That was easy

I made a new blog to keep up for the rest of the semester.  You will still be able to access this one but it wont have any more new posts after this.  The URL for my new one is http://kileighann.wordpress.com/ that URL should work if you just type it in or copy and paste it.  If that doesn’t work, look to the left hand side of this site and click on the thing that says “Links” and scroll down until you find one that says “My Second Blog” and you should be able to just click on that to get to my new one.  Let me know if it doesn’t work out for anyone and I’ll see where I went wrong.

The second part of my Italy trip is up on my new blog.

Uh Oh!

MAYDAY!!!! WARNING: You have reached maximum space capcity.  The site I use allows 3 GB of space for free but then after that you have to start buying memory.  So this means that I can’t uplaod any more pictures for the blogs.  Now, what’s a blog without pictures? I really would hate to delete any of older blogs just to clear up some space so how would you guys feel if I just created a new blog? It would be through the same website but it would just have a different URL and name which I will let you all know of as soon as I make it. I love doing the blog and documenting my travels but I also do it a lot for your entertainment so let me know if you’d rather me just wait till I get home to show you the pictures or if I should create a second site to put the rest of my pictures on.  For now I’m just going to assume that I should go ahead and create a second one-I haven’t tried yet to see if it’s actually possible so keep your fingers crossed!

Italia Part 1

Part II

From Paris, Cait and I jetted out bright and early to Rome! I had already been to Rome four years ago in the spring of my junior year of high school and couldn’t wait to go back! I remember it as being one of the coolest places we were able to visit on the trip, and my memory served me well this time. Cait had never been to Rome so we had to make sure that we hit all the major spots in the city in our quick 2 day visit.  We got there mid afternoon so we were able to get in a few hours of sightseeing the first day.  Our first stop was to the Colosseum which was only a 25 minute walk from our hostel so it was really very easy to get to. That building was yet again able to take my breath away.  Being there is almost an out-of-body experience.  There’s an endless amount of history in the Colosseum that you can feel the second you walk in there.  Let me tell you, those Romans sure knew how to make buildings.  This thing is literally the coolest place in the world-we need to go back to basics with our construction if you ask me.  The beauty of the architecture and the amount of history in one single place is entirely mind-boggling.  Then again, everything in Rome had a very ancient feel to it which is probably one of the major reasons behind why I love it so much.  It just has so much history to it-everywhere in Italy seems to.  After the Colosseum we attempted to go to the Roman Forum-it’s right across the street, so convenient! But it was just around sunset so they were closing, I guess they don’t like letting people in around dusk/dark because of whatever reason.  There was still plenty to see around that area though so we did our own little excursion and were able to stumble upon some amazing buildings and architecture around the area.

Day 2: Cait and I decided that the best way to get through all of Rome was to start at the farthest point from out hostel and work our way back.  This meant that the first stop of the day was at the ever popular Vatican City.  We went first to St. Peter’s Basilica because the line was relatively short and moved really quickly so we were able to get inside in no time.  We walked through every inch of that place trying to take in all the detail of the art work and stain glass windows.  We may have actually stayed a little too long in there because by the time we got in line to go to the Vatican Museum and see the Sistine Chapel, we realized that we wouldn’t be able to see the whole thing.  The wait in line was almost two hours, and since it was a Sunday, they were closing earlier than usual.  Luckily, we were able to get in just before the gates closed-but this meant that we couldn’t take a nice leisurely stroll through the whole place and actually had to move through a lot faster than we would have liked.  But hey, I can’t really complain-I’m lucky enough to have been able to see the most beautifully decorated Chapel in the world, twice.  I got to take a lot of pictures of the Basilica and of the museum but photography isn’t allowed in the Chapel itself so I don’t have anything to show you guys from there; you’ll just have to make your own trip there!

Well, it looks like a can’t fit all of the pictures in one post so I have to break them up between two.  This one stops almost at the end of the Vatican so the next post will pick up with a few more of the Vatican and then finish up my trip in Italy.

C’est Paris

Guess who’s back! And with lots of pictures to share! Sorry it’s taken me so long to get an update on here but I’ve been so busy this past few weeks and haven’t had any time to sit down and make a post. I’m very happy to report that as of this weekend I am officially done with any sort of educational obligation-finals are over for me and I couldn’t be happier! I have a lot of pictures to upload and stories to share with everyone so I breaking in up into a couple of different posts so I’m not throwing everything at you at once.

