So I got back to Galway from my travels on Tuesday, and have been spending my time studying and eating vegetables, and now it is time for me to blog this whole thing. Since I have been in school mode for a couple days, I will outline my trip for you before I begin to write in detail (I'm so organized...).
Wedding/St. Patrick's Day/Family Time in Ireland
Madrid with the Moms, Nicole and Many Others
Barcelona with Katie Ham, Sarah and Colin
Paris with Katie Ham, Colin, Melissa and Alex
Munich, Salzburg and Vienna with Katie Ham and Colin
Prague and Budapest with Katie Ham, Colin, Rob and John
Bratislava with Colin, Rob and John
Budapest and Vienna with Katie Napes
Prague with Katie Napes, Nicole, Dan, Evan and Eric
Krakow with Katie Napes
So when you look at a map I literally traveled across Europe in a month! And I have a lot to write about so, I'll get to it!
Ireland
So my vacation actually started a little early when the McGivneys all came over here for my Uncle Matt's wedding. We all went up to County Down on St. Patrick's Day for it, and it was a blast! Here are a couple pictures from the reception:
Of the Wedding:
And the church:
After the reception we all went back to our cottages and changed, then went out for a couple drinks to celebrate. After all the old folks went home, the brothers, cousins, Colin and I all went to O'Hares (I think was the name), a nightclub in Newcastle, to celebrate St. Patrick's day. In the end after some confusion we all made it home safe and sound.
The next week was more family fun! Kyle came and stayed with me in Galway, and we took a great tour out to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher.
We're really good at taking pictures of ourselves:
Kyle in front of a tomb on the Burren that's like 3,000 years old:
The Cliffs of Moher on a foggy day:
The next few days were filled with me writing papers and finishing up some of my classes, some more McGivney time in Galway, and then on Friday we all went over to Navan (just outside of Dublin) to stay with Linda for the night. Brian and Mary met us as well, and we all had a great time.
Saturday morning (April 24) we all had breakfast then my mom and I went to the airport and the boys went into Dublin.
Madrid
We arrived in Madrid Saturday evening and had a really stressful time getting from the airport to the hotel, but we finally made it there where Shelley, Diane, Nicole, Katie, Amy, Carrie, Joey and Sarah were waiting for us. It was quite a crowd! That night we went out for pizza (where my mom and I got served a pizza with ham and eggs on it- it was not our day). Then a few of us went out to a Belgian beer house for a couple interesting and tasty beers, and then back to the hotel to bed!
Sunday morning my mom and I woke up early to go to the Prado since it was the free day! Nicole warned us about lines, but there wasn't one when we got there and we walked straight in! (When we left, the line was all the way down the block, so we got pretty lucky!) The museum was absolutely amazing, with a great collection of Spanish artists. I thought the de Goya was the best and most interesting, but there was also a lot of el Greco, Titian, Velazquez, Bosch and some other great artists. It was a really awesome museum, and compared to most other European art museums, very managable. We saw everything in about 2 hours, and then were out to catch some sunshine!
Then we walked around a little. We wanted to walk down to Puerta del Sol but there was a protest going on so we just made a little circle and walked to Retiro Park where we met the rest of the crew for lunch.
After the birds pooed on Shelley on Spanish TV, we walked down to a really gorgeous end of the park and broke open our Don Simon boxed sangria, which was delicious! Then we ventured out to Nicole's cute apartment for some more Don and some much-needed internet.
That night all of the kids went out for dinner to this great place that has 100 different types of little sandwiches (bocadillos), and they're all a euro each, so we got a few of them. After that we met the mamas for some flamenco dancing, which was definitely my favorite thing in Madrid! Here are some pics:
They were soooo good! I can't even begin to think about how they move their feet so fast. It's like tap-dancing times 50. WOW!
The next day was Segovia time. The trian took about twice as long to get there than we thought, so we ended up only having about 3 hours. It's a tiny town though, so we saw the three "must-see" things.
It was kinda hectic rushing around, and a little stressful to get back to the station and make our train back to Madrid, but overall it was successful! When we got back we went to Friday's (yes, how American...) for happy hour and appetizers with Nicole and her roommate Kate. From there it was to a fabulous Mexican restaurant (soooo good, especially compared to the 'Mexican' I've had in Ireland) and then the young ones all went out to an Irish bar.
