MAS FAMILIA!!

I'm sorry I have not been updating for all of you following my blog. It's the last few weeks of class and I have been slammed with homework and end of the semester visitors and trips! Unfortunately I don't think I will be able to fully update everything until my finals are over on May 11th. But just to give a quick review:

After Dublin I had spring break for two weeks. I started off in northern Italy, touring Milan and Venice with one of my best friends Katie, then made my way to Barcelona where I spent the week with Raia and Brenden. My first weekend back to school was our group excursion to El Escorial, the royal palace of the spanish king Felipe II. The weekend after that was probably the most exciting point of my entire semester: my parents came to visit!! We spent five days touring Madrid and Toledo. It felt as though I had never left home! This past weekend was Segovia for a day and then Barcelona with a group of people from my program, and now I'm just trying to get as much homework done before my next visitor arrives...Mr. Kyle Nally!!

Kyle lands at Barajas airport around 2:15, where I will be anxiously waiting for him. I'll take good care of him Auntie Barb, don't you worry! I' m helping with most of the Spanish/sight seeing while he is in Madrid and since I know Barcelona almost as well as Madrid after 3 trips there, I found an extra city map in my disaster of a room and marked out the 10 most important sites of the city for him there as well. My hospitality side is really coming out this weekend! In Barcelona they speak Catalan or English, NOT Spanish, so he is all set in that department! It will be a nice, easy going weekend. We can get to know the city while relaxing, like true Madrilenos! Es muy bien por tu salud! Oh and the weather...sunny and mid 70s! I know your jealous mom and dad! (It rained their entire visit =( )

As for now I must try and finish my 6-8 page research paper for my internship class before I leave for the airport at 2! Wish me luck!!

Dublin!

The day after St. Patrick´s day I made my way to the only place on Earth I would ever want to be that weekend (other than home of course)....IRELAND!

My roommate from freshman and sophomore year, Meghan for those who don´t know her, is studying abroad in Dublin this semester so I made plans to go visit her. I absolutely LOVED being able to see her and see Dublin at the same time! Dublin is like a little Boston except with stronger accents and lots more Guinness! haha can you imagine??

I was able to spend five days in Dublin, which was the most time I have spent in a city on one of my weekend excursions. I wish I could have done that in every city because by the time I left I felt as though I really saw and got to know Dublin. We hit up everything from Trinity College and the Book of Kells to Galway and the Spanish quarter. Don´t worry, I made my way to the Guinness Factory where I toasted Mr. Chris MacDougall as promised, as well as tried some tasty Guinness pie!

The Dublin abroad program is also very different. They live in mini-suites in the same buildings with their own kitchens. Spending five days there, I felt as though I was on their program! The change was refreshing and I didn´t mind speaking English for a few days haha I also met a ton of BU students on the program I had never met before so I have a few new friends to start off next yera which is never a bad thing.

Spending that much time with Meg, I realized I worked WAYY too much last semester because I never got to see her or Eileen. Of course I only worked that much to make money for Spain, but I´ve definitely learned I need to balance work and a social life...I missed spending time with Meg and Eileen!!

So that was Dublin. I will post pictures once I am home (I always do these at work to avoid doing homework haha). I cannot wait to go back to Ireland only next time I want to do a full tour of the countryside too! I was thinking in four years once Ty graduates college so I have time to save some serious money/pay off my part of my soul owned by BU. Anyone down??

Edinburgh, Scotland!

I have been a terrible blogger! My life for the past few months have been crazy! My regular routine was work and class from 9am - 9pm Monday thru Wednesday then traveling Thursday-Sunday...that left very little time for blogging! Anyways, now I am done with most of my traveling so I will be catching up on my posts as frequently as I can, in between homework assignments that is. (Don´t worry Dad, I didn´t forget that I´m still at BU and I have sold my soul to its financial department =P).

Now where did I leave off?.....EDINBURGH!

That weekend was originally scheduled for me to go visit my friend Katie in Wales, where she is studying abroad. However, after some debate, we decided we would rather go someplace new and obscure...when in Europe right? I picked Prague so it was Katie´s turn to pick somewhere and her choice was Edinburgh Scotland!

