan is getting a bit of a sinus infection, so I was carrying both of our bags the entire way, which obviously doesn't bother me, but keep reading... 2) because once we walked about 30 minutes to get to the subway we ended up taking it just one stop (they didn't have any subway maps until after the 2 mile trek)...so we were on the subway for a total of 38 seconds...3) Once we got off the subway we couldn't figure out how to get to to hostel. This was due in large part to the fact that we walked around for about 3 miles and saw approximately 2 street signs. Once again, apparently European's expect you to know what street you're on with out any signs.
I finally found a couple of Capital City Rome Police Officers, and they couldn't have been more helpful. They directed us right to the hostel...and, once we got here it was very apparent we made the best choice possible in choosing our hostel. The "Mama Mia" Hostel is on the second floor of a typical building in Rome (It reminded me of Seinfeld, mainly because we had to be "buzzed up" to get to the second floor). Once we got up here it was a bit sketchy (one hallway, and about 4 total rooms). But, once we got in our room it was unbelievable. We have a huge room that has a flat screen TV, a huge private bathroom, and a balcony overlooking a quaint little street in Rome with a restaurante right across the street (all of which costs 67 Euro per night for us). This is easily the best lodging deal in Rome.
After we got settled in we went to a little back alley pizza place that we saw on the way to our hostel. It was glorious. We sat about 5 yards from a fairly busy street corner eating our fresh made Italian Pizza and Canolis.
After the late lunch we walked over to the Coliseum and got a bunch of great pictures. Then we manged our way into the "Arco de Ttio." This place was really cool...except I have no idea what anything was that I saw. I assume it was a Roman Empire village for quite some time, but then again I used my imagination the entire time, so take that for what it's worth. I was really quite frustrated about 30 minutes into the walk around this place. It was very evident that they wanted to sell packages of walking tours to the Coliseum and this tit thing. I would have gladly purchased a tour because they weren't that expensive. However, we came late in the day (4PM), so I"m guessing they just wanted to take our 12 Euro per person and run.
We actually saw some middle aged 40 year old American dude arguing with the park police about this travesty that we also experienced...and after I saw them laugh after he walked away I chose to enjoy our time and not waste my time arguing with some guy who could probably care less if I lost a nickel or a limb in the last 5 minutes.
After that we made our way back to the hotel for some wine and relaxation out on the balcony of our room. We talked to 7 or 8 of my parents on skype and decided to go to dinner. We couldn't have picked a better place. I was sitting about 6 inches from a 4 way intersection that at it's widest point was about 10 lanes wide. We enjoyed a bottle of wine and shared a mushroom and margarita pizza. We got some great pictures, but due to us forgetting the memory card in the hotel room we're going to have to wait until we get back to the states to post them.
We then walked down to an Ice Cream place and got some dessert to enjoy on another walk down to the coliseum. I can't tell you how weird it is for me to see the coliseum--I feel like I'm walking up to Bank of America Stadium to watch an NFL game...but then I think about how people used to feel walking up to it thousands of years ago, and it completely blows my mind.
I haven't even been inside yet, but I can already tell I'm going to love it.
Spaghetti, Ferrari, Italiano (that's all the Italian I know...so I figured I would show it off).
Mind the gap,
Mark
It all started in Dublin with a shuttle driver (who looked like he was terribly hungover) that drove us to the airport at roughly the speed of sound. It's supposed to take 30-45 minutes depending on traffic--we made it in just under 3 1/2 minutes.
We got to Rome on time and walked about a mile to get to the train that takes you to Rome. When we got to the station we were delighted because we flew in to the Rome Airport (the main one), and figured it would cost some where between 2 and 5 Euro's to get to the center city. However, after about a million years of living here the Romans decided to put their airport approximately 7,000 miles from the city center (okay it was about 20 miles, but still...who does that?)...and it cost 15 Euro's per person to get to the city center.
Anyway, we got to the city center train station and walked about 2 miles to get to the subway. This was frustrating because 1) Megan is getting a bit of a sinus infection, so I was carrying both of our bags the entire way, which obviously doesn't bother me, but keep reading... 2) because once we walked about 30 minutes to get to the subway we ended up taking it just one stop (they didn't have any subway maps until after the 2 mile trek)...so we were on the subway for a total of 38 seconds...3) Once we got off the subway we couldn't figure out how to get to to hostel. This was due in large part to the fact that we walked around for about 3 miles and saw approximately 2 street signs. Once again, apparently European's expect you to know what street you're on with out any signs.
I finally found a couple of Capital City Rome Police Officers, and they couldn't have been more helpful. They directed us right to the hostel...and, once we got here it was very apparent we made the best choice possible in choosing our hostel. The "Mama Mia" Hostel is on the second floor of a typical building in Rome (It reminded me of Seinfeld, mainly because we had to be "buzzed up" to get to the second floor). Once we got up here it was a bit sketchy (one hallway, and about 4 total rooms). But, once we got in our room it was unbelievable. We have a huge room that has a flat screen TV, a huge private bathroom, and a balcony overlooking a quaint little street in Rome with a restaurante right across the street (all of which costs 67 Euro per night for us). This is easily the best lodging deal in Rome.
After we got settled in we went to a little back alley pizza place that we saw on the way to our hostel. It was glorious. We sat about 5 yards from a fairly busy street corner eating our fresh made Italian Pizza and Canolis.
After the late lunch we walked over to the Coliseum and got a bunch of great pictures. Then we manged our way into the "Arco de Ttio." This place was really cool...except I have no idea what anything was that I saw. I assume it was a Roman Empire village for quite some time, but then again I used my imagination the entire time, so take that for what it's worth. I was really quite frustrated about 30 minutes into the walk around this place. It was very evident that they wanted to sell packages of walking tours to the Coliseum and this tit thing. I would have gladly purchased a tour because they weren't that expensive. However, we came late in the day (4PM), so I"m guessing they just wanted to take our 12 Euro per person and run.
