Long time, no post…

Sorry for not updating! Not much has been going on worth noting over the past few weeks, but we just got back from London so I figured it was time to update. I’ll start with what we have been doing lately…

After Germany, Italy, and Paris we came to Cork and took a much needed travel break—we were exhausted. I got pretty sick a few days after we got back and was stuck inside, but got back on my feet rather quickly. I had a bit of actual college work to do in the form of a history paper so I made sure to get that done…The following week our friend, Bryan, from W&J who is studying in Spain visited for the weekend. I took him to Blarney and showed him around Cork, as well as indulged him in some proper Irish culture—drinking pints of stout. After Bryan left I had another paper due.

So between actual schoolwork and a visit we stayed pretty busy, but had little to report about. Moving onto this past Sunday, we got the lads out into the park to play some soccer because the weather was absolutely amazing. Sunny, no rain, warm. It stayed like that for Monday and Tuesday and both days I managed to get some work done for my upcoming finals by studying in the park. Wednesday morning we left for London!

Our trip in London was short, but we saw a lot and the weather was perfect. We arrived in London around 8:15 AM and took the train to Liverpool. We got off and immediately began our tour. We started at St. Paul’s Cathedral. We decided not to go in because it cost £10 which is like $20 and we have seen a fair amount of cathedrals in Ireland and Italy. Next we headed to the London Bridge. I was a bit disappointed with it actually. The bridge was pretty standard and in the pictures don’t confuse the London Bridge with the bridge outside the Tower of London. I will be sure to clearly label them.

From here we took the Tubes to the Tower of London. This place was pretty sweet with the moat and walls guarding the castle inside. The moat was filled in, but the walls were still there and most of the stuff was original. We took a tour through and I will try to label the pictures as best as possible. The Tower of London was basically where the Kings and Queens lived and it was famous for the jail cells and all the executions they carried out in public. Most executions took place on Tower Hill, just outside the walls so that all the people could watch. I got a picture of the area, now a public park, where it would have happened.

Next we visited the London Eye—the 2^nd largest observation wheel in the world. We took a spin in this and got a great view of London. The pictures are bad because the glass in the carriage had a weird reflection. After the Eye we crossed the River Thames to see the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Across from this was Westminster Abbey and down the road was the Ministry of Defense. After these places we began walking toward Trafalgar Square past Downing Street. As we were walking down the road we saw a bunch of people in fancy clothes and it turned out the actor that played The Fonz in Happy Days—Henry Winkler maybe?—was outside Downing Street shaking hands with some other dressed up people.

We made it to Trafalgar Square and headed towards Buckingham Palace. After about a 20 minute walk through the park we made it to the palace and got some pictures. It was too late to take a tour and it also cost a lot so we just saw it from the outside. It was about 6 when we left the palace and we were beat from walking around for about 9 hours. We headed in for the evening and would be sure to get up early and see as much as possible before our flight left that evening.

First thing in the morning on Thursday we decided to visit Wimbledon. Little did we know, The All English Tennis Club wasn’t located at the 2 Wimbledon stops on the subway, but one 3 stops earlier. So after a great deal of walking and asking directions we found the club. The place was pretty much all blocked off and we got a few pictures. We found the Wimbledon Museum where you could take a tour of the inside for £10, but there was so much construction going on that Centre Court and Court 1, the two biggest courts, were blocked off so we didn’t go in.

We found the Tube stop close to the club this time and headed back into central London. We had a few hours still so we visited The Globe which was the theatre that Shakespeare worked with for much of his life. The Globe that we were in was recreated in the 90’s because the original from 1599 caught on fire and was then rebuilt in 1613. The 1613 version was destroyed by the Puritans, as with all theatres at the time, and never rebuilt. I got a few pictures from outside, but inside the actual theatre rehearsals for A Midsummer nights Dream were going on and no pictures were allowed.

That ended up being our final tourist spot because we were tired, hungry, and needed to get to Liverpool to catch the train to the airport. London was pretty fun, but I am getting a bit frustrated with touring cities. It was very crowded, rather dirty, and very fast-paced. It was great to see and visit, but I don’t know if I could have handled a longer stay in London.

