When In Rome

Not really having a plan or a way of communication besides email and Facebook, it seemed impossible for us to actually meet up with Kristen's dad, who was also traveling around Europe on his own, but when in Rome...

After a few short emails between each other while in Dublin, we decided spur of the moment to meet in Rome for a few days. Communication was limited, and in the end before our flight took off, the plan was to meet at the train station around 9pm (FYI- the train station is quite big and we did not pick a meeting place since we really had no idea what it looked like in the first place. We pretty much just took our chances). But some how with luck being on our side, when we got there, it took no more than ten minutes to find each other. 

It was pretty crazy to think it even possible to meet with such a vague idea of anything, but we pulled it off. Arriving pretty late and being starving little children (not really), we quickly found an Italian restaurant and sat down. It was fantastic. The homemade pasta was delicious and we were all just thrilled that we had all arrived in Rome and met up so easily. After dinner it was around 11:30 and we all were pretty exhausted, so we just went to bed, getting a great night's sleep and waking to our first full day in Rome.

Sadly it was raining when we woke up, but we did not let that ruin our day. Instead we decided what better way to spend the day than go shopping. (Kristen's dad did need a makeover and Brittany is the fashion guru). So after a major rain downfall, we walked into the first men's store we saw. It was great, we had such a fun time picking out a more "European" style outfit for him and at the end of the night, we have to say he looked pretty "dapper" (Brittany's lingo). After making Kristen's dad all spiffy, he treated us by buying us some warm and elegant jackets and a delicious, authentic Italian meal. 

We were quite spoiled. Although Kristen's dad is only staying for a few days, we have to say this was a great way to start our adventure in Rome!

Off to Roma :)

Although we have had such a great time in Ireland, we just couldn't help ourselves from going to other places in Europe.  As you know we really had no set plan and it just seemed like the right idea to go see some more of Europe. So we got rid of our big backpacks, smooshed some clothes into the smallest bags we had, and to Roma we went!

Lucky for us, some of the people that we had met told us about Ryanair, which has really, really cheap flights so jumped right on board and looked to see where the cheapest flights were going in Europe and that is where we headed. The actual flight was quite funny because it felt like you were actually watching a live shopping network. Every other second they were trying to sell us something whether it was cigarettes, perfume, or food, but it wasn't a bad price to pay in order to go to Rome.

So far Rome has been great! It is a lot cheaper than Ireland and every street that we walk on has something beautiful and old to look at. Even after walking the streets, eating amazing homemade pasta and gelato, and sitting in cafes along the street, it still is unbelievable to both of us that we are actually here and we think that sometimes we might just be imagining the entire thing, but then we wake up to an old Italian man just singing "Roma" to us and we know really are here!

Technology= Fail

So this trip, we have learned that the technology gods really hate us. Both of us in one way or another have broken or had extremely bad luck when it comes to our gadgets and gizmos. In the first place, we really didn’t bring that much technology with us. Neither of us even have a phone, but with every piece of technology that we did bring something bad has happened with it.

First there was the camera. One day as we were walking the streets of Dublin and there was a picture moment, Kristen took out the camera but it completely just stopped working and the lens thingy was stuck. We ended up having to buy a new camera because we had to document our trip in some fashion.

The next piece of technology was Brittany’s Ipod. We were in our room one night listening to her music (because for some reason she really is not a fan of Kristen’s music… strange) and all of a sudden all of her music just disappeared on her Ipod. She was left with nothing. Fortunately for Brittany, Kristen was kind enough to let her to download her music for the rest of the trip so she does have some music on her Ipod even if it isn’t any of her punk/rock music.

Then there has been the constant stop and go of the wifi with our computer. We constantly have to go to cafés and the like in order to get free wifi. Not that it is at all bad, but even when our hostels advertise that they have free wifi, our computer does not seem to recognize it… maybe we are just too impatient and want a reason to go get some bread, but in all seriousness our computer is very slow. So much so, that one day when we were in Starbucks trying to get online, our computer wouldn’t get online at all. Every other person around us was online, but we were unsuccessful.

Technology is just not our friend, but we have learned to be a little more patient with it and now just expect that something bad is bound to happen when we do use it. Maybe one day we will figure it all out.

The 8th Wonder of the World or Food? Hmmm...

