3. Florence Italy

Florence is so far my favorite Italian city. Its known by Florentines and Italians alike as the jewel of Renaissance Italy. Florence is the capital of Tuscany and is home to several artists and intellectuals like Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and the Medici family. One of the reasons I think I liked Florence so much is due to the quintessential Italian vibe you get from the city. It feels less touristy, a little slower, and it really is very Italian. Leather is the good that Florence is known for, and there are markets all over the place selling every kind of leather good imaginable. Florence is also the birthplace for gelato and supposedly has the best gelato out of all of Italy. Needless to say we had a gelato frenzy and went wild. One nice part about Florence was the fact that it was sunny and warm compared to the cloudiness and dampness of Ireland. I even got a bit of a sunburn.

Our travels through Italy ended with another night spent in the airport, but this time it was in the Dublin airport where we had to wait until the next morning to catch our flight back to Cork. For anyone planning to spend the night in an airport in Europe I would highly recommend the Dublin Airport. They have a nice area with couches and comfy chairs next to a 24 hour McDonald's and Starbucks. I personally slept on the Starbucks couches in that they were by far the most comfortable.

Overall Italy is a beautiful country with a very unique and distinctive culture, and some of the best food. I have learned from my travels that Italy is a place where people are suppose to lap up the lifestyle, and idle over a coffee at a street side café, or linger over a long lunch in the warm Mediterranean sun. Italy is about relaxing, enjoying, and taking in its history and old world charm. Most importantly Italy is the birthplace for Gelato.

The Duomo is the most significant, recognizable, and iconic cathedral in Florence. We arrived from Rome at night and as we stumbled upon the Duomo on our way to the hostel there was a orchestral concert going on.

The front of the Duomo by day. We actually were able to go inside this cathedral because it was free. Most churches in Europe charge a couple Euro to go inside.

Michelangelo's David

Ryan, Matt, Victoria, Me, and Sheldon sitting on a ledge by the river

The Ponte Vecchio, a Florentine icon and home to Florentine goldsmiths where you can buy some very nice gold jewelery.

A view from the Ponte Vecchio of Florence and Tuscany.

We saw several people rowing in the water next to the Ponte Vecchio

Me in front of the Santa Maria Novella Church

Brittney and I are typically the tour guides for our trips throughout Europe. I have become a very good map reader while in Europe

Ryan and I in front of what was suppose to be the best discoteca in Florence, however since it was a Monday night it was really not that cool.

Me pushing over the leaning tower of Pisa. Since our Ryanair flight did not depart from Florence but rather Pisa we decided to make a pit stop to the tower on our way to the airport

Sheldon and I in front of the tower, which actually leans far to the right. More so than the picture shows.

The tower and the church. It was kind of funny since the church kind of appeared to be leaning as well.

A view of Pisa as we were walking to the airport and eating our last gelato

2. Rome Italy, what was once the center of the world

Rome is one city that I have been to before, but I was glad to be back seeing as how it used to be the center of the world. Rome is a huge city and there are so many sights to see. We spent the first day touring Rome’s sights and the next day we spent at the Vatican.

Although I have to say my favorite part about Italy is the gelato. Gelato is an Italian ice cream that trumps the ice cream we are used to back in America. The reason it is so much better is because it contains way more sugar than normal ice cream and is denser and has less air in it so basically each bite has way more flavor than ice cream. Most of the money that we spent on this trip probably went toward gelato seeing as how each one of us probably had 2 to 3 gelato’s a day. I pretty much tried every flavor and I think the best flavor combinations would have to be lemon and strawberry, or hazelnut, chocolate, and stracciatella (kind of like chocolate chip) depending on the mood.

Our second day in Rome was spent at the Vatican, which is THE Roman Catholic Church where the pope lives. We has initially planned to get there early since there is normally massive lines but seeing as how it was day light savings on that particular Sunday and no one was aware of that we were particularly early. After arriving we saw this huge line forming in St. Peters Square and decided to get in. After about an hour we started to pile into St Peter’s Basilica, the largest Christian Church in the world, and took our seats for what we then realized was going to be a mass. Once the mass had started we realized that the priest giving the mass was in fact the actual POPE, Pope Benedict XVI. This was an incredible experience seeing as how the Pope rarely ever gives mass or is even present in the Basilica for Sunday mass. Needless to say we are now among the few people in the world that have actually gotten to see the Pope.

After mass we still had a couple hour to tour around the Vatican city and see a couple more sights in Rome. After that we caught another Tren Italia to Florence Italy. Luckily this train was not as bad but still really dirty.

