Roma

So it has been quite some time since I last updated. My apologies, I have become very lazy because my travels take so much out of me!

My last two weeks of class after I returned from Dublin went by nice and quick! My "finals" were the week of April 9th-April 13th. I had only one exam, two projects, and three additional papers. It sounds like a lot, but considering I had only written two papers over the course of three months, it really wasn't that bad.

I traveled to Italy for a week with my friend, Colleen, after my semester ended. We did the typical route: Rome, Florence, Venice. Having traveled so much in these past three months, I surprisingly wasn't that excited to go. I am a HORRIBLE flyer, and have had a number of bad experiences with airports and airlines since I have been here, so a week long tripped seemed very stressful. But it actually turned out being a really relaxing time since it was spread out in a week rather than a weekend, like the rest of my trips. To save some time, I am going to split all three cities into different posts.

Rome:

I will keep it short by sticking to our first day, which pretty much laid the foundation for the rest of our time in Rome– To start, our bags were delayed in the Rome airport for an hour and a half. We were tired, starving, and extremely upset to discover our bags were SOAKED from the rain when they finally arrived. We took a train to our hotel, which costs us 14 euro- much more than expected. When we arrived in central Rome at the Termini station, there were no buses or cabs to take us to our hotel, so we walked. Luckily we caught sight of our street and came to the conclusion it had to be close by. Every hotel we passed had a nice lobby and a sign, but ours was seriously lacking. All we found was a door with a buzzer. Long story short, we ended up not being able to get into our room because there was no desk receptionist. The bed and breakfast was owned by two brothers who lived on the floor below the rooms, and they were sleeping when we arrived. We ended up switching rooms three times (and they only had 8 rooms!). The weather was also extremely gloomy. We only saw a few hours of sun, and the rest of the time it was pouring rain! Not what we were expecting, but as the days went on we got more and more comfortable with the area and started to enjoy ourselves!

On our first day we took a double decker bus tour to see all the sites:

Rome's main government building

me standing in front of the building!

Roman Forum- my personal favorite site

more of the Roman forum

The Vatican! HUGE & absolutely beautiful. Sistine Chapel was breathtaking. 

A bit of sunshine at the Colosseum 

Trevi Fountain

Making a wish :)

The Panthenon

Our third & final room- Came with our own bathroom & a terrace

Like I said before, as time went on, our trip got better and better. Traveling just gets so frustrating and it put a damper on our first day. Rome was not my favorite city in Italy, however I really enjoyed the tour we did of the Vatican. We had a tour guide from Michigan (Jim– great guy). I learned so much more than I would have by just walking through. I thought the Sistine chapel was magnificent (as everyone does) and I really soaked up the moment when I was standing in Leonardo DaVinci's living quarters. Never thought I would be able to stand in front of the work of such amazing artists!

My favorite part of the trip though, was meeting up with a girl Colleen and I met on our tour, Stacie. She is from Hawaii, but is doing an Architecture internship in Rome, and was nice enough to invite us up to her place for some wine and cheese! We ended up spending the rest of the night with her and she took us to a delicious Italian restaurant for dinner. We really enjoyed her company, and it made the trip very unexpected and special. But by the time Monday rolled around, we were ready to head to Florence!

Guinness Girl

So last weekend, the "four sisters" as we have come to call ourselves, traveled to Ireland for a long weekend. We spent two nights in Dublin, and a full day in Galway.

We ran into some difficulties when we arrived at the airport. When we asked the information desk how to get to our hotel, they notified us that the 'hotel' that we booked was actually not a hotel, but a house. The website had told us it was only a 15 minute bus ride from the airport, but we soon found out it was an hour from the airport, and from the closest bus station we would have to walk through the largest forest preserve in all of Ireland in order to reach our final destination. Obviously, we were not going to settle for this, so we stayed at the airport for a few hours trying to find an actual hotel in the city of Dublin where we could get to without being hunted down by leprechauns.

We ended up staying at this cute, cheap little place smack in the center of the busiest street in Dublin. It couldn't have been more perfect. I liked Dublin a lot more than I was expecting to. People we EXTREMELY nice and friendly to us, and the Irish men loved our American dance moves! We had a great time exploring the night life, meeting new people, and of course visiting the Guinness Brewery. Now, I usually hate beer. Literally can't drink one sip. But Guinness I liked. I liked it a lot.

On Saturday we took a 3 hour bus ride from Dublin to Galway, because everyone told us we had to see the Cliffs of Moher. Luckily there was a group of Marquette girls studying in Galway, so they were able to look after our bags while we went on our tour.

Our tour drove through the western countryside of Ireland, and as most people would expect, everything was very green. Even in March! I especially liked all of the stone fences. They are all so old, but I think they give Ireland a lot of character. The Cliffs were massive. I am really glad we took the day trip to see them, because I have never seen anything like it before. It was really windy up there, so the pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, but we still got some good ones.