So up next our friends that we stayed with in Italy are coming to visit Ireland for a few days. The come next Tuesday and leave Friday. We’ll be touring Cork and Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday we are renting a car and driving to Portmagee where we will catch a boat to the Skellig Islands. Skellig is a tiny island off the coast that has an ancient monastery on top of it. It’s supposed to be amazing if the day is nice.

After our friends leave I’ll be studying for my first final on May 21^st. After that Reline leaves on May 25^th and I have my other final on May 29^th. I leave Cork on May 31^st to go to Shannon and then fly out of Shannon on June 1^st to come back to Pittsburgh.

Look for 1 or 2 more updates coming. I’ll definitely update after Skellig—weather permitting and possibly once more before I leave.

Hope all is well, see you soon,

- Travis

EuroTrip

Hey everyone!

I'm finally back from my visits to Munich, Italy, and Paris. I had a wonderful time and took a ton of pictures. The traveling went pretty much as planned, no hold ups, and I saw so much. I wish I could have stayed longer because even though I saw so much there was a ton more I would have loved to see.

I'll start with Munich. I went to visit Joe in Munich and see a bit of Germany. The first day we pretty much walked around the city and saw the main sites there. We visited the English Gardens which is a park larger than Central Park. In the park (and all over Germany) was a beer garden where basically there were stands that sold beer and food. You order a beer and sit in the woods and drink it. It was pretty interesting. People of all ages were there drinking at all times of the day from early morning until the evening. Many of the buildings we saw were pretty new because 90% of Munich was destroyed in WWII. Joe did a wonderful job of explaining the buildings and how WWII impacted the area. We visited the main site of Oktoberfest...pretty much a GIGANTIC parking lot that brings all of Munich in for beers.

My favorite part of the first day was visiting the site of the 1972 Olympics. I got to see the stadium where Prefontaine ran his 5000m race and lost to Viren. After watching the movie "Without Limits" countless times it was fun to be in the place where the race was actually held. Also, if you have seen the movie "Munich" or are familiar with the Munich massacre that happened to the Israelis during the Olympic games we saw the hotel in which they were abducted and the memorial outside. From the Olympic park we climbed a large hill to see the entire park and from the top we got a great view of the Alps. You can't see them in the pics but it was amazing.

The next day we headed to the Andechs to the Benedictine Abbey. I'll link wikipedia here so you can get a full read on what we visited... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andechs_Abbey
Basically, we climbed a mountain and on top was a church with monks walking around. Apparently this place has brewed beer since 1455 and the beer can only be bought outside the church on this mountain. It was amazing beer and the view from the top was awesome. Inside the church was beautiful but taking pictures was inappropriate since it wasn't a touristy spot and many people were praying inside.

On Tuesday we headed to a concentration camp in Dachau. Dachau was the first concentration camp opened in Germany in 1933. It was a smaller camp used mainly for German political prisoners but also housed many Jews. 200,000 people went through the camp with about 35,000 dying. Here is the wikipedia link for more info... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp

I was about 50/50 on visiting the camp...it was interesting to see but I left with an uneasy feeling in my stomach. The gas showers and crematorium were a little weird to look at and take pictures of...

Finally, the last day it rained so we took it easy and I geared up for my train ride to Frankfurt to catch my plane to Pisa.
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So Thursday I met Reline at the Frankfurt Airport and we headed to see Lindsay in Florence. Florence was beautiful and the weather was amazing. About 70 degrees and the sun was shining allllll day. We walked around Florence and visited the Boboli Gardens. There was a ton of old sculptures throughout the park and Lindsay told me of some famous ones but I can't really remember. In the gardens was a Grotto which was where people went to cool off when it was really hot. Lindsay explained it as the opposite of a sauna with a cool mist filling the room. All the sculptures were covered with calcium deposits.

