Ireland: Land of a Thousand Welcomes, and then some....

So this past week I spent in Ireland.  We arrived in Dublin on Tuesday and I just got back yesterday morning.  It was probably one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to.  It kinda caught me off guard how beautiful it was, I wasnt really expecting it to be so amazing.  I will also say that Ireland has the friendliest people I ever met.  We were lost one day in Dublin, didnt even have a map out, and some man came over to us out of nowhere and asked if we were lost and needed directions, unbelievable.  People will also randomly say hi to you as you are walking down the street, it was great.  Dublin itself as a city was kinda lame.  It was a lot smaller then London, and didnt really feel like a "city".  It reminded me a lot like Philadelphia when compared to New York City-it just doesnt come close.  But we still had some fun in Dublin.  Temple Bar was a lot of fun.  It is the district where most of the night life happened in Dublin.  I will say this, Pubs in Ireland are a lot better then Pubs in London.  Most of them had live music, we went to this one pub that had traditional Irish music and it was so cool.  It reminded me a lot like the pub scenes in P.S. I love You, everyone was getting into it and singing along, some people started dancing-it was a great time.

Outside of Dublin we visited Howth, which is a seaside village and we did a day trip to Wicklow and Kilkenny.  Howth was unbelievable, it was probably our best day spent in Ireland.  The town had a really cool port, we walked along the docks and we saw a crowd of people looking down into the water.  When we got there and looked at what they were looking at we were speechless.  There were about 4 huge seals and the people were throwing fish to them.  The seals came right up to the dock and were jumping for the fish, I never seen anything like it.  After the seals we kept walking to the end of the docks and where we stopped and took pictures because it was really pretty.  After the docks we went and got some food.  I will say this, the one thing the Irish got on the British is definitely food.  Irish food is unbelievable good.  Its very homey and I felt like I was eating something that my nanny made.  I had Shepherd's Pie and Soda Bread.  After Lunch we decided to do a cliff side hike, that the guy at the tourist office reccommended.  It was the best decision we made in Ireland.  The hike itself was about two miles, but the scenery throughout the walk was breathtaking.  We got to certain points where it felt like we were the only people left on the planet.  There wasnt another soul to be seen, and no buildings, or noise to be heard.  That being said we had an unbelieveable time in Howth, I would go back to Ireland just to visit this town again, it was that great.  Later that night we went out to this club and I got to see my old friend from elementary school Dylan, which was nice, I think the last time I saw him was about ten or so years ago.  He seemed good, and told me that he may be studying in the states next year, so I told him if he does to let me know and we'll plan
something.

Anyways the following day we had our day tour through Paddywagon Tours.  It was a very awesome day once again.  The tour started in Dublin and took us to Glendalough, which is this really pretty area in Wicklow National Park.  I felt like I stepped into a Thomas Kincaid painting, there were cottages everywhere and the mountains and lake were the backdrop of the scene, it was very pretty.  Wicklow is also the area where they filmed a lot of movies, like P.S. I love You and Braveheart.  After Glendalough we went to the site where they shot some scenes of Braveheart.  It was the gorgeous plateau surrounded by mountains.  After taking a ton of pictures it was off to Kilkenny,  Kilkenny was a very pretty city, though kinda touristy.  We walked around where the food stalls were and got lunch.  I had a falafal which was delcious, and then after lunch we stopped at a stall and go chocolates, I had two truffles a Chai Mocha and a Dark Chocolate which were both unbelievabley good.  After walking around the grounds of Kilkenny Castle it was time to go back.  The tour was great and the overall stay at the hostel was great, I would definitely recommend that hostel to anyone who plans on visiting Dublin, you cant beat the deal we paid (25 Euros for 3 nights, plus the tour itself which was 25 Euros but we got it free since we were staying at the hostel).

AMSTERDAM: BEYOND WINDMILLS, WOODEN SHOES and WEED

So this post is way overdue.  About two weeks ago I did a trip to Amsterdam  which was unbelievable.  It was the first trip I had made outside of the UK and I have to say the culture in Amsterdam is unlike anything I have ever seen.  For one thing -though the country speaks Dutch, everyone knows English, so their wasn't any language barrier at all, which caught me off guard.  The Netherlands is also very flat, which I was not aware of.  There werent really any mountains or even hills, and I noticed a lot of farmland during our scenic drive through the dutch countryside into Amsterdam.

