Dublin

Sorry about the long break between posts! I've been busy in the best way, traveling literally every weekend. I'll start where I left off--going to Dublin. 

We got into Dublin late Thursday night and took a bus to our Airbnb. Only 3 of us went to the Airbnb because it was cheaper to tell them only 3 of us were staying there, so the other 2 of our group went to go find food. After our tour of the apartment, we went out to look for the rest of our group but ended up getting lost. We all made it back eventually and went to bed, ready for the next day to start. 

The next morning, we stopped off for breakfast before going to the Guinness tour. Irish breakfasts are actually great!

We then went to the Guinness factory, which was so cool!

 We got to learn all about the brewing process, from the hops to the barley to the fermentation to the advertising and selling. Not to mention taste tests of different types of Guinness, and learning how to pour the perfect pint and recognize the different flavors.

At the top of the factory is a bar that overlooks the entire city with 360 degree panoramic rooms. So fun to drink a pint you poured yourself and look over the city.

 After that, we went to go get food in the Temple Bar area, the most famous/touristy area in Dublin. It is filled with amazing bars that all have live music and some awesome restaurants. I got a delicious beef stew made with Guinness, with another pint of, you guessed it, Guinness.

 After that, we walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral to look around, but we didn't want to pay money to go into a church.

 We later went back to Temple Bar to go to a bunch of bars. We probably saw 8 or 9 different music groups throughout the night, and they were so amazing. Dublin is such a fun city!

I would have loved to spend more time in Dublin, and on the coasts of Ireland, but we didn't have time to do everything. Dublin is on the list of places I want to go back to, as the city and culture were so amazing.

Random

So I just figured out how to add pictures to the blog so I'm gonna try to update my posts with some pictures so you can see everything! The format of the pictures is kind of difficult to edit so excuse the ugliness...

Also, my professor for my Art History class may very well be the most interesting man in the world. He is a PhD of art history and has taught university in Paris for years. He also is an acclaimed tour guide. He also works at the Cannes Film Festival. Lastly, he is a location scout for Universal, and worked on movies such as The Da Vinci Code (produced by Michael De Luca, the brilliant producer I worked for this summer!!) He is close friends with Quentin Tarantino and drove him from the airport to Cannes with the original tape of Pulp Fiction. He has met three presidents to give them tours of various countries. He was Michael Jackson's personal driver and friend for two and a half months during a European tour. He has met Nelson Mandela. He participated in an archaeological dig in Pompeii. He has hung out with the cast of Ocean's 11. Long story short, he is the coolest guy I've ever met. He is so unbelievably knowledgeable about not only art but also history. The way he formats our class is such that he will show us a painting and explain what was going on at the time, in both the region and the world. He helps us understand why these paintings are so important by giving us the context. I swear he must know everything about the history of the last 2500 years.

Today is Friday. I'm going to Dublin tonight. Next weekend, I'm going to Amsterdam. The weekend after that, Paris. Europe is awesome.

Rome

What a weekend...

It started on Thursday. Halfway through class, my friends and I left to finish packing and make an ATM run. We then had a quick lunch before taking the express bus to the Nice airport for your 4 o clock flight to Rome. It was a very quick flight, slightly longer than an hour, but I slept through it so it seemed like time travel. We arrived in the Rome airport and realized that the directions to our hostel were written in very poor english, so we asked for help from a tourists center in the train station. The man there ran a shuttle business and offered to drop us off at our hostel's front door for the same price as the train, so we accepted. We got shuttled right to the front door of an apartment building in a very sketchy part of town, around Termini. Everything was graffiti'd, there were lots of homeless people, and the area was dirty. After some trouble figuring out where we would stay, an employee of our hostel led us to a separate building where me and my two friends would stay. They then told us that the two girls I was with would have stay in a room separate
from where I was staying. We didn't like that because the girls didn't feel all that safe, and we had booked it so that we could all stay together in one room, but the hostel employees overbooked. I was pissed, but we decided to just stay in different rooms.

Once that was figured out, we went to find dinner. That's when we realized that it was pouring rain like I had never seen it before. Luckily, I came prepared with a rain jacket. Unluckily, the girls did not. I gave one of them my fleece and the other had a peacoat, but they were soaked quickly. I'd never heard so much thunder and seen so much lightning. We ended up ducking into one of the only restaurants we could find to get some very marginal pizza. Still, we weren't unhappy or downtrodden. We were in Rome! We then asked a local where the best gelato place in the area was, and we soon found the most amazing gelato place. It was called Fassi, and for only two euros I got three flavors of the best gelato I've ever had. The place was something like 140 years old; they knew what they were doing. We then went back to our hostel to plan the next day.

I woke up at 9 the next morning to take a shower. For 12 euros/night, the hostel was really pretty good. Decent showers, a free breakfast, fresh oranges? Not bad. Then we left, and I had my first real Italian cappuccino. Coffee is now ruined for me... the coffee was so good and cheap in Rome that I don't know how to satisfy my coffee cravings now.

 Anyways, we walked everywhere that day. We did 90% of Rome Saturday and the remaining 10% on Sunday. We decided early on that we would walk everywhere instead of taking public transportation, and I was glad we did. We had pointed out a few things on my map that we wanted to see, but by walking around we would walk by all these other monuments we didn't know about and get to experience them too.

We first walked by the Santa Maria Maggiore. After that we passed Trajan's Column, a beautiful obelisk-type monument with sculptured engravings twisting up the sides that depicted a war.

