What an exciting month this has been! And only 8 more weeks left to go, it's unbelievable. It makes me sad for sure, but for now let's focus on the happy stuff... like sitting 8 rows back from the best futbol player in the world during a Barcelona v. Sevilla game:
Besides that bit of awesomeness, we spent the rest of our time soaking up the awesomeness of Sevilla. If you told me 3 years ago that I'd be living only 2 hours north of Sevilla, I would have never believed it. I still can't believe how lucky I am.
OK, now for the highlight of this post: Venice & Verona, Italy and Dublin, Wicklow, Glendalough, & Howth, Ireland.
First things first, the pizza and gelato of Italy is truly heavenly, although I hear from Elliot that you can get equally amazing pizza is NYC... which is no surprise. In any event, it far farrrr surpasses the pizza you can get in Spain. I ate gelato and pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day in Italy. Secondly, I love the Italian language, it's absolutely beautiful. Even if you don't know what someone is saying to you, you can just close your eyes and imagine a tall, handsome Italian man serenading you. The best is when they speak English, because they're singing your own language to you, and it makes you wonder why you don't speak it like that as well. Also, my previous experience with Italians included a Costa cruise and trips throughout the rest of Europe. That being said, I arrived in Italy expecting dramatic, pushy people shoving me around and yelling at me with dramatic hand gestures. Although the hand gestures didn't disappoint, I found the people of northern Italy to be calm, welcoming, and very sweet (although I hear things are different down in Rome).
So first on the agenda was Venice. Here are my recommendations for Venice travelers: 1. Stay in Mestre. It's far cheaper, a nice little city, and only an easy 10-minute train ride into Venice. It's quiet and away from the chaos. 2. Don't buy train tickets (if you have the guts) for trains under 30 minutes. They are never checked. Elliot and I decided that if we were locals we would never buy train tickets because the cost of the tickets is probably more than a fine would be should you get caught. We took round trip trains between Mestre and Venice twice, round trip trains from Mestre and Verona, and round trip trains between Mestre and Treviso. Our tickets were only checked between Mestre and Verona...a 90 minute ride. Other than that, the tickets were simply money wasted. As far as communication goes, most people spoke English and we could get by on our limited Italian (Grazie = Thank you, Prego = You're welcome, Birra = Beer, Conto = Bill). If all else failed, we would speak at people in Spanish and hope they understood. It all worked out for the most part.
So Venice, it's a lovely lovely place. There truly aren't many streets. Actually, the canals basically are the streets. There are absolutely no cars, so every type of transport is on water, be it taxis, public transport, or even ambulances. That's right, the hospital emergency room is actually a dock.
I also wonder how the city hasn't flooded and been destroyed. The houses are literally on the water and most need to be accessed by boat. The Adriatic must be relatively calm because if water levels rose even slightly, houses would flood. A lot of the houses had little water garages. Then, stairs would lead into the main part of the house from the garage. Imagine your garage, only sitting on top of water instead of your driveway. It's crazy!
I was actually a bit surprised about how run down the city was, especially with the amount of tourism. But I suppose that's to be expected in such an old city, much like other cities in Europe. Although the city was incredibly crowded, it was so easy to turn off at any alleyway and have a beautiful narrow canal all to yourself. I was certainly glad that I did not stay on the island, because we never passed the same thing twice and the streets were impossible to navigate.
Finally, as anyone would expect, Venice is expensive. However, in my opinion it's only expensive by European standards. The prices are actually quite comparable to prices in the US, especially since I lived in DC before moving here. And with all locations, it's easy to travel on a budget.
Our next stop was Verona. Verona is simply beautiful. It is exactly what every person imagines Italy to look like, with narrow streets and flowery vines hanging from balconies. In contrast to Venice, most of the city was very clean and in good shape. It was clearly a pretty rich city, judging by the beautiful homes, expensive cars, and high-end shops everywhere. I don't think I had actually seen a Fendi store before coming to Italy... I had only heard about it in that song by Fergi. The city was incredibly historic. There were many Roman ruins, theatres, an arena (looking like a mini Colosseum), a castle, and old Roman streets running under the current ones.
