Sleepless in Killarney

It all started around 9:00pm when our tired bodies asked for our beds. Clearly.... No one else at Neptune Hostel felt the same way. Our window faces the front and the outside hangout spot. By 9:30 the door slamming inside was on the rise.  Outside, I listened to a 46 year old magician from South Africa that speaks 21 languages and was picking up the young ladies over conversation about Facebook. The ladies shyly turned him down saying they did not have Irish cellphones.  On the other side were two Irish girls asking two random guys if they would "do" the other girl. Um... Excuse me?? The conversations quickly turned Chinese with attempts by Irish girls to speak to them, while laughing because they did not speak English. By 12:30 .... The conversation was sort of dying out and turned to French while a couple struggled to communicate in English and then realized they were both French. .... Between 12:30 and 4:30 was the parade of door slamming, knocking, talking, and all sorts of ridiculousness.  And then....  The girls 

Sooo Neptune hostel has a 3:30am curfew. They shut the doors and don't open until 7:00am. Well... These two girls were returning at 4:30am. Irish. Not all there. Angry that yet didn't know the doors would be looked. Now picture this:

Window facing front.

Girls pounding on door

Girls screaming "hello can someone let us in!?!?"(in Irish accents) 

Us--- not able or willing to go downstairs to try to figure out a way to get them in.

Girls drunkenly trying to figure out which was their window. 

Girl apologizes and says she's stayed here a million times and has never been locked out. 

Girls scare because someone is walking up. 

Girls get quiet. 

Girls try the phone again and it rings for 30 minutes.  NOONE IS HERE!!!! 

Maia and I are soooo mad we can't stop laughing at the situation.

Girl repeatedly says "hello? Hello?" (I picture that Ellen Degeneres(spelling) skit where she sends her producer Amy to stores to talk to strangers through song.  Hello hello is it me you're looking for ? I can see it in your eyes ... Blah blah blah) 

At some point they find someone on the street to let them in. Two Irish security guards I imagine ... Who continued to talk and yell outside out window ... With their voices and choir of slamming doors... We gave in and went to sleep sometime close or after 5 o'clock. 

Waking up at 7 and 8 to more talking, screaming, and rolling backpacks outside our window was just a perfect way to start the morning. We are oh so glad to be taking a bus tour today. 

-the two very happy travelers 

Ireland we have arrived: Cork and Killarney

Our last night in paradise involved pizza, early night, and loud music and neighbors... But at about 12:35 I finally fell asleep. At 6:00 we left our perfect air conditioned room, left the keys on the table, and headed to the train station. Minus some issues opening the train doors... (Yes some Italian men got to laugh at me) we made it to La Spezia and then Pisa Central and then Pisa Airport without issues.  At the airport we tested our bags, mine slipped right in thanks to the shedding of a few pieces of clothing. After about 46 minutes of lines, we made it through security and began our hour wait to board. It was soooo unorganized!!!! No seats, lots of screaming, and a lot of gross smells!!! After 30 minutes of waiting people started lining up. We had no idea why... Since we still had an hour left to board, we got nervous and followed... I guess it's because we don't have seat numbers for Ryanair flights... Well.... It was our first flight with them.  Once the line started moving it was great! Lots of stress over the bags but we made it!!! Avoided the smelly crowd and sat on the very back row!  

And then the screaming Irish babies. The flight itself was great, but the 2 year old and the 4 year old in front of us where unbearable. Parents didn't even look up during the entire 2.5 hour plane ride to Cork unbelievable. Felt sooo bad for them. 

A side note is needed here: why Ireland? O really don't know... Maia and I have had a crazy desire to go to Ireland for a long time. I don't know if because of movies or because we loved Scotland so much... But we just wanted to.

Once landing in cork, a city we knew very little about, we saw fields, fields, cows, and more fields! It was like that romantic comedy movie where the girl arrives in the middle of nowhere with her suitcase... Well picture that but the two of us arriving in a hot and sunny Ireland that hasn't been seen since 2006.  It is hot and we did not prepare for this. 

Two girls, two huge backpacks, one city, one room in a tiny house that can not be used (check in) until 6:30. At the airport we waited for the city bus which was 5 euros each. Since it was late, another American lady approached us and asked if we wanted to share a cab to the city center and we agreed. We paid the same amount and got to have an awesome Irish cab driver. The American woman had been in Italy and was wrapping up a year of teaching English in Spain. It was great to talk to some strangers! 