On Thanksgiving morning (around 1 AM) I left Galway for my last European excursion of the semester. Cait joined me on a trip to France and Italy; can’t go anywhere without my trusty travel companion! This time it was just the two of us though and we had a lot of fun being in Europe together. Our first stop in the trip was to Paris. Our flight took off bright and early from Dublin and we were suppose to land in the Paris Beauvais airport around 10:30 AM. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great and the cloud coverage was too low for the plane to land. We circled above the airport for about 45 minutes until we got diverted to the Lill airport in France. We landed much later than we were suppose to and once we got there, Cait and I quickly found out that there was no way for us to get from the Lill airport to our hostel. This meant we had to take a 2 and a half hour bus ride back to the Beauvais airport, an hour and a half bus to Paris and then the metro to our hostile. We got to our hostel around 5:30 (approximately 6 hours past our check in time). We walked in just as they were in the process of canceling our reservation and we had to BEG them to let us stay there so we wouldn’t have to sleep on the streets of Paris. We didn’t get much site seeing in that day because by the time we calmed down from our traveling and were able to get into the city it was well after dark. Luckily, it was really pretty with everything being lit up. We walked to the Eiffel tower which was insane to see glowing at night and then took a walk down the Champs Elysee and hung out there for a while looking at all the different booths and street vendors there. We had pre-booked our tour of the Eiffel Tower for that day at 1:30 and had already paid for our tickets but since we got to Paris so late we never got the chance to go to the top of it.
Since we lost our first day in Paris, we had a lot of ground to cover the next day! We started off the morning at the Lourve-this stop may have actually been my favorite! I could have spent all day inside there (actually, that would be very possible since the whole thing is ten miles to walk through!) Unfortunately, we had way too much to fit in and way too little day light so we had to be picky about what we wanted to see in there. Of course, we saw the Mona Lisa and made a stop at Cait’s favorite piece of art that she studied last year in class (she’s an English and Art History major) it’s the statue with the angel wings missing a head. We only had time to go to two more sections of the museum so we decided to look at the Greek/Roman art section and the Egyptian art sections (Egyptian art is my favorite style-Roman is a close second). After the Lourve, we walked down the entire Champs Elysee-the street is full of booths that sell souveniers, French foods, and little odds and ends- to get to the Arc de Triomphe which was a lot bigger than I had expected! From there we could see the top of the Eiffel Tower in the distance so we just kind of headed off into that direction until we eventually stumbled upon it. The pictures of the Eiffel Tower are my favorite of the Paris portion of the trip, I love the was it looks between the green grass and blue sky-it was an absolutely beautiful day! From the Eiffell Tower we took the metro to get to Notre Dame (this is tied with the Lourve as my favorite). They were setting up a Christmas tree in the front of it-it was so pretty! We were able to go inside and look all around it; it was absolutely breathtaking. I can’t get over how beautiful the design and architecture of it was-and of course the stain glass windows never fail to impress me! It was just about noon at this point and I think it was our half way point on our must sees of the day so we were making good timing. We went to St. Chapelle next which was something Cait had really wanted to see while we were there and I, of course, had no opposition to that! The whole thing was under construction so you really couldn’t see the outside of it and the inside was also being redone so it was all it was made it up to be.
Tired yet? I know I was-don’t worry, I think we just have two more places left.
The highest natural point of the city is at Sacre Coeur, so naturally we had to go there and see what sort of views it had to offer. The building itself was spectacular and enormous and it really did allow for some great views over the city! We hung out for a little bit up there taking in all the views and then walked to see the Moulin Rogue which was our last stop of the day. Great timing too, it was just about dark at this point and starting to snow! After we saw Moulin Rogue we walked around the city for a few hours just to take it all in since we only had one day there. Paris was so expensive so the only thing Cait and I indulged in was some cheese and wine for our dinner on the last night. Oh, and it was FREEZING while we were there! I had to wear 2 pairs of socks (I wish I had worn 3) a pair of leggings under my jeans, a camisole, t-shirt, sweater, sweatshirt, coat, hat, and gloves and was still cold! I felt like an oompa loompa! But at least it was sunny all day-well, up until it snowed. I least I can say that my first snow fall of the season was in Paris!
We were up the next morning at 4 am to head out to ITALIA-detail of that trip will be in the next post..

