thanksgiving break part three: brussels, belgium

we awoke to our last morning in dublin with snoww!!!! it was the first snow ive seen since being in europe. walking out of hostel at 5am to catch our flight and we saw this...

after changing gates 3 times at the dublin airport and a 2 hour delay, we finally got to brussels (oh and after a 45 minute bus ride to the city center since the airport was very south of the city). we had no idea where our hostel was or really where we were. and to add to that, people in brussels spoke french which i didn't really know in advance. overall, we could have been a lot more prepared for this trip, and we definitely weren't. since we were delayed in getting into brussels, couldn't figure out how to get to the area our hostel was in, and then couldn't find our hostel for awhile since the address said it was on a perpendicular street, we only had a couple hours of daylight to spend in brussels.

our hostel was in a very modern area of brussels, which surprised us, until we walked down to the grand palace area about fifteen minutes away only to find quaint, christmas decorated alleys, stores, and old architecture. we encountered the theatre royal de la monnaie on the way to grand place, which is very very very grand. wow. grand place is the central square of brussels and is surrounded by guildhalls, the city's town hall, and the breadhouse (kings house). grand place began as an open-air marketplace set up on a dried-out marsh around the 12th century.

we wanted to head out and see a little more before sunset so we followed tourist signs to the cathedralis ss michaelis et gudalae (cathedral of st. michael and st. gudula). this cathedral is a roman catholic church on the treurenberg hill in brussels and was founded in 1047. it was renovated in the gothic style during the 13th century and the facade was completed in the 15 century.

view of grand place from st. michaels

we also saw the remains of the floor plan that had been excavated underneath the church.

after that, we found another tourist sign that pointed to the royal palace of brussels, which is the official palace of the ging of the belgians. however, it is not used as a royal residence, since the king and his family live in the royal castle of laeken on the outskirts of brussels. it is also situated in front of brussels park, which we walked through, but everything was dead and creepy so we didn't spend much time there. 

we also encountered wim delvoye's sculpture: tour 'bruxelles.' delvoye is a belgian neo-conceptual artist known for his inventive and shocking projects. this piece was extremely detailed and amazing. taken from the plaque in front of the tower: "within the framework of the exhibition, "knockin' on heaven's door," wim delvoye conceived a gothic tower, made of corten steel, reaching towards the sky from the roof of the centre for fine arts. it concerns an expanded version of the tower that delvoye exhibited at the guggenheim museum during the venice biennale and at the musee rodin in paris.  

we were freezing and hungry so we grabbed some belgium waffles on the way back to grand place. we had to walk through it to get back to our hostel and came across the best christmas light show of all. animations of projections on town hall incorporated the architecture and made it appear that you were seeing what was happening inside the building. coolest thing ever. and made our couple hours in brussels completely worth it. you'll see what im talking about in the video i create (one of these days) :)

 

we decided we needed some real food and picked a restaurant between grand place and our hostel. i cant remember what its called right now, but it was multi leveled and had a huge menu. ryan and i shared the appetizer of fried jalapeno and cheese ball things (with cheddar and cream cheese!), i'm going to have to make these one day. after pizza and beer for dinner, we decided to try out this irish pub - we were looking to watch some sports since we were so sick of walking around and it was still early. the one we went to wasn't playing anything but soccer, and was extremely smokey, so we called it a night! we left early the next morning to go back to rome. even though we only got a day in each city, i can't believe how much we accomplished and i can't wait to revisit all of them. my thanksgiving break was now over and i was back to the daily grind before heading out to greece the following weekend.

thanksgiving break part two: galway, ireland

after a full day of experiencing dublin to the greatest extent we could in one day, we woke up early to make our way to galway, ireland for the day. galway is on the west coast of ireland (while dublin is on the east). this city began as a small fort in the early 11th century and was the principal irish port for trade with spain and france. christopher columbus even visited galway in 1477.

