Day 51: It's Thursday, already??

Today was a pretty typical marketing + Italian classes day. In between classes I prepared for our mock midterm in Italian, and went to the gym after. After I got home, I facetimed mom and dad for a while because they're both snowed in from work. After that, I got some work done and headed to dinner. Dinner was salad, bowtie pasta with red sauce and the applie-pie type thing for desert. After dinner I finished up some school work, packed and did some planning for the weekend, and went to bed. At the end of the night as I was trying to fall asleep, it hit me tomorrow is already Friday which is the start of my last weekend trip before my second 10-day trip, but yet it feels like we got home from our first two seconds ago... Where is the time going??

Day 50: Surveys and raspberry sorbet

Today was a normal class and then gym day. In class we did a lot of work within our groups and put together the final work for our surveys for our research project. After the gym, I looked more into the third 10-day trip and then worked on some homework. Then dinner came around and we had a beef and marinara sauce thing with rice and peas, not the best or worst thing we've had. BUT we had my tied for second favorite desert so far... raspberry sorbet. I need to have the mango one again to really decide between the two. After dinner I did some more homework and then went to bed.

Day 49: Decisions, decisions

Today was just a typical class and gym day; we spent a good majority of class working on our group projects and I spent a really long, much needed time at the gym. After the gym, I came home and just did my normal routine before my group met before dinner to complete our assignment. Dinner was a chicken patty type thing with veggies and potatoes, with the chocolate pudding jello thing for desert. After dinner, I talked a lot with several different groups on what we want to try and do for the third 10-day break. A lot of us underestimated flight costs, travel times, etc. and it was very overwhelming. Still no decisions made yet, but hopefully we'll get there soon. After stressing about that for a while, I finished up some other homework and went to bed.

Day 48: PIZZA

Today was a normal Monday with both my marketing and Italian classes. We had a quiz in Italian, so instead of going to the gym in between classes, I went after (exciting, I know). After getting back from the gym, I did some homework and went to dinner... WHICH WAS PIZZA. Literally greatest day ever... well it felt like it at least. They had several different kinds for us, and I got at a perfect location to be served, so it felt like we basically had a limited supply and it was great. We had the weird strawberry block ice cream thing for dessert, but I wasn't even disappointed because I was still on cloud 9 from the pizza. After dinner, I did my normal homework and planning some more things for trips and then headed to bed.

Day 47: Bye Bye Berlin :(

This morning we slept in a little more than anticipated so Amy and I ran downstairs for the last 5 minutes of breakfast and grabbed what we could. After breakfast we all got ready and packed to check out. We kept our bags in storage at the hostel and went into town where Rachel and Laura went to the flee market again, and Amy, Loren and I went across town to stop in an Ampleman souvenir shop, which is symbolic to the tearing down of the wall and used on all their pedestrian cross walk lights. We then all met back at Wok to Walk, which is a chain in Europe that's essentially chipotle for Chinese food. We all got stuff to go for our train ride home, grabbed our bags from the hostel and trained back to the station, where we all grabbed a couple more snacks. We trained from Berlin to Hanover to Zurich and then to Lugano, getting in around 1:15 am, with a slightly stressful train to Zurich due to more train delays that could have caused us to spend the night in Zurich, but all ended up fine. Because everything is always "fine," even when we don't travel with Michael.

Day 46: BERLIN

This morning we got up just before 8, grabbed our (ever so loved) free breakfast at the hostel and left just after 9. We first headed to a flee market and then met at Brandenburg Gate for our Sandman walking tour at 11. Our tour guide for this tour was originally from Australia but had lived in Berlin the past 5 or so years. He was absolutely hilarious and had a lot of knowledge and fun facts about Berlin along the tour. As soon as the tour began, I already knew my expectations for Berlin would be blown away. Berlin wasn't exactly somewhere I had a real itching to go too, but I'm so beyond glad that I decided to go. 
While it is a larger city, the population is much smaller than what the city was built to hold, so there aren't the annoying crowds and stressful atmosphere a city normally brings. It also has a very grunge feeling to it by the people and graffiti and architecture of buildings. On the tour we saw the different parliament buildings, the Berlin Wall, memorial for the Holocaust, and other historical sites of Berlin. The tour lasted until about 2:30 and then we headed to east side gallery, which was really cool as well. It was frustrating though to see all the markings and graffiti over the artwork of the wall that people had made over time, but I guess that's just dumb people for you. After the gallery, a couple of the girls got curry worst, a Berlin original dish of sausage with curry sauce, which was really good (they let me try it, thanks guys). 
We then headed back to the hostel for about half an hour before to rest and get some drinks for the evening and get dinner. We wanted to eat at a place recommended by another group that had been to Berlin, but it needed a reservation so we found another place called Grand Rocka that had some american and German food choices. I got a beer and schnitzel, which was very tasty. We then headed back to the hostel to get ready to go out for the night. We just hung out in the room, exchanging stories and laughing at each other before heading out to the club around midnight. We went to Club Soda, recommended by the other group, and it was a ton of fun. 
I danced a lot with Laura and other groups of girls we met, and then around 2:30 we all got a little separated and tired, so I found Loren and we headed back to the hostel. While we took and accidental detour by getting on a train heading the wrong destination, we made it back fine and found Amy and Laura in the room when we got back.

