Fall Break

For this edition, we leave the Emerald Isle for a well needed (possibly less deserved) fall break. Before leaving, though, I got a visit from two excited travelers. My Parents! They decided to take a ten day tour of Ireland and the first stop aside from the airport was to hang out with me in Galway for Friday and Saturday. It was very exciting to don the tour-guide cap and show them around what has become a second home over the past few months. Sunday morning came, though, and it was time to bid them adieu. They dropped Jon Phenow and Me in Galway at the bus station and they headed on through the Connemara National Park for their own adventure.

After a two hour bus ride, Jon and I ended up in Dublin. It was my first time there so I was fairly excited to see the area. We didn't do an official tour in any respect, rather we took the day to walk around and simply take in the city how we saw fit. We saw the Guinness Brewery, which if you don't know/expect, it's HUGE. It spans about five blocks in length! We saw many landmarks such as Smithfield, Four Courts, Christchurch Cathedral, City Hall, Dublin Castle, Parliament Building, Trinity College, St. Anne's, and the National Concert Hall. En route to these majestic landmarks we took in quite a bit as well. We stopped by the Old Jameson Distillery, but we decided not to go since nearly all brewery's are now owned by Diageo. We did, however, tour the Temple Bar area. Quite fun and spunky area built around the Temple Bar (Go figure) which we stopped at an had a pint while enjoying live music and the bustling crowd. Soon thereafter we stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe down the street for a plate of hot wings and a few drinks. Dad - I finally tried a Bahama Mama; wow is that a fruity, weak drink. The rest of the world - my dad got plastered off of Bahama Mama's on a cruise in the Caribbean. After realizing that Trinity College had become more so a fortress surrounded by high walls on all sides rather than a welcoming beautiful area, we meandered towards St. Stephen's Green. It was quite a beautiful park nestled into the big city. We then hopped over to the Iveagh Gardens which was a slightly smaller, more secluded park near the Nation Concert Hall. After that we headed to our hostel. If I could give you one piece of advice for visiting Dublin, its this: Do not stay at Camden Hall Hostel. When we got there we were greeted by a very friendly man and we got our hopes up that we had found a gem of a hostel. As we walked to our room we realized that this labyrinth was tricky to navigate. Finally we arrived in our room. We decided it was far too early to go to bed so we hopped across the street to The Bleeding Horse, a pub which claims to be the oldest pub in Dublin, to watch the soccer match. Knowing we would need to get up very early in the morning, we went to bed around 9pm. It felt like no sooner had I closed my eyes then three United States girls and one Frenchman (who it became quickly obvious was not with them and was just trying to schmooze) came in and chatted it up for a good half hour before the girls had finally sent him off. About an hour after everyone in the room had gone to bed, I was still stirring (most likely because the central supports for my bed's frame were missing to the middle was sagging nearly to the floor.) Anyway, the Frenchman came back in, which surprised me because I didn't think he was staying in our room. After about a minute of silence I rolled over to see him starting to walk off with all of my things in his arms. After a quick confrontation he set everything down on a bed on the way out the door. What a dick.


230am came far too soon and we rolled out of bed into the taxi headed to the Airport. We arrived in Venice and were immediately amazed by the city. Of course, being college guys, Jon and I found the first Italian pizza shop we could and we not disappointed. Again, we wandered the city aimlessly. This relaxed meandering became premium style for our trip. We saw the major landmarks in Venice such as Campo San Polo, Giacomo dell'Orio, Ponte di Realto, San Marco, and the Galleria d. Accademia. One word of wisdom for Venice, the water buses are extremely helpful but finding a ticket booth is nearly impossible. Buying a pass at the bus station is advised (although they never check for the passes.) We ate dinner at a very sketch restaurant near our hostel on the island of Guidecca. Our hostel was very nice and was equipped with personal lockers (my favorite part after the Dublin incident) and quality beds. On Tuesday we decided to start outside central Venice in the Parco delle Remembranze and stopped at the Viale Guiseppe Garibaldi, Viale del Garibaldi Pubblico, the Naval Museum, San Giavanni e Paolo, and San Maria del Frari. Of course, this was our last day in Venice so we felt it was necessary to sample the Italian wine and Italian pizza. We stopped at various places throughout the day to do this. By the end of the day we had had a combined three pizzas and each had had two bottles of wine. It was great.