After dropping her off at the hostel, we said our goodbyes and headed out.  Sooo we headed out walking around the city with jeans and jackets while the rest of cork enjoyed shorts and tshirts. First stop: McDonald. Why? Cheap and supposedly with wifi. Fail on wifi. After lunch we continues walking the streets. The houses and cafes lining the streets are adorable. Just what we pictures. Scattered around, there are old churches and evidence of the city's history. It was beautiful!  But it was sooo hot. We followed 2 maps to fin where the room we rented was located. And after crossing two streets after the wine colored house with shutters we followed the strew and found our cream home with blue door. Still had 4 hours till our host would be home.... Soooo we stopped at a cafe and used the Internet to find out of our airbnb host had emailed us any information.  After some refreshing water, we headed out to the other McDonalds (yes you read that right) so that we could use the restroom. A short walk from there, we found the famous English market with all sorts of delicious goodies and a trillion olives, YUM!  By then we only had 2 hours. So we continued walking through the charming town and sat by the river on a shady bench. 

There we witnessed some security guys chase someone down (not sure why), a table with a group of deaf ladies having a ball over numerous beers, and am Asian couple driving their car on the sidewalk.  

At 6:00 we headed to the supermarket. Ten minutes later we were on our way to our house with Nutella, bread, and chips to last a while!  Cleona, our host, welcomed us and showed us around her cute house. She was soooo sweet! Downstairs she has a Living room, bathroom, and kitchen. Upstairs we had the room and she had hers.  There was a cat... So I quickly popped a Benadryl and hopes for the best. Cleona went out and told us to enjoy the house, Tv, etc. Soooo after she left, we showered, used the wifi, had some Nutella sandwiches for dinner, and watched friends on tv. I hadn't watched tv in almost 5 months!!! Soon after we were ready to go to bed!! 

This morning we got up at 8, got dressed, packed up and headed to the bus station.  After getting waters, we boarded our bus to Killarney. Cleona told us the town kind of sucks but we are ok with it because of the tours we are Doing!  The ride is amazing. We are still on it. Two seats from us is a guy from Georgia who has been talking the entire time about all of his travels. Poor Canadian girl next to him has nooo chance of shutting him up. He has been everywhere, is just sooo wordly, can convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, likes to talk about logging and building capital, just graduated nursing school, and could pick up the phone and get any job he wanted with a 20,000 signing bonus. Gag. 

On the other hand, the view is unbelievable. Everything we thought of and more. Rolling green hills, trees, perfect lakes, perfect houses, cute bridges, stones, and everything beautiful we imagined we would find in Ireland. And a clear blue sky!!!!!!  It really is perfect and beautiful! 

After arriving in Killarney at 11:30, we headed to the hostel. After a 20 minute walk, we reached our destination, paid, stored our heavy backpacks and headed to the Killarney national park and did the river walk.  It was beautiful! Water, mountains, rolling hills, and cows. Pretty perfect. 

After our walk we headed to the tourist office to find our tour company's office. We have a bus tour booked for tomorrow and Monday going to Dingle Peninsula and Ring of Kerry. We are super excited to have someone show us around!!  With address in hand, we headed to the bus office. Since  katerin was not around, we were told to come back later. 

Lunch was our next stop. We settled for one restaurant on the Main Street and I had a delicious cottage pie (equivalent to shepherd's pie?? or pastel de carne). After that we headed back to the hostel and got our room.....

And.... Let me just say it is the first I have stayed in outside the US and Maia's first. Our room is private an fine. Problem 1: no towel Problem 2: hairs on our bed and not so clean sheets.... No thank you. Problem 3: screaming Chinese outside our window. Problem 4: bathrooms are not clean.  Soooo we have changed our Galway arrangements and will be staying at another airbnb place! Call us spoiled... Whatever... With long days of walking in the HOT sun for 17 days... You need a good place to rest so you won't kill each other the next day.  

After that... We left and headed back to the park for a 2 hour walk to the Ross Castle !! Beautiful!! We left gray from the dust and dying out laughing. Out of water, we headed to a store and stocked up on water! Then.... Back to the park to lay and picnic (Nutella bread chips and water) for dinner! 

On our walk home we stopped at a huge store to look at stuff and ended up looking at every aisle. We got picnic food for our bus tour tomorrow and enjoyed browsing through the aisles of clothes. 

Now it is 7:44pm and we are beat. We might be the most boring 22 and 19 year olds, but we are soooo tired and walk sooo much!! And Rick and Cleona were right... Not much to see in Killarney, but it is soooooooooooo cute! I love it and lots of trails to hike!! 

Last full day in Cinque Terre!

After my post last night we decided to enjoy our big meal then instead of tonight. We hadn't eaten much and the restaurants smelled too good!! We first made a stop at a restaurant by the water to get a glass of wine and tomato/caper bruschettas. Next to us... An American couple... We couldn't figure out if they had just gotten married in June or if they have been married... They were awkward but funny to listen to. After that, we switched over to a famous restaurant called the Gambero Rosso (also on the beach). There the goal was to get some seafood. (Me clearly since Maia wouldn't dream of it). 

