Roamin' Around Rome or Roamin' Around Europe?

After reading through my posts have noticed something that I apologize for, I have been writing about my European adventures but not about my Rome ones! I titled this blog "Roamin' Around Rome" and have barely written anything about the city that I have been living in and exploring everyday.

An important aspect about study abroad is really getting to know the city that you are staying in for the semester. Traveling might seem like your number one priority, but it is important to remember that you are already in an amazing city with already so much to see! More blog posts about my time in Italy and Rome are to follow.

Proof that I am living in Rome!

Girls Trip to Prague

My trip to Prague was my visit one with a small group and I honestly loved every minute of it. I have learned that traveling in a large group comes with many obstacles, and for once I wanted to avoid such obstacles. Big groups bring about a wide range of opinions, agendas, needs and budgets. One person may have a set plan to see all of the sights while another wants to just sleep in and start his or her day around 3pm. I tend to be more of the person that wants to see as much as I can while in a city that I probably won't ever revisit again.

Prague is truly a storybook city. Gothic castles and colorful buildings ornamented with elegant moldings along the scenic river makes the city look as though it belongs in a fairytale. The sun gave everything a golden glow.

Prague Easter Market

Czech Easter Eggs

The day we arrived the Easter Market in the middle of Old Town Square opened for the Easter season. About one hundred vendors opened up shop selling homemade crafts and fresh food. As soon as we saw it we knew where we would be spending the day. The most popular item we saw were hand painted eggs with any type of design you could imagine. They were all so delicate and intricate that I could not help but pick one up as a souvenir. These eggs were sold all over Prague and are a Czech tradition for the Easter season.


As in any other city that I have visited, I had to try to local food. We started off with some spun fried dough sprinkled with sugar crystals that surprising tasted more like a pretzel than the friend dough we were used then. After dessert we decided to eat lunch from a stand in the market. Chicken skewers with onion, peppers and ham were served fresh off the grill alongside big Pilsners right from the tap. As we ate we listened to the trumpeter play at the top of the clock tower at the turn of the hour.

Suggestion for students traveling to Prague: do the pub crawl! We did the Prague Pub Crawl our second night in the city. It was a really great deal (20 Euro) for an open bar, free t-shirt, entry to 3 different bars and a 5-level club. We met a lot of people that night and got to see a lot of the city as we made our way with the group. For more information click here.

Frittes, Waffels and Sensation White

Inside Sensation White

Tens of thousands of people form a sea of white and flood through the gates into an all-night techno music and light concert. They pour into an arena completely transformed to house some of Europe's most famous DJ's and their biggest fans from all around the world. Large round balls illuminated with neon light drop from the ceiling and dangle above the crowd, changing colors with the rhythm of the music. Illuminated water fountains perched above the crowd spew out what looks to be colored water, sparking in the darkness. What I see in front of me is unlike any concert venue I'd ever seen before. It is a magical and mystical light show constantly transforming into something else as the music continues into the early hours of the morning.

To get a taste of what the concert was like watch this: Sensation White Belgium 2012 Post Show Video

Sensation is a famous techno concert that is held in various European cities throughout the year. It is known as a study abroad "must" for many American college students and a place where friends abroad can come back together for a night of live techno music, bright neon lights and dancing. The concert has a very strict dress code of white only. Accessories and shoes can have color, however a majority of your outfit must be white. This was very difficult to shop for in Rome since most of the Romans wear all black or dark colors.

Afrojack was this year's big headline performer in Brussels. The concert was held in Hasslet, Belgium, about a one hour train ride from Brussels where I was staying. We took what felt like the "Sensation White train" to Hasselt, everyone dressed head to toe in white anxiously waiting to arrive at the arena. In just the one car I was sitting in I met so many American students who had friends that went to Loyola or knew some friends from home. This proved to me that it really is a small world.

