Settima e Ottava Settimana

Ciao all!

As I imagined, keeping a blog here as proven to be a bit of challenge. I have lots to catch up on!

After my last post I headed to Milan to visit my boyfriend's mom there during her layover. I arrived at her hotel early Saturday morning with some suspension that Andrew might be with her and sure enough he was :) At the halfway point in my trip, it was the perfect time for a surprise visit from him. Plus, he and his mom came with treats from home that I have been missing desperately like peanut butter, fishy crackers, candy and Harry Potter movies. Together we spent a beautiful day in Milan exploring the city, visiting the duomo, wine tasting, and eating out with some of the other flight attendants. Even though I had some idea that he might be planning to surprise me, I didn't know he would be able to come back to Florence with me the following day and spend the week there in my new home. My roommates and I had the best time showing him our favorite restaurants and sights to see. Together we visited the statue of David, toured the inside of the Duomo, hiked to the lookout point with a view of all of Florence, shopped along the Ponte Vecchio and the outdoor markets, drank too much wine and ate way too much Italian food. I could not have asked for a better week. Having him here was the perfect taste of home that I needed and a wonderful reminder of how little things change when you are away from the people that mean the most to you.

Milan Duomo

Treats from Home

Florence Viewpoint at Sunset

After Andrew left and our midterms were completed, we had little time to pack and prepare for our 10 day spring break trip in London and Dublin. I was lucky enough to have another visitor on this trip, although this one wasn't a surprise. My brother and his close friend Nick had been planning to meet us in London and travel from there to Dublin with us as well. Traveling with the two of them made a huge difference from previous trips when it was just us girls. We found it much easier to get around the city with them by our side. Not to mention, London and Dublin were significantly easier to travel in without the language barrier. Although their accents were difficult to understand at times, it was far easier to communicate with locals this past week than it has been the whole time I have been in Florence. Coming back to Florence and being greeted in Italian was something like a second round of culture shock.

Our first full day in London, us girls ventured out to the Warner Brother Harry Potter Experience while Patrick was working in his company's London office. Located in several huge warehouses in the middle of nowhere, the Warner Brother experience held all of the scenes and prompts from every Harry Potter movie. For a nerd like me, it was amazing to see! We saw it all, from the original clothes and costumes, the Great Hall, the Dursely's House on Pivet Drive, the ministry of magic, Hogsmade, the Knight Bus, Dumbledore's Office, Professor Umbridge's Office, the Gryffindor Common room, the boys dormitory, and the replicas of the magical creatures. We were there until closing, although I could have stayed and explored for several more hours. It was so interesting to see how much time and effort was put into the creation of the series as well as which parts were filmed in real settings and which were computer generated. It is crazy to imagine we were at the same place that Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, and Rupert Grint spent so much of their lives to make movies that are a distinguishing part of our generation.

The following day, we visited the Natural History Museum that was interesting because it was completely different from all of the other museums we have seen. It seems like most of the Renaissance art is starting to all blend together for me because that is a majority of what I have seen. Dinosaur bones and replicas of mammals were a nice change of pace for all of us. An interesting fact about London was all the museums are free but you have to pay to enter churches, which is the opposite of Florence.

Outside the Natural History Museum. 

We also visited two major outdoor markets that London is known for, The Borough Market and the Camdan Market. The Borough market was located just seconds away from our hostel (a hostel that was a little too similar to a frat for me with a bar downstairs and a young laid back staff it had more of a party atmosphere than a home, endless to say I am happy we were staying there with the boys). The Borough Market is one of the largest and oldest food markets in London. It was lined with rows and rows of booths sampling and selling a wide variety of foods from to teas to vegetables to cheeses to meats to pastries to soups and sandwiches. My favorite of these booths was the olives, yum!! At a market like this, you could enter with an empty stomach and leave full of culture and all the samples.

The Camden market was in a different area of London and was more of a retail market than a food market. In between the stalls selling a mix of art, clothing, souvenirs, trinkets, and crafts were restaurants and pubs. We spent most of the afternoon here because there was so much to see. In some ways, it felt like a super-sized Pike's Place Market.

Borough Market

Harrods was another one of my favorite destinations in London, considering that it is the world's largest department store. Since we were with the boys, we were given a time limit that we could be there haha and I was only able to see a tiny fraction of the massive building. We shopping through the designer purses and accessories, the jewelry, and chocolates and were amazed by the amount of high end luxury items that surrounded us. Bodyguards stood on every corner, reminding us that we were completely out of place in a store like that. Maybe one day I'll be able to go back and actually shop :)

We spent most of our afternoon's sightseeing in London and our evenings at the local pubs. Besides the markets, museums, and Harrods, we saw some of the more historical sights in London too. We visited the Palace of Westminster, Big Ben, the London Eye, and St. Paul's Cathedral. We made a point to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace because it only happens once a day. However, we did not anticipate how many people would be there and how little of a view we would have. Even though we didn't have a great idea of what was going on, it was cool to see such a huge city event.