I ordered a plate of mixed fish and Maia got spaghetti with ragu. We worked on our bread basket and "gift appetizers" (fried zucchini and cod) until our food came. Oh man.... There were soooo many faces on my plate. Big fish, little fish, medium fish, and more all whole and with eyes includes. Lobster, calamari, and mini octopus ... I didn't even know how to eat it. I'm certain I ate more that one bone piece... But I did my best!! Hahah.  Our dessert (which of course I ate by myself) was delicious and had strawberries over it.  Aside from that... Not sure how to describe it... It wasn't flan or pudding but something white and in between. I asked what the best thing was and I was told that .... So I agreed! Then... Stuffed.... We walked to a rock by the water and waited until it was dark. There were 3 little French kids who had discovered something under a rock and called over their parents to look. At some point a precious little blonde boy approached them and sat down without saying anything and sat on the rock next to them... Soooo precious. He didn't say anything... He clearly didn't speak French, but he watched them.  When they left he got up to find out what they had been looking at. Maia was at awe that his parents weren't around, and at that point I came to the conclusion that he had to be German. German parents ( at least those I have observed) let their kids run wild. Indeed a few minutes later his dad came and yelled "Sebastian, Komm!"yup German indeed. After he left... I quickly jumped from my rock and headed to see what the kids were looking at!! And it was an octopus!! It was huge! Well... Not really but bigger than my hand. Super cool!!! After that... We called it a night and headed home walking by a lady playing the guitar while some kids played. 

This morning started at 10:30.... And we haven't "done" much since. We walked Vernazza and found that Rick failed to mention a hidden beach and some great streets. We stopped at the church, which doesnt need fancy glasswork because it faces the sea an the most picturesque view. Rick failed us on this town... but his book is everywhere!!!!!

 We then continued  by getting some croissants, sitting on some steps, and checking some Facebook. Then... We headed to the harbor and sat. Ugh then... A group of Asia tourist found our octopus and pulled it out!!! And laid it on the hot concrete to take picture of the poor dying octopus!!! Soooo rude! It made me so mad I could have pushed all ten of them in the water. How dare you disturb the poor octopus. What did it do to you!!?!? Even the 5 and 6 year olds last night knew not to disturb it!! 

After an hour I headed to the train station to buy our train ticket for tomorrow. My American card failed on the machine... So I headed inside to ask and the guy said "you buy tomorrow with cash." I walked away thinking you don't open till 8 and we need to leave at 616... You do the math sir!!! I went back and got my German card and went back to the machine. Gladly that one worked in the machine and I got our ticket. After dropping that off, I headed to a precious little store that was closing for the day (1am). I bought some grapes and headed to a bakery to get a mini focaccia pizza. With food in hand I headed back to find Maia on the rocks.  Along the street the old Italian men are still sitting watching people going by and the women gossiping from their chairs. 

The we sat, ate, Maia read, Maia dropped her book in the water... Then we headed back, refilled our water bottles, bought some cookies and went I hide from the bright noon sun in our room. Here I wrote, Maia slept, and now we are listening to people walk the streets.  It has started to rain so the crowd are moving to the train station.  Amongst them a huge group of Italian school kids singing and along the streets tourists taking pictures of them ... Priceless.  Then... Someone started playing the pan flute. Like why?????

On another note... I took out Rick's Ireland book and have been soooo disappointed. It is not helpful at all. We will have to get online today to look up Cork because it is by mentioned. He just mentions outlet malls in Killarney, ugh seriously!? Rick, get it together!!

Another perfect day in Italy!

Last night I ended up paying for a bit of Internet so I could post the blog update. The girl working there was Brittany. No she didn't tell us any p this information herself but during our time in the Internet place we pieced it together. She is from Dallas but was living in lower California.  Up until 4 years ago... When she met her now husband and moved to Vernazza... Um.... So I know Rick wrote about cases like this but... Really? How does that happen???? Ugh.  

Anyway... After that, I bought a pizza and we sat by the rocks watching the sky turn dark. At around 9:30 we came back in and it was still no completely dark... But we were beat. 

This morning started a bit later at 9:30. Goal: Manarola and Ripmaggiore. Ok... Side note. I'm pretty sure I butchered the names of the cities yesterday, but I don't have the Internet access to fix it.  Sooo here they are: Riomaggione, Manarola (my new favorite), Corniglia (on a hill or mountain depending how in shape you are), Vernazza (tiny and perfect), and Monterosso al Mare (closest thing to a beach resort). 

So at 9:30 we headed down, filled our water bottles at the little water thing on the street, and got breakfast. This time we picked a little juice bar where I got fresh squeezed apple, orange, and pineapple juice! Maia got a plane focaccia and we asked for the code for the free wifi. But... It wasn't working today! Hehe. We walked to the train station and got our tickets to Riomaggiore (there and back=4.40 euros each). Since the train wasn't coming for another 30 minutes, we headed back to visit brittney. Hahaha. While sitting outside on the steps, my juice man came up to us and said, "excuse me ladies, you didn't pay!" To which I said, um yes we did. So he was like sorry and walked off. This gives you an idea of the size of this town. Tiny. The train was late so we got to people watch. 

