Hola!

This past weekend I was in Barcelona, Spain! I was looking forward to spending the weekend in a warm climate, whit lots of sun and enjoying my last trip of the semester. Well, when we first got there we met up with 3 other girls from school who were staying in our hostel. We get on the metro to get to the hostel, only to discover that it closed in 5 minutes, so we had to get off. We got off at what we thought was our stop (as indicated on the directions from the hostel) and discovered that it was actually about a 20 minute walk from where we were. It was about 1:00 am, so we were trying to hurry, as it’s never a good idea to be out late, and a group of 9 American girls is like a moving target. So, we get directions from two nice ladies who happened to be walking by and make our way down the street. As we are crossing the street we hear one of the girls screaming. I turn around she is being dragged down the street by a Vespa. She falls face first into the street and the guy speeds away. So, we all run over to her and try to process what has just happened. I thought the Vespa had hit her, but apparently he had tried to grab her purse off of her arm and she didn’t let go so he was dragging her. She gets up and her face is bruised and scraped up as well as her arms and feet. She is shaking terribly, and is obviously shaken up, as all of us are, but we are now trying to figure out what to do. No cabs would stop for us, and we were still 15 minutes away from the hostel, so I tried to clean her up, a few girls grabbed her stuff and we continued walking. I have never been so scared in my life. Every Vespa or motorcycle that would drive back, I would just hold my breath and tremble. Its one thing to hear of these types of things happening, but you never think it will happen to you (or someone you know) and then when it does, it is the biggest reality check. We were all silent walking to the hostel, I think because we were all scared and no one knew what to say. It was horrible and one of the worst things I have seen happen to a friend. I hope it never happens again, and serves as a reminder that there are bad people out there and to hold your belongings close, because around every corner someone is there to rob you and take advantage of you. I was so glad that she had held onto her purse, because her life was in there. I am glad that she is ok for what happened, but if he would’ve gotten her purse she would’ve lost her passport, credit cards, cash, etc…all in a foreign country and when the embassies are all closed. She would’ve been screwed. So, on one hand her face would’ve been saved if she would’ve just let go, but at what cost? Anyway, we finally got cabs, and we finally got to the hostel. Everyone was afraid to leave the hostel because of what just happened, but we decided that at this point we could all use a drink, so we went next door to an Irish pub. It was nice to be crammed in, and feel safe actually. The rest of the girls went home, and Tracy and I stayed out for a little bit and blew off some steam. It was an interesting day to say the least.

Friday, we got a late start because of our really late bedtime the previous night, but we got some lunch and went to Starbucks and all was ok. We decided to head to the beach, even though it was chilly, we still wanted to walk in the sand. By the time we figured out where the beach was it was pouring. It was a little windy when we left the hostel, and it kept getting darker, but we figured it would hold off. It did not. It was so windy and cold and rainy—absolutely miserable. Where we were, there was not much to do inside, so we braved the rain (with my now broken umbrella) and hit the shops on La Rambla. The shopping there was amazing! The style was so different than anything I have ever seen. The colors and prints were crazy, anything went. I thought this was only in one store, and as we kept walking around I found this was not the case. I didn’t really buy anything crazy, but the other girls did and let me tell you, it is nothing you would ever find in the States. It was very inspiring to be around all of this, I loved it. After shopping we figured we should go back to the hostel and get ready for the night. We went to a Spanish restaurant for dinner, where we had a ton of Sangria. I also got typical Spanish food; it was pretty good, actually. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I liked it a lot. After dinner we went to a club that was supposed to be “the best club in Spain!” It was definitely not. There were about 5 people there and the drinks were ridiculously expensive. However, like always, we made friends with the managers and bartenders, so we did not have to pay. But, this fact did not make this club any less lame, and on top of that, Spain still allows smoking inside, so it reeked of smoke and it was everywhere. Ugh. We decided to leave after a few hours and this club was in the middle of nowhere, so getting a cab was next to impossible. When we finally got one, we realized we had 5 people (cabs only allow 4) and had to beg the driver to take us. He finally did after much convincing and we made it home safe and sound.

