Coming Full Circle

Does someone want to tell me where the last five months went?

As a completely random side note, Comcast is the worst company in the world and everyone who has their service should cancel it immediately.

Anyways, It's been exactly two weeks since I got back to the states.  The trip back felt like it took forever.  The layover in the non air conditioned Chicago airport didn't really help although I got to spend a few last hours with fellow APIer Julie as we reminisced about Europe and talked about all the things we were going to miss.

Souvenir shot glass map of Europe (minus Zurich)!

The adjustment hasn't been too bad.  The biggest things are trying to figure out which way to look when crossing the street and trying to stop converting dollars into euro in my head.

I made this list a few days before I left Ireland about things I was and wasn't looking forward to about going back to the US:

Worries about being back in the states:

-Hearing annoying American accents everywhere [This was true at first but I'm starting to not hate it so much.  It helps to be away from the east coast as well.  I do however miss the Irish accent terribly]

-Driving on the right side of the road [Not an issue but like I said, knowing which way to look when crossing the street is still a struggle]

-Not being able to go to a new country over the weekend [A different state is nowhere near as fun]

-Not having pubs/being carded buying festive beverages [True]

-Not being in Ireland [True]

-Not having insanely old buildings to see everyday [True]

-Going back to CSU [True]

-Greek life [True}

Looking forward to:

-Going to cousin's wedding [True.  It was fun!]

-Reliable hot water / good water pressure in shower [True but could easily live without]

-OVEN [True]

-Getting back on the dollar [Would be true if I had money to spend]

-Everything being so much cheaper compared to Dublin [True]

-Getting back into climbing [Very true...not climbing for about 5 months takes a very noticeable toll]

-Going back to CSU [True]

The weekend after I got back, the family went to Idaho for my cousin's wedding which meant I got to see the extended family which was nice.  If I had to choose between the potato country and the potato state, the potato country will always win.

The Portland Rose Festival has been going on which means there are fun things to do in town which is another good distraction from no longer being in Ireland.

The weirdest thing about being back is that it almost feels like I never left.  Not in the sense that things here haven't changed (because some things definitely have) but it feels like I was never in Europe.  As time is going on, it's starting to hit me a little more but it honestly feels like the last four months were some sort of dream.

The beginning of my Europe shrine in my room.  I wake up seeing the flag above me every morning

Writing this blog has been an experience.  Sometimes it was a serious pain to condense and write about my week and sorting through often times hundreds of pictures was not an easy task.  I’m hoping that people actually read it and enjoyed hearing what I was fortunate enough to be able to do over these last four months.  It was good for me personally because I forced myself to write every week which I think when I look back on this trip in a few years, I’ll be able to remember so much more than if I hadn’t written anything.

And so here ends the Dublin, Ireland 2013 blog.  If anyone wants to see some of my thousands of pictures or hear about anything else in greater detail, please let me know!

Once again, thanks for reading!

Slán!

[I started a new blog if you're interested: Check it out! ]

All Good Things Must Come to an End

[Forewarning, I’ll try my best but parts of this are going to be cheesy]

Four months and four days later, the time has come.  I’ve been dreading it since the day after I arrived in Dublin and started the beginning of the best four months of my life.   The room I’ve used as home base for my travels is nearly empty.  My two suitcases and backpack are stuffed to the brim.  My passport is in hand.  With a heavy heart, it’s time to go back to Oregon.

Finals came to a wrap on Thursday.  Services Marketing was first up early Tuesday morning and I think it went quite well.  At night on the same day was my Irish History exam which I didn’t put much effort into because I had a high enough grade coming into it.  This was one of the only classes which had a fair amount of continuous assessment so 50% of my grade was already calculated.  Thursday was Business Information Systems which I also believe went well enough.  I don’t think I’ll ever complain about final exams in the US again after going through Irish exams and I couldn’t be happier that they’re finished.

Walking back to campus after my Thursday exam was when it really started to sink in that I would be leaving Ireland very soon.  It was also another one of those moments where it hit me how lucky I was to have been able to go abroad.  Not many people get to do this and I couldn't be more thankful that I had the opportunity!