Now I knew VERY little of Scotland or what there was to do so I worked a deal with Katie that I would organize Prague and she would organize Scotland. Thank-god for that!

We met each other later in the evening at the airport and took a double decker bus into the city center. This was my first time on this vacation being in a double decker vehicle and driving on the wrong side of the road! As we drive through the city I start to see castles everywhere! In case you didn´t know (just like me) Scotland is FILLED with castles.

From the bus we asked the driver for directions. One major hill and star buck later we found our hostel. As a fore note, everyone in Scotland is EXTREMELY nice! They are hilarious and so friendly. By far the nicest people I have encountered in Europe. At the hostel we were given a restaurant recommendation and offered a free tour of the city by a hostel employee in the morning.

The next morning we woke up early for the tour (after breakfast at Starbucks of course). Our tour guide was a 22 year old Canadian girl who decided to work in Europe for a while before going to college. She was very nice and showed us all the coolest places, like where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer´s Stone, the cemetery that inspired most if the character´s names, the school that was the basis for Hogwarts, the heart on the sidewalk that was the old location for British tax collection that to this day no Scottish person steps on (we actually watched a Scottish man jump as he realized he was about to step on it the minute she finished telling us the story), as well as the reason Glasgow citizens say they can smell Edinburgh all the way up north. Her tour definitely provided me with a little intro to Scottish history.

After the tour we ate dinner and decided to hit up Edinburgh Castle. (We only walked by it on the tour) On our way there I spotted a store called "The Scottish Whiskey Experience". We stopped in and realized it was an informational tour and testing of Scottish Whiskey! Clearly we fit this into our schedule =) After two hours in the castle, including a free guided tour with our entrance fee (yes dad I know it´s not free if you pay for something, similar to Kohl´s discounts), we headed over for our whiskey! Our tour guide was cute and the bachelor party behind us was rather amusing to watch. Although I loved learning about how whiskey is made and how it varies from region to region, I did not like whiskey. In fact I hated it. I tried Oban and I honestly don´t know how people drink it. To each their own I guess. We did get to keep the glasses though and, unlike my companion, I managed to finish my sample. It was not easy.

That night we went and saw Alice in Wonderland during its opening weekend. I told Katie before we arrived that I needed to see the movie in English when I had the opportunity! I had been waiting to see it for months and refused to see it in Spanish when I might not understand it all! Before the show we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant, my first real pasta dinner since I left home in January. I was extremely excited! We walked across the street to the movie theatre after our meal only to find out that we had purchased tickets for a different location of the same movie theatre chain. Turns out our tickets were for a theatre in the Roxbury of Edinburgh...go figure. We rushed out of the theatre and hailed a cab. Shocked by our destination, the driver continued to joke with us the entire 15 minute ride there about the questionability of the city and how we could have possibly ended up there. Needless to say we called a cab for our ride home and waited inside the theatre until it arrived.

The next day Katie had scheduled us a daylong 8 am - 8pm tour of the Scottish Highlands. We drove through the beautiful countryside slowly making our way to Lochness. We made pit stops along the way where we met Hamish, the highlands cow, took millions of photos, and learned about the Lochness monster. At Lochness we were able to leave the bus and take a boat ride across the lake (Lochness = North Lake). Although it was a rather long day on a bus, the sights were beautiful and I felt as though I was able to see the real Scotland. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to visit Scotland!

That morning at 4 am I walked to the bus stop and rode to the airport for my flight back to Madrid. I was amazed by how many drunken people were still out and about at such an hour! There were cops everywhere luckily so I felt safe walking to the bus stop.

I am currently at school so I don´t have access to my photos, but I will edit the post with photos once I get back to my room =)

The Bean goes to Dublin!

I'm here with Meg! Miss Meg Kavanagh picked me up in Dublin city center and it is so beyond wonderful to see a familiar face from home. And hers is just so cute...