When you think one man can't make a difference. Think again. I'm pretty sure Rick Steves single handedly brought tourism to this corner of the world. People walk everywhere with his guidebooks... He is the topic of conversation at train stations...  One guy said "oh so Rick got you too!!?!? Hahhaha!" Too funny. 

Once on the train... It was packed!! The heat was obnoxious. So instead of riding the extra minute to Riomaggiore, we got of at Manarola.  So I might have come in super excited for this one, but it did not disappoint. Right off the train we climbed to this little area that was built in the early 2000s to create a playing space for kids. It was lined with white plastic chairs, where older locals sat and talked and people watched. It was precious. Past that we walked down hill though the main road to come to a drop off into the water. Lines with rocks and with huge rocks in the water separating swimming spaces, we found the best deep sea swimming spot. It was perfect and we hadn't brought or bathing suits which were still wet hanging out our window.  From this water, we headed up a very very steep hill and followed the precious main road. Half way up we found a water wheel and a LOT of Asian tourist.  I had never notice how many there are ... But after one rudely cut me in line this morning at the train station... Their umbrellas to cover themselves from the sun an the obsessive picture taking has become obvious.  Clearly not all... But I think they might outnumber the Americans sent here by Rick.  

Anyway... Continuing up the hill we came to another square with older locals talking, two churches, a bell tower, and an amazing view!  From there we headed back down a few feet and started the most incredible trail through one of the mountains surrounding the town. One of the main reasons I fell in love with this place. From the trail we could see the town, the colorful buildings, the sea, the few jelly fish (yes they were huge. Yes the water in so clear that you can see them from that high up), and the people diving into the deep water from the really high rocks. Most importantly, this hike was through vineyards, lemon trees, and countless flowers. The hike ended with an incredible playground and a cemetery overlooking the sea and the views Manarolo and Corniglia. Amazingly breathtaking.  After finishing the hike, we sat by the water with jealousy as others jumped in from the VERY tall rocks. Sooo peaceful. We relaxed there until we gave in and made the hike to the station. From there to Riomaggiore. But this train ride was sooo strange. As we get in a little Chinese teenage girl (yes I understood three words so I know she was Chinese) starts screaming and won't let go of this Italian girl's arm. The Italian look petrified as the other girl yelled in Chinese to the rest of the 10 family members in this tiny train cart. Clearly the girl was yelling that the other girl had stuck her hand in her purse and taken something. After they made the poor terrified Italian teenage girl open her purse, they finally let go of her arm. Sooo strange. 

Upon arrival at Riomaggiore we looked through the mural Rick writes about. Painted by Argentinian Mario Benedetto. Then we looked for an elevator he writes about that would take us to the top of the town. Nowhere in sight..... Sooooo we climb and climb and climb. These towns are awesome butt work outs! Rick only had 1 page for this town and it indicated to take the elevator and look at a church and the view. Sooo we walked, got a diet coke, and an olive focaccia. Oh my gosh. I love olives sooo much. Ok... Side tracked. Where were we... On yeah hiking. The views were amazing. I promise when I get home or somewhere with better Internet I will post the pictures. For now, if we are Facebook friends, go look there! After walking a little train circling the town we walked down to the marina.  Again... More people swimming.... And we still had no swim suits. Hahha. Oh we'll! We settled for a cono piccolo of gelato and people watched.  After that... We headed to the station.  

At the entrance to the station, there was a crowd of 20-30 Asia tourists. So Maia and I went further and sat at a bench enjoying the view. A few minutes later comes an Italian woman on the phone carrying a pack of rice cakes.  She was on a mission!!! It sounded like she was reporting an event on the phone saying where she was and times etc. a few seconds later I finally understood. She pulled another Italian aside and told her what I understood as: did you see them? They are there in the crowd of tourists, I called it in. Then as the train pulled in she began yelling at the tourist crowd: "attention to your wallets they get you when you are boarding." We entered the near empty wagon with her, since the crowd of tourist entered the first ones and left the middle and last ones empty. She continued to tell everyone to watch out and stuck her head out the window several times to see what was happening. Too funny. 

Then... One station down... One to go and the screaming in Italian begins.  All I saw was a shirtless guy with an accordion. The train worker kept saying in Italian either you pay 18 euros or you get off the train. (Italian sometimes is sooo close to Spanish that its super easy to understand). After two days here... I think I picked the wrong language to study!!  Back to the story! The yelling continued and the lady from the train station got up and went to help the train worker to tell the accordion guy to get off the train. It was surreal. Oh... And then she stuck her head out the window called some guys she knew at the station and they came and finally talked the screaming man out the train.  He kept saying "why are you treating me so bad. I felt bad... But like let's get this train moving. After getting to Vernazza (now 3:45) I was in need of some of this amazing air conditioned room! We arrived to find our room clean, bed made, fresh towels, and bathroom spotless. It's like a private hotel!! I love it here. I showered, washed clothes, and enjoyed the air while Maia went down to the water took a dip and laid on the rock. Now it's five o'clock and the plan is to stay around Vernazza for today. And perhaps tomorrow too... We are thinking of exploring to see if there is anything else aside from this main road! Then.... Lay on the rocks, soak up the sun, get in the water and enjoy.  One big seafood meal will culminate our time here and then we will purchase our train ticket to leave this paradise Friday Morning. But that is a long ways away!!!