The next day was Toledo for all of us, which is a really beautiful medieval city. The highlights were the absolutely gorgeous cathedral and the Synagogue.
Also a highlight of Toledo was that Joey bought a really badass sword. Toledo is known for its swordmaking, and Joey took home the ultimate souvenir. Pretty sweet!
That night Colin came to Madrid and met us at the hotel. We went to dinner at a really good paella place with the whole gang, plus Colin's family friends who live in Madrid. It was delicious! From there we went to a tiny little old fashioned bar for a few drinks, then back to the hotel where there was much attempted persuasion to get Jayne to go to Portugal with everyone, but it wasn't successful. There were some emotional goodbyes and goodnights, and we were all off to bed.
The next day Colin and I went and did some sightseeing around the city. We did one of those bus tours and sat on the upper deck so we could see all the main monuments, and then ended up at the royal palace and Cathedral de Almudena which were both beautiful. We also had lunch with Colin's family friends Maria and Beatrice
That night Colin, Katie, Sarah and I all experienced our first night train which was really creepy. We decided to get beds, which means you're in a compartment with 3 beds on each wall. In my compartment there was a drunk creepy man, 2 extreeeemely smelly people and a woman who was like a corpse on her bed. Needless to say, we didn't get the beds ever again.
Barcelona
Barcelona was definitely one of my favorite cities on the trip! It's beautiful and the culture is so rich. It was really crowded when we were there, but other than the 50 thousand school field trips, the trip was perfect!
We got to Barcelona in the morning and encountered some trouble when checking into the hostel, but it all worked out fine. We left our bags there and went out to do some sightseeing. We walked down Las Ramblas and saw the Columbus statue:
Then walked along the harbor:
After that we decided to grab some lunch from the market and take the hike up the hill to Parc Guell, the absolutely gorgeous Gaudi park. We sat up there and enjoyed the sun, our lunch and of course some Don Simon (in a bottle this time-classy!). It was so nice out and such a great relaxing day. On the way out we looked around at the Gaudi houses that are supposed to look like Hansel and Gretel houses. So cool!
That night we hung out in the hostel bar drinking sangria for a while, then headed out for tapas. We went to a place in the guidebook, but ended up with a waiter who was a total jerk. Everything we ordered he said they were out of until he convinced us to order the most expensive thing on the menu, knowing that we didn't really know the language. He was terrible. After that we went out to a bar and then back to the hostel.
The next morning Colin and I had to check out since there wasn't room in the hostel for us for that night. We wandered around until we finally found a hostel with room (Barcelona was ridiculously crowded since it was coming up to holy week and there were tons of people vacationing there). The Hostel Parisien was great! It was tiny and owned by these older Spanish women who didn't speak any English. Very charming.
Then we went to a museum about the history of the city, which was really cool. We got to go down below the museum into the ruins of the roman city that Barcelona is built on top of. We also went to a special exhibit about the rise of republicanism in Spain before Franco. I definitely recommend it to anyone in Barcelona!
Then Colin and I took another bus tour which took us up to the Montjuic area where the national palace and olympic stadium is. It was a fantastic view of the city, and just completely beautiful. We got some food and went back to the hostel and stayed in for the rest of the night.
The next day we spent finding an internet cafe and trying to see if the train strike in France was still on, since we wanted to catch a night train to Paris that night. Thankfully it had ended and we got our tickets booked, picked up our stuff from the hostel and went the Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi cathedral which has been under construction since the 1883. Of course it started to rain as soon as we got there, and we didn't have enough time to go inside, but the outside is really just incredible. It's a really unique style, just as all of Gaudi's works.
We caught a train to Cerbere, a really tiny dead town where we had to wait to catch the night train to Paris. Colin went out looking around and said that there was actually nothing there. Shops with nothing inside of them, no one around- really weird. We got on the train though and it was fine- we were in seats this time, which sounds worse but was actually a lot better than the beds!
