Athena Dublin Spring 2012: Gabrielle Reiter

We arrived at our next destination... Nice, France! A city we didn't know too much about, but heard wonderful things. Our curiosity was racing, not knowing what to expect. I had ideas and expectations of what I thought it would be, and it turned out to be far beyond that. A city with history, beauty, character; I know I have said this countless times, but let me tell ya, this city is by far the BEST one I have ever been too!! I didn't want it to end; I felt at ease, comfortable, happy, excited, and so much more! I don't care what it takes, I'm retiring there when I get older!

Our first day there Laura and I headed down to the beach, roughly a 15 minute walk from our hotel, and explored what the city had to offer. First thing I noticed on our stroll were the buildings, they were stunning, classic and timeless. They were absolutely incredible, by far the most beautiful architecture I've seen so far!

The city was breathtaking! We relaxed on the beach and enjoyed the company of the ocean, and the beautiful city that surrounded us. Night time was near, so we called it a day, grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to the hotel! On our way home we noticed a huge crowd of people surrounding something, street performers!

It was quite interesting actually, a Michael Jackson impersonator was the main performer but on the sidelines a young man with headphones in breaking out his own dance movies, aka crumping, and a little boy probably about 5 or 6 years old who kept running around performing his own dance moves and trying to impersonate the Michael Jackson impersonator! It was hilarious, 3 different people all trying to do their own thing with Michael Jackson music blasting in the background. A fun end to our day.

Street Performers

The next day was an early one, hoping to get a head start one our sightseeing! Down by the beachfront there was a little choo choo train that drove around the city, showing the monumental sights with all of the history! We decided to hop on and explore the historic sights. We learned the history of some of the most important buildings, the history of the city, and saw the old ruins of the Palace from centuries ago! And not to mention the beautiful views...

After the tour we explored the city on our own, backtracking from the places we saw on the tour, viewing all the monumental locations and the incredible scenery. It was such a beautiful and sunny day, we decided to head back to the hotel and grab our swim suits and lay out on the beach!  

The beached in France are a wee bit different the most beached that I have seen, instead of their being sand it's all rocks instead... which makes it a bit uncomfortable to walk on when you're trying to go in the water swimming! I swear I was falling all over the place, my feet were sore from walking all day and then making my way through the rocks into the water only to get knocked down by the waves!! I mean, it was a bit funny... but at the time I was not a happy camper! The water was beautiful, bright blue! and also freezing. I still loved it though, now I can finally say I went swimming in the Mediterranean Sea! After a couple hours, and a nice sunburnt we grabbed some grub and headed back for the night.

Monte Carlo, Monaco

It was our third and final day in Nice, France and we ventured out of the city! Our destination: Monte Carlo! Some place I had been dying to see, and only about 30 minutes away from Nice. I'm sure everyone has seen Monte Carlo in movies and on television, the city is famous for its casino life and the Grand Prix race! It was beautiful, Similar to Nice in ways, beautiful architecture and views, but very small. Decades ago the late Grace Kelly was the princess of Monaco, we visited the palace and saw the changing of the guards while we were there! Similar to the tour in Nice, we hopped on the choo choo train tour that drove around the city showing you historic sights. Afterwards we ventured out on our own, walking around the city, and lastly we visited the famous Casino. It was a relaxing day, the weather was bautiful and once we finished touring Monte Carlo we headed back to Nice and ended our day by laying out on the beach. It was a wonderful and unforgettable trip; Next stop: Paris!

Changing of the Guards at the Palace!

The Palace!

The Monte Carlo Casino!

It's been quite awhile since my last post, my month of April was a pretty boring one. I spent much of my time working on final projects and assignments for my classes, and preparing for my final exams which take place this week.

April 26, 2012- May 7, 2012

A friend and I took a twelve day trip to Spain and France, our first destination: Barcelona, Spain. A beautiful city, full of life and history. We spent five days there, hoping to spend much of our time at the beach, but unfortunately that didn't work out quite as we planned. The weather was actually quite lovely, a wonderful change from all of the rain we have been receiving in Dublin; nice enough to wear shorts but not quite nice enough to lay out on the beach.

