Alghero!

On May 2nd Ali, Hillary & I left Barcelona to venture on to Alghero, Italy. Alghero is on the Italian island of Sardegna. We stayed in an adorable hostel that was more like little bungalows! Our hostel was in a suburb of Alghero called Fertilia. Fertilia was a tiny town filled with friendly faces. The center of town held a wonderfully simple church, which I've decided I love because of its simplicity.

The bus ride from Fertilia to Alghero was only 70 cents, but we usually opted to walk the 3 miles into town because of the beautiful view of the Mediterranean all along the way. Alghero was the perfect end to our vacation because unlike Barcelona, there was not as many tourists and a lot less pressure of having to see a million things. The weather in Alghero was also a bit warmer, which was great for us because we desperately wanted to play on the beautiful beaches!

Every day we enjoyed the beach and met new, friendly people. I was the translator for the three of us because I took 5 years of Italian in high school! The one thing my friends asked me to talk to the locals about was Gelato! Gelato is italian ice cream which is second to none. We enjoyed gelato every day... twice a day! This was probably my favorite thing to share with my friends. I had been telling them of my experiences in Italy from my senior year in high school and was so excited to return to italy! I was excited about the language, the food and the gelato!

We loved our 3 days in Italy, especially the food! I ate so much pasta and pizza that I'm surprised that I still fit into my clothes by the end of the trip! Also, despite the fact that I am not a fan of wine, I will admit that I did have some wine made in Alghero. I felt like it would have been wrong not to have had at least one glass of wine while in Italian! I was delightfully surprised with the wine I had. It was not as dark as usual red wine is and tasted sweeter. So I have decided I am not a fan of any wine, except wine that comes from Alghero!

On our last day we relaxed on the beach before going to the airport. While on the beach, I looked into the water and saw what I insist was a pirate ship! It was gorgeous in the distance, so I am glad to have snapped this picture!

I may not have been a lot of places in this world, but of the places I have been, I can say that I have never seen more beautiful water than in Alghero. I am so glad that I was able to spend three days in such a small, relaxing and beautiful city.


Now, on a new subject, I have finished all of my exams! I am very excited about coming home in four days! Until then though, I will be shopping and spending time with my great friends that I have met here!

See you all soon!!

Barcelona !

On Monday, April 28th my friends Hillary, Ali and I left Dublin to visit Barcelona! We arrived in Barcelona at about 11pm and were very excited to have our first Spanish meal! We walked into the first open restaurant we saw. The food was cheap and absolutely delicious! Despite my severe lack of Spanish skills, I was able to order a Durham which is similar to a burrito. It had chicken and lettuce and a million other things in it which was wonderful! After eating we hailed a taxi to take us to our hostel.
Once we arrived at our hostel, we went straight to bed so we would be ready for our first day in Barcelona! When we woke up we decided to go to see a building designed by Barcelona's famous architect Gaudi. His specialty was making buildings that look like they're made of sand! When we saw our first Gaudi building, we were amazed. It was gorgeous! The best part about Gaudi is that he did not just do structures like churches, he did everyday structures, like this apartment building! The whole city is filled with amazing works of Gaudi. After seeing the apartment building, we decided to take a walk down the famous La Ramabalas! This street was amazing. It had shops and stores and in the middle of the road it was like one huge market! People had news stands, restaurant tables, pet shops, art shops and flower shops all in the middle of the street! At the end of the street we had found water! As we walked further we found our first glimpse of the beach! Despite it being a bit chilly, we still played at the beach for a while!

The next day we visited a whole park designed by Gaudi which was on top of the mightiest hill I have ever seen in my life! However, once we reached the top of the hill, we realized it was completely worth it! There were so many structures that were simply works of art! It maintained the sand castle theme, however it also included many mosaic aspects which added beautiful, bright colors! The buildings were magnificent immersed in the nature of the park. The next day we went to the cite of the Barcelona Olympics. The stadiums are a big attraction to tourists. I personally liked the museum the best because you could see the whole city from the top of the million stairs! After the seeing all there was to see about the Olympics, we took an aircab to a Spanish castle overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Once I was there I decided that I want to be a princess with a castle overlooking the Mediterranean!

Our last day in Barcelona we went to see yet another piece of Gaudi architecture! This is one of his most famous works, a church that sincerely looks like it would be washed away if it rained. Even standing up close, I had a hard time believing that it was not made of sand! I thought it was incredible! I never made anything that cool out of the sand at Charlotte Beach!

By the end of the day, we were at the airport waiting to take off to Alghero, Italy! That is an adventure I will have to write about another day though, because I need to go study for my last final which is coming up on Wednesday!

(PS. I already survived 2 exams and I feel pretty confident about them!:) )

I hope everyone at home is doing well! I'll see you very soon!!!!

