The Luck of the Irish- Dublin, Ireland

Ireland was my favorite place yet, I loved the Irish people, the city living, the old architecture, the history, and the beautiful country side.

Thursday November 12, 2009

We left Granada Wednesday night and flew to London and stayed in the London airport over night!We woke up at the airport and went for breakfast- we noticed that everyone around us was drinking beer- at 6am. It was crazy. We sat next to this band that looked totally legit. We then boarded the flight and were off to Dublin. When we got to Dublin we got right on an express bus into the city- it was about a 30 min ride. Then we went straight to our hostel- we sat around for a little cause we couldn’t check in until 2pm. We decided to head to Guinness Storehouse first. We got on a bus and went there, it was so fun. We learned all about how they brew the beer in Ireland. We tasted roasted barley- I thought it was gross. The factory was really neat, at the end we each got a free pint of Guinness and we got to sit i

n this really classy lookout bar area!

After this we got in a cab and me the nicest cab driver ever- this was the first time we were in a car that the driver was on the right side, and they drove on the opposite side of the road.We then headed over to Trinity College- Nicki said it was like the Harvard of the U.S. It was so beautiful and old. It reminded me a little of olivet. There were students going to school there too. We weren’t sure what was there, but we kept hearing about the book of Kells, so we decided to check it out. We went into the exhibit- where we saw the book of kells which is a copy of the gospels with beautiful drawings and its on special paper- it was written in latin and is REALLY old. After that we got to see the amazing old library of the college- it was so cool. There were many historic documents in it

We then headed to Arlington hotel where we were told there was real Irish dancing. We got there and it was the neatest pub, all light up and there were three men on stage singing irish songs and playing instruments- we ordered drinks ate Guinness pie, sooo delicious. The Irish dancing was 5 kids three girls two guys about our age! They were good it was soo neat to see.

Friday November 13, 2009

We woke up and walked to the bus for the Country tour. We got a quick tour around the city- our bus drivers name was Kevin. He explained so much to us, our first sto

p was the sea side it was really pretty. The second stop was this quaint little coffee shop with beautiful scenery. We then were on our way to the moutains, as we went up the country side he explained the black turf on the ground that turns to coal after an amount of time- we learned a lot. Our second stop was beautiful- here we had a shot of Jamison- we were pretty sure our bus driver drank too- haha Then we were off to more of the countryside- we saw where the movies black beauty, lassy, p.s. I love you, braveheart, and more were filmed. Most of them were filmed in a little valley where no real heavy equipment is allowed. Then we went for lunch at this amazing buffet pub- it was basically a turkey platter (thanksgiving early). Then we were on to see more of the country side we saw where the Guinness estate is, where a 70 year old man- the heir to the guiness lives all alone- BEAUTIFUL. Then we stopped in Glendalough- and we saw this really old graveyard- we learned about the tower- 2^nd largest in Dublin or Europe- and we got to walk on our own to 2 awesome lakes- and we saw some beautiful waterfalls.

Saturday November 14, 2009

Today we woke up a little later around 9:30 had breakfast in the hostel- then got on the hop on hop off bus. We got to hear all about the city- our first stop was Christ Cathedral- it was really neat. We got to sit through a prayer service- I loved it and I got to write a prayer in the prayer book. The cathedral was cool because it was soo old, but it looked really modern

Then we went to the St. Patrick Cathedral but it was closed so we just got to see the park

We went to Bull and Castle Pub- I had delicious chicken- and I LOVED gina’s fish- crazy right. It was SOOOO GOOD

Then we headed to the Dublin Castle- we went on a tour of the castle which was really neat. There were a bunch of different rooms we learned all about- and we learned the Irish has had a consecutive women president for 21 years at the end of the current president’s term.

After this we finished the tour and got to see phoenix park and where the current president of Ireland lives, we did a little shopping, then we were back to the airport.. to sleep in London one more time

Such a great experience- I LOVE IRELAND

Barcelona November 5-9

The home of Gaudi's amazing art work

Barcelona was soo cool and there was soo much to see. It actually resembled Paris a little bit. We flew out from Granada on Friday night, and we got into Barcelona and to our hostel about 1am. Saturday morning we went to the Columbus monument which was a really neat tower where we took an elevator to the top to see an amazing view of the city. We then went and walked a little bit on the port, because we were so close. This is the same port that Christopher Columbus came to first after his great discovery of America. Pretty cool.