We actually saw some middle aged 40 year old American dude arguing with the park police about this travesty that we also experienced...and after I saw them laugh after he walked away I chose to enjoy our time and not waste my time arguing with some guy who could probably care less if I lost a nickel or a limb in the last 5 minutes.
After that we made our way back to the hotel for some wine and relaxation out on the balcony of our room. We talked to 7 or 8 of my parents on skype and decided to go to dinner. We couldn't have picked a better place. I was sitting about 6 inches from a 4 way intersection that at it's widest point was about 10 lanes wide. We enjoyed a bottle of wine and shared a mushroom and margarita pizza. We got some great pictures, but due to us forgetting the memory card in the hotel room we're going to have to wait until we get back to the states to post them.
We then walked down to an Ice Cream place and got some dessert to enjoy on another walk down to the coliseum. I can't tell you how weird it is for me to see the coliseum--I feel like I'm walking up to Bank of America Stadium to watch an NFL game...but then I think about how people used to feel walking up to it thousands of years ago, and it completely blows my mind.
I haven't even been inside yet, but I can already tell I'm going to love it.
Spaghetti, Ferrari, Italiano (that's all the Italian I know...so I figured I would show it off).
Mind the gap,
Mark
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Clublin in Dublin! (not really, but it sounds cool)
Cheers Gang!
Megan and I are currently on a bus from Galway to Dublin, which fortunately has free wi-fi. Anyway, If anything else on this 15 day trip tops today--I will be highly impressed. I've heard a lot of great things about Italy from a lot of people, but I'm not sure how many of those people have been to Dublin before. The best way to put it is...southern Ireland fits Megan and I perfectly. If Megan and I trade in our plane tickets back to the US for tickets to Dublin, don't be surprised (just kidding, Mom...kind of).
We started our journey this morning at 6:20AM (which is 1:20AM in Hickory, and that made me realize how screwed up my sleep schedule is going to be when I get back). We made our way to Galway and boarded the bus that would take us around most of southern Ireland for the rest of the day.
I need about 4 different blog posts to tell you how awesome our tour was. It was a "locally owned company", which I didn't believe at first, but after today I completely believe. We started out in Galway and took a beautiful 30 minute bus ride to the O'Connell farm. I knew from the very beginning I was going to love the tour. We got there and put our bags in "Granny's House"....which was a traditional Irish cottage built in the 1920's, and was the actual home of our tour guides grandmother. Then we went out and played with some young lambs that they keep in their front yard. After that we got a very special treat, and I'll start a new paragraph for Nancy Genovese here...
We saw a big dog pen with two Irish Spaniels in them...and our tour guide asked if we would like to go see some puppies they just had 10 days ago. Everybody said yes, and off we went...Megan and I obviously leading the pack of 30 people to get there first. It was one of the cooler things I've ever experienced--next to holding a new born baby. I've obviously been a dog person my whole life (thanks mom), but I've never held little puppies that can't hardly open their eyes...definitely a new experience for both Megan and I. Hopefully I'll be able to upload some of the pictures on here, if not, check facebook a little later.
After that we took an hour long walk up through the very rocky mountains of Ireland (which were also very flowery, surprisingly. Mike...I took some pictures for you, no worries. It was very pretty, and our tour guide had a degree in Irish History, which made it even more interesting. There was an old Irish Monk Abbey below that we viewed, and it was active over 800 years ago. Obviously I took about 30 pictures of it. We also saw 3 churches that were over 1,000 years old down in the valley from where we were. After that our tour guide started talking about these very noticeable rock walls going straight up mountain sides. He told us quite a detailed story as to how they were built, but basically back when there was a huge famine in Ireland the hungry were told to do menial/pointless jobs to get 2 bowls of soup per day. As our tour guide pointed out...it's crazy to think of all these men lifting these heavy stones minute after minute and hour after hour--every single day for 2 bowls of soup. Definitely something that makes you stop and think.
After this eye opening experience we went back to "Granny's House" and were served fresh apple pie and Irish coffee. I'm not sure I've ever tasted apple pie like this apple pie...It was literally steaming straight from the oven when we got there.
After that we got back on the bus and took a long tour along the western Irish coast for about an hour and a half.
We finally arrived at the Cliffs of Moher and got to tour around for about an hour. Megan and I used this time to speed walk around every inch of the place that we possibly could, and also some areas that we weren't supposed to go (sorry mom, everybody else was doing it). It was one of the most breath-taking views I've ever experienced. A 650 foot straight drop along 5 miles of coast will certainly get your attention. Mitch and Fish- you could easily do about 15 gainers before you hit the water, and I'll obviously give you each $5 if you want to come over here and try it.
After that we got back on the bus and stopped at a local pub. Megan and I both got the leg of lamb, along with a Guinness and a Bulmer's Cider (Megan's new favorite drink). We then stopped at one of my favorite stops--a tomb that has been carbon dated back to 3,000BC. Seeing a structure that has been standing for roughly 5,000 years is beyond my comprehension. If I built something that lasted 100 years I would be very proud...and then you multiply that by 50. Touche, gentlemen and women, touche.
After that we took the very scenic 1.5 hour bus trip back to Galway and had another pint of Guinness and Bulmer's at a local pub there. Now we're heading back to Dublin and ready to get in bed for our 5AM wake up call tomorrow. Rome, here we come!
Mind the gap,
Mark
Megan and I are currently on a bus from Galway to Dublin, which fortunately has free wi-fi. Anyway, If anything else on this 15 day trip tops today--I will be highly impressed. I've heard a lot of great things about Italy from a lot of people, but I'm not sure how many of those people have been to Dublin before. The best way to put it is...southern Ireland fits Megan and I perfectly. If Megan and I trade in our plane tickets back to the US for tickets to Dublin, don't be surprised (just kidding, Mom...kind of).