On the stone fences

Super old tomb from the stone age

The Cliffs of Moher

watch out! Many people fall over the edge of the cliffs and die.

Rocky beach. Atlantic Ocean

First time seeing the Atlantic (with the exception of flying over it)

Once again, we had another successful trip. On the way home from Galway we ran into a few difficulties with the airline, but thankfully we made it home safely. These next two weeks I am not traveling anywhere, because all of my course work is due by April 10th. Crazy to think in 9 days my semester will be over with. I can't believe how fast time has flown by and that my time here is almost over. But I am looking forward to my week in Italy. I think it will be the perfect ending to my trip abroad.


<3 Katie

Day trip to Brighton

Before my Mom had come to visit me, we had talked about planning a day trip somewhere outside of London. She was thinking a trip to some chateau or castle, but I was looking for something I hadn't seen in quite a long time – a beach!

I had a friend tell me about a cute town called Brighton. It is on the southern coastline of England, and is only a one-and-a-half hour train ride from central London. So, last Monday, my mom and I woke up and decided to go! 

Picture of the coast from the Brighton Pier

The Pier

Mom dippin' her toes in the English Channel 

We had the most amazing day exploring the little treasured city we new nothing about. It happened to be a beautiful day, so we relaxed on the rock beach, and had lunch outside at a restaurant called "The Terrace"... big contrast from having lunch two days prior in a ski lodge at the top of the Swiss Alps! 

Early on we walked along the pier, where I stopped to get my first fish pedicure. It was the craziest feeling and I have to admit, I was a bit nervous, but my feet came out super soft :)

The highlight of the trip had to be our visit to The Royal Pavilion. My mom, the royal family expert, didn't even know it existed! It was built for King George IV starting in 1787 and was finished in 1823. The castle, as I would call it, was decorated head to toe in oriental detail. Definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I think I was even more impressed with it then I was Versaille! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I think the outside is a pretty remarkable representation. 

The Royal Pavilion 

After a delicious italian dinner at the Marina, my mom and I headed back to London to ensure we got a good nights rest for her last day. When I nestled back in bed, I realized just how surreal this whole experience has been for me – I have seen more in two and a half months than most people have seen in their entire lifetime. And best of all, I have gotten to share many of my experiences with the people I love, which makes it all the more better. I truly am the luckiest girl alive! 

Two Blondes do Switzerland

At this time last week I was laying in bed – unable to get a wink of sleep – with anticipation of my mom's arrival into London. It had been exactly two months since I had left home, which is probably the longest I have ever gone without seeing her. I managed to get two or three hours before I left for the airport to pick her up, but ended up arriving an hour and a half early because I just couldn't wait any longer!

She may not have noticed, but I couldn't hold back tears when I saw her come out of the terminal at London's Heathrow airport. I had kept in contact with her almost every day over the phone and email, but for some reason seeing her brought out a whole new container of emotions. 

When we arrived back at my dorm, I took my mom on a little walking tour of my area. At first I couldn't tell what she thought about it, but by the end of the trip I knew she was very impressed and excited for me. We didn't do much sight-seeing the first day because we had a long day of travel ahead of us. We woke up at 3:10 a.m. the next morning in order to get to the airport for our 6:45 flight to Zurich, Switzerland out of London's Gatwick airport (about a half hour farther than Heathrow). It was BRUTAL. 

Zurich was absolutely beautiful though. We did a trolly tour the first day to get our grips of the city, and then walked around to different shops before indulging in an expensive cheese fondue dinner. Actually, the fondue dinner wasn't even that expensive compared to other things. Everything was expensive in switzerland. A cheese sandwich cost me 18 swiss franks! 

Lake Zurich

My beautiful mother in front of the lake

Me in front of one of the rivers

Mother with her SWISS hot chocolate 

Cheese Fondue with bread, potatoes, onions and pickles. Strange combination

Zurich at night

On Saturday we woke up and ate a complimentary breakfast at the hotel before we made our way to the alps. I have always had this weird fascination with mountains, so this was probably my favorite part of the trip :)

The Sleeping Lion Memorial for fallen soldiers 

Mom and I in front of the Lion

Lucern, Switzerland

On our bus to the mountains!

View from the first lift

Rotating gondola that took us up to the highest point. Around 15,000 feet in elevation

On the very top of the snowy alps!

Me and mom sittin' in a glacier

Only my fourth time seeing snow this winter :)

Mom having successfully making it back down to sea level

We ended the night in the mountains with a great dinner and some drinks from the hotel bar. The stay in Switzerland went perfectly, and I could not have imagined going anywhere more beautiful. I would say the only problem we ran into was the intense language barrier. Unbeknown to us, Swiss people speak German– only German! We had a very hard time communicating, but luckily our hotel had a good English speaking staff who helped get us around. It was truly a trip of a lifetime and I felt so blessed that I was able to share the experience with my mom,  because she made every experience that much better :)