Belgian Waffle

The rest of my time in Belgium was spent exploring the city and trying out the "cusine," aka frittes and Belgian waffles. Almost everyone was walking around the city with huge cones of crisp golden fries. We picked the place with the longest line, taking it as a sign that this was where we would get the freshest, crispiest and most delicious fries. They were such a hit that we decided to go back on our last day before heading back to the land of pizza, pasta and gelato.

The Belgian waffles were also an event in themselves. The smell of fresh made waffles flowed through the streets of Brussels luring tourists to the many waffle places claiming to offer the best delicacy in the city. Strawberries, bananas, whipped cream, chocolate, Nutella and what ever else you could imagine could be placed on top of a warm golden waffle.

Manneken Pis dressed for St. Patrick's Day

One of Brussels’ most famous attractions, the Manneken Pis, is located at the end of a cobblestone street lined with chocolate shops and waffle stands. I expected to see a large bronze statue of a young boy peeing into a fountain. What did I find? A very small statue dressed up as a leprechaun for St. Patrick’s Day. I was a little disappointed at how small the statue was, but found it hilarious that the little man was dressed for the day’s holiday.

This trip was more about relaxing and letting loose at the concert rather than planning out an intense weekend of sightseeing. I hope more of my trips carry out in this fashion. I need to learn to take more time to just explore by walking around rather than rushing from attraction to attraction, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the places that are very different from home.

A Typical Day in Rome

Being in a city so rich in history and amazing food on every corner has made each day a possibility to learn and discover something new.

Here is an example of a typical day (Monday/Wednesday) for me in Rome:

8:00am: Wake up in my Italian apartment and get ready to commute to school.

St. John's University Rome Campus

8:45am: Wait at the Via Oslavia bus stop for the 224 or 280 bus (this is always a gamble)

8:55am: speed walk to school because the bus did not come

9:00am: Philosophy class with Dr. Snow at St. John's (or meet somewhere out in Rome for Theology)

11:00am: Ethics class with Dr. Snow

12:30pm: explore the Prati neighborhood around school for a new place to eat, or if all else fails, head to Pizza Colonna for some pizza al taglio

1:30-4:00pm: explore Rome, hang out in Villa Borghese, try out a new gelateria, relax in the courtyard, walk through the street markets, visit a museum, or simply just wander and see where we end up!

4:00pm: stop in a random bar for a cappuccino break


5:00pm: head back to my apartment for a nap or to begin some homework

8:00pm: eat a delicious 3-course meal cooked by my host mom and talk about what we all did that day and what is on the news

9:00pm: do laundry, finish up some homework, Skype with my family and friends or get ready to meet up with some friends out in the city

London

My trip to London was the last leg of my spring break trip. Even though I was exhausted from all of the sightseeing in Paris and Dublin, I was ready to take on London and see all of the famous sights.

This was my first experience staying in a hostel. Not only was I staying in a hostel, but in a ten person shared room where my group of friends and I did not know the three strangers staying in the room with us. The bunk beds with curtains and wooden safes below our beds added to my uneasy feelings about my hostel experience for the next three days.

Hostel situation aside, my first full day in London consisted of seeing Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster Abby. The Parliament building’s architecture was beautiful with its golden façade and intricate details. I chose not to pay to go inside Westminster Abby but admired it from the outside, replaying the Royal Wedding in my head (I’m a big William and Kate Fan!). After studying in Rome and seeing countless churches for free, we decided that to pay 13 pounds to see the inside of a church was just out of the question.

For lunch we met up with some of our friends and went to the Borough Market where we ate warm sausage sandwiches and mulled wine. Afterwards we explored the Tower of London where we got to see the crowned jewels, Torture Chamber, and the armor and weapons from past kings and war heroes. A display that stood out to me was a case with three embellished guns inside, one being completely covered in diamonds that was designed by Tiffany & Co. I could not imagine putting so many beautiful and colorful diamonds on a handgun!

 After a spicy and delicious group Mexican dinner some of us decided to go to an English club where we met some really nice people and danced the night away. We made up a few dance moves, one being the elephant that actually caught on to the people around us!Needless to say this became a signature move of ours, we have since brought it to Brussels, Rome and Sorrento.

