On Wednesday April 6th I boarded another one of those first thing in the morning flights to Rome Italy to meet up with my friend Ginny and two of her friends who are studying in London with her. Wednesday was spent mainly getting lost, A lot and getting our bearings in Rome. I did get to see this really pretty fountain as well as the Colosseum, which took up a good percentage of my photos. It was a really nice day out.
On Thursday, my birthday! We all went to the Colosseum to actually go in. We walked all the way there from the apartment that we were staying at, which was about a half an hour. It was gorgeous out but extremely hot out. We got tickets to the Colosseum, after waiting on quite a long line and went in. It so cool to go in and see it, amazing to think of how long this building has been around for and it also had some really great views.
After we went to the Colosseum we were dehydrated and famished so we went to an Italian restaurant and I got to try my first helping of pizza from Italy. The NY pizza snob had to see if something matched it up. I must say it was quite yummy, though I still have a great affection for NY pizza.
Our ticket to the Colosseum included a ticket to this park that was filled with ruins, it was so cool to walk around them, especially seeing ancient ruins surrounded by a modern city. The park had this structure that we were able to climb up to be able to see great views of Rome. It was so cool.
After we walked amongst the ruins we went to go see the Trevi Fountain, it was so hard to get up close to it because there were so many people around it. Though it was absolutely beautiful. After the Trevi Fountain we went to go see the Spanish steps which we also crowded with tourists. We climbed up them and it had another great view.
After doing our site seeing we went to go get my favorite snack, gelato, to tide us over before dinner. For dinner we went to this really nice Italian restaurant that we thought seemed really cheep, though it ended up that we spent more money on bread and water then the actual meal. Though the pasta was amazing! Overall I had an amazing few days in Rome, I wish I could have stayed longer in Rome or be able to travel through Italy more. It has made me realize that my thirst for travel will not be quenched during this trip.
I got back from Italy mid afternoon on Friday then on Saturday morning I headed off for another trip with my friends Kadie and Stephanie who go to UCD with me. We took the bus up to Belfast, in Northern Ireland which is considered part of the UK. We were really excited to be able to go up there and see if we were able to see the difference between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Belfast really did seem more like a British city then an Irish city. Though one really could not see that there was a history of tension there.
On Saturday we went over to the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, it was so pretty. The Botanic Gardens had a museum within it, called the Ulster Museum. It had many different sections with in it, we took much interest in the history museum which explained a lot of the troubles that have gone on in Northern Ireland. After the museum we walked around the city more, we got to see the city hall which was a really pretty building. It had a little exhibit in front of it that was commemorating the upcoming 100th year of the Titanic launching.
Today we went on a tour of other parts of Northern Ireland with the Paddy Wagon. Our first stop was this one place that had a really great view as well as a rope bridge. The rope bridge cost 5 ponds to cost so decided not to cross it. Though there was some really pretty scenery around it that we enjoyed taking many pictures of.
Our next stop was the Giants Causeway! We were there for about two hours but it went so fast because it was so gorgeous, something that didn't even seem real. We had to walk down a long hill to get to it and then we just went crazy taking photos of the rocks as well as walking around them. The Giants Causeway is a result of a volcanic eruption, I'm not into Earth Science but it was so cool to see something like that live.
Later in the day we went to Derry/Londonderry. We had went on a self guided walking tour around the city, which was such a great idea. Derry is the only city in Ireland and The UK that is completely still a wall city. There was still much evidence of the tension between the British Protestants and the Irish Catholics in the city. Many murals around showing this sentiment. Our tour guide told us many stories about riots going on that have happened recently. It was really fascinating. Overall the trip was a huge success!
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