We started our journey this morning at 6:20AM (which is 1:20AM in Hickory, and that made me realize how screwed up my sleep schedule is going to be when I get back). We made our way to Galway and boarded the bus that would take us around most of southern Ireland for the rest of the day.
I need about 4 different blog posts to tell you how awesome our tour was. It was a "locally owned company", which I didn't believe at first, but after today I completely believe. We started out in Galway and took a beautiful 30 minute bus ride to the O'Connell farm. I knew from the very beginning I was going to love the tour. We got there and put our bags in "Granny's House"....which was a traditional Irish cottage built in the 1920's, and was the actual home of our tour guides grandmother. Then we went out and played with some young lambs that they keep in their front yard. After that we got a very special treat, and I'll start a new paragraph for Nancy Genovese here...
We saw a big dog pen with two Irish Spaniels in them...and our tour guide asked if we would like to go see some puppies they just had 10 days ago. Everybody said yes, and off we went...Megan and I obviously leading the pack of 30 people to get there first. It was one of the cooler things I've ever experienced--next to holding a new born baby. I've obviously been a dog person my whole life (thanks mom), but I've never held little puppies that can't hardly open their eyes...definitely a new experience for both Megan and I. Hopefully I'll be able to upload some of the pictures on here, if not, check facebook a little later.
After that we took an hour long walk up through the very rocky mountains of Ireland (which were also very flowery, surprisingly. Mike...I took some pictures for you, no worries. It was very pretty, and our tour guide had a degree in Irish History, which made it even more interesting. There was an old Irish Monk Abbey below that we viewed, and it was active over 800 years ago. Obviously I took about 30 pictures of it. We also saw 3 churches that were over 1,000 years old down in the valley from where we were. After that our tour guide started talking about these very noticeable rock walls going straight up mountain sides. He told us quite a detailed story as to how they were built, but basically back when there was a huge famine in Ireland the hungry were told to do menial/pointless jobs to get 2 bowls of soup per day. As our tour guide pointed out...it's crazy to think of all these men lifting these heavy stones minute after minute and hour after hour--every single day for 2 bowls of soup. Definitely something that makes you stop and think.
After this eye opening experience we went back to "Granny's House" and were served fresh apple pie and Irish coffee. I'm not sure I've ever tasted apple pie like this apple pie...It was literally steaming straight from the oven when we got there.
After that we got back on the bus and took a long tour along the western Irish coast for about an hour and a half.
We finally arrived at the Cliffs of Moher and got to tour around for about an hour. Megan and I used this time to speed walk around every inch of the place that we possibly could, and also some areas that we weren't supposed to go (sorry mom, everybody else was doing it). It was one of the most breath-taking views I've ever experienced. A 650 foot straight drop along 5 miles of coast will certainly get your attention. Mitch and Fish- you could easily do about 15 gainers before you hit the water, and I'll obviously give you each $5 if you want to come over here and try it.
After that we got back on the bus and stopped at a local pub. Megan and I both got the leg of lamb, along with a Guinness and a Bulmer's Cider (Megan's new favorite drink). We then stopped at one of my favorite stops--a tomb that has been carbon dated back to 3,000BC. Seeing a structure that has been standing for roughly 5,000 years is beyond my comprehension. If I built something that lasted 100 years I would be very proud...and then you multiply that by 50. Touche, gentlemen and women, touche.
After that we took the very scenic 1.5 hour bus trip back to Galway and had another pint of Guinness and Bulmer's at a local pub there. Now we're heading back to Dublin and ready to get in bed for our 5AM wake up call tomorrow. Rome, here we come!
Mind the gap,
Mark
Monday, June 20, 2011
Dublin's Tight
Hey Gang!
This is my second time typing this because the first time the internet crashed. I'm going to try and sum up our day as well and quickly as I can due to the terrible internet we have at our new hostel.
We walked the city of Dublin today from 11AM to about 10PM (it doesn't get completely dark here until about 10:30, it's wild), and in my estimation we walked about 9 or 10 miles. It was well worth it though. Megan and I both love this city, and we're very glad we came here instead of Paris (nothing against Paris, we just really like it here).
We started out at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The church it self, and the gardens that surround most of it, were stunning. We relaxed for quite some time in the gardens and got some great pictures as well. Basically we saw as much of the inside as we could without wasting our money, and more importantly 2 hours of our day.
We then went over to Christ Church, which is huuuggeee (not nearly as big as St. Pauls Cathedral in London, but with dublin being a much smaller city it seemed almost as large). Once again we languished for quite some time outside the church and got some great pictures. We also skipped the tour again, mainly due to the fact we just didn't have 2 hours of our time to devote to it. It was awesome though.
After that we made our way over to the Dublin Castle. That was great because it was so big they actually had a fair amount of it open to the public. This meant we could see a fair amount of it without paying for it or spending 2 hours looking through it. Once again, we got some great pictures and took in everything we could in about 30 minutes and headed out.
Right after we left we saw a gift shop, which turned out to be great. It was great for Megan because she got to do a little shopping (it was a pretty extensive gift shop), and it was great for me because I got to try on funny hats and have Megan take pictures of me.
After that we started making our way to the Guinness Factory, and along the way stopped for about 15 minutes at St. Audoen's Church, which wasn't nearly as big or fancy as the first two we saw. However, it was still really cool, and we both enjoyed it.
We then went to the Guinness Brewery. I'm not going to go into a ton of detail about it, because we were there for a while and saw a lot of things. It was really cool to hear about the history of the company, the brewing process, the challenges in transporting the beer back in the day, the marketing, and also getting a taste test on their 7th floor "gravity bar"...it's worth looking up online and taking a look at it. Very cool.