A vacation in paradise

Whew! It has just been a couple of days and I feel like we've been on vacation for months.  A little goes a long way.  We woke up at 3am on Monday in Potsdam. After a quick shower and grabbing some breakfast snacks to go, we were on our way. The train left us at schoenefeld airport at 5:06.  An hour early. Hahah better early than sorry! Our main concern was our backpacks. Soooo we packed our old LL Bean backpacks expecting them to no be too big but also fit 15 days worth of clothes. Rain, sun, hot, cold. Turns out that when expanded.... They are tooo big!!! so we had to Squeeze our things and hope for the best when we finally made it to the metal things at the airport! Mine barely fit!!! After that we waited for someone to Tell us they were too big... but they didnt! We grabbed a croissant and sat to wait... After boarding our Easy Jet flight, I passed out for an hour. After 1:30 we landed in Pisa. No immigration, no passport check (even in Germany), super anti climatic.  

Once at the airport we bought our train ticket to Vernazza from Pisa Centrale. After that, we knew that we had to find a certain bus and take it to the tower of Pisa! And could then take it to the station...  We went to buy our bus ticket and... Everything was in Italian... The two people in front of us at the machine were either Uruguayan or Argentinian and had no troubles.  We... Left something to be desired. After that... We realized we had no map... So ticket in hand we went back in to get a map from information. 

Once the bus came, we joined the locals on the bus. Halfway to the tower of Pisa (which we wouldn't have found if it wasn't for Maia noticing the sign from the bus) we see an older Italian woman hitting the glass from a seat two rows from us. She was yelling something in Italian.  Which I quickly understood was a warning to a guy getting on the bus... Someone had their hands in his bag and were getting his wallet. The guy was able to stop the thief thanks to the Dona who decided to scream and hit the glass window.  The driver came back and in Italian told us all to be careful.

Once Maia saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa sign, we exited the bus and walked around.  As leaning as it is in the pictures!! It was hilarious!! Why??? Because everyone was posing to get a picture holding it up. So... As every good tourist... So did we.   

Our plan had been to walk to the station, but thanks to the pocket thief scare... We agreed to find a bus.  On our way to the bus station, we found a tourist hop on hop off bus... And when we saw the affordable price, we decided to go for it. 

It was AWESOME!!! We got to see all of Pisa and the country side too!! Our favorite part was the drive out to the national park there. We saw a log of Jockeys on their horses taking them to the tracks and fields of sunflowers lining the unbelievable mountain views. After riding 1.5 times through the route, we got off a the central station and tried to figure out if we could use out ticket two hours early.  We didn't.... But we got a slice of pizza validated the ticket and took the risk.  After 45 minutes we reached Saraza (i think) and made a switch to the train to Vernazza... our little town in the amazing Cinque Terre. Side note: we were melting!!! Had jeans on because they wouldn't fit in our backpacks.. And unlike Potsdam... Italy is hot.  

Upon exiting a tunnel... We finally got our first view of the sea. WOW. We were speechless.  Cinque Terre is made up of 5 tiny towns on the coast.  They are connected by hiking paths (all are closed but one due to landslides and constructions) and train. Vernazza is the fourth and has a population of 500. Others have a population of 200!! Crazy.  

Our goal for our 5 days here is to hike, visit and get to know all five towns, eat delicious food, lay at the breach, an most importantly relax. Maia and I aren't very good at the latter ... So we are working on it. 

Upon arriving in Vernazza we had to find a pay phone to call Maurizia, the lady from whom we rented our room in the main and only road Vernazza has. We were two hours early and didn't want to walk around in jeans until the time we had set to meet her at the station.  The pay phone took about 10 tries.  Man... We have definitely forgotten how to use these things... Haha... The American couple in front of us struggled and gave up.  After making it work... It hung up halfway through my conversation with her (which was rough because she doesn't speak English and I don't speak Italian.  I kept saying I'm Martina and she said no... I'm Maurizia. Hahhaha. ) While waiting to get another turn at the phone, a woman came up to us and said "Irene?" (The room is under my moms name).  Yes!!! She found us. That's how tiny this one street is.  Hahhaha after leading us up 3 flights of stairs, we arrived at our perfect room WITH air!!!!! And a window facing the main and only street. It's perfect and after changing we headed out to explore the town. The views are incredible. Colored houses, the sea, boats, vineyards, and mountains. What else does one need. We lasted about an hour and then went in for a nap.  Two hours later we were at it again. 

