Spring Break Eur(Bro) Trip: Rome

The 2 weeks we had off for spring break may be the 2 best weeks that I've had yet in my relatively short life.  Rome, Prague & Berlin, each for about 3-4 days, and then back to Dublin on the 16th, just in time for Paddy's day.

Sunday, March 6th, Brian and I got up at 4am to catch a bus to our 7:50am flight, and we just made it.  I'd like to call it perfect timing, and I tried not to panic on the bus there, but who am I kidding, we were both a little freaked out.
We got to Rome just fine.  Flying over the Alps on the way down was amazing!  I need to find a way to get myself back there hiking/snowboarding at some point before I get too old to be able to actually do it.  The hostel, the Yellow Hostel, was a little out of the way, and we had some smelly people staying in the room, but other than that, it wasn't too bad.  The environment was really cool, there was a restaurant/bar downstairs where we met some interesting guests.  It was the same week as a lot of spring breaks in the States, so there were a bunch of Americans as well.
The first day we took it easy, conserved our energy for the upcoming 2 full days of touring, walked around a little bit to check out a few of the sights at night, which I prefer compared to the daytime.  The way that they light up monuments like the Colosseum, the arches, the forum, etc is really dynamic, and appealing to my inner photographer.  We ate at a place across the street from the hostel, and I think I accidentally ordered a pizza with anchovies, which turned out to be wayy to salty.  But the weather was amazing.  Rome is around the same latitude as Boston or Southern New Hampshire, but it's so much nicer this time of year.  It was about 60 degrees during the day.  It got a little chilly at night, but overall, compared to Ireland, it was fantastic.

Monument to Victor Emmanuel II

Arch of Caesar

The Foro Romano

The Pantheon

This picture really doesn't capture how massive the inside of the Pantheon is, hardly any picture does

Piazza del Popolo during Carnivale

 Oh, and did I mention that we were there during Carnivale?  The Piazza del Popolo, where the celebration was centered, was packed, as was the rest of the city.  There were kids walking around dressed up as if it was halloween, and confetti was everywhere.

The Spanish Steps

Trevis Fountain

The Forum at night

The Colosseum

Monday:  We definitely got a full day in today.  Brian and I took a hop-on-hop-off tour bus around Rome, stopping first at the Vatican.  The Most impressive Cathedral/building in general that I've ever seen.  The sheer scale of St. Peter's Basilica was unbelievable.  I guess if it's the center of the Catholic Church, it should be the biggest and most impressive.  The tombs of past Popes were directly below the chapel.  Pope John Paul II's was there.  It was eerie thinking that some of the most revolutionary Popes in history were in a tomb right in front of you- especially the main guy- St. Peter.  

attempted airborne shot in front of St. Peter's...fail

St. Peter's 

The inside of St. Peter's Basilica.  Maybe the most impressive cathedral I've ever seen

Swiss Guard.  Sweet uniform

 

Vatican Gardens/ The Pope's back yard

 We then went around to the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel.  The Vatican Museum is a lot larger than I ever thought.  We must've walked close to 2 miles before we even got to the actual Chapel.  It was dimly lit, probably to preserve the paintings, and the Man & God fingertip painting that you've probably seen a million times was not as large or prominent as I would've imagined.  There was so much  going on on every single wall, it was almost overwhelming.

Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel- this painting on the ceiling was not as big as I thought it was going to be

 That night we got an awesome dinner, wine and desert, with a free limoncello.  After some time at the hostel, we went out to explore more of the city at night.

Tuesday:  More tourism: Yesterday was Catholicism day, today is Ancient Rome Day:  The Colosseum, the Forum and Palatine Hill.
We slept in, sort of, until 9:30, had breakfast at the Hostel, and went to the Borghese Gardens in the northern part of the city.  Beautiful.  It's just the beginning of March and everything is already so green.  People were lounging around outside in the grass, kids were running around everywhere.  They must have had off for Carnivale (fat tuesday).  It's funny how people would be lounging around, eating a sandwich or a gelato, sitting on a piece of some ionic column that was now just ruins, as if it were a normal tree stump or piece of granite. 2000 years ago it supported part of the infrastructure of one of the greatest empires in history.

