Dublin, Rome, London, Rome (AKA longest update ever)

Dublin Castle- the church

I apologize profusely for the lack of updates. It's due to a mixture of laziness and busyness and not wanting to sit in one place long enough to write this. So we'll go back in time to November 3rd....

The Ha'Penny Bridge, right outside our hotel

Okay, so when I left off, we had gone to the airport in Prague to get on our flight to Dublin (in case you've forgotten, I was traveling with my good friend Katey).  Our flight left in the early evening, so we watched the sunset from the plane.  It was dark when we got to Dublin, so we didn't get to see much that first night.  When the flight landed, we had to find our way to the hostel, which involved taking a bus and somehow knowing when to get off magically.  The hostel was in a really good location, next to the River Liffey and across the river from the Temple Bar area.  The hostel itself was okay.  The set-up was less convenient than the one in Prague, and the people weren't as interesting or friendly.  One advantage was that I got to have the bottom bunk, but other than that, I definitely liked the one in Prague better.  So that evening, it was already pretty late by the time we got in and got settled, so we went to a burger place to grab a quick bite to eat.  My burger was delicious, and I think Katey enjoyed whatever it was that she had; and the food was cheap-- always a plus.  After dinner we sat down and planned out our entire time in Dublin.  As much fun as we had in Prague, it was very disorganized and we kind of just did everything on a whim instead of planning anything at all.  So in hopes of not missing out on anything at all, we planned out every second of our trip.

Christ Church Cathedral

The next morning, we ate breakfast at the hostel, and then headed out to take a free walking tour of the city.  There ended up being a really big group for the walking tour, and we had to split into two groups.  We ended up with the better of the two tour guides.  His name was Cillian (Killian spelled with a C; i found it strange, but apparently its completely normal in Ireland). The tour started at City Hall, an important landmark for the easter uprising, and then brought us to Dublin Castle.  We also got to see Christ Church Cathedral, the Ha'Penny bridge (which is actually right outside our hostel), Trinity College, the library and museum of Dublin, St. Stephen's Green and some more stuff.  Randomly, in the middle of the tour, we had a 10 minute break, and during that break, we ran into 4 of my fellow Rome Semester students.  I knew that they would be in Dublin, but I had no idea that we would be on the same walking tour!! We agreed to meet up that night to experience nightlife in Dublin.  After the tour, we grabbed lunch in a little cafe (I don't remember what I ate, but I think it was good).  After that, we went to the Leprechaun museum.  It's a new museum, having opened this year, and it was more interactive than one normally thinks museums would be.  We had a really funny/informative guide in the museum, and I think I actually learned a lot about Irish folklore.  The museum starts in a giant's room, complete with giant chairs, door knobs, lamps and tea cups.  We were encouraged to climb around and take lots of ridiculous pictures.  Then we went through the rainbow, and ended up at a map of Ireland telling us some history of folklore in Ireland.  Next we went to the pot of gold, where our guide met up with us again, to tell us about leprechauns, then the fairies house, followed by the wishing well.  It was definitely geared towards young kids, but we had a blast.

Hanging out in the Giants room at the Leprechaun Museum

That night, we went on a pub crawl (with the 4 other St John's students) that is organized through the same company that organized the walking tour.  We went to 4 bars and ended up at a "club" which was more of a bar with a crappy band playing live music.  I drank my first ever Guinness, and also drank the world's most disgusting beer ever (two separate incidents).

a pint of Guinness

The next morning, we went to the Dublinia Museum, which was about the history of Dublin from the Vikings until the Middle Ages.  This, too, was a very interactive museum, with buttons for us to push to hear different things, games for us to play, quizzes for us to take, all sorts of stuff, so it was pretty interesting.  Next, we visited Christ Church cathedral.  It's a really big cathedral with tons of stuff to see.  They have the heart of St. Laurence O'Toole, which is interesting, and lots of other interesting stuff to see. We probably spent over and hour in there, because I wanted to see and learn about everything they had on the map of the church (you know theres a lot to see when the church has a map...).

inside of Christ Church Cathedral

 Next, we went to the National Library, because our tour guide the day before had told us that there were people there who would help you look into your geneology.  Since both me and Katey have Irish roots, we wanted to see if we could learn anything.  Unfortunately, when we got there, we learned that we didn't have enough information about our families to properly do research.  Disappointed, we decided to go to the National Museum to see the bog men, but not before I called home to ask my dad about his ancestors.  He wasn't sure, so we went to the museum.  The bog men were noblemen who all met mysterious deaths and were placed in bogs by their murderers so they would not have afterlives.  The bodies are just about perfectly preserved.  They are a little shriveled, and one had been beheaded, but on the rest, you could see their facial expressions, and one of them even still had a tuft of red hair on his head! I found it pretty cool, but others thought it was disturbing. hmph.  Well, when we left the museum, my phone rang.  My dad had called my grandfather and got the information I needed to look into my genealogy, so we went back to the library, so I could do some research.  I found out that my family, The Mullarkeys, are from Sligo, and I got to read the marriage certificate of my great great grandparents.  I got their birthdates, and then from there I looked up each of their parents, so I was able to go back 5 generations, which was really cool.  I found out a lot of stuff I didn't know, and it was so cool to be in Ireland, looking up my Irish heritage! We did a little souvenir shopping, ate dinner, and then called it a night.

