Help Dara!

Hi, everyone...

Long time no blog! So it's been a crazy semester thus far, and there's so much to do! Right now, though, I'm trying to choose my submissions for the IPE Study Abroad photo contest, and I'm having some trouble--I think I just took WAY too many pictures to make this easy. I've already chosen two, one from Austria for the "Wolverines Abroad" category and one from Lisbon for the "People and Culture" category (see directly below). After those two, I'm having some trouble picking, so if you could leave a comment with your favorite for each of the categories, that would be great!

Thanks for your help,

Dara

For the "Wolverines Abroad" category:

For the "People and Cultures" category:

Home!

Okay, so I know that I promised that I'd write the minute I got home, but I've just been so busy/jet lagged that I didn't get around to it...sorry!

Anyway, I am home safe, and the summer is starting to feel like a very good dream that was a million years ago. If it wasn't for all the stuff laying all over my room I almost wouldn't believe it ever happened :-)

Anyway, happy summer, everyone, and I hope to see you all soon. Thanks for reading!

Dara

Done with finals!

So as of about an hour ago I'm totally DONE with finals and all class obligations! I'm also all packed at this point, so I'm kind of out of stuff to do. In about half an hour Kathryn and I are going out to lunch, then I think I'm going to go to the Oxford Castle (which will undoubtedly be overrun with tourists since it's Saturday) before all of us have our farewell dinner tonight.

Anyway, I thought it might be nice to finish off my blogging with a quick rerun of the last three months and a top ten list of my favorite things I've done during this incredible summer. I've been trying to keep track of the best moments all throughout the trip, and it's been really hard to choose, but here's the finished result:

10. Mass at Sacre Coeur - Paris

We totally stumbled upon mass going on at the cathedral, and so we sat in the back and watched the end. It was absolutely beautiful, and the space was totally incredible. Afterwards, we wandered around Montmartre with other people from our group, which was also lots of fun.

9. Day Trip to Glendalough - Ireland

After weeks of being in cities, it was such a relief to get back to the country! Glendalough was absolutely beautiful, and it was definitely just what Ireland is supposed to look like. Hiking--even if we were schlepping our backpacks the whole time--was such a nice change from city walking and subways.

8. Bike Riding to the North Sea - Belgium

After our finals, we rented bikes and rode out to the North Sea with one of our professors. It was a really relaxing afternoon, and I had forgotten how much fun bike riding is. Seeing an actual beach was also a nice change, as was drinking good Belgian beer with a professor. Quite an afternoon.

7. Borghese Museum - Rome

Even though this museum was one of the smallest we saw on the whole trip, I absolutely adored the Berninis they had there! It was great to finally see them close up, especially after studying them so much in art class.

6. Pimm's at the Eagle & Child - Oxford

Even though it's totally full of Americans, my friends and I fell in love with the Eagle & Child here in Oxford. It's everything that a good English pub should be, plus they have the most delicious Pimm's I've ever had (Pimm's is a very British drink that involves fruit, lemonade, and cucumber--AMAZING). We spent many a Thursday night there :-)

5. Climbing the Fortress - Salzburg

Austria was one of my favorite countries we visited, and the views from the top of the fortress in Salzburg were just SPECTACULAR. It was, admittedly, quite a climb, but totally worth it in the end. That was such a fun day.

4. Churchill War Rooms - London

By far the coolest historical museum I've ever been to! I mean, the British Museum was absolutely spectacular, but I'm so interested in World War II history that I just had to love the War Rooms. They've been so perfectly preserved for the last sixty years... absolutely amazing.

3. Weekend in Lisbon

Okay, so I know that it's cheating to say that a whole weekend was a particular thing we did, but it was just so much fun! Good food, a great hostel, fantastic company, and beautiful architecture all over the place. What could be bad?

2. Our Last Dinner in Italy - Venice

The best food we had in Italy (which is saying something) with great company in a beautiful garden. Proves the worth of waiting to eat and finding a restaurant far away from the tourist centers. I'll definitely never forget that pesto.

1. The Vienna Philharmonic - Vienna

Listening to one of the greatest orchestras in the world in a beautiful concert venue. The finale of the Mendelssohn suite we heard was one of the most incredible musical moments of my life. Everyone should try to hear the Vienna Philharmonic at some point in their life.

So that's it! I--of course--also loved learning about art and music, eating lots of good food, and improving my photography skills (stuff like that), but those are the biggies. I hope that you've all enjoyed my blog all summer, and thanks so much for reading! I'll post a quick update on Sunday letting you all know that I've gotten home okay.

Happy end of summer, everyone...

Dara

Last Week in Oxford

Two days left! I'm halfway done with finals, (kind of) halfway packed, and very ready to head back to New England :-) Even so, it's been a very interesting last week here. Here are some of the highlights:

My classes on Monday were arguably my most interesting thus far--in International Business we had a speaker who is the head of McDonald's operations in the Netherlands, and in Ethics we had a lecture about photo manipulation and the ethical implications of photoshop (all the way from Lenin and Trotsky to modern-day airbrushing). Both were actually really great! The McDonalds guy had some very interesting things to say--apparently McDonalds views the European market as a completely different entity than the American market, and they're trying to bill themselves here as a "low cost eatery" rather than as a fast food chain like in the US. Hmm.

On Tuesday, Uncle Bob was in the UK on business, so he came to Oxford with one of his business associates and his associate's son (who attends University College here). After wandering around Oxford for a bit, the four of us went to dinner at this amazing restaurant in Oxford that I didn't even know existed! I had lamb with potatoes and mint, and it was absolutely delicious (definitely one of my best meals in Europe). Everyone was very nice and friendly, but Bob was flying out early to Tel Aviv on Wednesday so the evening ended fairly early. I--very sadly--missed the Georgia Tech-UGA Oxford Study Abroad yearly soccer game, but quite frankly I wasn't that crushed. I have my own rivalries to worry about :-)

On Wednesday the Provost of Worcester College held a champagne reception for all of the GT students and faculty in his garden. It was lovely--everyone got all dressed up (see photo of my travel group below) and there was free champagne and everyone took a million pictures. All of my professors were really nice; they told me that they loved having me in class and that I should definitely keep in touch even after I get back to Ann Arbor.

Yesterday was our last day of class, then last night I babysat for one of the professors who's teaching here. The kids were really great and it definitely made me miss camp just a little bit. I got lots of studying for my exam this morning done, and the professor is in aerospace and he had a lot of very interesting things to say about various departments at different universities.

This morning I took my first final, and I have another one tomorrow morning (which means, sadly, that I can't do anything fun like go to London tomorrow). Tonight Kathryn and I are going to our last weekly movie--"The Ugly Truth"--then tomorrow a bunch of us are going out for our farewell dinner. Sunday we fly home! Hooray!

Looking forward to seeing everyone,

Dara

PS: I've also added some more photos of Oxford goodness since I last shared this link, so if you're interested in more pictures, here's the link again: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016776&id=1326450024&l=9f8d8220f0 (Includes lots of pretty pictures from the Oxford Botanical Gardens)

London Calling! Really long post...

Oh my goodness, our last weekend is OVER. In a week I'll be landing in Boston, standing in line at Customs & Immigration, and participating in the general fun of re-entering the United States. Wow.

So this weekend we finally did a proper visit to London, after weeks and weeks of everyone else having gone and talking about it. We left Oxford on Friday morning after breakfast and took the "Oxford Tube" into the city, a direct bus service that runs every ten minutes or so during the day. After getting to Marble Arch, we had a little bit of time to kill before our tour started (yes, we did another Sandeman's Free Tour), so we stopped by the US Embassy since no one else had ever seen one before. This one was a FORTRESS (and even uglier than the one in the Netherlands), but it also had a nice park out front with an FDR statue, which was cool.

