Land of the Potatoes and Home of the Guinness

I've made it to my final destination on my European adventure and boy am I happy to be here! From the moment I got off the plane people were already being so nice and helpful toward me. I was pretty exhausted when I got to the hostel around 3 and Callie and Caroline weren't due back from the Guinness for another 45 minutes so I took a nap, it was well deserved. Then we decided to go get a late lunch/early dinner and despite all of the good food Ireland has to offer we got burgers. It was a good burger and I have no regrets. After walking around for a while we decided to go out for drinks. Out of all the pubs in Dublin I'd say we chose a good one. The bar tender was hilarious and had us playing silly games for an hour while he ragged on us Americans with his typical Irish humor. A guy named Fred shared his lode story with us, he is a head hunter, and told us all of the places we needed to visit. Actually, he go the whole bar involved in planning our itinerary. It was actually really fun! After a couple of hours we decided on a late dinner of nachos before meeting up with the last of the CIMBA crowd left in Dublin. We all went out to about 4 different bars and had the best time. One was clearly not for the younger crowd but we showed up in there and as soon as the guys started dancing to the Irish music we had the eye of everyone in the bar! At 3am when Callie, Caroline and I said goodbye to everyone it was once again back to "Bye, see you when I see you."

Thursday was our last day in Dublin and my first full day! The other CIMBA group went on the P.s. I Love You tour but we were instructed to go see the old Viking area and the jail. It rained all day so we were advised against seeing the Cliffs of Moher because the tour leaves at 7am and doesn't return until 8pm and half of that time you are on a bus. No thank you. We walked to the Viking area and saw the old city walls which were cool and we searched high and low for the castle but couldn't find it. How do you hide a castle!? We ended up near the college area before deciding to give up our search and go straight to jail, do not collect $200 if you pass go. Here I am on my last full day in Europe and I am going to jail, dang it! In all reality it was actually really cool. We've been in all of the churches and museums known to man kind but not yet a jail. It was a little uncomfortable but he history associated with it was pretty neat. During a normal year about 800-900 people would come through the jail but during the famine 9000 people were coming through the jail during the year. This is because people were committing crimes on purpose to be put there in order to get a place to sleep and have 3 meals a day, that's desperation. The key players in Irish revolution were also held and executed in the jail so there's a fun fact for you.

After we finished up our jail tour it was raining and we were a 30 minute walk from the hostel and main city area so we opted for a taxi. The taxi driver was quite a proud Irish mad who gave us a history and political lesson during our short 10 minute ride over the the Temple Bar area. It was very informative and actually really interesting. He was rattling off dates and facts like it was part of his job. When we got to the Temple Bar area it was raining pretty heavily and we were cold and fading fast so we got a Bailey's and coffee as a pick-me-up. It was really good! Hours of packing ensued shortly after before we decided on dinner. The guy working behind the desk at the hostel suggested a restaurant near Temple Bar where we could finally get some good Irish food. For appetizers we had these pancake balls and the main course was a corn and beef pot-pie type of dish. Desert was a Bailey's cheese cake. I still feel full just thinking about dinner! We decided to walk over to the actual Temple Bar for one last legal European drink before I headed home. Temple Bar is basically awesome and the live band was really good. They even sang Wagon Wheel but Caroline, Callie and I were the only three in the entire bar who were singing along, I didn't think anyone had ever hear it before. It was as if the band knew we were headed home and they were trying to send us off! Needless to say we stayed out way past our designated bed time of 10pm. Caroline and Callie left at 4am to catch their flight to Venice and I left at 5:30 to get my flight to London. Finally I had said the last of my CIMBA goodbyes and now it was time for one final goodbye to Europe.

Unaccompanied Minors

Okay, so maybe the title doesn't apply to me, but the situation is about the same. I was supposed to have a flight out of VIE at 12 to Dublin where I would meet up with more CIMBA people. I left the hostel at 9, got the the airport by 10. Waited in line for and hour to check in and check my bag, met a nice Australian man who told some cool stories from his travels only to find out that my flight reservation has been lost. Well I have already paid for this flight and I have traveled through Europe for 3 months without problems so for a seasoned pro like me this came as quite a shock. I ended up talking to supervisors for 2 hours and missed the flight. Luckily the VIE airport has free wifi everywhere so I was able to message Callie and Caroline who were flying to Dunlin from Nice to meet me. Well, after some time later I was issued a new ticket for 12pm the next day. Yep 24 hours from now was the next flight to Dunlin on any airline. I looked for all other alternatives but it was much too expensive and complicated. So, guess who is sleeping in the airport...THIS GIRL! Just kidding, did you really think I was going to sleep in an airport? Ha! I got a hotel and 24 hours later, 50 games of solitaire, a finished book and a 4 hour viewing of Gone With the Wind...here I am...in the Vienna airport...waiting for my last flight in Europe before I fly home...Oh amd then the next day i had to pay 4€ for a cappuccino, in Italy it is 1.50€ at most and the guy at security strip searched my carry on while I got patted down because he mistook my tweezers for scissors. Oh Vienna, how you spoil me so! On the bright side, I got my second passport stamp! This whole time I have been asking people at airports for passport stamps and I finally go one because I am flying out of the Schengen area. I wish I would have gone to Dublin sooner so I could have more stamps!!