I'm no longer a teenager!!

On April 26th I officially turned 20 years old! It was really exciting for me! We started celebrating on Friday, April 25th at 9:30pm. I had a few friends over my apartment and we danced and laughed and had so much fun! My friend Ali made me chocolate milk with Baileys so I could start my birthday with an Irish drink! So I had my chocolate milk in my sippie cup and dunked cookies so that I could take full advantage of my last few hours of being a teenager! It was very delicious! People continued coming to celebrate with me throughout the night and at midnight my friends put candles in my birthday pie and sang happy birthday to me! They only had two candles, so they found a plastic ring off of a milk container to be a zero so that the pie would say "2" "o" with the 2 candles and the plastic ring! It was very creative and I liked it very much! The pie was actually more like a tart, but it was delicious either way and we all enjoyed it! By 3am everyone had gone home and I was in bed getting some rest before I woke up and continued celebrating my birthday! When I did wake up, my friends and I went downtown for a little shopping! I helped my friend Ellen pick out some new clothes for her vacation and got myself 2 shirts! I also wound up with a big pink birthday hat! After shopping we met up with another friend, Colin, and went to dinner with him and his family who was visiting. His family was extremely nice and I enjoyed meeting all of them and having dinner with them. At the end of the meal, our waiter brought me a piece of cheesecake and had me stand on a chair to announce to the restaurant that it was my birthday! It was a lot of fun and the cheesecake was very good!! After spending the day downtown, we came back to DCU to freshen up before going out for my birthday! So we all changed and made ourselves pretty again, then everyone came to my apartment before catching a bus to go downtown! We decided to go to Temple Bar where a lot of the nightlife occurs in Dublin. We went to a bar called The Porter House which has beers from across the world in the craziest of flavors! One of my friends bought me an apple beer and another bought me a chocolate beer! I liked the apple beer a lot more, but both were great and we had a lot of fun! Altogether it was a great birthday and am happy to be 20! Waking up on Sunday, I had a lot of packing to do before leaving for Barcelona and Alghero on Monday! Next time I will give you all the fun details about my trip! But right now I gotta get to studying for my final exams! I'll be home soon and can't wait to see everyone!!! Hope everyone is happy, healthy and safe! Send me some emails to let me know how you're all doing!

So Many Animals!!

Since April it has been warmer here in Dublin. This sudden change in the weather inspired me and my friends to venture out in Dublin. We decided to go to Phoenix park (which happens to be the largest enclosed park in Europe!) for a picnic. We decided that this monument would be a great place to eat, so we climbed the slanted steps to the top. From the top we could see people playing football all over the park while we ate our lunches.


After lunch, a few of us decided to go to the Dublin zoo. This was a lot of fun! We saw an adorable baby orangutan that I fell in love with! We also saw a baby elephant which was beyond cute! The zoo was really huge. It had a whole African safari where there were rhinos, hippos, giraffes, zebras, ostriches, and plenty of other animals! The chimp exhibit was really cool too, it was outside on an island in a pond that had little tree houses and fun things to swing on! I really loved the penguin park of the zoo and there was even a petting zoo in it which had ponies, bunnies, cows, dogs, cats and so many other animals that I never thought I'd see at a zoo!

My friend Ali and I spotted a gorgeous flowering tree by the Red Panda exhibit. I thought this tree would be the perfect tree to pose under if I was going to prom and even though neither of us were going to the prom, we decided to take a picture underneath anyway!

Later, when we were in the petting zoo we spotted this wishing chair! I was very excited about it, so I wasted no time getting to the wishing chair and making a wish! It was a lot of fun!! I especially liked the painted sheep on the background!

After the zoo, I had a few friends over for dinner at my apartment. We managed to cook chicken, stuffing and mashed potatoes. I was really impressed with our meal, especially considering I did a good portion of the cooking and it still came out edible!

The next day, my friends Colleen, Tara & I went to church in the city center. The church was gorgeous, but I have to admit, the service was not all that impressive. After church, we had heard about some event in Dublin involving horses, so obviously we were very interested! We took a walk down Henry St all the way to the Old Jameson Distillery when we saw hundreds of horses in a square! It turns out this was a horse selling/trading event that happens the first sunday of every month! I cannot even explain how much I loved it! There were horses of all shapes and sizes! I met one man who had a lovely red horse! He asked me if I liked his horse and I told him I loved it. He then told me I could have her and take her home to New York with me! We ended up talking to the man a while and he even let me hold onto his horses reigns. It turns out his horse was named Peggy. He had brought 5 horses to sell that day and had already sold 3 by 11am! Peggy, he told us, was his most expensive horse and would easily sell for 2500 euro, but I could have her for free! He told us all about the trading and selling. I really enjoyed talking to him and learning about horses and the farming suburbs of Dublin. I especially liked petting Peggy!