Ciao for now

The Colosseum. One of the oldest buildings in the world built in AD 74.

A Roman Column which are randomly scattered throughout all of Rome

The Roman Imperial Forum where Cesar and other Roman Emperors reined over the empire.

400 steps and at the top was a church.

Victoria and I were among the two people that had been to Rome before and we decided to opt out of touring the Colosseum and Roman Forum with the rest of our group. Hence, we went to see some other sight that we had not seen before and are normally not on the list of the main sights to see. So this is Victoria picking some important Italian man's nose

Me, trying to imitate some Italian guy. Both of these two picture were taking from the Italian National Museum which Victoria and I were able to sneak into by accident kind of. We has walked up the 400 steps on one of the picture above to a church and followed some people through the back entrance of the museum where we spent like 20 minutes seeing the important stuff.

The Trevi Fountain

The Group in front of the Trevi Fountain

Cailin, Ryan, Brittney, Matt, Me, Victoria, Sheldon

Me throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain. The point of throwing a coin in is to ensure your return to Rome. This must hold true since I had thrown a coin into the fountain when I was in Rome in 2007 and I returned. So I threw another coin in meaning that I probably be returning to Rome in the future.

The Vatican. We are standing in the Piazza San Pietro (St. Peter's Square) and in the background is the Basilica di San Pietro (St. Peter's Basilica)

Bishops walking down the aisle at the end of mass.

The Pope, Pope Benedict XVI

Rome has several of these obelisks scattered throughout the city. The obelisks were actually taken by the Romans form the Egyptians during the Roman Empire.

Caitlin and I in front of the four rivers fountain. On this fountain there are four men that depict the four most important rivers of the four main continents in the world. The Danube in Europe, the Nile in Africa, the Ganges in Europe, and the Rio Grande in the Americas.

1. Venice Italy

My travels through Italy was quite an adventure to say the least. The transport to a from Italy and around Italy is what made the trip interesting. My roommates and I have made a pact that each person gets to pick a specific destination around Europe and we have to ensure that we make it there. My trips was throughout Germany and we made that happen. Matt wanted to see Italy, more importantly Rome and the Vatican City, hence the reason for a trip to Italy. We left for Italy late Wednesday October 18^th where we traveled from Cork, Ireland to London Stansted in the UK. What made the trip so interesting was the fact that we had to sleep in the airport since our flight to Venice was not until the next morning. So we arrived and sat in the baggage claim area for a couple of hours until some old English women kicked us out at about midnight. We then went to the main departures lobby area where we set up camp next to the Swiss Air check in desk. Surprisingly there were an awful lot of people attempting to sleep in the Stansted airport. Which makes sense seeing as how Ryanair, “Europe’s discount airline” has a hub at this airport and everyone that flies Ryanair is to cheap to go and stay in a hotel much like myself and my roommates. So after a very interesting evening of no sleep, and lots of card playing we eventually boarded our plane to Treviso. Another fun fact about Ryanair is the reason that the airline is so cheap is because they almost never fly into the main airports. With that after we arrived in Treviso and took a bus to Venice. Unfortunately when we arrived in Venice it was pouring rain and as we quickly noticed Venice is not a city that is equipped for rain. You will see why in some picture below. After about 2 hours we finally found our hotel on the other side of the Venice Island. We took a quick nap since we were not in the best of moods and then hit the city for some food and some sightseeing. Our trip to Venice consisted of Matt, Ryan, and I. Then once in Rome we met up with Brittney, Caitlin, Victoria, and Sheldon.

Venice is a city that defies description, it truly should be seen, and wandered through to be believed. Venice is quite a tiny city and is one that travelers should meander through to truly understand its vibe. Venice is like a labyrinth of intertwined lanes and canals where we literally lost ourselves or got lost. Although Venice is most definitely a city that can be seen in a day seeing as how there are not that many sights to see. Rather Venice as a whole is a sight and to really see this small city all you have to do is walk around. So we spent our first day getting lost in the city attempting to find our hotel. After our nap the rain had stopped and like magic all of the flooded streets were dry and we wandered around the city some more getting lost while trying to see a couple of sights and find the best and cheapest slice of pizza. The next day we spent touring the five or six sight that are unique to Venice and then spent several hours out on the patio of a pizzeria eating pizza and playing cards until our night train left for Rome. Overall Venice is a very unique place where we had plenty of free time to relax and take in the Venetian atmosphere. As a side note Venice is considered a lagoon consisting of several little Islands. We spent most of our time on the main Venice Island but other important Islands include Lido Island, Burano and Murano. Within the city limits of Venice absolutely no cars are allowed. The only modes of transportation is by boat, water taxi, or gondola. While in Venice all of the modes of transportation were on strike so we were unable to ride on a boat through the grand canal.

