trex
Tara Costello Joined: August 24th 2008
Logged in: June 7th 2011
Logged in: June 7th 2011
Travel Blog Posts
you and me
(January 12th) I’m sitting now on the airplane after saying goodbye to Ireland and the life of travel we’ve lived for the past four months. Of course I’ve missed my family and friends (and Ducky of course), but there is something about the freedom that we’ve had that I will miss everyday for a long time. This has been the greatest four months of my life. I’ve learned more about myself than I ever thought possible. Brian and I are coming home even stronger in our relationship than we ever were before (which is saying a lot because we thought we were already pretty damn solid.) So, to end my writing, I thought it would be fitting to let the teacher in me take over one last time, and tell you all what I’ve learned, and ... read more
Brian and Tara's trip in review (as drawn by Brian)
(January 9th - 11th) After taking the ferry from Holyhead over to Dublin, we spent our last few nights hanging with Rob and Carl and saying goodbye to the home we’d enjoyed so very much. We went to the Jameson distillery and tasted some of the finest whiskey I’ve ever had cross my lips, and we went to the carvery where Rob took us the very first night we landed in Dublin for one last Irish meal. We made sure to get any last minute presents and pack and repack the suitcases, and we made tacos for Rob and Carl for one last time. Walking around Dublin, being in Ireland, I felt at home. I will never look at Ireland the same way again. It will always be a second home to me now and I’ll ... read more
you think they would have let me in first but nooooo, I had to crawl over then under
(December 27th - January 9th) Its been one month and two days since Brian and I returned home, and today the bracelet my mom made for me before we left to keep me safe on our travels broke. I considered it a sign. You see, for weeks now I’ve been trying to write London and haven’t been able to. I figured I was just too busy with work (Only a month home and I already have four jobs) and moving into our new place in Novato, to actually sit down and sort out my thoughts from one of the cities we spent the most time in. That wasn’t it at all. This week, Ed and I were holding auditions for “Beauty and the Beast” which we’re putting on at Mary Silveira and he asked me, “When ... read more
Rome for Christmas
(December 24th - 26th) Ah Rome! The “History” of our three-city tour of Italy. Rome holds some of my most cherished, most secret, and most embarrassing memories with my dearest friend Cheryl. Rome is also the site of the pubcrawl on which I met Rob whom we stayed with in Dublin, Ireland and Rik whom we stayed with in Leiden, Holland. So before I get into my “Roman Holiday” with Brian, let me begin with my favorite story from the last time I was in Rome: “The Tale of the Neverending Night” Cheryl and I arrived in Rome after parting ways from my Mom in Florence and having no clue what was in store for us or if our brief week of Italian lessons would pay off. On our second day there we went to the ... read more
Ah Firenze!
(December 21st - 23rd) Ah Firenze! There’s something very comforting about being in a city you know your family just passed through. Back in October my Mom and sister were in Florence right before they came to visit Brian and myself in Galway. They stayed in the same hotel (Hotel Bretagna, right across the hall), visited the same sights, ate the same food, and drank the same wine. There was one point last night when I was on the phone with my sister and I realized she had been standing exactly where I was only 2 months before. I know it may not seem that amazing, but when you’ve been away from home for as long as we have, its comforting to know that maybe a little bit of their energy is left there for you. ... read more
Ah, kisses!
(December 19th - 20th) As soon as we were woken up by the ticket taker, Brian looked out the window and asked, “Where’s the water? I thought you said this city was all on water?” I calmly reassured him that we weren’t exactly at the water yet, but it was coming. Sure enough a few minutes later we were cruising across the one stretch of road leading into Venice that looks like an incredibly long bridge over nothing but water. Stepping out of the train station at Santa Lucia, I couldn’t help but smile because Brian was in complete and utter awe. We hopped on the “bus” to get to our hotel and Brian just started laughing to himself as we all loaded onto a boat and started cruising the canals. I told Brian to go ... read more
Into the mist . . .
(December 17th - 18th) The signs were all there. We just kept ignoring them. Apparently we didn’t want to see them and we just kept turning away. We were not supposed to go to Croatia. Sign #1: You can’t get there on Eurail. It seems like we’ve been doing good so far on this trip in terms of traveling around, but really its been pretty simple when all we do is whip out our Eurail book, see what time the train leaves and whether or not we need a reservation, and off we go. Any times we’ve had to use other means of transportation, things have gone wrong. Croatia is a bus country. You can get around to some of the places by train, but for some reason they take an exorbitant amount of time to ... read more
Budafull Budapest!
(December 12th - 16th) I feel that I have been very blessed my entire life with the friends I’ve had and still have to this day. Some of you I’ve known since birth, some of you I picked up along the way, and some of you found me (as Brian reminds me all the time :). Not everyone can say that they have loyal, caring, trustworthy, intelligent friends who would go to great lengths to take care of each other. I bring this up now because I was able to visit one of my dear friends in Budapest who I haven’t seen in years. His name is Eitam and he is a medical student originally from Israel and currently in his fifth year of medicine in Budapest. After reading about all of Brian and my travels, ... read more
the decorations for Christmas
(December 10th - 11th) Ah Vienna. The funny thing is, I knew at one point on the trip there would be a city or two that would blur by. And although we spent two days in Vienna, it was just that, a blur. Brian and I were both exhausted beyond exhausted when we got in, and we ended up sleeping in until noon the first day. We haven’t done that in a looooong time. But although our time passed quickly, there were a few hi-lights from Vienna that I of course remember. The first night we went out and found a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant (we seem to have a knack for finding those now), that served delicious food in heaping portions. Keeping to custom with the places we like, we went back to Mozartstube the second ... read more
the location is great but the commute would be a bitch!
(December 8th - 9th) Germany round two! Originally we weren’t planning on coming to Munich (I know I know, it seems to be a running theme now as we get towards the end of the trip, but hey, its nice to have the flexibility to go where we please). But Brian noticed something in the travel book that I had overlooked. What’s funny is that after Brian told me we were going to Munich, I remembered a photo from the very first night I met Roy. He had just returned from his European vacation, and of all the pictures he showed me, the one that caught my eye was of Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle that inspired Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland. And although it’s a two-hour train ride, a ten-minute bus ride, and a ... read more