after a slightly more expensive train ride than we expected, we arrived in galway about 3ish hours later. galway was also decorated for christmas and a christmas market was in strong force next to the train station. we were very hungry and grabbed some food (not kangaroo or ostrich burgers that they were selling) before making the most of our 6 hours in galway.

we didn't have the best map and set out to find out exactly where we were so we could attempt to find the train station when we needed to later. after ryan bought some gloves and i bought a hat (it was very cold), we went to see the ardeaglais cathedral (aka galway catheral, or cathedral of our lady assumed into heaven and st. nicholas). apparently construction began in 1958 on the site of the old city jail, and the building was dedicated in 1965 as the cathedral. the architecture consists of the renaissance dome and pillars, and rose windows and mosaics.

the cathedral "boasts what is probably the finest pipe organ in the country"

after the cathedral, we played in the children's park for a little bit before going to a tourist info building. we walked by lynch's castle which is actually just a bank now (and doesn't look anything like a castle). however, it used by be home to the most powerful family in galway. lynch's castle is the only complete secular medieval building left in galway today.

after hearing that we couldn't make it to the countryside of galway (which was where all the sweet castles were), we decided to walk back along the coast from where we were. we encountered the ship port of galway and the spanish arch. built in 1584, it was originally an extension of the famous city walls. it has also been known as the blind arch and features a wooden sculpture called madonna of the quays.

the only thing we could get in before the sun set was walking the claddagh, which means "the stony beach." the claddagh is an area close to the centre of galway city where the river meets the bay. it was formerly a fishing village. we spent the sunset walking out to the lighthouse (only to find out we couldn't get all the way up to it). this was the prettiest sunset i have ever seen.

wandering back towards the city center we attempted to see some gardens which ended up housing a university but wasn't very garden-y. we finished up the night have a drink at a pub to kill some time and grabbed some food to take on the train ride home.

once we got back to dublin, it was only around 9 pm and we still hadn't been to sinnott's bar. so we went :) and had a great time. i wish we could have stayed longer and been there with more people we knew, because the atmosphere was exciting and completely unexpected after seeing the small, local looking storefront.

thanksgiving break part one: dublin, ireland

wowww i have had no free time to even blog lately so im going to have to dig back deep into my memories from ireland and belgium. since everyone's parents or family or significant other came to visit that weekend (over thanksgiving), it was a bit difficult to find someone to travel with. thankfully, ryan had the weekend free so we planned a trip to ireland (dublin and galway) and brussels, belgium.

our not so smooth departure kind of lined the way for the rest of the trip. we hadn't taken this certain bus service to the airport yet and misunderstood what we were told when buying tickets. as we lined up to get on, we never acquired a "seat saver" if you want to call it. apparently we had to go inside the building and get a number with our ticket that saved our seat for the next shuttle. we had to wait another hour for the next one and were worried about cutting it a little to close when we ran into some interior design girls that were on our flight. they were as much behind as us and we made it to the airport in time for our flight. check-in went smoothly until a police officer stopped us to take our passports without any explanation. he left us in the airport while he took our passports into his office. since we had to board, ryan finally went in after about ten minutes to ask what the deal was. we didn't want to cause any problems knowing that would only delay us even more, but after making sure we knew our expiration dates and birthdays, he gave us back the passports and let us proceed.

after a smooth flight and shuttle to a stop near our hostel, we were welcomed with christmas lights and lit up trees in dublin's streets. rome hasn't been much for getting into the christmas decorations yet and this was a lovely surprise. since it was late, we grabbed some burger king i think (embarrassingly), dropped our stuff at the hospital, and headed to a pub (called gogartys - in the temple bar area) to meet up with our 2 friends from interior design. they decided to call it a night, but ryan and i enjoyed our first irish beer. i had some cider and he ordered a guinness (not my favorite).