The Sandeman's tour was good (again), and we got to see all of what they called the "Royal City," which was basically the City of Westminster. We saw the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace (as well as a couple more royal residences), the Parade Grounds, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, the Churchill War Rooms (although not inside), Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, and a bunch more stuff I can't really remember. The best facts from this tour were that: 1) a recent London mayor campaigned on the platform of ridding Trafalgar Square of its pigeons, and once in office he started feeding them bird food laced with contraceptives (which has effectively lessened the population) and 2) 20% of the world's cameras are in the United Kingdom, and the average Londoner gets their photo taken 300 times a day (although I already knew that second bit). Sweet.

After the tour ended we grabbed lunch and then took the tube to our hostel, which was a bit outside the city center. This hostel was also fairly amazing--it was pretty inexpensive, and it was in a restored Victorian mansion. We got freshened up and then we headed back to Trafalgar Square to see one of the GA Tech professors perform on the plinth there. The backstory is that there's this huge public art project where volunteers are randomly selected to perform whatever they want (as long as it's legal) on this tall column for an hour, and they're having 2400 people do it all together. It's actually a very interesting project, and for more explanation and a live webcam of what's going on right now, click here. She was the only American to participate, so there was a reporter from "Time" magazine there to film her for their website... Amy even got interviewed for it!

After a very quick Italian dinner, we split up to go to our evening events. The boys wandered around the city, the girls went to see "Hairspray," and I went to see "Jersey Boys." I haven't been to see a proper musical (besides working backstage at MUSKET) for AGES, and it was absolutely incredible! The show dragged a bit at first, but after the first fifteen minutes or so it was so tightly performed and energetic and just WONDERFUL. I can totally understand why it won the Tony, and I'd really recommend it if you ever get the chance to see it.

First thing on Saturday morning we headed back to Trafalgar Square to the National Gallery, which had the most incredible collection that I've seen in Europe. I loved the Monets, the da Vincis, the Renoirs, the Cezannes, and the Raphaels, but my favorite piece was actually "Ophelia Among the Flowers" by Redon (photo below).

After the National Gallery, Kathryn and I popped our heads into St. Paul's Cathedral, then stopped for lunch at "Yo! Sushi," this really cool restaurant where food comes by on a conveyor belt in front of you and you just take what you want (then they count your plates at the end). We then walked across the Millennium Bridge to get to Shakespeare's Globe, where we took a guided tour. The tour was actually pretty sweet, and we even got to sit in on a rehearsal of Euripides' "Helen" that was going on while we were there.

After the Globe we went back to Westminster Abbey, where we took the self-guided audio tours. I feel like I've never been surrounded by as much history as there was in that building... there were so many monarchs and artists and writers and scientists and stories about all of them! I felt like we just barely scratched the surface during the hour that we visited, but it was well worth it. Hopefully I'll get to come back some day.

After Westminster, Kathryn, Jeremy, and I went to the War Rooms and the Churchill Museum. This was definitely my favorite historical museum that I've visited this trip--it was so cool to see everything! We got to see the secret direct telephone line (disguised as a bathroom) that Churchill used to call FDR, the map room just as it was the day the Japanese surrendered, Churchill's Nobel Prize, his baby rattle, and THE MAP that Churchill, FDR, and Stalin used to divide Germany into its Eastern and Western sides after the war. Literally, the map they drew on and labeled "USA," "Fr," and "USSR." It was incredible.

After the War Rooms the three of us went to Harrod's, where I bought a mini cupcake (one of the only things in my price range...we saw a cake that was selling for 4,999 pounds!). After that we met up with the gang for dinner, then crossed the Millennium Bridge AGAIN to go to the Tate Modern museum. As much as I'm often confused by modern art, they did have some amazing pieces, including Warhols, Lichtensteins, and some amazing Pollocks. The Lichtensteins were my favorite--I've never seen his work in person before, and his attention to detail is really remarkable.

After that long of a day, I had one of the soundest sleeps of my life, but we woke up early again today to get started with the day! Kathryn and I headed to the British Museum first, where we saw all kinds of amazing things: the Rosetta Stone, the Athenian marbles, Cleopatra's mummy, and a bunch more things I can't remember. It was one of the biggest museums I've ever been in, and their collection is so impressive that it's almost overwhelming. They had a couple of really cool temporary exhibits as well--one on timepieces throughout history and another on tribal shields from the south Pacific. It was great.

After a wonderful lunch of good 'ole American burgers, we went to the Tower of London. We actually didn't get to see the crown jewels (the line was at least an hour long, if not longer), but we did get a free tour by a Yeoman Warder (which was fantastic and very entertaining), and we got to walk all around the outside wall and see little exhibits they had set up. Next time I'm in London I'll get up early to see the jewels, but I definitely enjoyed the visit nevertheless.

By the time we'd finished with the Tower, seen the Tower Bridge, and headed back to Westminster to "eye the Eye," Kathryn and I were both so exhausted that we couldn't do anything else besides catch the bus back to Oxford. It was definitely a great weekend, though, and an excellent way to finish our trip with a bang!

Sorry again for this post being so long... we did a lot of stuff! Here's the photo documentation:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018152&id=1326450024&l=dfe2986be5

Have a great week, everyone!

Dara

Formal Hall & Week in Oxford

So on Tuesday night we had a "Formal Hall" for Georgia Tech, a tradition that apparently goes back several hundred years here at Oxford. Basically all of the students wear their best clothes, all the professors wear robes, and everyone gets together for a very fancy meal. The most interesting parts were the toasts initiated by our program leaders--we toasted everyone from the Queen to the head of the Porters (like campus security) to the food staff to all of our professors. We finished out the evening with a rousing chorus of "The Ramblin' Wreck" (Georgia Tech's fight song), which I must say has A LOT of words, especially considering it was originally written as a drinking song. I much prefer the greatest fight song of all time (according to John Philip Sousa)... at least I know all the words to that one! :-)

Other than that, life has been kind of quiet around here... since we only have one more week of class left, there's a lot of studying and paper-writing to be done. I'm writing my final paper for Computing Ethics on the ethical and security implications of the RFID chips in the new e-passports, and it turns out that there's a HUGE amount of controversy around the issue that I didn't even know about. It's really interesting, although writing an APA-formatted paper is never that much fun. I'm just not the biggest fan of parenthetical citations, not gonna lie.

Other exciting events of the week include me finishing up my penicillin and getting over my tonsillitis, as well as my laptop charger breaking. I now have a new Apple charging brick with British adapters, which will clearly be very useful to me in life. Oh well. Kathryn and I also went to see "The Hangover" last night for our weekly movie date, which was HILARIOUS. I wasn't sure that I was going to like it, but I'd definitely recommend it.

So we're heading to London tomorrow morning for our last full weekend in the UK, and it should be really fun. I'm going to see "Jersey Boys" in the West End on Friday night while my friends go to see "Hairspray" (since I've already seen it), and other than that it's just going to be lots of sightseeing. On Tuesday night Uncle Bob is going to be coming to Oxford for dinner, which should also be very nice. Other than that, I have class all next week, finals on Friday and Saturday, and then I fly back to Boston Sunday afternoon! Geez... time flies.