So on Sunday, we decided to be really big tourists again and take a tour bus to what they advertise as the 8^th wonder of the world the Giant’s Causeway, which are these beautiful rock formations on the coastline of Northern Ireland hat came about from an acient volcanic eruption. Although Kristen had signed them up for the tour the day before without a clue in the world of what the tour exactly consisted of, we were both quite excited to be leaving the beautiful city of Belfast behind us.

On the way there, we drove along what they said was the fifth most beautiful coastline drive in the world and in hindsight it was quite gorgeous even if they had lied to us (who knows). We also walked across a hanging rope bridge that crossed the cold, but stunning Atlantic green waters and then we made our way to the 8^th wonder, the Giant’s Causeway. When we got there, however, it was around three o’clock and time for our daily meal, because we were getting hangry pants. Luckily, there was a cute little pub near the scenic path of the Giant’s Causeway so we decided to stop in there first to get something to eat.

First, let us make it clear that since we were on a tour we only had an hour and a half at this location so we had to be somewhat cautious of time, but at this point food was our biggest priority and we thought we would have plenty of time for both. Unfortunately, our time management skills need some work. After eating a delicious meal of vegetable pie with mash potatoes and finishing it off with toffee pudding next to the fire, we had only thirty minutes to go see what we were suppose to see in the first place. Also, we should probably mention that in order to see these rock formations, you had to walk approximately twenty minutes there and twenty minutes back.

So knowing time was of the essence and having our bus driver give us a look of craziness for trying to still see the rocks or for picking food first, we booked it on down the path. Now when we say book it, we mean it. Brittany even for a short while ran (Yeah, serious business). Anyways we made it down there, took a few quick snapshots and booked it back up the hill, making it in perfect time for our bus (actually, we were even earlier than some of our other fellow travelers). We were quite happy that we not only had an amazing meal, but we also got to see the 8^th wonder.

As pathetic as it may seem, food in our book seems to come first in whatever circumstance. As we got off the bus at the end of the night our bus driver asked if we had made it to see the rocks and after we assured him that we did (who knows if we actually did, but we did get some beautiful picture shots and we think we saw it…), he congratulated us on being the fastest tourists to ever see the rock formations. Yay us! 

Iremerican

One of things that we enjoy most about traveling is people watching. Yep we sound like creepers, but everyone does it, we are just admitting it. So after getting a semi- nice sleep Friday night (actually let us rephrase that, it was a pretty bad night’s sleep), we headed out to town.

So first you may be wondering why we were not able to sleep. Well it all comes down to the beds. They were plastic and as Brittany says, “When beds are plastic it just makes you want to piss all over them.”(Explanation: no, really don’t have one on this). So with the beds being plastic, sleep was limited and since Kristen couldn’t sleep, she actually saw her first fight that night outside her window where a guy literally pushed a woman right into the middle of the streets, but that really has nothing to do with the story at hand…

So anyways after our interesting night of basically no sleep because of the plastic beds, we headed out to the city to see if we could find the better half of Belfast. However, as we stepped outside we realized how absolutely freezing outside it was and although we were all for exploring the city we settled on going into the stores, trying on shoes, and listening to Christmas music and enjoying the warmth. Nevertheless before completely quitting our adventure of walking the city and “acting” like we were really shopping, when in reality we were in their stores’ just to steal their heat, we did go into the center square where there was a Christmas festival and we drank not only real hot chocolate, but also split a kangaroo burger (very chewy, but good).

After hopping from store to store for awhile, we ended up going to a mall where we could stay warm for more than five minutes at a time and that is where we ended up sitting at a café for probably more than three hours just people watching and finding some interesting observations.

So here goes what we think of the Northern Ireland folk- they are pretty much American except ten years behind us when it comes to style. But in all seriousness, in general, Ireland is pretty much American.  The guys our age wear a lot of Abercrombie and Hollister... a little weird. They all use a lot of hair products whether it is hair gel, hair dye, or hair spray. The girls wear a lot of make-up. And the sad and not so kind observation that we kept on making the most is the Irish people we were seeing were just average. No one was particularly attractive. Harsh? Yes, and it probably isn’t entirely true, but we just wanted to share a little of our people watching experience with you!

