madrid: siestas, fiestas, tapas y sol!

if edinburgh was the most magical city in the world, then madrid would have to be the most lively and enjoyable city i have ever had the pleasure of visiting. for those of you who do not know, i was planning all along to study abroad in spain, in barcelona in particular, to better my spanish and enjoy the sunshine. but when i began looking into spanish culture, i wasn't sure if i was ready for the complete spanish social life (my spanish friends say they don't even start going out at night until 2 am !). besides the craziness of the nightlife, visiting spain was definitely a dream come true, and it was certainly everything i had hoped it to be. and coming from rainy dublin, the first sight of sunshine shocked us all ! i had forgotten what it felt like to really feel the sun !

we arrived incredibly early and headed straight to the famous chocolateria san gines for some churros con chocolate. it is perhaps the most famous chocolateria in spain and it is open twenty four hours a day so that when the crazies come back from their parties at 5 am, they have a place to enjoy the famous treat !

i realized that every blog post i have made has something to do with mass amounts of chocolate... i am telling you it is just so much better over here ! ha wow we are really obsessed with food huh mom?! ha. in any case, we spent that afternoon roaming madrid and taking in the sun and the sights. we visited the plaza de espana where they had an open market and a monument for miguel cervantes and his famous character don quixote de la mancha !

jardines de sebatini (gardens of sebatini) next to the palace

the railway station had a botanical garden inside with turtles (tortugas ! )

in spanish tradition, everything shuts down in the middle of the day for 'siesta' or just a big long nap. so in the spirit of the spanish culture (and the fact that we woke up at 3am that morning to catch our flight..) we decided to take in the culture and sleep the rest of the afternoon. when we had to get up, my friend ben protested yelling 'siesta forever !' which naturally became a catch phrase for the entirety of the trip. after our much needed siesta, we headed to the parque del retiro which is this huge park with a cafe and a lake where you can rent paddle boats ! we didnt get to rent the boats, unfortunately, but we had a nice walk through what seemed to be the most beautiful park i had ever visited ! it was absolutely perfect and the trees were still covered in their fall colors of reds and oranges. after sunset in the park we roamed the busy and chaotic streets of madrid (after a meal of tapas of course !) it was such a different city by night. during the day, it is a relatively relaxed city, despite the three million inhabitants of course. what was so interesting was there were little plazas and pockets of quiet areas everywhere you walked, so you never felt overwhelmed by the mass amounts of people. and it is mostly a walking city, so everyone is roaming the streets and enjoying the sun. but the city comes alive after about 9pm and there are mass amounts of people everywhere eating, drinking, dancing and enjoying themselves.living in san francisco, i am definitely used to strange people and crazy street performers all over the city. however, madrid took it to the next level ! in the plaza mayor (one of the more famous and touristy areas of madrid) there are the most unique street performers i have ever seen ! dead beetlejuice looking characters in coffins that scare you as you walk by, men dressed as colorful goats (?!) and people in inaccurately proportioned mickey and minnie mouse costumes all over the place ! dylan and ben joined one of the more mild street performances as jedi masters.
the next day, my friend kate and i decided to split from the group and enjoy the city on our own terms. group travel is near impossible, and when i got back from thailand i swore i would never do it again. however, this semester has tested my patience and i have had some great times in kilkenney and galway with a nice group of people. however, when you have 9 different agendas from 9 very very different people, splitting up worked out perfectly. kate and i followed our noses (literally) to this huge bakery for some ham and cheese croissants and the best neopolitan chocolate i have ever eaten (basically a chocolate croissant). we then headed to the palacio real (the palace) which was fantastic !!! we couldn't take photos inside but here are some photos of the exterior. we also found that madrilenos (people from madrid) have no idea how to take photos ! kate and i probably asked at least ten people 'puedes tomar un foto por favor?' and they would take a photo of just us, without a decent background or anything. so basically, our photos look like we could be anywhere... but i swear we were in madrid ! for example:

take two was a bit better, but still pretty bad !