I will be taking a short break from blogging while I'm here, but be ready to see my trip to Dublin when I'm back! (Totally copied from Meghan's blog =P)

Prague

After an hour and a half on my flight from Rome next to two immature Italian teenage boys, I was ready to get off the plane and see my long awaited destination...Prague! I had heard from several people who have studied abroad that Prague was one of their biggest surprises and it was a must see on any traveler's list. Although I knew nothing of Prague, I took their advice and found a way to go without spending absurd amounts of money on flights.

I walked into the tiny airport on the outskirts of Prague and paid 27 CZK (25 CZK = 1 Euro) for a bus and train into the city. (Thank god I had done some research on Prague and visited the tourism office in Madrid before going. There were other buses trying to sell tourists 100-200 CZK rides into the city. It was dark and raining riding into the city, but I was so excited I didn't care.

My first stop off the train was the Four Seasons, since I knew Katie wasn't arriving until about 9-10 p.m. and it was only 5 p.m. My pictures weren't fabulous because of the rain so I went inside to see if I could purchase a postcard or some photos of the hotel. The concierge gave me free postcards since the giftshop was closed and I snapped a few photos of the beautiful interior. After that I roamed the city center for a little while, taken aback by the little russian fairytale I seemed to have dropped into. I figured I would try and check into the hostel because of the rain and my backpack even though Katie's card was used to reserve the room. I made my way easily by use of the maps from the tourism office I visited in Madrid and was allowed to check in. I attempted to do a little homework but failed miserably and fell asleep. Katie didn't stroll in until 11 p.m. and boy was it great to see her!! It was the first time in 8 months we had seen each other and a spring semester of being inseparable. We went out for dinner at a restaurant to fill our empty stomachs, listening to a live band play traditional American songs while we caught each other up on the events in our lives over the past several months.

I had visited the tourism office in Prague Old Town center during my free time and found a walking tour for the next day. It was about 300 CZK for students for a 4 hour tour of the city, a CD of professional photos (thats my favorite part of this specific tour) and an English tour guide. We were extremely pleased by our decision to buy the tour. Katie and I knew very little of Prague history so the tour guide's information was extremely helpful in understanding the significance of the statues and buildings around town.

Now to explain Prague a little. Prague is divided into two major sections: Old Town and New Town. There isn't much to see in New Town for tourists so the majority of our time was spend in Old Town. Old Town itself consists of the town square where the famous Astronomical Clock is located along with tourism shops, restaurants, the daily food market, and all museums/theatres. What is left to see? Across the Charles Bridge is Prague Castle. It's absolutely beautiful and a must see for any Prague visitor!

After our tour we asked our guide for a restaurant recommendation. Coincidentally she asked if we liked vegetarian food (Katie is a vegetarian and it was Friday so I couldn't eat meat). She advised us to go to this cute restaurant a few streets away from the center. The food was awesome and perfect for travelers like us who had eaten very little throughout the day. We loved it so much we returned the next night!

That evening Katie and I went to see an opera, Carmen...my first opera! Carmen just happens to take place in Sevilla, Spain even though it was performed in French. I was embarrassed because I wore jeans and sneakers to the opera house (I had a very limited wardrobe since I only brought a backpack), but I still thoroughly enjoyed it! I would love to go see another one although may a Mozart next time.

We returned to the hostel and yet again asked for a restaurant recommendation from the desk attendant. After an hour of laughing our butts off with the absolutely hysterical San Diego native, he recommended a cheap Thai restaurant next door. Katie and I were completely exhausted by this point so we ate quickly and returned for a relatively early night's sleep for college students.

The next day we visited a few places I had found through the information from the Madrid office, including the Prague Museum of Science where I learned of Katie's love for rocks, the New Town Hall, and the Official Prague Opera House. On our way back I snapped a few new photos of the Four Seasons in the sunlight to replace my dreary photos from a few days before. For lunch we toured the Old Town Market where I finally got my Ham on a Spicket! In the middle of the town square there are a bunch of little stands that sell traditional Prague food and little souvenirs. One of those stands smoked large hams and literally cut pieces off the roasting meat, placed it on a plate and handed it to you. Ever since my first night in Prague I had been DYING to try the ham and I was not disappointed. I must have looked like such a savage walking around eating my extremely large portion of ham because I received quite a few looks from people laughing, including a woman at a stand we were visiting. To my defense, there were no available tables to eat and Katie wasn't ready to purchase her food yet.

