let's get down to business
Down to business. Time for a real update.
OK...Ireland. Well... I said pretty much what there is to say about that. It was fabulous. Irish people are wonderful. The first night there... i guess second night really because we just went to be Thursday night since we got in at one... we went to a bar and Mike bet Nicole and I one Euro each that some guys would come up and talk to us while he was out smoking. Well, he cheated. he went to the bar and asked some guys to come talk to us so he would win. The guys told us what was up so we played a little trick. We told the guys to pretend like the couldn't find us, and when mike got back we told him he lost. He said "really? but i cheated!" then the guys walked over and we all laughed at Mike. Austin, or Ozzy as he like to be called, made Mike buy drinks for Nicole and I. Much appreciated. Mike went outside because we were all getting ready to go and Ozzy tried to convince Nicole and I to drop Mike off (because he was WASTED) and come back out. He even said he'd pay our cab. I went outside soon after because a little bar fight started between some girls and the guys Nicole and I were talking to. Outside Mike was smoking with a girl from Finland who was nearly doing a bridge she was bent back to far. She was hilarious. She looked at me and said "my back hurts." I giggled and suggested that she bend forward for a little while. We then took a cab home.
A few nights later we were in O'Briens and met the guys from Ohio, so you know I loved them. We hung out with them and talked for a while. They were excellent... why? Because they're Mid-Western. haha.
St. Patty's itself was fine. We checked out of the hotel, went to see the parade, had a few drinks, and left for the airport. Everything went reall smoothly.
Spring break was something else. When Nicole and I finally got to Barcelona we stayed in the straight up ghetto. We were talking to some people and they pointed down a street and told us "don't go down that street after midnight, it's really dangerous." It was the street we were staying on. Yikes!! We decided we'd go on a SmashedTravel pub crawl that night. It started at a little pub on our block called the Quiet Man. Nicole and I split a jug of Sangria (yes a jug). It was my first experience with it and it was delicious. We met Will from Minnesota who is a "bi-athlete" so he cross-country skiied and shoots (has anyone ever heard of this?). We met some British guys too, one of them was Hugh Grant, see facebook for proof. We hung out with them for a lot of the night, although one of them really creeped me out. We went to to other pubs and then Nicole and I called it quits. Which is good since we don't remember getting home. I can only imagine us trying to tell the bartender when to take us. Oh man.
Let me tell you about our room where we stayed. The hostel cancelled out room since we were a day late, even though we called and they said it would be fine. So they put us on the roof. L:iterally. The elevator only went up to floor 4. We were floor 5. So we climbed up some skinny skinny steps, out onto the roof, around the laundry facility, and into a little shack with jail cell type rooms with only bunk beds for furniture. The bathroom light was on a timer so it would go out mid-shower. You had to push in a button to get the shower to work so it would go off if you were shaving your legs or washing your hair. There was hair in our sheets, bugs in the elevator, and I got a rash on my legs from staying there. CLAAAAAASSY.
Parched and extremely hungover, Nicole and I got up, ate, realized we had both blacked out but somehow made it home (and me into the top bunk somehow). We also realized we had both thrown up. I woke up a 7:30 freezing only to find that Nicole had somehow stolen my blanket and thrown up on it, as well as her sweatshirt. Yikes! So I took a shower and we cuddled and slept until about 10 when we had to check out. We got lunch and just headed to the airport even though our flight wasn't until 10 pm. Officially, Spain is the ghetto of Europe as far as I am concerned.
When we got to Rome and arrived at our hostel, we found that we were staying in a camping trailer. It was hilarious, but it had a space heater and a shower that worked so that is all we needed. When it rained of was really windy we thought our little trailer was just going go roll into the Tiber. haha. So... Saturday Nicole and I saw the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Arc of Constatine, and some random Pyramid memorial thing. It poured all day. We ate dinner at the hostel restuarant and it was quite delicious. Sunday we went to Easter Mass at the Vatican and saw the Pope and was blessed by him (21 years of sin erased!). Again, it poured. We called it Holy Water since it was Easter in the Vatican. I was really glad we went because some kid at our hostel from Minnesota (they're everywhere) told us there was no way to get in without a ticket. WRONG. Monday we walked arounf the Spanish Steps and saw the Trevi fountain. We threw in our coins to return to Rome. It was really nice. We checked out and took our bags to Termini and waited for our train to Paris.