Anyway, back to work. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Dara

This pic: The girls all dressed up for Formal Hall. From left: Andrea, me, Jasmin, and Kathryn

Weekend in Dublin: I'm on a Boat Take 2

To start out, the most random fact I learned this week:

Because every swan in England is property of the queen, killing a swan can (in some cases) get you more prison time in the UK than killing another person.

Weird, huh?

ANYWAY, this past weekend a big group of nine of us went to Dublin. It was SO MUCH FUN, and arguably the best trip we've done thus far.

We left Oxford at 6:30 PM on Thursday, after which we took four different trains, waited for two hours in Holyhead (the far tip of Wales) in the middle of the night, then took a ferry (which turned out to be a cruise ship) to Dublin and arrived just before 6 AM. It was tiring to say the least, but we had a lot of fun together and it was great to have two and a half full days in Ireland. What we didn't know when we made our reservations was that this was the weekend U2 was playing in Dublin, which means that the city was CRAZY with tourists and natives alike. It was great.

First we went to Trinity College, the university at the center of the city, and a few of us paid to see the Book of Kells. Although mighty expensive, it was definitely worth it! The Book was absolutely beautiful, and we also got to see one of the reading rooms of the College, which was very the-library-in-Beauty-and-the-Beast-esque. After Trinity we still had some time to kill, so we went to the National Museum, where we saw some really interesting stuff. They had some incredible examples of Celtic metalwork, but they also had objects recovered off of the "bog bodies" (cool but gross) and Celtic cursing stones, which were apparently used all the way up to World War II when the Irish were attempting to curse Adolf Hitler.

Everyone who we asked about Dublin recommended that we leave the city to see the countryside for at least one day, and we chose Friday so we could sleep on the bus to and from our destination. We ended up choosing Glendalough (pronounced glen-dah-lock) on a recommendation from Kathryn's dad. It's a beautiful little national park situated between two lakes and a bunch of cliffs, and at the bottom of the valley there are ruins from the monastery which was once located there. We spent the whole day wandering around, and we saw all the waterfalls and lakes and mountains and ruins. After a quick lunch in the park, we got on the bus back to Dublin, passed out asleep again, and got back in time to check into our hostel and head to a pub for dinner. We were all so tired by the time we finished dinner that we just headed back to our room after that and passed out asleep.

Saturday morning we got up (rather more refreshed than when we went to sleep) and went to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was the most eclectic cathedral I've been to yet--it had a lot of historical artifacts on display throughout the building, and the walls were just covered in random and slightly mismatched memorials to famous figures of Irish history. The funniest part was that they had a gift shop RIGHT IN THE NAVE OF THE CATHEDRAL, where I actually bought a shot glass. In a church. It was just too good a comedic opportunity to pass up.

After St. Patrick's we did another one of the Sandeman's free tours, which was even better than the one we did in Amsterdam. Our tour guide was much more dynamic and engaging, and it was just a great time. He opened the tour by covering 11,000 years of history in ten minutes, which was impressive. Apparently only 5% of the population of Ireland are redheads... who knew?

After the tour ended we grabbed a quick pub lunch then walked to the Guinness Storehouse, Ireland's largest visitor attraction (over 1 million visitors per year). It was a very strange experience--think Disney does beer. It was definitely a major tourist attraction, but it was fun anyway. I now understand how Guinness is made, learned that the Guinness Book of Records was originally created to solve disputes in pubs in Ireland and England, and got a free pint in the "Gravity Bar" at the top of the building which has 360-degree views of the entire city of Dublin.

After meeting up with Dustin and Andrea at the hostel (they decided to take a day trip to the cliffs on the western side of the country), we had a great Italian dinner in Temple Bar, the area of Dublin known for its clubs and pubs (ironically not named after temples or bars). Everyone else went to bed right after that, but I wasn't sleepy yet so I stayed up with a few guys staying at our hostel in the pub behind the building. I met people from the US, Australia, Belgium, Norway, Finland, and Tunisia (he was really impressed that I knew where Tunisia was--thank you Sporcle map quiz), and we just had a really great time talking and getting to know each other. One of the guys from California had been traveling for approximately the last DECADE and had been to 62 countries! They all made me feel really boring :-)

It turns out that nothing is really open in Dublin on Sunday mornings, so we basically just did some touristy shopping and then got on the metro to go to Dun Laoire to catch our boat. On the way back we took a high speed catamaran ( you have no idea how many times I've heard "high speed catamaran" in the last three days), which was sweet! It only took 2 hours to cross the Irish Sea, and the boat had a food court and a bar and a coffee shop and a store and even a play area for kids! Admittedly, I was asleep for much of the journey, but it was fun nevertheless. Four trains later, we got back to Oxford, grabbed a quick bite, and went to bed.

Time is totally flying right now... I'm heading home in less than two weeks! As happy as I'll be see my family and to go back to school, this summer really has been completely amazing and I'll definitely be sad to leave Europe.

Anyway, enough of that... here are pictures of Ireland for those who are interested: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017718&id=1326450024&l=49b9bf8e1c

Dara

Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated.

Hi, everyone!

So it's been a whole week since I last posted, which means there's tons of stuff to tell all of you! I'll try to make it as quick as possible, though.

Highlights from last week in Oxford:

1. I got sick (not really a highlight, but significant nonetheless)

2. Harry Potter Opening Day (wasn't really a fan, not gonna lie...quippy one-liners and intense special effects do not a great movie make...although it definitely was a beautifully done film and everyone should see it)

3. I bought a pack of 5 walking tours of Oxford which I'll start doing this week (if I feel better)

Okay, so on to last weekend...

Sydney, Bryan, Amy and I left for the airport at 4:55 Friday morning, and we got to Gatwick with plenty of time to hang out and eat breakfast.  Our plane ran perfectly on schedule, so we got to Amsterdam around noon and probably got into the city by 1:00 or so.  We checked into our respective hostels (we were all staying at different ones, with the exception of Bryan & Amy), then went to the Anne Frank House together.  The line was MASSIVE but it was totally worth it... I had a HUGE interest in Anne Frank when I was in middle school, and it was incredible to see the Secret Annex for myself.  It was a really well put-together museum as well, and I was very impressed.  After doing some wandering (including a stop in the gift shop of the Tulip Museum) and shopping for the rest of the afternoon, we turned in--by the time we finished with dinner we were all EXHAUSTED.

After meeting up for breakfast the next morning, we went to an exhibit called "The Complete Rembrandt" which was really cool, even if it didn't have any actual paintings (which we did not know when we paid 12 euros to get in).  It had a print of every single Rembrandt in chronological order so you got to see his development as an artist throughout his entire career.  My favorite painting was of four guys doing a medical dissection; it sounds kind of gross, but each of the doctors just had so much personality!  (See photo below)

After a delicious kebab lunch (kebab, how I love you so), we went on this amazing free walking tour by Sandeman's New Europe, a company with free walking tours all over the world (Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Dublin, Edinburgh, Hamburg, London, Jerusalem, Madrid, Munich, Paris, Prague, and Tel Aviv).  The tour guides are paid on a tips-only basis, which means they have a big motivation to make their tours uber entertaining.  Most of them are also 3-4 hours long, which means you really get a chance to see a lot of the city.  We learned a lot (my favorite tidbits were that 1. approximately 22,000 bicycles are pulled out of Amsterdam's canals each year and 2. people in the Netherlands didn't have last names until the French occupation when King Louis forced them to, so they picked terribly offensive ones that their ancestors are now stuck with).  It was definitely a great way to get acquainted with the city.  Amy had already done one of these tours in Edinburgh, and we'll most likely be doing the Dublin and London ones on the remainder of our weekend trips.