Paris
Paris is a very beautiful city, but one that I would think would be better for a longer stay and when it isn't such a popular travel time. It felt very rushed and very very crowded. But I did get to see Melissa, one of my best friends from high school and college- definitely the best part!
We got in to the train station and since we didn't have a hostel just took the metro into the city near the opera house. There we had a delicious croissant and then found an internet cafe. While we were frantically searching for hostels, we got in touch with my friend melissa and decided to go over to her apartment. Since the hostel search proved to be pretty useless as everything was booked, Melissa let us stay at her apartment that night and we got a hostel for monday.
After bumming around and catching up for a bit, Melissa and her roommate Alex took us on a little walking tour of the city. We originally had planned to get to Paris on Sunday because the first Sunday of the month all the museums are free. But when we walked around the lines were so long and the weather was so nice we decided not to go in any of them. Instead we walked along the Seine and saw the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, Champs-Elysees, and of course the Eiffel Tower! The city was so beautiful and despite the throngs of crowds we had a great time. Instead of waiting hours to go up in the tower, we decided to nap and relax in the park under it which was fabulous!
After that we went back to Mel's apartment in the Latin Quarter and then out for delicious fondue at a restaurant right near by. Afterwards we went back to Mel's to drink some wine and play the 1987 British version of Trivial Pursuit. Not as easy as it sounds.
The next morning we woke up later than planned (of course). Melissa and Katie got us breakfast and we hung around until Colin, Katie and I had to go check in to our hostel. After we got our room (which was not nearly as bad as other people had rated it online, thank god!) we headed off to see Notre Dame. The cathedral is absolutely gorgeous, especially all the architecture. Then we walked for a few minutes to the Saint-Chapelle cathedral. We were a little disappointed in it because although it is an extremely unique structure, it is really expensive to get in, it's small, we waited in line for a long time, the altar was under construction and I misread something that said there was a tower with a good view inside. I thought the decor was really cool and the stained glass was gorgeous, but overall it wasn't what I was expecting. And the whole under construction thing became a common theme on our trip. Especially the idea that you shouldn't have to tell people that part of something is under construction and can still charge them full price. It can be pretty frustrating.
When we left the cathedral I realized that unlike most museums in Paris, the Louvre is open on Monday but not Tuesday (we had been planning to go on Tuesday), so we rushed over there even though we only had an hour and a half to spend there. We saw the Mona Lisa (which was pretty disappointing, but you have to do it) and then Colin and I went to see the Venus de Milo, which was cool but the room was packed with people taking pictures of it. Colin and I then looked at the other Italian renaissance paintings and then went up to the floor of French art works. That museum is huge! I could seriously spend a week in there and not see everything. I'm glad we did make it there though, it was cool to see.
Colin went back to the hostel to change and Katie and I went into the Latin Quarter to have a couple drinks during happy hour. This was so much fun, since everyone was just sitting on the sidewalk enjoying the weather and people watching. At one point, a French man came and put down an amplifier, got out his microphone and started singing all these songs in French. Then this crazy guy across the street started doing a bizarre mixture of dancing and exercising, putting on a show for everyone. Even the bartender came out and started watching/laughing. It was hilarious.
Then we made our way to Mel's and all of us went out for some pizza, which was of course, delicious! We hung out at Melissa's again until the last metro back to the hostel.
The next day we woke up and headed straight to Musee d'Orsay, where we were surprised to see that the line was longer than it was on the free day! But we waited anyway because we all really wanted to see it, and it was definitely worth it! The art was absolutely amazing, a lot of impressionism which I love. The only problem with the museum is that they allow you to take pictures. They say no flash, but no one is there to enforce it, so it is actually disappointing that they are allowed to house these works when they're allowing them to be ruined. Also, it is amazing how people take pictures of EVERYHTING. There were more people taking pictures of the paintings and looking at them on their cameras than there were people actually looking at the paintings. It completely ruined the van Gogh room for me. Anyway, enough of that rant...
Then we met up with Melissa and Alex for some yummy crepes and then we caught the night train to Munich!
Munich
The night train to Munich was really good- It was me, Katie and Colin in a compartment with seats and a German guy named David who was about our age. We talked to him about what Munich is like, and even managed to get some sleep.