After that we got a cab (the only one of the day, because it was pouring rain) over to the Jameson Distillery. This was definitely one of the best parts of the day. It was much smaller then the Guinness Brewery, but that also made it much more personal and a lot less crowded. The tour was very cool, for a lot of the same reasons as the Guinness tour, however we actually had a tour guide this time (Guiness was self-guided), and I thought that added a nice feel that you didn't get at Guiness. I was also one of 8 randomly selected people in our tour group to do a blind taste test of some different types of whiskey at the end. That definitely made it worth while, and I had a blast partaking in the taste test. They even awarded us an "Offical Jameson Whiskey Taster" certificate at the end. So, obviously Megan and I got some cheesy kindergarden graduation-type pictures of me with it. It was a good time.
Dad, since I know you're reading this I thought I would tell you we also met a guy on the Jameson tour and talked to him for a while...turns out he's a 757/767 pilot for Continental. We ended up chatting with him for about 30 minutes after the tour ended and got some cool stories and European insight from him since he flys over here a lot. I knew you'd enjoy hearing about that. So, there ya go.
Anyway, after that we ended up walking about 3 miles looking for a pub that still served food at 8PM. It's crazy here, the pubs only serve dinner until about 6:30, and after that they only serve alcoholic beverages. I guess they figure whether you've eaten or not, at 6:30 it's time to drink...and only drink. We finally just ended up going to the Bleeding Horse (same one as last night), and got some lasagna and "bangers and mash"...which is sausages over a bed of mashed potatoes with gravy on top. If I've already told you what bangers and mash is I apoligize, but I'm not taking the time to read back through to see if I have or not. haha
Anyway, It's time for me to go to bed now. Megan has been passed out for about an hour already, and we have a 6:30AM wake up call tomorrow morning to go to the Cliffs of Moher and other select places in West Ireland. Once again, look up the "Cliffs of Moher"...I get the feeling tomorrow might be the most scenic day of our trip after checking them our myself.
Please forgive me if my grammar/spelling hasn't been perfect on the blog (especially this post)...I haven't had enough time to proof read most of it...which is a good thing I guess. But, just wanted to make sure everybody knows I'm flying through most of these posts barely holding my eyes open.
Hope all is well back in Hickory/Blacksburg/Northern VA/Where ever else you folks are from!
Mind the gap,
Mark
This is my second time typing this because the first time the internet crashed. I'm going to try and sum up our day as well and quickly as I can due to the terrible internet we have at our new hostel.
We walked the city of Dublin today from 11AM to about 10PM (it doesn't get completely dark here until about 10:30, it's wild), and in my estimation we walked about 9 or 10 miles. It was well worth it though. Megan and I both love this city, and we're very glad we came here instead of Paris (nothing against Paris, we just really like it here).
We started out at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The church it self, and the gardens that surround most of it, were stunning. We relaxed for quite some time in the gardens and got some great pictures as well. Basically we saw as much of the inside as we could without wasting our money, and more importantly 2 hours of our day.
We then went over to Christ Church, which is huuuggeee (not nearly as big as St. Pauls Cathedral in London, but with dublin being a much smaller city it seemed almost as large). Once again we languished for quite some time outside the church and got some great pictures. We also skipped the tour again, mainly due to the fact we just didn't have 2 hours of our time to devote to it. It was awesome though.
After that we made our way over to the Dublin Castle. That was great because it was so big they actually had a fair amount of it open to the public. This meant we could see a fair amount of it without paying for it or spending 2 hours looking through it. Once again, we got some great pictures and took in everything we could in about 30 minutes and headed out.
Right after we left we saw a gift shop, which turned out to be great. It was great for Megan because she got to do a little shopping (it was a pretty extensive gift shop), and it was great for me because I got to try on funny hats and have Megan take pictures of me.
After that we started making our way to the Guinness Factory, and along the way stopped for about 15 minutes at St. Audoen's Church, which wasn't nearly as big or fancy as the first two we saw. However, it was still really cool, and we both enjoyed it.
We then went to the Guinness Brewery. I'm not going to go into a ton of detail about it, because we were there for a while and saw a lot of things. It was really cool to hear about the history of the company, the brewing process, the challenges in transporting the beer back in the day, the marketing, and also getting a taste test on their 7th floor "gravity bar"...it's worth looking up online and taking a look at it. Very cool.
After that we got a cab (the only one of the day, because it was pouring rain) over to the Jameson Distillery. This was definitely one of the best parts of the day. It was much smaller then the Guinness Brewery, but that also made it much more personal and a lot less crowded. The tour was very cool, for a lot of the same reasons as the Guinness tour, however we actually had a tour guide this time (Guiness was self-guided), and I thought that added a nice feel that you didn't get at Guiness. I was also one of 8 randomly selected people in our tour group to do a blind taste test of some different types of whiskey at the end. That definitely made it worth while, and I had a blast partaking in the taste test. They even awarded us an "Offical Jameson Whiskey Taster" certificate at the end. So, obviously Megan and I got some cheesy kindergarden graduation-type pictures of me with it. It was a good time.
Dad, since I know you're reading this I thought I would tell you we also met a guy on the Jameson tour and talked to him for a while...turns out he's a 757/767 pilot for Continental. We ended up chatting with him for about 30 minutes after the tour ended and got some cool stories and European insight from him since he flys over here a lot. I knew you'd enjoy hearing about that. So, there ya go.
Anyway, after that we ended up walking about 3 miles looking for a pub that still served food at 8PM. It's crazy here, the pubs only serve dinner until about 6:30, and after that they only serve alcoholic beverages. I guess they figure whether you've eaten or not, at 6:30 it's time to drink...and only drink. We finally just ended up going to the Bleeding Horse (same one as last night), and got some lasagna and "bangers and mash"...which is sausages over a bed of mashed potatoes with gravy on top. If I've already told you what bangers and mash is I apoligize, but I'm not taking the time to read back through to see if I have or not. haha
Anyway, It's time for me to go to bed now. Megan has been passed out for about an hour already, and we have a 6:30AM wake up call tomorrow morning to go to the Cliffs of Moher and other select places in West Ireland. Once again, look up the "Cliffs of Moher"...I get the feeling tomorrow might be the most scenic day of our trip after checking them our myself.