On Friday, I headed into the city to do some last minute souvenir shopping and then walked around Dublin for one of the last times.  I also went to the archaeology division of the National Museum of Ireland which had some pretty neat/old artifacts and made my way over to the outside of the former recording studio U2 used for their first three albums.  Similar to the John Lennon wall in Prague, the outside of the old studio was heavily graffitied by fans.

National Museum of Ireland

U2's old recording studio

When I got back to my place, I started to pack which is always just an all around terrible experience.

After cleaning on Saturday, I met up with some friends in town to go out to eat and hit up a few pubs for those final Irish pints.  It was a great night but so bittersweet!  I'm going to miss my Dublin friends so much and can't wait to see them again!  It was incredibly sad on the bus back to UCD knowing it was my last time in town for a long time.

The last pint of Guinness

Laura and I

Going to miss them all so much!

I know the question I’m going to get asked the most when I get back to the states is “how was Ireland/Europe?”  I don’t think there will ever be an answer that will do this experience justice.  To try and sum up the last four months in a few words is impossible.  Amazing?  Unforgettable?  Exhausting? Educational?  Fun?  Surreal?  All are beyond true but to shamelessly quote my own blog title, “there are no words” (which, by the way, was an obscure Friends reference).

I think the chosen title for this last blog entry done in Europe sums up the biggest thing I’ve come to realize on this trip: All good things must come to an end.  Time is limited and no matter how much you enjoy something/someone, eventually that experience will cease.  It’s happened with the people I’ve met and the places I’ve been to not just here in Europe but also back in the states.  While kind of a depressing thought, it compels me to make the most out of every situation.  I think I did a pretty good job of keeping a positive attitude and enjoying every single experience even when things did not go as planned.  Sometimes the best stories are made when things go wrong, even if it may suck at the current moment.

I met my three most important goals: I wasn’t deported, I didn’t get arrested, and I didn’t die.  Success!  I didn’t make as many Irish connections as I would have liked but I met so many other people that live around the world through my travels, which is a good substitute.  I was fortunate enough to be able to go to multiple cities in Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and briefly Switzerland.  The only other main places I wanted to try and get to were Sweden and Ibiza, Spain.  Guess I’ll have to come back…

I want to give a few quick shout outs to some people who made this whole study abroad experience possible.  Firstly, to one of my best friends and roommate Heather, who pushed me to go abroad last year when I was struggling with some life decisions.  Second, to my wonderful parents who helped me financially to get over to Europe and pay for the school part of my trip.  Third, the best former boss/current friend anyone could ask for, Laura, who employed me for 5 years which allowed me to afford to travel to so many places and experience so many new things.  Fourth, my resident director Eimear who made this whole experience the best it could have been.  I couldn’t have asked for a better resident director!  And finally, all of the awesome people I met both here in Ireland and while traveling.  I’m going to miss my new friends so much and can’t wait to hopefully visit people around the U.S. when my bank account isn’t so upset with me.  Any of them have a place to stay if they’re ever in Oregon or Colorado!

My flight to Chicago leaves in the morning and then after a few hours of layover, I fly back to Portland.  I’m thinking I’ll do one more blog entry in a couple of days after getting home so if you’ve made it this far in the blog (props to you!), there will be one more.

Goodbye Dublin!

Goodbye Ireland!

Goodbye Europe!

Slán!  

Until next time...

It's the Fi-nal[s] Countdown

It's amazing how well the title fits for this posting as well as allowing me to make an Arrested Development reference.

The single digits are upon me.  I don't know how it's possible but in exactly one week, I go back to the states.

I've had two exams so far and have three to go.  On Thursday was management accounting which, as I was expecting, did not go so well.  Accounting is not my thing and the way classes work here did not help me learn the subject.  When I took another level of accounting at CSU, I had class multiple times a week and lots of online practice problems which helped me successfully get through the class.  Going from that to one class a week with no other material made this course incredibly difficult.  Oh well.  At least that's out of the way.