Right next to that is part of the forum and the Altare della Patria. The Patria is the biggest monument in Rome, and was so fun to see and walk around. It was right between our hostel and the rest of Rome, so we got to see it about 12 times before we left. Among other things, it holds the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is surrounded by guards and everlasting fire.

We walked by a couple old church's with amazing architecture and paintings, including Saint Ignatius, one of the most beautiful cathedral's I've ever seen. The Trevi Fountain was also amazing.

Trevi Fountain

Lunch was ok. We also saw the Castle of Saint Angelo and the Ponte Saint Angelo we took to get there. We saw all of these amazing things, only stopping to get lunch and dinner. Lunch was an amazing Italian pizza and the house wine, and dinner was one of the best meals of my life. We asked a local where a good, non-touristy dinner place was and she told us about this place called Gusto. Incredible. This place was tucked away on a side street, there was no English on the menu, and the waiters spoke very little English but were super nice. I had the most amazing Carbonara and a delicious house red with it. For the three of us, the entire meal was a grand total of 38 euros. I love Rome. We also walked around the Forum and Coliseum that day, but didn't go in because we had tickets for the following day. The rest of our group got in town late that night, so we then met up with them and ended up going to a club close to the Altare della Patria. 

More gelato

Piazza Navona.

Pantheon

Coliseum

Arc

The best meal of my life? Definitely up there.

We woke up early (7) the next morning to go to the Vatican. We had tickets to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, which was incredible. After a brisk walk from one side of Rome to the other, we were at the Vatican. The Vatican Museum is so cool. Seeing religious art and painted religious scenes got a little boring, but the architecture of the buildings and some of their collections were truly unbelievable. In my art history class this week, my professor was talking about a piece by Raphael that I had literally seen at the vatican a couple of days before. Too cool. The Sistine Chapel was amazing, too, obviously. The sheer amount of art in that building was mind boggling. We then had lunch at an amazing pizza place where I had the best pizza of my life. 

 We then went to the Coliseum, on the other side of Rome. Being in there and learning about what used to go on inside was breathtaking. I literally stood and stared, just taking everything in and imagining what it would be like to be here a thousand years ago, for a good 20 minutes before I could walk around and start reading the signs to learn about everything. So, so cool. We then made it up to Piazza de Spagna, where the Spanish Steps are and an amazing shopping area. After another amazing and surprisingly cheap dinner, we went out to an Irish pub that was absolutely popping. Rome is an amazing place.

 Spanish Steps

                                        Piazza de Spagna

We left really early the next morning on a Tram bus to airport, and a short flight back to Nice. I spent most of Sunday then sleeping.

Some fun stats:

Full days in Rome: 2
Nights spent in Rome: 3
Miles walked: 45
Hours of sleep: 14
Pizzas eaten: 3
Gelato eaten: 6
Coffees drank: 8
Euros spent on flight and accommodations: 145

What an awesome weekend!

Monaco and Nice Carnivale

Last weekend, I went to the most beautiful place I've ever been to. Monaco. What a place! Even the train station was nice. I can get there in about an hour by train, so I plan to go at least three more times. We went there without a plan, with the only goal to explore the city. From the train station, I got lost with my friend Julia and we walked around discovering Monaco.

We walked by the water and found the biggest superyachts I'd ever seen. I'm talking mini cruise ships. Ships that cost probably 10 million euros and employ staffs of 30 year-round. 

We also walked by what appeared to be an international rowing/crew championship, which was fun to see. After, we met up with some friends and walked around the Monte Carlo area. 

First of all, the Monte Carlo is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. Second of all, the cars that are in that area blew my mind. I've never seen so many Lamborghini's and Ferrari's and Maserati's. I even saw a McLaren. The whole time I was in Monaco, all I could think about was how all these people got so unbelievably rich. 

All of us in front of Monte Carlo. I also created a goal for myself: when I come back years from now to promote something I've produced for Cannes, I will stay in Monaco and gamble in the Monte Carlo. 

We then walked over to the older part of Monaco, which is situated much higher than the rest of the city. It had a palace, a castle, a beautiful cathedral, an exotic garden, an aquatic museum/aquarium, and breathtaking views. We first walked around the gardens and saw all kinds of cool plants. The gardens are amazing, and most parts of the gardens overlook Monaco and the water. 

Amazing cathedral

We walked by the museum, but it was closing soon so we decided to come back another time and do it (I LOVE aquariums). We continued to walk around the city until dark, and decided not to buy food in the city because we couldn't find a meal for under 30 euros. I can't wait to go back to Monaco. We're going back for the Grand Prix, which will be amazing. I also saw people hang gliding or base jumping or something from a cliff far above Monaco. I want to do that so badly. The views and experience would be a once in a lifetime kind of thing that I can't miss out on.

The next day, we went to Nice for the carnivale. Carnivale has been going on for hundreds of years and it was fun to experience it and see the floats. I totally ruined one of my t-shirts, because every kid there has bottles of silly string that they spray randomly at strangers (apparently that is socially acceptable here). Nice, as always, was gorgeous.

Look out for my pictures on iCloud photo sharing, I'm having some trouble posting them but they're amazing. Wifi still sucks here, but maybe it will be better in Rome. Oh yeah, I'm going to Rome today. I'm gonna eat gelato in Italy tonight. I'm psyched. My next post will be all about Italy and my experiences there, and also my badass Art History teacher. I'd get into it now, but I'm running late. Short version: he's the coolest dude I've ever met.