Anyways, after eating lunch (fried dough with nutella smeared on it) we went to the top of the Astronomical Clock Tower. My friend had told me that this tower offered the best view of the city, but from our observations throughout the last two days Katie and I knew we had to go at about a quarter to the hour to avoid the rush after the clock went off. (The clock goes off every hour and a crowd always forms to observe this intriguing fixture. After it does its little performance, people always decided to go to the top of the tower and a line instantly forms. After 30 minutes or so the people clear out and you can walk right in.) Boy was my friend right! The view was stunning! We spent twenty minutes taking in the beautiful sights around the tower, finally understanding why Prague is called "the city of 100 towers".

Katie and I did a little bit of shopping after wards and ate dinner before my departure. Around 7 p.m. I left Katie and Prague for the airport. It was sad to say good-bye but I was so glad I made it to Prague and I knew I would see Katie in two weeks time in Scotland. I flew into Frankfurt-Hahn where I spent the evening at a family run "hostel". The hostel was more of half their house renovated into rent-able rooms and a restaurant on the bottom floor. I slept comfortably in my private bedroom with a newly installed private bathroom. The next morning I had breakfast in the restaurant. As I walked in I was welcomed to a breakfast buffet with Hungry Eyes from Dirty Dancing playing softly in the background. I was alone in the restaurant and ate peacefully, reflecting on the events of the past weekend. I finished my meal, picked up my stuff, and made my way back to the airport for my return to Madrid.

Now just so you can understand a little about the pictures of the clock. The top portion of the clock demonstrates the hour, whether the sun is out or has retreated for the day, and the astronomical sign for the day, along with a bunch of other things I wasn't informed of. The bottom portion indicates which saint is honored on the day (yes there are 365 names inscribed around the bottom circle) and a picture describing the type of activities that should be occurring in Prague during that month (such as harvesting, planting, resting, ect...). It goes off every hour and two windows open up at the top and little figurines spin around, like in It's a Small World at Disney, to celebrate the new hour.

Here are some PHOTOS from this beautiful city:

Prague Castle

View from the Astronomical Tower

Old Town Square

Cool Marionette Toy Store

The inside of the Opera House we went to

Traditional Czech boiled dinner at Vegetarian restaurant

View from Prague Castle

Ham on a Spicket!

The Four Seasons Prague

Corona...25 CZK=1 Euro it felt like play money

The Astronomical Clock

Rome

Wow do I have some catching up to do.

Thursday, February 18th I headed off for my first big traveling weekend. First stop, Rome.

Initially the plan had just been Prague for the weekend with my friend Katie Swimm, whom I haven't seen in close to eight months. However, Prague happens to be one of the most difficult destinations to travel to in Europe, especially from Madrid. During my search, I found a flight to Prague from Rome for a mere 15 Euro. Needless to say, I booked it. The only compromise was the flight didn't leave until lunch time on Friday and I needed to get to Rome well before the flight. This meant traveling on Thursday and staying overnight in Prague, absolutely horrible I know.

Rome was not a place I was desperate to fit into my traveling but it was definitely somewhere I wanted to go so this was my chance. Thursday I headed solo to Rome with maps in hand for my 12 hour blitz of the city. We landed at the airport and because I flew with RyanAir, a popular company that offers cheap flights to major destinations but doesn't fly directly into the cities, I had to make my way by bus and train to Rome. Of course it was slightly difficult with the Italian rather than Spanish, but after spotting three older Italian women with the same tickets I had in my hand, my hesitations were definitely put to ease.

From the train station I made my way to the hostel a few streets over. The forecast for the entire weekend had been rain in Rome, just like the past 2 weeks in Madrid, and snow for Prague. But when I stepped outside of Termini Station in Rome it was a beautiful sunny, 60 degree day! I was so excited that the weather had spared me on my short venture to this ancient city! I dropped my stuff off at the hostel, clarified a few of my direction questions and was off.