My last day in London began with frantically rushing to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards ceremony to only find that there was no ceremony scheduled that day. I then headed to Harrods where I gazed at some of the most luxurious products in the world, only dreaming of one day being able to return and actually buy something. Alyssa and I then rode the Underground for what seemed like hours, unsuccessful in finding Abby Road.

I concluded my stay in London with one of the most stressful experiences that I’ve had in Europe thus far. With a 6 am flight back to Rome, meaning a 4am arrival to the Stanstead airport (approximately 1 hour from London), a few friends and I decided to book a hotel room to sleep at before heading to the airport. It took us over two hours to find the bus stop in London for the airport shuttle that would take us to our hotel. We lugged our luggage around the busy and dark streets of London until finally finding the bus stop, all three of us nearly in tears. A three hour nap in the hotel later (the most expensive nap I’ve ever taken) and we headed to the airport to return back to home to Rome.

Good Company, Good Beer, Great Memories

A tell-tale sign that Dublin was going to be a great choice for spring break was the bagel place in the Dublin airport. With many New Yorkers and people from New Jersey, the big sign that read "Fresh Bagels" swept smiles across everyone's faces. After a re-energizing bacon, egg and cheese bagel breakfast we were ready to take on the Irish city.

We stayed at Jury's Inn, a big hotel located in the Viking area of Dublin, right across from the Temple Bar area. We could not have had a better location! My uncle works right down the street from the hotel so he offered to show me around before grabbing lunch with my aunt and cousins. It was great to have an local connection to the city. One of the best pieces of advice that he gave me was to eat breakfast at The Queen of Tarts, a charming bakery right down the street from our hotel. This bakery was adorable and served the most delicious chocolate chip scones and cappuccino!

My Irish cousins Joe and Ned

Meeting with my family was my favorite part of my entire spring break trip. I only get to see them every other year when they visit the United States and could not wait to see how much my cousins have grown. They always greet me with big smiles and warm hugs and ask me hundred of questions in their Irish accents. My aunt and uncle were so welcoming, I always love seeing them. It felt so nice to finally be with family after almost two months of being away from home.

The Temple Bar area is a popular place for tourists and is known for its pubs, live music, and atmosphere. We decided to try out the Temple Bar on our first night. The live band there was so fun and played famous Irish and American songs that got the whole audience singing and dancing. The atmosphere in Temple Bar was so welcoming, as if nobody cared where you came from or who you were, they simply invited you into their night out.

It was very windy when we stopped to see Guinness Lake!

My second day consisted of a daylong tour of Wicklow country, located just outside of Dublin in the countryside of Ireland. We had a charming tour guide who told us all about our destinations and played us authentic Irish music. We drove up through the high hills to see Guinness Lake, a famous monastery and some of the places where Love Actually and Leap Year were filmed. While touring the monastery in Wicklow we encountered sunshine, rain and sleet all in about two hours. The five-minute hail storm was a total surprise for all of us.

The event that we had all been waiting for, the Guinness Factory tour, had finally arrived on our last day in Dublin. I learned how Guinness is made, the history behind the brand and how to pour the perfect pint. I had no idea how specific the pouring instructions are in order to produce the perfect pint. I find myself now watching bartenders pour Guinness checking to see if they are following the proper steps.

Learning how to pour the "Perfect Pint" at the Guinness Factory

I admired the pride and history behind the famous Guinness name. The company has a strong family bond and a very involved CEO who was incorporated into almost all of the videos throughout the tour. My favorite aspect of the Guinness brand was its initiative to make St. Patrick's Day the "Happiest Day of the Year." We all signed the pledge to help Guinness raise its goal of signatures before St. Patrick's Day.

