Recent Travels

Most likely if you're reading this blog you already know this, but I have just started working at a university in England, after almost two years in Florence. It was hard to leave (especially the people), but it was the right decision, work wise. I will post more about moving, my last time in Florence, and how it's been here soon.


But, for now, I would like to further reminisce on more travel adventures! This semester I was fortunate enough to travel to Budapest, Paris, and to Ireland and Northern Ireland with the school. All of them were repeat trips, so I don't have quite as many photos to post, nor do I want to completely repost the same itinerary notes. But to read more fully about my time on those trips, you can (if you are so inclined) read about them through these links (Budapest, Paris, Ireland, and Northern Ireland).


Budapest was the first trip of the semester that I went on, after our Opening Tour to Rome. (In my time since moving to Florence, I have done six overnight trips and two day trips to Rome)! Budapest was a really large trip, so all of the Student Life staff went, which was really nice. The trip was at the beginning of February, and it was pretty cold. In fact, it even snowed when we were there. At the time, that was a big deal as it was the first snowfall I had seen that year. Now, however, it snowed in Ireland, and it's snowed THREE times since moving to England, so I'm less thrilled. . . . But it was pretty, for sure.

A view of snow-covered Buda from my hotel room

We took a rather unusual route to get to Budapest, which was fun, but resulted in long days. We flew from Florence to Vienna, with a stop-off in Bologna to pick up more passengers. We then took a train from Vienna to Budapest. That was my first time crossing international borders on a train!  It was a nice train, although there was a man walking through our carriage carrying a chainsaw, which was so weird. But no one outside of our group seemed to think it was anything out of the ordinary.

We did a couple of different things on this trip than on the one I went on before, so I'll talk about those mostly. This time we did a tour of the Synagogue, which was really cool. It is the largest synagogue in Europe. We heard a lot about the history, and then we also walked around the gardens which have a Holocaust memorial.

This "weeping willow" bears 400,000 silver branches for each of the Hungarian victims of the Holocaust

We also did a bus/walking tour of Budapest, where we went into parks, Heroes Square and over to the Buda side of the city to the Fisherman's Bastion. That night we had dinner in the hotel, which was nice, but the best part was when the waiter brought over a basket of bread, proudly declaring it to be "Tuscan bread". Many of you have heard me complain about Tuscan bread, but if you haven't, basically, it has no salt, and no flavor, and we avoid it at all costs. Thankfully, this wasn't actually Tuscan bread, just a standard French baguette. But still, it was funny to see our faces when the waiter said it!

On the Saturday we did an optional tour to the baths, which was so nice and relaxing. It was strange to be sitting outside in a bikini when it was so cold, but the baths were lovely and warm. There were groups of old men playing chess in the baths, which apparently is a common sight. We had some free time in the afternoon, before a tour of the Opera House, and then the cooking class.

With Shelley and Linda at the cooking class

It started snowing that evening, and lightly snowed all night and on Sunday. Thankfully it didn't snow hard enough to interrupt our travel plans, and after another train and flight, we were back in Florence.


Again, I had a WONDERFUL time in Paris. It was so nice to go back. We had lots of fun, a good group of students, and some terrific food! Our hotel was close to the Eiffel Tower, and I could see it from my room, but unfortunately the entire weekend it was super foggy. I tried to take a photo of it from the room, but with very little success.

This is the clearest one, you can see the top of it peeking from behind the apartment building

We got to Paris early, so we did some scouting around of Metro routes for the rest of the weekend, and then we went to look for a gluten-free restaurant that Shelley had heard of.  By the time we got there, they only had three lunch dishes left, so we didn't have to worry about menu options, we just ate what they had left! We had a delicious soup, and a really good quiche. And then desserts! They had all of these beautiful gluten-free pastries in the display, and we sampled quite a few of them. While they weren't all hits, each of us found a few that we liked!

On the bank of the Seine.

On Friday the trip officially started for the students, and, like last year, we began with the bike tour again, which was again a great part of the trip. It's such a cool way to see Paris, and it's nice to be active, and Parisians are pretty friendly to cyclists. After the tour I went with Linda and Shelley to a little cafe where I had a croque monsieur and mulled wine. It was a great lunch! We then met the students at the Musee D'Orsay for a guided tour. It was a good tour, and the woman had the best accent I've ever heard. I wanted to bring her home and just have her speak English with her cute French accent. It was a fun tour :)

Statues outside of the museum

Friday night we walked around the neighborhood close to the Eiffel Tower, and we ended up having sushi at a restaurant that Shelley and Linda had been to on a previous trip to Paris. It was great! Delicious sushi and at a really affordable price. Can't beat that! I know it's not super French to go out for sushi, but when you live in Florence, you start to jump at any opportunity to eat ethnic foods.

