The Leprechauns Made Me Blog It

(The title is in reference to a common joke, "The leprechauns made me...", that we saw quite often last weekend.)

This past weekend Kara, Sarah, Kathy, and I made a whirlwind trip to Dublin, Ireland. We left VERY early Friday morning. Upon arrival we dumped our stuff off at the hostel and headed across the city. We were embarrassingly American and ate at a place called Eddie Rockets (basically, the European Johnny Rockets). We trooped across the river and came across Dublin Castle, which is a poor, poor excuse for a castle; perhaps castle is synonymous with “palace” or “manor” in Ireland since it was simply a very well-decorated residence. We also saw a couple cathedrals in the "viking and medieval" area of Dublin.


After much walking, we ended at our final destination: the Guinness Storehouse.


It was actually quite interesting; the Guinness Storehouse is located inside a factory building that they used for about 100 years. It has a very cool setup and you have to climb through the five or so floors before reaching the Gravity Bar at the top, which boasts one of the best views of Dublin.


And of course, our admission included a free pint of Guinness, which only I out of the four of us was actually able to finish. It is definitely a very rich, hoppy beer.


After the Storehouse we were too exhausted to do anything besides grabbing some dinner and then crashing in our hostel room.

The next day was dedicated to getting to Malahide, a suburb of Dublin. Upon arrival, we quite unexpectedly ran into one of my friends from IC, Katie C., who's studying abroad in Siena, Italy this semester. What are the chances??? She was leaving Malahide Castle, which was our destination.


Malahide was a small castle but I still consider it my first "legit castle." It wasn't a royal residence, but it was owned for hundreds of years by the Talbot family, a high-ranking Irish family. The grounds are gorgeous and the inside was quite nice (no pictures allowed, though). This castle is also supposedly haunted by the Talbot patriarch, who makes an appearance every time an alteration is made to the castle that he doesn't approve of.

After visiting the castle we walked to the seaside, where it was very windy and cold! We completed our tour of Malahide and took the train back to central Dublin, where we made sure we got back to the airport in plenty of time to make our flight back to London.

Guinness, Gardens, and Ghosts

This entry is a little overdue, but it's been so busy around here between work, classes, and scheduling the last of our trips! I really can't believe we only have a little over six weeks left in London!

Let's see..a week ago Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day. Unlike in the States barely anybody here dressed up in green. What Londoners care about is drinking as much Guinness as humanly possible. On St. Patrick's Day night I had a gig for Will and the People, one of my workplace's artists, at the Water Rats (where I had previously seen The Mars Patrol). They're very good, and I enjoy their songs a lot. After the gig I had my first pint of Guinness. I had been trying to hold off until I made it to Ireland but it was St. Patrick's Day; I had to.

Wednesday night I had to go to a concert for my Brit Pop class. We went to go see The Rifles at The Roundhouse in Camden. The Roundhouse itself was incredible; it was first a roundhouse engine shack built in 1846 and was renovated in the 60s to be used as an arts venue. Since then artists such as The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, and others have performed there.

Nothing, however, could have prepared me for the audience there. The Rifles are a staple in this generation's "mod culture" as The Who was to the mod culture of the 60s. Actually, I would say that they are a staple to anybody who was ever in the mod culture, as there were plenty of people who would have been my age during the resurgence of the mods in the 70s/80s. Other British audiences I've seen have stood still and enjoyed the music without movement. Not The Rifles fans. They jumped up and down and threw their beer cups into the air, soaking anybody who dared stand near the center of the audience. I was one of those people, so as soon as I returned to my flat that night I threw my clothes in the washing machine and tried to get dried beer out of my hair. The Rifles themselves were very good, though; I downloaded a few of their songs after the concert, but I doubt I will ever see them live again!

On Friday Kara and I needed to get our National Rail cards validated for an upcoming trip, so we went to King's Cross to do so. Of course, since we're both big Harry Potter fans (and that's probably an understatement) we had to go see Platform 9 3/4.


For those of you who aren't Harry Potter enthusiasts, Platform 9 3/4 is where Harry goes through the wall to get on the train that takes him to Hogwarts. And if you don't know what Hogwarts is, don't even get me started! :-D

On Saturday I took the train over to Hampton Court Palace.


Hampton Court was built in the 1500s by Cardinal Wolsey, but it was given as a gift to King Henry VIII when he remarked on it being too grand for a clergyman. It was then remodeled extensively to fit the king's (and all of his queens') lavish tastes. It was remodeled again in the 1600s by Christopher Wren to suit the tastes of William and Mary. Today it is no longer inhabited, but it's only one of two palaces remaining of the 30 or so that Henry VIII owned.