There was even a wall that was built in 40 BC. Geez! That's before Jesus was born. It was used as a customs point into the city. Possibly the coolest thing was that this city is the setting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Although there's some debate about the authenticity of the characters, what is known is that the Montagues and Capulets were actual families, and their property is still standing in Verona today. Of course marketing/tourism have exaggerated the importance and renamed these properties "Juliet's House" and "Romeo's House", but it was still pretty awesome to see the actual properties of these families, which were only a few blocks away from each other, by the way. Funny that some simple neighborly feuds were blown into the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet (which was NOT Shakespeare's original idea, FYI).
So here's my recommendation for Verona: Should you chose to travel in Verona, try to schedule it during the 1st Sunday of the month. Every museum/monument of the city allows you 1 euro entrance, where you would normally pay about 6 euros. With this deal, we were able to climb the Torre di Lamberti, enter into the old Roman arena, and check out the Roman archaeological museum/Roman theatre.. all 3 with amazing views of the city. All of this for only 3 euro, pretty amazing.
Next stop was Ireland. IRELAND IS COLD. We spent 2 days in Dublin, then the last full day exploring the countryside, including the Wicklow mountains (which supply the Guiness factory with pure water), Glendalough (containing ruins from approximately the 1100's or ealier), and Howth (a nice port town near Dublin).
Dublin was amazing, but it made us homesick because its quite similar to the US, and especially very similar to Boston, minus the skyscrapers. I've realized that an Irish pub looks the same no matter where in the world you are. But the food was awesome. I ate Sheppard's pie, stew, burgers, fish and chips, and a host of other delicious things. In the very first pub we went to the waiter said, "Oh, you're American? It must be nice to be able to drink beer here before you're 21." I told him I wasn't drinking my first pint, but thanks anyway for the compliment. Strangely enough, an older woman asked me not more than 2 hours later if I use Botox. Ok...?
We met up with Elliot's parents in Ireland. Thanks to his Dad's seemingly endless amount of points, we got hooked up with this amazing amazing hotel room that was 2 blocks from Temple Bar (the pub hot spot) and overlooked Trinity College. I literally felt like a queen.
The people were great, very very friendly. It was amazing to be able to speak English again, and we were able to make friends soo easily. Almost every pub we went to had live music, so we had a great time. Here's one of them:
Other fun stuff we did... We visited the Dublin Castle by hopping onto a tour that we didn't pay for. We also visited the Guinness brewery, obviously a must see while visiting Dublin. It's a bit pricey, but its a huge building with lots of cool things to see, plus you get to enjoy a complimentary Guinness on the 7th story Gravity Bar. Guinness prides itself on using the purest water from the Wicklow mountains. Obviously their huge focus on water explains the lack of flavor in the beer, but I couldn't say that there, could I? One section I enjoyed was a collection of all of their marketing collateral from over the years. This one is my favorite, and I feel like it explains a lot....
The view from the Gravity Bar...
On our final day we took a drive into the countryside. Now remember, Ireland drives on the WRONG side of the road, so I can honestly say I hated every second of the drive. It was terrifying, although the views from the mountains were beautiful. If driving on the opposite side wasn't enough, we chose to go winding through the narrow roads of the mountains. Adventurous? Yes. Crazy? Possibly. The fun began at the airport, when El's Dad was on driving duty and El was on navigation duty. I watched from the backseat as they both got into the wrong side of the car. I knew from there it would be an adventure. But we're all still alive to tell it, and it ended up being pretty fun.
OK, now for the highlight of this post: Venice & Verona, Italy and Dublin, Wicklow, Glendalough, & Howth, Ireland.
