Thought I'd make a new post since that one was getting pretty long.. Sorry I type/talk a lot!
Sunday we went to Versailles and did a tour of the gardens that King Louis 14th created in order to have the most "glorious chateau in France". It was absolutely breath-taking. and HUGE! It was something like 22,000 acres so naturally we didn't see it all but we did walk around forever and see the water fountain show that had its own soundtrack specifically composed for the fountains, and all of the original statues and perfectly manicured lawns. The thought put into the gardens and the symbolism behind everything was amazing.. For example there was hardly any grass in the gardens because grass grows wild and King Louis wanted to prove that he could control everything, even nature, because he was the Sun God and he basically thought that he ruled the world, even the way grass grew from the ground. Another thing that was amazing was the water pumps for all of the fountains didn't run all the time, so when King Louis was taking a stroll through the gardens he'd tell his servants which garden he wanted to see next, and they'd do a certain whistle to let the next servant know they had to sprint to go turn on that water before he got there.. then when he was moving on they'd shut that off and turn it on again quickly at the next one before he showed up.. So it looked to him/his guests that the water was running at all times. Everything was so impressive.
That night we went to Montmarte for our third and final tour.. This was the Moulin Rouge area and we had another awesome tour guide, Billy, who was Scottish and made a million drinking references haha. After this tour we met up with CJ again and got some delicious crepes and had a drink with him in a little French bar.
How was everyone's Halloween?? Mine was great! I was a pint of Guinness, so I had a black dress and used cotton balls to make foam go around the top and then I drew/cut out/taped a harp and the word GUINNESS across it.
Oh man I actually just learned about five minutes ago there was a boy in Galway who was in a sheep costume and his costume was set on fire in a nightclub here and he is now in critical condition with burns over 80% of his body. Such a sad sad accident, so if you're reading this, say a prayer for him. The article said he was a really motivated medical student here at NUIG. My thoughts will be with him.. hopefully he recovers fully.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Sorry it's been so long.. Lemme tell you about Paris!
Hey there blog-readers!
So sorry it's been so long since I posted. I've been busy traveling the world/having the best four months of my life, so don't be mad. Since London, Mom visited for a few days. That was fantastic.. going out to eat and having some glasses of Chardonnay with her and enjoying a few nice steaks as opposed to the chicken fingers I make myself way too often was definitely a nice change of pace. Not to mention she took me shopping even though it's her least favorite thing to do!
My friends here were all big Debbie fans, naturally. Especially after she came to The Cellar Bar with us and had a pint with us and showed off some dance moves never seen before in Galway! We also went on a trek at the place I rode horses before in Galway and luckily it was a beautiful day so we got some more pictures and Mom got to brush up on her riding skills before she starts preparing for next year's Oklahoma! ;-)
Meghan, Emily, Mary and I went to France last weekend for three nights because Ireland had a "bank holiday" or what I'm presuming to be an excuse to have Monday off after Halloween weekend... I'd say the motto here is work hard, play harder, but I don't think I can honestly say I've been working hard in classes... oops! I attend class and take some notes but it's nothing like St Mike's where there are constant tests/quizzes to prepare for.
But back to our trip to Paris.. We had a 6am flight out of Dublin, so we had to leave Galway around 1am to get a bus there early enough and we landed around 9am on Friday so we literally did not sleep Thursday night. I did try, but I just can't sleep on buses/planes. Can you??? Does anyone have advice for sleeping on them cause it would help me SO much! If I had a euro for every bus ride I wish I could sleep soundly on......
So when we got to Paris we were somewhat delusionally tired but found our way to the hotel in the north-east side of Paris. We had lunch, went to the Louvre to see a few pictures and the Mona Lisa [which was actually kind of small and disappointing, but still creepy because she literally doesn't take her eyes off you despite where you stand in the room] and then saw the Arc de Triomphe and then went to bed pretty early to feel human again.
The next day we did an awesome but FREEZING (it was barely 40 degrees and windy) walking tour of all Paris. Our tour guide was a young kid from NY who moved to Montreal when he was 18 and then to France, fell in love with it and never went home! I could totally see myself doing that in Ireland..... so if I never come home, don't say I didn't warn you all! ;-)
He told us all about the history of france during the world wars and about different tortures/guillotine beheadings and then we met up with CJ and had lunch with him for a bit..
ALSO best part of Paris -- i got to see Christina from St Mikes!!! She was visiting there for the weekend too. We had a GIANT loud squealy hug in the middle of the sidewalk in front of a restaurant with outdoor seating - proving that the loud americans stereotype is true but we couldn't help it!! I was so excited to see her. THat night she came with me and my friends on a sunset cruise around the Sein River where we got to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up/continued to freeze our butts off.