Please forgive me if my grammar/spelling hasn't been perfect on the blog (especially this post)...I haven't had enough time to proof read most of it...which is a good thing I guess. But, just wanted to make sure everybody knows I'm flying through most of these posts barely holding my eyes open.
Hope all is well back in Hickory/Blacksburg/Northern VA/Where ever else you folks are from!
Mind the gap,
Mark
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Happy Fathers Day!
Rory McIlory! Woo!
So, after a long day of traveling, that was absolutely beautiful, we arrived in Dublin just in time to check in to our hostel and make it to an awesome local pub called "The Bleeding Horse" to watch Rory play his last 17 holes.
We sat at a table with two taps in the middle of it that served Guinness and Carlsberg and had an electronic system to give you a reading of how many pints you had served your self. It was a very cool idea, one that I feel would flourish in a college town such as Blacksburg (I'm open to managing Blacksburg's first Irish Pub...just in case you were wondering!)
Watching the end of the US Open when an Irishman was dominating it, in Ireland, is a sports moment in my life that I will never forget. It was so cool to watch everybody in that huge pub cheer and clap every single time he came on the screen. Definitely something that's different that anything I've ever seen in America.
Another thing that was completely different then America was the train ride over here. We had about an hour or a little more in Wales on our last train ride before we boarded the fairy for Dublin, and let me tell you, it was unbelievable. I wish I could explain it better, but to put it the best way I know how, it was just 100% different than anything you would ever see in the US. It may not have been the most absolutely breath-taking views you had ever seen, but it just had a different landscape, with different architecture, and a completely different life style...it all blew me away!
Anyway, it's bedtime here in Dublin....I would love to share more specific details of our journey on here, but I just seem to be so tired every time I get back to our hostel/hotel that it's hard.
Anyway, I hope you guys are still enjoying it!
Mind the Gap,
Mark
So, after a long day of traveling, that was absolutely beautiful, we arrived in Dublin just in time to check in to our hostel and make it to an awesome local pub called "The Bleeding Horse" to watch Rory play his last 17 holes.
We sat at a table with two taps in the middle of it that served Guinness and Carlsberg and had an electronic system to give you a reading of how many pints you had served your self. It was a very cool idea, one that I feel would flourish in a college town such as Blacksburg (I'm open to managing Blacksburg's first Irish Pub...just in case you were wondering!)
Watching the end of the US Open when an Irishman was dominating it, in Ireland, is a sports moment in my life that I will never forget. It was so cool to watch everybody in that huge pub cheer and clap every single time he came on the screen. Definitely something that's different that anything I've ever seen in America.
Another thing that was completely different then America was the train ride over here. We had about an hour or a little more in Wales on our last train ride before we boarded the fairy for Dublin, and let me tell you, it was unbelievable. I wish I could explain it better, but to put it the best way I know how, it was just 100% different than anything you would ever see in the US. It may not have been the most absolutely breath-taking views you had ever seen, but it just had a different landscape, with different architecture, and a completely different life style...it all blew me away!
Anyway, it's bedtime here in Dublin....I would love to share more specific details of our journey on here, but I just seem to be so tired every time I get back to our hostel/hotel that it's hard.
Anyway, I hope you guys are still enjoying it!
Mind the Gap,
Mark
Saturday, June 18, 2011
MIND THE GAP!
Cherio Mate!,
So, I may or may not have just had the most productive/active day of my life.
I woke up at 7AM after going to bed at 2AM, and if you know me, you know how crazy that is. Meg wasn't getting up until about 8:30, so I decided to go on a run to get a feel for the general direction of Buckingham Palace. Of course I stopped after about 20 minutes and was informed by a nice local that I was headed in the complete opposite direction of Hyde Park and/or Buckingham Palace. She pointed me in the right direction and 15 minutes later I was standing in front of Hyde Park...which I then realized was about 500 yards from where we were staying...go figure (I'll save my extreme distain for where our hotel puts themselves on a map, versus where they're actually located, for later).
Anyway, after I realized that the map the hotel gave us wasn't right (Atleast in terms of which way the hotel was facing) I got an idea of where to go.
Megan and I both enjoyed breakfast...which only consisted of cereal, milk, OJ, and dry toast. Is it bad that I would consider spending most of my net worth (approx. $24.50 USD) to hire somebody to force feed that healthy breakfast down my throat every day?
Anyway...we started out on a 2 mile trek to Buckingham Palace that led us through some beautiful parts of Hyde park. We got to BP at about 10:45 for the changing of the guard. I thought (and so did my European travel book) that this was plenty early enough, but we were still behind 2 or 3 people at the fence of Buckingham Palace no matter where we went. Other then the crazy French people pushing me the entire time, we enjoyed the experience.
After that we hopped on "The Tube" to West Minister Abbey and got some great pictures with Big Ben.
We were going to get on the London Eye ferris wheel until we realized it was 17 pounds a person ($25) to go on it. Instead, we walked to Tate Modern, and along the way we stumbled upon St. Johns Cathedral. It was defintely one of my favorite places in London, so it worked out well. It also started raining after we walked around it, so we took refuge in a pub and were forced to drink a couple beers.
After a 30 minute walk we got to Tate Modern, and got to the 7th floor with a beer in hand. We had a couple drinks there and then tried to make our way to the London Towers. However, we got drenched by the rain (which lasted 10 minutes, for the third crazy down pour of the day) and decided to grab another beer at another local pub.
We got on the subway and decided to get off a stop early to get another taste of the local pub life. We ended up at a souvenier store which sold some great souveniers (MIND THE GAP!!).