Saturday also started relatively late (the bars stay open until 5am) but once we did get up we wanted to walk around and see the architecture. Some of the other girls went on a bus tour, but I wanted to walk so Tracy and I and 2 other girls did our own tour. By the time we finished with lunch, it was raining again. So, we had to waste time somehow in the shops. I can only look at the same clothes for so long, so this was getting old, but I bought a few souvenirs and we finally made our way outside to the Casa Batillò, which is the famous Gaudi building. Gaudi is an architect (and artist, I guess…) from the early 1900s whose style was very modernistic and crazy for the time period. I personally love his style and would live in any house he designed in an instant. He liked to derive inspiration from all things “nature” and used them quite literally, but more on that later. Anyway, so we are walking and taking our time and taking photos of everything and checking out shops. We then realize that it’s almost 8pm and the house is probably going to be closed. So we hurry to the house, and it had just closed, so we vow to get up early the next day (we had to anyway to check out) and go inside. So, we decided to walk around some more and go back to the hostel to get ready for the evening’s festivities. We go to dinner at this tiny little restaurant/pub on this little side street. I wasn’t really that hungry, but I ordered something “meat in the oven” whatever that means. Well it comes out and it’s like a big slab of “meat” I don’t know what it was, but it was disgusting. I am pretty open to trying new food, but I couldn’t eat it. Luckily it came with mashed potatoes, so I ate those. The server comes to clear the table and looks at my untouched plate and says “you don’t like?” and I say apologetically, “no, I am sorry…it’s ok though” and she gives me the dirtiest look ever. Whatever, I didn’t mean to offend her, but I just couldn’t eat it. Anyway, to smooth things over (plus I was hungry at that point still) I ordered a chocolate tart and cleaned my plate. After dinner we went to a tiny little salsa bar, and I mean tiny. There were 10 of us and we barely fit. After sitting at a cramped table for an hour, we decided to change locations. We went to this little place where there was a great dj and a lot of interesting people. It ended up being really fun and a great way to end our night out in Barcelona. We went back early because we wanted to be able to get up early the next day.

Sunday morning came pretty early, as we had to be up and checked out by 10am. So after that, we went to the Gaudi house, Casa Batillò. We went in this time and it was amazing. I have never in my life seen anything like it. The inside was made to represent the inside of a whale. The staircase looked as if it had a spine attached made of beautiful polished wood. The windows were supposed to be like the teeth and they had beautiful stained glass inserts like bubbles. There were so many interesting things in this house, it is almost impossible to remember them all! Just the way things were designed was so amazing and thinking of the time period in which all of this was created is even more impressive. For instance, the doors had a ventilation system, where you could open however many to create air circulation within the rooms, and the handles on the windows were designed to fit perfectly into your hand. The staircase railing was the same way, the wood was so soft and it fit smoothly into my hand. In the center of the house there was a courtyard referred to as the “courtyard of light.” It was tiled in blue tiles that at the bottom were light and as you went up the stairs, you noticed that they became a more cobalt blue. This was done to create a brightening effect at the bottom. This courtyard was covered by glass to let the light in and it was the entire height of the house. Once we got to the top, there was a rooftop terrace. It was so cool! The front of the house has a shape that is reminiscent of a dragon’s back and is tile in mosaics accordingly. There are also little stairs that go to secret places all over the house, even on the roof. The chimney covers were made to resemble a castle, and are mosaic tiled as well. It was perfectly reminiscent of Barcelona with its bright colors and interesting design. This was my favorite thing that we did, only because it was so unique and I really enjoy unique architecture and design. After the Casa Batillo, we walked around more and saw the things we kept missing. We got one last lunch of tapas and other Spanish food (I got paella…a rice dish, so good!) and headed back to the hostel to pack up our luggage and get to the airport.

Overall, this trip was great. Even though it started horribly and it rained most of the time, it was still enjoyable and I loved it. Barcelona is a very unique and beautiful place, which I would recommend to anyone. The architecture alone is worth the trip. There were so many other Gaudi buildings that we didn’t get to see, but the Casa Batillo was the crown jewel for sure. Unfortunately that was my last trip to another country (unless I plan something on a whim…) but I will spend the remainder of my trip in Italy. This weekend I was hoping to get back to Amsterdam with some girls from class, but I waited way too long to book a flight and they are now ridiculously expensive, so maybe later. I would like to take a trip by myself, but I am not sure if I will and where I would go. This weekend, I will stay in Florence and probably do some Christmas shopping for people and visit museums. My roommate, Tracy will be out of town with her parents, and my other roommate has a friend coming, so I am hoping to be alone all weekend and will enjoy every second of it. I need the rest and especially the alone time, as spending 24 hours a day with the same people, can be taxing. I will write again soon.