First stop, the Vatican. The Vatican is on the other side of the city from my hostel so I took the subway, which consists of two lines, to save time. I would like to insert here that Madrid's subway system has 12 lines and is easily accessible within 2 blocks from any location in the city...quite different! Anyways, as I'm waiting for the train a woman comes up to me and asks if this is the way to one of the stops in Italian. The platforms were horribly labeled and I knew the answer to her question so I responded the best I could. She attempted to continue speaking to me in Italian, which was what I had hoped wouldn't happen. As she spoke I quickly inserted that I only spoke English and Spanish and a sudden grin from ear to ear appeared on her face. Out of no where she starts speaking Spanish to me. She was from Peru I believe she said and had just moved to Italy. Her and I talked all the way to her metro stop exchanging helpful bits of information being the newbies in town.

As I left the metro I looked for street signs to help grasp my location and determine which way to St. Peters. I overheard two women who were more confused than I was speaking in English. Once I figured it out, I called over to them, but just as I was about to speak I heard a girl behind me saying St. Peter's is this way. Three American students from Texas studying abroad for the semester who were also on their way to St. Peter's suddenly introduced themselves to me and offered to walk me over to the Vatican. We exchanged stories of our time abroad and they offered me a few words of advice for my short time in the city.

When we reached St. Peter's we exchanged our good-bye and I was off to take in the grandeur of it all. The Plaza itself was impressive. I kept turning around snapping pictures every two seconds. I couldn't believe I was in the Vatican! After five minute of gawking in disbelief I quickly went to wait in line for St. Peters. The security was extremely lax and because the weather was such a surprise to everyone, there were very few lines. After 15 minutes I was walking into the basilica. At the doorway I stopped in complete awe, along with everyone behind me. Walking into St. Peter's was breathtaking. As you walk in, its completely open all the way down to the altar and the sunlight filters in from the windows above and illuminates everything, focusing of course on St. Peter's tomb. Along the sides are pathways divided into segments by different statues of important figures in church history. Although the decoration is over the top with the over sized statues and continuous use of gold and marble, I couldn't help but love it. It definitely gives the feeling that the church is trying to prove its power, but at the same time its welcoming and comfortable. People are allowed to take photos, stop and pray at numerous locations inside, and even attend mass on Sundays. I spent an hour and a half inside St. Peter's and even still I felt as though I could have spent the whole day there alone just admiring the work of art it truly is.

I also ventured downstairs, beneath the basilica to see the tombs, or the grottoes. It was interesting to see just how detailed their tombs were, especially for ancient times, and how well preserved they all were. Of course the most popular tomb was that of Pope John Paul II, which is completely unique to the others where it was just a large engraved piece of slate that gradually inclined making the inscriptions visible to tourists. Despite my four years of catholic schooling, I still had a hard time remembering the important achievements of the popes (except for Pope John XXIII of course but he wasn't there).

I made my way to the gift shop, (I was in the Vatican of course I was bringing something home to prove it!) and asked one of the nuns about the Museo Vaticano. Although it was right around the corner, she told me they closed the entrance in 30 minutes but visitors in by then could stay until 6 pm (it was currently 330 pm). After I purchased my souvenirs I hustled over to the museum, the home of the Sistine Chapel.

While I waited in line to get inside, the tall blonde boy in front of me justed his student id to get a half price discount. Excited to pay 8 euro instead of 16, I took out my BU ID and hoped the guard would accept my American identification. After he gave me a "are you serious" look, he reduced the price and let me inside. The blonde boy then said to me "Boston eh?" Turns out, he was from Germany and had just applied to MIT for a program for after graduation. He was also traveling on his own so we toured the museum together. The museum was enormous, with floor after floor of paintings and sculptures. The most impressive exhibit to me were Raphael's rooms. The books do not give Raphael's paintings justice! I was in love with them and instantly place him in the top two of my favorite painters I've seen so far (second to Dali of course). They also had a few Dali paintings which took me by surprise. After an hour of quickly pacing our way through the halls of the museum, we finally reached our goal...the Sistine Chapel. It was completely overwhelming and, in my opinion, slightly overkill. I had not expected the whole room to be painted, only the ceiling, but everything from mid-wall to ceiling was covered. Of course it was beautifully painted and quite impressive. I couldn't believe that one man had done the whole thing. But my favorite part were the different scenes of the bible done along the side walls just below the windows. The image of the two fingers meeting was by far the most intriguing aspect of the ceiling itself, but the mass production of the image kind of downplayed its effect for me. I love the image and could stare at it for hours, but I wasn't taken aback by how truly stunning it is as I was with Raphael's work because I have been so exposed to it (along with the entire world population). Although no photographs were allowed, a girl came up right next to me and blatantly took a photo (focused and all) so I snapped one myself. I couldn't use flash so it's slightly blurry, but you can still make out the images and I can say I have a photo of the Sistine Chapel....not too shabby.