After this we walked around on the famous street "La Rambla" The street reminded me a lot of San Francisco with all of the people on the streets dressed up trying to bring in money, there were some really funny/ awesome costumes. We went to a fantastic market which had the most amazing tasting fruit and smoothies, and there was soo much food- fish, pigs, everything. It was really neat.

Then we went back to the port to see a little more, crossed a really cool/pretty bridge. After

that we headed to the Cathedral- which was beautiful from the outside- Every Saturday night at 6pm, a bunch of people gather outside the cathedral- there is a band that plays on the steps and people break out in a Greek like dance- only for about 7 min. but it was SOOO cool. After that we went to the magic fountain- which played a cool song and the fountain was beautiful- this reminded me of Philadelphia (Betsy and Grandma) We saw a fountain there in the park!

After that we went to the FCBarcelona soccer game- in a stadium that fits 90,000 people and I would say it was almost full- the game was amazing Barcelona won. SOOO FUN!

Sunday morning we woke up and went to the Sangrada Familia which is a really famous church that was started by the Artist Gaudi it has been being built for 100 years and still has a ways to go. IT was such amazing architecture. Then we went to the casa mila- which was also done by Gaudi- it was an apartment building with an incredible roof- he was a genius and his art work is incredible- I can't wait to show you guys pictures.) Then we went to the park that is also done by him, its really famous it was gorgeous.. Then we had a really nice dinner!

Sunday we got to ride the funicular (gondola) ski lift thing, but it is closed in and we got to see the whole city- it took us to the famous castle, and then we got to see the Olympic stadium!

Art Field Trip- The Alhambra 11-3

One of the classes I am taking this semester is the History of Art in Spain, I have really enjoyed the class so far! My teacher is an old man who loves to sing! I have learned so much about art and Spain in general. As a class we have gone on various field trips. Granada is an amazing place to live when studying the art of Spain. We get to miss school for these field trips- but we learn so much. I hadn't been to the Alhambra yet, so it was perfect that I got to go for free with my class.

It was incredible, I learned so much! The Alhambra was basically an old town in itself. Inside the Alhambra was a palace, military housing area, and a beautiful garden. There are amazing lookout points all over the Alhambra where you can see all of beautiful Granada.

I can't wait until Sarah comes so I can take her here, there is so much Spai, especially Granada, history behind the Alhambra, and amazing architecture and detail as well.

Church Retreat 10.30.09

The church I attend here in Granada is full of students and every year they go on a reatreat in the fall, and four of us from ISU decided to go with them.

The retreat was up in the mountains at a little resort-camp kind of thing. It was beautiful. When we got to the site on Friday night we were excited to find out that they had seperated all of us from ISU, and put us in rooms with girls we didn´t know, Spaniards. This ended up being a great experience!

There were about 55 students who went, all from different countries, and we all came together to worship the same God, how cool right? Friday night we had a fun scavenger hunt all around the camp ground, it was really fun!

Saturday we started out the morning with devotions with the girls in our room, then we went to a great service where we learned more about reaching out in the community to share the Word of God. After the service we had a games day, we played typical camp games, I participated in the pie eating contest with kelsey, neither of us won, but it was fun. I never knew how much harder it would get to wheelbarrow race, sooo hard now!

After the games we got to dress up (halloween) the theme of the night was the 60s, but we didn´t have anything from that time period so some of us dressed up from the 80s. We had such a fun time dressing up. Then we all went to dinner, we got professional pictures taken, and then we had a really fun dance party all night.

Sunday morning we had another great service, and then all of us girls from ISU did a little hiking around and just hanging out.
We had such a great time, it was really relaxing and so fun to spend time surrounded by others that love the Lord.

Malaga 10.24.09

I have been so bad at blogging, but I am going back and finally doing it.

10.24.09 Malaga

Malaga is a small city in Spain on the coast of the Mediteranean, it is beautiful! One of the girls in my group, heather´s, aunt came to visit her and they decided to go to malaga for the weekend so I took a bus there to visit them. The bus ride was about 2 hours, but totally worth it.We spent the entire day on the beach, it was amazing! The weather was perfect and it was so pretty. Malagueta is the name of the beach, just past the sign you can see the amazing mountains too.