Next we headed to see the Duomo in Florence. On the way there we saw the fake "David" statue and some other sculptures that I cant remember. The Duomo was pretty cool...it was a HUGE church with a giant dome on top that people could climb. It was extremely large inside with really interesting paintings on the ceiling. Outside the Duomo were these golden doors to the baptistery (i think) and they were also very famous. I will try to do some research on exactly what I saw, but there was just so much to take in I forgot a bit. Finally we headed to the Acadamia. This was a smaller museum with paintings and sculptures and most importantly it houses "The David". The sculpture by Michaelangelo was immaculate. It was by far my favorite piece that I saw in all of Italy and Paris. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed, but I think we all stared at it in awe for about 10 minutes.

The next day- my favorite of the trip - we headed to Rome. Rome was packed on a Saturday and people were everywhere but Lindsay did a great job of touring us through the city seeing as much as possible. We started at the Vatican and saw St. Peters Basilica. We headed inside and it was massive. In the pictures you will see a brown arch-type structure over the altar with a cross on top. This was as big as a 10-story building alone. The place was amazing. The doors outside the basilica that I took a picture of are only opened like once every 25 years. I don't know why, but thats the story. From here we headed into the tombs where all the popes are buried. We got to see where Pope John Paul was buried, but no photos were allowed. Next we headed back outside. I took a picture that might look like a random building with some windows, but one of these windows on the right side is where the Pope talks out of on Sundays. From here we headed the another museum and the Sistine Chapel. The museum was packed with people and made it a bit difficult to see everything. Again Lindsay pointed out some good paintings and sculptures that I should know, but I can't remember at the moment. The pictures are there...I just have to look up what they are. We made it into the Sistine Chapel and Michaelangelo's work was amazing. No pictures were allowed so you will have to take my word for it.

Next we headed to the Pantheon and the Trevi fountain. The Pantheon was spectactular and the fountain was my second favorite thing in Rome. We drank water at the fountain from the aqueducts and I threw 2 coins into the fountain. The first coin was for a wish and the second was to guarantee I will visit Rome again.

After the fountain we visited the Colosseum. This was my favorite place in Rome and the history behind it was so interesting. If you loved "Gladiator" seeing where that stuff took place was awesome. To wrap up Rome we saw the Roman Forum where the old markets and trading would have been and finally saw the Circo Massimo. The Circo Massimo was where the races took place in the Roman times. It isn't a track now, more like a park, but it was still fun to see.

Rome was amazing and I wish I had more time because there was still a ton more to see.

Our last day in Italy we headed to Pisa. There wasn't much in Pisa except the leaning tower, but we had to see it. We took the corny pictures holding up the tower and Lindsay and I climbed to the top. Not too much to say about Pisa except they had excellent Gelato.

I loved the food in Italy as well. Vendors on the streets and the small cafe's sold excellent sandwiches and the pizza anywhere was amazing. Gelato might be my new favorite thing.
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On Tuesday we left Italy and headed to Paris. We only had one full day in Paris so we planned somewhat carefully and headed out early Wednesday morning. We took full advantage of the Paris metro and Joe taught me how to use it while in Munich so I pretty much ran the show on getting around quickly. Most of the time I had no idea what I was seeing, but they were recommended sites from Lindsay and the map we picked up. Our plan was to visit them and look up what we saw after to get the history on it. I'm going to explain what we saw by just listing it...

1 - Eiffel Tower - no explanation needed
2 - Palace de Challiot - across from the tower
3 - Arc de Triomphe Etoile - Arc in the city
4 - Sacre Couer - church on a pretty big hill that overlooks the city
5 - Bastille - a monument in the city that Reline suggested we see...not sure what it was for at all
6 - The Lourve - what a place to visit...absolutely massive with artwork everywhere...since we didnt know much about what to see we did a quick walk through and saw the few paintings either one of us had heard of...most importantly we saw the Mona Lisa, Raft of Medusa, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, Bourghese Gladiator, Aphrodite (Venus de Milo) and Psyche and Cupid.
7 - Notre Dame - really fun to climb and see the Gargoyle's and bell tower
8- Eiffel Tower at Night - every hour on the hour it sparkles for 10 mins and was really neat to see...
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So that was it...I had an amazing time and Lindsay and Joe were great tour guides. Check out the pictures for sure...I will try and label them as best as I can and research what I saw.