On Saturday we did a French Revolution themed walking tour of Paris, and we had a great guide for that. He was knowledgeable, engaging, and funny, which is great with a group of university students. The only downside was that it was FREEZING cold that morning. At one point we passed the National Assembly building and there were police standing guard outside. They had heated glass boxes for the police to stand in, and I was seriously tempted to jump in one to warm up. The only thing that stopped me was that I wasn't 100% positive that French jails are heated, so I decided not to risk it.

Can you see the glass boxes to either side of the large doors?!?
They have heaters in the bottom of them.

After that we had some free time, so I wandered around on my own for a bit, visiting the Jardin du Luxembourg and walking into many chocolate shops in the hunt for Sarah's birthday present. We then met up with the students at the Eiffel Tower, for a trip to the top. It was super cold, and we had a group dinner that night, so we didn't stay too long.

Our flight didn't leave until Sunday afternoon, so Shelley, Linda, and I went to for a stroll down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees (as one does). It was the only day that we saw the sun, and it was a beautiful spring day in Paris. We walked along, making a couple of stops, and then headed back to the hotel to check out and head to the airport. All in all, a lovely weekend.

We arrived back to Florence on Sunday night, and on Thursday morning we left for the Spring Break trip to Ireland! It was hectic turnaround, made more so by the fact that I needed to start packing to move. I brought an extra suitcase with me on the way, as we stopped overnight in London, so I was able to leave it with my uncle and aunt. Traveling to and from Ireland was like a planned version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles. We took a taxi to the Florence airport, a plane to Paris, a train to the train station, the Eurostar to London, a taxi to our hotel, overnight in London, a taxi to the airport, a (severely delayed by fog) plane to Belfast, and then a train to Dublin, capped off by a taxi to our accommodations in Dublin!! Wow, it's making me tired again just typing all of that. But it was cool to take the Eurostar between Paris and London, and it was nice to have a quick stop in London.

Ireland and Northern Ireland was a Fantastic trip, I loved it! Even though I had done it the year before, I still took so many photos; everything was beautiful! This time we weren't in Dublin over Saint Patrick's Day, so we were able to do a proper tour of Dublin. That afternoon we had free time, so I met up with a friend from junior high who lives in Dublin now, and we had a lovely catch-up. We also made time to stop in to a natural foods store so that I could buy peppermint oil for my friend Lis who is in Rwanda for the Peace Corps. Apparently, peppermint oil keeps mice away - who knew?

Linda trapped at the Kilmainham Gaol

We had the same bus driver/tour guide from last year, and again, he was brilliant. Similar to the guide in Paris, he was funny, engaging and knowledgeable. Sometimes though, his sarcasm went right over the students' heads - as evidenced by them believing him when he pointed to some cliffs on the northern coast of Ireland and told them that they were the White Cliffs of Dover!

This was at the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge site

We did lots of driving around the Irish countryside, and it is so incredibly beautiful. Everywhere was green, and there were lots of sheep and tiny baby lambs all over the place! Lovely!  We visited Killarney National Park (where it snowed), Cork, Cobh (the Titanic's last port of call), and other tiny towns and villages.

At some mini cliffs near the Cliffs of Moher

The Cliffs of Moher

Linda's vacation home in Killarney National Park

With Shelley and Linda outside of Linda's home

Boats in the harbor at Cobh

After touring around Ireland, we made our way up to Belfast to explore Northern Ireland. We got a lot of history about the Troubles, including a tour of some of the neighborhoods of Belfast, the murals, and a tour of the Crumlin Road Gaol. We also arranged for a police officer to talk to some of the students about his experiences in Belfast over the years. We also did a tour of the Stormont Parliament, although it was shorter than last year's visit. It was nice to see the students so interested in learning more about the political situation there.

The Real High Score - Peace

We spent a full day exploring the coast of Northern Ireland, with stops at the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and at Giant's Causeway. Again, it was beautiful:

The rope bridge

Walking down to the causeway

The Giant's Causeway

A cute coastal village

We all had a great time on the trip, every part was beautiful and interesting. The food was delicious, and it was nice to have a full week in an English speaking country. Also, I was able to visit with my uncle and cousins, and it was nice to see them all.

Travelling back was much the same as getting to Ireland, although thankfully we were already in Belfast, so we could skip out on one train. We arrived back in Florence late on Friday night, and I was left with five full days in Italy before I moved to England.

I am so happy that I got to do all of the incredible travelling that I did while at Gonzaga, and this past semester has been great. I am sad to give up all of the travel (although I hope to still do a little on my own), and I am really sad to leave the friends I made. But, I am happy to be starting the next adventure, and I am really happy with the new job.

Hopefully more posts to come soon!