Ciao

Cheers!

Last weekend I traveled to Dublin, Ireland, one of the “mother lands.” It was beautiful. I felt about Ireland, the way I felt about London. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I knew I would love it. As soon as we got off the plane, we went to our hostel, The Dublin City Bunkhouse, to drop our stuff and go get some dinner. We arrived to our hostel, which was in a good location and close to everything and promptly checked in. The lobby seemed nice enough, and we were interested to see what staying in a 16-person “mixed dorm” would actually be like, so we lugged all of our stuff up to the top floor and went in. As soon as we walked in, we noticed there were mostly guys in the room, and it smelled horrible. I would liken it to a dirty sock, covered in old milk: the worst smell ever. Also, it was really hot and the windows were closed, so the first thing I did was open the windows to air it out and hopefully get rid of the disgusting smell. We quickly freshened up and left to go to dinner.

We went to a place called “The Oval” as we wanted to eat traditional Irish food and of course get a pint of Guinness. We all got stew, and it was delicious. It was exactly the comfort food I have been craving and I was very happy! After dinner, we walked around the Temple Bar area, which is the touristy part, but there is a lot to do there. We stopped in a pub that had live music and had a drink. It would’ve been great except for the fact that it was shoulder to shoulder and when we were there the musician had taken an hour break. So we finished our drinks and decided to just call it a night. We got back to our hostel and much to my dismay; I discovered that I was on the top bunk which was inches away from the next top bunk, who happened to be some smelly guy. Seeing as how I didn’t feel like “sharing” my bed with a stranger, I turned around so at least my feet were in his face if he decided to make a move (he obviously did not…)

Friday morning after one of the worst nights of sleep I have ever had we got up and went to the Guinness Storehouse. It is a huge brewery and the inside part that you tour is shaped like a pint glass, thus the world’s largest pint glass. We started the tour at the 9,000 year lease Arthur Guinness signed for the building and made our way through the brewing process. It was very interesting and mid-way you get to go to the “tasting lab” and taste their low alcohol beer (2.5%) It was pretty good and afterwards we continued our tour. It takes you through the history of the beer and the advertising and it was really cool to see all of the old advertisements and bottles. After this portion you get to learn how to pour the “perfect pint” which you get to drink afterwards (for free of course!) So, I got certified after pouring my pint and we decided to have lunch at the restaurant there. It was so good, and again, I ate stew and again, it was amazing. Then we went up to the top floor, which they call the “Gravity Bar” and it gives you a 360˚ view of Dublin 15 stories up. It was really crowded, but they were playing really good American classic rock, so we stayed and enjoyed our free pints. We then met some very nice Irishmen around our age who were bent on showing us the real Dublin, aka not Temple Bar. So some of the girls exchanged information with them and we agreed to meet them later. That night we did some shopping and dinner and decided we were tired and went to bed early.

Saturday morning we got up around 6am to go to Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone. We arrived at our meeting point right on time, to discover that the bus had left early and without us. So at 7am I am arguing with the staff about how they could just leave us, seeing as how we had paid 70€ for the trip, just like everyone else and why would they just leave, especially when we weren’t late? So there we were running behind the manager of the company down the street to catch the bus and they were sorry and so on… Anyways, we get on the bus and get on our way. It is about 3 hours to Limerick, which is where we have to change buses to go on to Cork, which is where Blarney Castle is located. The driver tells us a little bit about the towns we are driving through, like we passed through the area where the battle scenes from Braveheart were filmed. We also drove through the very small town of Moneygall, where apparently Barack Obama’s ancestors are from, which I, of course thought was cool. We then arrived in Limerick, which apparently is referred to as “Stab City” because so many people are stabbed and robbed there. I was a bit concerned, but we only stopped there for 5 minutes, took a picture and left, so I think we were safe. After we changed buses, we sped off for the town of Cork. And I mean sped off, our little bus we were in, felt like it was going 100mph over these hills, bumps and curves, so I was very glad when we finally arrived to the castle.

