Spring Break: European Style

So it has been quite some time since this blog was last updated because I have been doing a lot of traveling lately. Two weeks ago was our Spring Break so me and my two friends Candice and Teeny decided to be true European backpackers and book flights/buses to and from four countries in our short 10 days! We traveled lightly, only a small backpack for each of us, used more public transportation than I even knew existed, and stayed in hostels that ranged from excellent to...interesting. It was an experience I will never forget, and being able to visit and experience four countries with four entirely different cultures was the chance of a lifetime! Here are some highlights and some photos from my worldly adventures!! 

Dublin: We arrived and checked into our hostel which was REALLY nice and right in the center of the city. The receptionist recommended a nice pub/restaurant for dinner so we ate there and it was delicious and inexpensive. Then we got more dressed up and went to the Temple Bar area and went to this amazing pub called the Purdy Kitchen! They had a live Irish band that was SO good so we stayed there and listened to the band for 2 hours and then when the band was over the upstairs turned into a dance club so we      went there and danced for a while and it was so much fun! The next day we woke up for breakfast at the hostel and then went to St. Patrick's Cathedral which was gorgeous! Then we saw the Dublin Castle and Trinity College. After that we got a sandwich for lunch and then went to the Guinness Brewery and took a tour and saw how their beer is made (really cool). You end the tour at the top in the Gravity Bar and get a free glass of Guinness! I didn't like it very much, too bitter, but it was a fun experience and the views from the bar were amazing! After that we bought some groceries in the supermarket and had a picnic dinner in our hostel and played cards and just hung out. Then we went back to the Purdy Kitchen to hear the band for that night and it was amazing again! I miss live music so much! After that pub we went to another one and ended up meeting some native Dubliners who we talked to for a while and then they brought us to this amazing club called The Button Factory that one of their best friends owns! We got into the club without paying a cover and had access to the VIP lounge! And the people we met were really nice and it was interesting to hear what life is really like in Dublin. The next day we

 decided to take a bus to the small beach town of Howth. It was about an hour ride and the town was beautiful! I want to live there someday so badly! It was the rolling green hills with yellow flowers overlooking the ocean you'd picture when you think of Ireland. We walked along the hillside and then got a coffee in the one pub in town where I enjoyed watching an Irish dad with his two little girls who were sitting next to me, they were so adorable!! When we got back to Dublin we went to the supermarket and got all the ingredients to make a Mexican feast and we used the hostel kitchen to make the best burritos EVER! It was amazing! We were all tired from walking around all day so we called it and early night and then checked out early the next morning and headed for the airport for our flight to Berlin!

Berlin: Berlin ended up being my favorite city! We arrived in the late afternoon on Monday and on the walk to our hostel came across an amazing falafel place we stopped at for lunch that had the most incredible falafel sandwiches for only 2 euro! And everyone that worked there was so nice. They called us "California" and spoke to us in their broken English. We made it to the hostel around 5 and it was the nicest hostel ever! It was like a hotel but just with 6 people in a room. The beds were nice and comfortable and super clean and the bathrooms were huge and spotless! I loved staying there. We met up with two of our other friends from the college at the hostel which was fun and then we all decided to do a pub crawl that was offered through our hostel. They took us to lots of cool bars and it included a drink in the beginning. We ended up at this nice dance club and we danced the night away = ) The second day in Berlin we took the free walking tour offered through the hostel and our tour guide was Scottish and so knowledgeable! We saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag (their capital building), the Holocaust Memorial, stood atop Hitler's Bunker, a Nazi building, the remains of the Berlin Wall, the Berliner Dome, the university and the site of the book burnings, and Museum Island. The tour basically took the whole day but it was so interesting!! After the tour we went to an amazing chocolate store and then went back to our favorite falafel place for dinner! Then we went back to the hostel and got our stuff together and went to the bus station for our overnight bus to Prague. The bus left at midnight and it was surprisingly very nice. I was able to get some sleep and we arrived in Prague right on time at 5am. 

Prague: When we got there we were all exhausted, so we took a cab (only cost us 5 euro! Prague is so cheap) to our hostel and got checked in finally (we had our own room in the hostel which was so nice!) and just slept until like 3 in the afternoon. It felt so good to rest. After that we got up and showered and got ready and then went out to dinner at a great restaurant and got delicious pasta with a variety of fresh vegetables! Then we walked around for a couple hours and just explored Prague at night. It is a beautiful city with really cool architecture. The next morning we slept in and got breakfast at Bohemian bagel (my first bagel since i've been here!) and then went on a free walking tour there. We met by this really cool clock tower called the Orloj and we saw Old Prague Square with lots of old buildings and a really cool Easter outdoor market going on! (we went back later and got some souvenirs and traditional Czech pastries!) Then we walked all over Prague and saw the Jewish Quarter, the castle (where they were preparing for Obama to come that weekend, so sad we missed him!), the Lennon Wall, and lots of other things. It was another awesome tour. After that we did some shopping and then went to a traditional Czech dinner and had potato dumplings and asparagus soup (all for about 6 euro again) Then we went out on the town and went to the Molly Malone's pub that is featured in Euro Trip and then another cool bar where we actually met some guys who were there from DC already preparing for Obama's arrival because they were some of his body guards! (so cool!) We ended once again at a dance club where Candice and I heard our favorite techno song and lots of other good music. I love being able to go out dancing so much!! We got back to the hostel around 2am and hit the hay in preparation for our flight the next day to our final country: Italy! 

Rome: We arrived to Rome on the plane around 12pm on Friday. It was a gorgeous day and we had a shuttle from the airport to our hostel so we saw the sights along the way with the windows down and the fresh air feeling amazing! There was some confusion with our hostel because the one we had booked had just been shut down! Luckily they left a number so we called them and they directed us to another hostel that had a room for us. It was a little interesting...more like living in a small apartment in Rome than a hostel but we had our own room and it had clean sheets and a nice view and bathroom so we were happy. We spent the first day seeing the Colosseum and all the ruins surrounding it (so incredible!!) and then went to the famous Trevi Fountain where we threw coins over our shoulders and made a wish! It was absolutely gorgeous! We had some gelato (of course) and then went back to the hostel and relaxed for a bit. Then the lady who owned our hostel suggested this Italian restaurant close by and said we had to ask for Mario, so we went there and met Mario who is the most adorable, old Italian man with a bow tie and he made us the most incredible pasta and minestrone soup and chocolate cake with strawberries!!! Mario's place is now my favorite restaurant in the whole world, hands down! After that amazing dinner we called it an early night to prepare ourselves for the Vatican the next day. Around 10am we woke up and got brunch and then took the metro to Vatican City! It was even more amazing than I could have imagined! We saw St. Peter's Square and St. Peter's Basilica and then went into the Vatican Museum and saw Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel! I could not believe I was really there! I got lots of souvenirs and took hundreds of pictures but I really think it is somewhere everyone has to go because pictures just can't capture the beauty or the scale of everything. After 5 hours at the Vatican we were exhausted! We got some dessert and just took it easy for a while. Then we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant and then went on the "Colosseum Pub Crawl" offered there. It was a lot of fun! We went to so many cool clubs (one that looks like a cave) and did lots of dancing! It was a great last night of spring break! Sunday we were all completely exhausted so we spent the day wandering leisurely around Rome enjoying some gelato and then another amazing meal at Mario's for lunch!! Then we headed to the airport and all went smoothly from there and we finally made it back to Cannes around 11pm. It was an incredible trip and I loved seeing all of it, but I am thrilled to be back in Cannes and able to just enjoy the beach and France for the rest of the semester = )