London Calling!

So after a short stop in Ireland, me and three of my roommates headed to the land of the Beatles, fish and chips, and my idol, Kate Middleton! So we landed in London and decided to head towards Parliament and try and see as much of the major sites as possible! First stop Buckingham Palace, not only did we get to visit the home of the Royal family, but the day we were there happened to be the day of Prince George's christening! I couldn't resist the chance to do the princess wave in front of the palace!

After visiting the Queen we took a nice walk through St. James Park,

 visited the Horse Guards,

made a quick phone call,

checked out Westminster Abbey

and got to watch an amazing sunset at the Palace of Westminster, home to the two houses of Parliament!

and met a new friend while checking out the London Eye!

What better way to end an amazing day in London then by checking out Piccadilly Circus, the British version of times square. We grabbed dinner at a British Pub, and did way too much souvenir shopping around the city! After a super long exhausting day we decided to do something a little different! Have you ever seen those fish pedicures, cause that's how we decided to end our night!

This was definitely the weirdest thing I've ever done and at first it was super awful but after fifteen minutes I totally swear by the fish pedicure! We headed back to our hostel to get ready for another day in London!

The Luck of the not-so Irish!

So I have been wanting to see Ireland for a while now, and for a while I mean ever since I saw P.S. I Love You and had the pleasure of listening to Gerard Butler's accent for an hour and a half. Before I tell you all about my day in Ireland, let me tell you that Ireland was everything I expecting and more! So when I first arrive on my crazy early flight from Spain, I found myself wandering around Dublin trying to find my hostel and everyone who saw me looking at a map asked me if I needed help. The people of Dublin are the sweetest people I have ever met! Lucky for me an older man asked me if I was lost and ended up taking me on a tour of the city sharing his love of Ireland with me and telling me all about the history. Here's a view of the Liffey River in Dublin!

After a short tour and finally finding my hostel My roommate and I started our sightseeing in Dublin! What better was to start then at the old Jameson distillery!

and a quick shot of whiskey before we started the tour!

We learned all about the history of Jameson and their famous triple distilled whiskey, and then drank some more whiskey at the end of the tour! I only had a day in Dublin so we tried to cram in as much as possible and after seeing the Jameson distillery we headed to the Guinness Factory!

The Guinness factory was huge! I can't honestly say I wasn't a Guinness girl before this whole Ireland adventure started. but I have been changed for the better. Back home Guinness even on tap was just too heavy and bitter for my liking, but real Guinness tastes like coffee, and caramel, and chocolate, and when you see people drinking in the morning you totally understand! We spend a few hours wandering around the factory and then we learned how to properly taste a Guinness and really experience the full flavors.

So ready to learn the proper day to taste a beer? Take a deep break, then take a sip of beer (enough to fill your whole mouth), swallow the beer, and exhale and you'll taste all the flavors of the beer. It sounds ridiculous and it kind of is, but it totally works! After we learned how to properly drink a beer my roommate and I went to check out some vintage Guinness advertisements, and took a picture with some of course!

And to finish up our afternoon of learning how to properly taste a Guinness and learned how to properly pour a Guinness, we headed to the rooftop bar to enjoy our properly poured Guinness!

After a day of experiencing Ireland and plenty of drinks we headed to The Brazen Head, Ireland's oldest pub for some traditional Irish fare and to meet up with all of the roommates!

After an awesome dinner and some catching up, we ended the night at another Irish pub, The Temple Bar, for some live Irish music! Not only was the band amazing, but they played the song from P.S. I Love you and that's when I decided I absolutely fell in love with Ireland.

Next stop London!

Real Madrid!

So after spending some time in San Sebastian, my friend Kevin and I took an early bus to Madrid, the capital of Spain! After the five hour bus ride back to Madrid we dropped our stuff off at the hotel, and headed into the center of the city to check out some of the major sites. We grabbed what we though was going to be a quick bite to eat at a little cafe, but it turned into a 2 hour meal with our waiter totally ignoring us, but that's fine cause the food was awesome! So after that we finally got into the city to look around.

Our first stop was the Metropolis building in the center of the city an office building that you can't miss! We then checked out the Puerta Del Sol. You can see on the right side of the picture below a clock tower. This bells of this clock signal the start of the eating of the 12 grapes on New Years!

Also in this square is El Oso Y El Madrono statue, this statue of a bear and a tree is a symbol of Madrid!

We checked out the statue of Don Quixote statue in the Plaza de Espana

and a quick stop at the Royal Palace of Madrid

and we stumbled across the Mercado of San Miguel

and we ended our wandering adventure with another amazing Spanish sunset!

After an awesome day of exploring the city we decided to end the night in a traditional Spanish way and went to a Flamingo dancing show! This was definitely one of the coolest things I've seen this show had singers, dancers, musicians, and an amazing dinner!