The castle was not as big as I thought it would be, but the grounds surrounding it were so beautiful. It was everything you think of, when you think of Ireland. It was lush green grass, lots of trees, animals: beautiful nature. We walked through the castle and although it was in pretty good shape for its age, it was still aging. On the top was the infamous Blarney Stone, which was why we were there in the first place. If you don’t know the story I will tell you. The stone is supposed to give you the gift of eloquence for 7 years because the man who originally lived there had a speech impediment, and he was also a very prominent leader in the area. He saw a beautiful woman drowning in the river, so he went to save her, and when he pulled her out, she thanked him, but he couldn’t say anything back to her because of his speech problem. She then promptly turned into a witch, but instead of cursing him, she was thankful for him saving her life, and asked him what his greatest wish was. He told in her as best he could, about his speech impediment and that he wanted to be cured, so she put a spell on the stone and him giving him the gift of eloquence. And now, everyone that kisses it receives this gift as well. Hopefully it works, as I will have quite a few job interviews coming up within the next 7 years, and could use that gift! After the Blarney Stone, we did a little bit of shopping (again…) and had some lunch and then it was time to leave.

When we arrived back in Dublin, we decided that we just wanted to get coffee and hang out a little before going out that night, so we went to a place called “Murray’s Pub” near our hostel, and they happened to also have Irish dancing that night. So we got our coffees and settled in for the dancing to begin. It was so amazing to watch and it really made me miss dancing. They danced to traditional Irish music and did a few routines and then of course called for audience participation. I, of course get volunteered by my roommates, so up to the stage I went. It was embarrassing, but still fun and now I can say I danced on stage (however bad…) in Ireland! After the dancing concluded we went back to our smelly hostel to get ready for the evening.

We met the friendly Irishmen at a pub called O’Donahughes’, which was definitely not a tourist pub, but still really fun. The pubs close early in Ireland (like in London…) so they told us they were going to a club, and invited us along for free entry and VIP room. So, of course we went and had a blast. We danced all night, and there was an Xbox360 in the VIP room, that I played PacMan and Frogger on. It was so fun and everyone was so nice. It was nice to go out and have a good time for the sake of fun. It was around 4am when I decided to call it a night. I was exhausted from dancing all night and it was time for bed. So I said my goodbyes and went back to the hostel.

Sunday morning, we packed our things and decided that we would explore Dublin some before we left for Italy. We went to Christ Church Cathedral, which is one of the oldest churches in Dublin. It has 16 different types of bells and we were told that a lot of people traditionally go there on New Year’s Eve at midnight for their kiss. We also went to Dublin Castle, which now houses their city hall. Nothing remains of the original castle except for one tower, so that wasn’t as interesting as we thought it would be. We then found ourselves at Trinity College. It was one of the most beautiful campuses I have ever seen. There was so much green space and the architecture was so old and fascinating. We strolled through the campus, and I wished I had enrolled or that they had a fashion design program. It was perfect! We then went to St.Patrick’s Cathedral. It was under a lot of construction, so it was hard to see, but what we could see was amazing. It’s so remarkable that I have this opportunity and I sometimes just sit in awe of these types of things. I have learned about it in school, but seeing it in person is so much better, and this of course goes for all of things I have seen. Anyways, at St.Patrick’s there is a very nice park, so we sat for a bit there and then decided to go in. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures, but I snuck a few of course, as it was very nice inside as well. By this time, it was time to head to the airport, so we unfortunately concluded our visit to Dublin.
Overall, this was one of my favorite trips. It was very beautiful, and the people were so nice. I would love to go back there again, and stay much longer so that I could enjoy it. This weekend I am off to Barcelona, Spain, which will be the polar opposite of Ireland, but I am excited just the same!

Ciao-

Gutentaag!

Last weekend was spent in Munich, Germany and it was one of the best trips yet. A couple of us left very early Friday morning (4:00 am) to get to the airport for our 6:30 flight, which of course was delayed about an hour. Once we got off the plane, I realized that I wasn’t sure how to get to our hostel. I knew the street that it was on, but we weren’t sure how to get there from the airport. There was a little old man who was helping everyone out, and when he saw us standing in front of the ticket machine in the subway he came over to help. We told him our dilemma and and he told us exactly where we needed to go and sent us on our way. Then, some Italians came up to us and tried to sell us their subway pass. We thought this might be a bit sketchy, but apparently it is common practice in Germany. The pass they sold us (for 5€) was an 18€ pass that was good for 5 people and for 24hours. Apparently they had bought the ticket because it is cheaper than buying 2 individual passes and they were leaving to go back to Italy, so we got a cheap subway pass and were on our way. As a side not about the subway system in Munich, there are no gates and no one checks your tickets, so after our 24 hours expired, we figured we’d just chance it and not worry about the tickets. It worked.