my first view of the river

gogartys

the next morning we ate a spare breakfast of toast and coffee (free with the hostel) and went out to briefly explore before our 3 hour walking tour starting at 11. we walked along the river, through temple bar, and ran into our 2 friends (names are kaitlyn and anya by the way). we met up with the walking tour at civil hall or something, can't really remember. the tour ended up being more of a history lecture and not as much walking as we intended, but we saw the staples of the dublin area.

our tour group

anya, kaitlyn, me in front of dublin castle

first major stop was dublin castle, which wasn't very impressive. it was quite small (except the large tower you see behind us) and incorporated into the modern architecture. so it didn't really look like a castle that would necessarily pop into your head. until 1922, it was the "fortified seat of british rule in ireland, and is now a major irish governement complex." it dates back to the 18th century even though a castle stood on the site previously. the interior of the castle looks pretty impressive online although we didnt get to go in.

the gardens behind the castle were gorgeous though. and have some sort of celtic design in them that you can see from the sky.

dublin castle gardens

following the dublin castle, we walked to christ church cathedral (the cathedral of the holy trinity). this is the cathedral of the united diocesses of dublin and glendalough and the cathedral of the ecclesiastical province of the united provinces of dublin and cashel in the church of ireland. not sure what that all really means but its one of the two medieval cathedrals in dublin (the 2nd i see later). we also got to see an original floor plan laid out in cobblestone behind the cathedral. i believe it used to house like 15 vikings or something.

christ church cathedral

now since it was freezing cold and we couldn't feel our toes anymore, our guide was nice enough to let us stop for soup and coffee and a place named purdy kitchen. adam sandler even showed up there a couple years ago.

we made our way back through temple bar where we saw a life-size bronze sculpture in the shape of rory gallaghers stratocaster guitar posted up on a building. he was an "irish blues-rock multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader." even though he wasn't extremely famous, modern day musicians including u2 and guns n' roses cite him as inspiration.

we passed by the irish houses of parliament (also called the bank of ireland, college green). it was the world's first purpose-built two-chamber parliament house (the lords and commons).

irish house of parliament

trinity college campanile

trinity college was the next stop where we learned about some old myths and the fact that part of harry potter was filmed inside. irelands oldest university was originally established outside of the city walls of dublin. women weren't first allowed into the college as full members until 1904. according to legend, the president at the time said women wouldn't enter the college unless over his dead body. well she stepped all over his grave as soon as he was buried. something like that. also, students wont walk under their campanile since they will supposedly fail all their annual examinations if they do so. i wish i could have seen the book of kells when we went but i have good reason to return and see it someday!

we ended the tour walking through st. stephen's green park. its the largest of the parks in dublin's main georgian squares (with phoenix park being the largest one in dublin city).

st stephen's park

coolest duck ive ever seen

we left the park and walked down grafton street, where you can find shopping. we wanted to pass st. patrick's cathedral on our way to the guinness brewery so we took a route slightly out of our way.

ryan and i in front of st. patrick's cathedral

st. patrick's cathedral was founded in 1191 and is the 2nd medieval cathedral i mentioned earlier. it is also the largest church in ireland. since st. patrick's is the national cathedral for the whole island, it's headed by a dean instead of being the seat of a bishop. unfortunately it wasn't open when we were passing through the area.

gate to the guinness brewery

guinness brewery, also called st. james's gate brewery was founded in 1759 by arthur guinness. with a unique lease for 9,000 years, it became the largest brewery in ireland, and was the largest in the world starting in 1914. it is no longer the largest brewery in the world, but is still the largest brewer or stout in the world. we took a very interesting tour of the 250-year-old history of guinness in the guinness storehouse that ended with a free pint at the 7th floor gravity bar. some of the old brewing equipment is on show, as well as ingredients, brewing techniques, advertising methods, and storage devices. the exhibition is in the shape of a 14 million pint glass of guinness and the gravity bar as a 350 degree panorama over the city.