we then met up with our other friend kate (kb) and decided to skip siesta and spend the day a little off of the map, both intentionally and unintentionally ha. but we wandered through neighborhoods with tapas bars lining the streets, and they were absolutely filled with people drinking at 4pm ! granted it was a saturday afternoon, but we thought wow these people really do enjoy themselves. we also got a taste of spanish ham that this guy was cutting at the window of the restaurant as he saw us staring at it from the street. absolutely delicious !
that night, there was talk of a traditional spanish evening: tapas for dinner around 9pm, pubs, clubs and head back to the hostel in the wee hours of the morning. ha i knew that was not going to happen (especially for me !) but we headed out for an amazing tapas dinner for starters. kate and i split a spanish ham tapa and then one with hot brie on toast with raspberry jelly. it was probably the best thing i have ever eaten !!! we loved it so much, that julia and i ordered another ha. ben toasted the night: to siestas, tapas and madrid ! very appropriate =) we then headed out for a relatively mellow night to eat more tapas and enjoy each others company. we (of course) ended up at another tapas bar, so naturally we had to get some more ! okay we are all obsessed with food... but we definitely had a wonderful evening out in madrid and got to bed at a reasonable hour. not quite up to par with the madrilenos, but i was obviously fine with that =)we all bought what we call 'yves (pronounced eve) scarves' this weekend as well (see photo below). we call them yves scarves because my friend yves from france always wore michelle's scarf that she got in barcelona last year. he looks so adorable in it, that we all had to buy our own yves scarf ! although michelle makes us call them 'michelle and yves scarves' considering it was her scarf to begin with =) but here are two of my favorites (rico and yves) in their matching yves scarves !i spent the next morning on my own at the museo del prado. the prado is one of the largest and most prestigious art museums in the world, so naturally i was overwhelmed just in the corridor alone. it holds the works of many italian, dutch and french artists but i came to see the spanish art of velazquez, goya, and el greco. it was then another afternoon of pastries and siestas to warm up for another fantastic meal of tapas ! i will not go into too much detail about how delicious patatas bravas or a spanish tortilla is (aka spanish omelette). you will have to travel to spain to taste for yourself ! but kb and i did stop off for what was called the 'giant puff pastry', or at least that is how we translated it. all we wanted were these cream puffs that kept passing us by. insead we got .... see below...

the largest pastry there ever was.

on our last day, our plane did not leave madrid until 9pm, so we had another whole day of exploration, relaxation, and enjoyment in madrid. ben, kb and i went on the great pastry hunt in search for the perfect pastries. we ended up ordering multiple cups of cola cao (spanish version of nestle hot chocolate, only a million times better). we even bought a HUGE canister to bring home to dublin (which is now almost gone i must add...). we spent the rest of the afternoon roaming the city shopping, eating, and siteseeing. we went to the templo de debod, an egyptian temple rebuilt in spain, had a spanish tortilla at the perfect outdoor cafe and enjoyed the sunshine for the fourth day in a row !

i LOVE the spanish architecture... everywhere you go these little balconies lined the upper portions of the buildings. adorable.

our last day was the only day that we had to complain about the siesta, not only because we did not get to take one because of our check out, but because we traveled around looking for spanish cheese and this adorable old postcard shop, but everything was closed ! look how cute this shop window looks !! i thought you would love it mom =) we will have to go back, just not during the middle of the afternoon ! before we knew it, our true spanish vacation had to come to an end. though we were incredibly sad to leave the sunshine behind us and head back to dublin. madrid was by far one of the more uniquely beautiful, strangely entertaining, and surprisingly relaxing cities i have spent time in. i loved speaking spanish all the time too ! i must say that there is no doubt in my mind that i will be back in madrid someday. and hopefully very very soon.

i see my path but i don't know where it leads.