Anyway, once we got to our hostel we dropped our bags and headed to Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp located just outside of Munich. I was looking forward to this visit, except for the fact that it was 40˚ and pouring rain. The walkways in Dachau are gravel, so I had trench foot by the time this visit was over, but it was worth it to see this piece of history, plus I think the weather suited the mood anyway.

When we got into the camp, there were rows of buildings and you could see where the old watchtowers were and the foundations of the rows and rows of buildings where the prisoners were housed. The first building we went to was where the “special prisoners” were housed. These were usually ministers, doctors and I think a lot of “non-Jewish” people. There were really long hallways of cells and it was dark and damp and very sad to think of someone having to live there. This part of the building looked a lot like prison cells. I think this is also where they would punish the prisoners by isolation in the dark, “pole hangings” and other terrible things. At the end of one of the halls, there was a gate that blocked off the rest of the cells for whatever reason, and people had left flowers, coins, notes and other things as a sort of memorial. It was moving to see. The rest of this building had been converted into a museum where there were stories, people’s belongings, uniforms etcetera. It was interesting to read the survivors’ stories and appalling to think that these things were allowed to occur. The museum seemed to go on forever and it was set against a background of the basically unchanged rooms of the past. After leaving the museum area, we headed to where people were housed. It was rows and rows and rows of wooden bunk beds. Not the kind you think of now, but stacked and crammed in. I couldn’t even imagine living in conditions such as this, as I can’t even stand sharing a room, let alone a bed. Some of the stories I had read at the museum talked about how the beds had to be made which such precision and the floors had to be spotless and perfect, all within an hour. If they were not just right, they were subjected to harsh and horrible punishment. After leaving the bunkhouses, we went to where the gas chambers and crematoriums were. The strangest part about going to this area was that it smelled horrible, like death. The only reason I even know what something dead smells like is from driving by poor animals on the road, but the smell is unmistakable and I could smell it in this area. It actually was nauseating. I asked my friends if they could smell it, and they could too. It definitely intensified the situation and the thoughts I was already lost in. As we walked through this area, I was taking pictures feeling like a horrible person, but I wanted to be able to show people at home what I was seeing. It didn’t make me feel any better, but I tried to remind myself of this fact through this area. It was very disturbing to think of these things and I was anxious to finish our visit to Dachau. We stopped in one of the many churches on the property and paid our respects and promptly left. I am glad I was able to see Dachau, and I feel that it is important to experience these kinds of things, but this was definitely not an uplifting segment of our trip and I was ready to be uplifted.

After Dachau, we realized that we were starving, so we got off at Hackerbrucke (the stop where Oktoberfest is) and decided to go look for food there. We knew we wanted a beer and German food. So we stopped at the first place we came to, a huge place called Hacker-Pschorr. We walked in and it was packed, as it was directly across from the festivities. However, we happened to catch people leaving a table, so we snatched it up and parked it for quite a while. The first thing we wanted was a liter of beer. Then we had to figure out how to read German and order dinner. We flagged over our waitress and asked some questions, and she promptly brought us the English menu, which made things much easier. I ended up going with the “Crispy pork with potato dumplings, cabbage salad with beer sauce.” It was delicious as was my first real German beer. After we had finished eating, we met some Germans at the table next to us. They came up and sat with us and we had a really good time with them. The party really started to get going around 7pm when the band started to play. At this point the Germans had bought us another round and we were dancing on chairs singing German songs. We then met a couple from Hudson (which is a couple towns away from Kent…so random) who were so nice and really fun as well. By the time 9:30 rolled around, my roommate, Tracy had well over enough to drink so we had to cart her back to the hostel. So we said auf weidersehen to our newfound friends and decided it was best if we all turn in early to prepare for our early wake-up call the next day.