First things first, the pizza and gelato of Italy is truly heavenly, although I hear from Elliot that you can get equally amazing pizza is NYC... which is no surprise. In any event, it far farrrr surpasses the pizza you can get in Spain. I ate gelato and pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day in Italy. Secondly, I love the Italian language, it's absolutely beautiful. Even if you don't know what someone is saying to you, you can just close your eyes and imagine a tall, handsome Italian man serenading you. The best is when they speak English, because they're singing your own language to you, and it makes you wonder why you don't speak it like that as well. Also, my previous experience with Italians included a Costa cruise and trips throughout the rest of Europe. That being said, I arrived in Italy expecting dramatic, pushy people shoving me around and yelling at me with dramatic hand gestures. Although the hand gestures didn't disappoint, I found the people of northern Italy to be calm, welcoming, and very sweet (although I hear things are different down in Rome).
So first on the agenda was Venice. Here are my recommendations for Venice travelers: 1. Stay in Mestre. It's far cheaper, a nice little city, and only an easy 10-minute train ride into Venice. It's quiet and away from the chaos. 2. Don't buy train tickets (if you have the guts) for trains under 30 minutes. They are never checked. Elliot and I decided that if we were locals we would never buy train tickets because the cost of the tickets is probably more than a fine would be should you get caught. We took round trip trains between Mestre and Venice twice, round trip trains from Mestre and Verona, and round trip trains between Mestre and Treviso. Our tickets were only checked between Mestre and Verona...a 90 minute ride. Other than that, the tickets were simply money wasted. As far as communication goes, most people spoke English and we could get by on our limited Italian (Grazie = Thank you, Prego = You're welcome, Birra = Beer, Conto = Bill). If all else failed, we would speak at people in Spanish and hope they understood. It all worked out for the most part.
So Venice, it's a lovely lovely place. There truly aren't many streets. Actually, the canals basically are the streets. There are absolutely no cars, so every type of transport is on water, be it taxis, public transport, or even ambulances. That's right, the hospital emergency room is actually a dock.
I also wonder how the city hasn't flooded and been destroyed. The houses are literally on the water and most need to be accessed by boat. The Adriatic must be relatively calm because if water levels rose even slightly, houses would flood. A lot of the houses had little water garages. Then, stairs would lead into the main part of the house from the garage. Imagine your garage, only sitting on top of water instead of your driveway. It's crazy!
I was actually a bit surprised about how run down the city was, especially with the amount of tourism. But I suppose that's to be expected in such an old city, much like other cities in Europe. Although the city was incredibly crowded, it was so easy to turn off at any alleyway and have a beautiful narrow canal all to yourself. I was certainly glad that I did not stay on the island, because we never passed the same thing twice and the streets were impossible to navigate.
Finally, as anyone would expect, Venice is expensive. However, in my opinion it's only expensive by European standards. The prices are actually quite comparable to prices in the US, especially since I lived in DC before moving here. And with all locations, it's easy to travel on a budget.
Our next stop was Verona. Verona is simply beautiful. It is exactly what every person imagines Italy to look like, with narrow streets and flowery vines hanging from balconies. In contrast to Venice, most of the city was very clean and in good shape. It was clearly a pretty rich city, judging by the beautiful homes, expensive cars, and high-end shops everywhere. I don't think I had actually seen a Fendi store before coming to Italy... I had only heard about it in that song by Fergi. The city was incredibly historic. There were many Roman ruins, theatres, an arena (looking like a mini Colosseum), a castle, and old Roman streets running under the current ones.
There was even a wall that was built in 40 BC. Geez! That's before Jesus was born. It was used as a customs point into the city. Possibly the coolest thing was that this city is the setting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Although there's some debate about the authenticity of the characters, what is known is that the Montagues and Capulets were actual families, and their property is still standing in Verona today. Of course marketing/tourism have exaggerated the importance and renamed these properties "Juliet's House" and "Romeo's House", but it was still pretty awesome to see the actual properties of these families, which were only a few blocks away from each other, by the way. Funny that some simple neighborly feuds were blown into the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet (which was NOT Shakespeare's original idea, FYI).