Bad news was Emily's wallet got pickpocketed that night.. it was like a magic trick, the guy went in her zipped purse and grabbed it while she was trying to cross the street and then disappeared.. luckily she canceled her card and had almost no cash in it, but unfortunately her passport was in it which made for a stressful night trying to find a copy of her passport and get copies of IDs together so we could fly back home. Thank you again Tom Murphy the irish immigration man who let her on the flight. Cheers, we owe you one.
So sorry it's been so long since I posted. I've been busy traveling the world/having the best four months of my life, so don't be mad. Since London, Mom visited for a few days. That was fantastic.. going out to eat and having some glasses of Chardonnay with her and enjoying a few nice steaks as opposed to the chicken fingers I make myself way too often was definitely a nice change of pace. Not to mention she took me shopping even though it's her least favorite thing to do!
My friends here were all big Debbie fans, naturally. Especially after she came to The Cellar Bar with us and had a pint with us and showed off some dance moves never seen before in Galway! We also went on a trek at the place I rode horses before in Galway and luckily it was a beautiful day so we got some more pictures and Mom got to brush up on her riding skills before she starts preparing for next year's Oklahoma! ;-)
Meghan, Emily, Mary and I went to France last weekend for three nights because Ireland had a "bank holiday" or what I'm presuming to be an excuse to have Monday off after Halloween weekend... I'd say the motto here is work hard, play harder, but I don't think I can honestly say I've been working hard in classes... oops! I attend class and take some notes but it's nothing like St Mike's where there are constant tests/quizzes to prepare for.
But back to our trip to Paris.. We had a 6am flight out of Dublin, so we had to leave Galway around 1am to get a bus there early enough and we landed around 9am on Friday so we literally did not sleep Thursday night. I did try, but I just can't sleep on buses/planes. Can you??? Does anyone have advice for sleeping on them cause it would help me SO much! If I had a euro for every bus ride I wish I could sleep soundly on......
So when we got to Paris we were somewhat delusionally tired but found our way to the hotel in the north-east side of Paris. We had lunch, went to the Louvre to see a few pictures and the Mona Lisa [which was actually kind of small and disappointing, but still creepy because she literally doesn't take her eyes off you despite where you stand in the room] and then saw the Arc de Triomphe and then went to bed pretty early to feel human again.
The next day we did an awesome but FREEZING (it was barely 40 degrees and windy) walking tour of all Paris. Our tour guide was a young kid from NY who moved to Montreal when he was 18 and then to France, fell in love with it and never went home! I could totally see myself doing that in Ireland..... so if I never come home, don't say I didn't warn you all! ;-)
He told us all about the history of france during the world wars and about different tortures/guillotine beheadings and then we met up with CJ and had lunch with him for a bit..
ALSO best part of Paris -- i got to see Christina from St Mikes!!! She was visiting there for the weekend too. We had a GIANT loud squealy hug in the middle of the sidewalk in front of a restaurant with outdoor seating - proving that the loud americans stereotype is true but we couldn't help it!! I was so excited to see her. THat night she came with me and my friends on a sunset cruise around the Sein River where we got to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up/continued to freeze our butts off.
Bad news was Emily's wallet got pickpocketed that night.. it was like a magic trick, the guy went in her zipped purse and grabbed it while she was trying to cross the street and then disappeared.. luckily she canceled her card and had almost no cash in it, but unfortunately her passport was in it which made for a stressful night trying to find a copy of her passport and get copies of IDs together so we could fly back home. Thank you again Tom Murphy the irish immigration man who let her on the flight. Cheers, we owe you one.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
London!
Another weekend for the books! We flew over to London for the weekend with API and stayed near Hyde Park right by the Queensway/Bayswater area at a little hotel called Queens Park Hotel. We got there Friday afternoon and found a little italian place to get dinner (they charged us for the tablecloths... who does that?!) then explored the area we were staying at a bit and walked over to see Big Ben and ride the London Eye at night to see everything lit up!! It was absolutely beautiful riding the Eye (a giant slow-motion glass ferris wheel) and seeing everything lit up at night - you could see all of London.
Saturday we saw the Tower of London which was awesome because we saw all the crown jewels and fancy billion dollar swords with rubies and emeralds and DIAMONDS everywhere and all over everything from as far back as the 1600's. We also saw the chapel where Anne Boleyn and several other queens were buried, and the torture chambers/towers were they were held before they were executed. It was so cool seeing the places where so much of that history all took place.. the only bad thing was that we didn't see Jonathan Rhys Meyers from the Tudors walking around playing Henry VIII - I love him. It was all way bigger than I thought it would be.. I thought it'd just be one big tower but I didn't realize there was also chapel and a separate museum and little houses where the royal guards lived and the building for the crown jewels, etc. so it was nice that there was a lot to see!