Besides being a favorite home of Henry VIII, Hampton Court is mostly known for two things. The first would be it's world-famous gardens, which are GORGEOUS! There was one garden that was just an acre of daffodils, which is my favorite flower.


There were sunken gardens where the ponds used to be for the palace fish supply. There were shaped trees and fountains and swans everywhere.


I didn't even get around the whole of the grounds, but it was breathtaking.

The other thing Hampton Court is known for are its ghosts. Whether or not you believe in ghosts, they still make a good story. The most popular ghost would be that of Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife whom he had beheaded when he found out she was having multiple secret affairs. Her ghost is said to haunt the Long Gallery, where she tried to run to beg Henry for forgiveness while he was at mass in the Chapel Royal. I had no idea where the Long Gallery was, but I came across it as I was leaving Wolsey's apartments. It may have only been because the corridor was slightly dark and empty, but I definitely felt a little spooked there and hurried out. Only after I asked a guide where the Long Gallery was did I find out that that's the corridor I'd passed through. And a few years ago, a mysterious figure in period dress appeared on the security cameras when a set of doors in the palace blew open at the same time three days in a row.

On Sunday a few of us went to check out the markets in East London. We went to the Sunday UpMarket near Brick Lane, which had an amazing selection of food vendors and unique clothing and jewelry. We walked down Brick Lane, which is home to many vintage shops.


We ended with Spitalfield's, a shopping centre/market with everything from food to crafts to vintage clothing to sock puppets.

Tonight is the last episode of our favorite British TV series, "Skins," so we're having a get-together at our flat tonight to watch the season finale. And then we all have to leave for various airports at 3 AM tomorrow so we have a nice long night ahead of us!

For Now, a Video from Greece

I'll be posting an entry about my previous week or two in London very soon, but I'd like to share this video from Athens in the meantime. It's from the day we couldn't go up to the Acropolis because of the strike. Still, it was a beautiful day and we found an awesome view from a rock/cliff nearby!

It's All Greek to Me (Spring Break, Part 2)

(If you haven't read Spring Break, Part 1 about Rome, I would read that first if you want the events of last week in chronological order!)

The latter part of our week was spent in Athens/Αθήνα, Greece/Ελλάδα. I'm going to try to include as many Greek characters as I can, since most of the signs we were reading were in Greek (which made it somewhat difficult to navigate and know what we were looking at, since Greek is not at ALL similar to any other language we know). Hopefully the Greek characters show up on your computer system!

We first went in search of authentic Greek food. We ended up at a nice place near our hotel that had an AMAZING menu! I ordered roumeliotiko (pork and tomatoes on pita bread) and chicken "burgers" with creamed feta cheese on top.


Our meals also came with shots of ouzo, which is strong with an aftertaste of licorice.

On our way back to the hotel we found one of those small, tourist trains called the Athens Happy Train. Since we were looking for something to acquaint us with the area, we decided to take its tour...at 10pm! We did have to drag Kara on it, but I think it was well worth our while. We got to see all the temples lit up at night, and it helped us figure out where everything was, since we could barely read all the Greek on our maps!

The next day was GORGEOUS, so we set out for the Acropolis/ακρόπολη. However, our attempt was thwarted by a strike organized by the workers of the Acropolis and affiliated sites. For that day we had to settle with climbing up a rock near the Acropolis and getting a spectacular view of Athens.

We then walked down the hill to the Agora. It was very similar to the Forum in Rome (there actually is another Roman Forum in Athens). We passed by the Stoa of Attalos, passed a lot of statues with their heads missing, and ended up at the Temple of Hephaestus.

We left the Agora and ended up walking through the Plaka, a tourist shopping district by the Acropolis. On the other side of the Plaka we ended up at the Temple of the Olympian Zeus (not to be confused with the Ancient Wonder of the World Temple of Zeus formerly located in Olympia, Greece).

A couple hundred metres walk from the Temple brought us to the Panathinaiko, the home of the first modern Olympics in 1896 and the location of the archery competitions for the 2004 Olympics.


That night we went back to the Plaka and ended up at a restaurant where we got gyros! I LOVE chicken gyros; there's an awesome place in Ithaca where I sometimes get them. The others got pork gyros, which ended up making Kara sick :-(. Amazingly enough, we ended up running into four other Ithaca College London Centre students at the restaurant.