Our train to Rome is worth noting. We used the Tren Italia to travel to Rome and Florence. The Tren Italia is the national train service. After getting our tickets we boarded our night train and took our seats. Each train car has about 5 or 6 cabins with six seats in each cabin and the three of us were dispersed about the train car in different cabins. I got lucky in that the people in my cabin were not that sketchy, but Ryan’s cabin consisted of six men who looked as though they had just gotten out of prison and smelled like they had not showered in weeks. I am positive that he did not sleep a wink. Although seven hours later we made it to Rome safe and sound although Ryan claims that he will never take another Tren Italia night train again.

Since it was raining and Venice is not well equipped for the rain we had to walk through a rather large puddle. This was the only street we could take to cross a canal to get where our hotel was.

After our nap luckily the rain had stopped and the sun was begining to come out. This is a view from the area where our hotel was located.

A Church next to our hotel.

A picture of me overlooking Lido Island. Lido Island is supposedly the spot where people go to hang out by the beach but seeing as how its was raining and cold we were not able to bust out our bathing suits.

Just another bridge and another canal

This is typical sight in Venice. A very small canal with houses and boats. At this point I am pretty sure we were lost trying to find St. Marks Square.

The Grand Canal - We wanted to ride on one of the water taxis down the grand canal but the Venice transportation system was on strike so we were not able to.

Piazza San Marco. This is the most iconic Piazza in Venice. It the location in the movies where people feed the penguins and/or run through them. Although the day we were there the penguins must have been hiding from the rain.

Me in the square. In the back ground is the Bascillica di San Marco

This huge building is the Palazzo Ducale, or the Dukes Palace where the leaders of Venice once lived.

The infamous Gondola

Our last picture in Venice overlooking the Grand Canal before we took our night train to Rome.

The Big Test

The TEST

On Wednesday I took my very first test here at the University College Cork. It was probably the most official test I have ever taken! The test took place in the Aula Maxima, which is the oldest building on campus, probably about 200 years old. In this huge Harry Potter like room where they have these ancient desks spread out exactly 1 meter apart from every other desk. The night before we had to print out an Examination Bill that had all of our information along with a specific seat number. Of course I had the seat in the front of the center row right by all five exam proctors. I had no intention of cheating but it was kind of annoying when I was trying to take the test and the old ladies were talking about desk number 56 dropping her pen on the floor and how desk 106 was taping his shoe. We wrote our answers in this large green examination booklet. I felt like I was signing my life away with all of the information I had to fill out on the front of these booklets. Nevertheless, after three hours of thinking, writing, and analyzing I am sure I did well and I no longer have to take another fine arts class again!

Mark Scheme

Another interesting fact about this place is the way they do grades or marks as they are referred to here in Ireland. So in Ireland students do not receive letter grades or even GPA’s instead they are ranked. The highest ranking someone can receive is first class honors and to receive this mark you have to score between 70% and 100%. Between 60 to 69% one would receive a second class honours. A third class honours would be awarded for those that score between 50% to 59%. A passing score is from 40% to 49% and failing is between 0% to 39%. For us Americans that seems pretty easy because a 70% is a C or simply average but according to the professors here they rarely ever award scores in the 90’s. I haven’t gotten any work returned yet so we will have to see whether school is easier here in Ireland or the same as in the United States.

Future Trips

Since both of my roommates are good Catholics it was important that we go to Rome, Italy to see the Vatican. So we found some cheap flights on Ryanair, “Europe’s on time and discount airline” and are flying to Venice Italy where we will sight see for two days and then take a night train to Rome. Since we are budget travelers we really try to take transportation in the nighttime, so we don’t have to pay for accommodations. We are going to stay in Rome for two days and then take another night train to Florence, and spend a couple days there. We leave Thursday the 22^nd and return the 27^th. Luckily none of us will be missing class since Monday is a Bank Holiday and the college is closed and no one has class on Fridays or Tuesdays

When my roommates and I have nothing to do we tend to spend time on ryanair.com trying to find our next trip and occasionally Ryanair will have these special fares or discounts. So one late night Matt and I were on the Ryanair website and we found a Free flight to Oslo Norway. So of course we booked it because it was FREE. The only charge we incurred was the 5 Euro fee they charge to book a flight with a credit card. Which is kind of a scam seeing as they require you to use a credit card to book a flight. The only way you can get around paying the credit card fee is if you have a visa electron card, which I have never heard of. So we leave for Oslo on the 3^rd of November where we plan to spend a couple of day and then take another night train to Stockholm Sweden and then return to Ireland. The return flight was only 130 Sweedish Kroners which is equivalent to about 15 Euros.