After the tour, I tried to make it down to the Van Gogh Museum, but I kept getting distracted by cool shops on the way (plus it was REALLY FAR), and by the time I got there it was too close to closing to merit paying the admission fee.  I did get to see the "I Amsterdam" sculpture, though, and I found us a nice area to go eat dinner in.  After that we took one of the tacky and touristy boat cruises around the city.  After some wandering, we found a nice cheap pub to end the evening with a hot cup of tea (for my throat...I'm kind of lame).

By Sunday morning, I was getting kind of sick of Amsterdam (it's just really not my type of city), so I took a day trip to The Hague on my dad's recommendation.  It was absolutely lovely...I did a lot of wandering around and taking pictures, which was definitely nice and relaxing.  In the morning I went to the MC Escher Museum which was AMAZING and then I grabbed a nice lunch and did my reading for class today.  After that, I went to the tourist information centre where they had 2 euro walking tour booklets, so I spent the rest of the afternoon showing myself around the city.  You know, I know we're not a fan of monarchies in the US, but there's something to be said for sweet palaces and beautiful public gardens :-)  My favorite part was that there are flowers EVERYWHERE in the Netherlands, even though we missed tulip season by a couple of months.  

After another afternoon cup of tea, I headed back to the airport, where we proceeded to have one of my worst travel experiences of this trip to date.  Highlights include: our plane was delayed by over half an hour, then held in a holding pattern when we got to Heathrow, the line at immigration in the UK was the longest I've ever seen it, and our bus driver missed the road to Oxford so we were on the bus for an extra 45 minutes.  It was incredible to finally be home, though, and I'm so glad to be back.

Here's the link to all the pictures (there are a lot, I warn you): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017238&id=1326450024&l=26fbdf1dd7

Less than three weeks 'till I come home! :-)

Dara

More Oxford and Trip to Lisbon!

I apologize in advance for how epically long this post is going to be, but so much has happened since I last posted!

Last week in Oxford was great, after the HP6 premiere on Tuesday the highlights were going to see "Public Enemies" on Wednesday (not so good), going to Christ Church (one of the most famous colleges at Oxford and where the HP movies were filmed) on Thursday, and then heading out to the Eagle & Child again on Thursday night with the gang.

I left VERY EARLY on Friday morning to catch the bus to Heathrow, and then got a bagel with lox at the airport while I waited for my flight (again, not so good, but a little piece of home).  Trevor and I found each other, then our flights to Madrid and Lisbon went seamlessly.  We took a bus into the city center and found our hostel, where we dropped off our stuff.

First of all, this hostel was incredible!  The interior design was really quirky and colorful (just my style), and the free breakfast was homemade crepes with Nutella!  Our roommates were nice as well, and I've totally been spoiled at this point when it comes to hosteling.  Next week in Amsterdam should be a definite reality check :-)

After figuring out our plan of attack, Trevor and I headed out into the city (even though our hostel was right on the main square so it wasn't exactly that long a walk).  Lisbon is really an amazing city--throughout the last 2000 years it has been ruled by Romans, Muslims, Catholics, and slightly intense 20th century governments, so the culture (especially the architecture) is a blend of all of these influences.  There are beautiful marble monuments EVERYWHERE--Portugal is still apparently very proud of its past as a colonial power--and many of the buildings are covered in beautiful ceramic tiles.  It's colorful and vibrant and there's music playing wherever you go... basically I fell in love with it.   Even the sidewalks are beautiful; they're all these inlaid mosaics, and they make the city have so much depth.

For our first adventure, Trevor and I hiked up to the castle on top of the hill, which would be the first of many uphill climbs over the weekend.  The castle has been standing for 900+ years and has survived a major earthquake as well as all of the aforementioned rulers.  The view was really beautiful, and on the way back down we ate at a sweet Indian-Portuguese fusion restaurant.  After we changed back at the hostel, we walked up another big hill and found a little cafe in a square (with another monument, of course), and had our evening nightcaps of port, which the Portuguese are famous for.  Delicious.

After our crepes the next morning, we went to Belem, an area about 6 km west of the city centre.  After a bit of train confusion, we made it there and went to the Electricity Museum (Lisbon has a bagillion different weird museums, from a Water Museum to a Coach Museum to an Air Museum to a Presidents of the Republic Museum and a Pharmacy Museum).  The electricity part of the museum actually wasn't all that great (fluency in Portuguese may have helped), but there was an exhibit of the International Photo of the Year contest winners, which was AWESOME.  I heart photojournalism.

After the electricity museum, we went to the Torre de Belem (pictured below), a huge monument that's a tribute to Portuguese colonialism.  We took a lift to the top, took a few pictures, and then went to a movie inside on the history and culture of Lisbon.  After that, we went to a delicious lunch (the Portuguese ROCK the preparation of seafood), then went to the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, a lovely cathedral with the best vaulted ceiling I've ever seen.  After that we went to the FREE modern art museum, where I got to show off all the knowledge about modern art I got on the travel portion :-)

After a little shopping/afternoon naps, we climbed another massive hill to go to a place recommended by my travel book for dinner.  It wasn't open yet, so we went down the street to a place called "Be Gold", where everything was golden and decadent.  Dinner was fantastic, and afterwards Trevor and I waddled happily back to our hostel with a quick sangria stop on the way.

In the morning we wandered up the Avenida de Liberdade to a park (on another hill) that had another great view of the city.  After moseying back down and checking out of our hostel, we grabbed lunch and then went to an amazing exhibit on the Titanic at what turned out to be the Rossio train station... weird.  It was super cool, though, and definitely one of the best-designed historical exhibits I've been to on this trip.  It had all these artifacts recovered from the wreck, and even a fake iceberg you could touch.  The coolest part (no pun intended) was definitely a perfume case recovered from the wreck that still smelled like the perfumes it used to contain after almost a hundred years under the ocean!  I thought it was pretty sweet.

After traditional Portuguese custard tarts, we headed back to the airport and had an incredibly smooth travel experience on the way home (besides a long line at UK immigration).  I made it back to Oxford by about 11:30 last night, when I crashed and woke up just in time for my exam this morning.  Craziness.

That's all for now... it's looking like it's going to be another great week in Oxford.  We're seeing Harry Potter 6 on opening day this Wednesday, then Bryan, Amy, Sydney and I are off to Amsterdam on Friday morning.  Hooray!

Dara

Two photo albums for you today (sorry for the volume)--

More life in Oxford & the Potter Premiere: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016776&id=1326450024&l=9f8d8220f0

Lisbon Trip: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016777&id=1326450024&l=83bf20724f

Harry Potter and our Craziest Day Thus Far

Oh my goodness, what a day!

First of all, things have been going really well in Oxford--I'm starting to really know my way around since every afternoon after my second class I've been trying to take a walk by myself and explore more of the city.  Yesterday I also bought my required Oxford University gear (sweatshirt and t-shirt), and now that it's cold and I need to wear my sweatshirt all the time I look like a complete tool.   It's great :-)

So...today.  The plan originally was for my friend Carol and I to meet up in London this afternoon for the Harry Potter premiere, with her taking the 1:30 train from Oxford and me taking the 3:30.  This, however, did not really end up happening--check it out:

My day started out normally, just class and then homework and then lunch in my room (a terrible quiche that I threw half of away... will be important later) and then a group meeting for my ethics class.  My group meeting got done early so I decided to run and get a Kebab for lunch (since I was still hungry after the terrible quiche).  On my way back with my Kebab, my friend Amy essentially tackled me outside of my dorm, telling me that the woman running my program needed someone to take the train to London Paddington RIGHT AWAY because one of the group leaders forgot their passport in Oxford and they were flying back to the states today.  They offered to excuse me from class and pay for my train ticket and everything, so I ran to the office, grabbed the passport, ran to the train station, and met Carol for the 1:30 train.  We made it and got to London by 2:30 or so, where we caught a bus and headed to Leicester Square, where the premiere was to be held.