Day 45: Berlin trains forever cursed

This morning I got up, did last minute packing for Berlin and headed to class. We had a quiz and then, because she's so awesome, Kim shortened our lecture and let us out just after 10:30 so we all had plenty of time to make our trains for this weekend. My group for this weekend will be myself, Amy, Loren, Rachel and Laura. We caught the 12:11 train with a good majority of the other groups to first go towards Zurich. We got off just before Zurich (where we then separated from everyone) and then went to Basel. We then should've had a straight shot to Berlin from there, however around 8:30 I got woken up by Amy telling me our train had been stopped for nearly half an hour because the breaks weren't working properly... GREAT NEWS. We sat around, stressed about how we would get a new train, etc for around an hour, in which they then announced (in German, so luckily a really nice guy translated for us) that they'd be able to get us to the next station and send us a new train. We went to Frankfurt South and waited until the train came, which ended up putting us a little over 2 hours behind schedule. After getting the new train, the rest of traveling was pretty smooth. Once arriving in Berlin around 1:30, we figured out the metro type system they have to get to our hostel. While in the station, we witnessed a guy get arrested, which was another scary beginning to our trip, but once we made it to the hostel and all settled in, we felt much better and were ready to see what Berlin would bring us next.

Day 44: Sheley's family is hereeee!

This morning I woke up and had a normal class, gym, Italian day. After class, I came home and got some work dinner and then Sheley invited me to go out to eat with her mom and stepdad because they are in town visiting for the week/weekend. We had dinner at the restaurant right beside the train station, where I ate delicious eggplant and other veggie pasta and, of course, wine to go with. Dinner was fun because while I still miss my family a ton, it was nice to be around at least someone else's family from home. After dinner I finished reading, packed for Berlin and we booked our hostel for when we go to Brussels over the second 10-day break.

Day 43: Lugano is beautiful.

Today I woke up feeling much better, thankfully. I went to class, where we took another quiz and worked more on our group project. After class I went to the gym and on the walk home I just admired how beautiful Lugano really is, and realized how much I’ve been taking it for granted lately. I then came home and made another yummy egg and avocado sandwich. I worked on some homework and attempted to gather my laundry… which was a fail. My mesh bag got dumped out again and i’m missing leggings L but anyway, dinner was pretty good with the little chicken nuggets things, carrots, and potatoes, and the good lime sorbet for dessert. After dinner, we started booking our second 10-day to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. I then worked on some more homework and then went to bed.

Day 42: Can I just sleep all day please?

Getting up this morning I felt absolutely horrible. I was so overly exhausted and congested and felt awful all throughout class. But I did get to meet our new teacher, who is really awesome and I really think I will like her and enjoy the class. At the end of class, we got our groups assigned for our final project and I am with Raleigh, Emily C, Alex B, Kate O and Colleen, so I’m pretty excited about it. After class, I came straight home and took a nap, which made me feel a little better. After my nap, I finally got the egg and avocado sandwich I had been craving for weeks and then did some homework before dinner, which was some pork, rice thing, broccoli and the apple-pie like desert. After dinner, I cleaned my room up a  little and went to bed fairly early.

Day 41: So much travel. So little sleep.

This morning slash middle of the night we left our hostel at 3:30 a.m. and made our way to the bus to take us to the airport. I luckily slept on the bus and then got some good porridge and a smoothie I had been wanting forever at the airport for breakfast. We got on the plane around 7:30 and then landed in Basel. We then bused to the train station, bussed to Zurich, and then to Lugano. We got in around 3 and i relaxed for a bit, unpacked and went to the grocery store. We then got out greatly missed Montarina dinner of salad and pasta. After dinner, I did the reading for our first quiz of our new class and then went to sleep.

Day 40: Eye love London

The next morning we got up and headed to the Tower of London, which was way better than expected. Seeing all the history and different displays throughout was beyond words. We spent a majority of the day there and then walked around London some to find some souvenirs and then headed over to the London eye. 