We spent most of our time in the downtown area, Las Ramblas, where the streets are filled with tourists from all over the world. Our first day downtown we trailed off  of the main road and wandered the side streets, not knowing where we were going, hoping to find something new and exciting! It was beautiful, not like anything I have ever seen back home. It was like a city lost in time, much like many of the cities in Europe, beautiful buildings and acrchitecture, narrow streets, old stone roads.

We found this food market off of the main road, famous in Spain! It was awesome, fruits and vegetables as big as my hand! And of course delicious gelato, which I think we ate every single day of our trip. We continued walking around through all of the shops, and stopped for a relaxing dinner at a little restaurant hidden off one of the side streets. A relaxing night with a pitcher of Sangria enjoying life and talking about how crazy it was that we were in Spain, it was wonderful.

The Fruit Market!

Enjoying my glass of Sangria!

We woke up early the next day to start our sightseeing! We met up with a few friends from Dublin who were also traveling through Barcelona the same time we were, and luckily one of them spoke Spanish! I can't even begin to tell you how difficult it was trying to translate with the people, not many spoke English, or very little! But our good friend Julie kept everything in order, and even taught us a few things!

First stop of the day: the flea market! Not quite what I expected when I though of a flea market, I've been to quite a few traveling through other places, none quite like this. I was thinking we would see the Spanish culture flooding the market, filled with home made crafts and trinkets, but instead it was just normal products sold in shopping centers except it was outside slustered together, sold on stands. Not exactly my cup of tea, plus it was pickpocketing central! The place was packed, so trying to be careful is a bit of an understatement.

After we got that out of our system we moved on to our next stop, Gaudi's architecture. I of course have heard of the famous architecture before, I actually even learned about him in my art history class, but I still wasn't 100% familiar with all of his work. It was insane, I'm not one who's crazy about architecture but this stuff was not like anything I have ever seen, it was beautiful, unique, different. I don't even know how to describe it, all of his different pieces are so different from one another, the curves the detail, so much detail, it's unbelievable. Instead of me trying to describe it and not doing it justice, take a look for yourself, here are some photos of his work...

We stopped soon after this for a relaxing drink together, then called it an early night to prepare for our next day!

Montserrat, Spain; one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, with an incredible view. We all met up early Sunday morning at the train station to prepare for our departure to the countryside. Still tired from the early rise that morning, we all slept for most of the train ride, roughly one hour to Montserrat.

Finally, we arrived to one of the most stunning places that any of us have ever seen. To clear things up, Montserrat are mountains in Spain where a little Monastery is build in the mountain all the way at the top, and to get to the monastery you have to ride in a cable car over the mountain to the very top, it's insane!! When we reached the the monastery, we had to stop and take a moment to enjoy one of the most beautiful sights, and incredible view and an amazing experience.

We could see everything, all of the land, the city far out in the distance, and even a little glimpse of the ocean! We made our way around the little village of people, buildings, and shops stoping to admire the buildings and people. There was a courtyard filled with all different people and performers, little shops filled with home made sweets and yummy goodies made right there at the monastery! We started making our way to the very top of the mountain, taking another elevator/cable car, once we made it to the top we started our little hike, myself and two of my good friends Laura and Tatiana. We were going insane, we couldn't believe the view!!

I swear we stopped every 5 minutes to take pictures (and for Tati to take a break haha). There was an old chapel and some ruins sitting on the mountain, it was unbelieveable. We continued are hike up the mountains around the old ruins and across and old bridge until we finally reached the end of our journey. There was an old rocky staircase on the side of the mountain that we were walking down, and poor tatiana was not having it! She was in shock that there was no railing with this staircase made out of rocks on the mountain.... no railing on the mountain!!! HAHA, one of the many highlights of my trip.

Laura was playing mother and helping her down the mountain, while I was playing drill sergeant and told her to get her butt moving and get down the steps! One of the funniest moments I have ever encountered. She made it though, tears and all! I have to say, I was very proud of her! A wonderful end to our day in Montserrat. Shortly after we made our way back to Barcelona and ended our evening with a lovely dinner, some sangria, and a night out on the town!