For one thing, the square was CRAZY--some people had been camping out in the rain since ten am the previous day, which is a bit much if you ask me.  Anyway, after wandering around for a bit Carol and I decided on what we thought was a good spot, which actually turned out to be an AMAZING one...we were right next to the entrance to the actual theatre behind an overhead red carpet walkway, so we had a clear view upwards of all of the actors as they walked into the movie.  The really exciting part was that in the five hours we were standing there, it

A. Was sunny

B. Drizzled

C. Rained

D. Poured

E. Hailed

It was so much fun, though!  The atmosphere was fantastic (we all huddled under our umbrellas together), we talked to a bunch of cool people (and some slightly odd ones), and it was just a really exciting place to be!  We saw most of the major actors (Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter and the people who played Dean, Neville, Seamus, Luna, the Weasley twins, Mr. Weasley, and Malfoy), as well as a bunch of British pop culture personalities who I didn't recognize but who everyone else screamed at.  I took lots of blurry pictures, although I definitely found myself more interested in seeing the actual film next week than getting glimpses of the celebrities.  It was still fun, though, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  Even if we did have to take the train back all cold and wet afterwards :-)

I grabbed some Thai food on the way back from the train station, and now that I'm full and warm and dry I think it's time for bed.  Pictures will hopefully be up tomorrow; right now I'm too tired.  The one below should give you some idea of the crowd and it's demographic--you can see Alan Rickman tiny tiny in the middle signing autographs for all the screaming teenaged girls.

Night!

Dara

The Fourth of July in Jolly Old England

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!  Not gonna lie, it's really not that big a deal out here (can't imagine why), although our waiter today at lunch did wish us a happy Independence Day.

So last Wednesday my friend Kathryn and I went to see "Transformers" (we've decided to have Dara-and-Kathryn-Movie-Wednesdays from now on), and even seeing a MOVIE we got to see cool cultural-difference things!  For one thing, when you go to see a movie they actually assign seat numbers, and you can pay an extra pound to get comfier seats in the ideal viewing area of the theatre.  We did not elect to do this, so we were kind of stuck to the front, but that's okay.  Also, there was NO ONE in the theatre until five minutes into the previews, and then suddenly EVERYONE showed up.  They also had different rating systems for movies and sweet British advertisements--our favorites were the advertisements with the international perception of Americans in them.

After class ended on Thursday, we went to the "Turf Tavern" with Chris & Tara, our two group leaders who left on Friday to head back to the States.  This pub was SO AWESOME--it's really hidden and so it's not so touristy, and it was just a good time overall.  We will be going back often, I'm sure.

Friday, six of us went to Bath (pronounced "Baaaaaahth" there).  It was actually a really sweet place--first we went to the Roman Baths, which was definitely one of the best-organized historical museums we went to.  We got to see the baths as they are today, as well as a lot of the archeological excavation they've been doing of the rest of the complex underground.  On our little audio guides there was also a "Bill Bryson" option, where we could listen to his thoughts on what we were seeing as well as the actual info.  After lunch there we took the FREE two-hour Bath walking tour, which was really great--it was nice not to have to take notes and just to be able to appreciate the city!  After a lovely Thai dinner and a visit to the oldest pub in Bath, we headed back to Oxford on the train.

This morning, we decided to visit "The Cotswolds"--a region in the UK known for its picturesque villages.  It definitely lived up to all the hype (see photo below)... it was absolutely beautiful country, and all of the towns we visited had flowers EVERYWHERE, which was just lovely!  We visited three villages today: Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold, and Bourton-on-the-Water.  At Bourton-on-the-Water, my friend Bryan and I decided to go off and take a walk and we found this nature reserve that was essentially a bunch of cow pastures with trails running through them.  The views of the countryside were fantastic there, and we definitely made friends with a couple of cows :-)

Once we were done with Bourton-on-the-Water, we stopped by Stow-on-the-Wold which has a slightly famous Roman Well that has water so clear you can drink it (which we all did).  After a dinner in Moreton-in-Marsh we came back to Oxford with plans to go out to a pub, but then we were all too sleepy.  I'm planning on going to bed ASAP at this point and taking tomorrow as my one opportunity to sleep in all summer.  Besides some emailing and some shopping, I have absolutely NOTHING to do before dinner... it should be wonderful.

Anyway, that's all for now.  If you'd like to see pictures of life at Oxford and/or our trips this weekend, here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016210&id=1326450024&l=352f458d1a

Happy 4th!

Dara

First Couple of Days in Oxford

'Ello all!

So I know that it's only Wednesday, but I feel like I've been living on this campus FOREVER.  I'm not sure if that's because I feel really at home here or just because we're not packing up to leave already (like we would have on the travel portion).  In either case, it still feels great to be here, even if being in a college town has made me slightly homesick for Ann Arbor :-(

So my classes are good so far; I'm taking International Business and a class on Ethics in the Information Age.  Business is okay--it's at eight fifteen in the morning, though, which makes it kind of hard to focus throughout a 1 1/2 hour lecture.  Ethics is definitely my favorite...we're talking about things like internet addiction, privacy issues, and whether or not identity theft is actually theft...things like that.  There are only nine of us in the class, so we basically just sit around talking to the professor, which is cool.

Considering my only obligations are breakfast, dinner, and three hours of class a day, I've had lots of time to go and wander the city.  Yesterday afternoon I was looking for a place to do my ethics reading and I just randomly stumbled upon the Camera, the very famous dome reading room in Oxford.  I've also gotten all of my essential shopping done, like groceries and silverware and such.  I also needed to buy another duffel bag so I can get all of my presents back to the states at the end of the summer :-)

In the evenings, we've been getting our homework done early and then going out to do various things--yesterday we hung out with the group from our travel portion (each week we're celebrating "Group Two'sdays"), and the night before Bryan, Parker and I went to the Eagle & Child, the famous pub where JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis hung out in their Oxford days. 

This afternoon, I'm meeting Laura Jackson (another alum of the Hollis Brookline High School Cavalier Chronicle) for coffee, which should be lovely!  After that I think that my friend Kathryn and I will be going to see a movie, but we'll have to see how the homework goes.

Now, off to class!

Dara

Settled in at Oxford!

We did it!  We're finally here in Oxford, I'm all unpacked and we finally have a chance to breathe.  Well, breathe for the ten hours until my first class starts.  Eesh.

So where did I leave off?  Finals went swimmingly--I know that I got almost 100 on art, and I'm not that worried about music either.  It was VERY nice to get our classes done with, and we celebrated yesterday by renting bikes for our free afternoon and riding to the North Sea from Bruges.  It was about 20 miles (14 kilometers each way), but it was a really lovely ride through the Belgian countryside on the way.  We hung out at the beach, grabbed a really good Belgian beer, and then headed back to the city.  It was really cool--even our music professor came with us (he actually lead the way), and we got to talk to him in a slightly more relaxed setting than usual.  We also bought Belgian chocolates on the way home, which was quite excellent if I do say so myself :-)

We got really lucky with the weekend that we ended up being in Bruges; there was this festival going on called the "Feest in 't Park," which was basically an outdoor hippy festival to celebrate the end of school and the beginning of summer.  There was tons of cheap ethnic food and all of these stands selling funky jewelry and scarves and things.  It appeared that the entire city of Bruges had showed up for the event, and there was lots of music and dancing and people sitting out on the green talking.  It was lots of fun, and definitely a nice way to end our travel portion.