While we got in line at sunset, by the time we got on and began, it had already become night, which was still beautiful. You never really realize how large a city is until you see it from up above, and it was gorgeous. After the eye, we found a place for dinner, which we thought was going to be a cool sports bar, but ended up being a random place that a bunch of French guys wanted to watch a soccer match at… so it was a tad awkward, but the food was very good. After dinner, we headed back to the hostel and packed because we have to leave so early for our flight the next day.

Day 39: British Museum and Buckingham Palace

We got up earlier to try and make the walking tour again, but it was another failed attempt, so we decided to drop the idea and just walk to all the places we knew we wanted to go. First we headed to the British Museum, which was quite overwhelming at first and I wish we had more time to spend in there, but it was a good experience while we were. It was very interesting to see all the differences from culture to culture throughout time in one big museum. After the museum, we went to see Buckingham palace and headed to the pub crawl again. We began at the second place as the night before and grabbed dinner, where I just had a simple chicken quesadilla. We then did the pub crawl again, which was a lot more fun because there were more people and a lot better atmosphere in general. As Sheley and I would say, it was a pretty “walrus” night.

Day 38: Rainbows and Pub Crawls

We got up this morning and wanted to do the Sandman’s walking tour like we did in Dublin, but missed it due to some struggle with the tube. Instead, we walked around to see parts of London and saw Big Ben and then headed to Westminster Abby, which was really awesome as expected. After Westminster, we headed to Borough market which had samples on samples of food… aka my dream. I ended up buying Egyptian street food which was to die for. After the market, we walked across the London Bridge, where we got to see a gorgeous rainbow. We then headed out to the Sandman’s pub crawl like Dublin, but it wasn’t a lot of people and the timing was slightly off for the places we went to, so it wasn’t as exciting of a night that we all hoped for.

Day 37: Edinburgh to London + WICKED

This morning we got up decently early and headed to the bus stop to head back to the airport. Our flight was out around 10 a.m. and we arrived around lunchtime. Upon arrival, we bused from the airport to the tube station, where we bought our oyster cards to use for the rest of the time there. The tube is essentially the metro, where they constantly remind you to "mind the gap." And when I say constantly, I mean constantly.

After a couple quick rides, we made it to our hostel, where we saw a couple other groups who were staying there as well. In London, we stayed at Wombats hostel, which was a brand new place, very much geared to people our age. The rooms were very nice and clean, and no weird smells, so we were all very satisfied. Once we got settled in the room, we got ready to head out to dinner and then to go see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theater. We met up with my roommate and her group for dinner at a Thai place, where Sheley and I split the 3-course theater meal deal. Once we finished dinner, we realized we were not in fact near the theater and ended up running frantically through the tube trying to get to the show on time. I missed the very opening, but made it to my seat without missing anything important.

Wicked was, without a doubt, one of the best things I've ever experienced. While I had seen the show before, being in London seeing it was spectacular. After the show, Sheley and I broke off from the group and took on the tube by ourselves for the first time. Surprisingly enough, it went smooth and we got back to the hostel and went to sleep quite smoothly.

Day 36: Scotlandddd

After a cool night out, the four of us went on a walking tour provided by our hostel. The tour guide was a girl who was actually from France but recently moved to Edinburgh. On the tour, we visited the graveyard again, but it was cool to hear all about the different historical facts from our tour guide. The tour also took us to other parts of Edinburgh and we met a really cool girl from Australia who was visiting Dublin after Edinburgh, so we told her of all the things she needed to see while she was there, as well.
After the tour, we headed to the Baked potato shop, as recommended from other girls on our group, where I got a baked potato with Quinoa salad on top. After lunch, we walked around to a bunch of the different shops around looking at all the different scarves and other gifts.
We then headed up to the castle, which was unfortunately closing, but we still got to see the outside and the views of Edinburgh from it. After the castle, we came back to the hostel and met up with Michael and Rachel for dinner. We grabbed dinner at the pub we went to the night before, where I got a really good fish sandwich, and of course another Ginger Grouse.
After dinner, we went on a Ghost Tour of Edinburgh, where we not only got to go in some underground vaults, but also into locked parts of the cemetary that the general public isn't allowed in. Once the ghost tour was finished, we headed back to the hostel, packed all our stuff and got ready for our flight to London the next morning.

