Just got back from our first 10 day break!
1. - Publin, Ireland
2. - “You sound like you’re from LONDON”, England
3. - Amsterdemonium, Netherlands
Publin highlights!
-Eating fish and chips where U2, Bruce Springstein and drumroll PLEASE… “Justin Timberlakes parents”… once visited
-Watching the big fuss rivalry rugby game - Whales vs. Ireland. Perfecting the “clap and WOO when everyone else does” technique.
Such a relief to finally be able to speak English! A little time out from butchering the Italian language. “GRATZEEE Y’ALL”.
My favorite thing about Dublin, hands down, was the music. Fantastic live music at every bar, restaurant and busy street. We stayed at Ashfield House hostel which was “cozy” to say the least.. we could not have fit another sock if we tried..
We took a tour of the city on Sunday and found out that Vikings never actually wore huge helmets with horns… deeply upsetting considering my elementary school mascot was the Viking (Am I living a lie??). After our tour we watched the Whales and Ireland rugby game at a local bar in Temple Bar. HUGE rivalry game described to me as “the Superbowl minus a million commercials” (what good is the superbowl without commercials??)
Almost as entertaining as our weekend in Dublin was the trip from Dublin to London… Angela, Nicole and I had a later flight out then everyone else so we gave ourselves a solid three hours at the Dublin airport to be sure nothing went wrong. Dublin airport has to rank top three most entertaining places on earth. We tried on perfumes and makeup, took pictures as rugby players, got starbucks, shopped and then realized we had SEVEN minutes to get to our gate. Ended up sprinting full speed and nearly missed it. Made the executive decision that the three of us should no longer travel together.. We land at Gatwick airport thinking we're a hop, skip from our hostel and ask an airport attendant for directions to which he responds, “Well ya have to get into London first…”
1. We take a train
2. We take another train
3. My jacket string gets stuck on a chair getting of the train, make a huge scene, get help.
4. Angela sets of an alarm trying to squeeze through ticket check way with her over sized bag.
5. My 300 pound bag doesn’t fit through ANY train aisle we encounter…
6. Take the “tube” underground transit.
7. FINALLY make it to our hostel – spirits still high!
London highlights:
- - Becoming uncomfortably full from finger sandwiches at high tea.
- - Watching wicked at the London theater and not falling asleep this time J
- - Listening to live band singing, and I QUOTE “Dance like a vegetable, dance like an animal.”
London was one of my favorite cities so far. Felt like a slightly less hectic version of NYC.. plus cool accents. We saw the changing of the guards, Big Ben and the British Museum which might literally hold every artifact in ancient history. Brought me back to my fifth grade ancient civilizations curriculum. Ancient Egypt was my fav but unfortunately after the 25th ancient gold coin with unidentifiable object on it, things started to seem less significant.
Going to “high tea” was a blast. We all got dressed up and went to no.35 restaurant, a ritzy modern looking hotel. We ordered peppermint, rosebud and jasmine tea and they brought an assortment of finger sandwiches and desserts. Most likely intended to be eaten slowly and daintily but when you put a TOWER of desserts in front of 10 American girls you can’t expect leftovers...
Our last night in London we somehow stumbled into a bar on Camden Street with locals performing. Lucky for us we caught the most coked out musician of all time that reminded me of Russell Brand in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Nothing like an 8 hour train ride to Amsterdam with “dance like a vegetable” lyrics stuck in your head.
Amsterdam highlights:
- - Best hot chocolate Of. All. Time.
- - Watching “the races” on top of a potentially dangerous heat generator
- - Avoiding any biker-pedestrian collisions.
- - Nearly losing 3 toes to frostbite on a free walking tour of the city…. O wait not a highlight…
Amsterdam was the first place we could comfortably pull off the unshowered-traveler look. Amsterdam is also the the best place on earth for people watching. Absolutely anything goes- if you want to sell yourself in a window – go for it, if you wanna smoke weed from the time you wake up until you go to sleep – go for it. Kind of a cool “personal freedom” concept also a BIT absurd.
Took a walking tour of the city on Friday but after 2 hours had NO feeling in our feet and chose to warm up with giant chocolate/banana pancakes. J
We stayed at the “Flying Pig” Hostel and had our first rando roommate experience… Kelly had 3 full-fledged panic attacks prior...but they ended up being really nice and all was well.
We were lucky enough to catch the ice races down the frozen canals in Amsterdam. The last time the ice was thick enough to skate was 15 years ago!! (who does the ice-thickness safety check, I wonder…?). It was SO crowded around the race I nearly mauled a young child to climb up on a heat generator and see what was going on. (every 15 years! I had to.)
We successfully found a bagel place on Saturday which was GODSENT when you haven’t had an abp breakfast sandwich in 3+ months.
Minus the naked prostitutes in windows Amsterdam was beautiful and by some grace of god we all made it back biker-collision free. J
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