not knowing where i'm going is what inspires me to travel it

[rosalia de castro]

edinburgh: the most magical city in the world

it is difficult to write about how a city impacted your life in retrospect. actually, its hard to write how a city impacted your life at all. that feeling you get, the vibe that a city gives off is impossible to recreate in words, or in a blog post no less. it had been three years since i had traveled to edinburgh, scotland and i had forgotten how truly enchanting the city really is. though much of the city was either under construction or setting up for the christmas festival (i contemplated traveling back there just to witness their 'winter wonderland'), there was something about it that just made it special; unlike any other city i have been to before.

we had five full days in edinburgh so we rented an apartment with a view of edinburgh castle. it was such a perfect way to spend our time there, rather than dealing with hostels, no showers, and large rooms with strangers. what a wonderful way to start the day with a cup of tea just staring out the window ! here is michelle and jake with the castle behind them !

most of our time spent in edinburgh was roaming the city, ducking into cafes for hot chocolates, with a little bit of sightseeing in there too =) the architecture in the city is surreal: you truly think you are walking around in a fantasy world ! like i said words cannot express how magical the city really is, so i'll let the photos do most of the talking::

the city is full of the most adorable coffee shops. this is my friend julia in front of our first hot chocolate stop when we arrived in edinburgh at 9am. notice the shop window... adorable !

our first night we decided to head to the elephant house, the cafe where j.k. rowling supposedly wrote much of harry potter. i must admit that i am not a die hard fan, but the city itself screams 'harry potter' and most of the time i felt i was walking around in hogwarts ha =) we went on a free ghost tour that night as well... edinburgh is apparently the most haunted city in the world too !

this ghoulish guy randomly interrupted our tour to jump in our photo?! ha strange.

the next day was spent roaming around edinburgh castle, in and out of cashmere stores in new town and old town, and to a park with a fantastic view of the entire city. we were so confused when it was four o'clock and it was dark already !

i recognized the lion at the castle from my previous trip to edinburgh with heather and alex so i had to take the same photo three years later !

[below: heather, alex and myself at edinburgh castle in june 2006]

my favorite part of edinburgh was getting lost in the charm and beauty of the city itself. the cobble stone streets cover old town as the royal mile (or high street) is lined with shops and cafes that i would stumble in and out of all day long. im pretty sure that instead of a pub crawl, i completed a very thorough cafe crawl during my time there. my favorite was one that was slightly dark inside, but they had little white lights lining the windows with candles on the tables. the whole time i thought about how much mom would absolutely fall in love with edinburgh. the little shops were perfect and just reminded me of the artsy trinkets and cute stationery that my mom and i love so much. one shop near our apartment even had bubbles coming out of it ! [see below !]
my words hardly give meaning to the magic that permeates through edinburgh. but by ending my second visit to edinburgh, i truly cannot wait to go back. though not the biggest city i have been to, not the most sophisticated or posh, not the city with the best food or the most pubs, i think it is safe to say that edinburgh is my favorite city in the world... at least for now =)

coming back to edinburgh is, to me,

like coming home.

[charles dickens]

swim play dance and dress up

as i sit here on the third of december listening to christmas music on repeat, i cannot help but ask myself where the month of november went ! i knew it would be a busy one as i had planned trips to scotland and spain and brittany was coming over from copenhagen to dublin for thanksgiving. but i must say time here has flown by in the blink of an eye. if my lack of blogging is any indication of the fun i am having, then i certainly had a wonderful november =) first of all, on halloween morning, some friends and i decided to go swimming in the atlantic ! now, it clearly was not as cold as it has been recently (it hailed last weekend !!) and i must say it definitely woke us up... I used to think lake tahoe was cold !

pre- and post- atlantic swim in dublin bay

that night, after a failed attempt to be pebbles flintstone for halloween, my friend kate and i decided to be farmers together. the costume basically consisted of a plaid shirt, our hunter boots, and pigtails. because the city is such a hassle to get to and everything would have been incredibly expensive to get into, we decided to have our own halloween party in blackrock. a little different than our usual halloween in irvine or san francisco, but an eventful one to say the least !

