Venice

So, way overdue, here is my post about my final European adventure before heading home: Venice!
Our flight out from England was very early on a Thursday morning from Stansted Airport, which is more than an hour from the city. That meant getting up and out of the flat by 3 AM to get a bus to Central London, to then get on a bus to the airport. That wasn't all that fun. There weren't any problems, though, and we got to the airport just fine. We flew RyanAir, of course, and the flight went smoothly. I got a few great glimpses of the Alps on the flight, but sorry, no pictures of that.
Our plane took us to Treviso Airport, which is a 40 minute bus ride from Venice proper. There is this long bridge that goes from the mainland to the island of Venice, and the parking lot at the end of the bridge is the only place cars can go on the island.
It was a very short walk to the hostel, which was right near the northern end of the Grand Canal. This was our first view of the canals:



This was what it looked like right outside of the hostel, in either direction:




Of course, being in Italy and traveling with Matt, one of the first things we did was get some food. This meal ended up being really expensive, as did most of our meals. Matt always insisted on getting meals in restaurants with some wine, so a bunch of our meals were expensive...



At this point, Sean wasn't feeling well, so he headed to the hostel for a lie-down. Matt and I got on the "bus" and took it down to St. Mark's Square, that most famous of Venice landmarks. What they call the bus is actually a boat of course:



A somewhat crooked picture of the tallest bridge over the Grand Canal:



Me, in shadows, on the boat while we traveled along the canal:



Here's some pictures from after we got off the boat bus, first in a little park, then a view across the water to one of the other islands, and then various views of the square.





The we walked around in this maze of tiny alleyways full of shops and interesting things, including what was possibly the world's dirtiest, smelliest McDonald's.




Eventually, we headed back to the hostel, took a nap, and then got some dinner along the canal. That meal was particularly good, and we sat around for probably two hours, just relaxing and talking.
The next day, we headed to the island of Lido, where there is a beach. This picture was taken right at the "bus" stop on the island, looking back toward the main island.



This is the little bar / cafe that was right on the beach.



I don't have too many pictures from that day, Friday, since we were at the beach and I was paranoid about my camera. We did have a great time though, swimming in the Mediterranean and hanging out on the beach. We rented a little paddle boat with pedals and rode that around, laying in the sun and jumping off into the sea. We would yell something funny every time we jumped in, just to entertain ourselves.
The rest of the day is a bit of a blur to me, but it mostly involved heading back to Venice and eating a big dinner.
The next day, we went right back to Lido, because Matt wanted to rent the boat again. I didn't really want to do that, so I just rented a bike and rode all around the island of Lido, taking pictures. I probably don't have much explanation for any of them, since I was just riding around taking pictures of things I saw, so here they are, starting with a picture of the bike.












After that, we met up at the beach cafe and had a beer. Then it was a long, hot boat ride back to the main island to catch our bus out to the airport. Here's a last couple pictures I took while waiting for the bus. We thought the Police boats were funny for some reason.




Anyway, that was my last trip away from England before I came home to America! I might make on more post with a couple assorted pictures, but not right now!

Okay, sorry. I haven't blogged in forever.

So I'm back now, and I haven't written about my last couple weeks in Europe. I went to Brighton, Oxford, and um, Venice. My trip home was on Virgin Atlantic Upper Class, and I was able to fold the seat entirely flat into a bed and take a nap on the flight. When I arrived home, all my friends were standing inside the door yelling surprise and scared the HELL out of me! Great times.
Anyway, here's a few pictures from when we went to Brighton, which is a popular seaside town about an hour from London.
These pictures were all taken by Amanda Hunter, who was there. My camera was being repaired at this point.




The beach was rocky, instead of sandy. It was very difficult to walk on without shoes, but the rocks didn't get all that hot and they were surprisingly comfortable to sit on.
I was walking around drinking my Strongbow (the alcoholic apple cider they love in England), because you're allowed to drink on the beach and walking around town. But when we tried to go on the pier, I got yelled at, so I had to finish it in a hurry.



We spent some time on the pier, riding the crazy mouse roller coaster and playing the games.



Here I am about to defy the rule about jumping off the pier. Except not.



This thing had two giant uprights with these giant elastic bands that you get strapped to. The bands get pulled tight and then they count down from three and release you. You go shooting up like 40 feet in the air and flip around and bounce back a bunch of times. It was cool.



This was some former King of England's Indian Pleasure Palace. We thought that was funny.



Okay, well. I am hanging out with friends at the moment. Photos and stories from Venice soon!

Éire pt. 2

Okay, here's the rest of the story about Ireland. It's about 10:00 here and I am sitting in bed on my computer - once again, I wore myself out a bit today walking around. I went to Regent's Park with Katie and Alex before the three of us met up with Gareth for some dinner on Brick Lane. Brick Lane is a street full of Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants where people stand outside their restaurants and come up to you offering you deals so you'll eat at their place and not the restaurant next door. Really good.