Anyway, we're getting up early tomorrow to head to Ireland. We plan on celebrating with Rory McIlory's native contrymen when we get there on a spectacular US Open. So, keep your fingers crossed for us.
There's more funny details to document later, but for now...I hope you enjoy!
Mind The Gap,
Mark
So, I may or may not have just had the most productive/active day of my life.
I woke up at 7AM after going to bed at 2AM, and if you know me, you know how crazy that is. Meg wasn't getting up until about 8:30, so I decided to go on a run to get a feel for the general direction of Buckingham Palace. Of course I stopped after about 20 minutes and was informed by a nice local that I was headed in the complete opposite direction of Hyde Park and/or Buckingham Palace. She pointed me in the right direction and 15 minutes later I was standing in front of Hyde Park...which I then realized was about 500 yards from where we were staying...go figure (I'll save my extreme distain for where our hotel puts themselves on a map, versus where they're actually located, for later).
Anyway, after I realized that the map the hotel gave us wasn't right (Atleast in terms of which way the hotel was facing) I got an idea of where to go.
Megan and I both enjoyed breakfast...which only consisted of cereal, milk, OJ, and dry toast. Is it bad that I would consider spending most of my net worth (approx. $24.50 USD) to hire somebody to force feed that healthy breakfast down my throat every day?
Anyway...we started out on a 2 mile trek to Buckingham Palace that led us through some beautiful parts of Hyde park. We got to BP at about 10:45 for the changing of the guard. I thought (and so did my European travel book) that this was plenty early enough, but we were still behind 2 or 3 people at the fence of Buckingham Palace no matter where we went. Other then the crazy French people pushing me the entire time, we enjoyed the experience.
After that we hopped on "The Tube" to West Minister Abbey and got some great pictures with Big Ben.
We were going to get on the London Eye ferris wheel until we realized it was 17 pounds a person ($25) to go on it. Instead, we walked to Tate Modern, and along the way we stumbled upon St. Johns Cathedral. It was defintely one of my favorite places in London, so it worked out well. It also started raining after we walked around it, so we took refuge in a pub and were forced to drink a couple beers.
After a 30 minute walk we got to Tate Modern, and got to the 7th floor with a beer in hand. We had a couple drinks there and then tried to make our way to the London Towers. However, we got drenched by the rain (which lasted 10 minutes, for the third crazy down pour of the day) and decided to grab another beer at another local pub.
We got on the subway and decided to get off a stop early to get another taste of the local pub life. We ended up at a souvenier store which sold some great souveniers (MIND THE GAP!!).
Anyway, we're getting up early tomorrow to head to Ireland. We plan on celebrating with Rory McIlory's native contrymen when we get there on a spectacular US Open. So, keep your fingers crossed for us.
There's more funny details to document later, but for now...I hope you enjoy!
Mind The Gap,
Mark
Friday, June 17, 2011
Cheers!
Hey Everybody! I'll try and fill you in on the last 12 hours or so...
The flight from Boston to London was pretty good other then the rather tall Norwegian kid sitting beside me taking up a lot of my leg room. He was a nice enough guy though, has his masters in psychology and is currently working on his PhD at Boston University, so we had a fair amount to talk about. He's been to London a few times so I asked him what was fun to do here, and he told me to go see the Lion King musical...he obviously doesn't know me very well.
So after a sleepless flight we finally arrived in London, and after a bit of confusion about the subway system we managed to make it to the "Blue Bell Hotel" right outside of London. Unfortunately we couldn't check in for about 3 hours after we arrived so we were forced to immediately go out and wander around for a couple hours instead of napping for a couple hours like we so desperately wanted/needed to do.
We intended to go to a bunch of different places on the subway, but of course we didn't end up where we intended to so we wandered around some market that we just happened to run into. It was a lot of fun though, there were a lot of street performers and cool little stands/shops to look around (check out the pictures if I can figure out how to upload them). We also saw a cool old church and really just "immersed our selves in the London culture" if you will.
After we got back we took about a 5 hour nap, which was desperately needed. Then we walked about 5 minutes to the "Old Swan Pub" for some fish and chips and an English beer called "John Smith's" which was established in 1758. It was ironic because I'm pretty sure my "John Smith" was actually brewed in 1758 and served to me 253 short years later. I mean it wasn't quite that bad, but we'll call in "interesting". On the bright side of things, our fish and chips were out of this world...and just seeing a local pub in the full swing of things was really interesting. I got the feeling that the waitress (which you could only order from if you went up to the bar) thought I was a typical spoiled American when I asked for extra tartar sauce. I could tell she thought that when I asked and she said, "YOU ALREADY GOT ONE WITH YOUR MEAL!" I could also tell when she brought me my extra "tartar sauce" at 8:30 and said, "sorry, the kitchen is closed...all we have left is straight mayonnaise" when the restaurant part of the pub didn't close until 10. It was fine with me, because I don't mind mayonnaise, but I really did find it interesting how she viewed and treated the "spoiled american" when I asked for something extra.
Another quick side note about the pub experience: I already mentioned that you must walk up to the bar and order what ever you want. I also found it interesting that you aren't expected to tip the guys behind the bar (I was a bit skeptical and watched 4 or 5 people go up before me and they didn't tip them...so neither did I). There's also no "wait to be seated" signs...and most people come in, sit down, clear off the people's trash before them to a corner of the table, go up and order, and then wait for the waitress to come bring their food and clear the table at the same time. Obviously, that was very different to what I'm used to in the states.
After the pub, Megan and I walked around for over an hour taking in the sights, sounds, culture, and overall experience of the U.K. culture. I wish I could recount all the differences to the US I've noticed in the few hours that I've been here, but I'll share some of them with you:
-Almost all business men wear super pointy dress shoes with their suits.
-Everybody in general dresses weird (Apparently gym shorts and t-shirts aren't the fad here. Also, Chase Franklin...you belong in Europe, not Boone).