As a city Amsterdam was also very unique.  There were no tall skyscrappers or buildings at all, and the city was very small and easy to navigate, which made it great for exploration.  One of the unique things about Amsterdam is how much the city contradicts the conservative values held by many countries, including the United States.  Within the city one can find prostitution, drugs, and sex shops-all within walking distance from a church or cathedral, it was mindblowing.  The Red Light District is the area of the city that contains the most elements of sin.  Prostitution, drugs and sex shops all lined the picturesque canal, which was ironically littered with Swans and waterfowl.  While walking down the Grand Canal through the Red Light District I noticed people from all walks of life, including an elderly couple and children.  It was also very interesting to see the brothels themselves.  Each building had a number of floors, each floor with a set of windows.  Within the windows stood the prostitutes, in little to no clothing with a glaring red light behind them.  Many seemed to be extremely young, and then to the other extreme were the prostitutes who where older.  I found it to be quite surreal knowing that the economy of Amsterdam relys heavily on this industry.  

Drugs in Amsterdam were also very prevelent, to the point where the novelty was gone.  Throughout the city on almost every street corner were "Coffeeshops", which was code-name for "yes we have weed".  It was interesting to notice how this subculture for us, is very much apart of the actual culture of the city.  I found the experience of just seeing the Red Light District and the "coffeeshops", as mindopening-that one culture's "taboo" can be another culture's "norm".  

On a lighther note the other thing I did while in Amsterdam was visit the Van Gogh Museum.  The Van Gogh Museum was probably the best museum I ever been in.  It was a very non-conventional museum which I did not expect.  The way the art was laid out and viewed was done so in a way that allowed the viewer to read each discription and actually see how Van Gogh's work progressed through his various stages.  Because of this lines formed around each piece of art, and it was like a carousel of people going from one piece to the next, carefully taking it all in.  Very unlike the conventional art museums, where people see only what interests them.  My favorite part of the museum was the part devoted to Van Gogh's contemporaries, particularly the art movement that erupted in Marmont, Paris during the late 1800s.  It was interesting to see how these artists, all from the same period interacted amoungst each other, from Toulouse Lautrec, to Claude Monet.  Overall I found the museum to be fascinating and it inspired me as an artist to visit Paris, a place I always deemed as an overrated bed for tourism.  

I also had the opportunity to visit Belgium while on the same trip.  We made a stop in Bruge.  If you ever seen the movie In Bruges, its exactly how it is portrayed in the movie, absolutely beautiful like a fucking Fairytale.  We were only there for two hours but while we were there I got to have waffles which were unbelievable.  They were covered in Ice Cream and had sugar crystals cooked into them.  I also had some Belgium chocolates which were amazing as well.  

Wicked was bloody WICKED!

So I just wanted to do a quick post about my outing last night to my first musical on the West End.  It was Wicked, which was a show that I have always wanted to see because I hear from everyone that it is amazing....and it was.

The show is about the life of Elphaba, who is better known as the Wicked Witch of the West and her best friend Galinda, the Good Witch of the North.  As the story unfolds it becomes clear that Elphaba was never actually Wicked, and was only thought to be so from the rumors that spread through Oz, and also because whenever she did any good deed it would always backfire on her.  It was an awesome storyline that is far too complicated to explain in a post, but is very easy to understand if you see the show.

I thought the music was awesome.  Both leads were able to carry their roles and sounded amazing.  All in all it was probably one of the best shows I have ever seen.  I cant wait to see it on Broadway when I get back to the States.  Everyone has been telling me that it is 10 x better in New York, so it should amaze me once again.

Long time no post

So a week has gone by since I last posted.  Ive been so busy that I just forget to update my blog, but I figured it is Sunday night, the end of the week, so here is the latest on me.


This past Monday I visited one of the most beautiful chuches that I have ever been in Westminster Abbey.  Now I been in a number of European chuches, so that were probably even more beautiful in oppulence, but what made Westminster Abbey so interesting was the fact that it felt larger then life.  It was massive.  The minute you walk in the Cathedral seems like it can go on forever.  It has a kinda ominous vibe to it as well since many people are burried within the walls of the Abbey.  What was nice about the tour was that it came with an audio guide, so you can listen in as you wonder from room to room.  My favorite part of the abbey was probably the Poet's Corner, just because so many of the greatest authors, scientists and philosphers were burried there.  Some of the names include, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carrol, Jane Austen, the Bronte Sisters, Rudyard Kipling, Tennyson, Issac Newton and Charles Darwin.  Other parts of the Abbey that I found interesting were the older sections that date back to the 5th century, and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, which marks the burial site of a fallen soilder from the first world war who remains unknown in indentity, "THEY BURIED HIM AMONG THE KINGS BECAUSE HE HAD DONE GOOD TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD HIS HOUSE".