Day 35: Dublin to Edinburgh

Waking up this morning and realizing I had to leave Ireland was a really sad feeling. While I've loved all the other places I've gotten to visit so far, Ireland has definitely topped them all. From the experiences we had as a group, to the people we met, and just the overall atmosphere of the country, it is definitely somewhere I hope to come back and visit one day.
Once we all got up and packed, we headed to the airport for our flight to Scotland. The flight went smoothly, up until we landed and were trying to get from the airport to our hostel in Edinburgh. They wouldn't allow us do anything online without printing out receipts, which isn't an easy tasks for those traveling as often as we do. But we, well mostly Michael, figured it out and we finally got a bus to the hostel. As we arrived in Edinburgh, we all immediately had this eery feeling just from the gothic structures, cloudy weather, and overall feeling of the town. While some of the architecture was similar to Dublin, most of it appeared much older and the town itself was obviously much smaller.
In Edinburgh, we stayed in a place called KickAss Hostel, which we then realized another group was already staying in and later found out the house moms were staying in, as well. As we saw the other group who were then heading to Whales, they gave us some recommendations on what to see and where to eat, and we first headed to a place called Oink, as recommended from the guys we met in Dublin the night before. Oink was a cute little pulled pork place about the size of a closet, but the food was great. After Oink, we decided to walk around and get the feel of the town. We visited the graveyard for a bit and saw the Elephant House, where J.K. Rowlings wrote Harry Potter.

After walking around a bit more, we headed back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. We ate dinner at a pub directly across the street from our hostel where I got traditional Scottish haggis, beeps and tatties, which was very different, but also very good. After dinner, Rachel and Michael went to sleep to prepare for their highlands tour the next day, while Sheley, Amy, Loren, and I decided to head to a bar for a little bit. There they all tried different Scottish whiskey and I tried Ginger Grouse, which was a ginger beer with a hint of whiskey, as well. After we all hung out there for a bit, we headed back to the hostel to for bed.

Day 34: Last full day in Dublin :(

Today I woke up a little under the weather, but after breakfast and walking around a bit, it slowly got better. We first went to Dublin Castle and then got lunch at a small cafe recommended by our tour guide from the walking tour. There we all (minus Amy) got a really good smoked salmon, cream cheese, avocado, lettuce and balsamic sandwich. After lunch we came back to the hostel and packed all our stuff up to leave the next morning.
We then headed out to the Celt for dinner, where we got an amazing three course dinner deal. I had goats cheese mousse, fish and chips, and a cinnamon crumble type thing, and all of it was to die for. After dinner, we planned on having just a final chill night in Dublin at a pub, and then we met a couple guys from different parts of Virginia, who then proceeded to buy us all rounds of Guinness. Once the bar we were currently at began to close, we headed to another club type place and danced like idiots until about three in the morning. After a while, we all realized how tired we were and were going to be in the morning, and decided to head back to the hostel.

Day 33: Can I never leave Dublin?

Today we got up and had our normal hostel breakfast and then headed across town to take a tour of the Guinness factory. While I knew it would be a cool experience, I had no idea how interesting of a process it was to make the beer. Besides just the tour, we also got to get a free pint of Guinness and see a panoramic view of Dublin from the top of the factory.
After Guinness, we headed to trinity college and to see the Book of Kells, which was really cool as well. For dinner that evening, we headed back to the oldest pub in Dublin earlier to make sure we had time to eat and get the whole experience before heading back to do the pub crawl we did Friday night again. At the pub, we split phenomenal fried brie for an appetizer, and then I got an amazing seafood chowder for dinner. After the pub, we went back to Workman's and did the pub crawl again. We headed to the same locations as Friday evening, just in a slightly different order.
On the pub crawl, we met this co-ed fraternity group from Holland and hung out with all of them for most of the night. After we left the last club for the evening, we were very sad to see that our Burger Hut place from Friday night was not open as late on Sunday nights, so we had to head back to the hostel without our "delicious" late night snack.

Day 32: PaddyWagon!

This morning we woke up early and went on an all-day Paddy Wagon tour. We started the tour just a few minute walk from our hostel and met up with Sheley's roommate Emily's group so I sat next to Mari on the bus. The main excursion for the tour was the Cliffs of Moher, but we made several other stops on the way and the way back, as well. We stopped at a chocolate shop, Corcomroe Abbey, Bunratty castle, the "mini cliffs," lunch at Fitzpatrick's bar, where Sheley and I both had a delicious salmon dish. After lunch, we headed to the actual cliffs, and it was a view you had to experience to understand. 
No picture could ever grasp the beauty of those cliffs. We got to spend about an hour and a half there, but I could've easily spent 3-4 hours. After leaving, we headed back a different way with some windy back roads that didn't settle well with some of our stomachs. On the way back we stopped at a little souvenir shop and then I napped for the rest of the way. Once we got back, we cleaned up some at the hostel and then tried to go eat at the oldest pub in Ireland, but realized the kitchen was closed after walking all the way there. We then tried a couple places finally decided on this little cafe where I got a Brie and cranberry panini and a Guinness. After the cafe, we stopped in Badbob's, the place we would've gone the night before at the end of the pub crawl if we had stayed the entire time. Because we were so tired from the all-day tour, Sheley, Amy and I decided to head back to the hostel after staying there for a bit, while everyone else checked out another bar or two.