two farmers and audrey hepburn... naturally

the weekends following halloween are kind of a blur now, but for a little recap here are some photos::

laura, eilis, kate and myself needed a bathroom stop one night in the city... and decided to take a photo?! ha strange i know, but i thought it was cute

after we watched new zealand beat wales in rugby one night, the pub set up for irish dancing !

and then ben got chosen to join in !

one morning on my run, i ran into liam o'kelley, an older irish man who had dropped his mitten and asked me to pick it up for him. after thinking i was irish (mission: complete ! ) we continued to talk for two hours ! his stories were fantastic: full of adventure, drama, and gossip about all of the characters that come down to the beach where i was running. he introduced me to his friends (one man was 84, and the lady was 92 ! ) who come down to the beach, rain or shine, to swim in the atlantic ! i told them that i had taken a dip a few days earlier, and they were convinced that they were going to get me to swim with them that day as well ! granted, it probably dropped at least 10 degrees as i was running in fleece and mittens and was still freezing. so no atlantic swim for me that day, but i so enjoyed meeting them as they all said that their morning swim keeps them all alive. it was so wonderful speaking with them and hearing about all of their crazy adventures in ireland and elsewhere =)

what a random bunch of photos and adventures i had from november, but of course i wouldn't trade any of it ! i have met some amazing people that have made my time here in ireland that much more wonderful.

as i welcome december (and finals...), i cannot help but be so excited to welcome my family to ireland as well in a matter of weeks ! so anxious to see my parents and my brothers and show them around the city that i have called my home for more than three months now.

well check back soon for new adventures from edinburgh, scotland and madrid, spain !

a journey is best measured in friends

rather than miles

[tim cahill]

galway: neon green hills, local music, and torrential rainstorms

i just got back from quite an exhausting weekend in galway on the west coast of ireland. i will spare you some of the dramatic details, but if you want to know more just ask mom because she knows it all ha. in any case, i made my way across the country by train with seven other students from my halls. i absolutely love traveling by train, especially through irish countryside as you pass by thatched roofed houses scattered among the endless hills that seem to look almost neon green. we made it to galway mid afternoon on saturday and explored the town on the harbor after one of many many hot chocolates at a local pub. we found that the historical sites of the town lacked a little umph as the 'town castle' was now an AIB bank branch, and the spanish arch was just a stone arch about eight feet tall. however, galway is pretty much how you picture a quaint irish town to be with a beautiful harbor filled with what they call the 'galway hookers' (the traditional sailing boat, also the name of their beer). as we were exploring the harbor we got caught in the most intense wind and rain storm I have ever been in! the hurricane-like winds almost blew us away (as seen below by my friend kate and her now demolished umbrella). we were so drenched and windblown that the only thing we could do was laugh our way all the way back to the pub to dry off, and maybe have another hot chocolate =) we stayed inside the rest of the afternoon and evening playing cards, writing postcards and making frozen pizzas to avoid the rainstorm outside. not to mention massive amounts of kit kats on sale that became a significant staple throughout our trip (wow... chocolate became its own food group in galway, huh?!). we ventured off that evening to meet up with basically the other half of our hall at an apartment they had rented that evening. it was pretty fun, although it felt basically like we were back home: same characters, just a different setting.the next day was our bus tour to the cliffs of moher and other sites around county galway and county clare. the tour was awful actually: our tour guide could not have been more uninteresting, monotone, and annoying. we stopped at very touristy sites that were hardly worth stopping at. some of the stops were actually quite cool, but we would only get to run off the bus for five minutes to take photos.