First thing first: dinner! Maia had some gnocchi and I had some delicious basil lasagna. After that... We just sat on the rocks and enjoyed the locals. There was a group of fifty or sixty year old men jumping from very high cliffs into the water. They were like little kids. Priceless. One man was fishing without a fishing pole.  Another dad threw his kid in!!! It was fun and we stayed there until the sun set. Our only break was to visit a little store to get cookies and coca light. Yes. I'm drinking them again... Only on this trip though.  Our other stop earlier was at a pharmacy for sun screen (50--- no we won't tan, burn, or anything), shampoo, and toothpaste. Most expensive purchase but necessary. 

Once back at the apartment we fell asleep instantly. 

Today started early. Our plan was to wake up and go to the market (8-1pm) and hurry to buy the pass that would allow us to hike. At this point we thought two paths were open. One (the hardest) leading to the beach town... Where we planned on Renting two chairs and an umbrella for the day.  Unfortunately that one was closed. The other from our town (2nd hardest) was not. Sooo we bought the pass and headed out to Corniglia early, since the market wasn't hopping yet and we couldn't wait or the sun would melt us on the hike. 

To say the view was breathtaking wouldn't be enough... I will have to load pictures later. Leaving Vernazza the view of the town was unreal. To say the hike was hard, would also be an understatement. We climbed and climbed and climbed. Ugh. The vineyards, the water, and the view made it worth it. But we will definitely be in pain tomorrow. 

Once in Corbiglia we followed Rick Steve's walking tour through the tiny town. Population 257 I believe.  Outside each house was a pot with basil (again pesto is huge here). We walked to the view point and admired the vineyards! Sooo pretty! After walking by a store that said "my wife is expensive, but my wi-fi is free," I knew we had to go in. After a delicious breakfast and updating our pictures, we headed out to the train station. Next stop Motesorro al Mare for a day at the beach. We arrived at 11:30 and hid from the sun until 3:00 under our umbrella! We had a pesto focaccia and enjoyed the view. The water is freezing but feels great and is sooo clean and salty. It is unreal that we are sitting on the beach between mountains full of tiny towns and vineyards. Like who are we??? A relaxed pair! Hahha I'm typing this on my phone now looking at the waves come in!! I will hopefully find wifi and post it soon!

It is now 7:48 and I'm laying in bed waiting on Maia to finish showering so we can head out to enjoy Vernazza by night! After leavi the beach at 6:20 we walked Montessoro and its older parts. It is sooo cute. It is clearly the largest and most resorty of the five, but has lots of charm. Still full of locals sitting on the street people watching and more Americans than the rest. After our walk and some gelato we headed back to Vernazza on the train.  

For those of you concerned about my skin after almost 7 hours at the beach, I am happy to report I am as pale as ever with the exception of some small red patches that clearly didn't get as much sunscreen as the rest.  For all those that say that sunscreen doesn't help.... This SPF 50 sure did help me!!! Even my spots that hadn't seen sun in years didn't burn! The tiny burnt spot on one of my arms and my leg make me appreciate the sunscreen a LOT! Yay for sun screen. No skin cancer for me! 

And the new journey begins!

On Tuesday this week, I went to class and studied for my dreaded Grammar test... On Wednesday... I took the dreaded Grammar test, which turned out to be even more horrible than expected. UGH. I really don't like grammar.  After my test... I couldn't believe it! I was basically done!

To celebrate I joined 3 of the French students in my class, a Spaniard, and a Dutch girl and went to get ice cream in the cafeteria! We chatted for like 2 hours, and I decided I would go home and go get Tapas.  I really wanted to celebrate with wine and cheese! But... Once I got home... the tiredness of the week caught up with me... and I just laid! And then I slept! I woke up around 10 on Thursday and started the dreaded packing process! I will be donating a LOT of things, and it will take me a good while to figure out what those things are and where they will go. At noon I went to my LAST class!! My awesome German class, with my awesome German teacher, who speaks Spanish and studied in Argentina.  She is the bomb! I love her and she has been incredibly sweet to me! I got my grade and was ready to go! After class I headed to the office of international students.  I hadn't been by there yet... and lets just say I was not impressed.  All I had to do was drop off a form... after 45 minutes of waiting I finally (with the 4 other girls waiting) decided to knock again.  (We had been told to wait)  Our knock was ignored twice. Like really... we know there are two of you in there. RUDE!  Then... when one came out to go for lunch I said, "Look, I have been waiting for 45 minutes and all I need to do is hand this in." She looked rudely at me and said, "Ugh, Ok I'll take it." Oh ok... like thanks for your hard work woman! UGH. If you have office hours... or better yet "speaking hours" as they are called in German... please be open for that... UGH.