The next day we were successful in getting up to the Acropolis. The Acropolis is most known for the Parthenon but there's actually quite a bit on top of that rock. There's the Propylaea, which is the monumental gateway to the Acropolis.


There's the Temple of Athena Nike (Nike means victory in Greek) and the remains of a previous temple to Athena. There's also the Erechtheion/Έρέχθειον, whose columns are actually statues of women.


But of course, the Parthenon is the big draw!


On the slopes of the Acropolis are a couple of ancient amphitheaters. They've maintained the newer of the two, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, for current performances that I used to watch videos of in high school history/English classes. I use the term "newer" quite loosely since it was built in 161 AD.


The older of the two is the Theatre of Dionysus, built in the 5th century BC. It was the first stone theatre built and could seat 17000 people. It was also the birthplace of the Greek tragedy.


The next day was spent getting as much Greek food in us as we could before jumping on a plane back to London!

That concludes my Greco-Roman spring break. There are some videos from Greece which I will post in due course. All in all, it was an amazing experience that I'll NEVER forget. But then again, I've found that to be the case with everything that has been happening this semester! :-)

When in Rome...(Spring Break Part 1)

(Due to the excessive number of pictures I have taken and my desire to show as many as possible in this blog, I am splitting my spring break into two blog entries. The next one should be posted in a couple of days.)

I've loved history; I always have. I always especially loved ancient Roman and Greek history. But when sitting in World History or English class, I never imagined that I would actually get to see the places I was reading about. The Colosseum? The land of Oedipus and Odysseus? I mean, they sounded amazing and I always thought they would be cool to see, but I never expected to see them in real life. This was the thought running through my head for the whole of this past week.

We spent the first part of our spring break in Rome/Roma. All of us had been told so many times by friends and family members as a must-see while we were in Europe that we knew we wanted more than a weekend there. And we were right.

Right away we were hungry, and we asked the front desk at our hotel for a restaurant recommendation. They told us to try a restaurant directly behind the hotel in a little alleyway. What we initially thought was a little hole-in-the-wall place soon proved to be one of the best finds on our trip.

The restaurant is called la Taverna dei Fori Imperiali and is generally listed as one of the top 10 restaurants in Rome. Pictures on the wall showed us that the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, and Ron Howard had eaten there. The place was simple but it had a lot of charm. But the best part, of course, was the food. We all tried different things, which was great because we could sample a lot between the four of us. Everything was delicious; from the pasta to the ravioli to the gnocchi to the buffalo cheese to the desserts which all included zabaione cream (yum!). It was so wonderful that we went back for our final dinner while in Rome and have since been comparing all other food we’ve eaten to the food from Imperiali.

That night we met up a fellow Ithacan, Heather, who’s studying abroad in Rome for the semester. We met her at the Spanish Steps (or the Piazza di Spagna), where even at night many people were sitting on the steps and chatting, singing, playing games, etc.


Heather brought us to her favorite gelato place (though honestly, we never found gelato we didn’t like in Rome). We then walked to the Piazza del Popolo, after which we grabbed some pizza (more yum!) and crashed back at the hotel.

The next day we decided to visit the Colosseum/Colosseo, which was just a couple of blocks from our hotel. It was, of course, amazing. We took our time touring the arena, listening to the audio guides we rented.


Afterwards we went to see an exhibit featuring Giotto di Bondone, a famous Italian painter from the Italian Renaissance. The exhibit was located in the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II or “Il Vittoriano” which is down the road from the Colosseum. We then climbed to the top of the Vittoriano and checked out the view of Rome.


We then ate at another restaurant near the hotel, which had pretty good food, although I ordered a pasta with spicy sauce by mistake and probably ended up drinking two litres of water while there! We then tried to make it to the Pantheon before sunset, because we wanted to see light shining through the dome. However, there was a service of some sort occurring so we headed toward the Trevi Fountain, where of course we threw in the necessary coin for a return to Rome.


The following day we went to the Roman Forum. It was beautiful, but it was so huge I feel sure we must have missed something.


On our way out we ran into fellow Ithacans from London (we already knew that many people had chosen Rome as a spring break destination). Afterwards we finally made it into the Pantheon, which was gorgeous and we had fun just sitting and taking it all in.


Our last day in Rome (Monday) was devoted to the Vatican. We first visited St. Peter’s Basilica (Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano). It turned out that we weren’t the only Ithacans who had the same idea that day; we ran into no less than 10 other Ithaca College London Centre students while there (and considering there are only 70 of us, that’s quite a lot!).