The exam set up didn't add to my success either.  The testing centre is off campus.  The school provides a free shuttle bus but it only holds about 40 people for a school of +20,000 and everyone else has to to pay for the city bus or take a 45 minute walk.  The actual building the exams are held in, I'm pretty sure, is a place where they do horse showings.  It's essentially a giant warehouse/barn.  There are well over 1000 students taking exams of varying subjects at the same time in this massive room which gets quite distracting.  Some exams end sooner than others as well so half way through there is a shuffling of 100s of students whose exam time has expired.  I already get a little test anxiety and all of the above just heightens it.  That and knowing these exams are worth, on average, 80% of your total grade is nowhere near ideal.  The way exams are run here is the only thing since being in Europe where I just do not understand why something is done the way it is.  Everything else I've been able to see it from a different perspective, but this just does not make any sense to me.

Not a good representation at all but this is the
warehouse where we take the exams

Saturday was better.  It was my Marketing Communications in the Digital Age exam which was all essay format questions, something I'd say I'm really good at even if I don't entirely know the answer.  There was some sort of science test going on at the same time and an announcer would come on and talk about the multiple choice section of the science test so that the whole room could hear.  It was very distracting!

I've got two exams on Tuesday and then my last one on Thursday.  A lot of people I know only had two or three exams so I'm not really sure how I got stuck with five.  I have one last outing planned at the end of the week with some people as a final goodbye.

I should probably start thinking about packing at some point which might be my least favorite thing in the world.

Climb Every Mountain and Feel the Burn

Oh boy where to start...

I got back from my week long trip with Megan last night and for the amount of traveling we did, I'm surprisingly not as tired as I thought.  I still am not 100% sure I know where we were some of the time but I'll try and piece it all together.  I've split the trip into two parts, Italy and Austria (with a few other places thrown in here and there).

Italy:

My journey started last Monday when I took a flight to Nice in France to meet up with Megan who had gotten there a few days earlier to see a friend from school.  Waiting for the bus at the airport to get into town, all I could think about was how much the place reminded me of Hawaii.  There were palm trees everywhere, tourists in khaki shorts, and it was hot and humid.  I met up with Megan at the train station.  We had about an hour and half to kill so we walked around the town a little and then caught the first of what was to be many trains.  After a brief connection in Ventimiglia in Italy, we made our way to Genoa.  We got there around 8 PM and the streets were deserted.  After checking into our hostel, which had a surprising amount of people there for it being a Monday in Genoa, we tried to find a store but everything in the city with the exception of two restaurants was closed.  Genoa is an odd place.  In the morning after not knowing where our train station was and sprinting to the train, we got on with about two minutes to spare and headed to Cinque Terre.

Genoa

Cinque Terre, or the five lands, is a stretch along the coast of the Italian Riviera.  The little towns are close together and can either be traveled between by hiking or train.  The towns of Cinque Terre are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso.  Once we settled into out hostel in Manarola, we got a quick breakfast (drank the best orange juice I've ever had...freshly squeezed) and walked around the town.  Walk really is not the right word to use here.  Almost everywhere people "walk" usually consists of hiking up very steep hills.  The scenery was stunning!  Whether you looked at the buildings that made up the town, the water, the huge green hills, or the vineyards, everything was spectacular!

Cinque Terre

If I remember correctly, we took a train to Monterosso and after exploring a bit, hiked from there to Vernazza.  The hike was pretty intense!  It was a lot of very steep uphill but the views made it all worthwhile.  We were able to soak our feet in the ocean once we got to Vernazza and the water was perfect!  We hung around the town for the night and watched the lights come on from a viewpoint on one of the hills.

Cinque Terre

The next morning we took a train to Riomaggiore and looked around followed by taking another train to Corniglia.  We hiked from there to Vernazza.  This hike was not nearly as tough going in our direction and also offered amazing views.  After heading to the beach again, we got a train to Monterosso and hopped on a ferry that took us along the coastline to Riomaggiore where we got on another train back to Manaraola.  The view of Cinque Terre from the water was, once again, absolutely amazing!  That night we got some fresh seafood pasta (I had octopus for the first time and had no idea how to eat it) and watched the sun go down on "our" town.