Wednesday was a very interesting day... We were abruptly woken up before the day started at 11pm when an old man staying at our hospital started snoring. It was the worst snoring I have ever heard. I'm surprised the didn't hear it in Rome. Finally I gave up on sleep around 4 and took a shower and got dressed. We caught the water bus at 5am and got off at the bus station. We had purchased bus tickets to the airport and they told us to hop on the bus at platform D2 at 6am. We got there a little early, at about 5:55 and got on. Apparently the bus we got on was going to a completely different airport. Luckily we realized this after he pulled away but before he left the station. We ran back to platform D2 and hopped on the correct bus which led us to the correct airport and we got on the correct flight at 8am to Brussels. On our bus ride from Brussels Airport to Brussels Midi Train Station, we decided that Brussels was a dirty, broken, haggard city that we didn't feel like staying in like we had planned. We purchased the first ticket to Amsterdam we could and after some Subway we headed out.

Amsterdam was absolutely amazing. I immediately fell in love with the city. We stayed at a hostel called the Flying Pig Uptown which was slightly off the beaten trail but was amazing. It was on the border of Vondelpark, an amazing park with beautiful trails, fountains, and statues.Mom, don't read the next part. Immediately upon arriving at the Flying Pig we were greeted by a girl who was tripping on shrooms. It was hilarious. We migrated up to our room where we put our stuff in our provided lockers. So here's where things between Jon and I got really close but slightly awkward. When booking this hostel the cheapest price was for what was labeled as a "double dorm" and it was required to purchase in twos. We weren't sure exactly what this meant but worst case scenario as we figured it, we'd end up in a queen bed. That was exactly what it meant. The more awkward part was that in our eight person room Jon and I were the only guys and we were sharing a bed. It was quite ironic. After settling in we decided to hit the town and see what these Coffeeshops were all about. We ran into three students who had been studying in London and two of them were English Education people! It was pretty exciting and we got to talking for quite a while before we decided to grab some food and head to bed after a long day.

The next morning we grabbed some of the continental breakfast offered at the hostel and sat around listening to two extremely skilled guitarists free styling it while high. It was amazing. We headed into the city and decided to go on a boat tour of the canals which were gorgeous and very well done. After that we went on a Coffeeshop tour that was offered. It was framed to be extremely educational and worth while. It was far less educational than we expected. It consisted of an Aussie tour guide showing Jon, myself, and three British guys around and telling us where the best place to buy was and where certain celebrities got their weed. It was fun but very lackluster on the educational aspect. We found the Hard Rock cafe for dinner and drinks. It was quite enjoyable. Afterward we went back to our hostel and listened to the crazy guitarists again for a while.

Friday came and we headed out on a free walking tour of the city which I would highly recommend. We had the same Aussie tour guide but in the more formal setting he turned on the educational and professional charm. He made the three hour tour extremely enjoyable and extremely informational. I was seriously amazed with his group management. After managing classes in the Arboretum I had to give him a pat on the back when he managed our group of 70 people within the bustling city. For dinner we had coconut curry soup with two Canadian girls who shared the queen bunk below us. They were very fun and cooked good soup. Afterward they asked if we had been to the Red Light District and if we'd be willing to tour them around it. So we did. Overall it was a very relaxed and fun night that led to Chubaka sounds while we laid in bed. Janelle tried valiantly to make a proper wookie call but it only succeeded to make Jon and I bust out laughing and probably scare our neighbors thoroughly.

On Saturday we checked out of our Hostel and meandered around Vondelpark for a few hours then, after lunch, headed to the Rijks museum. After seeing the line heading three blocks away, we decided to skip it and just went to see the giant "I Amsterdam" sculpture. We stopped in Dam's square to do some people watching while a carnival was taking place outside the royal palace. I learned that if you want to gather ten thousand pigeons from around a city all you have to do is give a hobo a package of 100 hot dog bus and tell him to go feed the birds. I also learned a good way to keep track of a group, about 20 girls wearing various vibrant colored wigs is hard to lose track of. Final lesson of Dam's Square: if you want some drugs look for the sketchy guy wearing a shiny Bob Marley jacket and a giant gold, green, and red scarf. We also saw a group of break dancers randomly bust out a gig in the streets as wandered the city for a few more hours before catching a train, plane, bus, then taxi back to the Park Lodge Hotel.

So that is my fall break in one, not so small nutshell.