The train was something else. It was a 16 hour train ride on a sleeper train. Nicole and I were the only two in our cabin when we boarded in Rome, so we made ourselves comfortable and went to sleep. We were awakened by a very stereotypical French woman. She boarded hours later in Northern Italy. She turned on the light and woke up all 4 of us (2 others had boarded before her and were pleasant). She proceeded to kick Nicole out of her bed. Once she realized that it wasn't her bed at all, she threw all of Nicole's things back on it and stole one of her pillows. When she left the room, the nice French guy told us that she had been mumbling complaints the whole time about "why should we all be sleeping already if she was not?!" The same woman then climbed into bed and made a phone call on speaker phone, which Nicole, the nice French guy, and I were cracking up about. Finally we fell asleep. At 2:00, however, she recieved a phone call, answered it, and had a chat on speaker phone. After a few minutes of this Nicole yelled the only French she knows at her. "Excusemoi! No! We're sleeping!" The woman got off the phone but didn't apologize or anything. We all laughed again. Then she started snoring! I rolled over to Nicole and whispered "even when she's alseep she's keeping us awake." This time everyone who spoke English in the car started laughing. One man faked snored loudly to poke fun. We joked about taking down her guard rail so she's roll out of bed, or drawing on her. We had to laugh into our pillows because we were so loud. In the morning, she came back from the cafe car and started moving everyone's stuff around. I still don't understand why.
We finally arrived at our hotel 3 hours late (so noon instead of 9) only to find the man had given away our room. Ridiculous! He told us to go next doos and room there, which worked out fine, but it's still frustrating. We saw the Eiffel Tower and went all the way to the top of it. Gorgeous. The we hopped on a bus tour because we were freezing. We had a low key night because we were exhuasted from traveling.
The next morning we got a Eurostar back to London. We went to the play Days of Significance that night, and I started uploading the 369 photos I've taken since getting here onto my computer. Nicole and I both got our Summer Scholars letter and so now I have money for the Summer. We also solidified our place to live. Thrilling. Now I am just in the library finishing up the work that is due next week (last week of class before finals). Yikes! That's all for now I guess.
OK...Ireland. Well... I said pretty much what there is to say about that. It was fabulous. Irish people are wonderful. The first night there... i guess second night really because we just went to be Thursday night since we got in at one... we went to a bar and Mike bet Nicole and I one Euro each that some guys would come up and talk to us while he was out smoking. Well, he cheated. he went to the bar and asked some guys to come talk to us so he would win. The guys told us what was up so we played a little trick. We told the guys to pretend like the couldn't find us, and when mike got back we told him he lost. He said "really? but i cheated!" then the guys walked over and we all laughed at Mike. Austin, or Ozzy as he like to be called, made Mike buy drinks for Nicole and I. Much appreciated. Mike went outside because we were all getting ready to go and Ozzy tried to convince Nicole and I to drop Mike off (because he was WASTED) and come back out. He even said he'd pay our cab. I went outside soon after because a little bar fight started between some girls and the guys Nicole and I were talking to. Outside Mike was smoking with a girl from Finland who was nearly doing a bridge she was bent back to far. She was hilarious. She looked at me and said "my back hurts." I giggled and suggested that she bend forward for a little while. We then took a cab home.
A few nights later we were in O'Briens and met the guys from Ohio, so you know I loved them. We hung out with them and talked for a while. They were excellent... why? Because they're Mid-Western. haha.
St. Patty's itself was fine. We checked out of the hotel, went to see the parade, had a few drinks, and left for the airport. Everything went reall smoothly.
Spring break was something else. When Nicole and I finally got to Barcelona we stayed in the straight up ghetto. We were talking to some people and they pointed down a street and told us "don't go down that street after midnight, it's really dangerous." It was the street we were staying on. Yikes!! We decided we'd go on a SmashedTravel pub crawl that night. It started at a little pub on our block called the Quiet Man. Nicole and I split a jug of Sangria (yes a jug). It was my first experience with it and it was delicious. We met Will from Minnesota who is a "bi-athlete" so he cross-country skiied and shoots (has anyone ever heard of this?). We met some British guys too, one of them was Hugh Grant, see facebook for proof. We hung out with them for a lot of the night, although one of them really creeped me out. We went to to other pubs and then Nicole and I called it quits. Which is good since we don't remember getting home. I can only imagine us trying to tell the bartender when to take us. Oh man.