Overlooking rome, St. Peter's in the distance

2 Coins- 1 grants a wish, the 2nd promises that you will return someday, at least that's what they tell the tourists

 I've learned about this place, seen pictures, studied Latin language and culture since 6th grade.  Coming to Rome was the equivalent of an academic Hajj to me.  It is literally a dream come true.  I wish that I remembered more details from my latin classes, both language and culture, although I was surprised how much of the language is still with me.

The Forum at a glance isn't too impressive really, there isn't much still standing besides the arches and a few columns.  But the inferred importance of what used to be there, who used to be there, and what took place there was pretty cool.  Cicero, Pompey, Caesar, they were all there, giving a speech at some point 2000 some odd years ago.  And the Colosseum, well that was just amazing, I can't really say more than that.  By the end of the Forum, we were exhausted, so Brian and I went to get a Gelato by the Pantheon. No big deal, just eating a Gelato by the f-ing Pantheon.

Finally made it

On Palatine Hill

Palatine hill and the Circus Maximus (where they had chariot races)

The Forum

 That night we met up with some Holy Cross people studying in Rome at the Abbey Theatre Pub (yea, come all the way to Rome and we end up going to an Irish Pub).  It was nice catching up with them and hanging out for a bit.  Tomorrow we would be leaving to fly to Prague.

Jamisons Do Dublin

This post is a long time coming...fans eagerly awaiting, the time has come.

The long-awaited arrival of Ryan, Matt & Courtney was finally here.  Sunday, February 20th began a great week of family reunion, fun, tourism, and the occasional...or relatively frequent...pint of Guinness.

Sunday:  Arrival.  Jet Lag.
The overnight flight to Dublin, without sleeping on the plane, is one of the most exhausting trips I've ever been through, and it was no different for the Jamisons.  So later that evening we met up for some dinner at the Porterhouse, a microbrew right near Trinity College, before moving on to Temple Bar.  Oliver St. John Gogarty's had live music and traditional Irish dancing, and The Temple Bar (the actual bar, as opposed to the Temple Bar area of dublin) also had music as well as a bunch of other courtyard/bar areas I wasn't even aware of.

Monday:  Galway. Getting Iced.  Beautiful
Monday was an unseasonably warm day in Galway.  It had to be close to 60 degrees.  The industrious Matt & Courtney got up early and took the 7am train, Ryan and I followed at 9.  Although there were allegations of "being over-served" by the married couple, it would never stand in court.
We had lunch outside on Shop Street: a pedestrian, cobblestone street that goes right through the heart of the town.  It's lined by little shops, pubs, and all types of street performers.  Shepherd's pie for me.  I've never been a fan really.  The dining hall at Holy Cross really finds a way to ruin it, but the shepherd's pie here was a revelation.

Shop Street 

We had the day to walk around, take in the sun and see the river and harbor area.  The houses along the river were really cool, you can see them in the background of the picture below.

Out by the river/harbor

 In the late afternoon we met up with Courtney's brother, Todd, who happened to be in Galway for work.  What are the chances that it would all work out that well to be in another country together at one time?  It was great.  Todd had been there for a couple of days already, and was psyched to show us the different spots he had found thus far.

The first place Todd brought us...action shot

 After dinner (I had some sweet oysters, apparently they're known for their oysters in Galway.  I won't talk too much about food though, because excessive descriptions of food in blogs is one of my pet peeves, no offense to you food bloggers out there) we continued on Todd's personalized pub crawl to a place where we poured our own pints of Guinness and Carlsberg.  Overall it was a great night.  It was a blast hanging out with the family.  It's amazing how much of a comfort it is having familiar faces around when you're spending a long period of time in a new city.

PYOP- Pour Your Own Pint.  I still claim that I poured the best Pint of Guinness

Nice tweed lid, statues on shop street

 Tuesday the plan was to do the Cliffs of Moher tour, but the weather was not very cooperative with us.  It was foggy and rainy the entire day, and we wouldn't have been able to see a thing.  C'est la vie.  We got a chance to walk around the city more and took the train back to Dublin that afternoon.