Westminster Abbey cloisters 

The London Eye

Westminster Abbey 

This week I also saw my first London theatre production.  It was a play called Greenland, held at the National Theatre.  Kristina managed to arrange for me to get a pair of free tickets from her internship.  The play was kinda interesting, though we both agreed that they could have done a lot more with it.  It was about global warming, and how many people on this planet aren't taking the issue seriously.  It seemed kinda far fetched, some of it was over the top-but it was in the safe zone between being realistic and being over the top-I think it would have worked better if it went one way and ran with it.   But overall it was a good night out.  Im so excited for tomorrow night because I am seeing Wicked for the first time, and I know that show will be amazing.


Anyways this past weekend was pretty awesome.  Friday night we went to Zoobar.  It was me, Sarika, Genesis and Sarika's friend Hitasha.  Zoobar is located in Leicester Square, so it is kinda out of the way.  It was a fun night though, a lot of crazy memories, from me almost punching a woman in the face on the subway, to Sarika walking around Russell Square barefoot at three in the morning.  When we finally made it home-it was 4AM and we had to get up at around 8 AM to get ready for Oxford.  


Oxford was so much fun.  We had planned to make it our first international couch surfing experience as well.  During the day we did mostly the touristy stuff.  When we first got into the city we went to the oldest building in Oxford, dating back to the Saxons.  It was this really old church with a bell tower.  We climbed to the top of the tower and saw the most beautiful views of Oxford, we also took a ton of pictures.  After our impromptu photoshoot we went to get a quick snack at Burger King and continued to walk around the city.  I decided to do a Harry Potter walking tour, just because I had to.  The tour wasnt too pricey (7 pounds), and I got to see a lot from it, which was good.  We went to many of the different colleges at Oxford, including Jesus College, Exerter College , Trinity College, Worcester College and New College.  New College was probably my favorite, just because it is where most of the Harry Potter sites were.  I got to see where they shot the banquet hall scenes in the Goblet of Fire, as well as the cloisters and corridors used in all the movies as the hallways of Hogwarts, and the tree where Draco was turned into a weasel by Mad Eye Moody (aka Barty Crouch Jr.).  After the tour I met back up with Sarika and Genesis and we continued to walk around the city.  We decided to get something to eat, and went to this italian restaurant called Bella Italia.  It was probably one of the best meals I have had thus far.  I had a panini with roasted Chicken, peppers and mozzorella.  After dinner we went and met up with Olivier and Tom who were hosting us for the night.  We went to this pub and did alittle bit of wine drinking before we left for their house.  They lived in Abingdon, which is a suburb of Oxford.  It was quit nice, and reminded me a lot like the U.S.  They lived in a house a few other girls.  Most of them were from France, aside from Reca who was Bulgarian.  But they were all very nice, and it was a cool experience to be talking with people from a different part of the world.  I had a second dinner with them later that evening that was very good, and then we decided to go clubbing later that night, to see the Oxford night scene.  Oxford at night is a completely different place, I like to say it goes from a Medieval Beauty to a Hot Mess Express.  Since its mainly a college town, there are a ton of college students who go out to clubs almost every night.  We went to this club called Lava.  It was really cool.  There were three floors and each floor had a different style of music.  It was like if you got tired of one floor you can just relocate and its like your in another completely differrent club, more or less.  So we danced for a few hours, and then decided to head back because the last bus left at 3 and we didnt want to miss it.  As we were walking back to the bus station we saw trash everywhere.  The streets were dirtier then the streets in London and New York City, put together.  This place that was once so beautiful, now looked like a city slum.  There were also people everywhere passed out drunk on the streets, it seemed like every direction you turned someone was screaming-even in the club there were moments of craziness.  It was a very entertaining night.  The highlight of the night had to of happened on the bus, when this guy that peed himself tried to sit on Sarika's lap-it was pure insanity, a great ending to the night.

Where Draco was turned into a Weasel.

The Hogwarts Banquet Room

Quidditch Fields!

Christ Church Coat of Arms

Today (Sunday) after getting back from Oxford I decided to meet up with Kristina.  They were heading into Trafalgar square to see the Chinese New Year Celebratioin.  It was really cool.  Their had to have been at least 20,000 people there.  They had some shows going on and vendors everywhere.  After walking around for a while we went into Chinatown to get dinner.  We decided to get Chinese food at this restaurant that seemed to be the least crowded.  There were still masses of people eating there it was a good night to be Chinese.  The food at the restaurant was also really good (and cheap).  I had Spring Rolls and Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice.  For an appetizer and a main dish it only came out to be around 7 pounds.  I know I will definitely try to get to that place again.  

Overall this weekend was awesome.  Even though I probably spent more money then I should have, I had an amazing time and have no regrets.  I figure I am only going to get to see these places once in my lifetime.  I might as well live it up while I can.