Let me tell you about our room where we stayed. The hostel cancelled out room since we were a day late, even though we called and they said it would be fine. So they put us on the roof. L:iterally. The elevator only went up to floor 4. We were floor 5. So we climbed up some skinny skinny steps, out onto the roof, around the laundry facility, and into a little shack with jail cell type rooms with only bunk beds for furniture. The bathroom light was on a timer so it would go out mid-shower. You had to push in a button to get the shower to work so it would go off if you were shaving your legs or washing your hair. There was hair in our sheets, bugs in the elevator, and I got a rash on my legs from staying there. CLAAAAAASSY.
Parched and extremely hungover, Nicole and I got up, ate, realized we had both blacked out but somehow made it home (and me into the top bunk somehow). We also realized we had both thrown up. I woke up a 7:30 freezing only to find that Nicole had somehow stolen my blanket and thrown up on it, as well as her sweatshirt. Yikes! So I took a shower and we cuddled and slept until about 10 when we had to check out. We got lunch and just headed to the airport even though our flight wasn't until 10 pm. Officially, Spain is the ghetto of Europe as far as I am concerned.
When we got to Rome and arrived at our hostel, we found that we were staying in a camping trailer. It was hilarious, but it had a space heater and a shower that worked so that is all we needed. When it rained of was really windy we thought our little trailer was just going go roll into the Tiber. haha. So... Saturday Nicole and I saw the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Arc of Constatine, and some random Pyramid memorial thing. It poured all day. We ate dinner at the hostel restuarant and it was quite delicious. Sunday we went to Easter Mass at the Vatican and saw the Pope and was blessed by him (21 years of sin erased!). Again, it poured. We called it Holy Water since it was Easter in the Vatican. I was really glad we went because some kid at our hostel from Minnesota (they're everywhere) told us there was no way to get in without a ticket. WRONG. Monday we walked arounf the Spanish Steps and saw the Trevi fountain. We threw in our coins to return to Rome. It was really nice. We checked out and took our bags to Termini and waited for our train to Paris.
The train was something else. It was a 16 hour train ride on a sleeper train. Nicole and I were the only two in our cabin when we boarded in Rome, so we made ourselves comfortable and went to sleep. We were awakened by a very stereotypical French woman. She boarded hours later in Northern Italy. She turned on the light and woke up all 4 of us (2 others had boarded before her and were pleasant). She proceeded to kick Nicole out of her bed. Once she realized that it wasn't her bed at all, she threw all of Nicole's things back on it and stole one of her pillows. When she left the room, the nice French guy told us that she had been mumbling complaints the whole time about "why should we all be sleeping already if she was not?!" The same woman then climbed into bed and made a phone call on speaker phone, which Nicole, the nice French guy, and I were cracking up about. Finally we fell asleep. At 2:00, however, she recieved a phone call, answered it, and had a chat on speaker phone. After a few minutes of this Nicole yelled the only French she knows at her. "Excusemoi! No! We're sleeping!" The woman got off the phone but didn't apologize or anything. We all laughed again. Then she started snoring! I rolled over to Nicole and whispered "even when she's alseep she's keeping us awake." This time everyone who spoke English in the car started laughing. One man faked snored loudly to poke fun. We joked about taking down her guard rail so she's roll out of bed, or drawing on her. We had to laugh into our pillows because we were so loud. In the morning, she came back from the cafe car and started moving everyone's stuff around. I still don't understand why.
We finally arrived at our hotel 3 hours late (so noon instead of 9) only to find the man had given away our room. Ridiculous! He told us to go next doos and room there, which worked out fine, but it's still frustrating. We saw the Eiffel Tower and went all the way to the top of it. Gorgeous. The we hopped on a bus tour because we were freezing. We had a low key night because we were exhuasted from traveling.
The next morning we got a Eurostar back to London. We went to the play Days of Significance that night, and I started uploading the 369 photos I've taken since getting here onto my computer. Nicole and I both got our Summer Scholars letter and so now I have money for the Summer. We also solidified our place to live. Thrilling. Now I am just in the library finishing up the work that is due next week (last week of class before finals). Yikes! That's all for now I guess.