Bonjour, Merci - Paris, France

We woke up really early on the 4th about 3:30am to catch a bus from Rome to the Airport. We then got on the plane and were off to Paris. When we got to Paris we were dropped off in this little tiny bus station we had NO idea what we were doing. We walked across the street to a mall where we got to see a little of the Paris fashion. We bought metro passes for 2 days for unlimited rides, it worked out great. The metro was SOO easy to use. We got on the metro to head to a station to buy boat tour tickets. When we got off the metro we walked up some stairs and we started walking towards the boat when we looked up and saw the Eiffel Tower. It was one of the best moments in my life. It was beautiful weather and just the coolest thing. I have wanted to see the Eiffel tower since I was in 3rd grade and a high school French student came and talked to us about her trip to France. It was soo beautiful in Paris.

When we started walking down the road to grab some lunch, we were presently surprised again to see the Arc de Triumph at the end of the road- so amazing. After that we got on the metro again this time to go to the Louvre. We were walking there when we saw the Vogue Magazine sidewalk. Every cover of vogue was on a poster/statue thing. It was pretty neat. We then went to the Louvre where we saw the Mona Lisa, and many more cool statues and famous paintings. After the Louvre we walked around a little; at one point we were standing in a park and we realized we could see the Louvre, arc, and Eiffel tower. It was amazing, there were beautiful gardens too. Then we were on our way back to the boat for the tour. The boat tour was SO fun!

WE then went to our hostel which was like a huge bar. It looked like a really fun place. I had an AMAZING view from our hostel of a cute river and some boats. In the morning it was unfortunately raining, but it was alright. We went to the Notre Dame- it was pretty cool there was actually a mass service going on while we were there. I liked it cause we just walked through it, we didn’t spend a lot of time there. We then took the metro to the arc de triumph and saw it close up which was really neat. Then we went to an amazing dinner!! It was soo delicious! It was Italian food, we had a great salad and pasta! We then were on our way to the Eiffel tower. As we were walking up to it we saw it sparkle- which it does for the first 5 min of every hour. So cool. There were a ton of vendors selling things outside the tower too! We went all the way to the top of the tower- which is REALLY high! It was such a beautiful view! Paris was by far my favorite place I have ever been. I loved it!

My trip to Rome

(Heather and I with our Roma Scarves)
September 30 - October 3, 2009

We left for Rome on Wednesday September 30. We first flew to Barcelona and we stayed in a hostal there. It was pretty nice- we just got there and went to bed. The next morning we ate breakfast and we on our way back to the airport. Our flight was supposed to leave at 11:30, but there were a lot of delays and we didn’t leave till 1:30. We got to Rome about 4pm and we took the bus to the metro station. We then started to look for our hostal. Coming into Rome wasn’t pretty at all, it was dirty. Not what we expected at all! We had dinner at the hostal- free pasta! After dinner we went on a walk around Rome. We got to see the Spanish Steps, and it is basically the botellon of Rome. Everyone was drinking alcohol on the steps and there were so many people. After that we walked around and saw other cool famous statues/fountains. Then we went to Gelati, which is the best gelateria in the world. Obama recently went there. The gelato was AMAZING! We got three different flavors on a chocolate coated cone. We had soo much fun.

(Spanish Steps)

The next morning we woke up and we headed to the coliseum. It was HUGE! We went on a tour of it and capital hill. We learned all about the Coliseum. It used to be full of marble and it was gorgeous, but it was abandoned after the games ended and people started taking the marble to use it in other places, so now there is none! They used to have awesome fights there with the gladiators and animals. We were told that three cat like animals became extinct because of the games. We also learned that the floor was covered with sand and in Spanish arena is how you say sand and that is how in English the world for stadiums (arenas) is today. Pretty cool. They are still excavating a lot of the property because there is still a major palace underneath the land that was just recently discovered. After we did that we went to lunch at a pizza place, pretty good Rachel and I got the best fruit pizza ever! We then went a cathedral- where the chains of Peter and Paul are and the statue of Moses. That night Heather Robin and I went out for some wine in Italy, it wasn’t much better than anywhere else, but we had a really fun time. We also went souvenir shopping.

(The Chains of Peter and Paul)

In the morning we were off to Vatican City where the pope lives.

It was really cool we waited in line for a little while to see St. Peters Basilica. It is the 2nd largest cathedral in the world now I have seen the 3rd largest and 2nd largest! It was really dedicated to the popes. I did see the statue of the virgin mary. After that we went to the museum where we saw the Sistine Chapel!!! It was just a huge museum we were kind of annoyed, but seeing that was sweet. After that a couple of us decided to leave we went to a festival where we got to buy some stuff! That night we went out to a really really nice restaurant. There was a pond of turtles next to our table in the restaurant haha. I got spaghetti, it was pretty good. Then we were off to bed! It was a fun trip!