The basilica itself was one gigantic “WOW.” It was enormous and there was gold everywhere. We first visited the tomb of the popes, where many of the popes, including Pope John Paul II, are laid at rest. It was quite eerie, especially since nobody is allowed to speak or make a sound in the area around John Paul’s tomb.

We then entered the main hall of the basilica, which was very grand and filled with many, many statues.


Kara and I immediately sought out Michelangelo’s Pietà.


During our search we unexpectedly came across the preserved body of Pope John XXIII on display for public viewing (and photo ops as well, apparently). It was…quite odd, but we refrained from taking pictures.


After leaving the basilica we chilled in the Piazza di San Pietro for a bit, enjoying the view and sunshine, before heading to the Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina). The Sistine Chapel was a bit of a maze; the Vatican has engineered it that you walk through countless exhibits of Renaissance and modern art before reaching the actual chapel.


But it was all very beautiful, and the chapel itself was awe-inspiring (sorry, no pictures allowed in the chapel!).

That concludes our time in Rome. Look for Spring Break, Part 2 in the next couple of days!

"Silver Rain was Falling Down Upon the Dirty Ground of London Town"

(The title from Paul McCartney's "London Town" seems a little ridiculous right now, because today was the first day it's rained in a couple weeks.  And the streets here are cleaner than anywhere else I've been.  But I needed a title so...) 

It's almost Spring Break!  Basically, everything happening here is dedicated to wrapping up the first half of the semester and packing for spring break trips.  For those of you who don't know where I'm headed this coming week, you'll have to wait until my next entry to find out. :-p

On Friday night Randi and I went to an orchestra concert.  It featured the BBC Symphony Orchestra at Barbican Hall, the largest performing arts venue in Britain.  Why that particular concert?  I actually happened to run into the conductor quite randomly earlier in the week.  He was a guest brought in for the concert, and since I had been looking for an orchestral concert to go to, it seemed like a cool one to go to since I had met the conductor for it!

The Barbican Centre was HUGE and very modern.  It was beautiful on the inside, though, and the acoustics in the hall were wonderful.  The BBC Symphony was fabulous; I realized that I'd only ever seen student orchestras before, not professional ones.  One of the pieces they played was Chopin's Piano Concert No. 2, and the piano soloist was Nelson Freire.  After the concert I got to congratulate both the conductor and Mr. Freire (though with the latter, I was so nervous I kept stuttering my words haha).

On Saturday I made it over to St. Paul's Cathedral on time to get admission inside.  I wasn't able to take too many pictures inside (they restrict where you can take pictures), but take my word for it: it was GORGEOUS. 

It was perhaps the most beautiful interior I'd seen thus far on my trip.  It's quite a bit more modern than all the abbeys we've been seeing.  It was white marble and gold everywhere, and thus the appearance was less dark and gloomy than all the old abbeys.  I was also able to walk up to the inside of the Whispering Gallery, in the dome of the building. 

 

Then I walked up the tiniest, steepest spiral staircase I'd ever seen to the Stone Gallery.  At the time, I'd had no idea what they meant by Stone Gallery.  It turned out that the stairs led to the outside of the great big dome on top, and you can walk around it and see all of London!

That's the London Eye in the distance.  To the left you can see one of the towers of the Palace of Westminster (maybe Big Ben's tower? A little too far away to tell...).

This Thursday a bunch of us are heading to the first night of London Fashion Weekend (basically, a public version of London Fashion Week), since it's only a couple blocks away from the Ithaca College London Centre.  Then it's good night for us since we leave for spring break the next morning!

SEVERAL MORE THINGS I HAVE LEARNED WHILE IN LONDON:

31) Reese's Peanut Butter Cups CAN be found in London...but they're imported from Turkey!

32) Never rely on the Circle Line. 

33) "The In-Betweeners" is the second-best show ever (after "Skins," of course).

34) "Paris Hilton's British Best Friend" is the worst show ever.

35) Bacon here isn't like American bacon.  It's more like Canadian bacon.

36) English dogs are extremely well-behaved.

37) You become very fond of your local pub (ours is The Redan).

38) Hyde Park is the best place ever if you want to escape the city and any stress you may have.

39) #38 applies to everybody.