I have about 10 days of break left and need to get back in school mode...the next few weeks will be pretty easy going with maybe a short trip to London or a few trips within Ireland. Bryan, from WJ visits at the end of April and Lindsay visits in May. I will do my best to keep you updated! Send me an email if you have any questions or comments!!!!

Talk to you soon!

Travis

Family Visits - Killarney & Galway

Greetings all...

I know it's been a while, but i finally have some news and pictures to put up.

To start off my family visited last week. Mom, Taylor, Aunt Donna, and Krissy visited for about a week. They came in last Saturday and did some sight seeing around Cork on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday morning we left for Killarney and visited the National Park. It was a beautiful park, but we didnt get to see much of it because it was so massive. We walked to the Torc Waterfall, which was awesome then took a bus to see the Ross Castle. We took a good amount of pictures and I uploaded all of mine so check them out.

Thursday morning we took the bus to Galway and toured the city and the family did some shopping. The town was pretty nice and also had a lot to see. Friday was the bus tour of The Burren and Cliffs of Moher. First we saw the Dunguaire Castle for a few minutes and then headed to lunch. After lunch we made the big stop at the CLiffs. What a good time that was. The wind was absolutely ridiculous and everyone was getting blown around and/or over. It was really funny watching everyone try to walk around with the wind being so crazy. Definitely check out the pictures from the Cliffs. After the Cliffs we stopped at the Poulnabrone Dolmen which was a burial site where remains were found from something like 8000 years ago. Pretty cool. Last we stopped at the Aillwee caves. We toured the caves and took some neat pictures, but they didnt show up too well, at least on my camera.

Saturday we went to the Aran Islands and biked around. It was alot of work getting around the island but we saw a good bit. The island was covered with churches and old temples. I will try to label the pictures but i will probably mess it up because there was just too many of them to keep track of. Besides the churches, we visited an old light house that gave a great view of the island. Next we headed to Dun Aonghasa which was a Celtic fort built in 2000 BC. One end is on a cliff so there was a great view of the ocean from it. After the fort we moved onto the seal colony along the beach, but no seals were out. Finally we headed back to the town, grabbed lunch then Taylor and I went to see the smallest church in the world (3.7meters x 1.8meters) atop this hill. We couldnt get very close to it, but we got a few pics.

Sunday everyone left and I returned to Cork. I enjoyed the family visit and had a good time seeing more of Ireland with them. I know the description of the trip is a bit short, but i am attempting to label the pictures from the visits and give some more information there, so check them out at the picasa page. They should be labeled by tomorrow.
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Hockey wrapped up on Tuesday. We won the championship going 8-1-1.

I leave Friday for Germany where I'm staying with Joe for a week. After that I'm heading to Italy for 6 days then Paris for 3. I will have limited internet access for the time so I'll try and update when I can, but definitely look for a ton of pictures mid-april.

CHECK OUT THE PICS!

Talk to you all soon!

- Travis

Scotland and Sweden

I made it back all in one piece!

Scotland and Sweden were amazing and I had a ton of fun. I'll start at the beginning.

My friend Joe, from W&J who is studying in Munich, came in to Ireland on Wednesday. We left for Glasgow, Scotland Thursday evening and went to the hostel. After some confusion with the rooms we both ended up getting free upgrades at the hostel. We went out to see the town a bit and had some Scottish beer at a local pub. We went in early so we could get up and see the city Friday.

On Friday we walked around the city and saw some pretty interesting buildings. Unfortunately it was pouring rain and made taking good pictures difficult. We hurried through the city to see as much as possible since we had to leave for Stockholm in the evening. The rain forced us inside to the World's Tallest Movie Theater to see a movie and dry off. After the movie we took the train to the airport and caught the plane to Sweden.