Next we went to Westminster Abbey and the Chapel to see where the queen was coronated/ where Will and Kate got married! Then we went to Buckingham palace.. we weren't there at the right time to see the changing of the guards but we still saw the guards in their red outfits and tall black furry hats (reminded me of the poster Grandma has in the basement! Looked just like them)
After walking around for pretty much ever and taking a million pictures, Kathleen and I finally rested our legs and went to see Wicked! It was amazing, I looooved it. I knew most of the music from chorus but never saw the play and the lead who played Elphaba/the bad witch was PHENOMENAL. She literally gave me goosebumps everytime she sang. Everyone in the play was really talented but her voice blew the rest of them out of the water. I don't know if I've ever heard such a great singer in a play before. Unfortunately later that night our friend's wallet got pickpocketed (we missed safe galway) so that was the worst part of the weekend but overall it was a great trip.
Sunday we didn't have as much time to sightsee because we had to leave for the airport at 3:30 but we went to Oxford St.. fortunately for my wallet it was Sunday and we went early so the expensive stores were all still closed... then saw Trafalgar Square, St. James Park, the CUTEST FLUFFIEST husky puppy ever, a lot of art on display on the sidewalk that I wanted to buy but didn't, a rubber duck that has the british flag on it that I did buy!, and then lots of more dogs in the park that made me miss Bandit!
Mom comes tomorrow... AKA waiting til then to do laundry so i can do it in the hotel and not pay 5 euro for it! woohoo!!
Saturday we saw the Tower of London which was awesome because we saw all the crown jewels and fancy billion dollar swords with rubies and emeralds and DIAMONDS everywhere and all over everything from as far back as the 1600's. We also saw the chapel where Anne Boleyn and several other queens were buried, and the torture chambers/towers were they were held before they were executed. It was so cool seeing the places where so much of that history all took place.. the only bad thing was that we didn't see Jonathan Rhys Meyers from the Tudors walking around playing Henry VIII - I love him. It was all way bigger than I thought it would be.. I thought it'd just be one big tower but I didn't realize there was also chapel and a separate museum and little houses where the royal guards lived and the building for the crown jewels, etc. so it was nice that there was a lot to see!
Next we went to Westminster Abbey and the Chapel to see where the queen was coronated/ where Will and Kate got married! Then we went to Buckingham palace.. we weren't there at the right time to see the changing of the guards but we still saw the guards in their red outfits and tall black furry hats (reminded me of the poster Grandma has in the basement! Looked just like them)
After walking around for pretty much ever and taking a million pictures, Kathleen and I finally rested our legs and went to see Wicked! It was amazing, I looooved it. I knew most of the music from chorus but never saw the play and the lead who played Elphaba/the bad witch was PHENOMENAL. She literally gave me goosebumps everytime she sang. Everyone in the play was really talented but her voice blew the rest of them out of the water. I don't know if I've ever heard such a great singer in a play before. Unfortunately later that night our friend's wallet got pickpocketed (we missed safe galway) so that was the worst part of the weekend but overall it was a great trip.
Sunday we didn't have as much time to sightsee because we had to leave for the airport at 3:30 but we went to Oxford St.. fortunately for my wallet it was Sunday and we went early so the expensive stores were all still closed... then saw Trafalgar Square, St. James Park, the CUTEST FLUFFIEST husky puppy ever, a lot of art on display on the sidewalk that I wanted to buy but didn't, a rubber duck that has the british flag on it that I did buy!, and then lots of more dogs in the park that made me miss Bandit!
Mom comes tomorrow... AKA waiting til then to do laundry so i can do it in the hotel and not pay 5 euro for it! woohoo!!
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
The first two visitors arrived!
I had my first two visitors here in Galway earlier this week!
Greg arrived exhausted (seriously, jet lag is horrible enough..and then the sad realization finding out you have a 2.5 hour bus ride to Galway after doing all that flying = brutal) and so when he got here we just relaxed so he could wake up a bit and then we went downtown to show him Shop Street and all the pubs and street performers there.
He did say it reminded him a bit like Church St in Burlington except an Irish version, but we had a fun time trying new restaurants.. I haven't been to that many yet.. hint hint Mom you can take me when you get here!!!