The cable car coming down from the Monastery! 

 My friend, Laura

Tati striking a pose!

Old chapel on top of the mountain

Tati on one of her many breaks...

Laura showing Tati how to work her way down the staircase...

Coming down the mountain, here she comes!

Victory. She finally made it!

Part of the Monastery! 

Laura and I said farewell to our friends the next day, and spent our last day walking around the city enjoying the sights, just seeing the old buildings is enough for me, that alone was so beautiful. We spent a lovely afternoon sitting and relaxing on the beach enjoying the weather and taking in the sight of the Mediterranean, watching all of the surfers! We found a nice little market, with the home made Spanish crafts I was looking for and called it an early night, preparing for our early departure, next stop: Nice, France!

WARNING!

St. Patty's Day in Ireland is CRAZY.

to say the least....

Anyway, we started off the festivities with getting ready and dressing in all green, obviously... and then we headed down down for the Parade! Which was impossible to navigate, there were SO MANY people!! It was unbelievable, I thought that St. Patty's day in Chicago was wild, the one in Dublin makes that look like a tea party. But I mean, this is Ireland so what can I say?

The parade itself wasn't that great, actually it was pretty Americanized which was disappointing; I was expecting something a bit more traditional. The crowds were awful too, full of obnoxious rowdy people, which kind of was a buzz kill at times... be prepare to be shoved, multiple times... If you're trying to find a pub, find one and stay there! Otherwise through out the day it's going to be harder to find one that's not completely full, some pubs were up to a three hour wait to get in!  And the streets are packed the entire day, so like I said before just find a pub and stay there. It was a pretty fun day though, all part of the experience! and definitely something that should be on the bucket list; it was a long, incredibly fun, and an exhausting day!  

Scotland by far is one of my favorite places I have visited so far, Edinburgh is like a city lost in time. It’s so beautiful and historic, all of the buildings are from another time, centuries ago. That’s what I loved most about Edinburgh, unlike all of the other cities trying to keep up with all of the latest technology and architecture, this little city has stayed true to its roots. I’ve never been anywhere quite like this place, I felt vintage walking through the streets of the city, it was like I knew everything about it. I wasn’t just learning the history, I could feel it, see it all around me. All of the photos I have taken don’t do justice to what this city is actually like, this is somewhere that you need to put at the top of your list of places to visit!

While we were visiting we did the walking tour of the city, which was free and it was awesome. You learned everything not only about Edinburgh, but all of Scotland and even the UK. Sometimes I know history can be a bit boring, but our tour guide was awesome and kept it very entertaining! Later on our own time we visited the Edingburgh castle, DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY!! Seriously, it’s not worth it! When I went into it I was thinking it would be similar to the Tower of London (which I absolutley loved) and it was NOTHING like it! A lot of places within the castle grounds were closed off, and the few things that we could see were so boring. If you are interested in the history of the Scottish army then this might be up your alley, otherwise don’t bother. I was really looking forward to seeing the crown jewels, and there was only one crown. Like I said, boring and a waste of time and money.

We also did a day tour during our visit, originally we were supposed to go the Loch Ness Monster, Glencoe, and the Highlands but there was a confusion in our pre-booking, and the wrong tour was scheduled, which was quite unfortunate because we were all pretty excited for that tour. Instead we saw a couple of different Lochs (lakes), Dewars Whiskey Distillery, and some historic locations, not as exciting as I thought it would be but still pretty cool. There are much better places to see in Scotland though, so I would skip out on this one…

Another great thing that I loved about Edinburgh is I saw so many Harry Potter related things!! I LOVE Harry Potter, so I was freaking out a little bit… We saw the Elephant House, a little cafe that Rowling would sit in everyday writing her stories of HP down on pieces of napkins. We also saw the place where she Wrote the first Harry Potter book, and the original building that inspired Hogwarts. Also there was a gravestone in the cemetery near the “Hogwarts” building with the name “Tom Riddle” on it, which inspired the character in her books.

