gelato, pizza, and friends...

There are plenty of people in your life that change things. They make things better, they make sense, they are people that you can just be yourself with. I have had many people like that in my life, friends, family, people that are sent to me at the most perfect times. 

Spring break plans were made and changed and somehow they all worked out perfectly. After a week in Ireland, I got to go back to Bangor to clean my clothes, get a good night sleep and head out again for Rome, Italy. One of the places that I wanted to visit most of all while I was abroad was Italy. I wanted to spend time there and actually take time to experience everything. My friends Patsy and Justine were kind enough to experience Italy with me for a whole week. And it was lovely, and I am going to try and recap it here for you...

When I left for Rome I was scared. I was traveling by myself to the Manchester Airport, and then going on a plane to meet my two friends from Spain in Italy. I was going to be traveling alone for almost a whole day. When you are tired, that thought scares you. Going out of my comfort zone scared me. Thankfully I have people here in Bangor that are willing to hang up the phone on their mom and comfort me, I have friends that are willing to walk me down to the train station and encourage me. So with those comforts I left on a train with nothing but a backpack for the next two weeks. 

Traveling wasn't bad at all, and I met a lot of people, I could probably write a whole blog about the people that I met, but I will save you from that and continue with this. Traveling wasn't bad at all, but when I saw Patsy and Justine at the airport in Rome I could not be happier. I admit it, I cried with joy and relief, (only a few tears though), for after meeting we had to find a bus to our hostel in Rome! Rome, Rome, Rome. One of my favorite places. We found the bus and headed off for our hostel. The hostel was a bit sketchy, but we were in Rome and had a bed to sleep in, so we were happy. 

Okay remember that one time I said that I wouldn't tell you about the people I met? I lied. The first night there we were hungry. We asked the hostel-man, Shafique, where we should eat. He pointed out a place and we started walking. Outside of our hostel were three girls just sitting watching a movie. I was feeling outgoing so I asked them if they wanted to join us. They had already ate, but they seemed to have the same accent as us. So I asked where they were from, they said Canada and Norway. Wow, so I was off, they were not from the U.S., they then said that they were studying at a Bible school in Germany for the past 6 months. Whoa. A Bible school? I was so excited to hear it. So excited in fact that I could barely talk, so I whispered "Oh my goodness, we love Jesus too!" They laughed and seriously, from right then we became practically best friends. 

Wow, I feel like I have been writing forever, and I have only gotten to the first night in Rome. This is going to be hard. Ugh. 

Shorter story, we decided to go site-seeing with these girls for the next 3 days. And it was simply wonderful. The weather, the waiting in line, the walking around, all of it-wonderful. We ate real Italian pizza for pretty much every meal. And we ate a lot, a lot, a lot, of gelato. Mmhmm. It was so good. All of it. 

And because I want you to experience Rome with your own eyes and mind, I am just going to show you pictures of Rome and not what I thought about it. This is also an attempt to not go too terribly long on this three day experience. 

palm sunday, vatican, the pope...

altare della patria...

the pantheon...

 

friends...Justine (Spain), Liz (Norway),
Blair (Wales), Emily (Canada),
Patsy (Spain), and Vanessa (Canada)

We traveled to all these places, when we were at the Vatican, I got to see the Sistine Chapel, which was absolutely incredible. We stood there are just looked for almost an hour. So big, and so many details. I can't describe it. The Pantheon was also amazing, the architecture of it and the beauty that couldn't be captured by a camera. 

trevi fountain...

the spanish steps...

the colosseum...

The Colosseum was my favorite. One night we decided we wanted to see it at night. So the 6 of us went back. It was raining, but this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. We danced in the rain at the Colosseum, and sense it was raining, there were no other people there. It was the best night in Rome by far. So pretty, and a night I will never forget. 

the colosseum at night...

We ate pizza and gelato and had some of the best times ever. We had to say goodbye to our friends and later that day Patsy and I headed on a plane to Venice. (Blog to come.) But, Rome was absolutely amazing, sorry that it was so long and sorry that it wasn't more detailed. I have more pictures to show, so ask me about it. But thanks for reading this today, and I hope that one day you get to enjoy some of Rome for yourself one day...

the land of lucky charms...

First I must apologize for taking such a long break from blogging. Spring break took a lot out of me and I just haven't found time. But I am slowly and surely catching up...

I call it the land of lucky charms because usually when I think of Ireland, I think of the Lucky Charms box. Leprechauns and rainbows and perhaps a pot of gold. Happily I can tell you that Ireland hesitantly embraces this American view of its culture. I did see several people dressed up in leprechaun outfits while I was there. They were usually on the sidewalks, ready for you to take a picture with them, after -of course- you paid them with some of your good old gold...


Here in Bangor, we have a three week spring break. Now this three week spring break could be spent in any way you choose. However, the first week is filled with a trip across the water to the island of Ireland. Our entire American student group took a week long trip to visit the two most popular cities - Dublin and Galway. 


There are 34 students who came to Bangor through Central College. We all live apart from each other while we are here. We rarely get to see everyone together, unless we are at our Welsh History and Culture class, once a week. You can imagine that our trip together to Ireland was a nice way to get together for a whole week. 

the whole group...

We went all over the place. It was wonderful. Typically Ireland is rainy and cloudy, similar to the rest of it's UK counterparts. But we were lucky enough to see the sun during more than half of the week. We spent our time doing loads of things. The local Irish pubs were number one on our list. Mainly, Temple Bar. Almost all of the pubs in Ireland have live music playing. In the band are the typical members, a guitar, accordian, and percussion instrument of some kind. The bands were my absolute favorite parts of the nightlife in Ireland. There was music playing everywhere, in and outside of the pubs. On the streets, in the alleys, and from most of the mouths of the Irish men came songs of cheer. 

One day we spent taking a ferry to the Aran Islands. The day was cool and crisp with the sun shining down on us. This is not like Ireland at all. Rain comes and rain stays for days, months, sometimes forever it seems like. But for us we got our first sun-burns in the rainiest area in the UK. Yay us! The day was full of riding bikes around the island and being a part of our own little adventure. We went to a beach and danced in the ocean and laid down by cliffs that were plummeting towards the crashing waves of the ocean 

at the aran island cliffs...

at the beach on the aran islands...
with Elizabeth and Regan...

The Aran Islands were probably my favorite place in Ireland, except in a very very close second was the Cliffs of Moher. We took a long bus ride to the Cliffs of Moher. If you have ever seen the movie The Princess Bride, then you might remember the Cliffs of Insanity and how "inconceivable" they were. Well my friend Jade and I agreed that the Cliffs were inconceivable and in honor of the great movie we declared that they were inconceivable a minimum of 64 times while we were walking on them. The weather at the Cliffs of Moher was absolutely amazing again. It made the experience so much better. The Cliffs were so intensely huge, I don't know quite how to explain them. So here is a picture that barely captures the mass of these inconceivable Cliffs...

The last stop that I am going to mention in our trip to Ireland is the trip to the Guinness Factory. It was more like a museum/factory. It was great. It was seven floors that walked you through the process of the production of Guinness beer. It was really interesting. I would like to say that I tried my first Guinness, fresh brewed straight from the factory. The bartender even put a clover on top. It was my lucky Guinness. 

mmhmm...

can you see the clover?
look closely...

Sad to say that I could not finish the thick Guinness. One of the very kind male friends took the heavy burden of finishing my drink for me. I don't think I could handle the whole pint. Well I tried to keep it short and straight to the point, and I hope that you enjoyed my overview of Ireland. I would strongly recommend that you visit Ireland because it was one of the most magical places I have ever been to.