First Trip - Dublin, Ireland

After having a short time to start getting used to the time change and thrill of being in a new country, I took off with 6 other UW students and we are on our first trip. We made it to Dublin yesterday and will be flying out on Jan. 30 to London, flying to Munich on Feb. 2, and then Eurorailing it back to Milan on th 5th.

For all those concerned also, I still have my passport. Yesterday morning we got into Ireland and took our time getting to our hostel. After settling in we ventured out to walk the streets of the city. For one, I love the accents! We were looking forward to coming into an English speaking country, but little did we know it's almost just as hard to understand the thick Irish accents as it is the Italian! We ended the night at a bar and listened to some live music. Crowned as "the Americans" by the performer, we ended our night with a group solo singing Brown -Eyed Girl. And yes...the Irish do enjoy to drink!

Today we spent the day sightseeing. We went through St. Stephan's Greens and gardens in the morning. Gorgeous landscaping and scenery all throughout.We all commented on how Ireland really does do an impressive job with keeping their grass unbelievably green. Then we walked through Trinity College campus (again, beautiful) and then went over to the Dublin castle. Our fourth stop was at St. Patrick's Cathedral. It's just a weird(but good weird) feeling being in such a historical place (where St. Patrick baptized many of the first Irish Christian's). For what little time I've been in the country, I can feel my McKiernan side coming out:) Anyways, from there we made our way out to the infamous Guinness factory where we took the tour and enjoyed a few drinks. At the end we went up to the "Gravity Bar" which is on the 7th floor of the building. It's circular and all glass and you can see all of Dublin. I realize I haven't gone into complete detail about every place we see, but hopefully pictures can relay some of what I'm talking about.

Commenting Issues

So I've had a few complaints that people can't comment on my blog. There are a few options for you. The easiest is to just select as being an anonymous commenter and then just sign your name at the end so i know who it is, or you can create a google account and post using that. Let me know if you have any questions.

Arrival

Ciao! Well I made it to Italy but it still hasn't really sunk in. After a full 28 hours of travel and waiting I'm finally in a hostel in downtown Milan. I dealt with gate changes, flight delays, and even had to run to catch my connecting flight to Milan. Just when I was relaxing in my seat getting ready for the long flight, two of the flight attendants approached me and said slowly with a smirk, "Miss Meghan?" I thought I was in trouble of course but then as they milked it a little longer and asked me questions like was I missing anything-anything important. And yes they were loud and I was at the front of the plane so all eyes were on me. Well of course, I apparently dropped my passport in the previous plane I had just gotten off of, a flight attendant had sprinted to the gate and just caught it before it closed to make sure I got it....Whoops. I debated even telling my mother this happened cuz these are the things she warns me to be careful about, keep organized blah blah, and yes of course this happens to me.

Anyways, I arrived in Milan at 7:40 am which was like 12:40am at home. I was tired. I waited around the airport to meet up with two other girls from Madison and then we made our way to the hostel. Picture three girls(girls=overpacking), each with 2 huge 50lb. suitcases rolling behind them, backpack and handbags around the shoulder. We were a sight. We stopped traffic on both the sidewalk and streets(ie. suitcases falling into potholes, running into poles,etc) People were staring, laughing at us in their cars. Needless to say, we safely made it to our hostel. I don't have many pictures yet since my hands were full most of the day but here's one I took of! the streets in Milan - cobblestone roads and old buildings lining every road. Ahhh how gorgeous!

Arrivederci!

My Travels and Encounters Abroad

I thought creating a blog would be an easy way for all my friends and family to keep updated on all my travels and experiences abroad, instead of having to send 10 e-mails a day, and instead of confusing all the older generation by making them create Facebook accounts:) So please, feel free to write me on here, add comments, look through all my pictures(when all my traveling starts), and most of all keep in touch! If anyone has been to Europe and has some favorite places they visited, by all means, please let me know! Next time you'll be hearing from me, I'll probably be in Italy!
Ciao!
PS - Not to confuse you, but the time is set on Italy time, which is 7 hours ahead of Central Time Zone.