Anyway, last Friday, we all got up early at the hostel to catch our bus. It was freeeeezing in Dublin, so I had to bundle up. After a three hour bus ride, we arrived in Galway. Once again, we were getting confusing and contradictory answers from waitresses about which menu we were allowed to order from at that time of day, but the third restaurant we went to gave us a great lunch. We walked around a bit, and also booked tours for the next day. We split up into two groups, because Matt, Sean, and Paige were planning on staying in the Galway area all day and catch a bus back to Dublin at 2 in the morning and wait at the airport for the flight back, while the rest of us had to be back by 6 to catch the bus back to Dublin and stay in the hostel there again.



Galway was small and clean and had a great vibe to it, unlike Dublin. We were only there a short time, but I liked it.



For some reason I enjoyed this. Guinness has a quality team that it sends around Ireland to make sure all the taps and pipes and everything in pubs are cleaned and working properly.



Anyway, after we strolled around Galway city for a while, we hopped on a bus out into the country to get to our hostel. The women sitting next to us heard we weren't sure where we were going, and told us exactly when to get off. She asked us where we were from and when we answered she replied, "Boston? I lived there for 20 years."
Anyway, we arrived at the hostel and the place was amazing. It was big, the old couple who run it were amazingly nice, and it was very clean and comfortable. And it had a bathroom with a nice hot shower right in the room! This was the view outside the room:



There was this huge kitchen, so we decided to get some food to cook. The grocery store was at least a mile down the road, but we just hiked down there and back and got a whole bunch of food and walked back. It took forever - it must have been longer than the man estimated - but the views made it worth it.




Everything was in Gaelic, and most of the people were heard were speaking it to each other, but would randomly slip in and out of English. I looked this up, and I think it means 'Watch for children at the intersection"



After coming back, we made our dinners and hung around the hostel for a while. We were the only young people there, as everyone else had a car and tended to be in their mid 30s or older. That made it better. The woman who lives there answered all my questions about catching the bus in the morning and chatted with me for a long time about Boston (they had also lived there for something like 15 years) and our trip. Later, a few of us walked down this country lane to the water and just took in the view for a long time, until it got dark.





We caught the bus back to Galway at about 7:30 the next morning and were very sad to leave the hostel so soon. I wish I could go back.



We got back to Galway about 90 minutes before our tour bus was supposed to leave, so we had a nice extended breakfast and hung around Galway a little. Then, it was on the bus and around the countryside.
This was a castle we stopped at before anything else. Apparently, on the west coast of Ireland, none of the castles really have much history, outside of the fact that they are old. All the fighting that happened in Ireland I guess went on in the East, closer to England. In Scotland, no matter where we went, our driver would tell of us of an incredibly bloody battle or massacre that happened in the area. Anyway, this was nice to see, regardless.



We then toured all over the Burren, which is just a really rocky area south of Galway. I don't have any real good pictures of it, but here's one anyway. The little wall you can make out on the hill serves no purpose whatsoever. Apparently, during the famine, the lords decided to help by putting people to work. They must have not needed anything to be built, so they had people build useless walls and roads on the tops of mountains, just as a way to get people paid.



Anyway, we eventually got to the main attraction, the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs are about 700 feet straight up above the ocean at their highest point and stretch for a long distance along the coast. There is a little visitors center built into the hill near the cliffs, and then a walkway up to the edge, where there is a wall to keep you from the edge as you walk up to the highest point on the cliffs, where there was a little tower.



However, if you walk the opposite way along the cliffs, there is a point where the wall ends, and you supposedly can't walk any further along the cliffs. However, there's a spot on the wall that it is easy to climb over, and past that point there is no wall between the path and the edge. There's a big sign warning you not to go past, but people were streaming past it. It's pretty clear that the people who run the tourist site are covering themselves from any liability, while still allowing people to walk near the edge.



This is about as close as I went to the edge, though some people were really getting right up close to the edge. We saw a woman who was pushing a STROLLER along the path. It was empty, but her husband was holding this tiny child as they walked along the path right along this 400-foot drop. Some people.....



After that, the tour was basically downhill. We got back just in time to catch the last bus back to Dublin at 6 p.m. We were checked in at our hostel by 9:30 and had dinner at a little fast-food type place - almost nothing is open that late in Dublin except maybe bars. Very odd.
We shared our room with 3 guys at the hostel, but we were asleep before they got in. Adrienne had to get up before 6 to catch their 8:00 flight. My flight was at 11:40, so I got to sleep in a bit later and took the bus to the airport and met up with Matt and Sean. They had taken the late bus from Galway, as I mentioned before, and had been at the airport for hours. It was before 10:00 when I got there, and they were already drinking pints of Guinness. After all, it wasn't morning for them. I opted for a coffee and a bagel with egg instead, and we hung around until it was time to get our flight.

For the record: I wasn't sure if Ireland or Scotland was going to turn out to be better. I loved Ireland and miss it already, but I think I like Scotland slightly more. Edinburgh is probably the best city ever, and the countryside is even more beautiful than Ireland's, which is an impressive feat. Still, go to Ireland. Do it.