Lately it's been very busy here on the DCU campus as next week is the last week of school! I've been writing a lot of papers and studying my fair share. I am very excited for the last week of classes! I am even more excited for my 20th birthday which is occurring on the 26th!! Also, my friends Ali, Hillary and I are taking a trip to Barcelona and Alghero from April 28th-May5th as a bit of a break before studying for exams! I'm really excited to see Spain and Sardegna. I have never been to either place, so it should be loads of fun!

As always, I hope everyone is doing well! I'll be home in a little over a month!! See you soon!

The West of Ireland!

On the weekend of March 28th, our group of 40 American students set out to discover the west of Ireland! Our first stop was in the beautiful (but expensive!) Galway! In Galway we had some lunch (I had apple pie!) and shopped around for an hour or so. We didn't have much time in Galway because it was just a stop on our way to the gorgeous Aran Islands!

We took a very rocky ferry ride to the island of Inishmor, the largest of the 3 Aran Islands. We stayed at the only hotel on the Island right on the beach. We learned that the island consists of 800 people, 1 ambulance, 3 policemen that trade shifts, a doctor and a nurse (who live right next to each other) and a bank that is only open on Wednesdays! It was so secluded and beautiful. While on the island we saw the sight of the 7 churches. It is really just a site where 7 old cobblestone churches runes lay and there are many gaelic headstones. We also traveled to Dun Aengus, a prehistoric fort where a celtic tribe lived. Dun Aenus is a bit of a climb to get to, but once up there it is a 300 foot drop off of a cliff! It was so windy that I was afraid to even get close for fear of falling off, so I got on my hands and knees and crawled to the edge to look off! It was absolutely breathtaking and I could never describe it with justice. The fort built around this huge cliff is equally as magnificent, and I give the members of the ancient celtic tribes a lot of credit for building a fort so dangerously close to the 300 foot drop and living there! While on the Aran Islands we also had a lesson in Irish. The native people of Ireland do not refer to speaking their native language as speaking Gaelic, they refer to it as speaking Irish! I can now say my name and ask for a pint in Irish!

After we left the Aran Islands we came back to the mainland and took a long drive to the town of Westport in County Mayo. On the way to Westport we stopped for lunch at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara. We learned that this private girls boarding school run by Benedictine Nuns (which Madonna's daughter attended) was actually built by Mitchel Henry in 1866 for his wife for her birthday. His wife saw the area and fell in love with it when they were on their honeymoon in the area. Unfortunately, his wife died early, and Mr. Henry never stepped foot in the Abbey again. He built a memorial chapel on the grounds though and had his wife buried there, and he too, was eventually buried there. Then, in WWI, the Benedictine Nuns bought the estate because they were refugees from Belgium. Needless to say, I loved this amazing Abbey. My birthday is coming up, perhaps someone will build one for me!

After Kylemore Abbey, we went onward to Westport. Just outside of Westport we stopped at this memorial statue. It is a huge ship with starved bodies and bones all over it. It represents the ships that left Ireland during the Great Famine. These ships were often known as "Coffin Ships" because so many people died on the ships from starvation and disease before they ever reached their destination. We had studied these ships in class, however it was even more moving to see this memorial. It is in County Mayo because this was the county that was most affected by the Famine. To this day if you ask someone from Mayo where they are from, they will respond "County Mayo, God help me!"

After the sadness of the memorial, we made it into the actual small town of Westport. After dinner, my friends and I went into town to see the local pubs. We ended up in the Porterhouse just having a pint when a group of men started setting up instruments 2 feet behind me. It was a small pub, so we were pretty cramped and the band introduced themselves to us. They were extremely friendly and it turns out they're a rater popular folk band in Ireland called The Mulloy Brothers. They are a group of 3 brothers (they're 4th brother had just died last summer) who play old Irish songs. They were very impressed with my knowledge of traditional Irish songs (all of which I know from my dad singing them all the time!) and told me I look very Irish! Throughout the night they played all of the songs I requested and even let me sing with them! I sang Molly Malone and Wild Rover with them! At the end of the night they gave me a DVD of themselves playing in their hometown. I hope I run into them again someday, they were absolutely the best!

Altogether, I loved the west of Ireland, especially my new friends, The Mulloy Brothers!

I hope everyone at hope is doing well, I miss you all!

Next time I will tell you about my adventures at Phoenix Park and the Dublin Zoo!!

Matt in Dublin!