40) London is so beautiful when the sun's out, which happens more often than you'd think. :-)

"London Calling to the Faraway Towns"

(The title of this post is from lyrics of The Clash's "London Calling")

We're just about hitting mid-term around here and most people are feeling it.  Since I'm not in too many classes, things aren't quite as hectic for me at the moment (except when it comes to putting the final touches on mid-term break plans!).  

Thursday night I went to a gig at The Water Rats near King's Cross station.  A band called The Mars Patrol had caught the interest of my workplace, so we went to check out their performance.  They were pretty good; I like them a lot.  The Water Rats itself was a very small venue, but it had a good crowd of people there.

On Friday I decided to check out Covent Garden, which I'd heard about from one of my flatmates.  The weather was SO nice, though, I first, literally, took a walk in the park.  I first walked through Kensington Gardens, which is right down the road from out flat.  I saw the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Music Hall in the daylight for the first time.

Then I went on into Hyde Park, since it's connected to Kensington Gardens.  I saw the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain.

The fountain is an oval-shaped pseudo-river.  One half of it is smooth and the other half is rough, to symbolize the smooth and rough point of Lady Diana's life.  There were lots of little kids playing around, and there was one little toddler who completely stripped down and started running about, much to the chagrin of his mother!

I walked on a bridge over the Serpentine (the giant pond in the middle of Hyde Park).

Then I took a path that led me to the Marble Arch.

The Marble Arch was a former gateway to Buckingham Palace and in the past, only members of the royal family and the King's Guard could pass under.  It has since been moved to Speakers' Corner at Hyde Park and is a center for pedestrian traffic.

From there I took the tube to Covent Garden, a market/shopping district just north of Leicester Square.  It was PACKED!

There weren't many booths out, so I quickly got out of there and, of course, ended up in Leicester Square.  From Leicester Square I walked to Piccadilly Circus, which I call the "Times Square of London."

At Piccadilly Circus I turned onto Regent Street and walked towards Oxford Circus.  Oxford and Regent Streets boast the flagship stores of most of the brands here in the UK, such as the Apple Store, French Connection, TopShop, Armani Exchange, and Hamley's.  Hamley's used to be the largest toy store in the world until the Toys R' Us in Times Square was built.

That night my friend Katie W. and I went to the local Odeon (the main cinema chain in the UK) at Whiteleys (the department store turned mall two blocks from our flats).  The ticket price was way high, but the cinema was really nice.  We saw "He's Just Not That Into You," which was pretty funny.  I definitely want to go to the GIANT Odeon in Leicester Square sometime, where they have the big London movie premieres.

On Saturday I went to the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill (made famous by the movie).  It was even more packed than Covent Garden!

There were stalls everywhere selling antiques in front of the actual permanent antique shops.  There was also a food market on the north end of the road.  By what I consider a chance of fate, I ended up in this little bazaar because I saw the sign "vintage records."  Sure enough, I found a little treasure trove of original vinyl records, where I purchased a few I'd had a hard time finding in the States.

From Portobello Road I headed to Buckingham Palace.  I had yet to see the palace in the daylight, plus I had a Flat Stanley sent to me by a friend that I needed to take pictures with!

I also came across St. James's Palace, most of which was rebuilt recently but the Tudor gatehouse remains.

I then took Flat Stanley to Westminster Abbey (the main front of which I had missed the first time I'd been there!)

Of course, we also saw House of Parliament/Big Ben.  I then trekked over to St. Paul's but thanks to the London tube system (that of course ended up making me transfer at LEICESTER SQUARE) I made it just after the last admission to the dome of the cathedral passed.  But I still have plenty of time to go another day!

Monday night one of my workplace's artists, Tallulah Rendall, had a single launch at a venue on Charing Cross Road called 12 Bar Club.  The performance venue was teeny, but it had a lot of character.  On Tuesday night I went to another performance venue just across the road from 12 Bar Club called The Borderline.  I was required to go see an American artist called Richard Swift along with everybody else at the IC London Centre who's taking Brit Pop.  I really liked the guy's style of music; I describe it by saying that it's what Billy Joel might have sounded like if he'd started his career in the new millennium rather than the 1970s.  He evoked that prog/classical rock style but with a more modern twist.

This coming weekend will be another one spent in London but everybody will be in town this time because mid-terms are next week (and then Spring Break!!!).  I definitely plan on making it inside more places (such as St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey, or the London Eye) this weekend, rather than taking pictures outside of them!

Finally, A Video from Stonehenge

So, I finally uploaded my video from Stonehenge.  

Yes, Stonehenge is just a pile of rocks...but it's a pretty cool pile of rocks! haha