Our flight ended up being delayed by an hour so we didn't get into Sweden until around 11. After the hour bus ride to Stockholm city centre and figuring out the subway we didnt get into the hostel until 1:15. We immediately went to bed to rest up for a big day on Saturday.

We slept in a bit on Saturday and when we got up we moved to our new hostel since Friday nights was booked. After checking in and dropping our bags off we headed to a ticket center to buy tickets to the Bandy game on Sunday. I'll tell you more about it later. After tickets we headed to IKEA, the main reason I wanted to go to Stockholm.

IKEA was HUGE. The largest one in the world. It had about 6 floors and the warehouse alone was bigger than IKEA Pittsburgh. Immediately we went to the restaurant to eat. I told everyone there that I worked in an IKEA restaurant and they loved it. The workers asked me all kinds of questions about our menu and how we do things. It was pretty funny actually and everyone looked at me kind of weird since I was taking millions of pictures.

The rest of the store was pretty overwhelming. There was a cafe on every floor and the building was cylindrical so you were constantly walking in circles. I got a few catalogs and floor plans along with the tons of pictures I took as souvenirs.

After IKEA we went back to the hostel, dropped our stuff off and went to grab some food. We walked around the city a bit at night and found it difficult to find a place to hang out with a younger crowd. We ended up finding a bar with some live music and Swedish beer.

On Sunday we woke up pretty early and headed to town looking for some Sweden hockey jerseys. No dice on the hockey jerseys, but I did find a nice Swedish soccer shirt. We moved our stuff back to the hostel we stayed at on Friday because it was much nicer and cheaper. We were getting geared up for the big bandy game of Hammarby vs. Sandvikens. It was the semi-final game for the local team Hammarby.

Since probably all of you don't have a clue what Bandy is, check out the pictures. Its basically a mix of field hockey, soccer, and ice hockey. The game is played on a ice rink that is the size of a soccer field - HUGE. The sticks are like that of field hockey, but the rules are extremely similar to soccer and there is no hitting. Its 11 vs 11 and is very fast paced. The locals were amazed that we had heard of this game before. The only reason I heard of the game was because of my friend Anders who plays on my hockey team and is from Sweden.

Bandy was pretty intense. The fans were crazy. The fans chanted the entire game and waved huge flags. They screamed at the refs and yelled what I think were profanities all game long. Remember, everyone spoke Swedish, although most spoke english as well. At one point kids were lighting fireworks off IN the stands. Unreal. It was pretty fun to see how into games these fans would get. It was a great experience. Even though Hammarby lost the fans still chanted until they left the ice. The coolest part of the game was at the end when the team skated to our section and the captain gave a speech. Probably since their season was over, the captain spoke a bit and led the crowd in the team song. The team handed their sticks to fans and shook hands with the kids. I will try to upload some videos of the game, but i dont know if the internet here will allow me.

We went in early Sunday and got up at 8 to catch our plane back to Dublin. We thought we might have missed our flight to Dublin, but we made it with about 30 mins to spare. European airports, like American airports, can sometimes be really fast or really slow. Stockholm wasnt the fastest.

When we got to Dublin at 12 the fun really began. We had a 5 hour wait coming for us. 5 hours wasnt worth paying 12 euros to get to and from the city so we chilled at the airport. Around 4 I went to check in and found that our flight was canceled. Needless to say, Joe and I were pissed. RyanAir offered us a flight at 9 but told us it would likely get canceled too. We asked for a refund and had to take the train to Cork. The train cost a fortune (60 euros compared to 18 by plane) and took another 3 hours to get back. We made it back at 9 and finally completed the big trip.

I had a ton of fun and really loved Stockholm. I wish we could have saw more, but our plans were a bit limiting and took some time. It is definitely a place to visit.
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Other than the big trip...we won our hockey game last week 1-0 and mathematically sealed the championship up. We'll get our trophy next week after the last game.

Mom and the crew come Saturday and should be pretty fun. They arrive in the heat of the St Paddy's celebration...should be a good time.

Next week we'll be going to Galway and Killarney hopefully.

Check out the pictures from Scotland and Sweden! Talk to you soon

- Travis