Have love will travel

Here we go again! I'm off to Barcelona on Thursday to commence the 21st Birthday celebrations. I'm also almost completely broke. I knew this time would come at some point, but due to unforeseen medical issues, unpredictable accidents with expensive toys like macbooks and ipods, and an addiction to airfare and sushi - it has come sooner than expected. I know. Some of you may be thinking, "hmm and you're going to Barcelona for the weekend?" Well yeah, it's my TWENTY-FIRST birthday folks, and may I remind the skeptics that Barcelona is a much more cost effective way to celebrate an epic birthday than Dublin (or so I hear). Thankfully I am staying with a good friend who is studying in Barcelona, who happened to be present for the madness of my 20th birthday in Montreal. 

Blame Canada for this birthday

Seriously, that party was crazy and I want nothing more than for all of my glorious friends who attended those festivities to be present with me for my 21st. It really won't be the same without y'all and honestly, I don't want it to be. As was evident last April, usually I treat my birthday as the biggest holiday of the year and the shindig lasts for about a week (sometimes more). But this year I don't really feel like going all out without everyone. All I really have planned so far is a maybe a tour of the Jameson Factory with a proper whiskey tasting to follow and hopefully a trad band playing an Irish rendition of  "Wagon Wheel". Even I can't believe how much I miss hearing that song live. We'll see though, a weekend in Barcelona could change all that ;)

Sunset on our roof

 With all this travel goin' on, it's worked out so that the fine city of Dublin isn't getting much spotlight here. I thought I might throw in some pictures from my Irish adventures for a change. Above is our view from the rooftop of our apartment building. Since we live in a hotel of sorts, finding the roof wasn't too hard. Of course after Sean and I discovered it, we couldn't keep our mouth shut and started showing everyone. Last Friday we went ceili dancing for our music class. Since I hurt my foot over break and couldn't dance, I had no choice but to post up at the bar with a Guinness and some good company.

Music class

Life's pretty good right now. 

I may be broke and slightly injured but I'm also a world traveler and pretty damn happy. 

Strugglin' in Berlin

I guess all the wandering and drifting through Bohemia and late night gallivanting took a toll on my feet. The right foot the be exact. After reaching Berlin by bus and collapsing on my hostel bed, my friend (who was not out until the ungodly hours of morning) wanted to explore Berlin. Normally I would have passed on that adventure and napped until it was time to see the stars & moon again, but since we had less time in Berlin than the other cities I sucked it up and stumbled out of the hostel. Unfortunately the stumbling this time wasn't due to indulgent matters, but to a foot injury I procured from strutting around the previous old cities. At first, cobblestones seemed so quaint and wholesome. Not the case anymore. Thankfully I managed to limp into an orthopedic pharmacy right near the hostel and impulsively purchased the first insoles I could get the German speaking salesman to give me. At the time, these insoles saved my tourist life. Although it still hurt to walk around, it wasn't the struggle it had been before. 

After fulfilling an intense sushi craving that had been building up for days, we set out to find the remains of the Berlin Wall. Thankfully, our hostel was quite near the remnants of the structure so there wasn't too much of a struggle.  I have to admit, seeing the wall on Friday was a bit underwhelming. Maybe this was because we were incredibly under-prepared (and under-dressed) for the weather in Berlin. Friday was cold, wet and windy. So after walking the first half of the Berlin Wall, we ditched out and I went for my nap!


The Berlin hostel we stayed in was definitely my favorite of all the accommodations. It was the one I chose so of course it was incredibly modern and was fully equipped with a bar and very friendly staff. There was also LOTS of travelers there. It was quite different from the first two, low-key smaller places. 


After napping we started getting ready for a rowdy night out in Berlin. This time my friend decided to join us out on the town. So Laura, Mina, Militza and I began our night at the Kleopatra hookah bar and then changed venue to an underground club. The club was recommended to us by the guy at reception in the hostel. So we took the metro into what appeared to be the ghetto, wandered around with a map for a few minutes until we found what looked like the projects. We were a little hesitant at first, but after seeing a bunch of people getting out of taxi's already partaking in late night antics, we thought we should check it out. Good choice, girls. We entered a sweet underground club that was dimly lit and pumping bass around 2am and blinked back into daylight around 6:30. 

So happy she almost cried.

Around that time we realized that Dunkin Donuts should be opening soon. Laura is a Dunkin enthusiast so we made a quick pit stop at the shop before heading back to the hostel. Unfortunately, it was closed then but it didn't stop us from taking a quick nap and heading to DD first thing, around noon.

Neptune Statue in Alexander Platz

Our friend Jesse decided to stop in Berlin for Saturday night on his way to Amsterdam. So we met up and walked around the city, exploring Alexander Platz, The Berlin Aquarium and the other end of the Berlin Wall. 

Pretending we got into the zoo...

