"Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers." -Pat Conroy

Hello all. Let me tell you about the first leg of my spring break- Dublin, Ireland. I went to Dublin, London and Paris, but I have decided to do a separate entry for each one since I have SO much to say.
Here we go!
Saturday afternoon after leaving dear Patrick at Fiumicino, I met Caroline and Amy at Ciampino airport- the smaller airport in Rome. From there we hopped on our Ryan Air flight and took off for Dublin. The flight took no time at all. Despite not being able to hear at all after landing because of pressure in our ears, we were all smiles as soon as our feet touched the Irish ground. We had no problem finding our bags and getting our passports stamped since all the signs were in English! (what a treat!!!!!!!) We went to the information desk and asked the man the best way to get to our hotel. He sold us tickets for a bus to take and told us what stop to get off at, and was soooo nice with an awesome accent of course. I loved sitting on the bus looking out the window at all the beautiful Dublin sites. It was like a little dream land full of beautiful houses and apartments, each with unique and intricate doorways. We got off at our bus stop and as soon as we did we encountered our first wonderful Dubliner. A man walked right up to us, his guitar in hand, and asked if he could help point us in the right direction. He looked at our map, showed us where to go, and wished us luck. We started off in the direction he pointed us, suitcases in tow, and got lost after about three minutes of walking. We pulled out our map and were trying to figure out where to go next when another friendly Dubliner approached us and offered his help. He pointed us back in the right direction and we started off again. After another few turns we were lost again at an intersesction, and pulled out the map. As we were looking at it a car across the intersection rolled down its windows and a young Irish couple called to us to see if they could point us in the right direction. They weren’t sure where our hotel was but showed us where they thought it might be. Could people get any nicer???
Yes, they could.
A few minutes later, surprise surprise, we were lost again. This time the cutest (and most homosexual) little irish man in the world came up to help us. He said he was going right by our hotel and to follow him. Unfortunately he was thinking of the wrong place, so when we got there he felt so bad for leading us in the wrong direction. He told us to stay put and ran all over the place trying to get us directions. A little while later he came jogging back with a huge smile saying he knew exactly where it was and that he was going to walk us there!! Along the way he told us we should go out to a gay club that night and told us where to find it. We feigned interest... it was very nice of him. After a little while we got to a place where we would have to go through a small alley to get near the hotel. We got a wee bit nervous and he said “Don’t worry girls you can trust me- I’m as bent as a horseshoe.” HA! Sure enough it let us right to the door of our hotel. We thanked him and he bid us farewell. We walked into the lobby of the hotel and started freaking out. It was soooooooooooooo nice! Everyone else on spring break was roughing it in hostels getting lice and bed bugs, and we had just walked into an Irish paradise. We got the key to our room from a very friendly man and wandered the halls until we found our door. We opened it up and there before our eyes was the most perfect hotel room three little girls could ever find. Three fluffy twin beds awaited us, lined up against the bright red wall. A large plasma t.v. was on and said “Welcome Jillian.” The bathroom was huge and beautiful and clean and everything about this place was perfect.
We were itching to explore Dublin but starving, so we quickly changed and freshened up then headed down to the lobby. There was an adorable pub attached to our hotel and we decided to be lazy and just give that a try. We looked at the menu and almost died. It was a huge variety of sandwiches, burgers, fires, and onion rings- things we see VERY little of in Italy. I ordered a BLT and a side of onion rings- even though my sandwich came with fries. We got delicious Bulmer’s cider with our meals and were in heaven on Earth. When the waitress brought out our food Amy started freaking out and said “you don’t even know how much of an angel you are to us right now we have had nothing but pasta and pizza for two months!” She looked at us like we were crazy and left us alone. No one spoke as we inhaled our food.
With full bellies and pleasant moods we set off to find a place to drink and mingle for the night. Unfortunately our good day had to come to an end somewhere. In Rome we are never carded for anything ever, so we never bring our I.Ds out with us. In Dublin it is a whole other story. This we did not realize. First of all they card you everywhere. Second of all, the place where we went to drink ended up not letting in anyone under twenty-three, even though the drinking age is 18. After wandering around for ages trying to find somewhere that would let us in, we gave up. We were absolutely exhausted from traveling, and knew there were huge comfy beds waiting for us at the Grand Canal Hotel. I slept like a baby that night for the first time in a long time.
