London, and Dublin, and Vienna, oh my!

(and a little bit of Rome, but I was amused at the title so I left it)

This past week has been such a blur!  London was amazing, I loved it! I am bittersweet about only having two whole days there, because as much as I loved it, it was soooo expensive. But on the first day we were there we did a free walking tour. I love those, even though it's not technically free (you should tip the tour guide at the end), it's way cheaper than a paid tour, plus the tour guides are normally really good because they love doing it. And its a great way to see a good portion of the city. During the tour, we saw a lot of the main sights, like Buckingham Palace, Parliament/Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. I'll upload pictures later (my camera battery died so they're all on my phone...). The second day we went to the Camden Markets and the Horse Stalls. Those were really cool, they used to be old (go figure) horse stalls and a big trading post. now they sell a lot of souveniry things, clothes, and jewelry. There are also a lot of ethic food stands. I was in heaven! I was craving ethnic food for a long time! In Croatia they don't have ethnic food, it's all fish, pasta, pizza and chevapi. That is one thing I was missing from home, the diversity of not only people, but the food! So I got a chicken curry and it was delicious! It perfectly hit the spot of the ethnic food I was craving. I also got a mulled wine, and it was so good, something about a nice warm glass of anything when it's cold outside is just so comforting. After the market, we went to the London Eye. How could we visit London and not do that? The view was really great, and it seemed as if the city went on forever in every direction. After the Eye, we visited Tower Bridge which was cool to see and I got some good pictures (again, I'll upload these later I promise!). After that, we went to Harrods! It was massive! Seriously, it was like the Macy's in New York City times about 1,672 (give or take a few). And it was so pretty because they had their Christmas decorations out! After that (this was the longest day ever) we went back to the hostel and got some food. Then I met up with my friend Rodney from RIT freshman year (who now goes to Northeastern) who is studying in London now. It was cool to know someone and meet up in the city! Oh, we also went to Platform 9 3/4! I cant remember which day it was, but it was like a dream come true, I just wish I had made it before the train left, I pulled a Harry and Ron circa Chamber of Secrets and was late! Bummer, I would have loved Hogwarts!

The next morning Kaylee and I woke up early and hopped on a flight to Dublin! To be honest, we didn't do much here besides drink, but do as the Irish do, right? We walked around the city for a while the first day, looking at the cool buildings. We found Trinity college which was gorgeous, I couldn't imagine going to school in a place like that! (Strange that it's so hard for me to imagine considering how stunning RIT's campus is.... sarcasm). But later that night we did a pub crawl with the hostel. We went to a few different pubs and the person taking us from place to place would make suggestions of a drink to get. Obviously we had some Guinness, but we also had a red lemonade and whiskey. I can't tell you what red lemonade is, but I can assure you it tasted good and it's an Irish drink. One of the pubs we went to had live Irish music playing, I loved that, it was definitely my favourite. I'm not big on club-type places, my favorites are the ones where you can just sit and have a drink with friends and listen to good music. One of the other places we went, Kaylee got a water and I wasn't drinking anything. Some Irish guys were talking to us and were embarrassed for us that we didn't have a real drink in our hands. They asked if we have had any Irish drinks and we said we had guinness earlier, and they were so offended and said "are you a grandfather?" (apparently only old Irish men drink Guinness...). The Irish accent is much harder to understand than I was anticipating. One of them said something to me and I didn't understand, so I just nodded and smiled. He left them came back with whiskys (whiskies? I don't know how to pluralize that...) for us... so of course we had to drink them. They were fascinated that we were from the US and with our accents. At  one point they asked me to say thirty-three. So I said it and they just started laughing! Apparently I say it really funny, even though they're the ones that say it like 'turdy tree' (and nobody likes a poopy tree!). The next day we did some more walking around and then we went to the Jameson distillery. That was really cool, and it was fun to learn about how the whiskey is made, especially since I knew nothing about whiskey (past tense because now I do!). 

The next morning we flew to Vienna. It was nice to be in English speaking countries for a the week, being in a place where you don't know the language is exhausting. It makes me really want to learn another language, I just always feel so bad if someone asks me something and I just stare at them. And me 'knowing' German doesn't count. I basically only remembered hi, bye, thank you, and please. Every once in a while a would see a sign with a word on it that I understood and I got really excited! I also have a friend in Vienna! So we (Kaylee, Steve and I, Steve is Kaylee's boyfriend, he just got in and is traveling with her for the rest of the time she's in europe) met up with Keri. For those of you who don't know, Keri went to my high school and even went on the trip to Vienna with me back in 2008 I think it was. She's in grad school at the University of Vienna and also teaching English at a local high school. We met up with her at the university bar/restaurant. I got a really good goose soup. I've never had goose before but I really enjoyed it. All week they had goose specials for some holiday (I can't remember the name of it...) Then we walked around the Christmas market they had in the quad and got Punsch, Austria's version of mulled wine. Delicious!

Then I flew to Rome to met Tom!!! I was so excited on the plane ride that I couldn't focus on reading my book. Once I landed and found him in the airport, we took a train to the hostel. We rang the buzzer and then no one answered. We were confused, especially because the guy from the hostel (technically a b&b) emailed me last week to confirm our arrival time. So again, another time that having a data plan prevailed! I emailed the guy telling him we are in the courtyard, ringing the buzzer and no one is answering. A little old woman comes out and she said that we can put our stuff right outside of her apartment because she said it would be a shame for us to waste our vacation time waiting for someone. So we left our bags there and went out to find food. Both of us are starving at this point, and after a half hour of walking around trying to fins some place, I realized that it's sunday and things close early on sundays. So we try for another 15 minutes or so to find a place to eat. Tom is about to pass out from tiredness/jet lag/hunger, and me just from hunger. So we resorted to McDonalds. I'm not proud. But when you're hungry, don't have a place to stay and are worried about finding a new place if this one doesn't work out, anything sounds good! So after we eat our five star meal, we walk back to the place where our bags are, in the hopes someone will answer. Nope. No one did, so I used my data plan, found a hostel with a decent rating that was within walking distance (neither of us felt like figuring out subways or buses at this point) and I booked it. We used my phone as a map and got to the new hostel. Right as we get there, the guy from the previous place emails me back and says "sorry for inconvenience, I'll wait" . Too late bucco, we left you for someone else. But it ended up being fine, and the girl who works at this hostel is super friendly. Once again, I'm so glad I have a global data plan. Who knows how long we could have been waiting there!

Like I said before, I'll upload the pictures of London, Dublin and Vienna when I get a chance. Also, I'm turning most picture taking duties over to Tom. As much as I love taking pictures, I am getting really sick of it haha so from Rome on out, most of it will be his handy work. Unless i'ts an amazing shot, then it's probably mine.