I was really excited for Munich because my mom and I spent a night there a few years ago and it seemed like such a cool city. And since I loved Berlin so much I was excited to get back to Germany in general.
We checked in to the hostel right when we got there and there was a free walking tour leaving right around then so we decided to all go on it. It was great! We saw everything all over the city, like the Glockenspiel and the Marienplatz, all the different churches and the English Gardens. The guide was really good and he showed us different parts of the city that had history related to the Nazis and the Soviets which was really cool. After the tour we and a guy and a girl from Cornell who were on the tour too all went to a Bavarian restaurant that the guide recommended. We all got sausage and potato salad and sauerkraut- it was sooo good!
Then we went back to the hostel and took a nap before happy hour in the hostel bar. We wanted to go out that night but after wandering around the city center we couldn't find anywhere to go so we just hung out at the hostel instead. This is when Katie made a plan for us for the next week until she left, which it was nice to know what we would be doing for a few days in advance!
The next day we took the train out to Dachau, a town where there is a concentration camp. Being there was really shocking, and the museum and film inside the camp were very disturbing. By the end of the day we were all pretty emotionally exhausted, but I'm really glad I went because it did help prepare me better for Auschwitz.
When we got back we decided to go to the famous Hofbrauhaus for a gigantic mug of beer (which took us 2 hours to drink!). Then we ended up going back to the hostel and going out with some people we met there (from Buffalo Grove, actually- small world!) back to the Hofbrauhaus! They all wanted to go to a club, so we took the metro with them out to the club area, but Katie and I weren't up for it so we went back to the hostel and Colin followed us not long after.
Salzburg
Our original plan was to go to Vienna after Munich, but since it was Easter weekend we found that there was no way we would be able to get a hostel. We were done with Munich though, and decided to head to Salzburg instead. I'm really glad we went there since it is absolutely beautiful and we never would have planned on it! We wanted to do some Sound of Music stuff but the tours are really expensive so we decided to spend the day in town instead.
We walked around town and saw Mozart's birthplace, sat on the river and had lunch, went to the Hohensalzburg Fortress and then took a very long walk trying to find these trick fountains that we read about. For some reason they didn't put the distance to scale on our map and we didn't realize before we took off that they are actually about 5 miles outside the city. That was kind of frustrating.
I'm pretty sad that I don't have any pictures of Salzburg. Actually my batteries ran out on the walking tour in Munich and when I replaced them with some of the 50,000 I brought with me I realized that all the batteries I brought were expired. That will teach you to get batteries at a 2 euro store when they are buy one get one free. The only batteries I could find in Salzburg were about 8 euro for 4, which seemed pretty outrageous so I waited until Vienna to get more and take pictures.
Vienna
We took the morning train to Vienna the next day, and since we couldn't get a hostel for that night either we decided to just go for the day, stay up all night and catch a train out the next morning. Vienna was really cool but I liked it a lot better the second time I went and spent more time there than this time since it was very rushed. We walked around for a little while when we got in, and I decided to go the Royal Apartments and the Sisi museum while Katie and Colin walked around a little more. The Sisi museum was kind of interesting, but a little much. The apartments were really cool though since they looked exactly like they did when Sisi and Franz Josef were living there.
We all met back up and did Rick Steves' tram tour of the city where you go around the ring of the city and see the most important sites. Then we went and got in line for the Opera, since you can get standing room tickets for 2 euro. We were really lucky and ended up getting the last 3 tickets! The opera was Simon Boccanegro (I think) and it was amazing. The singing and orchestra were beautiful, and even though I couldn't see anything for the first half, we got great seats and started to understand what was going on after intermission.
Since we knew we had to stay up all night, we decided to go see a movie afterwards. Katie and I saw Stranger Than Fiction, which was great! Then we wanted to go find a bar to hang out at until our train, but when we went into the bar area we realized that all the bars there are really intense, more like clubs and you can't really just sit and have a drink so we went back to the trainstation and waited for our train at 6 am.
I'll finish up the trip later and let you know about photos, but right now I have to get out of the house!
2 comments:
I love reading this! Keep blogging, love, mom
keep going.. great times!!! love ya..
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