Holiday in Spain

Hey everyone! As you all know, I went to beautiful Barcelona this past weekend with Cait, Corie and Tom! It proved to be the most difficult to get around as none of us really spoke any spanish, but we managed-language barriers are actually really funny and we ended up having to play charades when speaking to a lot of the locals.  Luckily, Tom did know some elementary Spanish so we weren’t entirely lost the whole time. We managed very well if I do say so myself.  In the three days that we were there we covered A LOT of ground-boy, were my legs tired by the end of it.  Barcelona is a huge city and there as so much to do so we were constantly on the go; we actually got to see everything we wanted to! Our first night there we kind of just explored the area around where we were staying and went into some local bars since we didn’t know the area yet and it was already kind of late and dark by the time we got there.  The next day we got a bunch of street and metro maps and attacked the city.  We spent the whole day walking around Las Rambla which is a 1.2 km long open street with a pedestrian footpath in the middle. It is full of attractions, shops, fresh food markets, restaurants, street performers, and souvenir shops.  It took us a while to get through the whole street because there was just so much to see and do on that one street.  After we walked down the whole street, we decided to just keep walking.  We walked all along the harbor and by the coast line until we somehow stumbled upon the Gothic Quarters.  We walked all along through ally ways that led us to a bunch of gothic and Roman architecture that was absolutely stunning.  On the way back from the Gothic Quarter we found a couple of Gaudi’s buildings-he is probably the most famous and well liked artist/architecture in Barcelona and I can definitely see why.  His buildings looked like they were almost cartoons-his work is unbelievable! That took up day one-since we knew how to get around we were able to go into the city center that night and find some fun places to go to where there were a lot of students our age.  Barcelona never sleeps-they don’t start to go out until around midnight, and that’s just when they go to the bars. The clubs don’t start to get busy until two or three in the morning! since the clubs started so late (we were up by 8 every morning) and the cover fees were outrageous, we decided to hang out at the bars and skip over the 3 am club scene.  The next day we took the metro to see the Gaudi Park.  The whole thing was designed by Gaudi-he built all of the benches and buildings.  You’ll see in the pictures that the benches are winding and all mosaic and you will definitely be able to pick out the buildings he designed.  Barcelona was full of the most beautiful mosaics.  Oh, and in the park was one of the runways that was used on a season finale of America’s Next Top Model (not sure how many of you know that show) but I basically was walking in the foot steps of Tyra Banks for a while, no big deal.  The runway actually looked like a cave, it was so cool.  We hopped back on the metro after the park and went to the Sagrada Familia-this is honestly the most detailed building I have ever seen, ever. It’s a church in Barcelona that is still under construction and it just absolutely blew my mind.  From there we went to Las Ramblas to meet up with a friend from lunch.  When I was a freshman at Fairfield I had a good friend Silvia who transferred to Barcelona after our first year (she’s originally from Spain) so we got to meet up with her for lunch at a traditional Spanish restaurant.  After lunch, we got to go to the beach right around sunset and hang out by the Mediterranean and watch the sun go down. This was our last stop of the day so we took our time at the beach until it got a little too chilly and we headed back to our hostel to cook dinner.  For our last night, Tom went out with some of the guys he met at the hostel so Corie, Cait and myself had a little girls night out.  Since we had to get up around 430 the next morning to catch our plane, we decided to just go out to Las Ramblas, order some Sangria (which they served in the biggest glasses ever) and people watch for a few hours. It was a great way to end the trip!

I’m trying something new with the way I upload the pictures so I’m sorry if anyone can’t see them for some reason.  I think they are also in reverse order so it might be better to look from the bottom up as it will go along better with my commentary.

You only live once, right?

I apologize in advanced for the short post but I don’t have a lot of time for this update-just thought I’d leave you with something before I go to Barcelona in the morning.

Cait’s aunt came to visit her this weekend. Her name is Maury and she has the coolest life! She worked on Wall Street for a while doing some crazy stuff with stocks and bonds and ended up making a lot of money so now she pretty much just travels the world and helps her sisters run a winery or something of the sort in California.  She stopped in Galway for a few days between going to Abu Dhabi, Italy, Zurich, and London.

She and Cait had planned to go to Blarney Castle for a quick overnight trip.  However, Maury booked a hotel room that fit three people and insisted that I come along with them.  Unfortunately, I was at the very beginning of writing out my 20 page marketing budget and creative brief and wasn’t sure if I should be making the trip.  The next morning I woke up and realized that I would regret skipping out on my only opportunity to see the Blarney Castle if I decided to stay at home and write my paper.  So, I compromised and brought my work with me for the car ride and went on the trip with them!