In the morning we headed back to Monterosso and walked around a little before saying goodbye to Cinque Terre.  

Cinque Terre

Our train took us to Milan but was late and the train we were supposed to connect with was leaving about ten minutes after we arrived.  This was one of the only portions of our journey we didn't already have tickets for so we missed the train.  This posed a problem because the place we were staying for the night in Verona had a strict cutoff for checking in and we were worried we wouldn't make it.  After waiting a ridiculously long amount of time in the ticket line and witnessing what appeared to be a group of pickpockets scouting out potential victims, we booked a train to Verona.

The Arena

We ended up making it to our bed and breakfast in time and were able to relax a little after a stressful past few hours.  Megan and me headed into town and saw some of the sites such as the Verona Arena and Juliet's Balcony from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.  Seeing as the story is fictional, we were slightly confused as to how the balcony we looked at was the balcony.  Verona was a neat city and I would like to spend some more time there.

Juliet's Balcony

Austria:

This brings us up to Friday.  Megan and I went from Verona to Innsbruck in Austria, which was a beautiful train ride!  When we arrived, we met up with Megan's college friend Gwynne who lives and "works" in Bludenz, Austria and her friend Katy.  We walked around the town a little and soaked in the amazing views of the Alps.  The four of us hiked up a steep hill and got to the ski jump used in the 1964 Olympics.  That jump was steep!  The pictures don't do it any justice.  After taking a tram to the top, we got a gorgeous view of Innsbruck.

Innsbruck

Ski Jump

The next day Megan and I got on yet another train and moved on over to Salzburg with every intention to recreate The Sound of Music.

We decided to go on a tour which was way overpriced but definitely convenient.  The tour took us along with a large group of other Sound of Music nerds to the lake where Maria and the kids fall out of the boat and we could also see the backyard of the Von Trapp house as portrayed in the movie.  Our next stop was the famous gazebo in "16 Going on 17" which had been moved after filming to a park.  With the soundtrack playing, we then headed up to the lake district where all of the shots at the beginning of the movie were filmed.  It was stunning!  Next was the church where Maria and the Captain got married.  After driving on an autobahn, we got back to Salzburg.  Megan and I then continued our own tour in town, going to the Mirabell Gardens where a lot of Do-Re-Mi was shot and many other various locations around the city.  It started to rain pretty hard but we trudged through and ended the day with watching the movie (the hostel we were staying at showed it every night).

Lake and Backyard

The Gazebo

The tour bus

The day is now Sunday and we took a train to Bludenz to meet back up with Gwynne.  We ended up going to the Fohrenburg beer festival where we met up, once again, with Katy and two others.  For dinner, we rode the rail to Feldkirch and got giant schnitzel in the courtyard of a castle.

Beer fest

In the morning, I got up and said goodbye to Megan and Gwynne and then headed, via train, to Zurich, Switzerland where my flight back to Dublin was departing from.  I was able to spend the whole day in Zurich which was fun!  I had heard how expensive Switzerland was and the rumors were true!  There was a food stand selling normal hot dogs for the equivalence of about 7 euro!  I got kind of sad in Zurich because it was going to be my last place in mainland Europe.  I had to stop for a second when I exited one of the churches because it was probably the last church I would go into in Europe for a while.

Zurich

It was also a depressing thought when I got to the Dublin airport that the next time I would be there will be to go back to the US.  Even on the shuttle bus I was thinking that the next time I buy a ticket, it will only be for one way.

Although it was a lot of traveling, it was a great week and I got to see a lot of really amazing things!

-----

I think I missed describing one train connection but other than that I believe I covered everything.  As you can tell, it was a lot of trains and a lot of walking/hiking!  My legs were a little mad at me a few times throughout the week.  I now need to get the motivation to study for exams.  My first, and probably the hardest, is accounting on Thursday.  Then I have a few days until my next test on Saturday.

Wish me luck.

The Beginning of the Beginning of the End

Well with the exception of final exams, my third year of college has come to an end.  This was the last week of classes here at UCD.  Next week is a "reading week" (aka a week for most people to travel) and then exams start up.