-Apparently the electrical outlets are different here.
-They drive on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car...weird.
-The street signs are posted on fences and other random places beside the street approximately 12 to 18 inches above the ground...with cars parked in front of them.
-Everything costs the same as America...except it's in pounds instead of dollars. So, basically everything here is about 60% more expensive than it is in Amurica.
-I've seen more "nice" (take it for what it's worth) cars here in the last 8 hours then I would normally see in 8 months in Hickory.
-They sell canned mixed drinks (see pictures). Including: Gin and Tonic, Jack and Coke, Soco and Lemonade/Lime, Vodka and Cranberry, and Crown and Coke.
-Speaking of alcohol, for those of you who drink Stella, you can get a 6 pack of 16oz Stellas for a little less than $10 here...even with the terrible exchange rate.
-Getting sports on TV to show to a public audience is extremely expensive...so almost none of the pubs here get more than 3 or 4 channels of TV.
-Building on the last point, it didn't seem to matter to the patrons of the pub. They all talked about twice as loudly and twice as much as most Americans in a sports bar/pub...even without sports to watch.
Anyway, It's almost 12:30AM here so Megan and I are gonna finish off this bottle of South African wine that we bought and head to bed. We have a full day of sight seeing ahead of us tomorrow. It all starts with a 1.5-2 mile stroll through Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard.
I hope everybody is enjoying the blog so far, and I'll update again as soon as possible!
Cheers,
Mark
The flight from Boston to London was pretty good other then the rather tall Norwegian kid sitting beside me taking up a lot of my leg room. He was a nice enough guy though, has his masters in psychology and is currently working on his PhD at Boston University, so we had a fair amount to talk about. He's been to London a few times so I asked him what was fun to do here, and he told me to go see the Lion King musical...he obviously doesn't know me very well.
So after a sleepless flight we finally arrived in London, and after a bit of confusion about the subway system we managed to make it to the "Blue Bell Hotel" right outside of London. Unfortunately we couldn't check in for about 3 hours after we arrived so we were forced to immediately go out and wander around for a couple hours instead of napping for a couple hours like we so desperately wanted/needed to do.
We intended to go to a bunch of different places on the subway, but of course we didn't end up where we intended to so we wandered around some market that we just happened to run into. It was a lot of fun though, there were a lot of street performers and cool little stands/shops to look around (check out the pictures if I can figure out how to upload them). We also saw a cool old church and really just "immersed our selves in the London culture" if you will.
After we got back we took about a 5 hour nap, which was desperately needed. Then we walked about 5 minutes to the "Old Swan Pub" for some fish and chips and an English beer called "John Smith's" which was established in 1758. It was ironic because I'm pretty sure my "John Smith" was actually brewed in 1758 and served to me 253 short years later. I mean it wasn't quite that bad, but we'll call in "interesting". On the bright side of things, our fish and chips were out of this world...and just seeing a local pub in the full swing of things was really interesting. I got the feeling that the waitress (which you could only order from if you went up to the bar) thought I was a typical spoiled American when I asked for extra tartar sauce. I could tell she thought that when I asked and she said, "YOU ALREADY GOT ONE WITH YOUR MEAL!" I could also tell when she brought me my extra "tartar sauce" at 8:30 and said, "sorry, the kitchen is closed...all we have left is straight mayonnaise" when the restaurant part of the pub didn't close until 10. It was fine with me, because I don't mind mayonnaise, but I really did find it interesting how she viewed and treated the "spoiled american" when I asked for something extra.
Another quick side note about the pub experience: I already mentioned that you must walk up to the bar and order what ever you want. I also found it interesting that you aren't expected to tip the guys behind the bar (I was a bit skeptical and watched 4 or 5 people go up before me and they didn't tip them...so neither did I). There's also no "wait to be seated" signs...and most people come in, sit down, clear off the people's trash before them to a corner of the table, go up and order, and then wait for the waitress to come bring their food and clear the table at the same time. Obviously, that was very different to what I'm used to in the states.
After the pub, Megan and I walked around for over an hour taking in the sights, sounds, culture, and overall experience of the U.K. culture. I wish I could recount all the differences to the US I've noticed in the few hours that I've been here, but I'll share some of them with you:
-Almost all business men wear super pointy dress shoes with their suits.
-Everybody in general dresses weird (Apparently gym shorts and t-shirts aren't the fad here. Also, Chase Franklin...you belong in Europe, not Boone).
-Apparently the electrical outlets are different here.
-They drive on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car...weird.
-The street signs are posted on fences and other random places beside the street approximately 12 to 18 inches above the ground...with cars parked in front of them.
-Everything costs the same as America...except it's in pounds instead of dollars. So, basically everything here is about 60% more expensive than it is in Amurica.
-I've seen more "nice" (take it for what it's worth) cars here in the last 8 hours then I would normally see in 8 months in Hickory.
-They sell canned mixed drinks (see pictures). Including: Gin and Tonic, Jack and Coke, Soco and Lemonade/Lime, Vodka and Cranberry, and Crown and Coke.
-Speaking of alcohol, for those of you who drink Stella, you can get a 6 pack of 16oz Stellas for a little less than $10 here...even with the terrible exchange rate.
-Getting sports on TV to show to a public audience is extremely expensive...so almost none of the pubs here get more than 3 or 4 channels of TV.
-Building on the last point, it didn't seem to matter to the patrons of the pub. They all talked about twice as loudly and twice as much as most Americans in a sports bar/pub...even without sports to watch.
Anyway, It's almost 12:30AM here so Megan and I are gonna finish off this bottle of South African wine that we bought and head to bed. We have a full day of sight seeing ahead of us tomorrow. It all starts with a 1.5-2 mile stroll through Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard.
I hope everybody is enjoying the blog so far, and I'll update again as soon as possible!
