1. Visited my boyfriend in Edinburgh, which was a beautiful city and so much fun; I can see why he loves it.
2. Traveled to Venice with my housemates for a weekend; Friday and Sunday were beautiful, and Saturday was the worst rain I had experienced since coming to Europe. It blew Ireland away. That said, we saw the beautiful St. Mark's Basilica, probably the most stunning church I have ever seen, got lost in the winding streets of Venice (every tour book says you're supposed to anyway) and had an eventful trip to the island of Burano in the north lagoon. I was momentarily stranded in Italy by myself as I was the only one of our group of five to get on the water bus that pulled up, and the driver would not let me off before the gate closed, so I had to get off at a stop 15 minutes away so they could meet me. Luckily there was an American woman who spoke Italian next to me who helped me figure out what to do. Also, I realized how relieved I was to hear the Irish accent again when we got on the plane back from Venice, it was comforting.
3. Traveled to London with my API group. We went up into the London eye, took a duck boat tour of the River Thames, visited the London Bridge and the London Tower, took the obligatory picture in a London phone booth, ate fish and chips, shopped at the Camden Market, saw Platform 9 3/4 (!!!!), and visited the British Imperial War Museum. The War Museum is my biggest recommendation for London. It was incredibly well done, and currently free admission, though I think that's changing next year. The Holocaust exhibit was the best I have ever seen, and I could have spent all day just in that one museum, because there were loads of exhibits I wanted to see but didn't have time for. So, if you are in London, do not miss the British Imperial War Museum.
4. Hosted Steve, Jenn and her friend Leda, and my grandparents, all in the span of one week. Steve came the weekend after London, and I showed him around Galway and we went on a tour of Connemara together. I had an hour to be sad that he had left on Monday and then Jenn and Leda arrived. They took tours of the Cliffs of Moher and Connemara that week and the other days I spent with them, in between doing work for midterms. Halloween was that week and we dressed up twice: I wore my housemate Emilia's costume one night, Amelia Earhart, and the other night I was a flapper. My grandparents arrived in Galway with their bus tour on Halloween night so they stopped over with a care package from home :) The next morning, Jenn and Leda left to go back to France and I went to the Aran Islands with my grandparents. It was so nice to see them and spend the day with them. I felt so lucky to have so many people visit me in one week.
5. Visited Dublin the following weekend with my API group. Since I spent several days in Dublin with my parents at the beginning I had done most of the attractions that I was interested in, but we saw the old jail and took a boat tour of the River Liffey and that was neat. Then Emma, Emilia and I did the Literary Pub Crawl, which is a pub crawl led by two actors who acted out scenes from famous Irish writers' works and took us to pubs significant in those writers' lives. That was really fun.
6. The following weekend (last weekend) I flew to Rome to meet Steve, Jenn and Leda for four days! It was a great trip--I was so happy to see them and spend time with them in such an amazing city. I think Rome is my favorite city I've ever been to--the history, architecture, food, and atmosphere was all just incredible. Definitely a trip I will always remember. We went to the Vatican City, the Trevi Fountain, ate in the Piazza Navona two nights in a row, visited the Coliseum and the St. Castillo Catacombs. There was a lot more I wish there was time to see and spend more time at, but we decided we just have to go back someday.
That brings me to this week--The Week I Can No Longer Avoid My Final Papers. I have 6 to do in the next week and a half...overwhelmed does not quite cover how I feel right now. I am on a two days per paper schedule, and I should be okay if I stick to that. The day I hand in my last 2 papers I am flying to Barcelona with a bunch of my friends in API, for 4 days of being incredibly happy that my papers are done. Then on the 10th Steve will come to Galway and I won't have to say goodbye to him 3 days later, because we will be going to Stockholm, Sweden for 5 days for the Christmas markets and festivals before heading to Dublin for a few days and then flying home to the USA. This semester could not have gone by any faster.
Now I have to stop avoiding my Irish Society paper...glad I have this blog so I could have a 15 minute diversion!