Another highlight of being in London and Dublin was the food because it was so different than Italy and more similar to home with burgers and fries, fish and chips, sandwiches, soups, beer and hard cider. We also enjoyed Chinese food for the first time in forever in London's Chinatown. Although I never really get sick of the pasta and pizza here, it was nice to have a variety of choices for the week.

Patrick was lucky enough to celebrate his 23rd birthday in London. He picked an Indian restaurant in the Little Pakistan of London for his birthday dinner. After dinner, which we all enjoyed more than we thought we would, we saw "Let it Be" a Beatles show in the Theatre District. We arrived a little late and were confused because there was no acting in the show whatsoever but we ended up having a blast after realizing we were basically just at a Beatles concert. The singers sounded shockingly similar to the real Beatles and did an amazing job recreating all of their songs. Following the concert, we took Patrick out to the bars and clubs to celebrate our last night in London and his birthday.

Let It Be Show in London for Patrick's Birthday

After 5 days in London, we flew to Dublin. Our hostel there was the best one of have stayed at so far! It was basically a nice hotel with bunk beds, a restaurant and fancy bar downstairs. We also had a private room for the 6 of us. Dublin is by far one of my favorite places I have ever been. It was very different from London in that there aren't as many sights to see and we were able to relax a lot more.

Two of the major exhibits we saw here were the Guinness factory and the Jameson Distillery.  These museums were much more interactive than others were have visited and the free drink at the end was a nice addition! Although I am not a huge Guinness fan, it was definitely better in Ireland and the Guinness stew to complement it made it that much better.

My favorite day in Ireland was our all day bus tour along the coast to see the Cliffs of Moher. We left at 7 in the morning and came home around 10 but the trip was well worth it. Along the way, we vistied Trinity College and made several stops in rural Ireland to see traditional farms and ancient castles. Being along the ocean coastline was refreshing because it felt like we were back at home near the Puget Sound. It was amazing to see all the green land that you would never know existed if you just staying in the Dublin city center. We toured a farm that had been run by the same Irish family for several decades and spent time warming up in their grandmother's cottage afterwards for coffee, tea, and homemade pastries. Being on this day trip felt more like a traditional Irish experience because we were surrounded by the true countryside and given a taste of the history and struggles that occurred there.

The Cliffs of Moher were breathtaking and terrifying at the same time. Having a fear of heights made me a little anxious to walk along the edge of the cliffs. We watched several people (including Patrick and Nick) jump over the railing to snap the perfect picture. Parts of the Lord of Rings were filmed in this area, even though I have never sat through one of those movies I can see how this would be the perfect setting because it looked like something I would only ever see in a movie.

Cliffs of Moher

View from the top of an Irish Farm

Our trip to Dublin happened to fall on easter weekend, which was interesting because we quickly learned that the city was much more religious than any city at home. No alcohol was allowed to be served in any bar or restaurant or sold from any store on Good Friday. Then at midnight, all the pubs opened again. It was very surprising to see that the whole city actually abided by this religious rule. Although we were traveling home on easter day it was a great experience to be in such a Catholic area of the world for this holiday because it is obvious it is something the entire community celebrates together. We visited St. Patrick's Cathedral on Good Friday. Like so many of the European churches I have seen, the architecture shows how much the people there truly believe in a higher power.

Outside St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin

Aside from the Cliffs of Moher and tour of the coastline, the Irish pubs were by far the best part of Dublin. There is one area of the city, called Temple Bar, that is several blocks full of pubs. Each one is almost identical to the last with dancing drunken Irish men and live music. The Temple Bar is the original bar that started the area and was our favorite. It had an outdoor beer garden and was always packed with fun loving people, great pub food, and the best live music. If anyone has ever seen P.S. I Love You, that gives you a pretty good idea of what the Irish pub scene is like. It was so refreshing to know all the music in the bars and be surrounded by such a great group of people.

Temple Bar - Our favorite Irish Pub

After a long week of travels, I am so happy to be home in Florence and feel like I could sleep for a week. With only a month and a half left here, I can't believe how fast time has gone! Seeing Patrick and Andrew has definitely given me the extra boost I needed to enjoy the rest of my time here before going home.

I will post again soon, ciao for now!