Wednesday:  Tourism!
I had a paper to finish in the morning, so I met up with Ryan, Matt and Courtney later in the day.  In the meantime, they took a hop-on hop-off bus tour around pretty much everywhere, and I met up with them at St. Patrick's Cathedral (originally a Protestant cathedral).  Catholic cathedrals weren't allowed in Dublin during British rule, the Catholics had to build them flush with other buildings on side streets) and we continued to the Guinness Storehouse, where we all got certified for pouring "The Perfect Pint" of Guinness.  I'll be putting that on my resume.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

In action-Courtney pouring the Perfect Pint

Matt- Deep, artsy shot @ the Storehouse

Thursday:  Visiting the family.
We took the train up to Granard in Co. Longford to visit some extended family on my Mom's side.  Granard is where my Grandmother was born and grew up, and we still have many cousins (that includes removed, 2nd, 3rd, etc.  I still haven't figured all that out) and my Grandma's sister, Aunt Brid.  Our cousin, Seamus picked us up from the train station and brought us back to their house for an amazing lunch that his wife, Una made for us.  The Drakes were unbelievably hospitable.  Seamus brought us all around Granard.  We saw the site where the original Brady house used to be (a new house has since been built there), the cemetery where many of our since passed relatives lay at rest, and the house my Great-Grandfather was born in.
Meeting family for the first time in Ireland was such a unique experience.  The realization that these people, however distant, are the same blood as we are, have the same family, the same background, and just because of that there was a connection.  Seamus and Una's children came by, with their children as well, and it dawned on me at some point that there is this whole other side of our family that I've never known before.  We're just one branch of the tree, but there's a whole other side to this tree that I've never even seen, and getting a glimpse of it (to continue the metaphor) was really great.  I'm hoping to return at the end of the semester, when my Mom will be out to visit.

Friday:  More Tourism! The Grande Finale

With one more full day left in Dublin for the 4 of us together, there was still more tourism to be had, and we sure had it.  Matt, Courtney and I walked around Dublin a little bit.  I showed them the Merrion Gardens, across from Oscar Wilde's old house, we walked through Trinity College, and headed over to old Kilmainham Gaol (Jail).

Merrion Gardens in February

Just doing the Crane with Oscar Wilde in Merrion Gardens, no big deal.  Photo courtesy of Matthew Jamison

Kilmainham

If you've seen "In the Name of the Father" you'll probably recognize this room

Outer courtyard of the Gaol

A few movies have been filmed there, including "In the Name of the Father" and "Michael Collins".  That was really interesting, hearing about the politics and evolution of the jail.

From there we went to the Old Jameson Distillery.  The week wouldn't have been complete without it.

The Distillery

Official Whiskey Tasters

"Yo check this out, suhhweeet"-Ryan Jamison

That night, we went to a great Italian restaurant (Irish food is great, but it does get a little old if you have it every day) by temple bar as a last hoorah before Matt & Courtney left on Saturday.  It was one of the best meals I've had in a loonng time, and it was a great way to end the fam visit to Dublin.

Outside the restaurant...puttin' out the vibe

Saturday:  Matt & Courtney left to fly back in the morning, but Ryan didn't leave until Monday morning, so saturday we just hung out, watched some rugby and chilled out.  We went to a place called "The Church" to watch the game.  It was an old church that has since been converted into a restaurant/cafe/bar/club/beer garden.  Arthur Guinness was married there, so what better way to commemorate it, than have his beverage served there?

Sunday:  Howth.  It was a gorgeous day on Sunday, so Ryan and I headed to a small fishing village north of Dublin called Howth.  There was a great cliff walk, and I prepared myself better in the footwear department than I did the last time I was there (sperrys + muddy trails + cliffs = terrible idea).

It was such an awesome week, one of the best I've had since coming to Dublin.  I've been trying to get to know Dublin and the surrounding areas as much as possible in anticipation of showing Ryan, Matt & Courtney around when they came, and it was a blast being able to take them around and share the places that I love the most about Dublin, as well as explore places none of us had been before.