I parted ways with the German and headed towards the metro. Next stop...Trevi Fountain. When I exited the metro station it had started to get dark out. In panic of my day ending too quickly I rushed to the fountain. Along the way I accidentally ran into the Spanish Steps, poor navigational planning on my part not realizing I was so close and almost didn't see them. I made it to the fountain a few 5 minutes later and despite the lack of sun, the fountain was still swarmed with people trying to make their wish. I whipped out my camera and a few dozen photos later worked my way to the fountain, coin in hand. Now of course I'm not going to tell you my wish, but a man could make a fortune by collecting all the coins at the bottom of that fountain!

I sat for a while admiring my final destination. It was too late to visit the Colosseum, so I decided to postpone it for tomorrow and hope for good weather. I had plenty of time to kill before the free dinner at the hostel, so I stopped for a snack....gelato obviously! It's Italy! After selecting my flavor, the woman handed me an enormous, overly decorated ice cream cone, topped off with a British Flag to indicate to the cashier that I spoke English. This was not what I had been expecting and I paid a pretty penny for it, but since dinner was free I felt justified in eating it. I ate my gelato, which was the size of my face, while walking back to the hostel across town, receiving a few shocking looks along the way. Unfortunately I was so focused on my snack that I took a wrong turn and ended up a street away from the Colosseum, on the complete opposite direction as my hostel. Although it only takes 15 minutes to walk from there to my hostel (if walking at a fast city dweller pace), I didn't make it in time for dinner. Fortunately I was still full from the ice cream and although I hadn't realized it, I was exhausted. I went upstairs to debate whether I should venture out for dinner, but made the mistake of sitting on my bed. At 8 p.m. I passed out from exhaustion, waking up around 10 pm just to take out my contacts and brush my teeth, and retired for the night.

Unfortunately the next morning it was raining so I never made it to the Colosseum, but I couldn't be upset after my surprise sunny 60 degree day the day before. I ate my free breakfast at the hostel (a croissant...welcome to Europe) and decided to go to the train station early to make my way to the airport. There were two ways to reach the airport, one by train for 12 euro and another by metro and bus for 5.50 euro. The 12 euro was only half hour, while the 5.50 would take me 45-60 minutes, so to be money conscious I decided on the metro, which is accessible inside the train station. I reached the metro entrance but was shocked to find it closed with a crowd of people outside. Apparently, Italy has frequent metro strikes that last for a few hours and this Saturday morning was one of them. Rather than sit and wait for the metro to start up I decided to pay the money for the train. Within a few hours I was on the airplane taking off for Prague!

PHOTOS:

Trevi Fountain

St. Peter's Basilica

Inside St. Peters

The Spanish Steps

The Sistine Chapel?

My intense Gelato

My favorite Raphael scene

Sistine Chapel

Gelato!

Italy from the plane

My Apologies!

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to apologize for the lack of posts in the past few weeks! School has been extremely overwhelming with midterms and then traveling/visitors on the weekend. This Wednesday will officially begin my return to my normal life in Madrid so I promise I will update then!

This weekend, be on the look out for:

1) Rome - The Vatican (St. Peters, ect), the Sistine Chapel, and the Trevi Fountain

2) Prague - Prague Castle, Old Town, Opera

3) Kelly in Madrid! - Very few but still proves she came!

4) Scotland - My camera died the first day so I don't have much from then, but I have plenty from our Highlands tour on Saturday!!

I will catch you guys up to date as soon as I pass in these two four-page spanish papers!!