On Wednesday for my Irish History Class we had a "gallery" of the posters we individually made about a symbol we thought best represented Ireland's history.  The business school provided us with free food and wine for just standing around for forty minutes so it was worth it.  I got back the essay I neglected to write until the last minute around Spring Break and got an A on it...pretty happy about that seeing as we were told at the beginning of the semester that it's pretty much impossible to get an A on an assignment here.

Saturday was our final API event.  I headed into town early because it was such a nice day and wanted to walk around a little to see some places I hadn't been yet.  I walked along the Liffey to my favorite bridge in Dublin, the Samuel Beckett Bridge, and snapped some pictures.  Although kind of hard to tell in the picture, the bridge looks like a harp turned on its side.

Samuel Beckett Bridge

On my way back to meet up with my friend Tory to finally go see the Book of Kells, I happened to come across the famine memorial right by the river.  The sculptures were fairly disturbing and the expressions on their faces were quite sad.

Famine Memorial

I met up with Tory at Trinity College and we waited in the queue to see the old book.  The Book of Kells was written by Celtic monks and is one of the oldest books in the world.  It contains the four gospels of the New Testament, all in Latin, and is housed in the Old Trinity Library.

Because Tory goes to school at Trinity, I was able to get in for free rather than paying the ridiculous price of admission for something that takes about five minutes to see.  I would have been rather upset if I had paid.

After the book, we walked up some stairs into the Long Room, which is exactly what the name suggests.  It's a long room of the library with bookshelves on the sides holding very old books.  This was honestly more impressive than the Book of Kells.

The Long Room

Books in the Long Room

It was now time to join up with the API group to start our last get together.  We met at the Abbey Theatre, a place I had learned about in my Irish history class.  The Abbey Theatre held the opening production of The Playboy of the Western World in 1907 which caused rioting in the streets.

The play we saw was called Drum Belly and was absolutely fantastic!  It was a modern play set in the 1960s about a gang of second generation Irish men who have come to an agreement with the Italian mafia until a large sum of money goes missing.  The show was very dirty, gritty, and bloody.  Some of my favorite parts were the scene changes.  The actors came out with blaring rock music from the 60's and would throw the props on and off the stage.  Throughout the play, they made an absolute mess of the stage and nothing was ever cleaned up.  By the end, there was blood, vomit, food, spit, cigarettes, rain water, and so much more just sitting around on the stage floor.  It was also fun to hear the Irish actors do Brooklyn accents.  They all did a pretty good job.  I imagine it was like if an Irish person heard an American attempting an Irish accent.                        

All photos of the play courtesy of:   http://www.abbeytheatre.ie/whats_on/event/drum-belly/

After the show, we got a short talk about the play and the history of the theatre.  We then headed to a place called The Church which is a bar/restaurant inside of an old renovated church.  The organ and stained glass windows are still there.  We had dinner here and partook in the first annual API Awards which Eimear had made for us.  I won the "Carpe Diem Award" for my "ability to make the most of every day."  I was quite pleased with this.

The Church

 A group of us then went to a pub where we partook in some fizzy drinks and then I caught the bus home and went to bed.

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-I leave for Nice, France tomorrow morning to meet up with Megan!  This will be my last trip in Europe so it's incredibly bittersweet!

-Only 3 weeks left :(

***A couple of days early but happy birthday to both Grandmas!!***

Save the Best for Second to Last?

I'm exhausted.  My legs are literally pulsing.  I'm a little sun burnt.  I haven't slept in about 30 hours.  I couldn't be happier.

This trip to Poland was by far my favorite since being in Europe.  I don't even know exactly why I liked it so much.  I think it was a combination of the incredible weather, the amazingly beautiful city, and me doing my first solo trip.

But let's start at the beginning...

Who can guess what I did Thursday morning?  If you've read any other posts, you probably guessed correctly because it happens a lot:  I took an early morning shuttle bus to the airport!  The flight to Krakow was about 2.5 hours and on the way in I got to see some amazing snow peaked mountains.  After arriving, I got on the bus that went into town and found my hostel.