I could go on and on about Scotland, but instead here are some pictures to help sum everything up…

Dewars Whiskey Distillery

The Elephant House, where JK Rowling started writing her ideas and stories down on napkins for Harry Potter

The big window in the middle is where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

The Edinburgh Castle

The Royal Apartments

As my mother would say “Now this is what Scotland is all about!” oh mom…

London was quite the experience, but a wonderful one to say the least.  Definitely some place to put on your bucket list, but I don't think I could ever live in the UK, the currency over there is awful! Dollars to Pounds is worth nothing, so I ended up spending so much more money than I planned...

London is a HUGE city, it's so big it's split up into zones. There was so much I wanted to see and I just didn’t have enough time to get it all done. A lot of the time is spent getting from one place to another, everything is so spread out in London! The places that I did have a chance at seeing was The House of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, The Eye (although we didn’t have time to go on it), Abbey Road, Harry Potter's Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross Station, Millennium Bridge (one of the many places where they filmed Harry Potter), Buckingham Palace, and so much more that I can't think of at the moment! It truly is a wonderful and beautiful city, I had such a fun time and learned so much about England's history. I would love to return someday to finish seeing all of the places I didn't have a chance to see the first time.

The Buckingham Palace

Standing in front of the Palace

The Tower of London

The House of Parliament  

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Tower Bridge

The famous Abbey Road crosswalk 

Off to Hogwarts!

Another day tour that I went on this month was to Blarney and Cork, unfortunately the weather was really crappy out and it was raining most of the day. It was still a pretty neat experience though, we were able to kiss the Blarney Stone! Which was much different than I thought it would be might I add... the stone was actually just a wall built into the Castle, and there were two men that held you upside down when you kissed it so you wouldn't fall through the gap!

It was still pretty cool, the castle was all ruins, most of it fallen apart. It was really neat, but definitely not something that you have to see if traveling to Ireland... and as for Cork, it's pretty much just like Dublin, though I still enjoyed it. There was this fresh market there, which was so cool. They literally had everything, some things not so pleasant, for example a pigs head cut off for sale and dead animals skinned and hanging....... yes, I know, disgusting. But all part of the experience! Here are some photos from our day…

Like I said before at the beginning of this month I went on the day tour to the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, and the weather was in our favor! We were so fortunate to have such a beautiful sunny day. The drive through the countrysides were unbelievable, and when we finally arrived at the cliffs the view was incredible, it was even more amazing then all of the pictures I have ever seen. It was a wonderful day, definitely a must see if you ever visit Ireland! Here’s a look at our day ...

A lighthouse off the shore

Old Ruins..

A Leprechaun House! AKA a drinking well…

Old Church Ruins

So it's been a while since I have last posted, the month of March has been pretty crazy for me. My mother arrived March 4th and stayed for two weeks… a very, very long time! I was SO excited to see her! I love my mom so much, being away from her for five months is pretty tough, so it was wonderful that she had the chance to visit, especially since she has never been to Europe. Although trying to entertain her for that long of time was kind of difficult... Anyway we saw so much while she was here! I took her to see the countrysides of Ireland (The Cliffs of Moher and the Blarney Stone), all around Dublin and then we headed to the UK to visit London and Scotland, we had such an amazing time.  It was bittersweet having to say goodbye, but I just keep thinking only two months until we are reunited again! 

The Cliffs of Moher

Last Saturday the group and I took a day tour of Wicklow, Ireland. It was someplace that I was very excited to see, both films P.S. I Love You and Braveheart were filmed there! Unfortunately the weather was very gloomy and the sky was filled with thick fog, and light showers through out the day. The sight of the mountains was very distant and almost completely hidden behind the haze. Though the views still beautiful, we had a lovely day of sightseeing and to top it all off, our tour guide Tommy was a blast! I do plan on returning in the near future around spring time, when the weather starts to take a turn for the better. 

Here’s an example of how thick the fog was, behind the haze there are mountains.

The Wishing Cross
It’s said that if you wrap your arms around the cross, and you make a sincere wish, it will come true.

The Bridge from P.S. I Love You

The Field where Braveheart was filmed