The 10 day european trek has begunnnn...

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well hello!

so im sitting here perched at a computer screen with a carlsburg to my left in our hostel in Dublin. its now the "wee" hours of the fifth of november, and unlike the rest of you all, im going to bed not knowing the results of our US election. i have to say.. its pretty interesting just how equally interested the rest of the world is in our elections. despite all of the crap that ive endured here in ITALYYY.. booo...it really is a once in a lifetime experience to be around the rest of the world as such a pinnacle time in our history ( and as ive learned.. the world's history ) during this time. u gotta think..this is going to be one of those elections that we all will remember for the rest of our lives.. and im going to find out the results when i wake early in the morning... in IRELAND! .. thisll sure make for a good story, eh?

well to brief you all.. im on quite an excursion right now!! im out with a few friends of mine from my program. were on our fall break and decided to make the time we have extrmely worth while. sooo.. we planned the most ridiculous trip we could possibly afford over 10 days haha. the trip is as follows... Florence-> pisa, Pisa-> Barcelona, Barcelona-> Madrid, Madrid-> Dublin, Dublin->Galway, Galway back-> Dublin, Dublin-> Budapest, Budapest-> Bratislava, Bratislava-> Vienna, Vienna-> Milan, Milan-> Florence... WOOO!.. haha. yahh.... its pretty ambitious.. and unfortunately we only get to spend an abbreviated amount of time in every place. but to be honest, id rather spend a day or two in each of these places than not see them at all. with school and all, we simply dont have the time to spend in each of these cities.

so a bit about whats going on....

i just arrived in Dublin yesterday from Madrid. Good Lord, I love Spain! it was such a good start to this trip! spain is simply full of color.. the people the places.. the lifestyle! its amazing-especially coming from italy, which is traditionally limited on cultural infusion. Barcelona was wonderful. the main street was full of people, all interested an excited to be where they are. the median was covered with impressively statuesque men, working day after day stuck in one position and dressed with an actual message receiving only pocket change. its funny... because normally i would think of these people as kind of sad.. u know? not that i feel theyre below me or anything of that sort.. but u know u just cant help but feel bad. as if maybe they just dont have skills or the ability to make a better life for themselves- as if theyre stuck with this job. but no... when u see these people.. u realize they do this because they love it. they are committed to an art. its pretty neat. spain also presented a variety of people i had yet to experience... individuality. i cant even begin to box people in with words.. but it was refreshing to see creativeness. even absurdity was at least appreciated... simply because that person took a risk, even tho it may only be thru their arrangement of clothing.

on saturday the second, we took off for Madrid. okay... now while this has nothing to do with Madrid.. it is worth noting how FRICKEN RIDICULOUSLY SCARY THAT FLIGHT WAS!!! okay... nowww.. i dont really ever get scared of flying.. i love it.. even all the turbulence.. i usually think its fun! ..nooo......no no no no no. this pilot must have been gripping a bottle of jack from the time we took off to the time we landed. our plane was tipping here there and everywhere. the plane was shaking and losing altitude then gaining it again at some seriously fast rates. i thought i was going to die. haha. im NOT kidding. haha. that was the first time in my flying experiences that that damn seatbelt actually came in handy.. otherwise iw ould have been rolling around in the aisle, after smacking my head on the celing. needelss to say, when we finally arrived in madrid i kissed the ground. ...okay well i kissed my mitten and put it on the ground, but u know.. noone likes hepatitis, so im sure u understand.

madrid was wonderful.. we took a walking tour of the city and i learned a lot about the country i honestly never even knew. i quickly found out that madrid is known for its nightlife more so than its day. while the young teens go out about 6-8pm.. the older ones dont dare touch the streets until about 3 am! then the bars don't even close until about 7am. they even still have bars which stay open afterwards, until about 10:30am. its insane.. even my night owl self had trouble trying to keep up with that. haha. it was intense seeeing these streets just packed as if it were new years eve in manhattan at like 4 AM! now i thought to myself.. how in the world do these people do this all the time?! how do they stay out this late then get up for work and function like normal people!? welll... i realized when i got out around the town about 10am the next day that simply put- they dont. haha. no stores open until about 1 or 2 in the afternoon! ...NOTHING.. no food, no drinks, no stores, no businesses. but then they dont close til about 9 or 10 at night. it just an entirely different time schedule u know? pretty strange to any of us americans, unless were all crazy college students ( :D )

so i arrived into dublin yesterday.. oh man.. i cant even tell you how excited i was to get here! noone in our group bears anything but italian or indian blood really... so ive been quite in the minority haha. a piece of my culture.. a culture our family has always embraced.. right at my feet! as soon as we got here we made our way to a local pub. we drank pints upon pints with all the locals while dancing along to a little irish band that was playing at this pub in the temple bar district. they were so good! and we had the best time ever. everyone, young and old, gathered in this tiny place to enjoy themselves and sing along to great music while dancing like idiots. it was brilliant. haha. i love that everyone of all ages just hangs out together here! it just makes things so much more fun. its quite like a wedding reception haha... orrr.. any gathering we have thru Dad and Beth! haha.

today my friend Kirin and I wandered the town. we stopped at this great little pub outside of the main center area and had some great food.. i defied my principles of no red meat and enjoyed some traditional corn beef and cabbage while kirin added an extra mm of clog-age in his arteries with some fish n chips. to top it off and ensure wed pack on a couple extra pounds, we both drank our first full glasses of Guinness, right in the heart of Dublin, herself! i have to say, ive tried guinness before.. but never liked here. here in ireland.. its got a muchhh different taste. in america it has the tendancy to taste a bit like a pancake haha. but here.. its jut smooth. smooth and delicious!! so cheers fam! im officially part of the clan! haha.

well ladies and gents.. im off to bed. have to get up pretty damn early as were heading to galway at like.. 7 am.. ughhh. haha. but im extremely excited to see how this all turns out! galway and the future of the next 4 years of our lives all in one morning.. its pretty intense haha.

miss you all! enjoy the stress of this damn poll speculation and ill speak with ya soon! 😊 love you guys!

(photos comin sooonnnnnn 😊 )

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