Dublin has certainly been my favorite city so far. The friendly people, beautiful green countryside and relaxed atmosphere were all a breath of fresh air for me. This was the first city that I didn't feel like I was on a schedule to see everything and exhausted by the end of the day. I hope to go about my future trips this way. Traveling should be relaxing, fun and more of an adventure rather than a schedule.

I left Ireland already planning to revisit in the near future. I want to spend more time with my family and revisit some of the most famous parts of the country that I saw years ago. Visiting a place once is not enough for me.

We Don't Speak French, but We Can Speak Italian

Spring Break
I can remember when I started planning my spring break trip with a few friends in the St. John's computer lab. I was so excited to finally start traveling, but was sad to realize that the trip wouldn't be for another month and a half.

All of a sudden midterm week was upon us and the light at the end of the tunnel consisted of a nine-day trip to Paris, Dublin and London. Needless to say my mind frequently wandered off to planning what I wanted to do in each city rather than focusing on the liturgical developments of the fourth century.

The Eiffel Tower Light Show

For some reason, on a random Sunday afternoon in January, my friends and I thought that taking early flights to each of our destinations would be a good idea. We began our spring break trip with a 4:30 am shuttle from Termini train station to Ciampino airport. From this point on I realized that sleep was going to be as scarce as the money in all of our pockets.

Paris

Flying Ryanair, while cheap, served to be very inconvenient, since nearly every plane we took (except when flying into Dublin), landed at an obscure and distant airport at least one hour away from the city we planned on visiting. Aboard the plane the flight attendants also planned on disrupting any kind of sleep a passenger planned on getting by making announcements every six minutes and trying to sell you cigarettes, scratch-off lottery cards and non-complimentary drinks. (I apologize for my Ryanair rant. It is a decent airline, however, I would not recommend it to anyone other than college students.)

The weather in Paris was cool, windy, and periodically rainy. On the first day we found a Starbucks, something that some of my friends had been dreaming about since leaving America. After a quick American caffeine fix, we headed to Versailles where we ran through the non-bloomed gardens and managed to get into the palace during the final minutes of admittance.

This trip was my first time visiting a country (besides Italy) since being abroad that I did not know the language. All but one of my friends had no French background at all. Our solution? We tried to speak Italian everywhere.Fresh out of our Italian final we were all feeling more confident than ever in our speaking skills. (This quickly faded once we traveled to Dublin and London where we were in our glory speaking English!)

Palace of Versailles

The next day was an intense sight-seeing day. We went to the Louvre, where we saw the somewhat underwhelming Mona Lisa, thousands of paintings and sculptures, and Hammurabi's Code. I liked Hammurabi's Code the best; it reminded me of the fifth grade when I learned about the Babylonians and the discovery of Hammurabi's Code.We took the mandatory tourist pictures of the giant pyramid at the museum with our second Starbucks of the trip in hand.

The Cathedral of Notre Dame was our next stop. For those of us in the Liturgical Art and Architecture class, we felt compelled to point out every gothic element of the church, demonstrating how much we still remembered from out midterm from two days prior. After about an hour in the cathedral we ate in the Quasimodo Cafe where we ordered quiches and french onion soup.

After a steep and windy climb to the top of the Eiffle Tower, a visit to Laduree for amazing macaroons and a stop at the Moulin Rouge, I indulged in a fresh buttery croissant and shared a warm, fresh out of the oven baguette with some friends before finishing my up my last night in Paris. When we returned to our friend's apartment that we were staying at we looked out her window to watch the Eiffel Tower light up. This moment, while may not seem too important to others, was magical to us. We watched the Eiffel Tower gradually light up with a warm golden light and then sparkle with its hourly light show.

Laduree Macaroons

Some of my last moments in the "City of Lights" can be characterized by one word: cuisine. Our entire group managed to find a restaurant with a three-course dinner meal all for about 11 euro! Our table was filled with french onion soup, escargot and beef bourguignon. Naturally we found a creperie after dinner that made one of the most delicious desserts I have ever consumed. A large, fresh crepe filled with chocolate and bananas was the perfect way to conclude my time in Paris.