We tried to go to the Berlin Zoo, since my guidebook referred to it as the most important zoo in Europe with the highest number of endangered species, but we got their a little too late and had to settle for the aquarium. The fire ant exhibit was cool but didn't seem to be adequately containing the creatures. Laura isn't fond of insects so she opted out of that room. Probably a good choice. 


My favorite part of the aquarium was probably the turtles. Over the break was a good friend's birthday back in Burlington, so I purchased his gift in Berlin. It is a turtle puppet. Since the weather was so chilly I decided to walk around with the puppet on my hand. There wasn't really an excuse for this inside the aquarium except for theatrics of course.

Happy Birthday Thomson!

The other side of the Berlin Wall was where the memorial was and also the East Side gallery. Even though we were there at night and it wasn't exactly easy to see all the graffiti and dedications, it was totally worth it. It's really unbelievable to think about how recently the wall went down and all the turmoil that took place exactly where our steps traced. 

Berlin Wall Memorial

 

 Not only was I strugglin' with my foot, but also with my camera (as usual) so it wasn't easy to get a picture that didn't use the automatic flash. But I tried. After this it was time to warm up to some German food and a liter of tasty German beer. We found a place in Alexander Platz that served up our needs and then some, and was probably my favorite meal of Spring Break overall . I absolutely loved Berlin. Going from the cultured and cobble stoned(ugh) old cities of Eastern Europe to a modern city in historical despair was an intriguing route. Needless to say I was thankful to limp along flattened concrete in between delightful trips on the public transportation systems.


So that concludes my blog posts for Spring Break. I have been seeing the chiropractor in Dublin for the fallen arch in my foot, and am getting orthotic insoles tomorrow. My birthday is on Monday, 4th April and I'm off to Barcelona on Thursday to commence the 21st birthday celebrations. Til then the time has come to buckle down and get some actual school work done before I drown in Dublin literature and essays.

Drifting through Bohemia (a.k.a. Partyin' in Prague)

We arrived fresh off a 7 hour train ride from Budapest. Laura and I had our own cabin (mostly) but the train itself was quite the experience; rolling hills, industrial blocks, a crying (non-English speaking) Hungarian man who was robbed of his passport and wallet, and a loquacious man from Barcelona who chatted with me about a variety of random subjects and offered up his sage European wisdom. Good times.

When we finally found our hostel, and we were let in by some fellow hosteling females, and we got acquainted with our new accommodations over a bottle of absolutely awful red wine that tasted like metal. Venturing out into the city to find some food was our first adventure following the disappointing vino - hell, I'm in Prague I should be drinking Pilsner. Which I did savor over a meal of goulash, at the same time discovering goulash isn't really my thing...Pilsner on the other hand, definitely my thing.

 

We walked around on our first full day, grabbed a tasty breakfast and started to walk towards Prague Castle - a steady uphill climb. Once we ascended the millions of stairs to the top, a sign for the toy museum caught my eye - it happened to be Barbie's 50th anniversary, and I wasn't about to pass up this opportunity to celebrate her existence. We saw way too many Barbies of all shapes and types but don't worry I'll spare you the excessive photographs and just share a couple of my favorites...

Badass Dready Barbie

Scary prego barbie

Then we saw the castle. Epic doesn't even begin to describe the extravagance and history behind it. The view from the castle, which I assume is the highest point in Prague, was equally as astounding.

Prague Castle

More Castle

I went out that night with my new friends Nina and Militza, two girls from Montenegro, staying in our hostel. We danced, we drank, we made some new friends....and then we went back to the hostel around 7am. As for the next day, add some more sight seeing, and repeat the previous night...

Lost in a park in Prague

We walked around on our last full day for a while, ate some street food, drank some baileys & coffee in honor of paddy's day and wandered some more around the city. I went out again with the girls for our last night, this time only until about 4am, and then woke up at 7 for our bus to Germany. No regrets about that, the bus had some comfy seats so I rested up then for our Friday night in Berlin. Oh yeah I forgot to add that the girls were going to Berlin on the same day, on the same bus and staying in the same hostel. Miracle of miracles - Berlin was going to be just as silly.

Me and the girls before going out

 

Ballin' out in Budapest

Springbreak 2011 began on Saturday evening, when our plane touched down in Budapest. After fumbling with the ATM buttons and getting thoroughly confused with exchange rates (Hungarian Forints>Euros>Dollars) we hopped in a taxi and headed to The Goat Hostel. Needless to say, I was not too impressed with the place, or maybe I was just discouraged with the sketchy dark entrance, since we checked in at night. Walking into the front foyer did remind me of some Eastern European horror movie...so I did a quick internet search and found a hotel outside of the city center & close to the thermal baths, for the same price of the hostel. We stayed in Goat Hostel for one night and after an indulgent breakfast checked into our second accommodations, and headed to the thermal baths. 