So here's my recommendation for Verona: Should you chose to travel in Verona, try to schedule it during the 1st Sunday of the month. Every museum/monument of the city allows you 1 euro entrance, where you would normally pay about 6 euros. With this deal, we were able to climb the Torre di Lamberti, enter into the old Roman arena, and check out the Roman archaeological museum/Roman theatre.. all 3 with amazing views of the city. All of this for only 3 euro, pretty amazing.
view from Roman Archaeological Museum
View from Torre di Lamberti
Next stop was Ireland. IRELAND IS COLD. We spent 2 days in Dublin, then the last full day exploring the countryside, including the Wicklow mountains (which supply the Guiness factory with pure water), Glendalough (containing ruins from approximately the 1100's or ealier), and Howth (a nice port town near Dublin).
Dublin was amazing, but it made us homesick because its quite similar to the US, and especially very similar to Boston, minus the skyscrapers. I've realized that an Irish pub looks the same no matter where in the world you are. But the food was awesome. I ate Sheppard's pie, stew, burgers, fish and chips, and a host of other delicious things. In the very first pub we went to the waiter said, "Oh, you're American? It must be nice to be able to drink beer here before you're 21." I told him I wasn't drinking my first pint, but thanks anyway for the compliment. Strangely enough, an older woman asked me not more than 2 hours later if I use Botox. Ok...?
Street in Boston??
Other fun stuff we did... We visited the Dublin Castle by hopping onto a tour that we didn't pay for. We also visited the Guinness brewery, obviously a must see while visiting Dublin. It's a bit pricey, but its a huge building with lots of cool things to see, plus you get to enjoy a complimentary Guinness on the 7th story Gravity Bar. Guinness prides itself on using the purest water from the Wicklow mountains. Obviously their huge focus on water explains the lack of flavor in the beer, but I couldn't say that there, could I? One section I enjoyed was a collection of all of their marketing collateral from over the years. This one is my favorite, and I feel like it explains a lot....
On our final day we took a drive into the countryside. Now remember, Ireland drives on the WRONG side of the road, so I can honestly say I hated every second of the drive. It was terrifying, although the views from the mountains were beautiful. If driving on the opposite side wasn't enough, we chose to go winding through the narrow roads of the mountains. Adventurous? Yes. Crazy? Possibly. The fun began at the airport, when El's Dad was on driving duty and El was on navigation duty. I watched from the backseat as they both got into the wrong side of the car. I knew from there it would be an adventure. But we're all still alive to tell it, and it ended up being pretty fun.
Glendalough
Off the coast of Wicklow
Overall, I truly loved Ireland and I was very sad to leave. We spent our last night enjoying a lovely seafood dinner in Howth, just northeast of Dublin. My only complaint from Ireland is the cold. I can say I'm happy to be back in sunny Spain, where I spent the last of my glorious 2 week vacation sipping sangria and eating olives on my terrace in 80 degree weather. Judging by the tan lines the sun leaves on my body, I estimate that ten minutes in this sun is about equivalent to 10 minutes in a tanning bed. And since a tanning bed is supposedly equivalent to 1 hour in normal sun, don't be surprised if I arrive home looking like I just flew in from the Dominican. Furthermore, it now doesn't get dark until about 9:30 PM, thus extending my hours in the sun, but completely messing with my sleep schedule.
Well, I'd like to end this post with a short disclaimer. I feel like half the fun of traveling and living abroad is being able to compare my culture to others, and celebrate the similarities and differences. I stress that the things I say in this blog, whether they be positive or negative (ie: dramatic Italians or friendly Irish) are strictly my opinions formed on my observations and in no way should be taken too seriously or as the basis of your opinion - get out in the world and form opinions for yourself! Likewise, I hope to never offend anyone, because the things I say are all in good fun and I have nothing but respect for every culture and country in the entire world. Plus, I poke fun at Americans and my own culture way more than anyone else's! My philosophy is that the ability to laugh at AND appreciate other ways of life will ultimately give us a broader understanding and acceptance of the rest of the world.
That being said, I'm starting to miss my own country!! But I don't want to be in too much of a rush. As it is I only have 8 weeks of teaching left, 4 in each school. More to come as my time here is sadly winding down to an end.. Until the next post.. Miss you all and Happy Easter to my friends and family back home!
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