We left for the UK this morning from the hotel, and after a couple of hours of driving we made it to the end of the Chunnel in France.  The way we crossed was SO SWEET--they had all of these long, wearhouse-like train cars, and we just drove our coach bus onto one of them, crossed, and then drove off (on the other side of the road, of course).  We made it to Oxford by about three thirty.

First of all, the campus--it's BEAUTIFUL.  This is one of the loveliest places I've ever lived, and I can't believe I'm lucky enough to live here for six weeks!  A couple of the dorms are actually from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (the oldest is from the twelfth century), but I got placed in a dorm that's only a couple of years old.  At first I was kind of bummed, but then I realized that I have a single with its own private bathroom and shower when other halls are sharing a bathtub between seven or so people.  I unpacked within about fifteen minutes then spent the rest of the day wandering the grounds and catching up on the internet.  We also had our first dinner (very Harry Potter-esque, you line up to go into a big dining hall and then they serve you a three-course meal at long tables) and an orientation.

Anyway, early class tomorrow.  More soon!

Dara

PS: Link to Strasbourg/Brussels/Bruges pictures-- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015798&id=1326450024&l=f6f9c5297a

PPS: My Belgian tribute to U of M...

In Bruges

So I realized right after I posted that I had forgotten the best fact about our journey from Prague to Strasbourg--our bus got pulled over by undercover cops!  We were all asleep just after we'd crossed the border into Germany from the Czech Republic and then suddenly everyone was like "PUT ON YOUR SEATBELTS!" and then there were two German men in corduroy pants with guns coming onto our bus and demanding that everyone pass up their passports.  After looking at two people's identification and seeing all of our terrified faces, they left the bus and went back to their sketchy sketchy unmarked blue van.  Our group leader suspected that it was because they were required to take down the border checks when the Czech Republic joined the EU but Germany still doesn't really trust their customs and passport control checkpoints... interesting theory.  Needless to say, I'm not a fan of people with guns yelling at me in foreign languages.

We left Strasbourg yesterday to come to Bruges, and thanks to a well-placed rest stop on the part of our bus driver, Roger, I've now also been to Luxembourg!  We arrived in Bruges with no issues and went out to dinner last night.  We were assured by our professor that food would be cheap here, but even Thai Food is ten euros!  Sheesh!  The beer here, however, IS cheap (and amazing), which is a definite plus.

Today we took a day trip to Brussels, which is definitely one of my favorite cities that we've visited.  We went to a really sweet art nouveau apartment, and we learned that art nouveau design was actually strongly influenced by the theories of Charles Darwin, which was really interesting!  Our assignment today was to go through the apartment and find examples of art and architecture as "metamorphosis" or "natural selection."  After that we went to a great musical instrument museum then had lunch and headed back to Bruges.  On the way out our bus driver, who's Belgian, gave us a quick bus tour of the city, which was very nice of him.  We were supposed to go to see the Ghent Altarpiece on the way home, but our finals are tomorrow and everyone wanted to get back here to study.  Oh well.

Right now I'm at the laundromat, one of the few places in this city with free wifi.  After this I think I'm going to grab a quick bite and then study some more.  Fun night :-)

Dara

PS:  Finally, here's a link to the Prague pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015367&id=1326450024&l=b87abbf214

In France Again...

Bonjour encore! (Even though the French accent I worked so hard on is now TERRIBLE thanks to my time in Germany, Italy, Austria, and the Czech Republic...)

So where to begin?  The opera was great and we actually had seats at this one (as opposed to standing room), which was a definite improvement over the concerts that we saw in Vienna.  Our music professor prepared us extremely well for the opera, and even the people who had never been to one before said that they could really follow it and very much enjoyed themselves.  After the opera we went out to dinner (traditional Czech cuisine...very meat and dumplings-y) and then headed back to the hotel.

This morning we left the hotel by eight thirty, and by seven o'clock tonight we had been in three different countries!  We're in Strasbourg right now, and I really really love it here.  It has the same kind of feel as Salzburg--a really small but beautiful city with genuinely wonderful people.  After getting to the hotel tonight we went out to dinner (which was delicious--I'm definitely one with French food) and wandered around the city for a bit.  After that, six of us took a bottle of wine down to the river and sat out together talking and laughing and reminiscing about the last four weeks.  It was great.

Time for bed now, though!  Hopefully I'll get to update once we get to Belgium, our last stop before hopping the channel.

Dara

PS: A link to the Prague photos soon (most of them are already up), but right now the internet is just working very poorly.  Harumph.

Last Day in the Czech Republic

Helloooo from Prague!

Okay, so I know that I said I'd update yesterday, but with all of our important stuff to do (and by that I mean napping again), I never got around to it.  Sorry :-(

So we started our day with music class, then we went to Prague Castle for a tour for art class.  They have this incredible gothic cathedral there called St. Vitus, which was hands-down my favorite cathedral that we've seen in Europe.  The Castle also has incredible views of the whole city and the river, so we stayed up there for lunch before walking down the hill.  After that we went to find what's called the "John Lennon Wall," which is basically this giant wall filled with graffiti about peace and love and the Beatles.  It was really cool--there were words from people from all over the world all talking about the same concepts.  Sadly, though, I forgot to put my battery in my camera yesterday, so there isn't any photo documentation.

After the wall (and another English-language bookstore) we came back to the hotel for our afternoon naps.  Last night most of the group decided to go on another organized pub crawl, so we headed out after a quick dinner of kebab to go there (Note: I'm going to miss kebab/schwarma/gyro/whatever SO MUCH when I go back home.  It's the best fast food EVER.).  The pub crawl was fun--I met people from all over the place (Bermuda, Oxford, New Jersey... it was an interesting mixture), which is always a good time.

This morning we had our last music class before our final (eek!) and then went to Terazin, a fortress that was converted into a prison by the Nazis during their occupation of what is now the Czech Republic.  This prison was primarily used for intellectuals, rabble-rousers, and Jews who refused to follow Nazi policies regarding identification and registration (it was also where Gavrilo Princip, the man who assasinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was imprisoned until his death).  One of the major Jewish ghettos of this region was also connected to the prison, but we didn't have time to go down there and see the museum, which I was kind of disappointed about.

One of the most interesting things we learned today was that once the Russians liberated Terazin, they then converted it into their own prison and locked up many of the same people who the Nazis had already been holding there.  Several years later the compound was converted into the historical site that it is today, but until 1989 (and the Velvet Revolution) the tour guides were closely monitored by Soviet officials.  They weren't allowed to mention the ghetto or the Jewish imprisonment at all; they were only supposed to discuss the famous communists who had been held there by the Germans.  Hm.

After our tour there we headed back to our hotel where we got lunch.  We're now all in the lobby blogging, although I should probably head upstairs and pack (and take another nap, let's face it).  Tonight we're finally getting to see La Traviatta, which is kind of acting as the culmination of our music class.  I'm so excited--I've seen it before, but hopefully this will be a much larger-scale production.  Tomorrow we leave to drive back west...we'll be staying overnight in Strasbourg, France tomorrow and then getting to Bruges, Belgium the next day.   After that it's just finals and hopping the channel to Oxford.  Time flies, eh?