As I told you in my last entry Danielle and Rob were here from March 13th-18th and Matt was here from March 17th-24th. So I was lucky enough to have all of them here on St. Patricks Day for the big parade! My favorite float of the whole parade was one of St. Patrick riding a Harley. I immediately thought of my dad and knew he would love this float too! I wish he could have come to Ireland to visit me because I know he would have just loved everything just as much as I do. Anyways! The parade was so crowded and people were doing anything to see it, one man actually climbed on a street sign just to see! I swear people were absolutely crazy but it was just so much fun!
So we all enjoyed the parade and afterwards we headed to my favorite pub (which is now Matt and Robs favorite pub too!) for some lunch. Then I let Matt nap while Danielle and Rob did some shopping. Later we had dinner and did our share of drinking to celebrate!
After Danielle and Rob left, Matt and I went all over Dublin in the next 6 days. We went to the history museum and the art museum, the Guinness storehouse, went on a tour of the Wicklow mountains, visited St. Stevens Green, saw the Dublin Castle, and he even went shopping!
Matt especially enjoyed the day tour of the Wicklow mountains. We saw Guinness lake and the spot where the Beatles wrote the song "Yesterday." We also went to Glendalough, so I was able to show Matt around since I had already been there. After Glendalough, our next stop was in Ballykissangel for lunch and then we went to the site "where the rivers meet" in Avoca which is where Tomas Moore wrote the famous poem "The Meeting of the Waters." It was a gorgeous area with beautiful stone walls and trees waiting to blossom.

After seeing Guinness Lake where all of the water to make Guinness comes from, we went to the Guinness Storehouse and learned even more about the Irish liquid treasure. Once we reached the 7th floor of the Storehouse, we enjoyed the gorgeous view. It was much less crowded in the storehouse when I went with Matt than with Danielle and Rob. So we were able to get seats and look upon Dublin while Matt drank both our of glasses of Guinness.
We also enjoyed Easter together while Matt was here. A bunch of my friends got together and we all made easter dinner, so Matt was able to meet my friends. Best of all, my mom sent me an easter basket!!

I hope everyone had a great easter and I will write about my trip to the west of Ireland and the Aran Islands next time!!

Danielle and Rob in Ireland!

On March 13th Danielle and Rob arrived in Dublin to visit me! I met them at the from doors of DCU and led them to my apartment where I showed off my bedroom and kitchen. After having some coffee and tea, I brought them to the City Center where we ate a bit of breakfast before I sent them on a small day tour of Malahide Castle and the coastline! By the time they were done with the tour, I was just finishing class and met them downtown for lunch! I took them to Molloys where they discovered the wonders of goujons! Goujons are delicious chicken! Afterwards we came back to DCU and they met my roommates and we had dinner. Everyone was pretty exhausted so we went to bed early! The next day I had class again, so they went on their way to the Dublin Castle and the Jameson Distillery. I met them downtown after my class and we had some dinner and walked around the city to get to an event called The Irish House Party. At the event, which was in a downstairs bar, we were given a 2 foot tray of finger food! The point of the Irish House Party is to give people a real taste of Ireland. We learned Irish songs and a great Irish band was our host. We learned that there are only 3 instruments that originated in Ireland: the harp, the bodhran (a handheld drum), and the Uilleann pipes which are like bag pipes but played with your elbow. It was very fun to see the uilleann pipes being played for us! altogether I think it was a great night and we all had a lot of fun! Over the next few days we went shopping and took a day trip to Newgrange! We also went to the Guinness storehouse and Dublina, which is an interactive museum that shows Dublins history way back to the time of the vikings! The Guinness factory was a lot of fun! there were 7 floors and almost every floor was giving samples of Guinness. Danielle and I are not big fans of the taste, so it was just Rob drinking the samples! However, we did all try the first sample together! We saw a lot of funny signs and even the first Guinness advertisement which boasts how it is healthy! At the end of, when we all got to the top floor we all got a free pint of guinness and the bartender drew a shamrock in the top of my foam with the guinness! I thought it was really cool and nobody else got one but me! The Gravity Bar on the top floor is a complete circle with all glass walls so that you can see the whole city! The view from up so high was absolutely magnificent! I definitely had a great time at the storehouse with Danielle and Rob. Monday was St Patrick's Day which was when Matt arrived so I went to the airport to get Matt while Danielle and Rob went to the City Center to scope out a good spot to stand for the parade!By the Time Matt and I got to O'Connell St everything was insane! People were climbing light posts and statues and anything just to get a good view! I will definitely include pictures it in my next post! We had a nice night on St. Pattys day and the next morning Matt slept in while Danielle, Rob & I went shopping one last time! Danielle got a really nice green coat because she liked mine so much! Sadly by 11o'clock we said goodbye at the bus stop in the city center because we could not find a bus that i could get on with them! Needless to say though, I had a lot of fun with them here and hope that they liked my new home just as much as I do!!

If anyone else would like to come visit, please do!! I promise you'll love it!