IRELAND

After posting about all of my travels around different countries in Europe I noticed that I have been neglecting to post about Ireland. So here goes. Things are beginning to pick up in school, in fact this Wednesday I have a final for my Early Start Musics in Ireland class I took in the month of August and half of September. The official semester began on September 21st and I am enrolled in European Framework, an elective for my political science major. I am taking the Philosophy of War and Violence, which will fulfill the ethics portion of a USD core requirement and finally plant diversity for my biology major. Normally back in San Diego I would take a few more classes although USD restricts the number of UCC classes I take to 5 which includes the early start class and the lab portion of plant diversity.

The weather in Cork has been relatively nice since I have been here. I expected it to rain heavily almost every day, but it normally only mists occasionally in the mornings and there has only been a strong downfall about three of four times so far. But for the most part the weather forecast goes like this. "The high today is going to be about 17 degrees Celsius, mostly cloudy with a chance of rain, and a slight breeze coming from the west." Needless to say the weather has not been that bad since I arrived but I do miss the sun.

Here are a couple differences from the United States that I have noticed since I have arrived in Ireland.

1. Ireland is expensive! For instance in Ireland you can not find a news paper for less than a Euro, however in Germany we couldn't find a newspaper for more than 1 Euro. Also at fast food restaurants $1 menus or 1Euro menus are unheard of. In fact fast food restaurants cans sometimes be more expensive than normal restaurants.

2. Grocery stores do not provide bags for your groceries. You are expected to bring either a backpack or some other form of bag.

3. Food does not last as long. For instance milk will only last a max of 5 days, although the meat and eggs do taste much better here. One of our rules for buying food is that we try not to spend more than 1 to 3 Euros on a single item with the exception of meat. For meat, fruit and vegetables we go to the English Market where farmers bring there items to sell and it tends to be much cheaper than at Tesco, the Irish grocery store. But they do not sell Mac and Cheese here and their Ramen tastes funky.

4. The Internet is soooooooo slow!

5. The Irish tend to have bad hygiene and some tend to smell very bad!

6. Every night is a party night in Ireland. The Irish love to go out and the pubs are packed every day but Sunday. On Sundays the Irish can be found at mass.

7. The Irish are the friendliest people. They really will go out of their way to help anyone especially us lost Americans.

8. The Irish have their own native language and it is written almost everywhere except I have yet to meet a person that can speak it fluently. Most know enough to have a short conversation and read the street signs but thats it.

That is all of the differences that I can think of now but if I remember any more I will be sure to post them.I noticed that I haven't put up any picture of Cork and my apartment so that will be my goal for my next post

Me, Caitlin, and Ryan out for Caitlin's 21st birthday

My Roomates - Ryan, Matt and Me

September 24th commemorated the 250th anniversary of the begining of Guinness bear. So to celebrate this day Matt, Victoria and I travelled to Dublin to toast a pint of Guinness at 17:59 (5:59) to Arthur. This is us toasting our Guinness in the Guinness Factory

Stephanie Kwan and I just out and about some night.