We woke up at the crack of dawn un Sunday ready for a day full of wonder and adventure. Our first stop- Starbucks. Italy is probably the only country on Earth without any sort of Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. I got a delicious peach and mango smoothie for breakfast, and the girls both got coffees. After that we set off to see some sites. We ran into a guy who was selling tickets for a bus tour. At first we said no, no, no we don’t want to give you our money. Then after a minute we realized it took us everywhere we wanted to go, and we could hop on and off whenever we wanted. Plus it was not expensive. We bought our tickets on hopped on the fun bus. The driver/tour guide was HILLARIOUS, as were the guides on all the busses. They tell wonderful jokes AND are very informative. We saw all the sites, from St. Patricks Cathedral to Trinity College. The first stop we jumped off at was, of course, the Guinness factory.
What an adventure! After exploring the entire place you end up on the top floor where you are rewarded with a free beer. Let me tell you, we were rewarded with much more than that! When we first arrived on the top floor we noticed a camera man floating around, but thought nothing of it. UNTIL! We were sitting on a bench next to the elevator, which the camera man is filming all of a sudden. Then, out of no where, guess who walks out???

Al Roker!!!!!
Yea! I know! What is he doing in Dublin? We don’t know! But still! The three of us stood up, our eyes bulging out of our heads- WHAT? AL ROKER? No one else in the place reacted. Clearly we were the only Americans. Some woman saw us flipping out and came up and said “Hi, I am Al Roker’s guide while he is in Ireland- would you like a picture with him?”
Um YES PLEASE. She waited until he was done filming then brought us right up to him. He didn’t even say hi or anything he just sort of wandered around with a huge cheesy smile and he looked like he was on drugs. We took the picture with him and he said “Thank you” with his huge grin and then literally disappeared. I took my eyes off of him for point three seconds and he was GONE! Magic man.
Anyway that was clearly the highlight of my stay in Dublin. That night the three of us went out for a lovely dinner at a genuine Irish pub. It was sort of buffet style- really strange. I pretty much had thanksgiving dinner that night. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry jelly, green beans, gravy. What more could a girl ask for? Oh yea, cider. THEN there was a live traditional Irish band playing upstairs. We sat up there for a while drinking more ciders loving the music and loving life. After that we headed next door to a different pub. We walked in the door and were greeted by a whole football team (aka soccer) They were very interesting gents. They weren’t from Dublin they were from outside the city so there accents were thick and at times hard to understand. Though they were drunk and belligerent, they were as friendly as all the other lovely Irish folks we had met. The girls went with them to another pub after that one closed, but I hopped in a cab and headed back to my dream bed at the Grand Canal Hotel. I fell asleep to Leonardo Dicaprio, Mark Wahlberg, and Matt Damon in The Departed. (television in ENGLISH!)
The next morning we woke up with heavy hearts. It was time to leave Dublin. After only two days I had fallen head over heels in love with that city. I will go back some day without a doubt. And stay at the Grand Canal Hotel without a doubt.
As sad as we were, nothing could calm our excitement for our next stop…LONDON!!!!
…to be continued…

"Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter." -- Izaak Walton

Hello! It has been so long. So much has happened! I have been very busy the past few weeks first with Pat visiting, and then with spring break! I will tell you all about them.
I don't really know what to say about Pat's visit accept that it was lovely. I went to meet him at the airport early morning on Saturday, March 7th. I looked at the arrivals screen and it said his flight hadn't arrived yet, so I stood staring at the screen for about forty minutes. After a while, two really creepy guys came and stood right behind me- so close that I could feel them against my back and it was completely unnecessary- there was plenty of room for everyone. There were a few people standing next to me who were waiting for the same plane to arrive, so I decided to go sit in a chair a great distance away from the creepy guys and wait for the two other people to walk away once the plane had landed. Unfortunately, the two creepy guys followed me over to my far away chair and sat right next to me. I was sitting there contemplating my next move when someone walked up right in front of me and stopped. I looked up and it took me a minute before I realized who I was staring at- it was Pat! Apparently the screen was misinformed and his plane had landed after all!
I gave him a big big hug and whisked him away to catch the train to Roma. Despite his long flight, he said he wasn't tired, so after we dropped his bags off at my apartment we decided to go wander around the city until he could check into his hotel. We went and saw the Trevi Fountain and got some pizza for lunch, and then wandered around Via del Corso.