It's a Sip of Wine, It's Summertime

Happy First Day of Summer!!! As previously mentioned, the semester is now over and I am on what is commonly referred to as SUMMER VACATION! I have never been this cold on my first day of summer vacation but then again, I have never spent my first night of vacation in my beloved Venice, Italy. Our plan for "travel week 3" is Venice for a night, then a train to Vienna, fly to Dublin then the inevitable flight home.

Venice on Saturday night was a struggle. Can you imagine going from 5 exams in 3 days, and packing 3 months of your life up and then traveling to a different city? We all struggled a little bit but we were happy to see everyone and say goodbye over one last drink. Although I knew I would see some of the people the next day and in Dublin so I didn't feel as bad about wanting to go to sleep early. Sunday we got up and went back onto the island to walk around. I love Venice in the day light! We got a cappuccino and panini for breakfast and then walked lazily along the canal and thought the streets toward the Rialto bridge and St. Mark's square. Venice is beautiful. It is small and a little sad though. You really don't need to spend more than a day in the city. We took pictures, watched the gondolas glide under the bridges, watched the tourist, had gelato one last time, ran into the other CIMBA students, went mask shopping and bought some Murano glass gifts for the family. Time seemed to move so slowly and our train didn't leave until much later. We sat in St. Mark's square and just watched people and chased pigeons before the clouds came out and we decided to head back over to Mestre. We had our final Italian dinner near our hostel before walking to the station and getting on our train to Vienna.

The train was an overnight train so we wouldn't be getting to Vienna until 8:08 Monday morning. I swear, people just want to see how I long can function on only a few hours of sleep post-exams. Normally at home after my two week exam period ends I crash for a straight week and here I am 48 hours our from my three day exam period sleeping on a train traveling to Austria. It was not until about 4am that we realized that the chairs in our six person cabin could be pulled put to make a huge pallet so the four of us who were traveling together got really close and finally got some sleep. When we arrived in Vienna it didn't take us long to get to the hostel so we were there by 9am. However, our room wasn't going to be ready until 2pm we dropped off our luggage, ate some breakfast and headed out to walk around the city. I don't know a whole lot about Vienna but they sure are proud of Mozart! We saw some cool buildings, the Spanish riding school, old Roman ruins, and more churches! They are all starting to look a like. We even walked into the University of Vienna and lounged in their court yard for a bit. For lunch, at 3pm...,we had traditional Viennese food, I had soup which was really good considering my developing cold/sinus infection. The guy who owned the restaurant insisted upon taking a group picture of us and with us, he then proceeded to bring us complementary desert cocktails. It was a good lunch! We went back to the hostel after to check in and shower because we were all exhausted and quite frankly, we didn't smell too nice. We were slow movers and had planned to go to an opera/ballet at 7:30 so when it came time for dinner we needed something quick. We weren't too interested in eating traditional food, so we had Chinese. This was my first time having Chinese food since January, Walk to Wok in Amsterdam doesn't count. Sweet and sour chicken never tasted soooooo good. It's a shame that they didn't have sesame chicken on the menu though. At 7:30 we went to the show which was nice, it was all Mozart of course. After it was over went to the bar for a drink before heading to bed because we were all still exhausted, plus I had a flight to Dublin to catch the next day...

The Final Count Down

Arrivederla my sweet Italia! Only three more days of class and then 3 days of exams before I say goodbye for now to Italy. Monday we didn't have class because it was still part of Easter Holiday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning were our last day of classes and then Thursday afternoon through Saturday morning we had our final exams. Then it's the start of summer vacation for me!

Tuesday night was our last formal dinner and I thought the food was by far the best. During the dinner there was a slide show running recapping all of our CIMBA travels. After the dinner we had a mini CIMBA prom with a DJ which was really fun. Guys were taking their dress shirts off and crowd surfing, a few of the professors showed us some moves and I shagged the night away. Good thing first thing Wednesday morning I had a final presentation to give for two of my professors who were at the dinner. It went very smooth though, no worries. I even booked my flight home! Yep, I waited until almost 2 weeks before I needed to be home to book my flight. I was trying to delay the inevitable because I refused to accept reality.

Now onto the ever dreaded Thursday...I had two classes in the morning and then my first exam at 5:15 that afternoon, plus I had to finish planning my post-program travels. Friday I had two exams plus packing and then Saturday I had two more exams, mote packing and we had to be checked out by 2pm. After our last meal of pasta with red sauce Saturday afternoon we all rushed to finish packing and say goodbye because the first two buses were leaving for the airport at 1:00 and 1:45. Most people were staying after to travel for about a week, a good number of us planned to spend our fist night of summer vacation in Venice before we all split and the rest were going straight home.

83 days later there we were all standing outside in sleepy little Paderno Del Grappa saying goodbye. Of course it is another over cast day so Mt. Grappa was no where to be seen. Typical. It almost felt like the last day of summer camp accept there was no "see you next summer!" being yelled out. For some people it was "see you at home," or "see you in the fall," but for me it was "I'll see you when I see you." Of course I will see a good number of people as we all finish traveling around Europe but for the majority of the people there that will be the last time I ever see them. For me it wasn't a sad goodbye at all. It was more of a "thanks for the memories, it was fun" type of moment.

At 4 my travel group and I headed off to Venice for the night. Back to the city where it all started. I had never actually seen the city in the daylight and our train to Vienna didn't leave until 9:05pm Sunday so I was very excited to get going despite the end of the semester