Cell block in Kilmainham Gaol

The next morning, we woke up early and went to Kilmainham Gaol, which was the main jail for Dublin from the 1800s until the mid-20th century. The leaders of the Easter Uprising who were caught and jailed were all kept there, and most of them were killed there. During the potato famine, people were intentionally committing crimes so they could go to jail and get fed. The museum in the jail had the book where they wrote down all the information about the prisoners, the crimes they committed, and their sentence. Some of them were pretty ridiculous, including "About to commit a felony,” “Maliciously breaking 26 panes of glass,” “In possession of three dead geese,” and “Common prostitute annoying the public.” They were pretty fantastic.

Me at the Guinness Storehouse

After that we went to the Guinness Storehouse. We learned all about how to make beer, and the history of the Guinness company.  We learned that back when Arthur Guinness first opened his brewery, he signed a 1000 year lease!! It was all very interesting, but the best part was the bar on the top floor.  It had a full 360 degree view of Dublin, which was absolutely fantastic. And we got a free Guinness (although I still find it to be quite icky).  The next stop on our day was the Old Jameson Distillery.  When we got there, we got the last two spots on the tour, and then when the tour guide asked for volunteers, me and Katey volunteered even though we didn't know what we were volunteering for.  So we learned all about Whiskey and how its made, and then when we got to the end, they told us what we had volunteered for-- a whiskey tasting.  So we got to taste three kinds of whiskey and see which we liked best; Jameson won, hands down.  Then they gave us a certificate which says we are certified whiskey tasters! It was pretty exciting.

Whiskey Tasting at the Jameson Distillery

That night, we decided to go on a ghost bus tour of Dublin, which isn't really something I would normally want to do, but for some reason, I really wanted to this time.  And it ended up being really fun.  Dublin has some interesting ghostly residents, and it was funny to watch the tour guide freak people out with his stories.  We learned about the Green Lady, and visited Hell, and also visited a graveyard.  All in all, worth every penny.  

View from the top floor bar at the Guinness Storehouse

The next morning, I woke up bright and early (read: 4 am) to go to the airport.  The lady at our hostel said I would be able to take a bus to the airport from a stop down the street, and that the bus came every hour on the half starting at 4:30, so I was waiting at 4:30 for it.  Somehow, my guardian angel showed up in the form of a taxi driver, who offered to drive me to the airport for the same amount that the bus would have cost.  I happily got in, and when we got there, he informed me that on Sundays, the buses don't start running until 7 am, and so I would have been waiting out in the cold for very many hours and would have missed my flight if he hadn't come along.  Thanks a lot hostel-lady. ugh.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie premiere in Leicester Square

I got back to Rome early in the afternoon and slept for a good long while.  I don't remember much from Monday or Tuesday except freaking out about packing and figuring out if my cousin Pearl would be joining me and my sister in London.

Rupert Grint (AKA Ron Weasley)

Wednesday morning, I woke up bright and early and headed back to Fiumicino airport (my home away from home? I seem to be spending an awful lot of time there lately).  I got to London and went through Customs and then found my sister.  It was so weird seeing her, since it's been so long.  We found out that Pearl had missed her plane, but would be joining us later that night.  So we headed to the hotel to check in and make a game plan.  We took the train to the underground and then got completely lost trying to walk the rest of the way to our hotel.  They don't like street signs in London, so it was pretty easy to get lost.  We ended up eating lunch at a Subway, and then finally finding the hotel and napping.  The hotel was pretty comfortable.  We woke up and ate dinner at some point, at the train station, then returning to the hotel to take it easy for awhile.  Pearl showed up pretty late, and we went to bed pretty soon thereafter.

Emma Watson (Hermione Granger)

The next morning was the day of the HARRY POTTER PREMIERE!!! We woke up super early and went to Leicester Square to stake out a good spot on the red carpet.  When we got there, no one seemed to know what was going on, since the set up had only just begun.  We walked around trying to figure it out, and then noticed people getting into a line.  Not knowing what the line was for, we jumped in it, and waited.  As it turns out, the line was to get into the actual square, up where all the action was.  There was only one person between me and the red carpet!!! So we got in there around 9:30 am, and the premiere didn't start until 7:30 pm, so we stood there in the cold rainy weather for very many hours.  We played Harry Potter hangman, complained about the weather, discussed ways to create an umbrella roof, got angry at the stupid girls in front of us, and basically got excited.

James Phelps (Fred Weasley... or is it George?)

When the stars started arriving, it became quite apparent that we were the luckiest people in the world.  We quickly ended up basically in the front row; I was able to take tons of pictures, and we got Kayla TONS of autographs! Including JK Rowling's autograph on Kayla's copy of Tales of Beetle the Bard.  It was fantastic!!! But, we had been standing for something like 13 hours straight, so we were EXHAUSTED.  We went to KFC to sit (not to eat) because we simply could not stand up any longer.  And, ironically, ran into a bunch of my classmates (the same ones from Dublin.... such a coincidence!!).  Next we had to find Pearl, and get dinner.  Finding Pearl was more difficult than anticipated, but we found her, and found a cute little delicious burger place to eat at.  Then, we went back to the hotel and PASSED OUT. We're talking comatose status here. We were so exhausted.

Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy)

The next morning, we woke up and had our wonderful complimentary full english breakfast, including scrambled eggs, toast, bacon and orange juice! So delicious! Then, we headed for Buckingham palace, in hopes that we could see the changing of the guard.  Unfortunately, we were 5 minutes late, so we just admired the palace from the outside, and then wandered through the Queen's gardens.  We found all sorts of strange birds that we had never seen before.  Then, we found squirrels! Anyone who knows me, knows that I absolutely LOVE squirrels, and I haven't seen one in awhile, so I was really excited. And these were friendly squirrels that we could pet and play with! I'm not even joking. We spent quite awhile playing with the squirrels and the pigeons.  I got a pigeon to land on my finger which was pretty epic (although not quite as epic as the guy who got 10 pigeons to land all over him).  Then we walked to the parliament buildings and Big Ben.  We also saw Westminster Abbey, but we didn't go inside because it was so expensive.

Squirrel!! 

 Next, we went on the London Eye.  It was really cool.  I had heard of it before, but I didn't really know anything about it.  It was definitely worth the trip, since you could see literally everything.  It was pouring rain when we went, and you could still see for miles! We ate a quick lunch at McDonalds (I know, fast food, ew.) and went back to the hotel for a little bit.  That evening, we decided to check out Hamley's toy store, which is huge and amazing, and much like FAO Schwartz in NYC.  We spent a very long time there, and then wandered around the area nearby, which is one of the main shopping districts.  They had their Christmas lights up, which was lovely.

Big Ben!

The next day was a whirlwind.  We had a lot to do and very little time to do it.  We started by taking the Undergroud to the Millenium bridge (bridge destroyed by death eaters in Harry Potter).  We crossed the Millenium bridge and saw Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.  We stopped at Starbucks for 1.5 minutes to get coffee for Kayla and a peppermint mocha for me.  Then we walked to the Tower Bridge.  On the way, we got very distracted with this wall that was a timeline of everything that has ever happened in the world.  It was very interesting, but we wasted far too much time on it.

View from the London Eye

Then, we crossed the Tower Bridge and went to the Tower of London.  We spent quite a bit of time there, because it was something we were both very interested in.  We learned about different Kings and their wives and their beheadings, and also about torture and jail back in the day.  We also learned about crows, living in castles, and Yeoman Warders.

Tower Bridge

Next, we went to the British library, where we saw lots and lots of old books, including some of Leonardo Davinci's journals, some original copies of old religious texts, the Magna Carta, and lots of other cool stuff that I can't remember off the top of my head (I've been writing this one entry for over 2 hours now...).  After the library, we visited Kings Cross station and platform 9 3/4.  We took the obligatory photos of ourselves pushing our carts through the wall to get on the Hogwarts Express.  The next stop was the Wellcome Collection, which is a museum of medicine, in a way.  They have a vast collection of old surgical and other medicinal tools, and just lots of stuff that relates to medicine in different ways.  I really enjoyed it quite a bit, but we've already established that I'm into that sort of thing.

Kayla pushing her cart through

Next stop was the Dickens Museum (AKA his house, exactly as they imagine it would have looked when he lived there). We spent a long time there, reading every piece of paper in the entire house.  It was pretty interesting, and me and Kayla both like good ol' Charlie, so we both enjoyed it.  By then, we were exhausted, and all the museums and such closed for the day.  So we rested for a few minutes, and then tried to find the Burlington Arcade.  We went through Picadilly Square, where the entire city of London decided to go to hang out... there were thousands of people, so much so that we got trapped in the subway station!! Once we got away from the people, we ate a quick (yet disgusting) dinner at a cafe, and then found the arcade. Unfortunately, it was closed. Oh well.  We did some souvenir shopping on the way back and then called it a night.

phone booth!

The next morning, we went to the airport.  Our weekend was over, and it was time for Kayla to go back to the states and me to go home to Rome.  Kayla's flight left before mine, so we got her checked in, then begged for them to let me check in.  Then we went through security, ate a delicious McDonalds breakfast, and did some shopping before Kayla boarded her flight.  Then I had two hours to kill, so I read a magazine in an abandoned hallway before it was time for me to board my flight.  I got back to Rome late in the evening and basically crashed and slept all week.

some Yeoman Warders, just chilling

Except not really because I had to go to class and see my friends (the third DTW rotation is here now; that means my friends are here!!). So in summary, I paid a $173 phone bill, did service at the nursery school with demon children, saw sunset from Villa Borghese (again), accompanied Katey on a boot-buying expedition, slept a LOT, visited a synagogue for my religion class, celebrated my friend Zoe's 21st birthday at an Australian pub, and bought boots at a flea market (not in that order though, sorry).

another beautiful sunset from Villa Borghese! 

Okay, now that I've been working on this for more than THREE hours, i'm stopping. I'll add the pictures in tomorrow... it's 2 am now... ciao!