but once we made it to the cliffs, the long bus ride and the obnoxious tour guide was definitely worth it. have you ever been somewhere so remarkable that it made you feel so infinite and yet so small at the same time?! these cliffs are what people come to the west coast of ireland for, and for good reason. the sheer cliffs are absolutely terrifying especially when you are past the 'no trespassing sign' that everyone seems to ignore. but of course my camera battery runs out right as we are exploring the cliffs. luckily i managed to take a photo before it died. though i don't have visual evidence of the cliffs themselves, i assure you any photos that are taken at the cliffs of moher hardly do them any justice at all.that night after an incredibly long and exhausting day, most of the group headed back home which left julia and me still in galway. my friend jake came up from a small town south of galway and we spent the evening at the crane bar. we went to the top floor of this pub to find a local band playing for the small crowd upstairs while random locals would go up to the band and sing beautiful irish songs. it was the perfect way to spend our last night in galway.
the next morning, julia left for the aran islands off the coast of ireland... and then there was one. luckily jake had come up for the night and we spent the morning eating delicious breakfast crepes, walking along the oceans edge, and visiting the massive galway cathedral. the four hour bus ride home was hardly a burden as i was just thrilled to be on my way back home. what an eventful weekend to say the least, but all in all i definitely enjoyed my time on the west coast and i am so looking forward to showing my family around when they come to visit! until next time...

copenhagen: living in a fairy tale

from the moment brittany picked me up from the copenhagen airport with a danish in hand welcoming me to denmark's capital city, i felt like i was walking around in a storybook. it was the perfect time to escape the wet weekend in dublin and spend it roaming around a new city and exploring all that it has to offer with one of my best friends. the city itself is perhaps the most sophisticated I have been to ! from the people to the fashion to the architecture, copenhagen screams elegance and style.

but more than that, i felt as though a story began to unfold with every visitor that chose to explore its cobblestone streets and famous ny haven harbor. for me, copenhagen was the setting of the perfect fairy tale; even as we were exploring the streets there were violinists and carolers serenading us as we passed by. there was something about the beautiful people, the polished architecture and the charming shops and cafes that made the city almost surreal.

first day was spent roaming the city like tourists... although, besides the language barrier, brittany might as well have been a local ! it was so great to have her guiding me around the harbor, the shopping streets and all of the places that she loves to go.

we spent the evening catching up, eating too much nutella and gummy bears, watching jim and pam's wedding on the office (cried throughout the whole thing..) and just enjoyed being in the company of a best friend. oh and lots and lots of laughs... obviously =)

the next day was packed with sightseeing, adorable cafes, and of course an evening at the happiest place in copenhagen: tivoli ! in the morning, we visited king's garden and the round tower which gave us a perfect view of the entire city of copenhagen.

after a boat tour of the harbor, we stumbled upon a medieval market in which these men welcomed us back to the 14th century ! They offered us fertility baskets and love potions... it definitely made for some good laughs ha.

we had a delicious lunch at perfectly hip kind of underground cafe and then shopped through the afternoon. we went to la glace, the sweetest and most delicate bakery with the best hot chocolate money can buy (well... we did spend about 12 dollars each for a cup...). The whole time i was telling brittany how much my mom would have loved it here at la glace. everyplace we walked, every cafe we entered solidified how perfectly adorable life in a fairy tale really was.

we spent the evening at tivoli, basically the danish version of disneyland but even cuter ! there were billions of pumpkins everywhere for halloween.. it was like living in tim burtons halloween town from the nightmare before christmas ! so perfect... the whole time i couldn't help but think how much pat (and any other disney lover) needed to come and visit tivoli.. it is too adorable to miss in one's lifetime.

oh ! and they were giving away free samples of this 'cider' that we wanted to try.. after tasting it, brittany and i both cringed.. she responded, 'why does this cider taste like medicine?!?' we found it it was globb (sp?!) basically free samples of alcohol and the amusement park.. no wonder they were only offering it to the adults ! hmmmm the europeans...

in the morning, we went to the laundromat cafe and had the second best breakfast of my entire life (behind firesign of course.. right dad?!) and walked around the local park before i had to leave back to dublin.

the parks that are scattered throughout copenhagen were absolutely perfect: the reds and oranges and yellows of the falling leaves are what make autumn the most beautiful season of the year.