The Not So Happy Side of Traveling

After being in Dublin for quite awhile, we decided it was about time to venture out again and go see Northern Ireland. A bunch of people we had met so far suggested going to Belfast so not really having any specific plan, that is what we decided to do Friday morning.

As we walked to the bus stop, both of us started to regret going shopping the other day. Although we are not exactly sure how much we were carrying, it felt as if both of us were carrying a really big dead body on our backs (kind of morbid, but true). To make it worse, we passed the bus stop and kept on walking another twenty minutes until realizing we had missed it in the first place.

When we finally made it to the bus, we were thrilled but unfortunately our bad luck was just beginning for the day. We ended up taking a double-decker bus, which is quite exciting; however, being on the top we realized it sways a lot and both of us got nauseas, not to mention the overwhelming amount of round-abouts we went around at least once (we think the bus driver may of thought himself actually driving a roller coaster (if that is at all possible), so we actually went around the round about a few times before actually making a turn).

After our heads stopped turning when we got to the central bus station, we headed to the information desk to see if we could get a map. The lady was quite helpful and she asked if we needed help getting to our hostel; however, us not being the brightest had forgotten to write down the actual name of our hostel and gave her some very vague ideas of what we thought our hostel might be named. “Well,” she said, “It could either be this one,” as she pointed out on the map, “or it could be this one on the other side of town.” Well, with us not really having a clue we took our chances and headed to the one that sounded most promising with our big backpacks in tow.

Sadly, if you have not figured this one out yet, we had picked the wrong one. So after Kristen asked a very drunk man for directions (not her smartest moment) and we had been walking in the ghetto for awhile, we went to the first hostel we saw, stupidly asking if we had made a reservation at their hostel. Sadly, we had not. After finding out the news, we headed out again, not only annoyed from walking to the opposite wrong end of town and being sore from our backpacks, but becoming hangry pants.

After a long silence of walking through one of the most depressing cities we have ever seen, we finally made it to our hostel, which really was on the other side of town. Fortunately for most of our trip we have been very lucky with our hostels, but this one did not hit the mark. We had done very little research on it and ended up staying in a very ghetto part of town.

At this point, we were both a little down, so after getting some food at KFC (Ireland seems to have a lot of them and let’s just say the food is not like it is back in America) we decided to go to bed. Yes it was only five o’clock, but we really were not in the best of moods and to be completely honest we both pretty much wanted to sleep away our time there (even though we had booked the room for three nights).

Funny enough, it ended up that neither of us were able to sleep the full fifteen hours we had been wanting to, but it was okay. We both ended up getting some sleep so although we both still were not exactly happy with the circumstances, we ended up laying in our beds, laughing at the whole situation, talking for hours, and figuring out answers to the world’s problems or more so ours. What started off as a very bad day, ended up being not so bad and filled with laughter :)

An Irish Thanksgiving

With both of us being in Ireland for Thanksgiving this year, we decided it was necessary for us to at least attempt to make a Thanksgiving meal and celebrate the American holiday and we also wanted to show our Aussie friend, Hamish, what it was all about. With that being the case when we woke up Thursday morning we headed to the store. Kristen was in charge of the sides, which ended up consisting of mash potatoes and cooked carrots and Brittany made her famous fried pecan chicken. So yes, it wasn’t completely the typical American Thanksgiving meal with turkey and stuffing, but it was close and we were excited to do some real holiday cooking.

Even though there was only three of us, we made a meal for a small little army (hey, we are American), so we ended up sharing the meal with some other American girls who were at the table. However, even with their help, we had leftovers (Yep, now it was a true Thanksgiving). If we have to say ourselves, the meal was absolutely delicious and we stuffed ourselves. We even bought a chocolate cake for dessert, because sadly they did not have pumpkin pie.

After the meal, we headed up to the common room where we did some real R&R. We watched movies for the rest of the day since American Football was not really a possibility and let’s be real neither of us really ever watched football to start with. One of the movies that we watched was National Lampoon’s Christmas (funny enough it is a movie that both of our families watch during the holiday season, so we felt it appropriate and although everyone else in the room, mostly Aussies, were not fans of the movie, we made them watch it anyways. It was the perfect Thanksgiving and for being in a different country we pulled it off pretty nicely. We hope everyone else had a very Happy Thanksgiving as well!