Day 31: Already obsessed with Dublin

This morning I woke up in Dublin... Casual. We all woke up pretty early and grabbed breakfast at the hostel. Basic cereal, toast, yogurt, etc, but it was free so nobody minded. After breakfast Amy and I went to H&M so she could find the shoes she had been on a long hunt for and for me to look for a new satchel because my other one was starting to rip :( Amy unfortunately didn't find her shoes, but I found an awesome purse for really cheap, so it was still halfway a success. After H&M, we met the rest of the group at the City Hall for our walking tour. Our tour guide's name was Eion (pronounced Owen) and he was hilarious. Probably a few years older than us, and had the true Irish witty humor. On the tour we saw the Dublin Castle, Trinity College, Dublin Gardens, and several other historical spots in Dublin. On the tour, they announced a pub crawl they have, and we all decided to get tickets and try it out. 

The tour lasted until about middle of the afternoon, and then we grabbed lunch at Foley's Irish Pub. There I got a beer and Guinness beef pie, which was beyond delicious and set the bar real high for Irish food. After our late lunch we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the pub crawl. On the way back, Amy found her shoes which felt like a victory for us all. We got ready and headed out for the pub crawl around 7. Our starting point for the crawl was The Workmans, which was a smaller, chill bar that had bogo pints of beer for 4 euro. We each had our two pints, met up with some guys we met at the walking tour earlier in the day, and then headed to Mercantile. When we were leaving, we saw one of the people in charge of the crawl, who informed us there was a total of 110 people joining us for the crawl, and we all knew we were in for an interesting evening.  Mercantile was more of a club feel, where we got a free shot, but I didn't get any of the other drink deals. At Mercantile we played heads up with some other people from our hostel and then headed to Mezz. Mezz was a bar that had live music, which was much more my type of place. There we each got a shot of tequila and beer for 5 euro. After spending about an hour there, we then headed to an authentic Irish pub called O'Neills. They had a live band and drink specials, but I decided to just hang out because we have to get up early tomorrow for a tour. 

After a while and everyone was ready to go, we headed home before going to the final club of the crawl. On the way back to the hostel, we grabbed really cheap random food from a little shop not far from our hostel. I had Hawaiian pizza and french fries, which I thought tasted way better than it actually did because of how hungry I was from not eating dinner. Finally after we all ate our food, and laughed at events that occurred throughout the evening, we headed to bed.

Day 30: Off to the UK!

This morning I woke up and got ready for our presentation. Our group was assigned the slot for 10 so it was nice to sleep in a bit, even if it was only like 30 minutes. Our presentation went really well and then we all hugged Brinberg bye because that was the last time we'd see him until April :( after the presentation I came back, worked out a little, packed and got ready to leave. Once I was packed I headed back to Franklin for Italian and then as soon as I got back, we caught the train to Milan. Train to Milan was normal, then we caught a bus to the Milan airport. Stress was high going through the airport about backpack size and weight, but everyone got through with a breeze and made it onto the plane after a very odd shuttle that appeared to just go in circles over and over again. Sheley, Rachel and I lucked out with seats all beside each other and then after almost an hour delay, we were in the air on the way to Dublin. The plane ride was pretty easy, not a ton of leg room, but it could've been worse. Once we landed we got all our passports stamped and found the bus we needed to take to get to the city centre where our hostel was located. We're staying at Abraham's Hostel until Tuesday morning. It's just a basic hostel, not as nice as the Generator from last weekend but definitely better than Hotel Modern. After we checked in, we all got settled and went to sleep around 1 o'clock (but felt like 2 because of an hour change in time zones).

Day 29: Projects and packing

Today I woke up and went to class like normal. It was our last day of official class for consumer behavior, which was crazy to think about the fact that we had been here long enough to complete a class. After class, I met with my group project again and then started packing for our 10 day trip to the UK. At dinner we had salad, pasta with red sauce and some kind of white cream thing for desert. After dinner, my group met again to finish up everything for our final presentation and I finished packing and planning out things for the 10 day. The entire Montarina it felt like was running around like crazy people trying to figure out how to fit 10 days worth of stuff into a hiking backpack and trying to make sure it wouldn't be too heavy or big to keep as a carry on. After we got it mostly figured out, we all headed to bed.