Anyway, lots of love,

Dara

We'd Like the Czech, Please!

Okay, so after our first full day in Prague, I am definitely a big fan.  This city is beautiful, there's tons to do, and we've all been having a really great time so far.  A quick summary of today:

Jewish Museum - This morning, Alexandra, Kathryn, and I got up early to go to the Jewish Museum, a set of 5 synagogues, a ceremonial hall, and the Jewish cemetery here.  It was really incredible--Prague had one of the largest Jewish populations in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust (Jews started moving here in the 9th century), and there was just such a rich history that was well-0rganized into exhibits.  The highlights were: the New-Old Synagogue (built in the 13th century, making it the oldest in Eastern Europe), the Spanish Synagogue (one of the most beautiful I've ever seen), and the cemetery (it has over 12,000 tombstones piled on top of each other for lack of space to bury Jews Kosherly).  I would really recommend the museum for anyone traveling in Prague, Jewish or not :-)

Walking Tour - After we finished with the Jewish Museum, we got a walking tour of the area around the Old Town Square from our art professor.  We saw a bunch of important churches (and a couple of the towers that marked the old city limits), as well as the Astronomical Clock and the Charles Bridge.  After our tour ended we did some shopping (Prague is famous for it's amber so I bought myself a little necklace) and ate (of course).  I discovered this amazing fruit dumpling dessert dish that's like a heart attack on a plate, but SOOOO good.  Oh well.  I also found an English-language bookstore, so I finally have something for pleasure reading again...hooray!

Black Light Show - Hands-down the weirdest thing I've done since I got to Europe.  According to Rick Steves (our new god), Black Light Shows are a very Prague thing to do, so we decided to fork over the money for tickets and check it out.  It was SO STRANGE...basically weird mime-esque sketches that would then lead to people in spandex dancing under black lights.  Think of a really REALLY low budget Cirque du Soleil.  After the show was (finally) over we headed back to the hotel.  All in all, a very interesting day.

More to come!  Hopefully tomorrow.

Dara

From the Czech Republic...

So the strangest thing just happened to us here on our first night in Prague...there are fifteen or so of us in the lobby of our hotel on our laptops (the internet is free here), and a guy from the next group over just asked us if he could take our picture because he and his friends had never seen so many new laptops before.  Definitely puts our lives in perspective a bit.

So what we've done since my last post...hmm.  For our free day in Vienna yesterday, we started out by heading over to the Freud Museum.  It really wasn't that exciting...just a few rooms in the apartment where he had his practice in Vienna (before he had to relocate to London because of the Nazis).  Two of my friends here are psych majors, though, so they absolutely loved it :-)

After the Freud Museum we went to Schonbrunn Palace, this gorgeous palace in Vienna a few miles outside of the city center (it's said to be one of the only palaces in Europe that can rival Versailles).  It has acres and acres of gardens surrounding the actual palace which are beautiful and amazingly well-kept.  Out of all of my friends, I was the only one who decided to fork over the euros to go inside, which was totally worth it.  It was incredible, and I learned a lot about Austrian history.

For our last night in Vienna we had another concert for music class--this time we got tickets to the Vienna Philharmonic, which was arguably the most incredible classical music concert I've ever attended.  The only problem was that we had standing room tickets for the second night in a row (only 6 euro, so I can hardly blame our trip organizers for choosing them), and my feet were ridiculously tired by the end.  Afterwards we went back to our favorite pub in Vienna (yes, we had one after only four days) for a last dinner before leaving for Prague this morning.

The drive to Prague was short compared to the other trips we've had thus far (only four hours), so we arrived here around 2:00 this afternoon.  Prague is definitely unlike any place I've been before--for one thing, I can't even pretend to figure out the language, unlike any of the previous places we've been.  We haven't really seen the city center yet, but it's definitely been an experience thus far.  Tonight we went to the Mozart House here to see a string quartet concert and then went out to dinner--nothing that exciting, but we're all exhausted so no one really cares :-)

Speaking of which, I should probably be off to bed--my friend Kathryn and I are heading off early to go to the Jewish Quarter, which should be interesting at the very least.  If you're interested in Vienna pictures, here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015213&id=1326450024&l=51d194ba62

Lots of love,

Dara

PS: Weekends in Oxford have finally been finalized!  Here's the list:

Weekend 1 - Day Trips in the Southern UK (Bath & Cotswald)

Weekend 2 - Lisbon, Portugal with Trevor Hancey from CTY

Weekend 3 - Amsterdam, Netherlands with Amy & Bryan

Weekend 4 - Dublin, Ireland with Amy, Bryan, Dustin, Jeremy, Kathryn & Andrea

Weekend 5 - London, UK (our grand finale)

A Redonkulously Long Note from Wien

So, quite frankly, I am absolutely in love with Vienna.  The people are wonderful and friendly, the food is incredible, and the city has a nice balance of an old-European and new-city feel (it’s also very clean, which is nice).  I’m actually kind of relieved to have left Italy, to be quite frank—one can only put up with throngs of tourists and overpriced food for so long.

So where to begin?  On our first morning we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum (a ridiculous name, I know), which was nice, although I’m getting kind of sick of museums.  After that we had a break before our second activity of the day, so a bunch of us just laid out in a park and napped and played cards.  After that we got a tour of the Vienna Opera House, which although not as beautiful as the Opera Garnier in Paris, was impressive nonetheless.

For one thing, the stage at the Vienna Opera House is over 1,000 square METERS big!.  It has a depth of 100 meters (50 for the stage and then 50 for the backstage), and then another 50 meter by 50 meter area stage right that used to be dressing rooms.  The tops of the flys go up to a height of sixty meters as well, which just creates this ridiculous cavern effect.  The really impressive part is that they put on a new opera EVERY SINGLE NIGHT—it’s theater policy that they never do anything 2 nights in a row.  This means that they have ½ day strikes and builds every single day…they apparently load up 25 trucks with sets across town, drive them over while they’re striking from the previous night, put all the old sets in the trucks, and then do a quick build to finish by show time.  It’s not as if these are dinky sets, either; the vertical framed screens they had for “Faust” had to be at least 50 foot squares.  Wow.

After the Opera House, we went to the Hotel Sacher for their famous sacher torte (apparently they invented chocolate cake there), and then wandered around for a bit.   We ended up at a great restaurant for dinner where they brewed their beer on premises, and I had a delicious (and filling) dinner of a traditional Viennese pasta dish and a house-brewed cider.  Amazing.   After dinner Amy and I worked out at the gym in our hotel and then used the steam room and sauna.  This is the life, not gonna lie…

Yesterday we had two events for class—the Upper Belvedere Museum for art and the Esterhazy Palace for music.  The Belvedere had an amazing Gustav Klimpt collection; the best part was definitely seeing “The Kiss” in person.  There’s so much more texture in the painting than can ever be reproduced in a print, and I think it’s something that every art buff should try to see at some point.  The Esterhazy was slightly less awesome…it’s the residence where Joseph Haydn composed most of his music (which is cool), but the audio tour was really long and really monotonic.  Oh well.

After we got back to the hotel, we had dinner at another beer garden at the Prater, this area near our hotel that’s supposedly one of the oldest carnivals in the world.  There are tons of rides and funhouses and games and such there, and although unbelievably expensive, we rode a small roller coaster, the spinny swings, and one of the ferris wheels.  The ferris wheel was the best part—you could see the entire Vienna skyline from the top.