Pat started to act funny because apparently he was far more tired than he realized. We had been walking straight down Via del Corso for about a half hour and for some reason he thought we had taken a bunch of turns down different streets and he was lost. That’s when I realized he should definitely take a nap before we did any more sight-seeing or he might not remember it.
We walked all the way back to Piazza Venezia and got on the forty-four bus to my apartment. We were lucky enough to get seats. I had a window seat so I was staring out the window for a while. When I turned back I saw Pat rocking backwards and forwards. For a minute I was wondering what the heck he was doing, when suddenly I realized- as his head took a fast dive towards the seat in front of him- he was sound asleep. I grabbed his arm and he woke up just before bashing his face into the chair and woman in front of him. He had on sunglasses so I had had no idea his eyes were closed. I thought he was doing some sort of weird dance to embarrass me in public- something he does often. He fell asleep a good four or five more times on the ride home. He took a little nap at my apartment until it was time for him to check in to his hotel. We checked him in, dropped off his bags, then went out for a lovely dinner and some more sight-seeing.
Sunday I met Pat at the crack of dawn to go to the open-air market. It was a beautiful sunny day and we didn't even need to wear coats. At 12:30 we went to La Fate, a cute little hole-in-the-wall restaurant owned by a local family. I had signed us up for a cooking lesson with Andrea, the nicest guy ever who is the son of the couple who owns the restaurant, as well as the restaurant’s cook. These cooking classes were my gift to Pat for our one year anniversary, which is this coming Monday, the 30th of March.
The cooking class was a blast, though also very tiring! For the appetizer we made crostini with mushroom patè. I don't even like mushrooms but this tasted soooo good. Our first course was Ravioli filled with pumpkin and ricotta splashed in a fresh pumpkin sauce. My roommates Britt and Alyssa had already taken a cooking class with Andrea the week before and told him about how much I love butternut squash ravioli. Andrea said butternut squash was not in season here, but pumpkin was the next best thing. It was an amaaaaaazing dish. It turns out making pasta isn’t all that difficult. I’m sure I will be whipping up new kinds of ravioli all the time now!
For a side dish we made a tortino of leeks and eggplants which is basically like a little cake made out of vegetables. Delish. For dessert we made Millefoglie with cookies. It was layers of a sort of pudding or custard with nuts and chocolate and little cookies sticking out of it, inside of a martini glass.
It was a long day of cooking, needless to say, but in the end it was awesome to sit down and enjoy all the delicious food that we made! Andrea was a wonderful teacher and a lot of fun.
Monday I did not get to see a lot of Pat because I had classes from nine to five L. I had a midterm first thing in the morning too. Tuesday Pat came with me to all my classes. In the morning he came to Baroque Sculpture with me where we went to the Vatican for three hours. It was a lot of information to take in at once. In the afternoon I had a three hour film class where we watched the end of a movie called “The Best Years of Our Lives.” I think that is what it was called. Anyway it was a wonderful movie and I highly recommend it. That night we had a lovely dinner somewhere- all the days kind of blur together. Then I had to study for my midterm on Wednesday. That only took me about a half hour to take, so Pat met me after class and we went to do some sightseeing. I really can’t remember what we did that day. I know that at some point during the week we saw the Spanish steps at night and had dinner there, we went to the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel and all that fancy stuff, we walked down Via del Corso and did some shopping for his family, and on Thursday night we went out drinking with my roommates somewhere.
Overall it was an awesome week. It was so great to see Pat even though it was for such a short time. Though I am loving it here in Rome, I am really looking forward to returning home in six weeks. The time is going to go by so fast and it will be hard to leave, but I miss my family and Pat, and little Daisy! I went with Pat to Fiumicino airport on Saturday morning to say goodbye. I had to leave him and get in a cab to go to Ciampino airport to take off for spring break, and I sobbed the whole way there. The cab driver was very nice and he kept handing me tissues and tried to comfort me even though he had no idea what was wrong and he didn’t speak any English. He kept saying “basta, basta” which means “enough!” I think he was glad to get rid of me.
That is all for now because I need a break from typing, but in my next entry I will tell you all about my awesome spring break. Ciao!