i must say i absolutely loved copenhagen: i loved the size of the city and that it was not overwhelming or overpopulated, i loved the wonderful shops and cafes, i LOVED the danishes (best things i have ever had...)
i loved how the little babies and children would be dressed in puffy onesies that looked like marshmallows, i loved how everyone spoke incredible english but only after they greeted you in danish, i loved how i got to go to elisa's homeland (oh how i miss the darner family.. this photo was taken in honor of you! basically because she was blond and christmas-y ha) i loved how perfect and efficient everything in the city was, and i loved how fashionable everyone dressed. but more than anything, i LOVED spending the weekend with brittany.. it was just amazing ! so i was sad to leave the wonderful storybook land that was copenhagen and, of course, to leave brittany. but we will be reunited for thanksgiving in dublin =) so until next time, brittany ! lots and lots of love to all !

life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all

[hans christian andersen]

kilkenny: lets never come here again

it has taken me almost a week to recover from the strange and crazy adventure i had in kilkenny, ireland. though we were only there for twenty five hours total, it was packed full with disgusting hostels, strange encounters with the locals, and plenty of laughs to follow us all the way back to dublin. kilkenny is about two hours southeast of dublin city and lonely planet described the city as 'a dream'. a little less than a dream, we thought, but it did provide us with many a story that only those that went can really understand. we really had no idea what we were getting into..

we had to pack eleven students, yes eleven, into a hostel room that was probably only meant to house six people. the room was a mess ( i will spare you the details..) and some of us even ended up sleeping on couch cushions. we then ventured to the town to find some pub food because by the time we finished negotiating a better price for the room, our stomachs were empty. we got ripped off again by our waiter who charged us way more than we ordered (much like the hostel). at this point, we are all a little fed up and extremely confused about this town that was seemingly trying to steal from us ha.

kilkenny castle is beautiful from the outside and stands on a hill overlooking the small city itself. but the 13th century castle was filled inside with a modern art exhibit displaying photos and movies of new york and london. not exactly what we were looking for inside a medieval castle: beautiful on the outside, unexpectedly strange on the inside. after that, we returned to our less than sanitary hostel to play some games and laugh about everything that we had just witnessed. we spent the evening roaming the small town and ended up at kyteler's inn, the mideval tavern that was established in 1324. the pub was originally owned by a witch, which explains the halloween witch hat that randomly found a place on everyones head throughout the night.

all in all, i think everyone had a pretty great time in kilkenny. would i go back?! we decided that our experience in kilkenny could, and should, never be replicated again. the countryside was beautiful and when you have eleven students traveling around, you are definitely due for some crazy adventures. this post definitely does not paint a completely accurate picture of how interesting our experience really was in kilkenny.. but, you kinda had to be there..

this may be the most underrated city in europe

so i am clearly not the most efficient blogger as i can barely find the time to fill you in on all of the wonderful adventures that i am having here in ireland. i will do a quick recap as i am heading off to grafton street with my friend kate to plan our next weekend vacation to kilkenny, ireland. before i left the us, everyone wondered why i would want to live in rainy dublin rather than places like london, barcelona, or rome (sorry dad..). now i have yet to travel to all of the major cities in europe, but i must say i have been in awe of this city since i have arrived some three weeks ago. and i hope through my inadequate photos and imperfect words you can perhaps see how lovely this city really is.

so in the past two weeks...

• i traveled to bray, a coastal town just south of dublin. the beach was made of all rocks, the water was frigid, and the sun set behind the classic green irish hills.

• i found the perfect irish pub, o'neill's, in the city centre. when the band found out we were american, they invited two of my friends onstage as we all sang along to 'american pie'. probably the best ten minutes ive had in ireland thus far.
• tried whiskey at the jameson whiskey factory (never again.. gross)
• i watched the boys of our hall beat botswana in a pick up game of soccer at ucdublin
• i began my semester as the awkward international kid in a class full of irish students. i have also had to catch up on hundreds of years of irish history on my own. i have a list after every class of events, dates, and organizations that i must look up because i have little idea of what the teacher is speaking about.
• i lost an earring sadly. lost my voice unfortunately. and lost myself in the music on the streets of dublin.

it is safe to say that i am thoroughly enjoying myself in the city and taking advantage of what dublin has to offer. but next weekend? its a weekend excursion to the countryside ! Slainte !