inside the guinness storehouse

dublin sunset at the top of the gravity bar

our horse drawn carriage home

we were absolutely exhausted after this day and since a taxi would have cost a comparable amount, we decided to take a horse drawn carriage back to where a hostel was. if you can imagine, the four of us were pretty much freaking out at how cool this was. AND the horse's name was "shawty" or "shorty." anyways, it was hilarious.

for the night, we decided to make our own bar crawl and seek out live music, people our age, and guinness (ew). we ended up going to several places, some that we liked, and some that we chose to leave right away. we ended up at a small college age pub with brian brody performing. hes an artist who performs there, i think, every thursday. he was pretty impressive and looked exactly like one of our teachers from home. after that we went to temple bar where a small group of a women's orchestra was covering songs we knew from back at home.

first place we went to where we watched him and the dallas cowboys play on tv

brian brody - looks like mickelson!!!

other end of the river

if that wasnt enough for the day, ryan and i left to walk back to the hostel along the river. we saw a ferris wheel and an interesting architecturally designed bridge that we were drawn to. we took lots of pictures of the city light reflections along the river and saw some other buildings and landmarks.

that completes the very long day in dublin (which is in no way enough time to explore the city). i cant wait to go back and see the book of kells and ride a bike through phoenix park and see more of the north side of the city.

graphic design north field trip

finally finished the video

you can watch in by clicking on this youtube link

hope you like!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqUeuXerD8c

dublin, galway, brussels... (until later)

ahhh im horrible. i havent had time to update on my last trip since we had multiple projects due this week before i leave tomorrow morning for greece (and my last trip). just know you'll have a lengthy and wonderful post of dublin, galway, brussels, (my aunt and uncle visiting and what we did), plus athens and who knows what day trip we will take! keep an eye on this early next week and i'll have plenty to tell!

ps. dublin had the best pubs (including sinnott's bar), river view, galway the best sunset i will probably see in my entire life, and brussels the best "3D" christmas show. Wish i had time to write about it all now (as i dont want to forget any of the juicy details), but i have to wake up in 3 hrs to leave for athens. talk to you all soon!

little bit of nothing

a tributary river overflowed its banks into the tiber river not too long ago. i didnt catch a picture where the cycling paths were completely underwater but its still pretty high. and very very dirty. its around 25ish feet

after the waters had retreated a little

at its peak lifeinitaly.com

view from our apartment yesterday as the sun was setting

anyways, im going to ireland today! well be staying in dublin and taking a day trip to galway before ending in brussels, belgium for one night. if i cant celebrate thanksgiving with my family at home, might as well spend it in dublin. i heard the food is great. happy thanksgiving!

"to my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel 

is to be able to experience everyday things 

as if for the first time, to be in a position 

in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted."

-bill bryson

london

myself and 6 other girls went to london this previous weekend! since we didnt get to our hostel until after midnight on friday, we obviously didnt do anything until the next morning except crash in our amazingly comfortable beds. none of us slept very well since our room was next to the entryway to the hallway and the door slammed shut anytime someone went through it. plus we were really close to the bathroom that had a loud dryer (and could hear people outside our window strolling through the cobblestone driveway with their suitcases). anyways, we decided to suck it up and wake up semi-early to experience london. saturday was the only nice day forecasted and we wanted to see as much as possible.

we were beyond excited to see abbey road. this photo ended up being perfect (or near to) since we had a 5th person to photograph the 4 of us. thanks jackie!! and even though the crossroad was repainted and the photo is taken at a different angle, you can see the wall to the abbey road studios in the left in each photo (except the title covers it up in the album cover).

after freaking out for a bit, we took the quintessential london red double-decker bus and sat on the top. it went directly to buckingham palace, so we continued there. by the way, london has "look left" and "look right" painted at each crosswalk since they drive on the opposite side of the road. as weird as i thought these were at first, they proved to help us out a lot haha.