Old Town Square

By the time I checked in, I had to quickly drop my backpack off and head into the old town square (about 20 feet from my hostel) to meet up with the free walking tour of the old town.  Apparently all tour guides in Poland have to actually be Polish so it was nice to get a locals perspective on things.  We headed to the major spots around old town and learned about Poland's history.  I didn't know much beforehand besides all of the World War II history so it was nice to know that wasn't the only thing that happened in Krakow.

After the tour, I had nothing planned for the rest of the day so I just wandered around.  I walked by some amazing churches, saw a band playing on the square (had no idea what they were saying as all the lyrics were in Polish), and just sat in different places, people watching.

As said earlier, this was my first completely solo trip and I wasn't sure how I was feeling about it that night.  I like to be by myself but also like to have someone to talk to and experience the same things that I am so that someone knows what you went through.  Looking at pictures with someone is not the same as having them there with you.  My only other issue with traveling alone is eating.  Like I said, I am normally fine doing things on my own but I cannot bring myself to eat at a sit down place alone.  There's just something about it...I can't do it.  However,  I learned that it's really nice to travel alone because you can do whatever you want and no one is going to complain or want to do something else.  I think traveling alone also forces you to get to know a place really well, really fast.  You don't have someone to rely on which places all the emphasis on yourself.  After my first night of walking around, I felt like I knew the old town area of the city quite well.  It was just that first night where I wasn't a huge fan of not having a friend around but after that, I got over it and would love to go somewhere else alone sometime!

On Friday morning, I got picked up by the shuttle group I had booked the previous week and we took about an hour drive to Auschwitz I.  On the way, we watched a documentary about the Holocaust, focusing on Auschwitz.  It was really disturbing.  We got to the camp and were lead by a Polish tour guide around the first camp.  The most intense part was seeing the massive piles of human hair, glasses, shoes, brushes, and many other things that were collected from the murdered victims.  The line our tour guide said that really got me was, "They were not humans.  They were numbers."

Auschwitz I

Auschwitz I

After walking around the camp, we hopped back in the car and made the 3km drive to Auschwitz II - Birkenau which was used as the extermination camp.  The camp was massive.  I believe the tour guide said that it held 90,000 people at one point.  We saw how horrible the living conditions were for those who were "fortunate" enough to be used as laborers and also saw the iconic railroad tracks leading into the camp.  I got chills standing in the middle platform in the exact spot where the prisoners would get sorted after they got off the train.  If the officer's thumb pointed to the right, he thought you looked fit enough to work.  Get a point to the left and you were sent to a gas shower.  I didn't know that many prisoners believed they were going to be taking an actual shower.

Auschwitz II - Birkenau

 The experience at both camps was heartbreaking.

Let's try and lighten the mood a little.  I got back into town and after a quick break headed into the Jewish District, which is just south of old town, in search of a zapiekanka which Wikipedia defines as "a Polish halved baguette or bread topped mainly with mushrooms and cheese."  Mine had salami and garlic sauce.  Not the healthiest thing in the world but SO good and very filling!  I did some more walking around in the district and then around the river.  For lack of better words, it was super chill.

Zapiekanka!

The next morning I headed up to Wawel Cathedral and looked around inside.  There were some amazing views but pictures weren't allowed in the main area.  I also got to climb up the Sigismund bell tower inside of the cathedral.  The bell was cool on its own but the climb up to it was so much fun!  It was kind of like being inside a giant, wooden tree house with narrow openings and lots of winding stairs.

Wawel Castle/Cathedral

Right after the cathedral I caught a bus to Wieliczka in order to see the salt mine.  I wasn't really sure what to expect but Eimear told me it was a must do.  She was right!  I really like caves and so this was right up my alley.  There were some amazing sculptures made out of salt and the mine itself was great!  The most impressive part was seeing the Chapel of St. King which I think the tour guide said is the biggest underground chapel in the world.

Chapel of St. King

Back in Krakow I walked around the Jewish District some more and then called it an early day because I was so tired from all the walking.

