Dublin

There must be some kind of Leprechaun magic in the Guinness there because everyone who went over break (myself included), loved it and would go back ASAP!

The people there were so incredibly nice, plus they spoke English which helped (although to be honest sometimes that accent was hard to understand haha). I stayed in a really nice Hostel where each room had a bathroom to themselves, and it wasn't too far out of the way that walking everywhere was a chore.

I did a lot of walking in Dublin, and getting lost. I refused to use a map (except when trying to find the Guinness Storehouse because I lost track of the road signs), simply because I didn't want to completely scream tourist, even though I probably looked it a little anyway. A lot of where I went was across the river so remember which bridge to take back was always a challenge, eventually I just took a bridge, walked two blocks and then took a left and eventually found the hostel haha.

The first night I saw a live music and dancing show, which was a really great way to get into the mood of the city. Then on Tuesday I visited the Book of Kells, and this enormous library and the Guinness Storehouse. On Wednesday I went to two archaeology sites, The Hill of Tara and Newgrange. Both were amazing and just learning about a different culture and past from the locals was truly a great experience.

I would 100% go back there to visit, and if I had to pick a European city to live right now it'd be Dublin. It felt like home (almost had a Boston feel to it - can't understand their accents either! (just kidding - sort of)), and it was certainly an experience that I'll never forget and I'm glad I took.

Also I got to see the Swiss Alps going there and back so here's a look at one of those pictures, not even released to Facebook yet!

Eurochocolate

I know I'm a little behind on posting here, but it's not as behind as I am with uploading pictures to Facebook, that's going to be one hell of a photo-bomb when I get around to it haha.

Eurochocolate was pretty cool, I walked around it for a few days, bought some Hot Chocolate which almost made me sick. Not because it was bad, but it was so good, and really thick that I just couldn't finish it, I was way to full to eat anymore. Besides sometimes parents are right and eating too much candy will make you sick (which I am, but not from chocolate!)

I was also lucky enough to find a candy apple seller, which gave me a small taste of Fall. I've realized since coming here how much I miss Fall, it was always my favorite season but I'm telling you, nothing beats New Hampshire in October. The apple cider donuts and just cider in general, corn mazes, the changing of the leaves.

Plymouth State has a webcam that you can use to look upon the campus and when I do I get to see a little bit of Fall. My favorite site of all has to be the Mary Lyon Green at night, with the lanterns all light with a golden glow. Not all of the leaves have fallen from the trees yet but they are all yellow, even the ones on the ground. The leaves and the golden lanterns just give the campus a magical air about it, and makes you feel as if you're surrounded by gold. It's truly amazing.

Back to the Eurochocoalte though! I also purchased some Lindt chocolate, because why not? The crowds had to be my least favorite part though, I could not wait for Perugia to go back to being a quiet city. It would take you double the time just to find the grocery store, and then everything was always sold out! Plus the Minimetro (kind of like a small version of the T but only has one line) was always crowded with people who didn't know what they were doing, so it was all fine and dandy when they left.

Gearing Up to Go!

IT'S VACATION!

From now until Sunday the 26th I can shut my brain off, because Umbra is on it's Fall Break. Instead of giving us small holidays off they just do this one week in the middle, which is nice because it breaks up the semester.

It also happens to fall on the week of the Annual Eurochocolate Festival that happens in Perugia. It opens tomorrow, so from then until this Sunday I'll be walking around town and gaining a "Chocolate 15" (similar to the "Freshmen 15").

On Monday morning I depart for Dublin and will spend until Thursday, exploring campuses, free museums, the Guinness Brewery, and an Archaeology site 45 min outside of the city. I'll let you all know how it goes, and it will be so nice to read signs and order things in English again haha, even if just for a few days.

Assisi

My Saint's and Sinners class took a field trip to Assisi on Friday to actually see the places we had talked about it class.

We saw three massive churches (Basilica of San Maria of the Angels, Santa Chiara, and the Basilica of San Francesco) and the old church called San Damiano. All these places had to do with Saints Clare and Angela. Eventually we will be going to Sienna to learn more about Saint Catherine. The Basilica's and Santa Chiara were absolutely massive! San Maria even housed an old building from the time of Saint Clare inside of it, they simply built around it!

On our lunch break we hiked up to this old Castle and you could see Perugia from there. It was a little strange looking back at Perugia, when normally I look out at Assisi. We had to pull out the compass app to figure out which part of Perugia we were looking at and where our apartments were in correlation.

I experienced mint gelato for the first time in Assisi, it was called "After Eight" and it was AMAZING! Best mint I've had ever, it was refreshing and minty all at once, and the chocolate chunks were in there too so it was just all around delicious.

First Field Trip

So as part of all the classes here there are scheduled field trips to different locations and my first one was this past Friday. It was for my Archaeological Discoveries class and we went to various places around Perugia that showed off it's Etruscan history.

We ended the trip at this old Etruscan necropolis (city of the dead - or in the case a hill on which many people happened to be buried outside of town), focusing on this tomb belonging to a rich family. The tomb only had a few people in it, but it's assumed that it was built for many more, and they aren't sure why it wasn't filled up to capacity.

The second place we visited was this old public well, but we didn't view the outside of the well, we went INSIDE it! The well itself doesn't produce potable water anymore so we got to enter it about halfway down. Apparently it is the widest well in all of Italy.

The first place we went to was the ruins of a church from Etruscan/Roman/Medieval times that were beneath our school. This church used to be huge! It ran under the school, through half of Piazza IV Novembre and into a building across the street. While visiting what they think was the old altar I noticed something out of the corner of my eye on the ground. It was a bone! I couldn't believe it, and when I pointed it out people were asking how I could tell it was a bone. Well I've seen quite a few bones to know one haha. Although I can't tell you what kind of bone it was since it was only a fragment, nor can I tell you what species it's from, but someday I will be able to do that. At least that's the end goal anyway.

 

Cooking 1

Since coming to Italy I've gotten into cooking meals for myself for two reasons. The first being that a lot of what they sell in grocery stores in only fresh food and its'not often that you come by a huge frozen food section. The second being that, you can't live off snacks and pasta forever!

After weeks of finding the perfect cheese, kind of meat (steak tips or hamburger - both work, but one's more work than the other!) and after weeks of searching finally the perfect bread! I have successfully mastered the steak and cheese sub! The second photo could have used more melting of cheese but both were amazing and it's good to have a little bit of home in my weekly diet.

Bari

Last weekend I went to Bari, Italy in hopes of doing some family research. Upon arrival though I remembered that no town office in Italy is ever open on the weekends so I wouldn't be able to learn anything new.

I did however visit a Cathedral modeled after the Basilica di Santa Nicola as well as the Basilica itself. They were both absolutely beautiful, and the Basilica had amazing fresco's on the ceiling and a wedding going on. Apparently it's normal for tourists to constantly walk in during weddings and just head down the stairs to the lower monastery. The lower monastery of the Cathedral had an archaeology museum since it had some older churches below it so I checked it out and it was pretty cool.

The lower monastery of the Basilica had candles that you could light next to offering boxes, so I lit a candle for my Great-Grandmother on my mom's side. It felt really good to be there as it's where she was born and it was exciting to explore the place she lived for awhile.

The first part of Bari you see after exciting the train is a very modern looking city, the buildings are all the same height and it's on a grid pattern. Old Bari is in the back of the city next to the sea and there you'll find a traditional winding streets, and old style Italian homes. It's back here where they have a castle, and I took a free night time tour of it. The tour was only in Italian so I understood next to nothing but it was still cool getting to enter a castle.