And of course no trip to Spain is complete without some more amazing Spanish wine and paella! The paella was definitely one of my favorite meals!

Absolutely fell in love with Spain and everything I saw, after having the time of my life it was time for the next stop on my adventure, Ireland!

Viva Espana!

So my fall break began with a 4:30am bus ride from Florence to Pisa, a severely delayed flight from Pisa to Madrid, and a five and a half hour bus ride from Madrid to San Sebastian to visit two friends studying engineering abroad for the year! I finally got to Spain around 10pm, but the long trek was 100% worth it! If you're not familiar with San Sebastian its a beautiful city right on the beach with incredible food and a language I can actually understand! My taxi driver told me my Spanish was really good and considering I spent most of the conversation nodding, smiling, and wondering what Jose was actually saying, I'll take it! The first night they took me to this incredible restaurant that their Spanish roommate took us to, and although I can't tell you what the restaurant was called I can tell you I ate cow stomach and anchovies! Impressed?! This picture is super blurry, but it's clear enough to see I had an amazing time!

We ended the night grabbing a drink a bar and headed back to their apartment after the longest travel day ever! The following day I got to experience San Sebastian in the daylight and we spent the day hiking to the top of Monte Urgull to visit Jesus (a huge statue overlooking the city)!

And here's some absolutely amazing pictures of the coast, that really don't do it any justice!

After we saw some more of San Sebastian we stopped for Pintxos the San Sebastian version of tapas and a beer which was awesome because I haven't had a beer in forever in day! We had some amazing traditional Spanish food including tortilla (Spanish omelette) and croquetas (kind of like a rice ball, but all kinds of amazing!).  We headed back to their apartment for a siesta and then went grocery shopping for dinner. The friends I visited live with a student from Spain who cooked us an amazing Spanish meal, beef in this incredible cream sauce with a beautiful salad with onions, goat cheese, and a balsamic glaze, yum! We finished the night at a nightclub right on the beach, that we stayed to until around 5:30am, which is totally normal for Spain, no complaints! The following day we slept super late and spent the day walking along the beach and more pintxos of course! Here's some pictures of the beach which was about a five minute walk from their apartment!

After spending the afternoon on the beach we headed to Hotel Monte Igueldo, located on top of a hill overlooking San Sebastian. Not only did this hotel offer amazing views, but it also had a few small amusement park rides, which of course we had to try out!

After another incredible day in Spain we grabbed a quick bite to eat at 100 Montaditos, which offers 100 different types of small sandwiches and awesome Tinto De Verano (basically Red Sangria), which I will miss terribly! We called it an early night, because we had an early bus to Madrid in the morning, and a day exploring the city!

Fall Break!

So after all the stress of my cooking midterms (small joke!), we had a week long break which is part of the reason I've been M.I.A. Here's a quick overview about what I've been up to the last week! I spend a few days in Spain visiting friends, a day in Dublin, and two days in London! It was the most amazing experience of my life! 4 flights, 7 bus rides, and countless metro/tram/tube rides, but everything went surprisingly smoothly! I promise a post for each of my stops! Until then here's a quick preview!

City Hall in Madrid!

Guinness Brewery in Dublin!

Buckingham Palace in London!

Balsamic and Bologna!

This Saturday we took a day trip to Bologna the gastronomic capital of Italy. Bologna is famous for tortellini, tortelloni, and of course bolognese sauce. It is also home to Europe's oldest University. We started the day with a tour of the city and seeing some of the major sites! We started by seeing the Fountain of Neptune!

We got to visit the library of the University of Bologna, which was amazing! Here are some pictures from the library as well as an Anatomy classroom! When they used this classroom they only held classes in the winter and put cadavers on the marble slab pictured below, kind of gross, but no worries the table there is a replica!

And we ended the tour in the San Petronio Basilica which of course we weren't allowed to take pictures of, but I snuck this one anyways!

Another fun thing about Bologna is the two towers of the city, one of which is leaning, a lot! Apparently the leaning tower of Pisa isn't the only thing leaning in Italy!

After the tour we enjoyed an incredible lunch at a local cafe and headed to our second stop of the day, a local farm that produces balsamic vinegar, another claim to fame of the region. We then took a quick bus ride to Acetaia San Matteo, a family run producer filled with family tradition and charm.

We learned all about the aging process of vinegar and did a taste test of different balsamics. We tried one aged 7 years to one aged 50 years, that was given as a wedding present to the couple that owned the farm. 

We spent the rest of the day touring the farm and spending time enjoying the fresh air and open space!

The farm house was filled with barrels of vinegar, some as old as 100 years! It was also filled with family pictures and keepsakes!

Another perfect Tuscan weekend!