Later that night we met up with five of my friends here and went out with them. A lot of my other API friends here were either at Oktoberfest for the weekend so he didn't get to meet them all but it was nice that he got to know a few of them really well instead of being overwhelmed by a big group of random Americans! I introduced him to Supermacs late night food of course and then we pretty much did the same thing the next day and spent two nights at a B&B in Salthill which was nice cause it is right on the water.
He got lucky too it was actually sunny both Friday and Saturday when he was here!
Then Jeff came Monday so he, Greg and I went to a restaurant at the end of Quay St down by the water to have a few pints and get dinner... They have the best beef stew there ever. It was the first time I had a really traditional irish meal so that was good.
Greg left for the airport at like 4am Monday so then Jeff and I did a little family-bonding and spent Tuesday mostly being lazy at my house but we did go back out later that night to get food and listen to live bands and see irish dancers!
Mom comes next week so I'm looking forward to that!
I've planned some trips recently too: Paris and Barcelona for a weekend! And we go to London this weekend!!
Any suggestions for what to see in London/Paris/Barcelona??
Greg arrived exhausted (seriously, jet lag is horrible enough..and then the sad realization finding out you have a 2.5 hour bus ride to Galway after doing all that flying = brutal) and so when he got here we just relaxed so he could wake up a bit and then we went downtown to show him Shop Street and all the pubs and street performers there.
He did say it reminded him a bit like Church St in Burlington except an Irish version, but we had a fun time trying new restaurants.. I haven't been to that many yet.. hint hint Mom you can take me when you get here!!!
Later that night we met up with five of my friends here and went out with them. A lot of my other API friends here were either at Oktoberfest for the weekend so he didn't get to meet them all but it was nice that he got to know a few of them really well instead of being overwhelmed by a big group of random Americans! I introduced him to Supermacs late night food of course and then we pretty much did the same thing the next day and spent two nights at a B&B in Salthill which was nice cause it is right on the water.
He got lucky too it was actually sunny both Friday and Saturday when he was here!
Then Jeff came Monday so he, Greg and I went to a restaurant at the end of Quay St down by the water to have a few pints and get dinner... They have the best beef stew there ever. It was the first time I had a really traditional irish meal so that was good.
Greg left for the airport at like 4am Monday so then Jeff and I did a little family-bonding and spent Tuesday mostly being lazy at my house but we did go back out later that night to get food and listen to live bands and see irish dancers!
Mom comes next week so I'm looking forward to that!
I've planned some trips recently too: Paris and Barcelona for a weekend! And we go to London this weekend!!
Any suggestions for what to see in London/Paris/Barcelona??
Long Time No Post!
Hello friends! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, I've been busy entertaining visitors!!!
So where did I leave off?
The Potluck dinner!
It was pretty amazing, there were about 18 of us who made meals and so we had to have people bring their own plates and silverware because my apartment is so small but despite the crowding around the table it was awesome to have home cooked meals!!!
Here's a list of our delicious creations:
-pizza rolls (made by me!!! I was so proud of them. I bought crescent rolls and then put pepperoni and cheese in the little triangles, then rolled them up and baked it all together.. genius!)
-salads: tomato and mozzarella, green regular lettuce salad, apple salad, fruit salad
-chocolate fondue
-chocolate covered oreos
-chick pea curry and rice
-fried rice
-chicken fingers
-chile
-fajitas
-cake
-garlic bread
-dip and guacamole with chips!!
So it was a pretty big success! We're definitely going to do it again sometime soon.
Also, while I'm on the topic of food, Mom and Greg pulled through and brought me five boxes of Mac and Cheese so I'm pretty much the happiest girl in Galway right now!!
So where did I leave off?
The Potluck dinner!
It was pretty amazing, there were about 18 of us who made meals and so we had to have people bring their own plates and silverware because my apartment is so small but despite the crowding around the table it was awesome to have home cooked meals!!!
Here's a list of our delicious creations:
-pizza rolls (made by me!!! I was so proud of them. I bought crescent rolls and then put pepperoni and cheese in the little triangles, then rolled them up and baked it all together.. genius!)
-salads: tomato and mozzarella, green regular lettuce salad, apple salad, fruit salad
-chocolate fondue
-chocolate covered oreos
-chick pea curry and rice
-fried rice
-chicken fingers
-chile
-fajitas
-cake
-garlic bread
-dip and guacamole with chips!!
So it was a pretty big success! We're definitely going to do it again sometime soon.
Also, while I'm on the topic of food, Mom and Greg pulled through and brought me five boxes of Mac and Cheese so I'm pretty much the happiest girl in Galway right now!!
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Mi bicicleta!
This is going to be a quick post because I want to get to bed - I've got 4 awkwardly spread out classes tomorrow which makes for a very long day.