7 am came very early Saturday, but in order for us to even have a small chance of getting into the tents, we would have to be in line by 8. We decided to go for the tent that is one of the biggest and most popular, Hofbrauhaus. I particularly wanted to go here, because as you Cincinnatians know, Cincinnati has the only other Hofbrauhas in the world besides Munich (and Vegas) and it is one of my favorite places to hang out in Cincy. Anyway, this tent is almost impossible to get into, so we knew we were going to have to fight. So we get to the tent and there is already a huge crowd, so we kinda push our way in to get a spot in line. The tents don’t open until 10, so we prepare to wait for a couple of hours. Well, around 8:30 people start cheering, and me being short, I can’t see what everyone is cheering about, but I can tell that we are moving, so I run up and grab my friends too. Well, then it starts to get a little tight. Which each surge forward f the crowd, the back comes running up, and I am sandwiched in the middle. It continues in this manner for about 10 minutes. At this point, my feet are barely touching the ground, because my body is wedged up so tight against the person in front of me and I can barely breathe because there is no room to expand my chest. This is when it starts to become painful and I realize that if I just don’t keep going with the crowd and keep my head up, I will get swallowed up and potentially seriously injured. The crowd keeps pushing and pushing and I just keep getting more and more squished. I am crying out in pain, as is everyone else, but we are almost to the door. Finally we get into the foyer, but there is still one more door to go through, and instead of it being a wide doorway, it is the size of a regular doorway. Imagine squeezing 2000 people into one small doorway at the same time. I basically get swept away from my friends in the current of bodies and get all turned around and twisted and then all of a sudden, I notice that I am in!!!! My excitement is put on hold as a German police officer grabs me and starts screaming at me in German, and I finally realize he wants to search my bag. So I open it and he does and then he throws me away and into the area where the tables are. There are not many left, so I grab a table and wait for my friends. We all eventually find each other and are ecstatic that we got in and are hugging and jumping around like we had just won the lottery. We got to know our neighbors at our table, who happened to be Italian and waited patiently for the beer to come. Around 9, this sweet old lady came to our table carrying 8 liters of beer. It was an amazing feat, as I can barely carry one without breaking my arm and I was particularly sore on the top of my hand from the giant steins of the night before. But anyhow, we got our beers and “Prost!”-ed more times than I can count and got down to enjoying our delicious Hofbaruhaus Oktoberfest brew. The Italians next to us finally get their beers too and “Prost” us, and they are really hard core because, they break my glass into pieces. So, I get another, no big deal. Well the second time around they want to toast, and again. They break my glass and their glass this time so, after that I decided no more of that, I would just nod and smile. After staying there until around 4 we decided that we needed to do some souvenir shopping and to get something to eat. So I decide to try a sausage, and I still didn’t like it, just like I don’t in the States, but I figured I should try it. So I pulled out the sausage and ate the bun. Tracy and I headed to Marienplatz where there is a ton of shopping. We got a few souvenirs and went back to the hostel to find the other girls. Once we got there, we were hungry again, so we went to the Chinese place down the street and headed back to Oktoberfest before they closed for the night. We had one last beer there and went back to our hostel to take advantage of the bar in the basement. It turned out to be really fun and we danced all night to bad European techno and had a great time.

Sunday we had to be at the airport by 9:30, so we didn’t have time to really do anything, but we had a layover in Zurich for 5 hours. Once we got to Zurich we got some lunch at Burger King (it sounded good...haha) and realized that Zurich isn’t on the Euro or even in Germany. We asked the nice lady at the BK counter where we were, and she laughed and informed us that we were in Switzerland, which is on the Swiss Franc. This was news to us, as we realized that we had paid $13USD for a “value meal”. The only reason I know how much I paid in dollars is because the Swiss Franc is 1:1 with the dollar, so this was ridiculous and that was my meal for the day. After our extravagant meal at Burger King we found a place to hang out for the next 5 hours. Luckily it ended up being a place that we could sleep, so we did just that. Finally it was time for our plane to leave and as we were flying home to Italy, I looked out the window and noticed we were flying over the Swiss Alps. It was so cool because they are so tall! It looked as if the plane was flying low, but I assume it was not as that would be dangerous, and the peaks of the mountains were so close! It was a very cool ending to our great trip to Munich and once we got back to Florence everyone crashed early to recuperate from the weekends festivities. This weekend I am off to Dublin, so until then!

Ciao!