After that... I headed home picked up all my bedding and clothes and headed to the Waschbar for the last time to do laundry.  A burger and 2 hours later, I was heading back home with all of my belongings smelling amazing!   After dropping them off, I picked up all 37 of the bottles I have been collecting for the last months and headed to Kaufland.  I wanted to get yummy things to welcome Maia with!  After turning in my bottles I got 5.75 Euros back!!! That's huge!!!!  I quickly moved through the store, because I knew I had deep cleaning waiting for me at home.  An hour later I was armed with chocolates, cookies, pasta, rice, cheese, chips, merengues, and other delicious things Maia likes to eat.  At home I deep cleaned, scrubbed, dusted, swept, mopped, etc... and at 11:00 I thought I would head to bed... The train left for the airport at 5:45... Which meant I had to leave my house at 5:25...

At 3:00am I finally fell asleep... at 4:10, my mom called me to let me know Maia's plane was expected to arrive at 6:25 instead of 7:00... um seriously??? WHAAT?? No plane ever arrives early!! Well sadly my only option was the 5:45 train that would get me there (after a bus ride) at 6:35... since I was already up, I swept again and showered.  Once at the airport... I waited until 7:10 when Maia finally made it out of the gate... one of the last ones to get her luggage.  Hahah. I was super happy to see her!! We were both exhausted, but we took the bus, train, and walk all the way here and attempted to stay awake.  After 2 hours, we gave in and rested... for 2 hours until I had to pick up my grade for Grammar! I didn't fail!!!!!!!!   Sooo my official grades are:

                     Talmud ethics: 1,0 (without the needed stamp because woman wasn't there during
                                              "speaking hours" 
                    Jewish History under Christian and Muslim Rule: 1,3   (without the needed stamp
                                                                                                           because woman wasn't there
                                                                                                          during "speaking hours"
                     German class : 1,7
                     German grammar: 2,3
                    German Jewish History 1800s (in German): 2,0
                     NS History (in German): 1,3

I don't really know what those translate to, but I am super proud! Couldn't really have done better, because I did all I could (other than pay someone to write my papers, hahah)! 

Anyway, when I got back to the room without the two stamps I needed to get, I woke up Maia and we got dressed for a quick tour.  We took a bus to Brandenburger Strasse and we had the Tapas I had been craving! It is great to have Maia here seeing what I've been seeing! After ice cream we headed home through the palace gardens and the little garden houses.  At 5:30... once at home... we put in a movie and promised we wouldn't fall asleep till 7:30... I failed... I was out by 6:00 and didn't wake up (with one exception at 11:30 for some fireworks) until 9:30 am!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was full of walking! We started at 9:30 and stayed in for a couple of hours figuring out logistics for our trip!  Then walked to campus, printed off some tickets and then walked back.  Once at the apartment we packed a picnic (cheese, bread, pretzels, chips, cookies, and Coca Light!) and headed to the the palace gardens.  I took Maia to my favorite spot by the lake and we sat/laid and ate, while every duck on the lake approached us... can ducks smell bread? It sure seemed like it!  After that we walked through town to the river and we walked along the side of it for a while.. then back through town to a pizzeria and Kaisers to buy food to watch while we streamed the Uruguay vs. France U20 World Cup Final! Whoooo! What a game! Our guys played really really well, but again lost at penalty kicks... it was hard to watch, but oh well!!! I at least had company this time and it was perfect!!!    Soon after... Maia fell asleep and I found that MacGyver is on Netflix.... soooooo I was busy with that until pretty late.

Today has been a planning/packing/packing/cleaning day.  Yes.... packing twice.  Tomorrow, we will leave my apartment at around 4:20 am and head to the airport to start our amazing adventure.  Our first issue today was reading up on our first destination, packing our tiny backpacks, and (me) packing up the majority of my apartment (since I have to be completely moved out by the day after we come back....)

First dilemma:  1 tiny backpack, 10 kilos, and tiny dimensions... And 15 days... of rain, cold, sun, and beach... Now please tell me how we are supposed to pack for that! Well... we have done it... or we think we have! Hahaha we shall see!

Here is a breakdown of where we will be:  (since in Italy and some other locations we will NOT have internet to keep you guys updated!)

             (if you click on the places I've linked them to pictures!)

15-19 -- Vernazza, Cinque Terre, Italy (look up pictures, unreal)
19-20 ---  Cork, Ireland
20-23 -- Killarney, Ireland (including tours to Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula)
23-25 -- Galway, Ireland (Cliffs of Moor included)
25-27 --- Dublin, Ireland
27-29 --- London, England

We are soooo excited!!!!!! This is going to be the adventure of a lifetime! I will update where I can, but for now, this is what we will be doing!!!!

Bis bald!!                  

Ode to the Irenes

 When I started my journey with German education in Potsdam, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into.  I assumed, as I always do, that somehow it would work out, but after a failed first 2 days with 3 classes in German that seemed out of my reach, I remember feeling scared.  Then the news came that everything I had been told about transferring credits was not as it had been previously explained.  Then... I called my mom. And she said, "it'll be fine, just do what you can. Who cares!"  If I counted the amount of times my mother says this to me weekly, I wouldn't have enough fingers or toes.