Today we started our day with a walking tour of Vienna for art class where we saw the Stephansdom, another large church here, and the Secession Building, which has the beautiful Beethoven mural by Klimt.  After our picnic lunch, Bryan and I went to the Haus der Musik together, which was definitely the trippiest museum I’ve ever visited.  Two of the floors were devoted to sound manipulation and the technical aspects of sound (a PAT major’s dream), and the other was dedicated to major Viennese composers.  Pretty darn sweet, and I’d definitely recommend it.  After the museum we went to a coffee house, which is apparently another important thing to do when visiting Vienna.

After a dinner of Kebab (yum), we bought standing room tickets for 3 euro at the Opera House with one of our professors and about eight people from our group.  We stayed for the whole opera, even though it was really obscure—“Die Schweigsame Frau” by Strauss—and it was actually really fun.  Most of the people we went with had never seen a real opera before, and I’m really glad we got to experience it together.

Now it is definitely time to go to bed, though!  Free day tomorrow, which is going to be AMAZING. 

Lots of love,

Dara

PS:  I realized that I never posted a link to Venice pictures, so here it is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015004&id=1326450024&l=4c56b5298a

We're done with Italy...

So, after a week and a half (and what feels like a huge volume of pasta and gelato), we’re finished in Italy! We just arrived in Vienna today, and we’ll be staying here until Saturday—four full days to explore. I’m very excited…especially to have some protein in my diet again, haha ☺

So our last day in Venice was arguably the best day I’ve had in Europe so far. We got up fairly early (by teenager standards, at least), and took the train into Venice. We then walked across the city to the northern side and took a waterbus to Murano, the island in Venice famous for its glass. We saw a quick glass-blowing demonstration then wandered around shopping for a couple of hours. I bought some really nice presents (and a couple of things for myself, of course), and then we headed back to the main island for the afternoon.

Honestly, I’m not sure if we actually accomplished much of anything in the afternoon (besides eating our last gelatos, of course)—we mostly just wandered around the city exploring, but we met some wonderful people and saw some really great stuff. We found tiny art galleries and lots of churches and we even went back to San Marco one last time. That afternoon made me really want to go back to Venice someday; wandering around the city with absolutely nothing to do is even wonderful!

The real highlight of the day was definitely dinner—we found this tiny garden restaurant set back from all the touristy places that served incredible food for actually decent prices. A week and a half ago, when we got to Italy, we were totally stunned by the fact that restaurants expected us to order three course dinners…we would just order a pasta (first course) and then try to fill up on bread. By last night, all of us ordered three courses in addition to a bottle of wine for the table. It was incredible; my first course was the best pasta with pesto I’ve ever had in my life, next Amy and I split something called “Chicken with Rocket Sauce”—I kid you not—and then Bryan and I split the house cake for dessert. By the end we were all full and happy heading back to Padua to go to the hotel.

Today was kind of boring—just a really long drive to get to Vienna. After we arrived, we all met and went out to a Beer Garden for dinner. I had forgotten how wonderfully nice people in Germany and Austria are! Our waiter was delightful and uber helpful; it’s a very different feeling than Italy, where it just seemed like everyone was out for our money. Dinner was delicious (I had goulash and spaetzel), and I’m really looking forward to the rest of our meals here. (If you haven’t noticed, all of us consider food to be a very important aspect of the cultural experience)

We’re also staying at this amazing brand new hotel here in Vienna, which has a free spa on the top floor where my friends and I just spent an hour. Not gonna lie,

We have a response to our Venice concert AND a listening exam in our 8 AM music class tomorrow so I should probably head off to bed. Oh well.

I'm on a Boat!

Hey, y'all!

So for our first day in Northern Italy we went to visit the Scrovegni Chapel here in Padua, which is a very famous set of frescoes painted by Giotto at the turn of the fourteenth century.  It was actually one of my favorite things that we've done thus far on the trip; the chapel was really beautiful, even if we did have to be weirdly disinfected before entering.

After we finished with the chapel (the one thing we're actually doing in Padua, where we're staying), we took a water bus into Venice to go to a concert for music class.  It was just a small group of strings, and they performed mostly Vivaldi concertos.  The only bad thing about the concert was the cellist--in the words of our professor, he considers himself a "rock star" and totally stole focus from the rest of the group for the entire performance.  Although admittedly he does play very well, so whatever.

This morning we woke up early (again) and took the train into Venice as a group.  In the morning we saw the Academia museum... although they did have a very interesting collection, after seeing the amazing museums we've seen on this trip (we saw the Louvre the FIRST DAY, for goodness sakes!), it was nothing to write home about.  No pun intended.

After the Academia we had a big break, so we wandered around, ate lunch and gelato, and saw San Marco, the main square in Venice.  Honestly, I really think that Venice is the most beautiful city I've ever visited in the world--the architecture is gorgeous and it's an amazing place to just wander around and get lost with your friends.

After all the wandering, we went to see the Peggy Guggenheim Collection for art class which was also pretty sweet.  Modern art has totally grown on me during this trip--I love Kandinsky and Pollock and Warhol now, although the surrealists still really freak me out.  Looking at a Dali painting just tends to make me feel really uncomfortable.

After dinner we headed back to Padua, and now we're at the hotel studying for the music listening exam that we have in Vienna.  Tomorrow's a free day so we're planning on heading back into Venice and going to the Glass Island and eating more food.  Should be a good last day in Italy :-)

Dara

Greetings from Padua!

Hello, all!

So where did I leave off?  Ah, the Ancient Roman Bar Crawl--it was a lot of fun, actually, basically just a bunch of silly Americans wandering around Rome.  It was a really nice bonding experience for our group (38 of the 44 of us came), and we got to meet some interesting people studying abroad from the US.  I also got in for free since it was the day after my birthday!  Good times :-)

The day after the bar crawl we had a free day in Rome, which was really nice and relaxing.  In the morning I finally got my laundry done (although they use UBER HOT washers and dryers here so they shrunk all of my clothes), then some friends and I went to the Borghese Museum to see the Bernini sculptures for an art class assignment.  The Borghese is a really weird museum; you have to make an appointment the day before, and they only let people in every two hours exactly...if you miss the entrance time you don't get to go in.  It's also really small but TOTALLY worth it--it was hands-down my favorite museum thus far.  We saw three wonderful Bernini sculptures: "David," "Apollo and Daphne," and "Pluto and Persephone."

After the Borghese we wandered over to the Colosseum, which was incredible.  I'm a little (slash very) upset that the church decided they could rip off all the Colosseum's marble to build the Vatican, but it was still beautiful and impressive without being all shiny and white.  The problem with seeing things in Rome is that it's really hard to accurately determine the scale--both the Colosseum and St. Peter's seemed to be really small until you look at the size of a person across from you.  Then you just think..."Oh."

After dinner a few people from our group headed over to the Trevi Fountain (again), which I've decided is hands-down my favorite place in Rome.  At night it's also an incredible place to "people watch," and my friend Memphis and I started making up stories about everyone that passed.  It was great.

This morning we left for Padua bright and early, and after ten hours on the bus we're finally here!  Our hotel is incredible--we have a balcony, a living room, and a little office in our room.  We're spending tomorrow here in Padua and then the next couple of days in Venice, which should be great.  Thank goodness I got to sleep on the bus all day; this constant running around is really starting to catch up to me.

Time to go to dinner, but here's a link to Rome photos if you're interested: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014690&id=1326450024&l=7e0221365a  They're not all up yet, but they should be within the next few hours.

Missing you!

Dara