So first and most importantly, I rented a bike today! It's actually weird how excited I am about it. I don't know why, but after walking foreverrr every day back and forth to campus (it's 20 minutes one way to classes, and then 20 mins from my apartment to downtown, and I go back and forth a lot between classes and whatnot) I realized I really should just get one since I keep thinking about it and not doing it. So I basically felt like I was flying when I was coming down the hill on the way home from class today.
And the very best part is, you give a $50 deposit that they return to you at the end of the two month rental, so I'll have a tleast $50 to my name to go home with when I leave Ireland, haha! Which means I'll have enough to buy some mediocre airport food while traveling/and can say I didn't go completely broke on my trip.. woot woot!
I'll post more stories/pictures tomorrow or more likely Thursday about the latest adventures I've been up to (went to Dublin for a night, celebrated Arthur's Day, and more fencing lessons!)
Also I decided that my API friends here should do some bonding time even though we are all already a part of a happy little abroad family but so I'm hosting a pot luck dinner at my apartment tomorrow! I'm pretty excited. So I'll put up pictures of our meals and let you all know how that goes! I'm making pizza-rolls, courtesy of this amazing blog that makes me disgustingly hungry every time I look at it... http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2012/01/pepperoni-cheese-stick-roll-ups.html
tata for now!
So first and most importantly, I rented a bike today! It's actually weird how excited I am about it. I don't know why, but after walking foreverrr every day back and forth to campus (it's 20 minutes one way to classes, and then 20 mins from my apartment to downtown, and I go back and forth a lot between classes and whatnot) I realized I really should just get one since I keep thinking about it and not doing it. So I basically felt like I was flying when I was coming down the hill on the way home from class today.
And the very best part is, you give a $50 deposit that they return to you at the end of the two month rental, so I'll have a tleast $50 to my name to go home with when I leave Ireland, haha! Which means I'll have enough to buy some mediocre airport food while traveling/and can say I didn't go completely broke on my trip.. woot woot!
I'll post more stories/pictures tomorrow or more likely Thursday about the latest adventures I've been up to (went to Dublin for a night, celebrated Arthur's Day, and more fencing lessons!)
Also I decided that my API friends here should do some bonding time even though we are all already a part of a happy little abroad family but so I'm hosting a pot luck dinner at my apartment tomorrow! I'm pretty excited. So I'll put up pictures of our meals and let you all know how that goes! I'm making pizza-rolls, courtesy of this amazing blog that makes me disgustingly hungry every time I look at it... http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2012/01/pepperoni-cheese-stick-roll-ups.html
tata for now!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Don't worry everyone, I found mac & cheese.
The circus came to Galway this weekend! So we went to the 4:30 show and I was a little worried at first because we were the oldest ones there without children that it would all be musical chairs with clowns and mini horses going in circles (although i did love me some minis - horse fix!!) but it was actually really good! There was a crazy contortionist guy whose body bent in ways no man's should ever bend... at one point, he did a handstand and then bent his knees so they were down by his face and drank a cup of water using his feet to bring it to his mouth while he held himself up with his arms.. it was crazy! Then there were tightrope walkers, a 60 year old lady in a thong who walked upside down on these monkey bar handle-things, jugglers and everything else you'd expect to see.
I went out with Aoife and her friends on Thursday night and then Friday I spent the night attempting to ride a mechanical bull (I stayed on for almost 15 seconds one time!!!) at a pub called Coyotes and talking about the Morgan world with Sara Sebring! We finallyyy found each other and got to hang out at night together. We're a good pair. I think we gave the irish dancing-bacholerette party girls a run for their money at one point too, hahaha.
I'm going to Dublin this weekend! So more pictures will be up soon from that.
Also, cooking update: finally found some mac and cheese, so I made some tonight for dinner and then cut up some tomato and some chicken fingers to add to it. BAM, it's almost as good as Our House in Burlington, VT... except not even close, but i'm pretending!!
I went out with Aoife and her friends on Thursday night and then Friday I spent the night attempting to ride a mechanical bull (I stayed on for almost 15 seconds one time!!!) at a pub called Coyotes and talking about the Morgan world with Sara Sebring! We finallyyy found each other and got to hang out at night together. We're a good pair. I think we gave the irish dancing-bacholerette party girls a run for their money at one point too, hahaha.
I'm going to Dublin this weekend! So more pictures will be up soon from that.
Also, cooking update: finally found some mac and cheese, so I made some tonight for dinner and then cut up some tomato and some chicken fingers to add to it. BAM, it's almost as good as Our House in Burlington, VT... except not even close, but i'm pretending!!
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