 On day 3 I gave another Irene another chance.  This Irene was the Jewish History teacher that I had on the first day of school.  After my second class with her, I was amazed by her gentle and precise way of teaching and her understanding for my situation.  I also was aware that in order to be in her classes I would have to write a total of 25 pages.  Now that seemed unreal, but I felt like I had no other choice.... so I did it. I remember sitting in the first classes and thinking... man I can't wait until the last class when I can understand everything that is being said...

Now after having finished all of my classes with Irene, I had to admit to myself that even though I did not understand everything that was said in the last class, I understood the majority... and that is a HUGE accomplishment for me.


Today marked a big day for me.  Today at 4 a.m. as a matter of fact... You can call me a procrastinator or whatever you will, but I like to think that I just work better under pressure!  Today at 9:30 a.m was my deadline for my 25 pages.  And today at 4 am I met my goal, but not without help.  The task that my German Irene gave me seemed impossible.  She made my situation a LOT better when she announced that I could write 15 of those pages in English.. WHEW!! But I still had 25 pages to write to an expert on the topic I was assigned.

If I said I suffered from a severe case of self doubt, I would not be giving it justice.  Now... this is not an issue in all parts of my life, but when it comes to school... I am not the most confident of people. Writing is the worst!!! Now, as most of you realize, writing in this blog is not what I am referring to, because here (as everyone clearly has noticed) I don't care about grammar, punctuation, or spelling and I am the master of the topic.  In school, however, I never feel prepared when I sit down to write.  I never feel like I know enough to make a claim, and therefore I always get my papers back with a comment like: "what is your thesis?  what is your claim?"  You would think four years of writing papers would have taught me something, but it hasn't! And when I sat down to write this past month, all that kept going through my head was... she knows everything there is to know about this topic... so is this claim really supported? If I back up everything with the stuff from the books, isn't that plagiarism?? Someone has clearly written a book on this topic, so am I supposed to just retype it?

As you can see, the past month was not very fun for me. Actually, I think that the pressure and the knowledge of the deadline approaching has kept me leaning towards a  negative mood for over 2 months. But every time I panicked, my favorite Irene back home said, "do what you can! It doesn't really matter!" Every. single. time.   If you know me well, then you know that I easily freak, panic, and complain... they are my go to reactions (an issue I am trying to work on).  My family has used the term dramatic and extreme to describe my personality... When something is good, it's AWESOME and the BEST THING EVER, but when something is not so good, it is the WORST and HORRIBLE. It's pretty funny actually... the person that truly made me realize this was Adam.  Last summer after a few days hanging out he started pointing out things I said.  My go to lines seem to be:
If such and such thing happens then I would:
   a. freak out
   b. just pee myself
   c. just throw up
   d. just cry
   e. just die
   f. jump like crazy
   g. love you forever
   h. kill myself

etc, etc, etc.... You get the picture! This isn't too bad (at least I don't think... you should ask the people that are around me a lot, I guess) when I like things, but with writing... it becomes sort of a problem!!! Anyway.... getting back on topic... (see, I'm no good at this!)

For the past weeks, I have had MANY moments where I call my favorite Irene and let her calm my nerves.  Due to her help, I wrote 25 pages... Let me be clear... that's actually 35 pages in the US because it is not double spaced here (just 1.5)! She read, she proofed, she laughed, she advised, and most importantly she listened! All while you know... working and living her own life on the other side of the planet!  I have the best mom in the world!

Side note: (get it?? it's on the side!)

I also have one of the best friends ever...

 My friend Sarah not only helped

 me with my research for a presentation

 I did last week, but she also worked

 on my bibliography for my

 papers as I typed away into the night!

I also have the best sister ever who 

proofed the first pages on my 15 pager.

Oh! And the best thesis adviser and

friend EVER (yes Blake, you!) who volunteered

to read and proof my horrendous 

German essay! 

I couldn't have done it without them!!!

Today at 9:38 I turned in my papers to German Irene.  I was panicked, knowing that even though my papers were done, they were nothing near my best work... The German one still lacks coherence and perhaps a guiding thesis ... and the English one... well lets just say it was REALLY not my best work.  After exactly 3 words, my German Irene made it ok.  She didn't really say much but her patience and understanding rung through.  I wanted to post this tonight because I don't want the grade that I get on Wednesday to change what I say about her.  She has made a HUGE impact in my research and has broaden my knowledge in more ways than I can express.  I think I'd be ready to take a D! (NOT REALLY, lets get real I can play cool but its 6 hours worth of classes!)

My two awesome Irenes have led me to accomplish a lot more than I thought was possible in the last 4.5 months, and I am eternally greatful!

As for the rest of my journey with German academics... 4 more classes and I have a huge and impossible German Grammar final on Wednesday that will surely make me pull some hairs... but after a 3 hour nap today and some delicious sushi, I am in GREAT spirits and ready to go!! After all.... MAIA GETS HERE IN LESS THAN 4 days!!! And that is amazing!