Hero's Square - on the way to the thermal baths

 We went to the Szechenyi baths on Sunday. The public baths were remarkable - what a scene! All types of people frolicking and relaxing in giant heated pools. There were outdoor and indoor pools and after a few mimosas I decided to indulge in a pedicure, foot massage and back massage as well. If I thought I was a princess in Sweden that I must have dreamed of being a Hungarian queen. Seriously though, after all that champagne and relaxation I managed to fall asleep as an old Hungarian woman massaged my feet. After getting properly pampered I floated into the thermal baths and soaked in the mineral waters.

Loungin' in the baths

Lunch on the island

The next day we went to the indoor market and ate up several hours of our day and a decent chunk of our spending money on hundreds of little shopping booths. We also took a river cruise tour down the Danube River and opted out of the electronic headphone tour in order to climb up to the roof and enjoy the sunshine. We took in some breathtaking views of statues and buildings and got off the boat at Margaret Island for lunch. Here we enjoyed a little lunch of bread, cheese and mimosas and laid in the grass. After wards we hustled to the nearest cafe for a little baileys and coffee pick-me-up and then climbed the hill to the highest point in Budapest, The Liberation Monument.

The thermal baths were the highlight of my time in Budapest, although the chicken paprikas was delish. Obviously if you've read my previous rant you know I struggled with not getting to explore the nightlife. The days were full of sightseeing and day-drinking but the nights were clearly not living up to my expectations of springbreak. Thankfully all that changed in Prague ;)

Spent a little time on a mountain...

Although it has been about two weeks since I had my Wicklow Mountain adventures, it absolutely has to be documented. Anyone who knows me can vouch for the fact that I thrive in an environment with an abundance of trees ;) Pavement isn't really my thing and although visiting all of these stunning European cities has been sensational, there really isn't anything that can compare to the country. Well lucky enough for me my friend Andy feels the same way. So we booked it out of Dublin with backpacks full of bread & cheese snagged at the Temple Bar market on our way to the bus, as well as water & some Tullamore Dew - you know, the essentials - and headed for Glendalough.

Half-way up the mountain

 There were a few options of paths to take around Glendalough but we decided to make our path and bushwhacked our way up the mountain, headed towards the highest point we could see. It was a bit ambitious for me at this hour but somehow I made it to the top.

Success!

What a reward. Not only did we get out of Dublin, but a few hours later we're on top of a mountain eating some heady cheese and frolicking with goats. I wasn't even mad when it started to rain....and then hail with no tree cover for protection. Okay maybe I was a little, but if the goats could do it then so could I.

New mountain friends

 After the hail storm we scaled down the mountainside and made a beeline for the lake to find a place to sit in the dirt and eat cheese and bread like civilized people, as opposed to squatting on a wet rock in a hailstorm. Neither setting deterred me from enjoying that yummy cheese....

After devouring our snacks we climbed a tree, frolicked in a field and then decided to explore the ancient monastery that Glendalough is known for. It was built in the 6th century and was probably one of the most spiritual places I have ever been. Although parts of the ancient cemetery were completely covered in the most menacing thorns that have invaded my nightmares ever since.

See the highest point on that mountain? So did we. & we climbed it.

It was around this time we prepared to purposely miss our bus and find our own way back to Dublin. I guess we just weren't ready to give up on this mountain town dream. We walked to the village only to find out that we couldn't afford to take a taxi to Bray and catch the train - it was cheaper to stay in the hostel. As the very helpful receptionist (who acted more like a travel agent) pointed out, there was a live band in town, a friendly hostel full of young kayakers, and we could catch the bus to Dublin in the morning. After considering our options over a pint, and realizing we still had a full bottle of whiskey and a half loaf of bread it all seemed to come together. 

All-in-all, this weekend marked a turning point in my European experience. Now I know how easy it is to get lost in the country, and find myself in the mountains. Spring break starts this weekend, and Lora and I will hop a plane to explore Eastern Europe and see what Budapest, Prague and Berlin have to offer. Spring break also means this semester is half-way over and now that I'm about to round this corner, I can finally say I'm not ready to think about leaving. Blame it on the mountains.

But the music never stopped!

Funny story. It was a beautiful evening - early morning - on a rooftop in Dublin. A care-free (care-less) girl was hula hooping across the floor singing along to The Band when a wild wind picked up a beer can and viciously tossed it across the keyboard of her young macbook. But she didn't notice right away and her attention never wavered from her hoop. Most importantly, The music never stopped. Or at least not until the next morning when it died (fried) in state of frantic and alarming noises.

Fast forward to a few days and adventures later and here I am with my new macbook. I'm still getting used to the foreign keyboard but I've embraced the change, and accepted the cost, of carelessness. Oh well everyone makes mistakes - some more than others.
 

 

This sesame street video should buy me some time before I'm ready to share the most exciting adventure I've had in Ireland yet! Also Big Bird accidentally steps on his j in the end. Woops. Good Job, Big Bird.