Berlin Germany

Out of all the countries I have been to in Europe thus far in both my travels during my study abroad period and my travels in the past Germany is my favorite country and Berlin is my new favorite city. The best way I can think to describe Berlin is in reference to the city’s symbol, a bear. The bear is a fitting symbol for Berlin in that the city is gruff, endlessly adaptable, forceful, able to endure times that would spell doom to a lesser species and, at once, loveable and frightening in some of is aspects. Berlin has most definitely had quite the passed from the complete destruction of the city leading to Adolf Hitler’s suicide and the end of the Second World War to the occupation of East Berlin by the Soviet Union and the creation of the Berlin Wall. What I am so impressed by is the German people’s ability to rebuild the city creating what I think is one of the greatest cities in the world. Needless to say we arrived in Berlin at around 4 in the morning after a long bus ride from Prague. Of course I was excited to be there and was ready to go see the sights. However the rest of my crew was not on the same page, some people in fact were not in the best of moods so we had to sit in the bus station until about six. At six I finally convinced every one that we should take the U-bahn to our hostel, clean up, eat some breakfast and go from there. We stayed in the Mitte district of Berlin, which is in the center of the city close to Museum Island. We stayed at St. Christophers Inn, which was the nicest hostel I have stayed in thus far. We traveled around Berlin using the cities subway system which, like Munich, is extremely efficient and will take you any where in Berlin with ease. Since Berlin has such an immense history, I thought it would be cool if we could find a city tour to take and learn a bit about the cities past. I found a free tour that started at the Brandenburg Gate touring all of the major sights in the city. I personally thought the tour was well worth our time and I thoroughly enjoyed it, as did the rest of our group. After touring the city, it was time for dinner and for our last night in Germany we decided to go all out. In Munich we had met a guy, Siegfried, at the Hofbrau Haus who had invited us to come and eat at his restaurant in Berlin where he offered us a couple free drinks and would off set the cost of our meals. The restaurant was a Brazilian steak house and it was one of the best meals we have had in Europe so far. So THANK YOU SIEGFRIED! After dinner, it was time to see what the Berlin nightlife was like so we headed to Oranienburger Tor, a trendy alternative area of Berlin. We spent some time at the Hof. The club was adorned with Graffati and rod iron statues and was created to luck a bit sketchy but it was a lot of fun. I was sad to leave Berlin because I felt as though I had not fully seen the city seeing as how we were only there for a day. Although the city did have and impact on me so if anyone has the desire to travel to Berlin let me know and I will be more than willing to hop on a plane with you to one of the world’s best cities. Berlin is a larger-than-life city with a past, present, and a future along with a creative and youthful vibe that had me shouting Ich bin ein Berliner! Overall Berlin is indeed a bear, but its one that’s learned how to dance and sing and above all else roar!

This sign commemorates those that died in operation Valkyrie, an attempt to kill Adolf Hitler.

The Bendlerblock was initially used by the Nazis but it now is a memorial for the German Resistance Movement during the Second World War. I was interested in visiting this spot after seeing the movie Valkyrie, which is based on a true story. The movie is about an unsuccessful plot to kill Hitler. In the movie this spot where Claus von Stauffenberg and others were shot after their failed attempt to kill Hitler. I would highly recommend seeing this movie! Not only is it informative and profound but it also keeps really close to what actually happened.

This is a war memorial in the Tiergarten. The Tiergarten is the German equivalent of Central Park in New York.

The six of us in front of the Brandenburg Gate. The Brandenburg Gate symbolizes unification to the German people after a long history of suppression. This is the spot where Hitler was annonunced as the Chancellor of Germany and the site where the Berlin Wall was initially constructed during the Cold War.

A human statue in front of the Brandenburg Gate

Me in front of the Brandenburg Gate

The Cement blocks in the road shows where the Berlin Wall seperated East and West Berlin

The Reichstag

The seat of the German Parliament and where current Chancellor Angela Merkel works. On the top of the Reichstag is a glass dome that people can walk up to get a good sight of Berlin. Also within the glass dome is a huge glass piece on the bottom of the dome that allows people to see into the Reichstag chambers where legislation is passed. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to check that out so the next time I go I will be sure to visit this spot.

This is the Memorial to the Murder Jews of Europe.

It consists of rectangular cement blocks that vary in height. The memorial is open for ones own interpretation. Among a few explanations some say it represents coffins others say its train box cars traveling to concentration camps.

Hotel Adlon

The Hotel with the green roof is the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his young child over the window

This very mundane looking parking lot is the exact spot where the Führerbunker was located. The Führerbunker is a subterranean bunker where Hitler stayed at the end of the WWII and the spot where Hitler committed suicide. Although today the bunker has been filled in with cement in attempts to forget the horrors that one man brought upon Europe.

This building is not liked by the Germans since is was once the Nazi Luftwaffe, or air force building, then the Soviet Military Administration building during the Cold War and now the ministry for finance and tax. Our tour guide explained that the German people have never liked this building especially since it is the current place where the Germans have to pay their taxes.

The Berlin Wall.

The Berlin Wall was built to encircle West Berlin. Since Berlin was located in Soviet East Germany The Soviets thought it would be beneficial to build the wall to cut off West Berlin from the Western World and regulate migration between the two sides.

Checkpoint Charlie.

I had to pay 1 Euro to take this picture but it was well worth it! This is the site where people would attempt to cross into democratic West Berlin from the communist Soviet East Berlin.

Gendarmenmarkt

This is square contains some of the oldest buildings in Berlin and was the site where Berlin initially started.

Bebelplatz

The site where the Nazi book burnings took place

Humbolt Universität is the large building across from the square and is the most prestigious university in Germany

Berliner Dom

Berlin's most famous cathedral

The T.V. tower located in Alexanderplatz, one of the main squares in East Berlin

The T.V. tower can be seen from almost anywhere in all of Berlin

The Hof in Oranienburger Tor

This is one of the trendy neighborhoods where we went out.