buckingham palace was gorgeous and soooo large, but not much was going on so we went out to lunch at a pub called shakespeares. the food was amazing and i got chili nachos with jalepenos. i blame this for the start of my stomach ache that lasted 3 days.

since we had seen the eye of london down the street from buckingham, we decided to walk down towards that way. we walked through a beautiful park, st. james park, in order to get there. the animals were so friendly and we were all more amused than any park animals should make us. and of course the fall colors were brilliantly bright. we also had to pass the horse guards to get to the riverbank where the eye was located. before we even got there, we encountered a cute telephone booth (the ones you see in movies) so we of course tried to see how many we could pack in there. we got the four of us in before heading further down the bank.

he seriously climbed up here as soon as we started taking pictures, so cute

goose having his lunch and getting in my face with it

after walking past the eye, we saw big ben, a cute couple shooting their wedding photos, house of parliament, westminster hall, westminster abbey, and a huge abortion protest. at this point, we wanted to head back where we came from so we could get dinner and back to our hostel. we decided to stay in and watch a movie since we hadnt gotten much sleep the night before.

panorama from the back of the horse guards showing the eye in the distance

since lisa and katie had met up with a friend the previous day, we hit up abbey road again the next morning. we looked closer at the graffiti, found the abbey road studios where the beatles (and many others) recorded, and checked out this tiny beatles coffee shop that sold a bunch of merchandise. we also went to buckingham palace again but everything was blocked off. we asked a police officer what was going on and they were bringing the queen back to the palace, we even saw the car she was coming in on.

abbey road studios
we werent allowed in :(

since we were meeting up with the rest of the group that had gone on a harry potter tour, we went to the kings cross train station to see the 9 and 3/4 platform where part of the movie was filmed. we also found a small restaurant to eat lunch at since it was starting to rain. of course it was pouring by the time we finished eating so we went to harrods, which is a famous department store that princess diana's boyfriend owned. it was like wandering through santa's workshop. we ate delicious chocolate, stared at all the beautiful packaging, designer purses, and of course died when we saw their display windows (being the design nerds we are).

since the tube was under construction, we had to find an alternate way back. conveniently we had to transfer around piccadilly circus, which is the times square of london. we walked from there to the oxford circus and saw the world's prettiest anthropologie store and christmas lights strung across the streets. it made me sad that christmas is immediately after i return from europe. im going to miss that christmas anticipation that im used to. im so excited to come home i cant even think about christmas barely. after we regrouped at our hostel we went to a local pub called angies.

we were leaving the next morning, so we woke up and attempted to see anything possible before we needed to get to the airport. we had breakfast and coffee at shakespeares since their food was so good previously; however this time it was not the same experience. my breakfast food never came and the waitresses were so flustered even though there was approximately 3 other people in the restaurant. it was ridiculous. she got so flustered and mad at us when i requested her to take off the food she charged me on my receipt. i figured i should be the mad one, but i was so confused why she was upset that i just payed for my coffee and we left. since it was raining when we went to buckingham the day before, and needed to stay in the area in order to catch our train, we walked the couple blocks back to to it. instead of returning to the train station the way we came, we went the entire way around buckingham through green park and the palace gardens. we saw a ton of monuments for wwii and pretty fall colors. even though we didnt see london tower and the bridge (it was a bit out of the way), we saw so much of london for the couple days we had. i really want to return here some day so i can see what i missed!

guards through the gate

panorama of the palace and green park

now im in rome for the next week before i head to ireland (dublin, galway), and belgium (brussels) for our very short thanksgiving break. 

today, i kind of felt like i havent seen much of rome since ive done so much traveling. i dont have much time left so i decided to do something each week until i leave. i wanted to choose thigns that rome had to offer without it being on the typical tourist list. so today i researched a lot and found some hidden museums, tombs, parks, monuments, and general places i still havent seen. besides catching up on homework this weekend, im going to explore romaaaaa (its my last weekend here before finals! ahhhhh) until later, lots of love!!
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