Cheers,
Mark
We Made It
We just arrived at our hotel in Notting Hill...which is about 2 or 3 miles from the center of London. I haven't had any sleep since Wednesday night and Megan only got about 2 hours on the plane. So basically we're draggin ass right now, but unfortunately the hotel won't let us check in until 2 (It's 11 here now) so we're gonna saddle up and go explore.
Preliminary plans are: food here in Notting Hill, check out covent garden which has been highly recommened by a couple people, go by St. Pauls church, and either wing it from there or come back to the hotel for a quick nap before dinner and some more night time London sight seeing.
I'm too tired to come up with a cheesy joke about me not knowing English is spoken here, so...
Regards,
Mark
Preliminary plans are: food here in Notting Hill, check out covent garden which has been highly recommened by a couple people, go by St. Pauls church, and either wing it from there or come back to the hotel for a quick nap before dinner and some more night time London sight seeing.
I'm too tired to come up with a cheesy joke about me not knowing English is spoken here, so...
Regards,
Mark
Thursday, June 16, 2011
We (I) screwed up already. That didn't take long.
Well...we got do Dulles International about 2 hours before our flight. All went well through security and getting to our gate. We got on the JetBlue flight and I remembered they have free Direct TV on all flights. This is awesome because I got to watch the US Open the entire flight. It's also great because when I got off the plane Rory McIlroy was in the lead. This is significant to our trip because we arive in Ireland on Sunday afternoon and if he's still close to the lead Dublin (and all of Ireland for that matter) will be going nuts. Basically, Europeans take their golf very seriously...and if he's in contention on Sunday at the US Open it will be WILD in Dublin.
Now, on to where I turn into an idiot. We get off the plane and don't bother to look at a screen with gates on it, we just go to the gate printed on our boarding pass. This sounds easy, but we walked for a solid 30 minutes, saw the Logan International Church (random), and didn't see one other living soul the entire time (I should have known something was wrong). We finally get to the (supposedly) correct concourse and we sit through security (again), and about 30 minutes later we arrive in some random terminal with little planes at every gate that seat about 12 people. So, we're obviously in the wrong place. I thought the 17 people that had to look at my boarding pass that said I was going to London might realize that a 12 seat regional plane probably wouldn't be taking us there, but apparently not. Anyway...
We then get directions to the other side of the airport, which required a shuttle to get to. We arrive and go through security (again) and finally get to the gate that was on the screen...which apparently is going to Munich. The nice guy at that counter points us to an Irish airline and says that's our gate. I don't even know why I bothered going over there, because they obviously weren't Virgin Airlines flying into London. Anywho, after about 10 more minutes of talking we finally found our gate.
It's only taken about 3 hours for all of this craziness to happen, so I can only imagine what the next 15 days hold in store.
As of now Megan and I are sitting in a food court, drinking a beer, and watching our 747 be loaded with luggage. Basically, after all the craziness life is good and we're ready to continue this already wild journey.
G'Day Mates! (that's how they talk in London, right?)
Now, on to where I turn into an idiot. We get off the plane and don't bother to look at a screen with gates on it, we just go to the gate printed on our boarding pass. This sounds easy, but we walked for a solid 30 minutes, saw the Logan International Church (random), and didn't see one other living soul the entire time (I should have known something was wrong). We finally get to the (supposedly) correct concourse and we sit through security (again), and about 30 minutes later we arrive in some random terminal with little planes at every gate that seat about 12 people. So, we're obviously in the wrong place. I thought the 17 people that had to look at my boarding pass that said I was going to London might realize that a 12 seat regional plane probably wouldn't be taking us there, but apparently not. Anyway...
We then get directions to the other side of the airport, which required a shuttle to get to. We arrive and go through security (again) and finally get to the gate that was on the screen...which apparently is going to Munich. The nice guy at that counter points us to an Irish airline and says that's our gate. I don't even know why I bothered going over there, because they obviously weren't Virgin Airlines flying into London. Anywho, after about 10 more minutes of talking we finally found our gate.
It's only taken about 3 hours for all of this craziness to happen, so I can only imagine what the next 15 days hold in store.
As of now Megan and I are sitting in a food court, drinking a beer, and watching our 747 be loaded with luggage. Basically, after all the craziness life is good and we're ready to continue this already wild journey.
G'Day Mates! (that's how they talk in London, right?)
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Mucho Nervioso (That's what language they speak in London, right?)
Hola Mis Amigos,
As a lot of you know Megan and I are heading to Europe tomorrow. I've read a lot of "study abroad" blogs from Spain and other locations in Europe, so I decided it was my turn to blab about my travels as well. We start out in London, then Dublin, and then off to explore as much of Italy as we can in 8 days, and then back to London for our flight back to Amurica.
Anywho, I plan on updating this as much as possible for the duration of the trip. I know all 4 of you that are reading it will want to know what we've been up to.
We have a 3 hour lay-over tomorrow in Boston, so I'll probably post something then.
-Mark
P.S.- I planned on talking about how nervous I was in this blog post, which is why I entitled it "mucho nervioso"...but that didn't happen. So it's kind of a dumb title now, but it still makes me chuckle so I'll leave it.
As a lot of you know Megan and I are heading to Europe tomorrow. I've read a lot of "study abroad" blogs from Spain and other locations in Europe, so I decided it was my turn to blab about my travels as well. We start out in London, then Dublin, and then off to explore as much of Italy as we can in 8 days, and then back to London for our flight back to Amurica.
Anywho, I plan on updating this as much as possible for the duration of the trip. I know all 4 of you that are reading it will want to know what we've been up to.
We have a 3 hour lay-over tomorrow in Boston, so I'll probably post something then.
-Mark
P.S.- I planned on talking about how nervous I was in this blog post, which is why I entitled it "mucho nervioso"...but that didn't happen. So it's kind of a dumb title now, but it still makes me chuckle so I'll leave it.
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