On my last day, Sunday, I headed out on the 2.5 mile walk to the Kościuszko Mound.  It was a beautiful walk along the river and then up a steady incline until I hit the pretty obvious mound.  Getting to the top rewarded me with the best view of any I've seen of a city.  Definitely worth it!  I then went into the museum but wasn't that impressed and decided to head back to town.

Kościuszko Mound behind the wall.

At this point I decided I needed to eat and would suck up my fear of eating alone in a sit down restaurant for lunch.  I had heard rumors of this place called U Babci Maliny that was apparently really hard to find but ridiculously cheap (a common theme in Krakow) and delicious.  After scanning TripAdvisor, I found someone who had listed out exactly how to get there and it was great!  This was the first time where there was a serious language barrier.  The person taking my order spoke zero English and I speak zero Polish.  After a lot of gesturing and pointing, I have no idea what I ate but it was really good...something with lots of potatoes, rice, and some sort of meat! 

Next I went inside of St. Mary's Church.  I normally follow the rules when it comes to not taking pictures but I could not resist in here.  This was the most stunning church I've ever been in.

St. Mary's Church.  Picture doesn't do it justice.

With some time to kill before heading to the airport (6 hours) I remembered at the last minute that there was a free walking tour of the Jewish District so I headed over and joined.  This was nice because I got to learn about what I was looking at when I had walked around the last few days.

Holocaust Memorial outside the Jewish District.

After the tour I headed to the airport where I flew to East Midlands Airport in England.  I got in at 12:00 AM and my flight to Dublin wasn't until 6:30 AM so I sat around a nearly empty airport.  I didn't sleep at all so I'm super tired now but it was such a great trip to Poland!  My main reason for going to Krakow was to see Auschwitz but everything else was just as good and I'm so glad I did it all!

I love Krakow!

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Wow that turned out a lot longer than expected.  My trip with Megan starts in a week!  This is the last week of classes.  API farewell event on Saturday.

There Are No Words

Since I've done a pretty good job of posting every week, I feel obligated to publish something today even though nothing terribly exciting has happened since last weekend.  I was planning on doing a day trip via ferry over to Wales this weekend but after consulting with my good friend TripAdvisor, it sounded like you need a car once you get off the ferry to go see the fun things.

I registered for next semester classes at CSU on Friday.  Looks like I'll be taking Business Writing/Communication, Principles of Finance,  Supply Chain Management, Buyer Behavior, and lastly, Marketing Research.  Hard to believe that's my last fall semester of college!

UCD

On Saturday, I finally had the motivation/time to walk around campus.  The business building is pretty much a three minute walk from my apartment so I don't really go on campus that much.  I knew it was big but didn't realize how big!   UCD is a very long rectangle essentially surrounded  by a nature park.  I found the "secret lake" on campus which should really be called "the out of the way lake."  I also found the entrance to the rumored underground tunnels that connect campus buildings but the door to get in was locked.  Another interesting thing about campus is that there are random sport pitches everywhere!  I wonder if the school even knows about half of them.

One side of the "secret lake"

There are running trails everywhere!

The diamond shaped water tower.

Not so secret lake with O'Reilly Hall on the right (where I saw Phantom of the Opera).  The pointy tower in the back looks an awful lot like the Eiffel Tower from a distance.

Other than that, this has been a relax and recuperate weekend.  Today that yellow thing showed itself in the sky and it was actually warm!  I did have to fight against the strong wind on my walk to the store but the heat made up for it.

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With nothing else to say, here's the plan for the rest of my time in Europe:

-Leave for Krakow, Poland on the 18th.

-My last class of the semester is on the 25th.

-The 27th  is our API Farewell Event in Dublin.

-On the 29th, I fly over to meet up with Megan in France so we can begin our trip!  It sounds like we're going to and/or staying in the following locations:
Nice, France
Genoa, Italy 
Various towns in Cinque Terre, Italy 
Verona, Italy 
Innsbruck, Austria 
Salzburg, Austria 
Bludenz, Austria 
Zurich, Switzerland

-The final exam schedule starts on the 7th of May but I don't have my first test until the 9th.  My last final is on the 16th.

-Head back to the US on Sunday, May 19th :(