Don’t worry, I got the paper done and submitted the full 20 pages on Monday morning a few hours before the deadline.  Mind you there are five other people in my marketing group who should have been working on this project with me..key words: should have.

just some quality one on one time with the Blarney stone

crazy staircase-accident waiting to happen

the wishing stairs: had to walk up backwards, and down forwards with your eyes closed to get your wish

After Blarney, we drove about 45 minutes to a cute little town called Kinsale-it reminded me a lot of Dingle.  It was right on a harbor and had a lot of brightly colored buildings.

Dublin in Style

Fairfield University decided to be oh so courteous this weekend and sponsored an overnight trip from Saturday to Sunday to Dublin.  Of course, the cost was covered in the cost of tuition for the semester; but since that was paid some time ago, it at least felt like it was all free.  Our itinerary was incredible and all admission fees, transportation, hotel, and meals were prepaid for.  We got a taxi van to pick us up at our apartment complex on Saturday morning and our first stop was to Locke’s Distillery.  Locke’s Distillery is the oldest working whiskey distillery in Ireland.  We were given a full Irish breakfast, and since we had some free time we got take a tour of the old distillery after we finished eating.

The vegetarian Irish breakfast: 2 eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, potatoes, and some sort of beans.

The tour included a sampling of the Irish whiskey.  Towards the end of the tour we came to the Tasting Bar where they poured each of us a taste of 6-year-old whiskey made in the factoring, mind you it was no later that 10:30 AM.

After we left the distillery, we drove straight to Dublin.  Once we got there, our first stop was to the historic Kilmainham Jail.  The jail, of course, is no longer used other than as a museum and tourist attraction so we got to take a look around.  The jail was a little old and falling apart in some sections but it was enormous and really cool to look through.

After the jail, we drove to the Dublin Castle.  I was actually expecting a typical Irish castle slightly in ruins. Little did I know that the old castle had only some remaining parts but the rest had been rebuilt into an enormous and gorgeous mansion.

After the castle, we checked into our hotel and had about an hour before dinner.  Dinner that night was at 101 Talbet and included a starter, main course, and glass of wine.

I’m not exactly sure what this was but it was my starter. It was some sort of butternut squash/peanut chutney thing with vegetables and pita strips to dip.

My main dish was a salmon, lemon, basil dish.

The hotel we stayed at.

After dinner, the rest of the night was free for us to explore the city of Dublin.  We did a lot of walking and found a lot of cool places to hangout at.  There were a lot of people out and about in the city at night so it was very easy to find the good places to go to. One downside, Dublin is extremely expensive-I thought Galway was pricey, but it’s affordable compared to Dublin!

On Sunday, our first stop was to Trinity College to see the book of Kells.  I was able to get some pictures of Trinity, but no photography was allowed in the library or at the Book of Kells.

Next stop of the day: the Guinness Factory

Our admissions ticket also allowed us to learn how to pour the perfect pint from a Guinness bar tender-and we even got a certificate for it.

Laura, Corie, Cait, me, Tom, Vince, and Tom (all the Fairfield students in Ireland this semester)

After we got through all the levels of the factory, we got to have lunch in the restaurant. I got the seafood chowder that came with a salmon filet thing on the side.

After the tour, we had a little less than an hour to walk around the city one last time before we had to leave.  We walked all around the temple bar area, found the Stag’s Head Pub (for those of you who don’t know, Fairfield’s mascot is a stag), and of course, I refused to leave Dublin without finding the famous O’Donoghue’s Pub.

After trekking all over to find this amazing pub, it was back to Galway. I hate to break the news to you all but you will have to be patient waiting for my next update. There comes a time in every college student’s semester where one has to buckle down, kick it into overdrive and get some work done. As seems to always be the case, my professors have assigned all my work at the same time so for the next few weeks I’ll be getting through as much of it as I possibly can to get it all over with early. I plan on still being able to enjoy the end of my semester and not having classes anymore starting at the end of the month. So I’m going to aim to get a vast majority of my work done before my wonderful aunts get here in the beginning of September. I’m going to Barcelona in two weeks so I’m hoping to get in a good blog with some pictures after that-school comes first though!